2025/26 Our Learning

In Maths this week, we continued to look at how to plot coordinates in the first quadrant and how to create shapes with them. We then moved onto translation, where we moved shapes around in the first quadrant either up and down or left and right. We then completed some assessments to show how much we have learnt over the year. 
In English, we collected some good vocabulary that we could use in our biography about Jacques Cousteau including alternative nouns for his name, fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases. We then practised writing a paragraph using the biography style to help us when we are writing our biography about Jacques Cousteau. 
In Art, we talked about proportion and what it is. We looked at some pieces of artwork where the artist had changed the proportion of something and discussed the effect that it had on the art. We also looked at some pieces that were in proportion and discussed how it helps to make artwork look realistic. We drew a small cup next to our bigger water bottles ensuring that we got the proportion right. 
in Geography, we looked at some of the most famous landmarks in the USA. We thought about whether they were human or physical geographical features and what their role/jobs are. Some people were so interested in them, they did some extra research at home about them and got lots of dojos. 
For RE, we discussed some of the routines and rituals Muslims go through when doing formal prayer. We talked about how they prepare to pray, where they pray, how often they pray and how they pray. We created some information posters to show this. 
In our PSHE lesson, we continued to talk about some of the changes that our bodies go through during puberty and in particular menstruation. We talked about what happens during menstruation and why. 
In PE with the sports coach we played some football games where we needed to apply the skills that we have learnt this half term such as dribbling, passing and shooting into a game situation. It was very warm, so we played short games and had some time in the shade. It was even hotter on Friday, so we went into the hall to do some gentle PE. We had to work together in groups to make different letters, landmarks and animals. Can you work out from the pictures what we made?

In French, we did some role play visiting the toy shop to buy things. We had to ask how much they were politely and then pay for them with Euros. 
On Friday morning, we went into Year 5 to spend some more time in our classroom and to get to know Miss Bardsley a bit better. We did some getting to know you activities and impressed Miss Bardsley with how wonderful we are.

In English this week, we have focused on biographies. We talked about what they are and the different features they have. We played guess the biogrpahy with some extracts from some famous people’s biographies and spent some time exploring a biography about David Attenborough. On Thursday, we had a visit from Mr Dugdale who asked us to help him replace a missing biography page from a book all about Jacques Cousteau. We accepted the task and got to work straight away thinking about how we could structure the biography and sharing what information we already know about Jacques Cousteau. 

In Maths, at the start of the week we continued to look at line graphs and learnt how to draw them. We also answered more questions about them to interpret the data that they were showing us. We then moved onto our position and direction unit and looked at coordinates. We learnt how to read the coordinates and shapes in the first quadrant making sure we read the x axis first and then the y axis. 

In Art, we looked at and compared some pieces of art by the artisits Nicola McBride and Sarah Graham. We could see a difference in the materials they had used and the way they used tone to make their pieces look realistic or not as realistic. We recapped from last wek how to change the tone of a colour when shading through the amount of pressure that we use. We then moved onto a different way to achieve different tones, which was to use lines and shapes and by making them close together to create a darker tone and then further apart to make a lighter tone. We experimented with different shapes and lines. 

For our RE this week, we looked at some of the ways that Jewish people pray and some of the different artefacts they use during prayer. We explored the significance and symbolism of the different items such as the tefflin, yarmulke and prayer shawl. 

In PSHE, we talked abut puberty and some of the physical and emotional changes that will happen to us all over the next few years as we become teenagers and eventually young adults. We talked about how hormones can affect our emotions and mood and ways that we can support each other with this. During the discussion we found out that everyone’s bodies are different and that they will go through puberty at different paces and not always in the same way and that we should try not to compare ourselves to our friends. 

Miss Bardsely came to teach our Music lesson this week. We continued to look at the song I Wanna Sing Scat. We learnt to sing the two different parts to the song separately at first and then we split into two groups and sang the parts alongside each other. Then we used the glockenspiel to improvise some music to the second part of the song using just three notes.  

In PE with the sports coach, we continued to work on our football skills focusing on dribbling and passing. 

On Tuesday afternoon, we were treated to a guitar and keyboard concert to showcase the talent and learning of the children who have music lessons in school. It was wonderful to see and hear the progress they have made with playing their instruments and their confidence with performing in front of an audience. 

We had a very exciting day on Friday. We spent the morning in Year 5 getting to know our new teacher and classroom for next year. We had our French lesson whilst we were in Year 5 and got to show Miss Bardsley all the vocabulary and skills we have learnt this half term in our topic about pocket money. We used the adverts that we created last week and tried to persuade Madame Wardle to buy our toys. Then in the afternoon, Adrian came into school and we had a Science workshop all about electricity. He showed us some different ways to generate static electicity with balloons, binbags and paper. He also showed us the effects of having nmore than one bulb running off one battery.

It has been a very hot and very busy week in Year 4. On Wednesday we shared some of the learning we have been doing in our RE lessons all about prayer with the rest of the school and our families in a class worship. We started by explaining that prayer is a way to communicate with God and to build a strong relationship with him. After that, we shared what it says in the Bible about prayer and different ways that Jesus prayed. We also explored how, where and when you can pray and shared some of the ways we like to pray. Our message to everyone was that we can pray anytime, anyplace, in any way and with anyone. We were lucky to have a visit from Rev Ben that afternoon who shared some of his thoughts about prayer with us too.

Then on Thursday, we went to Westholme school to watch their performance of Mary Poppins. It was a fantastic show, with amazing acting, singing and dancing and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave us some inspiration for what we might like to do in the future whether it be an actor, dancer, lighting technician, set designer or sound manager. It showed us some of the possibilities that we could explore.

In English, we finished writing our invention narrative about Jacques Cousteau inventing the aqua lung. Then we applied the skills we had learnt into writing another invention narrative about someone who invented goggles to see under the water. We began the non fiction part of our unit by looking at a biography and identifying the features it has. We practised using a dictionary to find the meaning of unfamiliar words to keep our skills sharp.

We started our unit all about statistics in Maths. We looked at some pictograms, bar charts and line graphs and interpreted the data they were showing us. We answered a range of different questions about the data that was shown in the graphs. 

This week in Computing, we continued using Scratch to develop our programming skills. We learned how to use the forever loop and the change costume code to animate our names. We made our letters change costume, change colour and rotate, and we also customised the backdrop to make our animations even more creative.

In Science, we learned about switches and their important role in controlling the flow of electricity in a circuit. We then designed and built our own switches using a rubber, drawing pins and a paper clip. Finally, we tested our switches to see if they successfully opened and closed the circuit. It was exciting to see our switches working with our circuits!

In Geography this week (and rather appropriately with the weather) we looked at the 6 different climate zones in the world and what each on is like. We felt like we were in an arid climate zone with the hot weather and wished we were in a polar climate zone! Then we looked at the United States of America and identified that there are 5 of the 6 different climate zones in that one country. We compared it to The United Kingdom and say that we have only got one climate zone. 

We looked at water safety for our PSHE lesson this week. We talked about how tempting it can be to want to jump into open water when it is very hot, but we talked about cold shock and how this affects our body. We talked about our experiences of jumping in the reservoir last week at canoeing and how that took our breaths away. We discussed what you should do if you fall into open water and also if you see another person in open water. We also included some beach safety ready for when we on holidays or trips to the beach over the summer and identified the safest places to swim and what the different flags mean. We made posters all about water safety to share our knowledge with others. 
In Art, we looked at how light shining on an object affects the tone. We used torches on our water bottles to see how areas of shadow are created and how the colours change. We then had a go at drawing our water bottles and shading them to show the light coming from two different directions. 

Due to the hot weather, in PE with the sports coach, we tried to stay in the shaded parts of the field and practice our throwing, catching and bowling skills without too much running around. On Friday we did some yoga in the hall to allow us to stretch our muscles and to feel cool and calm.

We started the week with a splash with our canoeing sessions with Louise from Wild One Adventures at Fishmoor reservoir. It was wonderful to see all the children joining in and having such a wonderful time. Once we had practised paddling and steering the canoes, Louise set us some challenges to complete; standing up and doing a 360 turn, doing a jump and leaning over the side to say hello to the fish by  putting our faces in the water. Then we played some games such as canoe football and the paddle game which we really enjoyed. After some more paddling around the reservoir, we returned to shore and had the opportunity to have a paddle in the water. Before we went in, we talked about water safety and how the water is very cold and can cause cold water shock. Louise reminded pupils that we should never go into open water without safety equipment like are buoyancy aids and without adults there to keep us safe. If we wanted to we were able to jump into the water from the edge of the canoe and this gave us some experience of the cold taking our breath away.   

Back at school, in our English learning we have been writing our invention narrative all about Jacques Cousteau inventing the aqua lung including expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials followed by commas and punctuating direct speech correctly. Mrs Bullen has been really impressed with how good our writing has been. 

In Maths, we looked at the properties of quadrilaterals and different polygons. We also looked at the differences between regular and irregular polygons. After that we moved onto symmetry and what it is. We then used mirrors or folding to identify the lines of symmetry in different shapes. We ended the week by looking at completing symmetrical patterns and drawing the mirror image of parts of shapes. 

This week in Computing, we continued using Scratch to develop our coding skills. We learned how to create repeating loops and used the pen down tool to draw different shapes. We carefully considered how many times our commands needed to repeat, as well as the number of steps forward and the angles needed to turn in order to create accurate shapes.

In Science, we explored electricity by making simple circuits. We used wires, bulbs and batteries to create complete circuits and investigate how they work. We also learned the difference between a cell and a battery, discovering that a battery is made up of two or more cells connected together. It was exciting to see our bulbs light up when our circuits were complete!

In Geography, we focused on the country of the United States of America and how it is split up into states. We already knew the names of some of the states, but we used an atlas to identify all 50 of the states and where abouts in the country they are located. We also sung a song with the names of all 50 states in it. 

We looked at the artist Mark Powell in Art, who uses biro to create drawings on old maps, letters and postcards. We looked at how much detail he includes in his drawings such as fur on animals or wrinkles on people. After that, we recapped the techniques for shading and thought about how we can create different levels of tone when shading. We practised creating different tones using pencils and pencil crayons. 

In PSHE we discussed the vocabulary conflict and compromise and what they meant. We discussed that as we are growing up and wanting more independence, it can lead to more conflict with our families and friends and we discussed ways that we can compromise to help find solutions to issues. We had some different real life scenarios and we came up with ways that we could compromise. 

With the sports coach in PE, we continued to work on our football skills. We did some dribbling and passing before playing some games. On Friday, we did some athletics to help us pick the team for the upcoming athletics event. We did long distance running as well as sprinting using the different techniques we looked at last half term. We then did a standing jump and a tennis ball throw. 

We have also been practising our class worship ready to perform for our families next week.

In Maths this week, we started a new unit of learning about shape. We focused on angles to begin with identifying that an angle is a measure of a turn. We then looked at acute, right and obtuse angles and what properties they have. We then used this knowledge to order and compare different angles. We ended the week by learning about different types of triangles; equilateral, isosceles and scalene. We talked about the length of the sides and the sizes of the angles. In English, we thought about Jacques Cousteau and what kind of a person he was. We identified different qualities that he showed in his lifetime using evidence from the text to back up our ideas. We did the same for a character in a different text who showed similar qualities to Jacques and we wrote about him also. We recapped the writing conventions for direct speech and wrote some conversations that we thought that Jacques might have with people after he successfully tested his invention. In RE, we thought about prayer. We identified that prayer is a way of communicating with God. We discussed different ways that people can pray and we looked at extracts from the Bible to see what Jesus taught us about prayer. We decided that you can pray anywhere, anytime and in anyway that you want to. In Geography, we looked at the continent of North America and used an atlas to identify the different countries that it is made up of. We noticed that North America is made up of a large area of land and then lots of smaller islands. It was raining on Thursday when we had our PE session with the sports coach, so we moved the tables around and did some fun games and activities in the classroom. We managed to get outside for our other PE session where we reacapped how to hold and move around with a rugby ball. We continued to build our skills of passing and recieving the ball and we added in some movement like it would be in a game. In Music, we looked at our new composer for the half term Sergei Prokofiev. We recapped some information about his life and acheivements. We then listened to some scat music performed by Ella Fitzgerald and discussed that it is an improvised type of jazz music. We had a go at singing a simple scat song. In French, we thought about how we could persuade someone to buy us a toy that we really wanted. We thought about the tone of our voices and our facial expressions as well as what we would say about the toy. We learnt some ‘wow’ words to use when persuading to say that it is fantastic, cool or amazing.

It has been lovely to be back in school even though it has only been a short week. We started our new text and unit in English. We read Manfish which is a hybrid text of a narrative and biography all about the undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau. We thought about the important events from his life and looked at some of the tricky vocabulary that was in the text and what it means. In Maths, we finished our unit about time. We looked at converting times from analogue and digital clocks. We then moved onto looking at the 24 hour clock and how it is different to the 12 hour clock. We converted times between the 12 and 24 hour clocks. In PSHE, we looked at online safety. We watched a video that showed us that not everyone is who they say they are online and we talked about the dangers of messaging or talking to people who we don’t know. We created posters to share what we have learnt with other children. We finally finished our DT from last half term! We completed all the frames, chassis’s and ensured all the wheels were securely on! After that we made and attached our bodies with our Egyptian designs on them. We then tested them to see how far we could make them go in the corridor. In PE with the sports coach, we started looking at skills for football. We did some activities to help us have controlled dribbling and accurate passing. We enjoyed incorportating some rock, paper, scissors games into our drills. In French, we recapped the learning from last half term recalling the names of toys and the numbers up to 59. We learnt how to ask how much something is and added please to be polite. We made a price list of the toys that will be in the shop to buy by asking Madame Wardle how much they were in French. In our other PE lesson, we looked at the correct way to hold and throw a rugby ball. We did lots of games and activities where we had to hold, pass or throw the ball to give us lots of practice at handling it.

What a fantastic ending to the half term we have had. In English, we have spent the week writing our secret sea creature information guide about the alien family that live under the sea. We used technical vocabulary, formal language, a range of nouns to avoid repetition and expanded noun phrases in our information guides. They were absolutely fantastic, Mrs Bullen used so much green highlighter, it ran out. In Maths, we began our new topic all about time, which can be a tricky one. We started by recapping the number of days in a week and months in a year. We did some converting between the different units. We then moved onto looking at the number of seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour and did some converting between them too. We also looked at how many days are in each month and learnt a rhyme and a special trick using our knuckles to help us remember them. At the end of the week, we recapped how to tell the time on an analogue clock looking at o clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to and well as all the 5-minute intervals. In Science this week, we learnt about food chains. We played a game where we had to find all the members of our food chain and build it in the correct order. We learnt about the producers, consumers and top consumers within different food chains We also looked at the eggs that we set up a couple of weeks ago to see the effect that the different liquids had on the shells. We were shocked by the result. All of the drinks except water had stained the egg shell in some way, some more than others and we could see deposits of sugar on them. We then created some posters to help people know what things you should do to look after your teeth, including not having too many sugary drinks. For History this week, we went on a trip to Bolton Museum. Whilst we were there, we did a workshop with Millie from the museum. We learnt about how the amazing collection came to Bolton and discussed how lucky we are to have it. We created a timeline to put into perspective how old some of the artefacts in the museum are and to compare the Ancient Egyptian period to other times we know about. We had some time to explore all the different artefacts that were in the museum and to dress up in some costumes. Next, we learnt about what happened when someone died in Ancient Egypt. We talked about mummification finding out what they did to the bodies and why. We also watched a video that showed us the journey that the person makes to get to the afterlife after they have died. We did some role play to re-enact taking the organs out of the body and putting them into the canopic jars and the weighing of the heart to see if the person could enter the afterlife. We were incredibly lucky to see two genuine Egyptian mummies at the museum. After lunch we had some time to explore the other parts of the museum including the aquarium, art gallery and the nature gallery. We have been busy making our slingshot chariots all week in DT, we have been using saws to cut the axels and using the glue gun to attach the wheels. We have designed the body using Ancient Egyptian designs. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get them finished, so we will continue to work on them after half term. In RE this week, we brought all of our learning about different places of worship together by identifying similarities and differences between them. We also thought about how religions often use symbols to represent things and we focused on the symbol of light. We talked about how each of the religions uses light and their beliefs around it.

In Maths this week, we have been applying our understanding of rounding to rounding amounts of money to the nearest ten pence and the nearest whole pound. We used number lines to help us see which number it was nearest to. We have also been solving lots of problems that involve money. We had to use our addition and subtraction skills from earlier in the year to help us calculate how much had been spent and how much change there would be. In English, we started to plan the secret sea creature guide that we are going to write. We decided which secret sea creature we are going to write about and spent some time coming up with ideas about its appearance, habitat, hunting and defence. We then practised writing a paragraph about its appearance trying to use formal language and technical vocabulary. Using the structure of the example text about the octopus family, we planned out what we are going to say in each of our paragraphs when we start our writing. In RE, we have spent a couple of lessons looking at the places of worship from some of the other world faiths. We watched virtual tours and looked at pictures of a Jewish Synagogue, Hindu Mandir, Islamic Mosque and Sikh Gurdwara. We identified some of the different features that they have and what they are used for. We enjoyed seeing how different the buildings are and also thinking about what things are the same as Christian Churches. On Thursday, it was Spirituality Afternoon where we were thinking about Ascension and Pentecost. We explored what Ascension and Pentecost are and why they are important to Christians and why they celebrate them. We thought about how this links to our school vision of ‘As God’s family, together we acheive.’ We discussed how we can use the talents and gifts that God gave us, just as the apostles did after they were given the Holy Spirit. We also talked about our school Christian Values and thought about ways that we can demonstrate them. We made some bunting to show this. In PE, we played some games of netball to apply the passing and shooting skills that we have been learning. We discussed our responsibility to look after the planet in PSHE using the seven Rs. We looked at Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot, Rethink, Refuse and Repair. We talked about what each one meant,practical ways that we do can it and how it would help the planet. We thought about how God created our amazing planet and how we need to look after it. In Music, we used the glockenspiels to play along to the different parts of the song Hill an’ Gully Rider that we have been looking at over the last few weeks.

Although it has been a shorter week in school with the bank holiday, we have still managed to pack a lot of learning into it. We have been celebrating Sir David Attenborough’s 100th brthday this week. We looked at his life and some of the many things that he has achieved in particular how he has raised awareness of climate change and the endangerment of animals. We did a case study on orangutans, which are currently critically endangered. We found out some general information about orangutans such as they are apes and not monkeys and that they are omnivores. We looked at the factors that are causing orangutans to be critically endangered; deforestation, poaching and the illegal pet trade. We then created an information text about this. In English, we started a new text, we used inference and deduction to work out what was happening in the story from the illustrations. In the story, there are some strange secret creatures that live in the sea which we were surprised by. We then looked at an information guide all about one of them and looked at the unfamiliar vocabulary in it. After that, we thought about the formal language and the technical words that were used and wrote our own sentences in the same style. In Maths, we moved onto a new topic all about money. We spent some time looking at our currency and the coins and notes that we have, because we mostly pay for things with cards now, we were not as familiar with the physical money. We learnt how to write money as a decimal using our understanding of decimals from our previous learning. We looked at converting amounts in pounds and pence into just pence and we compared and ordered different amounts of money. In Science, we looked at some images of different animals teeth and discussed the different types of teeth that they have depending on their diet. Next, we began an investigation to see how different drinks affect our teeth. Our teeth are covered in a substance called enamel which is very similar to the outside of egg shells, so we used eggs in our investigation. We have placed some eggs into 6 different drinks and we are going to leave them for a couple of weeks and then see how the drinks have affected them. In Music, we listened to piece of music that Hans Zimmer composed for one of David Attenborough’s shows Blue Planet and talked about the instruments that had been used and the effects they created. We recapped the notes that are in a pentatonic scale and practised playing them on the glockenspiels. We then did some improvising using the pentatonic scale and playing to the beat of a backing track. In PE we continued to work on our passing skills that we would use in netball; chest pass, bounce pass and overhead pass. We also got the nets out and looked at some shooting skills and played some netball games. in our other PE session, we looked at running and the different techniques needed to sprinting and long distance events. We had a chance to practice our sprinting making sure we pumped our arms to help us move faster. In French, we recapped our numbers up to 39 and also continued to build our knowledge and confidence of some of the toys that we would find in a toy shop.

We got off to a fantastic start this week, with our outdoor learning session in the glorious sunshine. We began with an orienteering challenge in the school grounds to find the different types of artefacts and evidence historians use to tell them what life was like in Ancient Egypt. We started by looking at the map of the school grounds and identifying what the different symbols represented as well as making sure we could orientate the map correctly. We had to use teamwork with our partners to use the maps to find the 20 checkpoints correctly. After all that running around, we cooled down in the shade of the woods and heard the story of Tutankhamun’s short but fascinating life. Then we looked at Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb with all the amazing artefacts in it. Finally, we looked at some Ancient Egyptian amulets and talked about what they were used for. We used clay and any natural materials that we could find to design and make our own amulets. We didn’t have any tools to help us shape and decorate the clay, so had to create our own from the things that were around us. In English this week, we have been writing our own environmental change narrative based on the text Our Tower. We had to use a lot of description of the environments and the tree man and needed to use lots of adjectives, similes and expanded noun phrases. In Maths, we have been ordering and comparing decimal numbers with two decimal places as well as rounding them to the nearest whole one. We ended the decimals unit by identifying fraction and decimal equivalences for halves and quarters. This week in Science, we learned about the four different types of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars and molars. We explored what each type of tooth is used for and what they look like. We also discussed why herbivores, carnivores and omnivores have different teeth depending on their diets, helping them to eat different types of food. In Computing, we used a new app called Snapseed to edit photos. We experimented with changing the lightness and darkness of our images, used brush tools to create different effects and added text boxes to enhance our photos. For RE we were thinking about how the Bible gives  Christians guidance about their behaviour and attitudes. We looked at our school vision taken from Romans 12. We looked at what it actually means and what St. Paul was telling us. We realised it is telling us that we all have our own different strengths and talents and that all of them are valued as highly as each other. We also discussed how we all need to use our own talents and strengths to be a community that comes together as one Christian body made up of many parts. In Music, we listened to a popular Jamaican folk song called Hill an’ Gully Rider. We compared it to the Chinese folk songs we had previously listened to and although they sound very different, they both use a pentatonic scale of just 5 notes. We learned to sing the song in the two different parts. We also recapped some of the musical notation for crotchets, quaver pairs and rests. In PSHE we thought about what we mean by choices and what some of the different choices people can make are. We then thought about what choices we are able to make for ourselves at the moment and what choices adults make for us and the reasons why they make them. In PE with the sports coach, we looked at the skills for different types of pass that we would use in netball; chest, bounce and overhead pass. In our other session we looked at some of the throwing techniques needed for javelin and shot put. We had to look at our body position and how we shift our weight forward in order to make the javelin or shot go as far as possible. In French, we learnt some new vocabulary for different toys that we will eventually be ‘buying’ from the toy shop and created a word bank to help us in future lessons.

This week in English, we looked at what similes are and then we created some similes of our own to describe the settings in the text Our Tower. We then used them to write more detailed descriptions of the three different settings in the text. We planned our own environmental change narrative on Thursday and then started to write it on Friday. In Maths, we looked at making a whole one with tenths and then with hundredths. We made the link between our number bonds to ten and one hundred and used those to help us. We created our own matching pairs games to help us recall them and then enjoyed playing them. We also looked at partitioning decimal numbers into tenths and hundredths. In RE we discussed our experiences of going to churches and what they were like. We then looked at some photographs of two different churches both inside and outside. We then identified the similarities and differences between them. In Science, we learnt more about the digestive system. We recapped the names of the organs involved in digesting food, including the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. We also explored the functions of each part and how they work together to break down food and absorb nutrients in the body. In Computing, we took our learning outdoors and captured our own photographs. We then used Canva to edit our images, learning how to change colours to improve and enhance our photos. In History, we discussed why the Ancient Egyptians were such a successful civilisation. We looked at how they used the River Nile for water and trade, how they built the pyramids, the writing system that they created and also some of the other things they invented such as toothpaste and make up. In DT, we started to make the chassis and axles for our chariots. We needed to use the hot glue gun to create the frame from four lolly sticks. We also needed to measure and use the saws to cut two pieces of dowel 15cm long. Our PSHE learning was all about what makes us unique. We spent some time celebrating our uniqueness and creating some mini posters to refelect this. We then thought about how we don’t always want to do exactly the same things as our friends all of the time. We discussed what we could do in order to enjoy time with our friends when we all want to do something different. We then designed a theme park for a day out that would have lots of different things so that there is something for everyone to enjoy. We watched a French video in our French lesson this week about a boy who wanted some pocket money to buy a toy. Although the people in the video spoke really fast, we were able to pick out some familiar words and with the images we worked out what was happening. We also recapped our numbers to help us talk about amounts of money in French. In Music, we recapped what a pentatonic scale is; a scale of just 5 notes. We then had the chance to play a pentatonic scale on the glockenspiels both ascending and descending.

It has been wonderful to welcome the chidlren back into school after the Easter break and hear about what they have been up to over the last two weeks. We got straight into all of our new learning for the new half term! In English, we began by looking at some illustrations and a text extract form our new text and being detectives to see if we could predict what the story would be about. Then we read the story and compared it to our predicitons and wrote our own blurb for it. We spent some time looking at the vocabulary that is in the text and what it means. We also did some writing to describe some of the characters in the text. In Maths, we looked at what we get when a whole one is split up into 100 equal parts and identified them as hundredths. We represented the hundredths as fractions and as decimals using a place value grid to help us. We then looked at what happens when we divide a one or two digit number by 100 using our new knowledge of tenths and hundredths to show the decimals. In Science, we learnt about the digestive system. We identified and labelled the different parts, including the key organs involved. We also discussed the role each organ plays in helping our bodies break down food and absorb nutrients. In History, we thought about what makes a civilisation and the things that civilisations need to have or do in order to be successful. We talked about some of the ancient civilisations that Historians study and when they occured within the chronological timeline. In Computing, we used Canva to edit photos. We learnt a range of useful skills such as duplicating images, rotating them, changing colours and cropping. These tools helped us to improve our images. For DT, we thought about what vehicles are and looked at what some of the earliest forms of transport were. We disucussed some important vocabulary such as chassis and axle and what they mean. We designed a chassiss to make a chariot by adapting a simple car chassis design. We looked at some online safety for our PSHE learning. We talked about copyright, what it means and how it can be used to protect ourselves and our work. We also looked at how you can use copyrighted things if you get permission or you credit the creator. In PE with the sports coach, we looked at passing skills. We practised overhead and underarm throws that we could use in netball. In the other session with Mrs Bullen, we started to think about athletics. We played a game to help us identify which events were athletics and then we catagorised them into running, jumping and throwing events. For our Music learning, we listened to a piece of Chinese folk music and discussed the tempo, pitch and dynamics that are used throughout it. We then discussed how it was played on an instrument called a Zither and it only used 5 notes throughout the whole piece. We then identified that this is called a pentatonic scale. In French, we started our new topic which is all about pocket money. Because we will need to talk about amounts of money throughout the topic we recapped the numbers that we already know in French which was 31.

It has been another very busy and enjoyable week to end the term with. We took part in the Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancashire Hospice on Tuesday (despite the rain) and raised lots of money for such a good cause. We also had a visit and workshop with the author Sean Perkins. He talked to us about creating characters for stories and we had a lot of fun creating our own story characters. On Friday, it was time for Nerf Wars for our behaviour treat. There was lots of fun shooting each other with the Nerf guns and playing different games. In our English, we completed our unit based on The Lost Happy Endings by writing a letter to persuade the Witch to give the happy endings back to the stories. We had to use persuasive language to explain how badly the unhappy endings were affecting the children and their parents. In Maths, we begun to extend our understanding of tenths as decimal numbers. We represented them in place value charts and on number lines. We then looked at dividing one and two digit numbers by 10, which created some tenths. In Science, we carried out an investigation into which materials would be the best insulator to muffle the sound made from an alarm on the ipad. We used the data logger to record the volume of the alarm in Decibels with different materials wrapped around the ipad. After that we used the data we had collected from the Science investigation and inputed it into ipds to analyse it as our Computing lesson. In History, we learnt about what Anglo Saxon society was like, looking at the hierarchy of the different groups of people and at how some of them lived. We also looked at what caused the Anglo Saxon period to end in Britain. We found out about the events that led up to the Battle of Hastings, what happened during the battle and how William the Conquerer became the King of England. In RE, we came back to the question is the Easter story a story of trust or betrayal. We were able to identify parts of the story that showed trust and also parts of the story that showed betrayal and so decided it was both. We also made some Easter cards using the pastels to create different tints and shades of colours. In PSHE, we looked at a sample payslip and found out that some of hte money that we earn is taken from us in taxes and National Insurance. We then discussed what the money that is taken from us is used for. We thought about the different public services that are paid for through taxes and National Insurance and discussed how important they all are. We recapped all of our learning over the Spring term in French by playing a team game. We had to decide how many points we wanted to play for knowing that the questions worth more points would be harder. We had to turn over a tab and either say the sentence in French or translate a French sentence into English.

We started the week, with a wonderful outdoor adventure with Louise from Wild One Adventures. As we entered the enchanted forest, Louise told us that the happy endings to the stories that the witch stole in our English text were in hidden in different locations. We used some maps and clues to help us find the different locations and when we got to them, we had to search for and find all the happy endings making sure non were missed. As we followed the map it took us down the slope and through the stream, where we had to be careful not to slip. After that, we came to the witches tunnel and some of us were brave enough to crawl all the way through it and to the other side. Once we had found the happy endings, we were set a new challenge linked to our art learning. We had to find as many different tints and shades of green in the natural resources around us for example trees, grass and moss and make them into paint. We made a paint chart on a long stick to show all the different tints and shades. In English, we have been thinking about ways to persuade people and diferent types of persuasive language. We looked at a letter that the story enders had written to parents to try and persuade them not to read bedtime stories to the children until we can get the happy endings back. We thought about what Jub would say to the witch to try and persuade her to give the happy endings back and what persuasive language she would use. We planned our own letter to the witch from Jub to try and get the happy endings back. In Maths, we finished our unit on fractions by subtracting fractions from whole ones and from mixed numbers. Then we moved onto decimals and we found out that decimals show us parts of whole ones like fractions do, but they are written in a different way. We learnt about tenths being when a whole one is split up into ten equal parts and looked at how to write them as fractions and as decimals. In Art, we looked at how we can use tints and shades of colour to make a 2D image look 3D. We created tints and shades of blue and painted an image of a mug showing where the light and dark parts were. In Science, we went outside in small groups and carried out our investigation into proving if sound gets quieter the further away we go. We made a sound and used the data logger to measure how loud it was in Decibels. We then moved back a metre at a time and repeated the measurements. In RE, we focused on Judas and the role he played in the Easter story. We thought of some questions we would like to ask Judas about what he did and why he did it. We then thought about the events of Easter and how vital they are to God’s big story and plan we identified that Judas had to betray him in order for him to sacrifice himself for us. In PSHE,we discussed the words influence and influencer and what they mean. We talked about some of the online influencers that we know and how they try to influence us. We also looked at how reports in the media can try to influence our opinions about things and read two newspaper articles about the same thing that showed different opinions. We also shared as a class which kind of behaviours make us happy, so that we can do them more often to each other. We also talked about which kind of behaviours make us sad, so that we can make sure we don’t do them to each other. In French, we recapped the days of the week and the different activities that we could do to keep us healthy. We then put them together to make full sentences. Then we played sentence bingo where we had to write a sentence and see if we could match it to the one that Madame Wardle had written. We managed to get a few matches, which doesn’t always happen.

In Maths this week, we have continued to build our understanding of fractions. We started the week by using bar models and fraction walls to help us identify and understand equivalent fractions. Then we moved onto adding fractions to fractions and also adding fractions to whole ones and mixed numbers. At the end of the week, we moved onto subtracting fractions. In English, we unleashed our inner bad and have written our twisted ending to the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, which were fantastic! We used expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and speech punctuation in our writing to make it the best quality that we could. We also started to look at the vocabulary in a letter to the parents to persuade them not to read any bedtime stories to their young children until we can get the happy story endings back. In Science, we spent some time reflecting on the investigation we did last week for British Science Week to see how the temperature of the water affects the speed that sugar idssolves. Our investigation wasn’t a success and we didn’t manage to answer our enquiry question, but it gave us an opportunity to think about what could have gone wrong and what we would do differently if we did it again. We also discussed how scientists often start off with one question, but then have lots more that come up as they investigate. In History, we looked at the seven kingdoms that England was split up into during the Anglo Saxons time in Britain. We compared a map of the kingdoms to a map of the counties we have today and compared them. We were surprised to find that some counties still have the same name as the Anglo Saxon kingdoms. In Art, we focused on colour mixing. We learnt that if you add white to a colour it makes a tint and if you add black to a colour it makes a shade. We experimented with white and black paints to make different tints and shades of blue. For French, we looked at the vocabulary for some different activites we might do in our spare time such as swimming, gymnastics, reading and watching tv. We used cognates, our prior learning and some guess work to match the names to the correct activities. With Mr Richards in Music, we continued to build on our ukulele skills and the chords that we can play in time with the music and with each other. On Thursday, we had a visit from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to talk to use about recycling. We learnt about the words reduce, reuse and recyle and what they mean. We discussed ways that we could reduce the amount of waste we produce and ideas of how we can reuse things. We played some games to help us remember which items we can recyle and in which of the bins we can put them.

What another fantastic week we have had in Year 4. In English, we started to plan the twisted ending that we are going to write to the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. We thought about what happens to all the characters in the normal happy ending and then came up with ideas for what could happen to them in the twisted ending. We also spent some time looking at speech punctuation and writing conversations between some of the characters. In Maths, we have focused on mixed numbers and improper fractions making sure that we know what each one shows us. We used greater than, less than and equal to, to compar some mixed numbers and we also converted them into improper fractions.  In History, we found out that the Anlgo Saxons were made up of three tribes from Europe called the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes. We also learnt that they came to England after the Romans had left to help us fight off the Picts and Scots who were invading and why they didn’t want to leave. For RE we looked at the events of the Easter story and decided if they showed trust or a betrayal. We were surprised to see examples of both. We also looked at forgiveness and some quotes from the Bible about it, so that we could see how it is an important value for Christians. This week in Computing, we recapped our knowledge of how and why we collect data. We discussed the different ways data can be gathered and why it is important in everyday life. We also revisited our understanding of branching databases and explored how they can be used to sort and organise data in different ways, depending on the questions asked. In PE, we focused on throws and strikes. We practised overarm throws, underarm throws and rolling techniques, working on our coordination and teamwork. We also developed our understanding of positioning and distancing, thinking carefully about where to stand so we are ready to hit a ball effectively. In French, we recapped the days of the week that we learnt last week and did the weekly workout with the actions to them. We then thought about some of the sports and activities we do in order to keep us healthy and used a French dictionary to find out what they are in French. We spotted that most sports that are played with a ball, look the same in French as they do in English. At the end of the week, we had World Book Day which we linked to British Science Week which started on Friday. We focused on the Roald Dahl’s much loved story George’s Marvellous Medicine, which we really enjoyed listening to. We discussed whether or not we thought George was being a good scientist or not when he was making the medicine for Grandma. In order to do this, we had to identify what things scientists do and then see if George was doing them too. We decided he definitely wasn’t being a good scientist and wrote a diary entry as a good scientist who had seen what George was doing. We also then decided that we would be good scientist and investigate how the temperature of water effects how quickly sugar will dissolve. We planned it carefully and made sure that our investigation was going to be fair. Next, we carried out the investigation by adding sugar to water that was four different temperatures and timed how long it took to dissolve. Our results were not what we expected, and gave us more questions and things to think about, but we discussed how this often happens to all scientists. The costumes and outfits for World Book Day were fantastic and it was wonderful to see the ideas that the children and their families had come up with.

We started our new English unit by looking at some illustrations and an extract from the text and trying to make predicitions of what the text would be about. After that we focused on the main character of Jub and what we knew about her from the text already. We then looked at an example of a fairy tale with a twsited ending and thought about how the ending was different to what we were expecting it to be. We looked at some of the vilains from well known fairy tales and wrote descriptions of them. In Maths, we started our unit on Fractions, by ensuring that we all know what fractions are and what the numerator and denominator tell us. We then looked at improper fractions and mixed numbers; what they tell us and how we write them. We did some counting forwards and backwards in mixed numbers and also put them on a number line. We used part whole models to partition some mixed numbers into the whole ones and fraction parts. In Science, we recapped our learning about sound from the last half term and then set about being scientists. We discussed how we could prove that a sound gets quieter the further away from it you get. We learnt about data loggers and how they can give us a sound level reading in Decibels which is more accurate that just listening with our ears. We then planned how we will carry out the investiagtion next week. This week in Computing, we began our new unit on data logging. We explored what data logging is used for and discussed how data is collected in everyday life. We watched a video to collect traffic data and carefully recorded our findings. We then used J2Data to convert this information into bar charts, pie charts and line graphs. In PE, we focused on striking and fielding. We recapped and practised key skills such as underarm and overarm throws, reacting quickly when a ball was thrown and changing direction at speed. We also worked on positioning and collaboration, thinking about where to stand and how to work effectively as part of a team. In RE we looked at the words trust and betrayal and thought about what they meant and how they make us feel. We then discussed how we will be thinking about the Easter story and whether it is a story of trust or betrayal. In History, we had the opportunity to be historians and to examine some images of a range artefacts. We had to look at them very closely, ask questions and make links to our other knowledge to try and work out what they were, what they we used for and what time period they were from (Anglo Saxon). In PSHE, we thought about some of the different people who help to keep us safe and healthy and what they have to do as part of their duties. We then thougth about things that we could do to help them and make their duties easier. In French, we thought about how we need to exercise to help keep us healthy and how we do different activities on different days of the week. To help us with this, we learnt the 7 days of the week and used some workout actions to help us remember them. In Music, we continued to work with Mr Ricahrds to build up our skills playing chords on the ukueles.

What a busy and exciting final week of the half term we have had. It was Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme this year was In My Place. In our PSHE lesson, we talked about places that we felt safe and why we felt safe there and created some pictures of them. We also talked about things that we could do if we are feeling sad, angry or worried about something to help us try to feel better. We came up with loads of fantastic ideas such as talk to a trusted adult, do some exercise, do something that you enjoy and stroking our pets. On Friday we wore a scarf to school to remind us of the importance of looking after our mental health as well as our physical health. On Tuesday it was safer internet day, so in our Computing lesson this week, we looked at AI and how to use it safely and responsibly. Firstly, we talked about what AI is and what things it can be used for. Then we discussed some of the dangers that could be associated with AI. Then we had some scenarios and discussed whether or not it would be appropriate to use AI in them. On Wednesday we had an amazing curriculum enhancement, Prime VR brought their headsets and did a session with us. The session was all about volcanoes which links to our Geography learning. We had the opportunity to explore a volcano through the headsets and see and eruption. We used the maps to find out where the volcanos that we explored are located in the world. On Thursday it was our behaviour treat and we were very excited to welcome Professor Slime back into school. We all had the opportunity to make some slime and then test it by seeing how far it would stretch, if we could see through it and if we can blow a bubble using a straw. In French, we looked at some connecting words for because, but & and to connect the two parts of the sentences that we have been learning. We then wrote some French sentences from memory after Madame Wardle shared them with us. Next Madame Wardle showed us some sentences in English and we wrote them in French. We continued to build up our ukulele skills in Music with Mr Richards. We are building up our understanding of chords and the ability to play to different parts of songs. In PE we completed our Charleston routines and performed them for each other.

In Maths this week, we have been using the chunking method to divide numbers with up to 3 digits both with and without remainders. We then applied our knowledge to solving some problems. On Friday, we moved onto our new topic about length. We identified what units of measure would be the most appropriate to measure different things and how to write measurements that contain both metres and kilometres. We have been preparing to write our own information guide for summoning and defeating a mythical creature in English. We have focused on the different types of vocabulary that we will need to use such as formal language and adverbials for time and to link ideas. We also created information about the Jormungandr (giant red snake) that we could use in our writing next week. In Geography, we discussed how people live in areas that are prone to earthquakes and also in the vicinity to volcanoes and some of the reasons why. We were quite surprised to find out that there are some benefits to living in those areas and created posters to say why you should live there. In Computing, we investigated what the code would be to draw some regular polygons using the repeat function on the screen turtle and so we only had to type the command once. On Thursday, it was Spirituality Afternoon where we focused on St. Paul. We talked about his life and how he changed once we started to listen to God. We looked at his life journey and the lessons he learnt throughout it. Next, we mapped out our own life journeys so far and thought about what lessons we had learnt along the way. We then started to think about our future journey and what we would like to happen. We wrote prayers to ask God for guidance and strength for our futures. On Wednesday, we lead our class worship along with Year 5, where we shared some of the things we have been learning about Jesus in our RE lessons. We talked about the miracles and how they show that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has power and authority over nature. We shared some pieces of artwork that we had been working on that show the miracles. We also looked at our school Christian values and ways that we can show them in our worship. In French, we recapped some of the foods that we have learnt as well as the opinion phrases to say whether we like them or not. Then we learnt how to say they are are good or bad for your health so that we can start to build up our sentences next week. In Music, we listened to some music by Joe Hishaishi and talked about the different instruments we could hear and which sections of the orchestra they were from. On the ukuleles, we strummed the strings to specific parts of the songs My Dog Has Fleas and A Sailor Went To Sea. After that we looked at some of the chords in What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor and had a go at playing them. We finished with a circle game where we had to keep the beat and words going round the circle. We had lots of fun on the Bounce-a-thon on Friday afternoon. We kept going around the assault course for 30 minutes without any breaks to raise money for the new school minibus.

In English this week, we put the finishing touches to our myth narrative based on Arthur and the Golden Rope by writing the ending. Once we had done that we started to look at our new unit, which is about an information guide to catching and defeating mythical creatures. We looked at an example of one and spent some time looking at the unfamiliar vocabulary and what it means. We also looked at the technical vocabulary that is in the text and why it is used. We then used the vocabulary to write some sentences making them the highest quality that we could using grammar features such as expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials.  In Maths, we have been dividing. We looked at division as asking how many groups are in a number and used counters to help us investigate different groupings to find the answers to some problems. We were able to start making links to division facts and our times tables to help us. We then moved onto looking at written methods of division using the chunking method. We used repeated subtraction to take away groups of the divisor until we got to 0 and then counted how many groups we had taken away to get the answer. In Science, we used the ukuleles and glockenspiels to investigate how the pitch of a sound is connected to the vibrations.  We learnt that frequency is the speed of the vibrations and that when the frequency is fast the sounds have a higher pitch. We have been busy preparing our class worship for next week in our RE lessons; we have created some pieces of artwork to show the miracles that Jesus performed and we also worked together to create a class poem about the school Christian values that we are looking forward to sharing with our families next week. We are having lots of fun in PE learning different Charleston dance moves and putting them together into dance sequences. In Computing, we used the repeat command to draw shapes more efficiently without having to type in lots of commands. We were able to make a range of different shapes in different colours as we also explored how to change the pen colour too. On Friday, in French we recapped all of the different food items that we have been learning and also how to say we like them and we don’t like them. We learnt the phrase Je voudrais to say I would like and also s’il vou plais to say please so that we can ask for them correctly. We played a matching game where we had to ask Madame Wardle for the numbers we would like to turn over remembering to say please and seeing if we could find the pairs. In Music, we listened to some of Joe Hisaishi’s music and thought about the mood that it created and identified some of the instruments that were used. We then continued to build our skills playing the ukulele’s. We played some call and response games where we have to copy what Mr Richards plays on his ukulele on ours. We sang the song A Sailor Went To Sea and used basic chords to play the ukuleles each time we sang the word sea.

We had an exciting start to the week with our outdoor learning session. We began by spending some time just listening to the sounds that we could hear around us and identifying what they were. There were more sounds than we were expecting. Then we got into ‘bands’ and were given the challenge to compose and perform a piece of music using only things we could find in the natural environment to make the music.  We discussed different ways we could cause the vibrations needed to make the sounds eg hitting, scraping, shaking and rustling and what materials we could use. We had to think about the tempo of the music, if we could create any difference in the pitch of the sounds and also the dynamics (volume) of the music. After that we moved onto a DT focus where had to work together to make a pavilion using tarpaulins and the natural materials we could find. We had to try to make it big enough for all the group to shelter under and to try and make it decorative. Back in the classroom we continued to look at using the grid method to multiply 3 digit numbers by a 1 digit number in Maths. Once we had a good understanding of the method, we then applied it to some problem solving questions. On Friday we started to look at mental methods of division using counters to help us see how many groups of the divisior are in the number. In English this week, we have been writing a myth narrative; Arthur and the Golden Rope. We had to include expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials followed by a comma, a range of nouns to avoid repetition, short sentences for dramatic effect and use adventurous vocabulary. There was a lot to think about, but we did a great job. We had a very fun and messy Science lesson on Thursday, where we were investigating the relationship between the strength of vibrations and the volume of a sound. To do this we put some rice on the skin of a drum and hit it gently so the sound was quiet and then we hit it harder so that the sound was loud. We then watched what happened to the rice as the drum skin vibrated. In Geography, we started to look at volcanoes. We looked at how the movement of the tectonic plates can cause volcanoes to form and also erupt. We then looked at a diagram of a volcano and identified what the different parts are and what they do. We did some evaluating in our DT lesson this week. We thought about making our structures from marshmallows and cocktail sticks last week and what things worked well and what things we we change or do differently. We will use this information to help us with our next designs. For our Computing this week, we investigated how to give the screen turtle different commands so that it could draw numbers and letters of the alphabet.  In RE we continued to look at the different things Jesus did that shows Christians that he is the son of God. We looked at some less well known miracles such as The Faith of the Centurian and how these show Jesus’ authority and power over nature. In Music with Mr Richards, we listened to some pieces of music by Joe Hisaishi and thought about the mood they created. We then moved onto the ukuleles where we started to play A Sailor Went To Sea using chord C and open strings. After that we moved onto using chord F and C whilst playing Sur La Pont and London Bridge. In French, we listened to the song from last week again and recapped the different foods. We then had to write the names of the foods under the corect picture lookin gcarefully at how to spell them.

In Maths this week, we applied our understanding of multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100 to some problem solving activities and used the multiplying to help us scale up known facts for example 4 x 6 = 24 to help us work out 40 x 6 = 240. Then we used the skills to help us multiply 2 digit numbers by a 1 digit number. We started using an informal partitioning method in a part whole model to organise our calculating and then we moved onto setting it out into a more formal grid to multiply. In English we have been analysing the text Eleanor and the Crystal light and identifying the different structural and langauge features of it. We then looked at some of the characters from Arthur and the Golden Rope and wrote descriptions of them. In Science, we continued to identify that vibrations are needed to create a sound and we had fun putting a tunning fork into some water and seeing the water splash out. We also thought about what parts of different things vibrate in order to make the sound. On Tuesday, we learnt some more of the traditional Charleston dance moves and put them together to create simple routines which some of us performed for the class. In our Geography, we looked at where in the world there are the most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and identified that they are near the tectonic plate edges. We also identified the Pacific Ring of Fire as the most active place in the world for earthquakes and volcanoes. In PSHE we thought about dares. We discussed what dares are and how to respond in different scenarios that involed someone being dared. For DT this week, we became hands on designers where we worked in groups to create the biggest and strongest sturcture using marshmallows and cocktail sticks. We had to think about the shape of the structure and ways that we could strengthen it to prevent it from collapsing. As with any design, our first ideas didn’t always work and we had to show resilience and perseverance to keep trying new ones. We looked at the story of the transfiguartion in RE and how this shows Christians that Jesus is the Son of God. We wrote in role as one of the disciples who was there to describe what we saw and how we felt. In French, we built on the French foods that we looked at last week and learnt some new vocabulary for different foods using a very catchy song. In Computing we investigated different commands that we could give a screen turtle in order to make it move and create shapes. We also learnt about the pen up, pen down and clear screen commands.

It has been wonderful to be back at school with the children this week despite the bitter cold weather. We got straight into the learning for our new curriculum connector; Amazing Asia. In English, we began by looking at some illustrations from our new book and making some predictions of what we thought would happen. After that we got to read the myth Arthur and the Golden Rope and see if our predictions were right. We discussed some of the unfamiliar vocabulary in the text and what it means. The book has some beautiful illustrations and we used some of them to help us describe some of the settings that are in the story using expanded noun phrases. In Maths, we continued to look at multiplication. We started the week by finding out what factors are and identifying the factors of different numbers. We investigated whether the size of the number effected the number of factors it has got. Then we looked at multiplying numbers by 10 and 100 and understanding what happens to the numbers and how they change once they have been multiplied. In Science, we started our new topic about sound by playing a guess the sound game. We listened to 20 different sounds and had to work out what they were, some were easier than others to work out. We learnt that sounds are created when something vibrates and that the vibrations travel to our ear in sound waves. In Geography, we looked at the different layers that are inside the earth and what they are made up of. We then focused on the crust and how it is made up of tectonic plates that move and can cause earthquakes. We put our dancing shoes on in PE this week and started to learn the dance style of the Charleston. We learnt some of the basic steps and talked about the facial expression that is needed whilst you do the dance. In Computing, we started to look at using programming to move a turtle on the screen to create some different shapes. We found out that we have to be precise and exact in the commands or the turtle doesn’t know what to do. We looked at pavilions in DT. We found out that a pavilion is a decorative building or structure that is often used for leisure. We explored a range of existing pavilions and looked at what materials they are made of, how they are strengthened and what they are used for. In RE we thought about some of the miracles that Jesus performed and how these show us that Jesus is God’s son. We discussed how Jesus could do things that no one else could because he had authority over nature. We started our French lesson by saying Bonne Annee to each other, which is Happy New Year in French. Then we started our new topic La Vie Saine by looking at some French words for different foods. We identified some that we already know because we use the French name for it such as croissant and gateaux and then learnt some new ones.

We have packed a lot of learning and a lot of festive fun into the last week of term! At the start of the week, we had our Christmas party, where there was dancing, games, prizes and of course some snacks. Everyone had a fantastic time. Also this week, we had our performances of the carol concert for our families, some of us were quite nervous but we did a fantastic job of singing and saying our poem. All the families who came really enjoyed it and said it made them feel ready for Christmas. Additionally, there has been christmas jumper days, the Christmas dinner and Christmas themed crazy golf for the behaviour treat! We have managed to fit some learning in around all the Christmas activities too. In Maths,we looked at completing some balnced equations that need us to apply our addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills. We also did some Christmas emoji themed Maths where we had to use the inverse operation to find the value of different emojis. In English, we have written an information report all about polar bears using the research that we did earlier in the unit. We worked hard to ensure that we were using formal and technical vocabulary and that we were using a range of nouns to avoid repeating polar bear. In Science, we recapped our previous learning about classifcation keys and how they are structured. Then we worked together to try and create our own classification key for some different living things. We had to use their properties and qualities to help us. In Gymnastics, we went over the routine we have built up over the half term one last time and then we had some fun playing different games that used a whole range of gymanstics skills. On Thursday afternoon, we became Roman Army recruits. Using the fabulous shields that we made at home, we learnt how to march in time with each other and stay in formation. We also recreated some of the formations that the Roman army were known to use such as the wedge, the triple line and the testudo. We had to work together to make sure that the enemy couldn’t get through the defences and we managed to survive a beanbag attack from Mrs Bullen and Mrs Haddow. Thank you to all the families that supported the children in making the shields.  It has been a wonderful first term in Year 4 with the children and we have acheived so much already, we are really excited for what the new year will bring and to continue to share the learning journey together. The whole year 4 team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

It has been a very busy and exciting week in Year 4! On Tuesday the whole school went to the Blackburn Empire Theatre to watch the pantomime Snow White. We all really enjoyed it and had fun singing along to the songs, booing the Evil Queen and of course joining in with the traditional panto lines. Then on Thursday we went on a second trip, to Ribchester Roman Museum as part of our History learning. In the morning, we did a workshop with Patrick the curator where we learnt all about Ribchester as a Roman fort and some other information about the Romans. We had the opportunity to touch and explore some authentic and replica Roman artefacts as well as try on some armour and sheilds. We also went outside to look at the ruins of the old granaries that were at the fort and run under the church and the musuem. We took advantage of having a dry and sunny day and after we’d had our dinner we went to the park and enjoyed burning off some energy. We then went back to the museum and went around the exhibits finding the answers to a quiz that Patrick set for us. Back at school, we completed our multiplication and division unit in Maths by looking at how to multiply 3 numbers together. We also investigated if it matters which order you do the multiplications in or if it is commutative. In English, we focused on technical vocabulary and looked at how we can make ‘ordinary’ sentences more technical to use in an information report. We also wrote a paragraph about polar bears to practice this and then planned our information texts ready to write next week. In addition to going to Ribchester, in History this week we learnt about Hadrian’s Wall which was built by the Romans. We thought about why it was built and how the Celts felt about it. We also explored some of the early Roman writings that were found on wooden tablets around the Vindolanda fort and what they tell us about Roman life. We also looked at the legacy of the Romans being in Britain and thought about what life would have been like if they hadn’t have come and brought us all these things. In RE we were thinking about the Hindu festival of Diwali and the story of Rama and Sita. We also looked at some of the Diwali traditons and how these link to the symbolism of light. In French, we revisited the Christmas vocabulary that we looked at last week and played a game to help us remember them.

This week we have channelled our inner Alan Sugar and have become entrepreneurs for Elf Enterprise. This year we have designed and made Christmas tea light holders from clay which we have called Merry & Bright. We started the week by looking at some existing products and then using them as inspiration for our own designs. We thought about what shapes would work the best and what sizes they needed to be to fit the tea lights in them. We also thought about how we would decorate them to make them look appealing. Once we had decided on the designs we were going to use, we started to make the shapes from the clay using clay tools, rolling pins and our hands. Whilst they were drying, we worked out how much each one had cost to make and we set a price that people would be happy to pay, but would also allow us to make a profit. We also made some posters to advertise the product and to try and persuade people to buy them. Once the clay was dry, we were able to paint them and add some of the sequins and ribbons to decorate them. We are really proud of the finished products that we made and we are confident that they will sell really well at the Christmas Fair on Sunday. In Maths, we have been continuing to build our knowledge and recall of the multiplication tables and have now learnt them all up to 12 x 12. We have been answering a range of questions about the different times table and also solving problems. At the end of the week, we looked at multiplying by 1 and 0 and also dividing numbers by 1 and themselves. In English, we have been analysing the example information text to identify all the structural and grammatical features that are in it. This is to help us to remember to use them in our our information texts that we will be creating next week. In French, we talked about some of our own family Christmas traditions and discussed how they are not all the same. Madame Wardle then challenged us to find out what some French words connected to Christmas were. We were able to look at some and use cognates to work them out, but for the others we used a French dictionary to find out what they meant. On Monday afternoon, it was the Christmas Rock Steady Concert. We had a wonderful time watching our classmates perform their songs and we thought that they were brilliant.

This week in English, we have moved onto our non fiction unit about information reports. We have focused on the technical vocabulary this week ensuring that we understand what it means and also using it in sentences. We also channelled our inner David Attenborough and wrote a commentary for a video about polar bear cubs walking for the first time. In Maths, we have continued to build our knowledge and recall of different multiplication tables. We have focused on 9x and 7x this week and have completed lots of questions about them and have used our knowledge to solve some quite challenging problems. For Science, we looked at clasification keys. We discussed what they are used for and how they work. We then used some to sort out some made up animals, which we really enjoyed doing. In History, we looked at how the Celts tried to fight back against the Romans and explored the events of Boudicca’s life. We then created a top trumps card all about her. In Gymnastics this week, we worked together in groups to create a sequence using all of the skills we have learnt from Mrs Winward in rolls, balances, postions and jumps. Additionally, we had to work together as a team, listening to and supporting each other. In R.E. with Mrs Sullivan, we learnt all about Christingles and what each part of them represents. We then all got the opportunity to make our own Christingle. In Music, we continued to listen to sea shantys as a style of folk music and identify their structures and textures. We listened to a call and response song this week and practised singing both the call and response parts of it. We became biscuit desginers in D.T. We used what we have learnt about biscuits so far this half term to find ways to adapt a basic biscuit recipe to improve it and designed our own biscuit with added ingredients and decorations.

We started the week with some outdoor learning with Louise from Wild One Adventures. We began with an evolution game, where we had to win a round of rock, paper, scissors to be able to evolve to the next position in Roman society. We then solved some puzzles that were written in Roman Numerals that Louise had hidden around the woods. It was a very crisp Autumn morning, so we enjoyed sitting round the fire with a hot drink and smores to warm us up. We finished the session with a walk through our local surroundings to take Leaf the polar bear home. Everyone had a great time, thank you Louise! In English this week, we have been writing our story The Bear Who Didn’t Belong. We have taken inspiration from the story we read called Leaf to write about a polar bear who is lost from home in a forest. We had to use lots of grammar features such as fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, preposition phrases and exciting vocabulary. We have written some fantastic stories. In Maths, we have been focusing on multiplication and learning our 6 and 9 times tables as well as the related division facts. We have been saying them, singing them and answering a range of different questions about them as well as using them to solve problems. For Science, we thought about the classification of animals. We recapped how they can be split into vertebrates and invertebrates depending on whether they have a backbone or not. After that, we focused on vertebrates and the 5 different groups; mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. We then sorted some pictures of aniamls into the correct categories. For our History this week, we looked at the Roman army and why they were so successful and able to invade and conquer so many coutnries including Britain. We looked at the armour, weapons and some of the formations that they used during battles. We then created posters to persuade people to join up. With Mrs Winward in gymnastics, we did some fitness and balancing activities to get us warmed up and then we focused on vaulting. We used the trampette to help us jump and we used it with and without a run up. At the end of the session, we had some time to build our strength on the ropes. In Music, we listened to a sea shanty and discussed how it is a type of folk song. We discussed the structure and texture of the song. In PSHE we looked at the people we share the world with and what our similarities and difference are. We thought about how we can have relationships with all people even if we have differences. On Tuesday afternoon, we had a wheelchair sports workshop. We spent some time learning how to move and steer the wheelchairs and then we played some games. In French with Madame Wardle, we started to build up our confidence in writing down sentences in French. We started off by copying them from the board and then built up to memorising them and then writing them down. In DT we looked at a basic biscuit recipe and what ingredients are in it. We then thought about what things we could add to the mixture and after the biscuits have been baked to improve the flavour and texture.

This week in Maths, we have been using the addition and subtractions skills that we have learnt over the unit to solve some problems. We also looked at the skill of estimating and how we could use this to help us solve the problems more quickly and efficiently. We then started our new unit about multiplication and division by identifying multiples of 3. In English, we focused on the main character of the text; the polar bear. We thought about how he felt at different points in the story and then wrote a description of him. After that, we began to gather ideas to use in our own version of the story that we are going to write next week. We identified some effective words and phrases as well as fronted adverbials and prepositions that we could use.  In Science, we looked at different ways that we could group living things by their characteristics. We began by thinking about ways we could group ourselves such as gender, hair colour and height. Then we looked at some living things and worked in pairs to group them in as many different ways as we could such as can fly and can’t fly, has fur and doesn’t have fur. This week was antibullying week and on Monday we came to school in odd socks to recognise and celebrate that we are all different. In our PSHE lesson on Monday we talked about the role of the bystander in bullying and what we could do to help instead of being a bystander. We also designed our own sock to celebrate all the things that make us unique. In our other PSHE lesson with Miss Sullivan we discussed aggressive behaviour and what it is. We also talked about how it makes us feel and shared some strategies for when people show us aggressive behaviour. In Music, we listened to the piece of music called Voices Shouting Out which was composed by Nkeiru Okoyo. We talked about how the music made us feel and what it made us think of. We then listened to the song ‘Building’ by Richard Stilgoe and discussed its structure and how this gives the song texture. We also talked about how when different melodies are sung in unison it gives us a harmony. We were very excited on Thursday afternoon for our DT lesson. Our topic is all about biscuits so we explored some existing products by tasting lots of different biscuits. We spent some time thinking about their appearance, texture and of course the taste. We can now use our knowledge to help us in our own designs. In RE we talked about the Christian belief that Jesus is the light of the world and what this means. We discussed the ways that Jesus brings joy into our lives and then designed a piece of artwork to show this.  In gymnastics we continued to develop our vaulting skills as well as keeping our other skills such as balance and sequences sharp. In French, we spent the lesson learning all about the Channel Tunnel; why, when and how it was built and what it is like today. Madame Wardle did a multiple choice quiz with the class and was very impressed at how they worked out lots of the answers correctly.

What a wonderful start to the half term our first week back has been. We have made a super start to our new curriculum connector ‘Factual Footprints’. In English, we began our new unit by looking at some of the illustrations from the text and trying to predict what the story was about. We then thought about how the author had used different types of language to show us how the character feels and to describe the setting. We wrote our own setting descriptions about one of the illustrations from the text. In Maths, we extended our understanding of written methods of subtraction to include, exchanges. We started with just one exchange within the calculation and then moved onto more complex ones that needed us to do more than one exchange. We used our addition and subtraction skills to help us solve some one and two step problems. In Science, we looked at what all living things have or do, in order for them to be alive. We call these the 7 life processes. We started our History learning by thinking about where the Romans came from and we used a written historical source to help us identify some of the reasons why the Romans wanted to invade Britain. In gymnastics with Mrs Winward, we recapped some of the sequences that we learnt before half term and also how to do the splits. We then moved onto vaulting and began by reminding ourselves of some of the skills we have learnt previously so we are able to build on them next week. As it is remembrance next week, we created a class poppy to take to the cenotaph using lots of small poppies with some words that we think of when it is remembrance. In French, we looked at the new question comment vas-tu en France to ask how we travel to France. We thought about different ways that we are able to get to France from Great Britain and how to say them in French. In RE we started our new unit about Christmas. We thought about how light makes us feel and then we related that to the Christians belief that Jesus is the light of the world. In PSHE we were thinking about negotiation and compromise and how we can use these skills to resolve problems or arguments with our friends and families.

It may have been a slightly shorter week in school, but we have managed to pack a lot of learning and fun into it. We started the week on Monday morning with our outdoor learning session. It was the first day of Diwali, so we began by listening to the story of Rama and Sita and finding out how Hindus celebrate Diwali. We then looked at some different Rangoli patterns and discussed the shapes, symmetry and symbolism of them before going off to create our own Rangoli patterns from the natural materials we could find. The next challenge was based on our Geography learning. We worked in groups to create a river system using tarpaulins and the materials around us. We had to try and include as many of the features of a river system such as tributaries, meanders, waterfalls, lakes and an estuary. In English, we finished writing our innovated story The Girl and the Lion using fronted adverbials for when and where and punctuating the speech correctly. This week in Maths we continued to practice subtracting mentally using the counting on method and then we moved onto using column methods of subtraction for more complex calculations. In Art with Miss Sullivan we used a range of recycling materials to create the sculptures that we designed last week. We used techniques such as weaving and threading to join the materials. In RE, we thought about David as a King and whether or not he was a good King. We discussed the qualities that we thought make a good King and if David demonstrated them or not. In PSHE we thought about the difference between being unkind, teasing and bullying. We discussed what we could do if we were being bullied and who could help us. We also talked about the pressures that we can be under to behave in ways that we know are not good or healthy and where it comes from. In Science, we looked at the processes of evaporation and condensation and what happens to the states of matter during them. We then looked at the roles evaporation and condensation play in the water cycle. In Gymnastics with Mrs Winward, we completed some team races using some of the gymnastics skills and positions that we have been learning.

In Maths this week, we have been looking at using written methods of addition (column method) where there are exchanges. We had to use our place value knowledge to help us know what we needed to exchange. At the end of the week, we moved onto mental methods of subtraction. We looked at the shopkeepers counting on method using a number line. In English, we have been writing our innovated story; The Girl and the Lion. We used the structure of the original text to help us, but we made it even better by adding fronted adverbials for when and where as well as some description. In Science, we conducted our investigation about which type of liquids freeze the fastest. We put some different liquids into the freezer and looked at them every hour to see how quickly they froze. We were surprised to find out that some of the liquids didn’t freeze at all; honey, hand sanitiser and cooking oil.  We learnt that this is due to them having a high viscosity. In Geography, we thought about why humans build settlements near to rivers. We found out that it is because they use the river as a water source. We thought about all the different ways that humans use rivers to help them to live and made posters. In Art, we continued to look at sculptures that use recycled materials and thought about designing our own and what materials would be good to use. We are going to create our designs next week. On Thursday, we performed the gymnastics routine that we have been working on with Mrs Winward for our families at the showcase performance. Although some of us were a bit nervous, we did an amazing job and all the families who came to watch said it was fabulous. On Monday afternoon, we had a visitor who came to talk to us about road safety. She reminded us of the rules for crossing the road safely and spoke to us about different types of crossings and how to use them. She also spoke to us about the importance of being bright and being seen especially when it is dark. From this we have a competition to design a bright and reflective jacket for children to wear to keep them safe. We also had a visit from Andrew who is from the library in Darwen this week. He talked to us about the different services the library provides and how easy it is to get a library card and use them all. He then read us some funny stories which we really enjoyed. In French, we recapped the French names of the countries that we looked at last week. We then played a matching game in teams where we had to match the name of the country to the correct flag. In Computing, we thought about if everything on the Internet is true/real. We looked at some ‘fake news’ and also some fake pictures of animals. We then enjoyed creating our own fake animals on Keynote.

This week in English, we have been planning and gathering content for our innovated version of The Boy and the Tiger. We are changing the setting to Africa and this also means we need to change the characters to plants and animals that are found in Africa. We did some research about some African plants and animals and the ways that humans use them. We then thought about what things they would say in our story using the structure of the original text. In Maths, we finished our place value unit by looking at rounding numbers to the nearest 1,000. After that we started our addition and subtraction unit by looking at adding multiples of 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 onto numbers and using written methods of addition when there are no exchanges. On Thursday afternoon, we had a workshop with Cody from the Ribble Rivers Trust. He talked to us about the Species Survival Project that they are running to conserve the wildlife that is found in our rivers. We looked at what lives within our rivers and also at fish life cycles. We then made a pinwheel to show some of the wildlife that is found in our river systems. We all enjoyed the session and learnt a lot from Cody. Following that session, we looked at the different geographical features of a river system and what the different features do within it. We continued to think about David in this week’s RE lesson. We looked in the Bible and found verses that foretold us that he would be King. In PSHE this week, we thought about the words rude, aggressive and assertive and what they meant. We also discussed how there are times when we don’t want to do exactly the same things as our friends, and that it is ok to say no to them as long as we are respectful. We also thought about the compromise and looked at some examples of compromise in some scenarios. In Gymnastics, we put the finishing touches to our routine for the showcase next week and performed it for Mrs Bullen, who was blown away. In Art, we talked about the sculptor El Anatsui and how they use recycled materials to raise awareness of protecting the environment. We spent some time talking about the affects of plastic pollution particulary in the seas and oceans. In Computing, we learned about who owns content on the internet. We talked about the difference between websites and web pages, and when it’s okay to share or download things online. We then created our own digital content, learning that if we uploaded it to a website, it would belong to us!

We started the week with an inclusive dance workshop with Dance Syndrome. During the session we explored different ways to move our bodies and ways of working together to create the shape of animals. In Maths, we looked at putting sets of numbers up to 10,000 into ascending and descending order. We then had a lesson on reading and writing Roman Numerals up to 100 and completed some different calculations in Roman Numerals. In English, we finished the information posters about tigers that we started last week. We made sure that they were bright and attractive so people would want to read them. We then used our skills to create information posters about Martin Luther King as part of our Black History Month learning. We talked about the life of Martin Luther King and the things he acheived as part of the civil rights movement. In Music, we talked about dynamics being how quiet or loud the music is. We listened to Echolocation by Pamela Z and discussed how the dynamics changed. We continued our study of Bhangra music by listening to a different piece of Bhangra music and comparing it to the other one we had listened to. We also recapped the musical notation for crochets, quavers and rests and then looked at what time signatures are. Our RE learning about David and his life continued by looking at his friendship with Jonathon and what qualities they showed which we then related to our own friendships. We also looked at how later in his life, David showed mercy and spared Saul’s life.  In Gymnastics we continued to work on our routine to perform at the showcase in a coupe of weeks, we are keeping all the details secret so that we don’t spoil the performance. It was Spirituality Afternoon on Thursday, where we were looking at the school vision of ‘As God’s family, together we achieve’.  We looked at the Bible verse where it can be found in the book of Romans and explored what it means meaning. We also thought about St. Paul and the letters he wrote to the Romans about the church being one body with many parts. After that we thought about the talents that God has given us and how we could use them to help everyone in our school flourish. We made banners to show our talents in action. In French, we continued to think about Francophone countries (countries where the official language is French) and identified which countries were French speaking. We were quite surprised by how many there are and where a lot of them are located. In Science, we recapped what the process of freezing is and how the states of matter change during it. We then planned an investigation to find out which liquid will freeze the quickest. We looked at the resources available to us in school and how we could use them in a fair way to find the answer to our question. We are looking forward to doing the investigation next week.

We started our Maths learning this week by representing numbers up to 10,000 on number lines. To begin with we had the increments marked on the number lines, but then we moved onto estimating their position where there were no increments marked. We also did some comparing using greater than, less than and equal to signs and some ordering of numbers up to 10,000. In English, we spent the first half of the week gathering content to use in our information poster, we thought about what things we already know about tigers and what things we needed to find out. We then had time to complete our research and find the information. We thought about the layout of our posters and what would make them the most appealing to read and then we created them. On Tuesday in Art, we looked at the African artist Sokari Douglas Camp and some of her work that uses shadows. We took inspiration from this and created our own shadow art with our bodies and some words that we felt described us as a class. In PSHE we talked about friendship; what we like about our friends and what we enjoy doing with them. We then looked at a scenario where some messages had been sent to a friend about a bike ride and decided if they were ok messages to send and how they would have made the person feel. Additionally, we used the NSPCC acronym PANTS and the rules that each letter represent to remind ourselves of what to do if we feel uncomfortable with other people’s behaviour and actions towards us. We also thought about different types of touch for example; caring touch, accidental touch, hurtful touch and inappropriate touch. We discussed examples of each one and what to do in different situations. For Gymnastics we started work on the routine that we are going to perform for parents at the showcase in a few weeks, we are not going to give you anymore details so we don’t spoil the show! In Music, we recapped our understanding of Bhangra music and some of the types of traditional Indian instruments that are used. We looked at the musical notation that represent crotchets, quavers and rests and ‘read’ some to clap out some different rhythms. After that we worked in pairs to create our own rhythms using the notes. In Geography, we built on our knowledge of rivers in the UK and looked at some of the longest rivers around the world. We identified the longest river on each continent, how long it is, how deep it is and some of the countries that it flows through. On Friday in French, we continued to familiarise ourselves with the question ‘Ou habites-tu?’ to ask us where we live. We completed a challenge to see if we could all respond with J’habite a…….. in 3 minutes!

This week in English, we worked in pairs to create a story map of the text The Boy and the Tiger to help us recall all of the events. Then we focused on non fiction and in particular information texts. We looked at some different information texts and identified their features. We created our own glossary for a text about big cats and we used different reading strategies to complete an information hunt on the playground. In Maths, we looked at 4 digit numbers again and investigated different ways that we could partition them. Additionally, we looked at putting 4 digit numbers in the correct places on number lines. We also looked at adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 from numbers. We looked at which columns changed, but found we had to think about exchanging on some occasions. In Science, we investigated melting and if all materials melt at the same temperature. We tested ice, butter, candle wax and chocolate by putting them onto a hot water bath and observing them. We took their temperatures every 2 minutes until they melted. On Monday in our Geography learning, we looked at some of the rivers in the UK. We identified the longest river in the UK is the River Severn. We used an atlas to help us label some of the different rivers in the UK on a map. We had a very interesting Art lesson with Miss Sullivan where we used modelling wire to create 3D sculptures. It was very fiddly and a bit frustrating at times, but we created some fantastic sculptures. We looked at the story of David and Goliath in RE and thought about the qualities that David showed such as courage and faith in God. In our PSHE lesson, we all became human machines. We talked about the word collaboration and what it means and also what makes a good team. We then applied this to our team challenge which was to create a human machine to do different jobs that we were given such as make a cup of tea or make a pizza with two toppings. In Gymnastics with Mrs Winward, we did some fitness and stamina activities and then recapped some of the positions that we know. We also had a go at some rolls and cartwheels. In French, we continued to look at the map of France and some of the largest cities there. We labelled them on the map and also recapped our phonics learning from last week to help us to spell them correctly. As we are looking at Bhangra music in our music lessons, we looked at some of the traditional Indian instruments that are used; what they are called and how they are played. We also started to look at and clap to some traditional chaal rhythms that are used in Bhangra music.

We have had a wonderful second week in school. On Wednesday, our swimming lessons started again and everyone did brilliantly on the coach and in the swimming pool. In English, we started the week by predicting what we thought would happen next in our story The Boy and the Tiger and we came up with some brilliant ideas. Then Mrs Bullen read the rest of the story and we were shocked by the twist at the end. Next we wrote descriptions of the different settings from the text using adjectives and subordinate clauses. In Maths, we have been continuing to build our understanding of numbers up to thousands. We have been reading and writing 4 digit numbers and partitioning them to show their values. On Tuesday with Mrs Bradley we started to look at what areas is and we used post it notes to measure the area of different shapes.  In Science we started the lesson by going outside and using our bodies to be the particles in solids, liquids and gases to recap our learning from last week. After that, looked at the processes of melting and freezing thinking about how the materials change their state during these processes. We thought of examples of materials freezing and melting. In Art, we looked at some of the ceramic pots and vases that Magdalena Odundo has created and their style and shapes. We then learnt about one of the techniques that she uses, where she sketches the shape on the walls or floor on a large scale before creating it out of clay. We went out onto the playground and used chalk to sketch our own versions of her pots. Our PSHE lesson was a bit different this week as Steven from Life Education Centres came into school. he did a session with us called ‘it’s great to be me’. We thought about all the different ways that we are unique and celebrated them. We watched a video about Harold and his friends going to the theme park and how they all wanted to do different activities. When they did them by themselves they were not as much fun so they decided to take turns doing the different activities so they could be together. We started our Geography topic by thinking about where the water that falls from the sky goes. We then looked at the water cycle and the different processes that occur during it. We listened to a very catchy (and annoying) song to help us remember it. In RE we thought about the qualities that God looks for in people and we identified that he looks for qualities such as kindness, love and forgiveness that are in our heart rather than physical qualities such as strength and beauty. Mrs Bradley came to help us with our Computing this week and we were thinking about networks and how they work. We used some string to send questions from the computers to the routers and then onto the server. The server then answered the questions and then sent them back through the routers and to the computers. In French, we recapped our learning from last week about places in France. We then looked at how we pronounce some of the places, by thinking about other French words we know with the same spelling patterns. In gymnastics we spend the lesson reminding ourselves of the different positions and rolls we have previously learnt and put them into a sequence.

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back into school and into Year 4 this week. They have made an amazing start to the year and their learning and we are looking forward to seeing all the fantastic things they achieve throughout the year. We began the week by agreeing on a class contract to enable us to create a learning environment where everyone can be the best version of themselves possible. After that we thought about some words that could inspire us over the year and chose one each to focus on. We then used chalk pastels to create some light bulb art work to go with them. In Maths, we began our place value unit by recapping our understanding of numbers up to 1,000 thinking about what each digit in the number represents and partitioning them. In English, we started our text The Boy and the Tiger about a tiger who was stuck in a hole. We thought about how the tiger would feel at different parts of the story and used the best vocabulary that we could to show this. For Science, we looked at the three states of matter; solids, liquids and gases and the different properties that they display. We then sorted some different things according to if they are solids, liquids and gases. We looked at some online safety for our PSHE and Computing learning this week. We thought about all the devices we have that go on the Internet and how much time we spend online. We recapped our SMART rules and shared any other things that would help to keep us safe. We looked at the sculptor Magdelana Odundo in Art and at some of the ceramics work she has created. We also found out about her life and what things inspire her work. We created an information poster all about her. As swimming and gymnastics don’t start until next week, we had a PE session where we played some games that needed team work and good throwing and catching skills. In French with Madame Wardle we recapped our learning from Year 3 and amazed Mrs Bullen with how much we could remember. We then made a start on our new topic On y va, which means let’s go! We identified where Great Britain and France were on a world map and also on a map of Europe. We then looked at a map of France and discussed some of the towns or cities we had heard of before such as Paris and Nice. What a start to the year, well done Year 4 we are extremely proud of you.

Autumn 1 Week 7

In Maths this week, we have been looking at using written methods of addition (column method) where there are exchanges. We had to use our place value knowledge to help us know what we needed to exchange. At the end of the week, we moved onto mental methods of subtraction. We looked at the shopkeepers counting on method using a number line. In English, we have been writing our innovated story; The Girl and the Lion. We used the structure of the original text to help us, but we made it even better by adding fronted adverbials for when and where as well as some description. In Science, we conducted our investigation about which type of liquids freeze the fastest. We put some different liquids into the freezer and looked at them every hour to see how quickly they froze. We were surprised to find out that some of the liquids didn’t freeze at all; honey, hand sanitiser and cooking oil.  We learnt that this is due to them having a high viscosity. In Geography, we thought about why humans build settlements near to rivers. We found out that it is because they use the river as a water source. We thought about all the different ways that humans use rivers to help them to live and made posters. In Art, we continued to look at sculptures that use recycled materials and thought about designing our own and what materials would be good to use. We are going to create our designs next week. On Thursday, we performed the gymnastics routine that we have been working on with Mrs Winward for our families at the showcase performance. Although some of us were a bit nervous, we did an amazing job and all the families who came to watch said it was fabulous. On Monday afternoon, we had a visitor who came to talk to us about road safety. She reminded us of the rules for crossing the road safely and spoke to us about different types of crossings and how to use them. She also spoke to us about the importance of being bright and being seen especially when it is dark. From this we have a competition to design a bright and reflective jacket for children to wear to keep them safe. We also had a visit from Andrew who is from the library in Darwen this week. He talked to us about the different services the library provides and how easy it is to get a library card and use them all. He then read us some funny stories which we really enjoyed. In French, we recapped the French names of the countries that we looked at last week. We then played a matching game in teams where we had to match the name of the country to the correct flag. In Computing, we thought about if everything on the Internet is true/real. We looked at some ‘fake news’ and also some fake pictures of animals. We then enjoyed creating our own fake animals on Keynote.