Let's Celebrate & Half term home learning

 

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     

  

     

Whole School Design Challenge - 15th October 2020

 

#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.

Talking about screen time

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  

A busy week in Year 4

 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. 

The children have chosen their top four prefered roles and rehearsals will start next week. 

Farm visit

On Wednesday morning were very lucky with the weather and had a lovely trip to the farm. It was the perfect day for an autumn walk and the children discussed the harvest with Hazel from Maiden Castle Farm. They enjoyed the opportunity to touch the grains up close although their favourite activity seemed to be watching the pigs and piglets.  

Harvest Festival

As part of our Harvest Festival celebrations at school today, all the children were offered a starter of soup at lunchtime whilst watching the virtual harvest festival. (Follow the link for virtual harvest). In the week the children all participated in cutting vegetables to make a homemade soup. Whilst things didn't quite go to plan soup wise once I got involved, I was able to showcase to the children that it is okay to make mistakes, problem solve and accept help from others!!   

Home Learning

Our home learning for this week is practicing times tables, ideally using times tables rockstars where possible. 

I forgot to give out spellings this week so apologies to my groups, I will give these out on Monday.

I'm looking forward to meeting or zooming with you all next week. If you have any technical troubles making a parent consultation booking please let Mr Spracklen or me know and we will try to help you out.

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team. xx 

 

 

Farm trip tomorrow

 

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.   

Home learning and next week's activities

 

This week the children have continued to explore and enjoy a Midsummer Night's Dream. They have shown an excellent understanding of the roles and motives of the four lovers and Egeus, Hippolyta and Theseus. 

On Monday we will have an afternoon Shakespeare workshop delivered by Tory from The Shakespeare School's Foundation. The workshop will be in the hall and strict social distancing will be adhered. In previous years these workshops have proved highly beneficial and I am sure the children will gain a lot from it. 

You will have heard that POW, like many other schools that are part of the Shakespeare festival, have made the difficult decision to cancel the live performance in November. Whilst this is not what we were hoping for, I believe there are so many new and exciting possibilities that any initial disappointment will soon be forgotten. 

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

Dress as a farmer day tomorrow (Friday 2nd October)

 

Just a quick reminder that it is dress as a farmer or non school uniform day tomorrow (Friday 2nd October). It is forecast to be stormy and wet tomorrow so farmers' clothing might be very appropriate.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the year 4 team