Year 4

Hello Year 4 parents! 

It has been another whirlwind term, and we have seen many of you for parent teacher meetings about your child.  

For a lot of this term we have been learning all about fractions and decimals, and the children have really improved their understanding of this tricky topic. As always, the more practise you and your child can do with times tables at home the higher their confidence will be when applying them in their lessons! Our book of the term has been The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes. We enjoyed creating our own continuation of the story and writing a letter about our own imaginary, metal beats.  

As a mixed geography and history topic, we have been focused on Life on Land, a target set within the Global Goals that we are looking at as a school. In order to make a difference in our local area, we went to the Northern Slopes and spent some time looking after the plants and picking litter there.  

We learned all about food miles, seasonal growth and where the food we buy from our supermarkets actually comes from. Building on this, we planned our own veggie wraps using seasonal veg and cooked them in school. A lovely snack during the day! 

In PE we have thoroughly enjoyed exploring and racing around the new Orienteering Course. There are plenty of challenges which incorporate map reading, team work, phonics and maths. 

We hope that you all have a great Easter and we will see you in the Summer Term! 

Mr Haycock and Mr Ginns 

We have spent the final week of Spring 1 wrapping up some topics, and starting new ones to continue next term. In maths, we have continued to learn more about fractions and become more fluent with equivalency between fractions and whole units, putting our developing times tables to good use. Keep up the great practice with this, it is really making a difference to your child! 

We have finished our work involving the Romans, recapping on our geography and collaging our own mosaic patterns. Our final history lesson explored the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire – please do ask your children about these things or look at some maps with them over half term! You will both be surprised by what they remember.  

We have begun to look at February’s Habit, compassion, and started a new book in English – The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Both classes are enjoying books from the Five Realms series by Kieran Larwood, about a rabbit with one ear called Podkin. Is your child interested in any books at the moment?  We are encouraging them to read to an adult for at least 10 minutes a day where possible, and to take quizzes on Accelerated Reader at the end of each book they read.  

Thank you for all your hard work and support this term, and please enjoy a lovely week before we see you again in March.  

Mr Haycock and Mr Ginns 

As the term begins to reach its end, we are finally finishing our work on the wonderful Edward Tulane. This week the children have been writing a diary as Edward himself, recounting their favourite part of the story from his point of view. We are now really developing a range of sentence structures and techniques for writing, showing our progress. In maths we are continuing to learn about equivalent fractions, and are beginning to understand why some fractions are the same as others – with liberal use of cake slices as examples! 

We have also learned all about what the Romans would have eaten, and sang a song to help us remember some facts. Ask your child what their favourite (or least favourite) Roman dish was! Linked to our theme, we have been designing mosaics that we will piece together one tile at a time... As half-term approaches, remember that any small amount of time practising number bonds and times tables (5 minutes a day will work great!) will help your child keep hold of these facts and be ready to apply them when we return. 

January is already over! Year 4 have been working exceptionally hard and the time has flown. We are exploring our class text, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, further by putting ourselves in his finely-crafted, custom leather shoes to write a diary of the extraordinary events that occur to him. We have begun to work with fractions, which are a vital aspect of maths that continually crop up in real life, and are guaranteed to be on every maths paper your child sits for the next eight years. Make sure they are continuing to practise their times tables to support them in their understanding of these! 

Our exciting learning about the Romans continues, with a comparison of how they lived versus how we live now. See what your child remembers – what have the Romans ever done for us? Lastly, in science, we are learning about the impact that people have had on our planet and the best ways for sustainable living.  

We have finished our Edward Tulane stories. We spent time carefully publishing their work and have a created a class story book. This is something they should all be proud of and we can enjoy reading over the coming months. In maths we have spent the week developing our understanding of area of two dimensional shapes. 

In Science, we have been researching the causes and effects of global heating. We have learned about how the Romans conquered Britain. Ask your child to share their understanding of how the Roman Army over came the Celts.  In Art we have tessellated rabbit faces and extracts of the Edward Tulane book. 

We can’t believe we are nearly half way through the year! Have a nice weekend. 

In writing this week the children have been planning and writing their own version of Edward Tulane. There have been some lovely, creative writing and it’s great to see the children include some of our Year 4 writing skills (fronted adverbials). In maths we have started on division using the bus stop method. Those children who have a secure understanding of their times tables are making good progress. As per last week, please ensure you are practicing times tables with your son/daughter whenever you can. It makes a significant difference in their development in KS2 maths. 

In History we have learned about how Julius Caesar came into power and how he influenced western civilization. The children have been really enjoying our mapping work in Geography. They completed some great work on identifying countries previously owned by the Roman Empire. 

Thanks for your continuing help and have a nice weekend. 

Another busy week! We are making good progress in the adventures of Edward Tulane, understanding the many twists and turns in his journey.  In maths we have started to work on long multiplication using the expanded method. As per last week, please help your child practise their times tables and number bonds to 20 (e.g. 6 + 4 = 10, 7 + 5 = 12) every day – it will make your child’s time in maths lessons much easier for them!  

In history we have started the fascinating topic of the Romans. This is always a favourite topic for Year 4 children. I’m sure they will recount many great stories about ancient Rome and their empire. Our art lessons this term start with tessellation collages (using one geometric shape repeatedly to cover an area with no overlap or gaps). Lots of cutting and sticking!  

Thanks for your continued help at the start of 2022! 

Welcome back to Y4! As we settle in to the New Year we have a lot of exciting things coming up. We have begun our next story, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and are thoroughly enjoying it so far. We have started to revise some addition, subtraction and multiplication again in maths to help complete these types of questions efficiently. If possible please help your child practise their times tables and number bonds to 20 (e.g. 6 + 4 = 10, 7 + 5 = 12) every day – it will make your child’s time in maths lessons much easier for them!  

This week has been a safeguarding week, and we have covered a range of aspects from e-safety to Clever Never Goes. Our main focus was being safe near water – particularly rivers and canals, and all the hidden dangers that may be found. Ask your child what they should do to stay safe in any of these situations! 

A huge congratulations to all the children for their efforts last week. We have been looking through their completed assessments to ensure there are no obvious gaps in their understanding. In maths this week we have started the new multiplication topic. As always, please encourage your daughter and/or son to practice their times tables as much as possible. This will help them as we progress into more complex areas of Y4 maths. In writing this week, the children have been planning and completing their own story about a visitor from another planet who gets themself into a spot of bother! This has been based on our in depth work on The Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer. 

In Art, the children painted some beautiful volcano pictures showcasing their new skills – mono chrome shades, blending of colours and textures. 

We completed our first full rehearsal of our Carol Concert. It was amazing and everyone is starting to feel festive. We hope you are too. 

This week, all the children have demonstrated determination and resilience during their assessments. It has been great to see their progress since September. These assessments have taken up the majority of the week. However, we have found time to research earthquakes and develop our understanding of condensation and evaporation. Lastly, we have been practicing hard for our Christmas Carol Concert and have completed a couple of year group rehearsals. It’s starting to sound great!  

We finished our wonderful paintings based on Hokusai’s The Great Wave, using blending and stippling for different effects. We have begun to learn about the perimeter of shapes and how to find them, using string and measuring skills. Both classes have loved reading our book, The Imaginary,  during Read Aloud times, and are excited to see what adventures our next reading book holds. 

Our history learning about the Greeks continues to shed light on the inventors of democracy and medicine, and the children have been outraged to learn about the lives of ancient Greek children in Athens and Sparta 2500 years ago.  

This week we had a special visit from a police van and some officers who talked to us about their gear and their responsibilities. We had a look inside the van and even got to try on some of their hats! We have been exploring our dreams and aspirations and how we would like to achieve them, helping us build some wonderful wall displays.

In maths we are starting to understand and convert different units of measurement, while in writing we have begun to write an adventure story based on the book Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer. You might have heard your child talking excitedly about our experience with the ocarinas, a type of flute, that we will be continuing to learn over the next few weeks.

Lastly, we are learning some new songs for our Christmas Carol Concert in a few weeks – it’s going to be amazing!

This week we are writing a persuasive text to convince tourists to visit Bristol, describing attractions and destinations in detail. This is building upon our writing last week, based around attracting people to visit Paris. We are finishing up our maths topic of addition and subtraction, and will be moving on to perimeter from next week.

As part of our learning about Hinduism, we have created salt-dough candleholders similar to those used in the Diwali festival currently taking place. The children were very excited and are longing to bring them home once they are dry.

In art, we are learning about the Japanese artist Hokusai and creating our own version of the Great Wave. Look out for this in coming weeks!

Welcome back, we hope you all had a lovely half term break and enjoyed a fun filled Halloween. 

This week we have been learning about the poet Charles Causley. We have explored his observational poetry and focused on inference. This term we are going to learn a poem by heart. The Augustus Gloop poem is from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.   

In Maths, we have continued to work on basic operations for addition and subtraction, focusing on exchanging between columns.   

This week has been Heritage week, and we have been learning about some black history heroes as a part of Black History Month, which was in October. We have also explored remembrance with the children and looked at countries that are now a part of the Commonwealth. 

Please remember to read as much as you can with your children. We saw an improvement in their vocabulary towards the end of last term and this will continue you with your support. 

This week we have been studying a poem called  ‘Beautifully Different, Wonderfully the Same’ by Joseph Coelho. The children created their own poems based on the same structure about their positive experiences at school. In Maths, we have been covering all the times tables and corresponding division facts. This is in preparation for our multiplication topic which starts after half term.  

In Art we have investigated art from Mozambique and planning our own Ujimaa totems. These totems have four faces of the children in different stages of their lives. 

What a first term it has been! Thank you for all your help and support in the initial stages of Year 4. They have all made a fantastic start. Please enjoy a well-earned rest. See you in Term 2! 

This week we all went on an exciting walk around Bedminster to look at changes over time – from the electric tram system that used to run past the bank at the top of East Street and be based out of the Malago McDonalds in the early 1900s, to the rebuilt Stafford Street that was thoroughly bombed during the Blitz. Unfortunately, we were so excited to be on our trip that we forgot to take any photos along the way!  

We have also been learning how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100, applying this to decimals, to further increase our understanding of place value. The children have worked hard with these new concepts and are doing really well.  

We are continuing to learn how to draw human faces in art and developing our understanding of the digestive system in science, as well as comparing our locality to Dorset as part of geography. Ask your children about any of these things – see what they can tell you!  

This week in Year 4 the children got to plan and write their own version of events in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. It was great to see them being so creative and imaginative.  In maths we have been continuing our learning of Place Value and have introduced decimals. They all enjoyed our number line work (see pictures). As per last week, we can’t emphasis enough the importance of number bonds up to and within 20. Please practice with them when you get the opportunity. The more familiar they are with number facts, the happier they will be in lessons!  

Unfortunately, owing to staff shortages we couldn’t complete our local history walk. This will be going ahead on Wednesday 13th October at the same time. Thank you for all those people who offered to help. It would be amazing if you could assist on the rearranged trip. 

Thanks for all your help and have a lovely weekend,  

Mr Haycock and Mr Ginns 

This week in Year 4 we have been continuing our rewriting of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and are excited to start planning our own room and some wonderful things that might happen inside it! We are sure that no children will find themselves stuck in a river of chocolate...  

In maths we are developing our understanding of addition and subtraction, and how these relate to place value. We have noticed that some children are not overly confident with mental maths, even e.g. 8 – 5 = 3 so please do practise number bonds up to and within 20 with them when you get the opportunity. The more familiar they are with number facts, the happier they will be in lessons!  

We are also continuing to explore the changes in the local area over the last hundred years, and learning about counties in the UK, as well as understanding how our digestive system works.  

Mr Haycock and Mr Ginns