Friday 15th July

This week the children have worked incredibly hard (despite the heat) to consolidate their learning about properties of shape.  We then began learning about  position and direction.  First, the children had to identify co-ordinates on a grid and then plot co-ordinates on a grid.

In art, the children drew part of an object or shape and then used their knowledge of reflection and symmetry to complete a picture, using their picture 4 times.  Here are some examples.

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday 8th July

The children finished their English genre this week and wrote an explanation text about an endangered animal of their choice and wrote some details about why these animals are at risk of becoming extinct.

In Maths this week, we have learnt about lines of symmetry and symmetrical figures and drew some symmetrical shapes to show their understanding.

In Science, we modelled the process of the digestion using materials such as tights and plastic bags to represent the different parts of the digestive system. Please see the pictures below to see what we did. 

In reading this week we learnt about the brain and its importance. 

We all had fun on Thursday, which was Sports Day.  Everyone participated with enthusiasm and effort.  We had a fantastic time taking part in the carousel of activities.  It was nice to see so many families having picnics and enjoying the morning.  Thank you for coming.

Friday 24th June

Friday 17th June

This week the children have been completing assessments and have worked incredibly hard throughout.  We have also been completing the times tables check and are really proud of the children's efforts and resilience.

In Science we began to learn about teeth and their functions.  We set up a comparative test to investigate the effects of different liquids on enamel - we poured coke, orange juice and water on eggs and will make daily observations over the next 5 school days to identify any changes in colour and texture.  We will update you next week.

We have also been learning about how to keep our bodies healthy as part of Healthy Eating week.  We had fun talking a lot about food and have understood that foods like crisps, ice-cream and chocolate can be eaten sometimes so we called these 'sometimes' foods and fruit and vegetables can be eaten at any time so we called these 'always' foods.  We also agreed as a class that it is important to undertake physical activity in order to keep our bodies and our hearts healthy.

Friday 10th June

We were pleased to be back after the Jubilee weekend and are excited to start our new Big Question, "Why is the human body so amazing?"  We started our learning by asking lots of different questions about the human body, for example, do we have two tubes for food and drink to be swallowed through?  We talked about the common phrase when people choke, 'your food has gone down the wrong way.'  We are looking forward to learning about teeth, teeth hygiene and the human digestive system during this next half term.

In Maths this week, we started our new topic, statistics. We looked at different types of graphs with a particular focus on line graphs.

In English, we started our new topic - explanation texts. We have looked at the different features of explanation texts and focused on specific features such as present tense, causal language, chronological order and technical language.

In RE we looked at different religions' Golden Rules and discussed any similarities or differences between them.

Friday 27th May

The last week of this half term has been a mix of hard work and fun!  The children explored using verbs to help visualise and describe settings and characters and have written their own versions of a suspense story. 

On Thursday the children were shown Ancient Greek vases which were over 2000 years old!  The children had the opportunity to play with spinning tops, write on wax tablets and draw pictures of real, ancient artefacts.  We also studied some replica Greek coins and talked about what we could learn from these.  In the afternoon, we held our own mini-Olympics, ensuring that we prayed to Zeus and washed before we started!  The children were very enthusiastic taking part in short and long distance running and then a throwing competition.  We decided against holding a wrestling competition!

Friday 20th May

This week Panda Class have been extremely creative and had plenty of opportunity to show off their design & technology skills.  In Science, the children had fun making a musical instrument of their choice using a variety of materials in order to better understand how to change volume and pitch.  Next week we will be discussing our thoughts and writing up our findings.

As part of our Big Question, "Would you rather live in Athens or Sparta?" we researched the differences  between these two city states and compared life for men, women and children in both states.  We were surprised to learn that two kings ruled Sparta at the same time!  In design and technology the children explored frames and structure using small wooden sticks and blu-tac/plasticine and discussed how to make stable bases and what happened to their structure as it got taller.  After this, the children used this knowledge to design and build their own Greek Pavilion.  It was a fabulous day of fun and learning and we really hope you enjoy looking at the photos.

Have a fabulous weekend.  From Panda Class.

Friday 13th May

This week the children have continued their learning about Ancient Greece and researched life in Ancient Greek times and compared this to modern day equivalents.  We had an interesting discussion about the fact that men were allowed to go to war, act, go to school and play sport, however, women and girls were mainly restricted to staying at home - cooking and weaving.  I was surprised, when we voted, that some children would have liked to have been a woman back in Ancient Greek times!

In Science we explored volume as part of our sound topic and the children designed their musical instruments in preparation for next week when we will make our instrument of choice.  The aim of this learning is to understand how to change volume and pitch.

Friday 6th May

This week in Science the children explored what sound is.  First, the children were reminded about sound sources and thought about a door slamming - the sound source is the door.  We then talked about the sound source making vibrations in the air which then travel as sound waves to the ear and the brain can process this as sound.  The children then investigated vibrations in water using tuning forks.  The children continued their investigations tapping the tuning fork on the table and feeling it vibrate in their hands.  Have a great weekend.  Panda Class.

Friday 29th April 

This week in Panda Class we have been learning all about discussion texts. We have been exploring for and against arguments in order to understand the term 'balanced argument'.

In Maths we have just finished our topic of decimals and will be moving on to Money on Tuesday.

In History, we briefly looked at key historical events during the Ancient Greece period and were able to place dates these on a timeline.  We thought back to our learning in Year 3 to place the Ancient Greeks on a timeline compared to the Stone Age too.

In Science, we have been learning about sound and how it travels. We went outside in the playground to identify what different sounds we could hear and then placed the results in a table.  We heard quite a few birds as well as aeroplanes!  We will be exploring vibrations next week.

Friday 22nd April 2022

In maths, Panda class have been continuing our learning about decimals.  We looked at comparing decimals using our knowledge of place value and making a whole (adding two decimals together). 

In English, we finished our wishing tales by planning and writing our own versions based on the model text.

In computing, we started learning about effective searches and how to formulate effective questions to find out specific information, suchas the weather, football scores and the time in different countries. 

We started our learning about our Big Question, "Would you rather live in Athens or Sparta?" and the children used a question matrix to formulate questions.  We used  atlases to locate Greece and which continent it belongs to.

Friday 1st April 2022

At the end of term Year 4 enjoyed a successful trip away to Sayers Croft.  For photos taken during the trip please see the Sayers Croft section in Panda Class pages.  We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures.

Friday 25th March

This week the children started to learn a new model text - A wishing tale.  We have started to innovate the model text with a focus on apostrophes for possession, adjectives to describe and dialogue.  The children have impressed me with their understanding of the purpose and audience for this story, which is based on our class book - 'The Boy at the Back of the Class.'

In Science, we investigated the time it took for different types of chocolate to melt.  We discovered that dark chocolate melted at a lower temperature to milk and white chocolate.  This was due to the fact that the more cocoa butter/fat that the chocolate contains, the faster it will melt. Since dark chocolate contains more cocoa butter/fat, it is more likely that it will melt the fastest.

Next week is Sayers Croft and we are all very much looking forward to it and hoping that the sun stays with us!  Have a lovely weekend.  Panda Class.

Friday 18th March

This week the children have been really busy celebrating British Science Week and we all came together for an Upper School assembly to share our findings on our favourite famous scientists.  I have been amazed by the effort of the children who brought in their work and some examples are below for you to enjoy.

The children also reflected on the struggles that Ukrainian citizens are experiencing and showed their empathy and thoughts through drawing and writing messages.  We also all wore yellow and blue on Wednesday to reflect on the current situation.

Friday 11th MarchFriday 11th March

This week in Science the children explored states of matter and explored how solids, liquids and gases behave.  We used Cheerios to show how the particles in each state would move.  We then acted out the different states of matter to show that it was impossible for any object to pass through a solid yet objects could pass through liquids and gases.  We talked about fish swimming through water.  It was really enjoyable to see the children do a practical activity which such enthusiasm!

Friday 4th March

This week, Panda class began to investigate solids, liquids and gases.  We all observed what happens when raisins (solid) are dropped into lemonade (liquid).  We notices that sometimes the raisins rose to the surface of the lemonade and then sunk back down again.  Some of the children noticed the bubbles and commented that these were air (gas).  After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that the air bubbles made the raisins rise to the surface because air is lighter than lemondae.

World Book Day!

We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day this week by writing a book review about our favourite book, making bookmarks and using picture clues to clues the name of some famous children's books.  It was great to see all the children dressed up as their favourite character.

Friday 25th February

This week Panda class have been learning about to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator.  We have been using the terms mixed numbers and improper fractions and converting from one to the other.   In RE this week we have been learning about Jesus and why he is important to Christians. In Geography, we started looking at 'international trade' and some means of transport used in trading. We also looked at lots of different food and hypothesized where in the world they were grown. We looked at many different countries using Google Earth and then estimated how many miles a product had travelled to reach our shelves.  In English this week we have started learning about information texts. The children were very creative inventing their own hybrid fruit and used the 5ws - who, what, where, when and why in order to plan and write an introductory paragraph about their new fruit.

Panda Class - our learning for week commencing 31st January

SCIENCE

This week Panda class have been observing and classifying leaves during Science.  The children had to think of questions in order to classify leaves that we gathered from the school field.  It was interesting to discuss the different ways to describe the features of a leaf and how different they all were.

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY PROJECT

We had an exciting afternoon on Thursday as the children began to make their papier mache volcanoes!  We will complete these next week and then use a mix of ingredients to see if we can get lava to flow out of them!

Week commencing 24th January 2022

This week Panda Class have been learning about tectonic plates and understood that when two plates rub past each other, it can cause an earthquake.  The children learnt about the different tectonic plates across the world and their task was to find these and draw the boundary lines on a globe.  The children were relieved to hear that the UK is very unlikely to experience a major earthquake as we don't live on the boundaries of two plates which are moving past each other.  Children enjoyed the challenging loop game at the end of the lesson to help consolidate their learning.  We wish you a happy and restful weekend.

From Panda Class.

Week commencing 17th January 2022.

This week year 4 have been learning about the structure of the Earth 🌏 in Geography. We used a clay model to help us visualise the different layers and discussed that the outer layer is a thin, hard crust - only 18 miles thick. We had fun using food types to describe the molten, fluid rock of the outer core, for example, thick, gooey custard and creamy yogurt.  Interestingly, we discovered that the centre of the Earth is approximately 5,900 degrees centigrade!