Year 4 - Lantern-tastic - 27th November 2018

We had a fantastic treat in year 4 today.  Sarah Butterworth a local artist came to show us how to make willow lanterns.  The children worked collaboratively all day to construct willow frameworks and then cover them in tissue and hey presto, by 3:30pm we have 31 magical Christmas Tree Lanterns!  The children worked resiliently to complete the task and after mastering the technique were able to build lanterns independently. 
The lanterns made are for The Dorchester Christmas Cracker on Thursday 6th December lantern parade in which all children and parents of year 4 are invited to take part in.  We will be sending a flier out with all of the details, in the meantime so that you can put it in your diary - the parade starts at Brewery Square at 5:30pm.  The lanterns will be there waiting for you!
I understand that many of you have made plans already and some children are taking part in the DASP music concert and for others it is even their birthday!  If you are unable to attend don't worry, your lanterns will be returned to school afterwards for you to take home.
Well done year 4 and the team for your hard work today!

Reception thanks and news.

What a wonderful week we had last week, it was a week full of rich learning about different countries and cultures. A huge thank you to Henry who spoke about the traditions in Hong Kong. He was so confident!

Thank you to Asimina, Vasilis and Anna's mums who arranged a wonderful Greek afternoon, we learnt so much - thinking about similarities and differences and sampling food.

On Friday Sherif's mum and dad came in along with Isabel's mum to teach us all about the tradition of Eid in Syria. We cooked, made lanterns and learnt arabic letters.

A huge thank you - without your generosity and support our children would not have had these memorable and rich learning experiences.

This week Paddington received a message in a bottle from Pirate Pete............we are hunting for his treasure!

Work begins on our play area this week - drop off and pick up will need to be from the side door until further notice.

Thank you to everyone who came to the RWInc session yesterday, I will do 2 more - next Tuesday and the following Tuesday.

Thanks again from the super Reception Team.

Year 4 - Class Assembly - 21st November 2018

Our class assembly is just around the corner and we thought it only right to do one last performance...
Please bring in your costume next week - Monday 26th November ready for final rehearsals!  We will see you all on Friday 30th November at 9:20am.

Year 4 - Marvellous Children - 17th November 2018

What Marvellous children you have provided us with!  I have a whole list of Marvellous Me points to put up, but have left the list at school.  If you have been marvellous this week, don't forget to tell everyone at home!  I will post them on Monday!  Here are some of the reasons for which the points were awarded:
Marvellous Footballers with fantastic sportsmanship and determination.
Marvellous Home learners with conscientiousness and effort.
Marvellous Spellers with determination and concentration.
Marvellous Carers who have shown that they care about our classroom and school by keeping it tidy.
Marvellous Mathematicians who have conquered a mountain of Mathletics tasks.
Marvellous Class who are interested and inquisitive.
#veryproudteacheragain

Year 4 - Bovington Trip - 16th November 2018

What a wonderful day we had at The Tank Museum.  The children thoroughly enjoyed the day!  We had workshops in the morning where the children got to try on real world war II uniforms, hear an air raid siren and even dress as the home guard and go out on drill!  We also visited a 1940's house and became history detectives to find out who the evacuee suitcases belonged to.  There were some rather fetching knitted swimming costumes amongst the items in the suitcase and this led us to thinking what it would be like to go swimming in a knitted one-piece!
In the afternoon we got to explore the museum further and some of us experienced the trenches and war horse exhibition which were really thought provoking. 
Well done year 4 for impressing the staff from the tank museum with your inquisitive approach to the day and your exemplary behaviour.

Year 4 - Maths Learning - Week Beginning 12th November 2018

This week we have been perfecting our addition and subtraction skills and using the link between the two to help us solve problems.  Being able to recall number bonds to use during this process is really important and there are some children who are still finding it difficult.  Playing games with dice and cards, where you have to total the number of spots is really useful for building fluency with these facts and children build enormous confidence when they have these.  Any opportunities that arise get your child to add or subtract to 30 to build speed and fluency with mental maths would be beneficial. 

Year 4 - Literacy Learning - Week Beginning 12th November

This week we have been roving reporters writing newspaper articles about all sorts of things.  From our production of The Tempest to World War II heroes like White Vision the pigeon!  We have written Headlines; Lead in lines; we have been paragraphing our work and adding reported speech!  The children have written some fantastic reports including a collaborative piece.  It was fantastic to see the children working in teams and supporting each other in order to publish their story.  Well done year 4. 

Year 4 - 5 minute walk with Sustrans - 8th November 2018

On Monday we will be joined by Jonathan from Sustrans who will be guiding us through the 5 minute walk scheme.  This scheme is designed to encourage people to park further away from school  and walk to school more often. 
Jonathan will be showing us 4 routes which we will walk with groups of children.  This will also include valuable lessons in road safety.  As children approach middle-school age it is essential that they feel confident in walking to and from school, so this is a great activity to instill in the children a respect for the road and road users as they gain independence in going to and from school.
If any parents would like to come and help on Monday afternoon from 1:30pm, please come and see a member of the team.

Year 4 - Poppies - 8th November 2018

Please remember that year 4 children are invited to come to school in a black t-shirt tomorrow.  We will be joining with the rest of the children in the school who will be dressed in red.  Can you guess the rest?

Year 4 - Stars of the show - 8th November 2018

What more can I say than...
A-MA-ZING!!!!
We have been working really hard on this production and I know you'll all agree the children really did us proud and it definitely was worth all the effort!
To think that many of the children started the year not knowing who Shakespeare was and not really up for performing in front of a huge audience (fear in their eyes) is inconceivable. 
They have embraced the story, the Shakespearean language and above all the performance!  I now have a class of more confident and assured children!
Thank you all for your support, especially the year 4 team and Mrs Webb who have worked tirelessly to produce the props and puppets as well as supporting all of the children in attaining such a high standard.
We really do appreciate your messages of support too.
WELL DONE EVERYONE!

Year 4 - Literacy Learning - Week Begining 29th October

This week we have been writing more Sonnets, the children have been practicing writing 10 syllable lines to make some iambic pentameters to use in the finished piece!

We found it difficult to start with and it made us realise how clever William Shakespeare was!

Year 4 - Maths Learning - Week Beginning 29th October 2018

This week we have been looking at formal methods for addition and subtraction.  Being able to identify which digit is the hundreds, tens and ones is crucial to understanding the process.  We use practical materials and drawing to support the process in school, but the children are becoming more independent in their calculations.  At home why not try adding numbers together by laying them out vertically, any numbers up to 9999.  Also see if they can link + and - facts. 

Year 4 - Home Learning - 2nd November 2018

Home learning - Year 4 - Week 8

2nd November 2018

Shakespeare - The final push!

Please make sure you have collected and paid for the tickets you ordered at the office and that your child has their costume in school on Monday morning unless they are already at school.  They will bring their costumes home with them on Wednesday evening ready for the performance. We will be trialing some stage face painting in our dress rehearsal on Monday. If your child has any allergies or would not like to wear face paint please let us know.

We have also been getting inspired by watching some clips from the RSC production of the Tempest online.  Have a look and see what you are in store for!! (We aim high).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=BZKtQAIE4ew

Vaccies

For our trip to the Tank Museum in a couple of weeks I would like the children to bring along a gas mask box (We will not be dressing up until the end of term though).  I would like you to have a go at making a gas mask box at home. Adding labels like these would be really good:

In addition I would like you to write one of the following:

1. Instructions for using the gas mask.
2. Information about why people were issued with gas masks and what different types of gas mask there were.

Or  3. A diary entry from someone who lived through world war II and had to use their gas mask.

Remember to use your neatest handwriting.

This home learning is not due until Friday 16th November.

Times Tables:

From this week onwards we will be concentrating on particular times tables each week, next week will be the 3 x table and the 6 x table.  Please help your child remember these facts at home.

I have given all children access to timestables.co.uk through a user name and password at the bottom of their home learning sheet.