Following on from recapping the bus stop method of division last week in Maths, we have been using this skill to find fractions of amounts of money, for example 3/8 of £256. To do this, the children needed to divide the total amount of money by the denominator (bottom number in the fraction) and multiply that amount by the numerator (top number).

This week in English we have decided, driven by the children’s wishes, to put together an argument in response to a letter written by our own Head Teacher, Mr Cunningham. The children, having learned about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, felt that Mr Cunningham’s proposals – about reducing the amount of time spent playing in the school day – disregarded some of their rights. We look forward to Mr Cunningham’s visit to our classrooms on Tuesday, when we can present our argument to him.

In RE, this week we have continued our unit on Sacraments by thinking about the ‘vocation’ of those within the Church. We learned about what ‘a day in the life’ of a nun, monk or priest is like.

Spellings are continuing from last week, the test will be on Friday:

Groups 1 and 2

replied

enemies

emptied

victorious

marrying

Groups 3 and 4

envied

pitiful

busily

delayed

supplier

Remember, these all have root words that end in -y. They could possibly change in some way when we add a suffix. Encourage you child to make conscious choices about what they should do to the word and why.

Enjoy the lovely, sunny weekend.

Team 4.

In Maths this week, the children have been consolidating their understanding of division (using the bus stop method) and applying it in to a variety of different problems/investigations. For a great tuition video visit https://vimeo.com/146562264

This week in English we have been writing and publishing our non-chronological reports on Grendel, the monstrous beast from Beowulf. This will end our Beowulf topic. We will be moving on to learning about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and using these as stimuli for our writing.

In RE, this week we have begun our unit on Sacraments by thinking about the word ‘vocation’. We have thought about our own callings in life and the jobs we would like do. We will be moving on to think about the jobs of those whose vocation is within the Church.

Today we had a wonderful trip to the Historic Dockyard to visit the Mary Rose Museum as part of our history learning, comparing Viking ships to more modern ships. The children enjoyed two workshops; Henry’s Heroes and Fighting Fit. We had the opportunity to dress up as Tudor sailors and interact with some of the artefacts. A huge thank you to all our parent helpers, without you, the trip wouldn’t have been possible!

Picture evidence:

Spellings are below:

Groups 1 and 2

replied

enemies

emptied

victorious

marrying

Groups 3 and 4

envied

pitiful

busily

delayed

supplier

These all have root words that end in -y. They change when we add a suffix.

Have a lovely weekend,

Team 4.

In Maths this week, the children have been consolidating their understanding of multiplication (using the grid method) and applying it in to a variety of different problems/investigations. Next week we’ll be looking at division (using the short division method).

English lessons have involved looking at the features of a non-chronological report and writing a variety of sentences with different conjunctions. Next week, the children will be beginning to write their non-chronological reports about Grendel – his habitat, diet, appearance and more…

In RE, this week we have researched different Saints and how they continued Jesus’ work. Next week we begin our unit on Sacraments by thinking about the word ‘vocation’.

STEM day today was a lovely experience for the children where they were able to design a Viking finger puppet and use some sewing skills. The hardest part of the day for the children was threading the needles and knotting the thread. Any practice on this would be beneficial at home.

Spellings are the same as last week’s, which you can find on the previous Blog.

Have a lovely weekend,

Team 4

In Maths this week, we’ve been interpreting data from bar and line graphs. We’ve even tried to create our own line graphs using data about population changes.

In English, we’ve finished publishing our setting descriptions, justifying our choices about the position of each sentence in the paragraph. We’ve also practised editing.

In RE this week we have continued our Pentecost and Mission unit by looking at St Paul’s letter about how to be a Witness to the Good News. We’ve created beautiful job descriptions to appeal for more Witnesses.

The children have new spellings, looking at words ending in ‘ous’:

Group 1/2

furious

victorious

dangerous

famous

perilous

Group 3/4

religious

advantageous

luxurious

continuous

conscious

Maths homework this week is to continue using SumDog as much as possible. For creativity homework, you should find a letter in your child’s school bag from Mrs Pearson, regarding the ‘homes through the ages’ competition. We have suggested that the children might like to research Saxon and Viking homes and make a model of this to both, further their topic understanding and meet the criteria for the competition. These must be completed by the deadline stated on the letter to be considered for the competition, but it will still be useful to bring in any models finished after this date.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend and a great half term!

Team 4 🙂

In Maths this week, we’ve been revisiting our Geometry topic, looking specifically at co-ordinates and translating shapes on a grid.

In English, we’ve begun planning our setting description for our Beowulf unit of work and will begin writing our final piece next week.

In RE this week we have started our Pentecost and Mission unit where we’ve looked at Acts 1 and 2 in order to fully understand the events surrounding the ‘gift of tongues’ and the effect on the Apostles and Christianity.

The children have the same spellings as last week, following the rules:

• take off the ‘e’
• double the consonant
• do nothing
• take off the ‘y’ , add an ‘i’
• add a ‘k’
• if the root work ends in a ‘l’ always double it.

Now they just need to work out the rules for when you need to do each of these!

Finally, Maths homework this week is to continue using SumDog as much as possible.

Have a lovely weekend

Team 4 🙂

In Maths this week, we’ve been revisiting our Geometry topic, looking specifically at the properties of triangles and quadrilaterals, including the lengths of the sides, the size of the angles, lines of symmetry and whether or not they contain parallel lines. This is a tricky topic that requires the children to internalise the different properties in order to identify different 2D shapes. Use these posters below to help revise:

Triangles

Quadrilaterals

In English, we’ve begun gathering high-level vocabulary to use in the setting description of the Lake of Demons, home to the feared Grendel, enemy of Beowulf.

In RE this week we have finished off our Easter unit and look forward to beginning Pentecost on Monday.

The children have been given new spellings to practice which we will test them on in two weeks’ time. You should find these in their homework diaries. To recap:

Groups 1 and 2:

Chop -> chopped

Slice -> sliced

Try -> tried

Blend -> blended

Shred -> shredded

Groups 3 and 4:

Decide -> decided

Enjoy -> enjoyed

Commit -> committed

Inherit -> inherited

Mimic -> mimicked

The children have worked out that before adding -ed, they may need to:

• take off the ‘e’
• double the consonant
• do nothing
• take off the ‘y’ , add an ‘i’
• add a ‘k’

Now they just need to work out the rules for when you need to do each of these!

Finally, Maths homework this week is to use SumDog as much as possible. There is a national competition running at the moment with bonus prizes available for children who complete over 100 questions, and we really want to see 4PA and 4F up there on the leader board! We can remind you of passwords and usernames if necessary.

Have a lovely weekend and we’ll see you on Monday!

Team 4 🙂

In Maths this week, we’ve been revisiting our Measurement topic and solving problems which involve converting between different units of measure. Conversions the children should know are:

1cm = 10mm (cm into mm x10, mm into cm divide by 10)

100cm= 1m (cm into m divide by 100, m into cm x100)

1kg = 1000g (kg into g x 1000, g into kg divide by 1000)

1L = 1000ml (L into ml x 1000, ml into L divide by 1000)

Please test your children on these conversions over the weekend to support their working memory! They’ve been given some work sheets (involving using their conversions) to complete this weekend.

In English, we’ve written our gruesome, monstrous recipes which the children have really enjoyed! Some fabulous pieces of work have been produced from the children’s pure imagination, presentation and impressive sentence structures.

On Tuesday we had our Mass devoted to Mary at Sacred Heart Church. We would just like to say thank you to the parents who came with us on our walk to and from the church! Also, we would like to say thank you to the children who participated in the Mass itself and congratulate the whole of Year 4 on their politeness and refinement. What a lovely Mass!

With a shortened week coming, we’ll be powering through our Geometry topic in Maths (so any pre learning the children want to do at home would be brilliant – symmetry, triangle properties, translation, coordinates) and continuing our Beowolf topic in English (any sentence skills work at home would also be great).

Don’t forget, children, to practice your spellings (on last week’s blog post) words ending in -ing!

Have a lovely, long weekend and we’ll see you Tuesday!

What happened to the sunshine?!

A lovely and hard working second week for Year 4!

In Maths we have been pushing through our vast fractions and decimals unit, focusing on understanind decimal equivalence for hundredths and tenths. For example: 0.32 is 32/100 or 3/10 + 2/100. Developing this skills further, we have been applying it to a range of problems and emphasising precise reasoning. We have also been rounding and comparing decimals use the ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ symbols. For example: I think 1.4 is bigger than 1.46. Do you agree? Prove it.

English lessons this week have ben focused around preparing to write our gruesome, terrifying yet delicious monster recipes related to our Beowolf topic. We’ve experiemented with writing the same sentence but in a range of different ways (to promote a deeper understanding of sentence skills) and introductions ready for our appetising recipes. Once we’ve finished our plans, we’ll begin writing them next week.

In RE we’ve been identifying and understanding key phrases about Heaven from a range of scriptures. Using this information, we’ve each produced a pieces of artwork about what we believe Heaven is like, making links to the scripture where possible.

For homework this week, the children should practice converting between different unit of measure.

For spellings:

Groups 1 and 2 should practice:

playing (play)

hopping (hop)

cramming (cram)

starring (star)

pouring (pour)

Group 3 and 4 should practice

interesting (interest)

elaborating (elaborate)

buzzing (buzz)

plugging (plug)

trimming (trim)

The rule is:

If a verb ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pattern it gets a double consonant + ing.

This rule DOESN’T work for words ending in: w,x,y and z.

Have a lovely weekend!

Team 4

What a busy first week back!

This week in Maths we have been consolidating our knowledge of fractions and multiplying and dividing by ten and one hundred to find their decimal equivalents.

In English, we’ve begun writing gruesome recipes for creating ‘human soup’, inspired by our new unit on Beowulf, which is linked to our ‘Saxons’ topic.

In RE, we have been looking at the Resurrection of Jesus, comparing the four accounts of the story which appear in the Gospel.

For spellings, children have been given one of the two sets of spellings below – they should know which! This is a two-week spelling block and the test will be next Friday.

Group 1: 12

Option (root: opt)

Conclusion (root: conclude)

Impression (root: impress)

Permission (root: permit)

Magician (root: magic)

Group 2: 20

Physician (root: physics)

Interception (root: intercept)

Obsession (root: obsess)

Invasion (root: invade)

Omission (root: omit)

The root word has been given as this will help the children to choose the correct ‘shun’ suffix.

The rule is:

-‘tion’: The most common ending

-‘sion’: when the root ends in se or d(e)

-‘ssion’: when the root has ‘ss’ or ends in ‘mit’

-‘cian’: most common for occupations.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Team 4.

This week in Maths we have been consolidating our knowledge of using the grid method. The children have been given a crib sheet for using short division which they should look at for homework.

In English, we’ve been writing our final copy of our letter in role as Jemmy Button, to his mother. There are some really beautiful, emotional examples where the children have shown real empathy for the character and his difficult journey.

In RE, we’ve finished our unit on Lent, reflecting on what we’ve learnt about the key themes of forgiveness, prayer, almsgiving, temptation, self-denial and fasting.

For spellings over the Easter holidays, the children have been given a little longer to work on the Spellathon. The Spellathon test will now be on Monday 16th April 2018. Please ensure that your child brings their sponsorship form and money in after Easter to add to our CAFOD collection.

Have a restful break!

Team 4.