This Christmas I hope you and your child can relax, have fun and enjoy some precious family time.
However, at a time when your child may be talking to extended family I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to find out more about their family history, particularly as it relates to family that lived through World War 2.
This week's home learning is therefore to find out where family members were during the second world war and find out where they lived, what they did and make a note of any stories from that time. Children have also been given a blank family tree that they may like to complete or create their own.
Secondly, children have been given a table to record a studio time in timestables rockstars.
Hello everyone,
I am pleased to announce that today was the last day you needed to worry about finding clean school uniform for your year 4 child this year!
Tomorrow (Thursday), please could children come into school wearing their forest school clothes. We are keen to get them out into the forest school area in the afternoon and we are doing 'messy' activities in the morning.
On Friday it is a non school uniform day and children are welcome to wear party / Christmas clothes if they would like.
Please share this information with any parents or carers that may not read the blog.
Thank you
Ms Browne
Hello everyone,
What an incredible time we had last week. I can barely believe it was only 5 days! The children enjoyed a performance of the Elves and the Shoemaker from Treehouse theatre; hot chocolate, PJs and movie treat; a visit from The United Church in Dorchester to discuss the Christian meaning of Christmas and of course their movie premiere last Monday
Home learning for this week is for children to go into studio on Timetables Rockstars and set a time. Next term children will be challenging themselves to beat their own personal best studio times.
Please can ALL home learning books be returned to school by Wednesday at the lastest (whether home learning is complete or not).
This week we have more fun planned with a number of themed days (following our daily maths lesson).
On Wednesday we will have a Christmas themed art day. It is also Christmas hot dinner day for those children that have already booked a hot meal.
On Thursday we will have a Christmas Science morning. In the afternoon, weather permitting we plan to sing Christmas songs around the fire in the forest school area, followed by top secret special guests. After school join quizmasters MacBean and Spracklen for a Christmas virtual quiz at 5pm, live on facebook or youtube.
NB - football club will not be running on Friday after school.
A big thank you to all parents and carers for all your support this term. We have loved working with your children and look forward to more adventures next year.
Wishing all a very happy and safe Christmas.
Lots of love,
Ms Browne and the Year 4 team.
What a wonderful evening was had by all on Monday night for the Year 4 movie premiere. We hope you enjoy watching the year 4 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream as much as all of us enjoyed making and performing it.
As a special treat and in place of the book at bedtime (that other year groups had) the children are being given the opportunity to bring in their PJs or onsies to change into for Wednesday afternoon.
We are so proud of Year 4. Their performance exceeded our expectations and we are so happy to be able to share the performance with you from today at 5pm. Thank you to all the parents that helped in making the performance happen by helping children learn their lines and by providing costumes, props and even face painting!
The performance couldn't have happened without the incredible support of the wider year 4 team who supported children during their individual learning activities, whilst I took groups of children out to film.
An enormous thank you must also go to Mr Spracklen for his exceptional editing talents. The finished film shows all the children at their best and is something that we can all enjoy for years to come.
With love from a very proud, Ms Browne. xx
Next week the magic continues at the Prince of Wales School.
On Monday Treehouse theatre will be visiting to perform the elves and the shoemaker. Children are welcome to dress up as elves on Monday, although this of course is not compulsory!
On Friday it is Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day. (More details to follow shortly).
Next term Year 4 will be dressing as an evacuee as part of our topic on World War 2. Details will follow nearer the time although to help you prepare I thought I'd give you plenty of notice. For girls they may like to wear simple dresses, knitted cardigans, long socks and black shoes. For boys they may like to wear grey, black or cream shorts or trousers, long sock, knitted jumper and a flat cap.
As ever if you have any questions please get in touch.
Kind regards,
Ms Browne and the Year 4 team
Wow! What an amazing week. From our Christmas Wonderland and technology day to our Shakespeare filming Year 4 have had a terrific week and I am so proud of each and every one of them.
The Filming of the Midsummer Night's dream scenes are complete. The children have been incredible and I can't wait for you to see the finished production. Next week I would like to film some celebration scenes for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding and a full cast photograph. After which the children can take their costumes home.
Please save the date of the evening of Monday 7th December. We have something special planned. More details to follow.
Just a quick update regarding our Shakespeare play and our home learning activities.
The children have been working very hard with their Shakespeare performances and it is very exciting to see the production that Mr Spracklen has put together for us so far.
The final Year 4 film adaptation will not be ready for the Friday the 20th. We will let you know when we think the final production will be ready and I am confident you won't be disappointed.
All children should have learnt their lines for the first 6 scenes which are being filmed this week. All children will have additional lines for scenes 7 - 12 (including additional lines for narrators) which will be coming home this week.
Home learning
- Please encourage children to learn and practice their lines with expression.
- Mathletics. We are taking part in the November Mathletics challenge. All children have been assigned work to complete on mathletics. This relates to our learning in class and is a great opportunity to consolidate and strengthen your child's understanding.
- Book review. Thank you for the book reviews that have come in so far. It would be wonderful to have a book review from everyone. We want to celebrate books and authors that Year 4 children enjoy to encourage a love of reading.
As ever please get in touch if you have any questions or comments.
Kind regards,
Ms Browne & the Year 4 Team
Hello everyone,
It's been another busy week in year 4. Some of the highlights have included fantastic acting and production during our Midsummer Summer Night's dream filming; impressive perseverance and resilience during circuit training and gymnastics and some inspired creativity during art and design.
It has been wonderful doing the filming with the children which will continue next week (keep learning lines and bringing in costumes please). Mr Spracklen has been sharing the editing process with the children which they and I have really enjoyed. The children are particularly excited by the green screen effects.
I will continue to set mathletics activities for home learning and so if your child doesn't know their login please let a member of the team know so we can send these home.
If you have any questions or comments please get in touch.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Ms Browne and the year 4 team. x
Hello everyone,
Next week we will explore celebrations more widely and will look at Diwali which is celebrated next week.
Home Learning
1) Read and learn lines for A Midsummer Night's Dream.*
2) Time Tables Rockstars.
3) AR reading and AR quiz.
4) Mathletics. I have set some home learning on mathletics based on what we will be studying next week. I will also send some worksheets home on Monday.
* The children have had some lines sent home for them to read and learn. Please note that some of these lines have been amended from the original scripts sent over half term and the children should focus on these lines for next week, with more lines to come.
We will start filming scenes 1 - 6 next week and whilst it is anticipated that the first cuts may need fine tuning, Mr Spracklen and I are keen to involve the children in the editing, direction and production process as much as possible.
I hope you enjoyed our extra long October half term. As much as I enjoyed the longer break it was wonderful to see your children's smiling faces today.
We will be starting our new celebrations topic by learning about the history behind Bonfire night this week and next week we will study Diwali.
We will also be putting lots of effort into our Shakespeare production. Please could all scripts come back to school by Wednesday.
We discussed costumes today with the class. I would really like costumes to be brought into school next week please so we can start filming as soon as possible. (Please be aware that any clothes brought in will need to stay in school whilst filming is being done). If you have any concerns or questions about costumes please email me c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk
In maths we will start addition and subtraction. I will be sending some additional worksheets home for children in my Trapezium and Parallelogram groups. These are entirely optional and are in addition to the class home learning but they should hopefully help to strengthen understanding. Hard copies will be sent home but should they get lost somewhere on the way, the electronic copies are shared below:
Wow, what a fantastic first term in Year 4. I am really proud of how the children have settled back into school. They are a lovely class and it has been such a pleasure to work with them. They have worked very hard this term and have started making great progress with their learning whilst also taking on the challenge of our Shakespeare play, a Midsummer Night's Dream.
Shakespeare Roles.
All of the children have been given their roles for Shakespeare. If you are unsure what role your child has been given please email me and I can let you know. If possible it would be really helpful if you could start looking out for clothes that would be suitable for your child's character.
Mechanicals / workers
If your child is a mechanical (Bottom, Flute, Quince, Snout, Starveling or Snug) please could they wear brown or beige coloured clothes which look like workwear. If you still have your chimney sweep flat cap from year 2 this would be ideal.
Fairies
Please could all fairies aim for clothes that are either green or look botanical in some way. If this isn't possible don't worry we can add flowers and leaves to their outfit at a later stage.
Athenians (Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, Lysanger, Egeus, Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate)
Please could the Athenians aim to find clothes that look smart and show the fact that they are wealthy. Ideally their colour palate is blue so any blue clothes would be great but please don't worry if this is not possible.
Narrators
Our narrators can choose their own clothes.
Home Learning
My wish is that your child has a relaxing and enjoyable half term and if they do nothing else then please encourage them to read a little everyday and get them talking. As I mentioned to many parents during our parent consultations, giving children an opportunity to talk and listen to other people to expand their ideas and foster their curiosity is such an important part of their development and can't be overstated.
The home learning I have set for this half term is:
Keep practicing your times tables, ideally using Times Tables Rockstars.
Start reading and becoming familiar with your lines from a Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Complete mathletics activities (online or paper copies) about Place Value.
Create a poster, make a vlog or radio review or write a review about your favourite author or book to inspire other year 4 children and help them choose their next book.
I have given hard copies of the mathletics home learning to those children that have requested them. If your child can't remember their mathletics password but are keen to do some maths please get in touch. I can email you some maths activities.
Next term
Next term's topic is Let's Celebrate which will look at a range of religious and secular festivals celebrated at this time of year. We will of course start rehearsing and filming our Shakespeare play. Details of our film premiere evening will be released next term together with some exclusive Midsummer night's dream trailers.
If you didn't get the chance to meet with me during the parent consultations or if you have more you would like to discuss please get in touch.
I hope you have a safe and happy half term.
Ms Browne & the year 4 team. xx
#InspiredToLearn Half Term Holiday Design Challenge
“Lest We Forget”
This half term holiday we would like you to have a go at making your own single poppy, we will attach these to a wreath that we will be making in school. The wreath will be placed at the town war memorial by some of our older children after half term as an act of remembrance for all those that gave their lives in conflict.
Design Specification:
- Your Poppy can be made of any material, clay, cardboard, felt, polymer clay, paper, recycled materials, etc.
- Your Poppy should be 3D, rather than flat.
- Your Poppy must be bigger than 5cm but smaller than 12cm in width.
- Your Poppy does not have to be red, in recent years we have used other colours to represent other groups of people who have given their lives in service of our country. You could research these groups and decide what colour you would like to make.
- Your Poppy could have a loop or hook which will enable it to be attached easily to our wreath.
- Please write your name and year group neatly somewhere on your Poppy.
Please hand your Poppy in to your class teacher by Wednesday 4th November for its inclusion on our collaborative act of remembrance.
This week in computing (on Monday) we will be talking about screen time (that is watching TV, playing computer games, searching online and watching youtube videos).
We will be discussing how much screen time is too much. The positive and negative aspects of screen time as well as other ways we can entertain ourselves without using electronic devices.
One important aspect we will also touch on is what to do if the children encounter upsetting or inappropriate material online. This is a discussion I strongly encourage you to continue at home with your children.
As children become more adept at using online devices their natural curiosity may unintentionally lead them to inappropriate content. As a school we advocate that children are not left alone online but we do appreciate that cooking dinner and busy lives may make this difficult 100% of the time.
For more information about inappropriate content as well as a range of other useful guides and information please check out internet matters a non for profit organisation that aims to empower parents and carers to keep young people safe in a digital world.
If you have any questions or concerns about this matter please talk to me, any member of the year 4 team.
Kind regards,
Ms Browne
Wow! What a jam packed time we've had in Year 4 this week.
Shakespeare Workshop
On Monday afternoon the class had lots of fun developing their acting skills during our Shakespeare workshop with Tory from the Shakespeare Schools Foundation.
Hello everyone,
We have our farm trip tomorrow morning. Please could children come into school in their home trousers and wellies and a raincoat. Can they also bring a change of school bottoms and school shoes for the afternoon please.
Thank you,
Ms Browne & the Year 4 team.
What's coming up next week:
Monday: Shakespeare Schools Foundation workshop (pm).
Wednesday: Visit to Maiden Castle Farm (am). Please send the children in home trousers and bring wellies and waterproofs.
Friday: Virtual harvest festival. We will be collecting harvest festival food donations.
Home Learning:
1) All children were sent home with their Times Tables Rockstars logins. The children are encouraged to practice their times tables as regularly as possible.
2) Please could children complete the screen time survey that was sent home. This is for a computing lesson we have coming up.
3) On Thursday the children will be doing their Big Write, which is to be a story set in a forest. To help them to prepare I would like them firstly think about and talk to someone at home about their ideas. Talking about their thoughts is an important part of the writing process and helps them to develop their ideas.
4) I would like the children to complete a character description worksheet which was sent home today.
We hope you have a lovely weekend (and manage to stay dry!).
Ms Browne & the Year 4 team. xx
This weeks Home Learning
For home learning this week the children have been asked to learn the lyrics to our harvest song. Our song is sung to the tune of George Ezra's Shotgun. You can find a copy of our lyrics here and a karaoke version of the song can be found here.
I would also like the children to practice their 6 and 7 times tables and complete a Roman numerals activity. Click on the links for this week's activity and Roman numerals reference page.
Kind regards,
Ms Browne and the Year 4 team
Welcome to :
For those Mathletes out there, we are still subscribing to Mathletics as well for years 1 to 4, so keep earning those certificates too!
The children successfully completed their Shakespeare biographies this week and we have all been so impressed with their writing. Mr Spracklen has awarded several Headteacher awards and it is so exciting to see their writing mature and develop. They should all be very proud of themselves.
Today we explored the school grounds with a view to using our senses and being inspired by nature to develop our descriptive language.
This week's home learning is:
I was very impressed by the number of children that returned their home learning. this week - a fantastic start to our year. The research the children completed at home has been put to use in the writing of their Shakespeare biographies which we hope to complete early next week.
Next week I will reveal the Shakespeare play we will be performing and we will start channelling our theatrical sides.
With our forthcoming performance in mind, this week's home learning (in addition to practicing our 10, 5 and 3 times tables) is a skills and interests audit. All children present today were given a paper copy but should it get lost between their hands and home the link is here.
The first set of spellings are going home tomorrow 11th September, for a spelling test the following Friday. However, should they not make it home for some reason the links are below:
We have been delighted to welcome trainee teacher Ms K Williams to our class. Ms Williams will be with us during the Autumn and Summer terms and she has enjoyed getting to know your children over the past week. Ms Williams has extensive experience working with children and I am confident that your children will enjoy working with her.
As ever please get in touch if there is anything you would like to discuss.
Kind regards,
The year 4 team
It was wonderful to welcome Year 4 back to school. The children seem so much older and more mature after the break and they looked fantastic in their blue jumpers and cardigans.
It was lovely to see how happy and relaxed the children were to be back at school and whilst their emotional well being will continue to be a priority to us, they seemed to have adjusted very well to the changes.
Today we spent some time talking about how we want Year 4 to be and recognising that we are now the top of the school. Over the next week or so we will be working on our rights and responsibilities that will help the children recognise what is expected of them whilst in school.
This afternoon the children flexed their learning powers and group work skills when they worked in their maths groups to create towers made of marshmallows and spaghetti. They made some great towers but what was particularly impressive was their resilience, perseverance and teamwork. These are skills that we will continue to focus on as the children further develop their learning powers when faced with challenges and problems.
Cricket and Basketball club
All clubs have started back this week and year 4 is very fortunate to be able to attend two sports clubs. Cricket club is being offered exclusively to year 4 by a specialised cricket coach on Wednesday afternoons from 3.30pm - 4.30pm. The children who attended today thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we would encourage any other child that may be interested to book a session and have a go.
We are also offering basketball club to year 4 on Friday afternoons from 3.30pm - 4.30pm. This club has proved to be very popular in the past and again children are very welcome to sign up now if they haven't already. For both clubs parents should collect their child at 4.30pm from the playground at the back of the school.
CAPOW
Breakfast club and afterschool club will run in the year 4 classroom and parents are welcome to drop off and collect their child from the main front entrance of the year 4 classroom. The only exception to this is Wednesday and Friday after school when the CAPOW provision for all children will be the sports clubs.
What to bring to school
- PE kits can be brought back to school now. They will be stored in lockers. PE sessions (in addition to after school clubs) will be on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons (until swimming recomences).
- Book bags can be brought back to school and soon we will be organising books for your child to borrow from the library.
- A jacket or a coat. We encourage all children to bring a coat now as the weather has started to become unpredictable.
- Power maths books 3C, RWI books and all library books these should all be returned to school now please.
- Unfortunately pencil cases cannot be used in class at the moment. All children have been given a fully equipped pencil case which is to stay in school.
Home Learning
The Children will be given their home learning tomorrow to be returned by Tuesday next week please. For maths I would like them to practice their 2 times tables and for topic I would like them to find out some facts about William Shakespeare.
As ever if you have any questions, concerns or comments please email me or talk to any of the year 4 staff before or after school.
Kind regards,
The Year 4 Team
Hello everyone,
We hope you had a wonderful summer holidays and were able to enjoy some of the lovely weather we had. Myself and the Year 4 team are very excited to welcome you and your child back to school. We have lots of fun activities planned and we can't wait to get started.
Obviously 2020 has been a strange and difficult year for many and for some children, coming back to school may trigger feelings of anxiety and uncertainty which is a completely normal reaction. If you have any immediate concerns please don't hesitate to get in touch with me via email.
Year 4 are fortunate in that they are already familiar with me, Mrs Scott and Mrs Thomas and together with Mrs Rogers and Mrs Long we will work hard to ensure that your children feel safe, nurtured and supported. In the first week we have a range of fun and engaging activities that will hopefully help your child settle back into the routines of school whilst reigniting their passion for learning.
Mr Spracklen's Covid19 update letter details much of the information you will need to know regarding what to expect on returning to school. The most noticeable changes will be the staggered drop off and pick up times for school.
Drop off and collection times are based on surnames as per the linked letter and we would appreciate it if you could stick to these times as closely as possible to limit the number of people on the school site at any one time. Mrs Scott and I will rotate between the two entrances although if you would like to talk to one of us please ask and we will make ourselves available.
This term CAPOW provision will be kept within our class bubbles from 8am - 9am in the morning and 3.30pm - 4.30pm in the afternoon. If you have any unused plastic toys or construction items that you are willing to donate please let a member of the Year 4 team know and we will gratefully put them to good use.
I have attached some photographs of the Year 4 classroom should you child like to get an idea of the learning space before Wednesday. I attempted to configure the tables in rows and horseshoe shape before settling on these positions. The classrooms at POW are very narrow and as a fully inclusive school, to allow all our learners to move freely within their bubbles, rows of tables are impractical.
The most immediate dates for your diary:
Tuesday 1st September - INSET day
Wednesday 2nd September - All children back to school
Friday 4th September - Parent Forum (via Zoom) 14:00 -15:00
Tuesday 8th September - Individual school photographs
Thursday 10th September - Parent Information Session (via Zoom) 14:00 - 15:00
If you have any questions, comments or concerns please talk to me or a member of the team before or after school or get in touch with me via email c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk
We can't wait to see you all again,
Kind regards,
Ms Browne and the Year 4 Team
