Welcome to the spring 1 blog, our third for the year, from year 4. Again we have been so busy this half term and we cannot believe that we are almost halfway through the school year. Here are some of the things we have been getting up to.

English:

In our English lessons, we have been writing a “portal” story, where our main character ends up in a magical world and we are just getting ready to complete our recount article, where we are retelling what happened when we had to spend the night alone in the Amazon rainforest! The children have been introduced to the perfect past tense of verbs, such as had eaten or had left, whilst revisiting punctuating speech using inverted commas. We have also been looking again at starting sentences with fronted adverbials of time and place, along with using pronouns (he, they) to avoid repetition. The children have studied various examples of portal stories and recount articles to help them understand the audience and purpose for their writing. We have then been using these pieces as inspiration to plan our own work. We are looking forward to finding out what happened to the girl who fell out of the boat on an Amazon river trip, to the boy who got lost following the trail of a jaguar and the child who was left behind on a family holiday!

Below are some examples of the work produced.

   

Reading:

This term in our reading lessons we first read a fiction tale called ‘The Wolf’s Footprint’ where 2 children were abandoned in a forest and saved by the wolves who lived there. We won’t spoil the rest of the story, but ask your child what happens to Elka and Daw.

We are currently reading the book ‘Amazing Rivers’ which links to our Geography unit. This is a non fiction text and each double page gives information about different rivers around the world, The children have enjoyed looking at these texts. We have been share reading the text, creating freeze frames, predicting what could happen next and exploring the language the authors have chosen to use.

Below are some pictures of the work the children have produced.

   

A reminder – over the holidays to keep reading with your child as much as you can and have their reading record signed.

 

Maths:

The start of this half term saw the children continue to focus on learning different methods to multiply and divide. We have been exploring practical and effective methods to help your children grasp these essential concepts. We started with place value counters, which the children can physically move and interact with numbers, giving them a hands-on way to understand questions. From this we have used partitioning, which breaks numbers down into simpler parts, along with part-whole models which help children visualise how the numbers relate to each other. They have also been learning formal written methods, such as column multiplication, which are more efficient methods when tackling larger numbers, step by step. We have now just started our topic of fractions where we have been identifying fractions of shapes and mixed numbers.

Here are some good examples of the fantastic work produced.

   

Times table knowledge has been a key focus this term, as being quick and confident with these facts is vital for more complicated calculations. Please continue to support your child to learn their times tables.

 

Geography:

We have delved into the fascinating world of the Amazon Rainforest, which is located in South America. We looked at the difference between physical geography, which focuses on the natural world, and human geography, which examines our impact on it. Our lessons have shown how diverse South America is, with its many religions, languages, and currencies. The children explored the tropical rainforest ecosystem, and learned about its four distinct layers: the emergent layer, canopy layer, understory layer, and forest floor. Each layer possesses unique characteristics and varying access to sunlight and rainfall. We also looked at the incredible animals that inhabit these layers and how they adapt to their environment. It’s been a fun and engaging exploration, and we look forward to continuing our journey into the wonders of the amazon!

Here are some examples of the work produced.

   

Science:

In science we completed our learning about states of matter (solids, liquids and gases), by finding out how we are drinking the water of the dinosaurs! The children created their own mini worlds where they could see how all the water on earth is reused due to the water cycle.

We then started our next topic on living things and the environment. The children have been learning that all animals and plants are organisms and that they all display the seven characteristics of life. The children have learnt that using the pneumonic MRS NERG is an easy way of remembering these 7 characteristics. Why not ask your child to tell you what the letters stand for. We have just started to look in details at habitats which are the natural homes of a plant or animal. The children are looking forward to exploring the different habitats on the school field and on our trip to the Zoo.

Some examples of the work produced on  the water cycle.

     

An example of the work on MRS NERG

 

Empathy:

The school value this half term is empathy. The children have been encouraged to think about the feelings of others by putting themselves in someone else’s shoes and that kind words and hands should be used at all times. Each week the children look forward to finding out about amazing people from history that have shown the school value of the half term. Recently we have looked at Harriet Tubman, Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi and William Shakespeare. Why not ask which of these was your child’s favourite.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read Year 4’s blog. We hope that you all have a restful break – we look forward to seeing all of the children back at school on Monday 24th February.

,