It's beginning to look a lot like Autumn

 

Having said goodbye to summer for another year we are looking forward to embracing autumn by celebrating farming and the harvest with our forthcoming Food and Farming fortnight next week.

The children will enjoy some special food and farming themed assemblies as well as dress like a farmer day on Friday 2nd October and year 4's visit to Maiden Castle farm on Wednesday 7th October.  Could all children bring wellies and wet weather gear on the 7th please.  

Clothing recommendations

As the weather is getting colder it is strongly recommended that all children bring a labelled school jumper and a coat or jacket every day. You may also want to consider extra layers as some children are reporting that they feel cold. Please label all clothing coming into school and if possible, could you check that your child has their own jumper at home as we have had some go missing already. 

As the weather cools you may also want to provide your child with warm clothing for outdoor PE such as a tracksuit and a long sleeved top. Where possible you may also want to send a pair of trainers for outdoor PE rather than plimsolls.   

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 

Times Table Rockstars - The Battle is on! - 24th September 2020

 The battle of the bands is hotting up as year 3 and year 4 are tied at 1 battle each.  Who will win this week's battle to take the lead?  Only you can decide!  The scores so far look promising for a year 3 victory, but it could all change!  The more correct answers the more chance your class has got at taking the lead.  Keep your eyes on the Times Table Rockstars display for more certificates coming on Monday.  Want to improve your rockstar status?  Have a go in the Studio and set your rockstar speed.  Maybe you can become the next Busker?

Times Table Rockstars - The Big Launch - 21st September 2020

  Welcome to :

At the Prince of Wales School we recognise the importance of children being fluent and flexible with their known number facts including times tables.  Times Tables Rockstars offers a fun and motivating way of becoming faster at recalling times table facts as multiplication and division calculations.  All children in years 2, 3 and 4 have access to this resource.

If you are not already familiar with this learning platform, here's some information to get you going:

Tables will be set either by the class teacher or by AI, and you can access the set tables by playing on either the Garage or in the Arena.  Other games will include a wider range of times table facts if you fancy a challenge.

Each week years 3 and 4 will be competing in a battle of the bands.  This works on the number of correct answers given by the whole class in the timeframe.  Well done year 4 for winning the first battle, year 3 are hot on your heels this week!  Year 2, once you've had a little practice you can join in too!

And finally, if you want to get even speedier at home it might be worth investing in a number key pad that you can plug into your computer via USB.  We use these in school and the children love to see how fast they can get!

Numeric-Jelly-Comb-Keyboard

For those Mathletes out there, we are still subscribing to Mathletics as well for years 1 to 4, so keep earning those certificates too!  

This week's home learning and Friday's non-school uniform day

 

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:

• Practise 4 and 8 times tables. 
• Write a description of a forest trying to give the suggestion that the forest is either a magical place or holds secrets. Every child was given a hard copy of their home learning to put in their bags but please let us know if you need another copy. The hard copy includes some lined paper for your child to use, should they wish,  and a list of nouns and phrases that may inspire their writing. The deadline for their home learning is Friday 25th September.       

Don't forget it is non-school uniform this Friday:

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the year 4 team

Introducing Ms Williams and this week's spellings and home learning

 

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:

Mrs Scott's group

Ms Browne's group A

Ms Browne's group B 

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

A lovely first day back - 2nd September 2020

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