Autumn Term 1 2023-24

Year 4 have settled really well and quickly back into their school routine. Their behaviour is excellent, the children are eager to learn and they are showing that they are active, resilient and independent learners already. We are collecting multilink cubes when we follow our class rules all day. Once the class builds four meters they will have a well-earned golden ‘movie afternoon’. We also have some extra rewards which are given to children for their perseverance, resilience, seeking help at the right time whilst still being an independent learner. We are all very proud of our hard work and we keep trying our very best!

Collective Worship

Collective worship is a special time for us all. We all gather together and listen to a reading from the Bible. We listen and respond to God’s word and consider how this relates to our lives. We reflect on how we can learn from the Bible and what choices we should make going forth. Together we like to pray, listen to songs and sit quietly to remember how lucky we are to be part of God’s beautiful creation!

As part of our learning about our virtue of love for learning, we learnt about the importance of having a growth mindset and being lifelong learners who are always ready for learning and keeping an open mind. The children reflected on their goals and what they would like to achieve in Year 4 this year. We then collected these thoughts and aspirations on our prayer table in the classroom.

To find out how you can help with current global emergencies, please click here.

To find out more about Cafod’s work around Harvest, please watch the video below which some classes in school have also watched as part of our work around Harvest.

Harvest Liturgy

Year 4 enjoyed taking part in the Harvest Liturgy where the whole school community came together in prayer, song and worship. Over the past week, our Y4 Mini Vinnies have been working hard for their Harvest Appeal and we are extremely grateful to all our families and members of our school community for supporting this appeal. We have been overwhelmed with the number of donations, both foods and other items which we have now donated to Wetherby Food Bank and monetary donations which we will be donating to CAFOD, in support of their work to support those in need around the world.

Praying the Rosary

The Key Stage 2 children took part in the KS2 assembly all about ‘One Million Children Praying the Rosary’ on the 18th October. We shared the message of how we can grow in friendship with God. Prayer has been our virtue to live by this week and we considered Pope Francis’ invitation of praying the Rosary in the month of October. We came together in prayer and our going forth message was to make time each day to pray to God and to also listen to what he speaks to us.

RE – The Bible

In RE this half term, we will learn how the Bible tells us about God and His love for us. We will learn some Old Testament stories and we will consider how the Bible can help us and others in need. Our research skills will be put to the test as we look up references from the Old and New Testament. By looking up and reflecting on Scripture, we will explore how they link to our own life experiences.

We first built on our prior learning about the Bible and learnt about how we can use it in church and at home. The children applied their English writing skills to write a paragraph about their ideas. We also looked at songs and their lyrics. The children had to find the words and phrases that both appear in the Bible and songs based on the Bible scriptures. We then used the Bible to find scriptures. We learnt about the names of the books in the Old Testament and New Testament. We persevered and found the chapter numbers and then the numbers of the verses. We all worked well together as a team! To show our learning and apply our English skills in our RE lesson, the children wrote instructions about how to find various Scriptures in the Bible. They have become more and more confident and quick at finding these! To further deepen our understanding of the Bible, the children had to find which books belonged to the Old Testament and the New Testament. We have also been applying our maths skills to record in a tally chart the number of Books of the Bible. We have been reading a parable, song and a prayer from the Bible and the children applied their English skills to write in paragraphs as we reflected on what we can learn from the Bible about God.

   English

Our Autumn 1 class text will be King of the Cloud Forests by Michael Morpurgo.

Guided Reading:

To begin exploring our new class text, we made some predictions. The children had to consider the front cover of the book, the blurb and the title to predict what characters might be in the story, where it might be set and what the plot might be about. We worked on our persuasive reasoning skills, when we organised a class debate around ‘whether or not mythical creatures are real’ The children used various sentence starters and had a great debate where they shared their opinions with each other.

In guided reading we will work on our various reading skills. The first reading skill that we focused on was decoding and vocabulary. The children had to choose ambitious words from the class text and explain their meanings as well as use these in their own sentences. We have been expanding our vocabulary in English. We went outside for a Burn2Learn vocabulary hunt and the children had to find matching meanings to their given ambitious words. Afterwards, we applied our knowledge and understanding by using the new words in our own sentences.

As well as having a fiction and non-fiction book to read at home, we went to the school library and the children picked their pleasure books to read and take home. We spent time enjoying some quiet reading time in the classroom. The children had the opportunity to explore the classroom reading books from our reading corner and they could choose fiction, non-fiction books, poems, magazines or newspapers as well to read.

We carried on reading about King of the Cloud Forest and exploring ambitious vocabulary from our class text. We had to quickly and efficiently find the meaning of words using dictionaries. The we also used our knowledge of word classes to write down which words were nouns, adjectives or verbs. The children then had to apply their understanding and write their own sentences with the new words. Year 4 had a great time playing the Burn2Learn Beach Ball Bonanza! We explored different word classes together. We bounced the beach balls and listed as many nouns, adjectives and verbs as we could!

Writing.

This half term year 4 will focus on writing diaries and a newspapers which link to our class text King of the Cloud Forests.

Diary writing.

Year 4’s Diary entry as the character Ashely:

Year 4 firstly had a close look at the different features of a diary and read and evaluated many examples of diaries in a range of contexts. We moved on with our learning journey and started planning our first diary entry, writing as the main character in our class text called Ashley. The children started by planning together and then they added their own synonyms, similes, adjectives and fronted adverbials to their plans independently. The children also focused on character feelings and thoughts which we could include in our diary entries such as ambitious vocabulary choices and emotion words. The children had to apply what they have learnt so far about word classes, fronted adverbials and ambitious vocabulary as they followed their plans and wrote their first diary as the character Ashley. I was really impressed with the descriptions Year 4 included in their diaries and their strong knowledge of the book! Finally, the children had to self-assess their diaries and reflect on their work. We edited and improved our diaries  to especially take care with punctuation and spellings.

Year 4’s diary entry as the character Uncle Sung:

After writing our first diary entry, we have now moved onto planning our second. This time Year 4 will be writing as the character Uncle Sung. Year 4 carefully evaluated their feedback from their first diary to make their second diary even better! We went through the same writing learning journey as our first diary entry- plan, write and edit and improve. I was so impressed by the improvements year 4 had made in their second diary entry’s.

Newspapers

After completing our writing focus on diaries year 4 have moved onto newspapers!

Firstly, year 4 explored the features of newspapers when exploring and reading various children’s newspapers. As a class we decided we would plan to write a newspaper report around the sighting of a Yeti (linking to our class text!). When planning to write our newspaper reports the children became news reporters, working in groups to plan and perform what they will write in their reports. I was amazed by the children’s confidence when performing as news reporters to the whole class. Year 4 wrote some fantastic newspaper reports reflecting all the correct features of newspapers we had explored. After completing, editing and improving our newspapers some children shared their reports to the class.

Overall, Year 4 have shown some amazing writing skills during Autumn 1 both in their diaries and newspaper reports!

Maths

At the start of this half term, children will develop their place value knowledge. We will spend time consolidating our place value knowledge about 3-digit numbers. Following this, we will learn to read, write and partition 4-digit numbers and we will investigate number lines to 10,000. We will be rounding, counting in thousands, ordering and comparing 4-digit numbers. Our learning also includes solving worded problems and working on our mathematical reasoning skills.

We have been active with Super Movers as we were practising our times tables facts. The children then had a go at completing their times tables work with a Times Tables Rocks Stars song and a 5 minute timer! We will keep working on our Key Instant Recall Facts (KRIFs)!

We used different ways to represent 4-digit numbers during our daily Burn2Learn. Place value grids, bar models, number lines and different ways of partitioning were our focus.

We have been busy also working on our  reasoning and problem solving skills to do with 4-digit numbers. Our tricky questions then included various number lines with different intervals.

We have been busy working on our rounding in Year 4. The children now learnt how to round to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We had various ways where we practised rounding and then used various representations to help us with this task. We could build on our understanding of number lines especially. The children built their confidence and also completed reasoning and problem-solving activities.

We have been focusing on comparing and ordering numbers. The children applied their understanding of place value and worked well on creating their ascending and descending orders.

In Year 4, we have been busy counting in multiples! We have been working on our times tables, counting in 1000s and counting in 25s. In class, we had a competition of which table group will find the correct order of counting in 25s and we also discussed the patterns we noticed. We ventured outside for a Burn2Learn activity to use our playground as inspiration for our counting. We used chalk to write in the multiples of 25 and then we had to jump across all the numbers whilst saying them out loudly.

Science

This half term, we will be learning about states of matter as we sort everyday materials into solids, liquids and gases. We will describe their properties and explore the behaviour of the tiny particles inside them. The children will investigate what conditions  affect changes of state.

Year 4 ventured outside and enjoyed some great weather whilst working in teams. We enjoy being active learners in Year 4! After we learnt what solids, liquids and gases are, we had a go at grouping various materials and comparing them.

We learnt about how particles move in the different materials. Our modelling skills were put to the test when we had to recreate the particle arrangements with ping pong balls. We had to be resilient and make sure the ping pong balls stayed in the right place or they moved to create an accurate model! As an extra fun Burn2Learn activity, we organised ourselves into groups and acted out the movements of particles.

We have been deepening our understanding of the states of matter and we used our photos from modelling the movements of particles to help us reflect on the similarities and differences.

We have also been expanding our vocabulary with scientific words relevant to our states of matter topic. The children completed a word search and had to rate their understanding of various scientific vocabulary. They then had to look up the meanings of the words in a dictionary and then apply their knowledge and understanding to write their words into sentences.

To further explore solids, liquids and gases, we carried out some fair testing in Year 4. We used fizzy drinks to demonstrate that gases have weight. We used measuring jugs to measure the volume of liquids in millilitres. We used a scale to measure in grams and had to use our Maths skills to tell the difference between our measurements. First, we had to measure the weight of the fizzy drinks. Then, after stirring our drink and making it flat, we measured again. We could prove that by the gas escaping, some of the drinks became lighter.

To build on our understanding of the fact that gases have weight, we used concept cartoons to test our knowledge. The children had to discuss and agree on the correct scientific reasoning.

We like to use our English reading skills in different subjects, and the children had the opportunity to read around the subject in science by exploring the SLS library books. They had to pick out interesting facts, reflect on what new vocabulary they have learnt and had to apply these new words in their own sentences. 

Computing

To begin the half term, we will be using Sketches. The children will choose famous landmarks in the UK and recreate them in digital watercolour. We will work with layering colours and choosing appropriate shades for our artwork. We will use The Queen’s Handbag by Steve Anthony as an inspiration for our Sketches art.

To make sure we are safe online, we learnt more about Internet and online safety. The children made their own informative posters with key messages about keeping personal information safe, being kind online and offline, what to do if something makes them feel uncomfortable. We all know the ‘Stop! Block! Tell!‘ advice and we know why it’s important.

DT

We will bring stories to life with our project this term. Children will have the chance to explore moving parts in a variety of storybooks and learn how to recreate some of these parts using different tools and techniques. Children will design, create and evaluate their very own pop-up books.

We began our learning journey by evaluating an existing product. We had a close look at the pop-up book by Robert Sabuda. The children really enjoyed looking down the mesmerising rabbit hole! We checked various pages and looked for the different moving mechanisms used. We then reflected on the use of materials and the uses of concertinas, pop-out objects, window flaps and levers.

We started planning our 3D pop-up book designs. The children had to consider which parts of our class text King of the Cloud Forests they will retell and which moving mechanisms they will be able to us on each page. We drew the different story plots and practised using different fonts for our writing. We had to apply our English skills as we wrote the important events from the story

We used card and paper to create our moving mechanisms. Accuracy and precision were very important!

Check out some of our finial products! The children worked very resiliently and showed great determinations throughout this project!

To reflect on our use of skills and successes, the children also evaluated their products.

Geography

The Dizzy Heights of the UK and Beyond!

We have started exploring the United Kingdom by using atlases. The children had to find the countries and capital cities and show these on their maps. We also applied our maths skills and worked on a grid to show different points on the map.

Firstly, we explored famous mountains within the UK identifying their different features. We watched lots of videos exploring mountains within the UK.

Year 4 then explored mountains beyond the Uk such as Mount Everest. Year 4 compared compared their features to mountains they had studied in the UK.

To further deepen our understanding of using maps, we worked with the 8 points of a compass. The children had to find various cities and towns in the UK and then had to use the points of the compass to describe geographical directions.

History

We will investigate the Victorian era this term. We will use historical sources (Victorian paintings and other images) to find out about the Victorian period. Our research will include learning about the life of the rich and the poor and finding out more about the life and work of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).

We like to use our English reading skills in different subjects, and the children had the opportunity to read around the subject in history by exploring the SLS library books. They had to pick out interesting facts, reflect on what new vocabulary they have learnt and had to apply these new words in their own sentences. 

MFL

As part of our French learning, we will be exploring vocabulary relating to French greetings, colours and school. The children will develop their vocabulary by taking part in active learning activities, listening to songs and speech. We will be discussing school objects and school routines to practise our pronunciation.

We began our French learning with an active Burn2Learn activity. We danced and copied the Super Movers and repeated French greetings after them.

After we had a go at learning how to pronounce the greetings, we worked in partners and acted out a conversation in French!

Some comments the children made:

“It was fun to say comme ci, comme ça in French.”

“I was nervous to perform, but we did it!”

“I found Bonjour easy to remember.”

Music

We will use descriptive vocabulary to evaluate music. The children will listen to music pieces composed by Hans Zimmer and express their likes and dislikes. We will take inspiration from film music compositions and how they are used for dramatic effect.

We started our music learning with exploring musical vocabulary. We evaluated various pieces of music as we applied our English skills. We had to choose appropriate adjectives to show how relevant they were as we considered different musical pieces. The children worked very well together and they enjoyed listening to the music.

Building on our previous work with the zones of relevance, the children listened to Earth composed by Hans Zimmer and they had to sort adjectives to describe the composition. 

PE

In PE, the children will be developing their skills in team games. They will learn about the importance of warming up before exercise and the benefits exercise has on our own physical and mental wellbeing. They will also be working on improving their fitness, strength and accuracy.

We have been building our strength in PE. The children practised various ways to work on their core. They did sit ups, push ups, planks and worked on their running stamina and speed too.

To further work on their strengths, the children further work on their skills to strengthen their core muscles. They showed super resilience and a teamwork when they practised and helped each other out!

The children have been working on their teamwork and observation skills. The had to give feedback to each other about their techniques of different throws and catches. They all worked well and could suggest improvements to each other as well as encourage each other.

We kept up the good work and played games where we had to use our skills of listening, observing and giving feedback to each other. The children played games and worked in smaller groups to practise throwing, catching, moving with basketballs and playing their own mini-matches as well.

We carried on with our teamwork skills and practised skills of moving through space with improved spatial awareness. We then formed groups and played dodgeball games in small groups and then as a whole class as well. We reflected on the importance of following rules and being good sportsmen in games.

We had our fantastic Skipping School workshop where the children learnt many different ways to skip! All of them have been showing excellent determination and self-belief as they practised the various moves and built their confidence. The children have been practicing their skipping skills every week during PE. Many children are also practicing during break and lunch time!

PSHE

In PSHE, we are focusing on mental health and emotional wellbeing. We agreed our classroom targets and rewards together and discussed how a growth mindset will help us embrace learning challenges and how we can build up our resilience. By having high aspirations for ourselves, we are keen on giving 100% effort in all we do and take our learning forward as we become lifelong learners.

When we started school this week, one the first day the children completed their check-ins to see how they were feeling and what fun activities they did in the summer. They could share their favourite experiences and draw these too. The children also used emojis to explain how they felt on their first day of Year 4!

At the end of our first week, we completed another written check-in with the children to see how they felt about being back to school. The children had to choose a blob character that represented them the most and they had to pick what they have enjoyed this week. Luckily, we had lots of positive feedback!

We have been learning about British Values and democracy. The children then had a vote and chose their School Council representatives. They also wanted to be able to fairly choose the name of our worry monster. Let me introduce you Cookie, the Year 4 worry monster who lives in our classroom and also has a worry jar where children’s worries can go and live so they don’t have to hold on to them for long!

We have re-visited the important message about Pants are Private. As a class we discussed 1) privates are private 2) always remember your body belongs to you 3) no means no 4) talk about secrets that upset you 5) speak up, someone can help. The children had a good class discussion and really enjoyed singing along to the Pantosaurus song!

We had a whole school assembly for Dyslexia Awareness Week to explore what it is like to have dyslexia and to celebrate that we are all the same but we are all different. The children were very understanding and explored different things that dyslexic people might find tricky and many other things that they can be really good and successful at. Many children in our class have chosen to be dyslexia ambassadors which is great to see!