Hello everyone,

We hope you are keeping well. So half term is nearly here and the children have worked so hard and had another fantastic half term. We are now at the half way point in the academic year and we are so proud of the progress the children have made!

In English, pupils have been exploring different sentence structure particulary looking at Alan Peate sentences. Here they looked at 2 pairs, (exhausted and fragile, tired and anxious), 3 ings (rolling, foaming, roaring, the waves crashed into the boat) and with a (With a deep breathe, Jemmy set foot on the new island). They then created their own using these models which they will later use in their final writes.

In Maths, the pupils are continuing their addition and subtraction unit. Craefully exploring place value, exchanging and carrying. When they come back from half term, they will look at measurements within addition and subtraction.

This week the children have been very busy with their STEM day. Through the year, the children need to understand what makes a habitat, what poses threats to habitats, classification of animals and the life cycles. Koalas and Kangaroos needed to study different biomes and the habitiats within them and how animals adapted. They then worked in groups to create their own biome thinking very carefully how they could show cross section of their havitiat, carefully designing to ensure their chosen creature could surive. Photos to follow, keep an eye out on the blog!

A few polite reminders –

• Friday 18th February is an Inset Day and the start to the half term .Children are to return to school on Monday 28th February 2022.
• Please send your child into school with appopriate PE wear on Monday 28th February 2022.
• Spellings, vocabulary, reading journals and maths homeowrk is due on Friday 4th March 2022.
• World Book Day is on Thursday 3rd March 2022. We look forward to seeing the children dressed as fantastic characters from their favourite books.

We hope you have a wonderful half term and a well deserved break. We look forward to seeing you on Monday 28th February 2022.

Keep safe and keep smiling,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Mis Honeywell and Mrs Cairns

Hello everyone,

We hope you are well and keeping safe.

This week, we have been very busy with our learning. In English, we have been recording dialogue that we inferred from Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and using the accurate punctuation. We considered upskilling our language by using excited verbs and adverbs, along with detail in between the speech. Next week, we will begin to plan, draft and edit our descriptive story of Jemmy Button as our final write.

In Maths, we have begun our new unit on addition and subtraction. Here the children will revisit previously taught strategies such as number lines and expanded column method. We will also look at number bonds in four digit numbers and how this can help with our mental maths.

A few polite reminders,

• There will be an inset day on Friday 18th February 2022, so last day of term for the children is Thursday!
• PE kits to be worn on Thursday 17th February for CM sports.
• Spellings, reading journals and maths homework to be completed by Thursday 17th February 2022.
• Next Wednesday, we will have a STEM day where the children will study habitats and create their own biomes.  If your child has any preference on which habitat they would like to create for their model, please could they bring any additional materials or details they feel would enhance this project (e.g. leaves, stones, pebbles, etc).
• We shall be creating our money carriers in class soon. We would like for every child to bring in any decorations they would like to add to their money carrier, to attach to their money carrier at school. Materials, zips, poppers and buttons will be provided however please do encourage your child to think about who they have chosen to design their purse/wallet for and which decorations or details they feel would be appropriate.

Thank you for all your support at home, we hope you have a lovely and relaxing weekend,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell & Mrs Cairns

Good morning,

We hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks! On Monday 24th January 2022, Year 4 took part in an e-safety workshop with Lee Hayward. The children enjoyed talking about which apps and games they play on, as well as how to stay safe on the internet when using their devices and technology in school and at home. The following day, the children also took part in a Year 4 Mass with Father Jeremy in the Unity building. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to participate in worship, taking on roles such as readings for our prayers of intercession and presenting the Year 4 offertory to the altar.

In English, we have been performing and evaluating our Spring poems to one another. The children gave each other ‘two stars and a wish’ as part of their constructive feedback to each other. This week, we have now started our new unit of learning on ‘Jemmy Button’, in order to explore Jemmy’s experience of the jungle and city life. Please continue to discuss the vocabulary home learning tasks with your child as this will support them when applying key words in their written work. Next week, we look forward to creating our own speech dialogue between the main characters of the text, before moving on to punctuate them correctly using inverted commas.

In Maths, we have been exploring fractions. At the start of the week, we learnt how to use our times tables to find out what ‘one part’ of a whole quantity was worth (e.g. 1/8 of 16). As the week progressed, we started to make links to our knowledge of tenths and hundredths in order to calculate 1/10 of three digit numbers efficiently. Now, we are using part whole and bar models to respresent our findings. The children have particularly enjoyed using the bus stop method to divide and the grid method to multiply larger numbers. Next week, we shall be moving on to multiplication – please encourage your child to practise and show you their grid methods at home (e.g. to solve 25 x 4, or 123 x 6).

Just a few reminders for next week:

• We shall be creating our money carriers in class soon. We would like for every child to bring in any decorations they would like to add to their money carrier, to attach to their money carrier at school. Materials, zips, poppers and buttons will be provided however please do encourage your child to think about who they have chosen to design their purse/wallet for and which decorations or details they feel would be appropriate.
• Our STEM day will take place on Wednesday 16th February 2022. On this day, we shall be creating terrarium-style biomes for the follwoing habitats: desert, jungle, ocean, arctic, caves, etc. If your child has any preference on which habitat they would like to create for their model, please could they bring any additional materials or details they feel would enhance this project (e.g. leaves, stones, pebbles, etc).
• Please remind your child to arrive to school wearing their PE kit on Monday 7th February 2022.
• Home learning will be due on Friday 11th February 2022. We would like to remind all children of the importance of logging in regularly to their Times Table Rockstar accounts, which will help them to prepare for the Year 4 Times Table check on the laptops in the Summer Term.

We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable weekend,

Best wishes,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns.