Year 4 News!

Wow! What a fantastic week we have had in year 4!

We have covered so many concepts within our Maths lesson this week. This week we started our new unit of Area. At the beginning of the week, we explored what area is. Area is defined as the space inside a shape. The children have looked at how to identity the area by counting the squares within the shape including rectilinear shapes and by making our own shapes. Using post-it notes, we proved how we could create shapes with a certain area and by moving one post-it note it would change the shape.

In our English lessons this week we spent time editing our work effectively. After looking at some concepts which we used within our writing, we checked that we had punctuated our work correctly. After recapping our knowledge of year 3/4 statutory spelling, we went on to check that these were spelt correctly throughout our work. Towards the end of the week, we moved on to write our 'have a go writes'. These were based on the children writing a story of an adventure. I love reading each one of these.

In our Science lessons, we were given a scenario and had to prove how we could use what we had already learnt to solve a situation. The children were shown a newspaper article on 'Smart clothing'. This is clothing which was considered for the Army. We were given a scenario by which a soldier has torn some of his clothing and the GPS no longer works. We were required to use the items within his backpack to help him fix his GPS system. The children were required to identify the conductors in his backpack and explain how he could use these to complete his circuit.

In our Music lesson this week, we discussed the importance of posture when playing a wind instrument. It is important to open your lungs, sit up straight and hold the trumpet/ cornet in front of you. We the learnt the meaning of a chord – this is more than one noted played at the same time. Next, we played Staccato (short note) using Notes E and then C to our tune 'we are the best.' The children playing the Baratones played C for 4 beats, D for 4 beats and C (short note) and the children playing the Trumpets/cornets played E for 4 beats, F for 4 beats and E (short note). Our music teacher explained how lowering the sound of playing is more important than being loud. Towards the end of the lesson, we listened to and played 3 different notes and discussed how they were different. Then we played Hot Cross Buns in 2 groups. One group played the higher notes and one the lower notes. We then played at the same time and layered the music.

In RE this week we explored how Hindus believe 'God is in everything'. We looked at the story of Svetaketu. 'Svetaketu always came proudly home after school each day thinking he knew everything. One day his father asked him about God, but Svetaketu didn't know anything. His father sent for a glass of water and asked Svetaketu to put some salt in it. The next day, he asked where the salt was. Svetaketu could not see the salt, but he could taste it in the water in the glass. 'That's a bit like God in the world,' said his father. 'God is invisible, but is there in everything.' We discussed and recorded how we feel God is seen and heard in our own lives.
In our Art lessons, we tested out our Batik designs. Using wax crayons, we drew our design inspired by Batik and then applied watercolours to see how it resisted the wax. This helped the children to see whether their designs would work when we use the wax on our material.

In our French lesson we used the vocabulary we learnt about body parts to sing head shoulders knees and toes. Year 6 came in to perform this song to our class and we went off in small groups to learn the song. Year 6 began the teachers and guided Year 4 through the song. We all had great fun!

During Mindful Monday this week, the children were each given a gold star and asked to write something thoughtful and kind about another child in class. The children loved writing something nice about someone else but most importantly reading the lovely things that the other children had to say about them.

To end our week, we performed our Year 4 worship. Our worship was based on the theme of Joy. Throughout the week we had discussed what we believed Joy to be and when we have experienced Joy. We used all of these ideas to create our worship. We also performed our song 'Pop Medley' from YoungVoices. I am really proud of the children and the fantastic assembly they performed to school. Thank you to everyone who came to share our special worship with us.

Let's see what next week has in store for us!

Miss Welch