Year 4 Weekly News 22.10.21

During our first book club session this week, we have been exploring Viking Longboats. The children were asked four key questions which they needed to use the text to answer. We discussed organisational devices, how to find the answers within the text and produced answers for each question. In our final comprehension activity, we explored which aspects of Viking life are still around today. Did you know Santa Clause was a Viking God and Wednesday was called .... in Viking time? We really enjoyed learning these interesting facts.

During Maths, we have moved on to learning about how to subtract two 4-digit numbers. In our first lesson, we used place value grids. We added the counters to represent our numbers and then crossed them out to represent them being taken away or subtracted. We also explored how we could use bar models for subtraction problems. We then moved on to learn how to subtract numbers when we were required to exchange. We represented exchanging on a place value grid and then applied this to column subtraction. We have been practising this over a sequence of lessons.

In our spelling activities this week, we completed our unit on adding 'auto' prefix to words. We chose the correct words for the correct sentence. We have also completed our special focus activities based on the sound 'ou'.

In our English lessons this week, we have been applying our skills we have been learning. At the beginning of the week, we planned our shared write. We then worked together step by step to write our own persuasive advert for a Viking Longhouse. The children applied all of the skills we have covered over the past couple of weeks including rule of three, exaggeration, rhetorical questions and use of house vocabulary etc. Once we had written our shared write, the children went on to plan their hot write. These were based on the children's ideas for their dream house. At the end of the week, the children wrote their own persuasive adverts for their dream houses.

We used our computing time this week to complete our research on Viking warriors. The children continued to use their QR codes to explore suitable websites. The children found information about the Viking warriors, how they were successful and then we ended our lesson by drawing a picture of one in their books. With our other computing time, we continued with our project. We had previously planned where we would visit around school to measure the sound levels. Using the iPads and a decibel recording app, we measured the sound around school. We visited each area of our plan and recorded the sound. We enjoyed exploring the loudest and quietest places in school. Once we had completed our experiment we collated our results. Using our SeeSaw app we annotated a map of school to represent our findings.

During our forest schools sessions, we built our own group fires and toasted our marshmallows. Due to the weather conditions, we spent a small amount of time in the forest school shed, teaching Mr Hadfield everything we know about the Vikings. He was so impressed to hear everything we knew and we had taught him so much!

In our lesson, following our Science experiment, we discussed, reflected on and wrote up our results. We considered which places were the loudest and quietest in school and the reason for this. We also considered what we would do differently next time if we were to conduct the experiment again.

In our second Computing lesson this week, we have learnt about being digital citizens. In particular, we have learnt about how our actions online can affect ourselves, our community and our world. We talked about 'rings of responsibility' and the responsibility we have. We were given different scenarios and asked to think about who these affect. We used circles on the playground to represent the rings of responsibility and chose where to stand for each scenario. From this lesson, we have learnt about the impacts our behaviour online has on ourselves and the people around us.

Our Geography lesson this week moved onto looking at Vikings as invaders and settlers. We firstly reminded ourselves of where the Vikings came from, and when we mentioned Scandinavia, we explained that this includes Sweden, Denmark and Norway. We recapped the meaning of the words "invade" and "settle" and then looked at the countries the Vikings invaded using a map of Northern Europe. Before we labelled our own map, we discussed what a good map needs. Our list included a title, labels, a compass and a key. We set about creating our own map of Northern Europe labelling Denmark, Norway and Sweden and then the countries of the United Kingdom. We used colours to distinguish the Viking's homelands and the areas where they settled. What a great Geography lesson, well done Year 4!

In French this week, we continued to practise our days of the week song. The children practised singing it at different speeds. We had lots of fun doing this! We then moved on to learn the months of the year. We started by giving out each month of the year on a sheet of paper with a picture. The children were asked to think what was similar about their month to how we say months of the year in English. We found so many similarities! The children then ordered the pictures based on what they thought each month was. We then learnt how to pronounce each month and ask 'What month is it?' We have learnt so much!

For our wellbeing time this week, we have been listening to and sharing our favourite 'feel good' songs. The children requested songs and we had some lovely time to dance and sing along. We loved this part to our week and had so much fun together!

This week, we received a visit from PC Nick. He came in to class to talk to us about staying safe on Halloween and Bonfire night. He gave us so much useful advice about how to stay safe and enjoy our time over the next few weeks.

October is Black History Month. To celebrate this in class, we have learnt about Marcus Rashford. The children loved this. We started our lesson by thinking about what we already knew about the famous football player. The children knew a lot. We then went on to learn about why his is so important to us now and what he has done. The children watched a video of an interview with Marcus when he explained why he has worked to get free school meals for children in need. We talked about the qualities Marcus had and what made him important. We wrote a list of characteristics to describe him on the board. The children then designed their own football kits to represent Marcus Rashford, who he is and what he stands for.

We also had our music and PSHE lessons with Mrs Parker this week. We practised our Viking rock song.

We have had a lovely final week of our first half term. You are working so hard in Year 4 and I am really enjoying teaching you all. I hope you all have a well deserved and restful half term.

Miss Welch