Hello,

We hope that you have all been having a good week so far, despite the January weather!

In English, we have been drafting, editing and publishing our jungle stories. We have been delighted by the children’s use of metaphors, similes, fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases, when describing and comparing the jungle and city life. The children have worked exceptionally hard, when editing and improving their stories with a green biro. We look forward to putting these on display in the school hall and in the Year 4 shared area. Well done Year 4! Next week, we shall begin our new unit of learning: writing a persuasive letter to Greta Thunberg, persuading her to continue her campaigns to encourage others to protect the environment. Can you research on the internet this weekend to find out more about her work?

In Maths, we have been learning about measure. Specifically, we have been learning how to convert between lengths (mm, cm, m and km) and mass (g and kg). During the week, the children were taught how to use a ‘function machine’ (place value grid) in order to help them to divide and multiply numbers by 10, 100 and 1000. Both classes were then given an opportunity to apply their learning to a set of challenge tasks, e.g. ‘Which combination of fruits could you buy, to get as close to 2kg as you possibly can?’ Next week, we look forward to revisiting our learning on fractions. In particular, we shall be exploring equivalent fractions before moving on to finding unit (1/3) and non-unit (2/3) fractions of an amount within a problem solving context.

On Tuesday 28th January 2020, Year 3 and 4 took part in Mass together to celebrate the Revelation of Christ through His miracles and the Word of God. We would like to thank all parents and church parishioners who were able to attend this event and celebrate with us. By the end of the week, the children also had an exciting opportunity to use the school IT suite and take part in a Scratch coding activity (called ‘Imagine a World’) on the Hour of Code website. After reading an information fact file about the Scratch programme, the children worked in small groups to create a set of their own instructions for a Sprite character. Please see the photos below for creative examples that the children have made…

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend. Please remind the children to log on to their Sumdog and Times Table Rock star accounts for their Maths and Times Table practise. We shall also be collecting spelling and vocabulary homework next Friday. We would also like to request that children bring in a small selection of materials for one of the following habitats that they shall be making in class next week…

• Desert (e.g. sand, stones, pebbles, twigs).
• Rainforest (e.g. leaves, blades of grass, flowers).
• Arctic (e.g. cotton wool, bubble wrap, ice cube bags).
• Caves (e.g. pipe cleaners, pebbles, small plastic insects).

We look forward to seeing you all next week,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns.

Hello everyone,

We hope you have not got too wet from the rainy weather and enjoyed your weekend.

Last week in English, the years 4 brought all their writing skills together that we have explored over this past unit top create and edit their writing plans. The children will be writing their own narrative  of Jemmy Button in first person. We have had a large focus on different sentence types to make our writing more exciting and intriguing to the reader. This week children will be using their plans to draft and edit their stories. We cannot wait to read them!

In Maths, we have started to look at measurements. Starting with length last week we explored what different measurements their were and how to convert these from km all the way to mm. This week  we will be starting to look at Mass and its different conversion, allowing the children to see the similar links between mass and length (km/kg).

In Science, we have started our new topic ‘Living things and their Habitats). The lesson started off with a sorting race whereby they had to place the animal into the correct animal group (mammals, reptiles, amphibians etc)  and the children cheered each other, helping one another. Now they understand what groups of animals their are and the characteristics that go along side the animals, we will start to explore their habitats. In the next couple of weeks we will be creating our own micro-habitats such as dessert, Antarctica, rain forests, woodland, the ocean etc. It would be really appreciated if children could bring in some resources to go into their micro- habitats, from twigs, to stones, sand, leaves, ‘ice’.

We’re hearing that many of  the children are doing well at learning and performing their poems. We will be holding our Poetry Performance on 12th February, so if you are using costumes or props, that’s the day to bring them in. Looking forward to seeing them all!

We would also like to thank you for your support with the children’s multiplication. Both classes in year 4 have seen a big improvement in the accuracy and fluency of their time table recall. Please do continue to practise with children and here are a few useful sites we use with the children for times tables.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

Sumdog and Times table Rockstar.

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns

Hello,

We hope that you have all had a good week so far.

On Wednesday, we were fortunate enough to have a very special guest speaker visit our school. Mr. Chris Lubbe, who had been a personal body guard for Nelson Mandela, came to St. Peter’s to speak to Years 4-6 about the Apartheid, Racism and Mutual Respect. He shared many stories about his inspirational journey and described how it felt to live in a segregated community. Chris informed us that he had promised Mandela to continue his work, by visiting schools, colleges and universities to educate young people about equality and the need to respect one another regardless of any differences we may have. After the assembly, there was a 20 minute Q&A session which enabled the children to ask Chris any particular questions they wished to raise, following the morning assembly. Please see the photos below…

In English, the children have been learning about speech dialogue and how this may be used to develop the plot line of a story. In particular, we selected two pivotal moments from our ‘Jemmy Button’ story – we then used role-play and dialogue to pretend to be the characters from the story and generate our own conversation that we felt would have taken place. As the week progressed, we then revisited our learning on speech punctuation, using our special speech rhyme and actions to help us remember the key rules when recording direct speech. For an additional challenge, the children then had a go at switching the order of their sentences (detail first, then dialogue, e.g. Jemmy whispered quietly, “Are you sure?”) and even successfully managed to include additional narrative detail between dialogue entries, to show what each character was thinking to themselves as the conversation developed. Well done Year Four!

In Maths, we have continued to learn about time. Specifically, we have focused upon telling the time to the nearest 5 minute and 1 minute intervals, before then moving on to conversion problems about time. During these sessions, both classes discussed the ‘scale’ around a clock and then identified how the numbers around a clock face were similar to a number line with equal jumps. By the end of our learning this unit, we looked at digital time and used interactive resources to help us compare and convert between analogue, digital and 24 hour time. We were very impressed by the commitment that had been demonstrated by each class, when partaking in a variety of tricky Maths challenge problems across the week.

We look forward to seeing you all next week.

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns.

Hello,

We all hope you had a fantastic Christmas and a well deserved break! It was lovely to see all the children back in on Monday, keen to learn and get back into a school routine and what a great first week back it was!

The children have started a new topic called Island Hoppers which will take us through most of the Spring term. Here year 4 closely look at different islands, comparing places and studying volcanoes. In English the book we will be studying is Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali. It is a true story of a young Native boy from a tribe in South America who was invited to come to England in the hopes to be civilised, however though he was draped in all the finest clothing and experienced England’s greatest cultures, he felt a part of him was missing and Charles Darwin returned him home. This is a great English hook as we have been able to compare the different settings and use our inference skills to justify why Jemmy was feeling certain ways.

In Maths, Koalas and Kangaroos have been learning all about time. This weeks focus has been on o’clocks, half pasts, quarter past, quarter to and nearest 5 minutes. We have been really impressed with the children perseverance this week as Time is always a tricky concept to grasp. So keep up the good work Year 4.

This week children have been given their poetry competition books, where they are allowed to chose a poem to practise and then later [perform to the class. Alongside this they have been given their Spring reading passports. Altogether Year 4 had a very impressive number of children who completed the Autumn Term with oly a few off the winning class, so lets continue to encourage children with their home reading. The teachers at St Peters are always happy to help find books or articles for children to help them complete this.

As usual homework has been handed out and we expect children to bring this back on Friday 17th, we were very happy with the amount of children who brought back their homework after the Christmas break as we appreciate this time of the month is very busy.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns

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.

Hello everyone,

We hope you have had another pleasant week.

This week in English, the children have been really busy self editing and drafting their final writes. The intended outcome is for children to produce an informative leaflet explaining how to take care of your snowman. The children have worked really hard on what they have produced, linking lots of their science and maths learning, which has given the leaflets a real informative feel. The leaflets will hopefully be out and ready in the office for visitors to look at by the end of next week.

We have been incredibly impressed with the children’s maths learning this week. They were introduced to a new skill for division, which was the bus stop method and using place value counters. Children are already able to divide three digit numbers by 6,7 and also can identify the remainders.

We would like to say thankyou to all the parents who came along to parents evening this week. It was lovely to showcase all the hard work your children have been doing this school year. If you want to follow any thing up or have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Next Tuesday 3rd December, St Peter’s will be attending an Advent service at Sacred Heart Church in Waterlooville. If their are any parent volunteers who would be able to assist the school with walking the church, please contact the school office.

Also next week, on Friday 6th December the children will be having a Stem day at school, and in year 4 we will be exploring different structures and finding out what makes the strongest bridge. It would be greatly appreciate if children could bring in any resources/material that will be used that day.

Quick reminders:

• • Advent Service Tuesday 3rd December 2019
  • Reading passports are due in on Wednesday 4th December 2019
  • STEM day Friday 6th December 2019

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

From Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns

Hello,

We hope that you are all well and that you have been having a pleasant week.

In English, Year Four have been creating sentences about their snowman using subordinate and causal conjunctions. In addition, both classes have studied a variety of explanation texts and generated a bank of technical vocabulary to apply across their sentence work for their snowman information leaflet. At the end of the week, the children completed their planning forms and decided which key features they would like to include for each section of their leaflet. We look forward to seeing the published copies available in the school reception at the end of next week!

In Maths, we have been learning about Multiplication and Division. In particular, we have discussed a variety of efficient strategies to use when counting ‘groups’ or ‘lots of’ items, e.g. arrays, bar models, part-part whole drawings, number lines with largest multiples, etc. As the week progressed, Year Four were able to confidently and successfully complete a variety of word problems, carefully interpreting the key vocabulary to decide which mathematical symbol and strategy to use. Well done to both classes for all of the commitment they have shown to the challenge tasks.

On Friday, the children attended an Anti-Bullying assembly as part of their learning for Anti-Bullying week. Each class took part and were given the opportunity to participate as part of an interactive school presentation.

Please remind your children to complete the following homework:

• Spelling slip
• Vocabulary learning
• Sumdog Maths

We hope you all have a relaxing weekend and we very much look forward to seeing you all next week at our parents evenings on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th November 2019. 

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns.

Hello,

We hope you’ve had a lovely week so far and hopefully it will be a dryer and warmer week next week.

As the festive season is coming up, we took the opportunity to use  The Snowman by Raymond Briggs as part of our new English unit. At the start of the week, the children had to carefully follow instructions, in order to make their own snowmen. We were very happy with the cooperation and collaborating demonstrated by the children who thoroughly enjoyed the activity.

Unfortunately, over night they melted! So in English we have decided to create an informative leaflet on how to look after your frosty friends. This week we have explored different non-fiction texts, leaflets and explanation texts to identify key features. We have also been learning about cause and effect with casual conjunctions such as ‘Do not place your snowman too close to the fire, as consequently he will melt’. We can’t wait to see the children planning next week!

In Maths, we have explored many aspects of Geometry. Started the week looking at area and understanding the difference between that and perimeter. We then moved onto lines of symmetry, where the children were able to explore different Anglo-Saxon artefacts and complete the shape using mirrors and identifying the lines of symmetry. To finish up on Geometry, we have explored lots of different angles, shapes and lines and how to plot and find coordinates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AOoLbA3us Here is a link to a line song that the children loved to sing along to.

We were so amazed at the quality of work that came in from the Rosa Park homework. Children have really delved deep with using their inference skills to describe  her thoughts and opinions, how she has changed the world. Next week we will discussing what happened, what this has influenced by role playing and using conscious alleys.

Just a friendly reminder, homework is sent out on Friday’s and is expected back in the following Friday. The homework that is sent out is a a vocabulary task, maths on SumDog and spellings. Children are tested on their spelling homework every Friday.

Also don’t forget Parents evenings are on Wednesday 26th November from 4-7pm and Thursday 27th November 3.45-6.15pm. We look forward to seeing you then.

Well done Kangroos and Koalas for another fantastic week of learning! Keep up the good work! Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns