Home Learning, Spellings and Dates

 

Hello everyone,

Key events this week are World Book day on Thursday and Non school uniform day on Friday (see the end of the blog for other upcoming dates). 

Home Learning

The Home learning for this week is for the children to think about what makes them them. What are their interests and hobbies? What are their favourite foods or colours?  In the week beginning 19th March the children will make a collage to represent themselves. It would be really helpful if you were able to start collecting pictures and (non precious) items that they could use in their collage to bring in on Monday 19th.  

Spellings

Here are the spelling for this week. 

Upcoming events 

Thursday 7th March - World Book Day

Friday 8th March - Non school uniform day

Monday 11th March - Start of the big walk and wheel

Monday 11th March - Wessex Singing festival

Thursday 14th March - Bike it breakfast

Friday 15th March - Comic relief & non school uniform day

Monday 18th March - Bikeability sessions

Tuesday 19th March - Class trip (see letter sent home for details and consent form)

Monday 25th March - Farm visit

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

World Book Day, Teeth, Collage items and spellings

 

Hello everyone,

On Thursday, we celebrate World Book Day where all children and staff are invited to dress up as a character from a book that they have enjoyed. The book choice is key - even if it's just a prop or a clue, please make sure your child is referencing a book rather than just in non school uniform (Please see the emailed letter for more information about the day). 

We are looking for some mystery readers to come and read to year 4 at 3.15pm from Tuesday to Friday. If you are available please let me know as soon as possible.  

Teeth Home learning

This week's home learning links to the children's science learning. In addition to the normal spellings, reading and tables practice, the children have been asked to either create a poster showing the names and functions of the different teeth or to log on to Purple Mash to complete a teeth to do activity. 

In class we have been discussing the importance of looking after your teeth and we watched an NHS video which has a recommended method to teeth brushing. I told the children I would share the video with families and the children will be challenged to demonstrate correct teeth brushing techniques next week using our model teeth. The NHS video can be accessed here.    

Collage

During our Art lessons the children have been learning about collage and have studied artists like Henri Matisse and Beatriz Milhazes. The children have been creating artwork inspired by these artists and it has been wonderful to see them experiment and develop their creativity. 

Next week, we will be looking at the work of Kurt Schwitters. Schwitters was famous for using random items that could be seen as rubbish in his artwork,  like sweet wrappers, bus tickets and old envelopes. On Tuesday the children will be creating their versions of Kurt Schwitters work Pine Trees (picture below). If you have any old items that we could use, we would be very grateful if you could send them in on Tuesday please. 

Spellings

Here are the spellings for this week:

Upcoming Dates:

Monday - Friday - Mystery Readers for Book day 

Tuesday 5th March - please send in your collage items

Thursday 7th March - World Book Day

Friday 8th March - Non school uniform day

Monday 11th March - Wessex Singing festival

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

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 -

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 

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.