Year 4 News!

This week in our English lessons, we wrote our independent setting description of the volcano. Last week, we wrote a setting description in pairs. Looking back on what we wrote, we identified the best similes, metaphors and vocabulary we had used in our writing and used this as our starting point. We wrote our own setting descriptions, identified where we had used similes and metaphors and shared these with the class.

In our SPaG lessons this week we have learnt how to add the suffixes ed, er, en and ing to our root words. After learning which words can have these suffixes added to them, we explored how the word needs to be changed/spelt to add the suffix. On Thursday, we then learnt how to spell words which end in que and gue.

In Maths this week, we have been problem solving. We have been working out how to multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number. Firstly, we used what we already knew about multiplying to break down a calculation, for example if we want to calculate 17 x 4, we could firstly do 10 x 4 and then 7 x 4 to make it easier to calculate. We have then moved on to use short multiplication to calculate 2-digit by 1-digit numbers using carrying. Today we had a quick look at how to multiply 3-digit by 1-digit and we will continue to learn how to do this next week. Today we practised a variety of timestables. Using an online quiz, the children had 6 seconds to answer each question and in total we answered 25 questions.

We started off our afternoons this week by continuing with our sewing from last term. As we put so much work into perfecting our sewing, we wanted to take our time to create our invisibility cloaks. So, we have started to sew our designs onto our felt capes. The children have chosen to sew patterns like the lightning bolt scar, Harry's glasses and even words like magic. I am so excited to see the finished product.

In our Music lesson this week, we had our first Brass lesson. The children met their teacher for the term and were given time to experience each of the instruments. Children were then told which instrument they would be learning to play this term. It would be either a trumpet, cornet or baritone horn. Our teacher then performed the Harry Potter theme tune and we are all really excited to see what we learn in our upcoming lessons.

In our Geography lesson this week we have learnt about the structure of the earth. We learnt about the difference in the layers and how these can cause volcanoes to form. Next, we learnt about the role of tectonic plates and how these contribute to the formation of volcanoes.
In our French lessons this week we recapped how to say the names of different parts of the body in French. We then listened to the French version of head, shoulders knees and toes and then sang along with it. During our computing lesson this week, we completed more of course D on code studio to develop our coding skills and went back to reattempt some of the lessons we had previously found more difficult.

In History this week we learnt more about the Shang Dynasty. Using archaeological evidence of what was found during the Xiaotun Dig, children were required to draw conclusions about what life was like in the Shang Dynasty. The findings from the dig were interesting to learn about and led to a great discussion about what we thought this told us.

We have had a fantastic week in Year 4 and I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Please take a look at our pictures to see some examples of the fantastic art work we created last week using sketching pencils, willow charcoal and oil pastels.

Miss Welch