Year 4 News 19.5.23

This week's lesson on area has enabled us to compare, draw and follow a pattern to make sure the shapes we create are not exactly the same. We learnt that the same shape can be rotated or reflected and that rectilinear shapes cannot be joined at a corner. We have then started our new unit of Money. We have learnt how to identify the value of money. Understanding the value of pounds and pence. We have learnt how the pence has the same value as tenths and hundredths in decimals. We have also learnt how to order amounts of money. For this lesson, we set up our own small shop. The children again recapped how to order things in ascending and descending. In our final lesson, we learnt how to round money. As we have previously done with rounding, we used our knowledge of numberlines to support this.

In English, we thought about the biographies we knew and which biography we would choose to read. This led us onto our work to recount the life of David Attenborough. We played vocabulary games and generated ideas for sentences using this new vocabulary. We then have moved on to understand the text through answering comprehension questions, looking for key skills and identifying the structure. We have learnt about how fronted adverbials have been used throughout the text and recorded the ones we will also use. We have then identified the writer's tools within the text.

In our reading lessons this week, we have enjoyed reading our own books.

In our spelling lessons this week, we have learnt about apostrophes for plural words and words ending in zhun (spelt -sion).

We followed up our investigation in Science to answer the question, do gases weigh anything? We recapped our learning about carbon dioxide and then measured the weight of our fizzy drinks. We found out that Coco Cola was the fizziest drink. We used our growing Science knowledge to answer the question, what are the three states of matter? Then we used these facts to understand more about evaporation, and found out that this is an example of when a liquid changes to a gas.

In my happy mind, we talked about the importance of active listening and why we should practice this with our friends. We ended by thinking about times when our friends have helped us.

We have had two computing lessons this week, our first was developing our understanding of online safety. For this, the children were asked to draw a selfie which they would share online. After discussing how people online could make assumptions from the things we post, We draw a final image that we would be happy to share.

In our coding lesson this week, the children learnt how to use coding to create art. This lesson allowed us to test our creativity and show what we could create without being limited.

Within DT this week, we have started to create our purses. Using a template, the children used chalk to draw the outline of their purse. Once drawn, the children cut out their fabric. This then allowed the children to sew the two pieces of fabric back-to-back using their back stitch to create a seam.

We started our first Art lesson for this term following our big art. For this unit, we will be creating our own batik fabric. The children were shown images of batik and asked to consider how the material is made. After our discussion, the children learnt that this is a process known as wax-resist. The children then created their own wax resist using white oil pastels. In our next lesson, we will add our watercolours.

In our PE lessons this week, we practised our shooting. We took part in activities which involved passing the ball and pivoting before shooting towards the net. We have learnt about using both shoulder and chest pass for shooting. We then applied all of our skills to a small match.

We have jumped back in time in History to understand where the Shang Dynasty fits within the History of the world. We discussed periods of time that we already knew and where these came in time. We created our own class timeline.

Within our RE lesson this week, we have learnt more about Christian baptisms. We started our lesson by considering the role of Godparents. We watched a video which expressed the reason Christians include Godparents within a baptism. We then started to learn about the symbol of water. The children thought of all of the bible stories that they knew which involved water – and we knew a lot! We then read and watched the story of John the Baptist. Following all of this learning, the children wrote about what they knew about the involvement of the Holy Spirit within a baptism.

Spag.com homework has been set for this week. Please remember to play TT rockstars and enjoy Daily 10 at home.

Miss Welch and Mrs Pointon