Year 4 News 18.02.22

In our English lessons this week, we have continued to write our own rhyming couplet poems. The children have written their shared write. These were based on the poem 'The Castle the King Built'. Each paragraph was modelled for the children to see how to write their poem and focus on the skills we needed. Later on in the week, we planned our own rhyming poems. The children were asked to use the idea 'The school that we go to'. On Thursday, the children wrote their own poems using our focus skills.

In Maths this week, we have completed our multiplication and division unit. We have recapped how to use part whole model to divide three digits by one digit. We learnt how to use our problem solving skills. This involved reading word problems and questions which did not require a specific method. Our job was to think about the methods that we would use. In our last couple of lessons, we assessed our understanding of the unit using our end of unit assessments which we completed and then discussed together.

We have learnt about using the 'ay' sound spelt in different ways this week. We have focused on spelling this sound as eigh and ey. Within these spellings, we focused a lot on homophones.

In our reading lessons this week, we have explored the nonfiction book 'Habitats'. We have learnt about keystone species. We have also focused a lot on subject specific vocabulary and we have also explored how the layout of a page helps the reader.

In our French lessons this week, we finished learning how to pronounce the alphabet. We then grouped the letters in to different sounds and learnt them as sets. We practised repeating the letters back and then recalling them in our teams. At the end of the lesson, we talked about which sounds were our favourite and how we would remember them.

In our RE lesson this week, we completed our assessment task. This involved answering the question 'What could Jesus have meant when he taught about the Kingdom of God?' We reflected on all of the parables we had learnt so far. These included the Great Feast, Jesus Welcomes the Children, the Golden Rule and the parable of the Hidden Treasure. We discussed the message from each of these stories and how we think this relates to the Kingdom of God. We created a piece of art work which reflected the messages from each of these stories.

One of our Science lessons this week involved a melting chocolate investigation. We used a fair test to find out which temperature of water would be best to melt the chocolate. Using a thermometer, we measured the temperature of three water bowls and timed how long it took to melt the chocolate. We discovered that chocolate melts about 40oC so we were not surprised to see the chocolate in the 10oC or less water remain a solid. We recorded our results in a table and as a bar chart. We then moved on to reflect on our learning in Science this term and completed a review task. I was impressed with the diagrams you drew to explain the differences between solids, liquids and gases. To finish with, we recreated the water cycle in our classroom. Our scaled down model is used to demonstrate the processes of evaporation and condensation. Our model did have one drawback and we were able to explain how we could improve it by adding a better source of heat. You were able to complete lots of different tasks in our lessons this week. Well done Year 4!

Our brass instrument lesson was really good this week! We repeated Kevin's rhythms as individual groups, and then went on to play the rhythm of C, D, C, D. Some of us volunteered to play in front of the class. Next we practised C (4 counts), D (4 counts), C (4 counts) and a short C. We continued practicing the shortest middle C we could play as a class. This was quite hard trying to be in sync with each other. Notes C, D and E was our next rhythm. We then learnt the notes and rhythms for Hot Cross Buns. To begin with we played this in groups, then as a class.

In our History lessons this week, we have learnt about concentric castles. The children began the lesson by considering changes to castles over time. We looked at sources which explained how castles had changed and how defences were introduced. Later on in our lesson, children were asked to research a type of castle we had learnt about. The children were able to choose from the White Tower at the Tower of London, Windsor castle or Beaumaris. Using some recommended websites, on the iPads, the children were able to research lots about their castle and began to create a presentation on this.

We have also had two fantastic PE lessons this week.

I hope that you all have a wonderful half term.

Miss Welch