Class Blog for Year 4

Welcome to Year Four!

Welcome to the Year Four Page where you will find out about the great things taking place in our classes.

We will update this page on a regular basis with information about our learning.

If you would like to contact us, please email secretary@wadebridgeprimary.co.uk and your email will be forwarded to us.

Home Learning:
Our home learning grids are given out in the first week of a new term and reflect the term's topic. For example, in the Summer Term, Year 4 will be learning about the Amazon Rainforest so the grid will feature a range of different tasks to inspire the children. They might like to get creative and make a model to show the layers of a rainforest or draw a map of South America and mark on the countries.
We hope you have fun with your children and learn a little more about our topics.
You can also find a copy of the grid within this blog.

Changing Reading Books:
In Year 4, the children are encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own reading. Due to the varying length of books, the children will be responsible for changing their own books weekly. They will be able to change their books during morning work, guided reading sessions and at free reading times. Class teachers keep a record of book changes to support the children and give reminders if needed.

PE Days:
In the Summer Term, our PE day is on Tuesday afternoon. We use both the outside environment and hall for our PE so when it is colder, the children might like to wear black tracksuit bottoms and sweatshirt. (We ask that sweatshirts do not have hoods as they can get caught and cause injury.) In the hotter months, please provide sun cream, hats and water bottles.

Mrs Keat
4B Class Teacher

Ms Christian
4B Class TA

Mrs Hill
4W Class Teacher

Ms Blue
4W Class TA

Image Gallery

Documents

Meet the teacher Sept 23.pptx

Year 4 Residential2.pptx

Porthpean Residential Fun!

Porthpean Residential

Year 4 excitedly set off on Monday morning heading for an amazing three days at Porthpean Outdoor centre.

When we arrived, we headed straight for the high ropes and once we had put on our harnesses and hats, we tested out our climbing skills and head for heights! All the adults were extremely proud to see so many children overcome their fears. For some, just putting on the harness was a success and for others, they managed to head to the very top of Jacob’s ladder and ring the bell.

As you can imagine, we were all quite tired by the end of the day and were glad to get into our bunk beds and settle down for a good night’s sleep.

A beautiful sunrise greeted us on Tuesday morning and after a full English breakfast, we headed to Porthpean beach where we launched the kayaks and paddled up the coast to a secret beach which was only accessible from the sea. We also enjoyed paddling and jumping off the Mega SUP. We were all quite excited when a seal decided to join us and we watched him swim and dive around our craft.

After tea, we played laser tag and then headed off towards the tents where we popped on a set of headphones and enjoyed bopping away to the silent disco. We then headed off for some much deserved and needed sleep.

On Wednesday morning, we found our inner Robin Hoods as we tried out archery. It wasn’t as easy as it looked although there were some bull’s eyes amongst the scores.

All in all, we had an absolutely amazing time at Porthpean. We all learnt a life-long lesson – don’t let fear hold you back as some of your greatest achievements will come from pushing yourself to new heights!

Well done Year 4 – we are all very proud of you!

Summer Term 2

Thursday 6th June, 2024.

English

We have just started to read our new story to inspire our creative writing. It’s called ‘Blue John’ and is about The Queen of Darkness who lives in the shadow of a mountain with her child. Blue John is forbidden to leave his mother’s side but when a singing, dancing girl comes to the caves, Blue John must make a choice between living in the darkness or the light.

We began by listening to a piece of music which inspired the author, Berlie Doherty, to write the story and we used it to form our predictions about the story plot. Next, we began to use our ideas to write our own descriptive story.

Maths

We have been learning to tell the time in maths. We have been learning how to convert between analogue and digital time.

Remember to practise telling the time at home.

Design & Technology

We have been practising our sewing skills in Design & Technology. Our project is to design a felt book cover which is based on the theme of the Day of the Dead. We have designed our skulls using felt and sequins and used different stitching methods to attach them to the base of the cover.

Design Technology

This week, Year 4 have had lots of fun learning how to make sling shot cars. We looked at real cars to see how they were designed and noticed how racing cars were shaped differently to saloon cars.
We started off by making the chassis of our car and used lolly sticks to make the frame with dowels and straws to create the axles. Next, we made paper templates for the upper body of the car and then cut them out in stiff card; remembering to include some tabs to allow for joining.

At times, we had to be very resilient Keep-going Koalas, especially when our car designs didn’t go to plan. We had to solve problems which arose when some of the parts broke because the joints weren’t strong enough to hold the car’s shape. It was not easy to line up the paperclip hook with the elastic band flinger so that the car moved forward in a straight line.
Once they were finished, there was great excitement for race day! We tested the cars to see whose car would travel the farthest. After several heats hotly contested heats, we found our winner. Louis took first prize with an impressive performance as his car travelled the whole length of the classroom.
Miss Bragg reminded everyone how to show good sportsmanship and explained that she would award a prize, not only for the winner but for someone who showed encouragement and support to others. Miss Bragg was pleased to award Daisy with the prize for being very sporting and positive towards others.

We not only learnt a lot about how to make an effective design, we also learnt how to be resilient and how to win and lose with good grace.

Pirates Versus Merfolk

Pirates versus Merfolk

Year 4 were very excited to find out that they were going to learn and perform a proper play to a live audience. Performing the play linked to our English unit which was all about plays; how they are written and how the stage directions help the actors to perform their roles.

We started off, like all professional plays do, by holding auditions. The children were very keen and brave to put themselves forward for roles and we realised that we had many budding actors within Year 4.

We started our rehearsals and it wasn’t long before all the characters had learnt their parts off by heart. It was impressive as some of the characters had a lot of speech to remember. Next, we learnt how to use the voice to act in character and we used the stage directions to get on and off the stage.

After lots of rehearsals and a few tweaks, here and there to the play, the day of the performance soon arrived. The performers looked amazing in their wonderful costumes and with a bit of added face paint, the actors arrived on stage.

The performances went smoothly and without a hitch! There was not a sign of nerves and everyone remembered their lines and stage directions. The songs were sung with enthusiasm and with a genuine joy to be performing to an audience. They really brought the performance to life.

Performing the play to an audience boosted everyone’s confidence to speak clearly and with expression. Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can’t wait to perform again.

Pirates Versus Merfolk

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are all very excited to announce that Year 4 will be performing a play as part of our English unit on play scripts.

The play is called Pirates and Merfolk.

We will perform the play on Tuesday 5th March for the school and on Wednesday, 6th March for parents. The play will be performed twice on Wednesday – 9:15am and 5:30pm. We very much hope that you will be able to attend one of the performances.

Your child has been rehearsing their role and has been given a letter to explain their costume. In the past, you have created some amazing costumes for our various events and we very much appreciate your support. If you have any questions about the costumes or the play then please don’t hesitate to ask. We are asking for the costumes to be brought in on Friday, 1st March so that we can have a dress rehearsal.

We would also be grateful if you could provide some other props for the play. We need a variety of inflatable pool accessories, such as rubber rings, blow-up palm trees, beach balls, etc. We also need some sun glasses, bottles of sun cream, sun hats, buckets and spades and anything else that might be used at a beach party.

Your child will have a script to learn so please could you help them learn their lines at home.

We look forward to seeing you on the day of the performance!

Kind regards,

The Year 4 Team

Fantastic work in Year 4!

Science
This Spring Term, we are exploring 'States of Matter' in science. We learnt that there are three states of matter - solids, liquids and gases.
To show our learning, the class split into three groups and used role play to show the three states of matter. We found that solids vibrate gently and are close together, in rows. Theo described how liquids move freely within a contained space and Evie-Rose explained that she was in the gases group and had to stay further apart and move freely.
Can you see which photograph represents which state of matter?

English
Over the last two weeks, we have been writing biographies. We have used our knowledge of Queen Victoria to complete an interesting biography of her life and in the process, have enjoyed discovering interesting facts about her life.

Maths
Multiplication and division have been the focus of our math's learning in Year 4 over the past few weeks. We have learnt to multiply and divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number and multiply three numbers together to find its product.

PE
DT Sports have taught us how to play netball. We have learnt how to pass and receive the ball in different ways; find space and mark our partner effectively.

History
We have now come to the end of our history topic on Victorians and have made some decisions about our topic question - 'Were the Victorians always on track?' We have explored what life was like in a Victorian workhouse and made some shocking discoveries about the ages of the inmates. We also learnt how Victorians led the way with their inventions of new transport and how they paved the way for the vehicles of today. We all had different opinions of the Victorians based on what we have learnt. Some of us felt that the Victorians were too strict and didn't treat their poor very well but others felt that, by providing work and shelter, they had a better life than being on the streets. Some of us decided that the Victorians have helped us develop the transport that we use today whilst others felt that they cut through the countryside and began to spoil it for us.

Pirates and Merfolk
We are very excited to announce that we will be performing a grand, Year 4 play for parents and friends in school.
The play is called 'Pirates and Merfolk'. The children have decided which parts they would like to play and rehearsals have already begun. It's looking good so far!
We will send out further details about costumes soon but it might be a good idea to keep a look out for appropriate bits and pieces.

We have a new member of our team!
We would like to welcome Miss Bragg to our team in 4B. Miss Bragg is studying for her BEd Primary and will be helping to teach throughout Spring 2.

Best wishes,
Year 4 Team

Fabulous Art!

Look at our fabulous art in Year 4!

This term, our Viking topic has inspired a lot of our art work. We looked at the work of Degas who drew ballerinas in dynamic poses. We sketched our friends in different positions so that we knew what the human body would look like and we used our sketches to support our sculpture making. We used a plaster of Paris plinth and wire to form our sculpture and then we wrapped strips of fabric to build up the shape of the body. After that, we dressed our sculptures in Viking clothing.

We were very proud to be asked to send some of our winter art work to be displayed in Wadebridge and Camel Estuary Practice Surgery. If you are visiting the doctors then keep a look out for our designs. We drew festive foods and plants in pencil and pens and used a range of different marks to create our designs. We placed them onto a background of Brusho.

We hope you have enjoyed looking at our work!

Multiplication Check Workshop

Thank you to all who attended the Multiplication Check workshop - it was lovely to see you all. We recognise that many parents will not be able to attend and so we have attached the PowerPoint for your information below.

Your child has been given a copy of their baseline assessment together with a QR code and Times Tables Rock Stars log in details for you to use together alongside the PowerPoint.

If you have any questions or you would like to discuss the assessment with your child's class teacher, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher.

Many thanks for your continued support.
Year 4 Team

Image Gallery

Documents

Multiplication checker PP.pptx

Another great week!

It's been another great week of learning fun for Year 4!

Marvellous maths!
Place Value skills have been the focus for our learning over the last weeks. The children have learnt to place numbers to 10,000 on a number line and learnt to count with Roman numerals. Rounding to 10, 100 and 1,000 can be challenging but 4B and 4W tackled some tough rounding problems and were brilliant 'Keep-going Koalas' even when they were struggling.

Engaging English
We have been budding newspaper reporters in Year 4 and have studied the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne. Our next step is to write an article to explain how and why the vicious Vikings ransacked the Anglo-Saxon peaceful place of worship.

Swimming
Everyone has enjoyed our first session of swimming. Whether they are beginning their swim journey or are competent length swimmers, they have taken part with smiles and determination to improve. Well done, Year 4!

Please do ensure that your children remember their swimming kit; including goggles on Mondays. They should also bring a coat for their walk up to the pool.

Art
We are using our Viking history lessons to inspire our art lessons. This week, we have looked at the work of Edgar Dega's ballerinas and we noticed how he studied their dynamic poses. We sketched our friends in different poses and soon we will use them to create some interesting sculptures of Vikings who will be dressed in full Viking costume. It's going to be a lot of creative fun!

Homework
We have been so pleased with the quality and amount of home learning that the children have completed. We've seen amazing Lego constructions to show how the Vikings built a long house. We've received interesting Powerpoints which explain how Anglo-Saxons and Vikings lived; the Viking bread was surprisingly tasty and a model version of a thatched Viking longhouse was so realistic, we could just imagine what it must have been like to live inside.
We are looking forward to seeing more amazing ideas from the children. Well done, Year 4!

We are looking forward to more exciting learning next week!

Best wishes,
The Year 4 Team.