Hello,

We hope that you are all well and that your Christmas preparations have been successful and productive so far.

This week, the children have been drafting, editing and publishing their concrete Christmas poems, which have taken the shape of a Christmas image e.g. a tree, star, Santa Claus, etc. We were delighted by the children’s use of poetic devices to entertain the reader e.g. metaphor, simile, alliteration, rhyme, repetition and exaggeration. Well done Year Four! Both classes then took part in a peer-evaluation (2 stars and 1 wish) in order to give constructive feedback to one another about their poems. Today, we enjoyed using musical instruments as part of our Y4 Christmas Poetry Performance – we also discussed the importance of using pitch, tempo, voice intonation, facial expression and gestures, as means to engage an audience during the final outcome of our English unit.

In Maths, we have continued to learn about fractions. In particular, we have been working on tenths and hundredths of a number (i.e. 0.1 and 0.01), before moving on to discover what happens when a fraction becomes larger than 1 whole (e.g. three halves described as ‘1 and a 1/2’). As the week progressed, Year Four then began to look at equivalent fractions, through building their own fraction walls using strips of paper and folding techniques to create equal parts of a whole. We were very impressed by the children’s collaboration during this task! The children were then able to derive their own ‘equivalent facts’ for 1/2 and 1/4, using their fraction walls. Now, we are working on how to add and subtract fractions together by finding a common denominator…

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents who attended the Y4 music concert at St. Peter’s on Monday 16th December 2019. The children felt very supported and they all enjoyed demonstrating to an audience the skills they have been learning on the keyboard this term. In the Spring Term, we look forward to learning about percussion on the African drums! Please see photos from our recent concert, below…

We would also like to thank all children and parents for the lovely Christmas cards and gifts that our staff have received this week – we are extremely grateful for your kindness and generosity, thank you!

Please remind all children to complete their spelling, vocabulary, times tables and Sumdog learning, ready for the new year…

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas, see you next term on Monday 6th January 2020!

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns

Hello everyone,

We hope you have had a pleasant week and keeping yourself warm and dry from the wet weather!

This week year 4 have really started to feel the Christmas spirit.  In Religious Education at school, we have explored what advent is, why it is so important and how to prepare our selves in time for Christmas day. During prayer time, each child has reflected on what they have learnt which is always lovely to see. Alongside this the Advent Carol service that was held at Church of the Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle in Waterlooville, we would like to thank everyone who came along and a big well done to all the children to joined in. It was a fantastic performance!

But the excitement doesn’t stop there!, we would also like to thank Oaklands Year 9 dance class for inviting year 4 to a dance workshop. The Kangaroo’s and Koala’s had a wonderful time learning the bop and jive whilst dancing to rock ‘n’ roll.

In English, we have started our poetry unit. We read a range of poems and identified different poetic devices then discussed the purpose of each. In Maths, we have been exploring the effect of dividing numbers by 10 and 100, delving into tenths and hundredths. We also look at how decimals can turn into fractions and then how we can add and subtract those fractions.

We are very proud of all the progress the children have made this term. There is only one more week left of autumn term so although next week will still be full of learning, there are some fun events coming up to celebrate their hard work.

Friday 13th December – Christmas Jumper day. (We are asking for a can of tin food as a donation which will go towards a food bank for the community)

Monday 16th December – Year 4 Keyboard Concert. At 2.15pm we welcome all parents to watch year 4 music concert.

Tuesday 17th December – Christmas Dinner!

Thursday 19th December – Last Day!

Friday 20th December – Inset Day!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Kind regards,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns

Hello,

We hope that you have all been having a festive week and a pleasant weekend, as preparations for Christmas begin!

This week, the children published their explanation texts and evaluated them to support the process of making further improvements to their own work. We were delighted to see such a creative selection of snowman nouns, technical vocabulary and conjunctions that had been used to explain ‘How to care for a snowman’. At the end of the week, Year 4 were very excited to post their information leaflets in the school office, ready for all visitors of our school to read and enjoy. Well done to both classes! On Friday, the children also participated in the Autumn Reading Passport Awards assembly. Congratulations to our Year 4 winners, who shall enjoy a theatre performance of The Wizard of Oz. We would like to also say well done to those who took part and completed their reading passports, ready for the class draws – we hope that you enjoy the reward of 15 minutes extra break time this week!

In Maths, we have completed our learning on Multiplication and Division. It was wonderful to see the children using a variety of efficient strategies such as part-whole models, place value counters, grid method, number lines and the bus stop method, when interpreting and solving a series of tricky multi-step word problems about multiplying and dividing. Next week, we look forward to learning about Fractions – using practical and pictorial representations to look at ‘equal parts of a whole’, equivalent fractions, as well as ‘tenths’ and ‘hundredths’ in the context of money (e.g. £1.67 as having 6 tenths of a pound and 7 hundredths of one hundred pennies). Please ensure that your children do still continue to regularly log on to Sum Dog, as well as Times Table Rock Stars, for their Maths home learning.

On Friday, the children enjoyed taking part in a STEM day (please see photos below). Both classes worked in teams to problem-solve as they created plans and designs to answer the following question: Can you save your snowman, by making the strongest bridge for him to travel along? Year Four began the day by looking at a range of photographs and videos of real life bridges and structures. The children noticed how the engineers had used particular shapes, angles and materials in order to create strong, waterproof bridges. As the day progressed, both classes worked in the following teams to design, create, test and evaluate different types of bridges: Magnetix, Lego, Newspaper, Cardboard, Marshmallows / Spaghetti and Wooden blocks.

We hope that you enjoy the rest of your weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns.