Year 4 - Home learning - 28th September 2018

Home learning - Year 4 - Week 4

Please complete one or more of the following

Choice 1:

We continue to look for more evidence for the POW Passports, last week’s challenges are in red and this week’s in black!  We have a box in the classroom where we are collecting evidence and the passport officials are available every break time. Let’s see if we can stamp more passports!

We are looking for evidence of the following categories:

Evidence for baking a cake

Evidence for performing in public

Evidence for tying own shoelaces

Evidence for launching a rocket

Evidence of learning to play an instrument

Evidence of making a mud pie!

Evidence of riding a bike

Evidence of reciting a poem.

We would also welcome pictures of your child when they were in different year groups through the school, these are to stick into the book, so please don’t send your best copies.

Choice 2:

We are entering a competition!  The children have been asked to design a poster for the Dorset County Hospital to promote recycling. Lots of schools are taking part.

Please ensure that all pictures are clearly identifiable with the name of the child who has drawn the picture along with details of their year group and level of entry for the competition.

We will be entering Level 2 - Years 3 and 4

The closing date for this competition is after half term holiday on 1st November.

So the first question that you probably have is what is required for the competition?

Pictures on A4 sized white paper blank unlined, unsquared.

Pictures need to be colourful, but in any form.

Use an image or theme that will fill the sheet of paper.

The poster should encourage the use of recycling using ideas seen at home, at school, in a supermarket, in surrounding areas and through public information services.  

The prize is for the winner of each level is to have their picture created into a poster for use around Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help promote and encourage recycling of waste, with plans to promote locally.

Choice 3:

Harvest Sonnets!  Next week we will be writing our own Harvest Sonnets.  To do this we need to start writing some iambic pentameters!  Big words I know, but quite an easy idea. An iambic pentameter is a phrase or sentence that fits the rhythm:

Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. (10 syllables)

For example:

The tractor is a ploughing in the field.

Along the hedges, berries you will see.

The soft and silent leaves begin to fall.

At Harvest time we’re thankful for our food.

Have a go at writing your own iambic pentameters about Harvest and we will use them when we are writing our poems this week.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Year 4 - Shakespeare Schools Festival Update - 29th September 2018

We have been enjoying getting to know the story and characters over the last few weeks and now we really need to get rehearsing.  As there are a few children who didn't come along to Auditions last week, the last Auditions will be happening during the day on Monday and I will be giving out scripts and parts during the week.  Everyone will be taking part! (Don't worry, I have taken into account at what level you wish to be involved)

We have now collected together your ticket booking requests and will be block booking the tickets.  I have received conformation that tickets will be £7.50 at the group booking rate, or £10.75 direct from the Pavilion directly (£8.75 concessions), so it is well worth letting the office know if you haven't reserved tickets yet for the group booking.  (Please note that this is a change to the previous price I was quoted of £6 for group booking price - if you have any changes to your ticket order because of this please see the office).  Once we have the tickets we will begin collecting money.
We will be heading off for our workshop on Wednesday 10th of October and remember to put the 7th November in your diaries!

Year 4 - Fab Farming Fortnight and Farm Trip - 29th September 2018

Year 4 have had a fantastic start to Food and Farming Fortnight.  We have been tractor sketching; have found out how clever and amazing bees are at a bee workshop as well as seeing bees live on bee-cam; started our harvest artwork; learned about milking; are learning new songs and
about how we keep our water clean with Wessex Water! 
As you can see we have covered many aspects of food and farming with lots more fun in store next week.
Next week we have various workshops and a trip to the farm on Thursday.  Please ensure your child wears old play clothes with their school uniform top, wellies or boots and has a waterproof coat on Thursday.  If you would like to come along to the farm please ask a member of the team.

Year 4 - Well done Red Caps - 21st September 2018

I received 14 letters of application to become a playground warden this week and very well written they were too!  I was delighted to award 14 red caps to all of the applicants and they will be beginning their duties next week.  A rota will be placed in the classroom indicating which day of the week we would like the children to take on  this role.  If there are any more children who would like to submit a late application they are welcome to do so.

Year 4 - Swimming - 21st September 2018

Please look at the message on Marvellous Me regarding pick up times for Swimming.  Please do not hesitate to come and talk to a member of the year 4 team if you have any concerns.

Year 4 - Ticket Requests for Shakespeare - 21st September 2018

If you have not yet requested tickets for our production of The Tempest and would like to order some please could you return the form by next Friday 28th September.  We will then book these and distribute according to your orders.  Now we just have to organise the play!

Year 4 - Maths Learning - Week Beginning 17th September 2018

This week we have been learning about the value of numbers.  The children are now extremely good at recognising four and five digit numbers, reasoning and solving problems with them.  We have looked particularly at rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and how this helps us to make estimations and calculate more quickly.  Why not try rounding numbers at home?  Write out all of the multiples of 10 and pick one.  Roll two dice to make a two digit number and write it next to the nearest multiple of 10.  When you get 3 numbers on your multiple of 10 you win the game!  You could try this with multiples of 100 and 1000 as well but you will need more dice. 

Year 4 - Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 17th September 2018

This week we have been exploring our Shakespeare text through reading, drama and writing.  This has helped us really get to grips with all of the characters in the play and their relationships within the story.  We have written descriptions of characters, letters between characters and witness statements.  During this process all of the children have been working very hard towards gaining their pen licences, well done to those of you who have managed to get there already!
Lots of children have also earned Marvellous Me points for their hard work and progress in their Read, Write Inc groups.  All children will have either brought home their spelling logs or a reading book to practice with at home.

Year 4 - Getting into our stride - 21st September 2018

Year 4 are definitely getting into their stride with their year 4-ness!  They are continuing to build positive relationships with their buddies and beginning to get into the routine of being responsible for various roles around the school.  We are building our independence in our learning and organisation gradually and thinking about how we can be good role models around the school, especially in the playground.  All this responsibility also comes with lots of fun learning experiences too, and I'm really pleased with how much the children are enjoying our drama lessons for our up and coming Shakespeare Challenge!
Be proud year 4, you have made an excellent start!

Year 4 - Home Learning - 21st September 2018

Home learning - Year 4 - Week 3

This week there is another choice!

Choice 1:

Today we had a very exciting delivery in school.  A police van arrived to deliver our new POW passports!  This is a document that allows children to record and celebrate their milestones as they progress through the school.  As year 4 will have successfully achieved many of these milestones I would like them to bring along some evidence so that their passports can be stamped by our Passport Officials.  The evidence could be a certificate, a photo or a piece of writing explaining their achievement (written by the child) signed by a parent.

We are looking for evidence of the following categories:

Evidence for baking a cake

Evidence for performing in public

Evidence for tying own shoelaces

Evidence for launching a rocket

Evidence of learning to play an instrument

We would also welcome pictures of your child when they were in different year groups through the school, these are to stick into the book, so please don’t send your best copies.

Choice 2:

We currently have five children who have written to Mr Spracklen to become passport officials and stamp children’s passports, but we are looking for more!  If you would like to become a passport control officer then please write to Mr Spracklen saying why you would like the role. Mr Spracklen is looking for some more boys to join the team especially.

(Congratulations to the 14 red hats who wrote to me last week - it is definitely worth the effort)

Choice 3:

We have a Science problem to solve!  We have been learning about static and current electricity so far this term and have been very successful in creating circuits and making light bulbs glow, however we have had less luck with static electricity.  We are beginning to think we have a school with anti-static carpets as we can’t seem to generate any (or very little). We have tried balloons and PVC tubes and rubbing various materials together but it just doesn’t work.  Does anybody know why? At home can you:

Do your own static electricity experiment and take a photo, video or write it up.

Can you research static electricity and find out what it is?

Or perhaps you could ask an expert, find out from family and friends about static electricity and how we can improve our experiments and come back with your answers next week.

NEVER EXPERIMENT WITH MAINS ELECTRICITY OR FLY A KITE IN A THUNDERSTORM (like Benjamin Franklin)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Year 4 - Home Learning - 14th September 2018

Home learning - Year 4 - Week 2

This week there is another choice!

Choice 1:

We have been excellent buddies since our return to school and many of you have shown yourselves to be kind, caring and considerate, especially at playtimes.  I need to choose some playtime wardens to help out with children who are on their own, upset or in need of a little responsible year 4 kindness to help them out.  

If you are interested in becoming a playtime warden I would like you to write a letter to me telling me why you would be good for the role.  It doesn’t need to be a long letter, but you must give me reason to choose you! I look forward to reading them and giving out the red hats!

Choice 2:

If you are not doing choice 1 I would like you to take time to think about your times tables!  Year 4 is a really important year for learning times tables and by the end of the year we are aiming to know them all.  We have been concentrating on counting in 6s and 7s in class this week. There are three stages to knowing your tables.

Step 1: Count in multiples eg: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12…

Step 2: Work out x table facts eg Given a fact such as 5x9 you can work it out from things you already know like counting in 5s or you might know another near fact such as 5x10.

Step 3: Learn the facts by heart, There are 66 facts to learn not including the 0 or 1 times tables and remember if you know 10x8 you also know 8x10!

I would like you to pick a times table that you need to practise, write down all of the facts in whatever way you find most useful.  Hide them, reorder them, draw pictures of them, put them on post it notes up the stairs, say them forwards, say them backwards. There is also Mathletics to use at home, this has some useful x table activities and youtube has some great times table songs.

Lastly, I will be thinking about parts for The Tempest over the next couple of weeks.  We may even have some auditions. To help me out please tick below which parts you think you would be good at playing and return them to me next week.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Name____________________________-

I would like to be considered for the following parts (tick as many as you would like):

Prospero

Miranda

Caliban

Ariel

King Alonso

Antonio (Boo!)

Sebastian (the King’s brother)

Gonzalo (The helpful one)

Trinculo (The Jester)

Stephano (A drunken Lord)

Ferdinand

A puppeteer

A musician

A technician

Costume technician

If any parents are a dab hand at costume design… please let me know!

Year 4 - Parents Information - 10th September 2018

There will be a parents information session held for the parents of the children in year 4 on Thursday 13th September at 9am in the school hall.  Please come along to hear about our plans for this term and ask any questions - I'll try my best to answer!
I look forward to seeing you there.

Year 4 - Swimming - 10th September 2018

There will be a letter regarding Swimming delivered through parent mail tomorrow (Tuesday 11th September).  Please read as pick up arrangements will be affected.  Swimming will be on the usual day for year 4, but at a different time.  A board with full information will be outside the classroom tomorrow and a letter should also be winging its way to you via email.  If you have any queries regarding these arrangements don't hesitate to see a member of the team.

Year 4 - A Super Start and Home Learning - 7th September 2018

We have a great first 3 days in year 4 and everyone is really rising to the challenges of new responsibilities and routines.  Many marvelous me points have been earned already, so if you haven't already signed up please do so as you will be able to view all of your child's achievements.  Also today I have given the children their first piece of year 4 home learning.  There is a choice of activities to have a go at:

Home learning - Year 4 - Week 1

Well, it already seems like we’ve been back forever!  Each week, on a Friday, I will be sending home a home learning activity to be completed by the following Friday.  As we have launched into our Shakespeare topic already, this piece of home learning has a Shakespeare theme.

Please complete one of the following activities:

Make a mask of William Shakespeare and recite famous quotes.  “To be or not to be…” is a good place to start!

Find out more about Tudor times and what it was like to live at the same time as Shakespeare.

Continue with spell writing for Prospero (The main character in the play we are studying).

Find out how many plays and poems William Shakespeare wrote.

Make your own magic potion from things in your garden (ask an adult first).  Label it to tell us what it does.

Draw your own picture of Prospero, Miranda, Ariel or Caliban and label it, telling us a little about their characters.

Design your own magic staff to be used by Prospero to create magic and mayhem!  (You could use an old stick).

Draw a picture of William Shakespeare and add some interesting facts about him.

You may do more than one if you wish, but only if you have time!

Also remember that you may have some spellings in your log books if you work with me for Read Write Inc Spelling (these will be written in the children’s Spelling Log books).  Please don’t worry if your child doesn’t have these as some groups are done within the lesson.

And lastly; read, read, read!  Children who read succeed. We will shortly be launching our accelerated reader scheme in school, in the meantime please read books, magazines, subtitles, websites, instructions, recipes, signs… the list is endless.

Year 4 - Let the Adventures begin! - 4th September 2018

We are ready and raring to go and hope you are too.  We can't wait to catch up tomorrow and start a whole new adventure in year 4. There is lots planned and you will all be pleased to know you will be meeting your new Reception buddies tomorrow!
We've got a whole new timetable, different groupings and a new playground too!
Watch the adventure unfold here on the year 4 blog...