Year 4 News 22.04.22

In English, we unveiled our next genre of writing this week – a wishing tale. We spent time thinking about what this could be and the main features before writing our own version. After spending time to write our own wishing tale, we discussed what we would wish for if we were granted three wishes. The children focused on using subordinate clauses to explain their choice of wishes. The children were also encouraged to use the relative pronoun which as well. In our final activity, the children considered what the difference is between a story and a tale. We discussed tales that we already knew.

In Maths we recapped our learning of Fractions to remind ourselves of the vocabulary linked to adding and subtracting fractions. We were then raring to go! Our lessons this week have focussed on adding and subtracting fractions within a range of problems. Following this, we have been learning how to find fractions of an amount and fractions in full quantities. The children have learnt to divide by the denominator and multiply by the number to calculate a fraction of an amount. To find entire quantities, we were required to find what one part of a fraction totalled and the used this information to find a whole.

In our Reading lessons this week, we have spent a little bit of time finishing off our 'Outlaw' story from last term. The children really enjoyed hearing the end of this story. In our later lessons, we then explored our new book 'The Firework Maker's Daughter'. We explored the front cover and made predictions about the story. We then spent some time reading the beginning of the book.

During our big art lessons, we have learnt about the artist Wu Li. We discovered that he was a Chinese landscape artist who is famous for painting with black ink. Using the iPads, we zoomed into one of his paintings to look at the range of brushstrokes, and the detail it creates when it is painted in layers. We then explored how to create a gradient of ink starting with pure ink and ending with a wash. This was the starting point for our bamboo style hanging scrolls. Once we had practised using our different concentrations of ink and creating bamboo designs, we created our big art. The children were each given a piece of wallpaper and given the time to create their own bamboo style. This has then been placed on to our display ready to be used as the background for this term's work.

In Geography we concluded our work on physical and human features by organising a range of images into categories. Our work on the counties of England enabled us to learn more about the counties in the North West of England. We used the 8 compass points to reveal the location of other counties across the UK.

For this week's HeartSmart lesson, we were given a picture of different people. Each one had a different facial expression and/or different body language. Our job was to identify how they were feeling, and what we thought they were saying and thinking. We then asked people on our table what they thought. As we all had individual pictures; we were able to identify a variety of facial expressions and feelings. Bible Reference: 'When you talk, do not say harmful things. But say what people need – words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will help those who listen to you.' Ephesians 4:29

It was interesting to hear our prior knowledge of our new topic – China and the Shang Dynasty, in our History lesson. We used the clues from our new class display to uncover more about our new topic. This gave us the opportunity to compare our first thoughts about the topic.

We have had a lovely first week for our Summer Term. We look forward to seeing what this term has in store.

Miss Welch and Mrs Pointon