Well done Year 4 - It's a wrap!

 

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.

It's a wrap!

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.

Home Learning Books

All children have been given a new green home learning book. Please return these books every Thursday morning so that new home learning can be added to them for the following week. Home learning is not compulsory but it is encouraged, especially in year 4 when we are helping to prepare children for the transition to middle school. In addition to home learning I also strongly encourage children to read every day and where possible complete an AR quiz. Time tables Rockstars (or any other time table practice) is also an activity I encourage as often as possible. 

Year 4 Passports & Dress like a 1940s evacuee 

Mr Spracklen is inviting year 4 to bring their POW passports and supporting evidence into school next week please.  For more information please check out the POW Passport Parent Guide     

Mrs Johnson and I are working on plans for a socially distant buddy system between Year 4 and Reception and we still hope to give Year 4 the opportunity to sleep in the roundhouse next year when the weather warms up.

Next term the children will be invited to dress as an evacuee on at least two occasions to support our learning about World War two.

If you have any questions or comments please get in touch,

Kind Regards,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team 

Shakespeare update and home learning

 

Hello everyone,

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

Saturday 14th November

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. 

  

Next week the children will be given a number of independent learning activities to complete when they are not filming. These activities will continue and consolidate the learning they have been doing in class in maths and literacy, together with some creative curriculum activities (RWI will be taught as normal). Whilst this way of working will be new to year 4 it is an approach which has a number of benefits for all learners and is an approach which year 3 have already adopted during literacy.   

Next week we will also be focusing on building the learning power of resourcefulness which is a school wide focus this half term.

It is Anti-Bullying week from the 16th November, and to launch this please could all children please come in wearing odd socks.   

 

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 

Home Learning and updates

 

Hello everyone,

I hope you have had a good week and managed to experience some fireworks in one way or another. This week the class gained a deeper understanding of why we have Bonfire night. We had a great discussion about the gunpowder plot and the children worked hard on writing up the plot and creating some fiction based on Guy Fawkes night. I think I almost redeemed myself in their eyes in terms of my (soup) cooking abilities by sharing some traditional parkin with them - which was enjoyed by most. 

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.  

Celebrating Differences

We started a new topic in JIGSAW (Personal, Social and Health Education) this week. One of the areas we explored were the assumptions we can unintentionally make based on someone's appearance. 

It was very pleasing to observe that the children did not make any generalisations or assumptions about children or adults in wheelchairs. This is something that our school works hard to achieve from preschool. The session did highlight that collectively we do have more work to do based on unintentional assumptions we may make based on race or gender. This is something that we will continue to explore over the coming weeks. 

As ever if you have any concerns, questions or comments please email me c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk

We hope you have a good weekend.

Take care,

Ms Browne & the year 4 team. xx

    

Welcome Back

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to school,

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: 

• Adding 1, 10 and 100 sheet 1 and sheet 2.    (Tuesday)
• Column method poster.
• Adding 3-digit numbers - no exchanges (Wednesday)
• Adding 4-digit numbers no exchanges. (Wednesday)
• Adding 4-digit numbers with exchanges (Thursday)

Finally, if you haven't already returned PE kits please can you do so as soon as possible. 

Please note that the class will be doing PE on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

After school year 4 PE clubs are Cricket on Wednesdays, Gymnastics on Thursdays and Football on Fridays. 

If you have any questions or comments please email me at c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk 

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team.