Year 4 Autumn 2022-23
Welcome to Year 4!
What a great start to the year we've had! Year 4 have spent some time discussing what our rights and responsibilities are in school which we then used to create our own class rules. We also created 'All about Year 4' PowerPoints to help us answer any questions we had. To finish our first week, we loved playing some team building games to help us develop and practice our communication and cooperation skills.
And let there be light!
This half term in Science we are focusing on electricity! Year 4 loved exploring the components of a circuit and working in small groups to make a complete one. They were so excited when the light bulb came on that we had to switch the lights off to get the full effect! We spent time investigating what happens when we add extra batteries to the circuit and we also tried changing the electrical load to a buzzer and a motor.
Online Safety
In computing our unit has been about staying safe online. So far, we have been focusing on how to protect ourselves from identity theft and from viruses. We discussed as a class the problems which can arise from emails with an unknown sender. We talked about how attachments in these emails may contain viruses which will either obtain information from your device or stop your device from working altogether. To check we had a good understanding of this we responded to a thread of emails as part of a simulation and offered advice on managing this to a friend.
Anti-Bullying Week
This year the theme for Anti-Bullying Week was 'Reach Out'. Year 4 spent some time discussing what bullying was and the different ways it might present itself such as physically, verbally, socially or online. We thought about why it is important for someone to reach out and get help after considering the effects bullying can have and we decided who we would reach out to. We also looked at a range of scenarios to decide whether a person was being rude, mean or a bully. Finally we thought about how one kind word can make a difference and what we might say to help someone who we thought was the victim of bullying.
Just keep swimming...
Most of Year 4 will agree that swimming is one of their favourite parts of the week. Here are some pictures from their very first visit to the Everyone Active centre in Washington. The staff were full of compliments for the children after seeing how sensible, brave and determined they all were - keep it up, Year 4!
Enchanté
In French, we have been building on our vocabulary from Year 3. We recapped some basic greetings including how to ask somebody their name and we also revisited numbers to 30. We used our knowledge of numbers to 30 to ask someone how old they were as well as say how old we are. We had lots of fun playing different games and acting out different conversations to help us practise these new words and phrases.
Black History Month
Black History Month UK is a celebration of black history that takes place every October. The focus for Black History Month UK 2022 is ‘Time for Change: Action not Words’. Each year group was given someone to study who significantly stood up for the civil rights of black people. Year 4 looked closely at the life of Nelson Mandela and the impact he had on the abolition of apartheid in South Africa. Despite the progress that has been made across the world for equal rights, we identified that there is still more to be done. We discussed modern initiatives which are still helping to fight for equality such as ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ and ‘Kick it Out’. Nelson Mandela declared South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’ because people of all races and skin colours were working together. We used this message to inspire our art work.
Super Swimming!
We're all incredibly proud of the resilience and dedication everyone in Year 4 has shown whilst attending swimming lessons this term. To reward their hard work and progress, the children enjoyed a free play session where they played together with the floats and raced down the slides! Keep it up Year 4!
The Phoenix of Persia
Our first Literacy unit has focused on the folktale 'The Phoenix of Persia' by Sally Pomme Clayton. When we were first introduced to the story, we listened to a version with a musical accompaniment using traditional Persian instruments. We stopped at various points to explore the setting and the characters and make predictions about what would happen later in the story. As a part of this lesson we looked at atlases to locate Persia (which is now modern Iran) and unpicked a range of images to see what the country of Iran is like.
Later in the week we spent time using an online thesaurus to uplevel our vocabulary to help us describe the main character in the story - the Phoenix.
Mamma Mia!
Year 4 have loved exploring music by ABBA this term with their favourite song so far being Mamma Mia (which we are learning to perform). We have compared different songs and identified ABBA’s style indicators to help us recognise their work.
Wedding Bells!
To celebrate Miss Hepplewhite’s upcoming marriage over half term, Year 3 and Year 4 had lots of fun playing different games. The children completed some true or false questions about Miss Hepplewhite’s wedding, solved some wedding anagrams and raced against the clock to complete a wedding jigsaw. They loved ‘collecting the confetti’ too but their favourite activity had to be designing wedding dresses out of toilet paper! The children were very creative and could all become fashion designers in the future! To pass on our best wishes and congratulations, we all signed a card for the future Mr and Mrs Milne and we can’t wait to hear about their special day after half term!
The Bethlehem Bake Off
What an incredible performance by Year 3 and Year 4! Everyone acted out their parts with such confidence and sang beautifully throughout. You're all superstars and should be very proud of yourselves! Well done!
