Well, what a busy final week of term we've had in Ash Class!
The children have worked really hard and finished their writing in English as well as doing some extended writing in Geography to finish off their learning about migration. I'm very proud of them! We've had a lot of fun this work to round off our learning in Science and have made shadow puppets, exploring this use of light and seeing what happened when we moved them closer and further away from the light source. We had a lovely final forest school session creating some outdoor art and enjoying our time outdoors with each other. Today, we've challenged ourselves with an English mystery game, some Maths code cracking and we've also been crafty and made some lovely Easter cards. Over the holidays, please keep up the times table practise as the Year 4 Multiplication Check will be taking place in the summer term. Plenty of reading too please! Have a lovely couple of weeks and see you when we return. Miss Radbourne As we reach the end of another week, I'd like to say a big well done to the children in Ash Class for their hard work in our assessments this week. They completed a reading paper and 2 maths papers, trying their hardest in all of the tests. Super work!
Next week is the final week of term and we've got a busy week ahead. In English, we will be writing our own versions of 'Leon and the Place Between', thinking about all the magical items that the character might see when they enter the box in the circus. There will be a big focus on description and using expanded noun phrases to create images in the reader's mind. In Maths, we continue learning about decimals, thinking about how to represent 1/2, 1/4 and 3/4 in decimals. We'll be finishing off our Science unit on 'Light' with a look at how periscopes work, and in Geography we will be rounding off our learning by writing our final piece all about migration. Not only this but plenty of PE, Art, Music and other learning too! As I look ahead to the summer term, please can I urge you to spend time practising times tables at home. All of the children will be sitting the Year 4 multiplication check in a couple of months' time and I really want them to feel confident, prepared and ready for this. The tables need to be learnt with instant recall so that the children can answer within the 6 second per question time limit. Your support at home with this is invaluable, so thank you. It's great to be back! I'm really proud of how hard the children have worked in my absence. They have taken everything in their stride and coped with changes to their normal routine admirably. Well done Year 4.
This week, we've enjoyed the beautiful sunshine as much as possible! Breaktimes and lunchtimes have been on the field and our PE lesson on Thursday was outside on the field too. I've seen great improvements in the children's teamwork skills in PE lessons. They are really communicating well to achieve the best results during the games. Have a look at some pictures below from our PE lesson this week. Looking ahead, we have our Spring assessment week next week. The children will sit 2 Maths papers and a reading paper. It's an opportunity for them to show how much they have learnt and how hard they have worked. We will also be carrying on with our current topics of 'Light' in Science, 'Migration' in Geography and also beginning to write a class version of part of the story of 'Leon and the Place Between'. I'm also really proud of the children this week for organising their Bake Sale to raise money for the people of Ukraine. This was a big success and the cakes looked (and tasted amazing!) Year Four have been amazing this week! Miss Ruby and I have taught the class in Miss Radbourne’s absence and we have been really impressed with their attitude to work and how they have coped with changes to their timetable and usual routines. The highlight of the week was of course our visit to Escot to learn more about the Anglo Saxons. Our first activity was to conquer the maze. A feat of determination, team work and communication, and a good way to run off some energy after the coach journey. The teaching team, dressed up in historical costume, took us to the Saxon Village. They showed us around the village and taught us more about Saxon life. In the workshop we leant to carve wood on a lathe, chisel runes in to wood and see many tools they used and items they would have made in that time. We made a mallet handle and carved a sign. Do you know what it says? In the forge, we were blacksmiths and learnt how to heat and twist metal to make a broach. In the home, we milled grain to make flour, then made bread in a traditional wood fired oven. We sat in fox decorated thrones and saw the kinds of materials people would have had used in their homes. Of course we also enjoyed fighting to defend our village, and putting criminals the stocks and pillory! And I was inspired to introduce a new school rule! In the afternoon we went on a nature walk where we learnt about plants and how they were used as medicines. We visited animals which would have roamed the Devon countryside in Saxon times including wolves, boar, wild cats and lynx. The team were really impressed with the knowledge the children came with, it was clear they have enjoyed learning about this period of time in class, and this experience had added enormously to their understanding. Thank you so much to Miss Radbourne for organising this trip, I know she was really disappointed not to be able to go. A big thank you to Mrs Squires, Mrs Jelley and to the team at Escot for giving the children such a brilliant experience.
Wishing Miss Radbourne and the children who have been away this week a speedy recovery, we look forward to seeing you all back next week. Miss Penny One of the highlights of this week was our Forest School session on Tuesday afternoon, during which we were making a wall in the style of the Anglo-Saxons using Wattle & Daub. The first step was to dig the posts into the ground, which the children took charge of. They then had to weave sticks in and out of the posts which was a bit tricky as they did occasionally snap. Afer this was the messy part! The children made a mixture of mud and straw, using water to mix it all together. This was then used to coat the wall. Everyone worked really hard and we had a lovely afternoon!
Another exciting project this week was in English. The children worked hard 'publishing' their cinquain poems written last week, and we created our very own class poem book. We have now started a new text in English called 'Leon and the Place Between'. In Maths, we have moved onto a new unit about Decimals, focusing this week on understanding how to write tenths and hundredths as decimals. We continued learning about 'Light' in Science, and discovered how reflection can be useful. Our Geography topic, Migration, involved learning about why people migrate and the push and pull factors which can influence this. The children have taken a real interest to learning about this, asking mature and thoughtful questions, some of which consider the current migration taking place from Ukraine. Next week is looking like a busy one and I'm sure the highlight will be our trip to Escot. We are really excited! Please see ClassDojo for information and reminders about this. Have a great weekend, Miss Radbourne. It's the end of the first week back after half term and we've had a great week in Ash Class. We have started lots of new topics which have engaged and excited the children. In English, we have learnt about Cinquain poems. These are shaped like a diamond and have 5 lines. As a class, we wrote 2 poems together: Thunder Loud and noisy Crashing, booming, banging Waking children in the night time Stormy Chocolate Solid and smooth Breaking, crunching, munching It's delicious not nutritious Cocoa In Maths, we have just finished our unit on fractions and will begin learning about decimals next week. Science involved starting our topic all about 'Light and we investigated the difference between transparent, translucent and opaque materials. We are studying Geography this term and our topic is 'Migration'. The children had a lot of questions about this which we will answer in the coming weeks.
World Book Day was celebrated on Thursday by designing and decorating our own t-shirts featuring our favourite book characters, then either wearing the t-shirts or dressing up today. Have a look at some of the photos below - the children looked great! Well, what an unexpected end to this half of term! I do hope everyone was able to access the online home learning and managed the unusual change in routine.
This week has flown by and the children have worked extra hard this week. They pulled together all of their knowledge about the Anglo-Saxons to answer the final essay question 'How did the Anglo-Saxons and Scots change life in Britain?' I'm so impressed with how much they have learnt and remembered! They are experts now. In Maths, we have been subtracting fractions from whole numbers and thinking about our answers as both improper fractions and mixed numbers. In Science, we covered the topic of how the universe began and we looked at the Big Bang Theory and the evidence behind it. I've really enjoyed seeing the children working hard on their Art this half term. They created dragon eyes using pastels, thinking carefully about drawing the shape and adding shading to each individual scale. Have a look at the picture below. Have a lovely half term and see you afterwards! Miss Radbourne It's been another busy week here!
In Maths, we have continued our learning about Fractions. We spent a lot of time using the fractions resources to explore what equivalent fractions are and how to find them. In English, the children have written their own versions of the Anglo-Saxon legend about Beowulf, 'A Monster Slayer'. These are great and everyone tried so hard - I'm very impressed! In History, we learnt about the end of the Anglo-Saxon era and the arrival of the Vikings. Next week, we will consolidate all of this learning as we answer the essay question 'How did the Anglo-Saxons change Britain?' In Science, we explored what stars are and learnt about how our sun was formed. Forest School was a great session this week. The class split into smaller groups and some children were collecting sticks for a future project while others were weaving their own Anglo-Saxon medallion using the material dyed with the items they foraged for last time. One more week until half term... I'm not sure where the time has gone this term. Have a lovely weekend. Hello everyone. Happy February!
This week, I've been particularly impressed with the children's writing. We have been working hard to write descriptive sentences about characters and settings, using tools such as expanded noun phrases, exciting vocabulary and making use of the five senses. There have been some excellent sentences produced, for example: 'As it grew darker, the thick fog rolled in. The only sound that could be heard was footsteps because the place was deserted.' 'Everyone went quiet in sheer terror as a presence as terrifying as Death himself advanced on the forest." Spooky! In Maths, we have started a new unit of work on Fractions. We've learnt what a unit fraction and non-unit fraction are, and thought about how to represent fractions, in particular tenths. Science involved learning about the planets in more depth and discovering the difference between inner rocky planets and outer gas giants. In History, we explored what the 'Heptarchy' was in Anglo-Saxon times. It's been another active week with our usual gymnastics session on Thursday plus an afternoon of relay races on Tuesday with OCRA. Have a look at the photos below. Next week is another Forest School week and we will discover how our natural dyes turned out and use the materials strips to do some weaving. Have a lovely weekend. Hello everyone
This week's blog is going to be filled with photos as we've been so busy! In English, we have started our new text based on the legend 'Beowulf'. We are reading a version of this Anglo-Saxon tale by Chris Riddell called 'The Monster Slayer'. The children were captivated when we read the story and then thoroughly enjoyed acting out the main plot points. Have a look at the photos below. In Maths, we've completed a short unit on 'Area' and have learnt how to calculate area, draw rectilinear shapes with given areas and compare shapes with different areas. We had a super afternoon on Tuesday out at Forest School and spent the time foraging for natural materials to make dyes and having a go at the rope course which Miss Prince set up. On the theme of being active, the children all put excellent effort into Gymnastics this week too. On Monday, we took part in a virtual 'Healthcare Careers PSHE Session' during which the children had the opportunity to find out and ask questions about 3 different careers in healthcare: Occupational Therapy, Clinical Pharmacy and Radiography. In History, we learnt all about what the Anglo-Saxons believed. As always, please continue to spend some time each day at home reading, practising spellings and times tables. I sent home information about the Year 4 Multiplication Check this week so please have a read and get in touch with me if you have any questions. This is a great website for practising: Multiplication Tables Check - Mathsframe Have a lovely weekend everybody. Miss Radbourne |
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