Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Welcome Back / Class celebration / Macbeth screening

 


Welcome back to Spring term 2 everyone, 

Having collected all their class rewards at the end of last term, the class will be having their class celebration on Friday which will be watching their amazing Macbeth performance. The majority of the class voted to dress up and so if your child would like to, please send in change of clothes for your child this Friday

This term we will be be writing play scripts linked to the book Tar Beach, whilst reading and examining the book The Poet's Dog. We have been doing some spelling assessments this week and so new spellings will come home next week. 

In maths we will finish off our multiplication and division unit before looking at fractions. Times tables will continue to be an important element in all aspects of maths this term and we will be focusing on the 6 times tables followed by the 7s and 8s. As ever, we strongly encourage you to encourage your child to practice their tables at home. 

In science we will be learning about teeth, digestion and food chains which is often a popular topic. Our humanities topics will see us comparing the human and physical features of the UK, France and Brazil. Whilst learning about the Christian celebration of Easter, whilst exploring the theme of forgiveness. 

Thank you to those of you that have returned your child's PE kit. Children should have PE tops, bottoms and shoes that they can change into for their PE lessons. I do appreciate that children grow quickly and that there is only half a year of POW left, so if your child has outgrown their kit please see a member of the year 4 team or POWSA who may be able to find you second hand uniform for a POWSA donation.    

Upcoming Dates:
Thursday 29th February - POWSA Disco  
Thursday 7th March - World Book Day
Monday 11th March - Wessex Singing (
Monday 18th March - Bikeability sessions
Tuesday 19th March - Class trip (details to follow shortly)
Thursday 28th March - Mary Anning fossil show (in school)
Friday 29th March - School holidays 

Monday 15th April - All children return to school 
Friday 19th April - Springfest

As ever, if you have any questions or comments please talk to a member of the team. 

Kind regards,
The year 4 team. 




English: Adjectives to infer emotions

Today in English we continued our worked linked to 'Tar Beach' by Faith Ringgold.


Before reading the book, we looked at pictures of Harlem in the 1930s as well as pictures of the George Washington Bridge. 

We talked about the  Harlem Renaissance and watched this YouTube video together -


After watching the video, we used this double page spread to infer emotions to record a thought bubble for each character in the first person, using adjectives, present tense and conjunctions -



Well done Year Four - you worked really hard today. I was very impressed.

Mr Spracklen 

Unit 3.1 - Coding - Lesson 4

Today in Computing with Mr Spracklen we used our coding knowledge to create a range of programs. During this lesson, we had to work hard to understand the importance of 'nesting' -






We worked in pairs because 'pair programming' is powerful, as the below slide explains -

Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Amazing dress rehearsal and checklist for tomorrow

 


Year four performed Macbeth to the children and staff in years 2 and 3 today. The class did a fantastic job and they should be so incredibly proud of everything that they have achieved this term. I hope that they can all have a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep, confident in the knowledge that they are ready to perform on stage tomorrow. 

In preparation for performance day here are the answers to some questions you may have about the day (please also refer to the letter from Mr Spracklen recently emailed).       

  • Children should wear school uniform tomorrow. 
  • Children should bring a backpack / normal school bag but please keep it as empty as possible except these items: 
                - drink bottle
                - packed lunch (unless they have a hot dinner ordered)
                - am snack (if appropriate)
                - afternoon and evening snacks
  • Please could all children arrive at school 15 minutes earlier than stated in the emailed letter. 
  • I have told the children that they may bring a book or fiddle toy if they feel that they will need them (possibly needed whilst we wait in dressing rooms). However, I strongly suggest that any items are not precious and are labelled where possible.  
  • Doors open at 17:45 and the first performance will start at 18:30. 
  • Families will take children home after all performances. This is likely to be around 8.45pm. 
  • Children should come home with  school uniforms, performance clothes, lunchboxes, snack boxes and drink bottles and coats. Please ensure that all items are labelled (children will most likely be wearing performance clothes).   
I hope you and your children enjoy tomorrow. They have so much to be proud of and I can't wait for you to see how incredible they are. 

Kind regards,
Ms Browne 



Saturday, 3 February 2024

Spellings and getting ready for next week

 


Hello everyone,

There will be no additional home learning tasks this week (beyond reading, spellings and times tables) as the children do their final preparations for Macbeth. 

The children have done a great job learning their lines and on Friday we worked hard to project our voices. This weekend, if you are able to sit with your child and listen to them recite their lines, encouraging them to speak them in a louder voice whilst using their bodies and facial expressions that would be really useful. 

If you haven't already seen the letter detailing what is happening on Wednesday, please check your inboxes (and possibly the spam folder) and contact me or Mr Spracklen if you don't have a copy. Children were also sent home with a media consent form on Friday. Please can these be returned to school on Tuesday at the latest. 

Spellings for this week are below. If you have any questions or comments please get in touch. 

Kind regards,
The year 4 team.