Happy New Year year 4!

Welcome back Year 4. It has been so lovely to catch up with you all about your Christmas holidays and jumping straight back into our exciting learning.

In Maths, we have used related facts to multiply numbers that are 10x and 100x bigger. We enjoyed using factor triangles to help us. We have learnt about the base of the triangle containing the factors and the number at the point being known as the product. We then learnt how we could use these same principles for related facts in division. We then moved on to learn about using addition to support our multiplication. We learnt how we can break our calculations down into additional steps. For example, 7x 5 could also we answered as 5 x 5 + 2 x 5.

In our Writing lessons, we have started a new unit. To begin with, we saw a selection of clues and a listened to soundtrack to hook us into the story. We worked carefully to make predictions about the plot, setting and characters. In our lessons, we enjoyed sharing our vehicle text. We then explored illustrations from the text and labelled the nouns we saw. We then added adjectives to these. Our next mission was to create a noun poem. For this, we had to learn about abstract nouns. Using these, we created poems. We have then moved on to explore the example text. This is a myth narrative. We answered some questions about the text to gain a deeper understanding.

In Spellings, our focus has been to add the prefix 'inter'. In reading, we have enjoyed sharing our big cat books.

In wellbeing this week, we focused on 'Things that are important to us...' This opened up such a warming conversation. We then learnt about using the strategy of writing how we are feeling.

In our new unit of RE, we have thought about the qualities that are important to use. We reflected on people that God had asked to do special jobs. We thought about Mary, Moses, Elijah and Noah. We realised that God gave these people special jobs because they showed qualities which were important to God. We read the story of Daniel being anointed and considered why God chose him. On love hearts, we wrote about those good qualities that God would like to see in people's hearts.

In PE this week, we have enjoyed Dodgeball and Netball lessons. In Netball, we learnt how to use a chest and bounce pass to successfully pass to another team member. We can't believe how many skills are involved in what look to be such simple passes. We adapted our lesson to the hall this week due to the icy weather outside. We hope it is warmer next week! In Dogeball, after recapping the rules, year 4 played a game to learn what skills were required. They were able to talk the skills that they had learnt previously (keeping on the balls of their feet, keeping their aiming low with overarm throws, staying focussed on the game), but when playing they noticed that the rules and skills were hard to put into practice. They watched each other play and gave feedback so they had things to work on throughout the session. Their focus today was to understand when to attack and when to defend and to keep their eyes on the ball. After watching each other, they could pick out that best players were those that were using those particular skills and they were able to improve their own game.

In our French lesson this week, we revisited how to ask someone their name and asked what someone else's name is too. We learnt that there is a masculine and feminine way to ask and respond to this question. We then went on to use of knowledge of saying French letters to learn how to spell someone's name. We recapped every letter and then were able to build a conversation to ask for someone's name and how to spell it. Fantastic work today!

In our first HeartSmart lesson this week, we focused on our bodies and what we are grateful for. We thought about how we are grateful for our bodies for many different reasons. We are grateful for our eyes for seeing the world around us, our voices for signing and so much more! 'But Lord, you are our father. We are like clay, and you are the potter. Your hands made us all.' This links to the bible reference – Isaiah 64:8

In our second HeartSmart lesson this week, we learnt how we can love ourselves and others by stopping the spread of bacteria. We discussed ways bacteria spreads and ways we can prevent germs from spreading. Hand washing will help stop the transmission of germs. We spoke about when we should was our hands and how we should be washing our hands. To support this, in groups, we created either a rhyme, song or rap to remind others of the steps and importance of washing hands to stop bacteria spreading. This links to the bible reference – 'I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you.' John 13:34

In our Art lesson this week, we started by holding a gallery of our Autumn term work and sharing our wonderful creations. For our new Spring topic, we were then introduced to the concept behind a "plinth" and explored some of the artists who have contributed to the Fourth Plinth Project in London. The children were then invited to make visual notes in their sketchbooks. We spoke about how plinths were used to change people's perspective of a sculpture. We loved hearing how Antony Gormley used the plinth. Instead of working in traditional materials, Gormley used the plinth as a focus for creating an artwork which "became a portrait of the UK, now". For 100 days in 2009, 24 hours a day, Gormley and the team coordinated members of the public to take stage on the plinth for an hour at a time. They could do whatever they liked, using the plinth to give their expression a literal and metaphorical platform. Through "One & Other", Gormley hoped that by giving the public free will to express their hopes and fears for what might be, a "portrait of the nation" would be revealed. We enjoyed thinking about what we would use an hour on the plinth to do and what impact this could have.

Maths.co.uk homework has been set for this week.

Have a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday!
Mrs Morris