Hello everyone,

We hope you are keeping well and safe.

This week, the children have continued to build on writing skills that will help them write a letter to Greta Thunberg, persuading her to continue her work. We began the week by looking at coordinating, subordinating and causal conjuctions, building on climate change sentences. We used these sentences to support our arguement when we were trying to persuade people to use electric cars rather than sport cars. Next week, we will begin to draft and edit our letters!

In Maths, we are finishing our multiplication and division unit by looking at the relationship between related facts, 10/100/1000 times smaller and bigger. Next week, the children will use their knowledge of times and divide to support them in finding amounts of quantities using fractions. We will also be recapping times by solving time and conversion word problems.

A few polite reminders,

• Unfortunately, due to covid we have had to postpone Viking Stem day which would have been held on Friday 25th March. We have now moved this to Friday 29th April 2022, we cannot wait to see all the children dressed as Vikings! Please continue to collect resources for the day such as large plastic bottles, lolly pop sticks, lids along with any other material fit for a long boat!
• Please send your child in their correct PE kit on Monday 28th March.
• Spelling, maths, reading journals and vocabulary homework is due Friday 1st April 2022.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell, Mrs Cairns and Miss Ranson

Hello everyone,

We hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

This week, the children have been working hard on their new unit of learning, writing a persuasive letter to Greta Thunberg to encourage her to keep campaigning against climate change. We have explored a range of articles and documentaries, to help us collect facts and opinions about deforestation, plastics in the sea, burning fossil fuels and global warming. Building upon their prior knowledge of Jemmy Button and the jungle descriptions we created in our last unit of work, the children were then able to develop their own expanded noun phrases to help them powerfully describe the beautiful rainforests that are currently at risk. Next week, we shall use a variety of conjunctions in order to explain to our reader why it is important to protect the planet.

In Maths, Year Four have re-visited their learning on multiplication and division, this time considering how they can use more efficient methods such as grid technique, bus stop and partitioning of larger numbers in order to count equal groups within a total. The children have also started to engage with their challenge tasks, that include using the inverse operations in order to go back and analyse, review and check their answers are reasonable and close to what they had initially predicted at the start of each Maths problem. Well done everyone! Next week, we shall continue to explore a range of techniques and consider how we can use ‘plan, do, review’ in order to apply them within the context of multi-step problems.

Here’s a few reminders for next week:

1. Please ensure your child arrives at school in PE kit on Thursday 24/03/22 for their morning session with CM sports.
2. Viking STEM day will be taking place on Friday 25th March 2022 – please ensure your child is wearing their Viking costume (if they would like to) and that they either bring a £1 voluntary contribution or their own plastic bottles and milk bottles (1L or 2L capacity), so there will be plenty of resources to use on the day. If your child would like to bring decorations to go on their Viking longboat, please ensure they are waterproof as we shall be testing the boats with our Viking visitor in the afternoon!
3. Spelling, vocabulary and Maths home learning (red books) and home reading journals (yellow books) to be handed in by Thursday 24th March 2022. Please also remind your child to continue logging in to TT Rockstars for daily practise of their times tables.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Best wishes,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash, Mrs Cairns and Miss Ranson

Hello everyone,

We hope you are keeping well and safe.

This week in English, we are coming to an end on our Jemmy Button unit. The children have drafted, edited and published fantastic stories in which they were writing a narrative and setting description about Orundelcio’s journey to Britain. Our next unit, we will focus on climate change and natural disasters with our final outcome being a letter to Greta Thunberg herself!

In Maths, we have started our new unit of multiplication and division. We have already unpicked a multistep problem, looked at different representations of the two operations and recapping strategies we may have used in the past. Next week, we will use different strategies to help us multiply and divide three/four digit numbers! Please continue to encourage your children to use Times Tables Rockstars regularly as this will really support them in this unit and prepare them for the Multiplication test in summer.

A few polite reminders –

• Firstly, it was lovely to see you all (virtually) for parents’ evening. We really enjoyed sharing with you the amazing hard work your child has put in this year. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to grab us on the playground!
• Please send your child in the correct PE uniform on Monday 14th March.
• Reminder that vocabulary, spellings, maths and reading journals are due Thursday 17th March 2022.
• We are excited to welcome back Miss Ranson, student teacher in Koalas. Here’s to another fantastic term!

We hope you have a fantastic weekend,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell, Mrs Cairns and Miss Ranson

Hello everyone,

We hope that you are well and keeping safe.

This week, we have enjoyed World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March 2022. It was wonderful to celebrate all of our favourite books, authors and characters. Please take a look at our class photos, below:

In English, we have been learning about Jemmy Button and creating our narrative stories. The children have thought carefully about which of the following skills they would like to include in their writing:

• Expanded noun phrases
• Fronted adverbials
• Similes and metaphors
• Speech dialogue

We very much look forward to completing, drafting and editing our work next week. In Maths, we have been learning strategies for addition and subtraction – in particular, we have focused on the following methods:

• Expanded column
• Number lines
• Number bonds

We also recently enjoyed our STEM day, where me made lots of shoebox biomes for a range of habitats as part of our Science learning, including:

• Deserts
• Jungles
• Oceans
• Caves
• Arctic

We look forward to seeing you all at our virtual parents evening session on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th March.

Best wishes,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns

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.

Hello everyone,

We hope you are all well and keeping safe. We have nearly made it to the end of the longest month!

The children have been working very hard this week on drafting, editing , publishing and performing their Spring poems. The children really thought about the rhythm, pitch and body language as they were performing which then was peer evaluated by a friend. Here are the final writes!

In Maths, the children have finished their time unit and have begun to move onto fractions. In the next couple of weeks, we will explore finding the amounts of units using fractions, understand the effect of dividing a number by 10, 100. We will delve deeper into what makes an equivalent fraction and how to recognise them.

A few polite reminders –

1. Please continue to work on your Spring Term reading passports. We recommend your child selects books from the library in order to help them with completing this task over the term.
2. Homework for spelling, vocabulary, reading journals and Maths (including Time Table Rockstars) will be due on Friday 4th February 2022. Please encourage your child to hand in their work as soon as it is completed through the week, to enable us to review their learning by the Friday.
3. All children to please wear their PE kits for CM sports on Thursday 3rd February 2022.
4. Next week we will start our sewing unit. We are practising our sewing skills by making a face mask and therefore if you have spare material for your child please do not hesitate to send it in. However, we do have plenty of material at school.

We hope that you all have an excellent weekend,

With very best wishes,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns.

Hello everyone,

We hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

This week, we have been celebrating Oscar Romero and how he had demonstrated the values of CST (Catholic Social Teaching) in order to serve his community of El Salvador throughout his life. The children took part in a class worship, whereby we reflected upon his life and core values. We each discussed the importance of his Mission, ‘Not to have more, but to be more’. As part of ‘going forth’, we produced our very own El Salvador crosses, to inspire our school community to continue to show kindess, generosity, selflessness and respect. Please see the image below:

In English, we have been enjoying out learning on Spring poetry. In particular, we have explored our local environment and been on a nature walk around the school in order to help us create Spring similes and metaphors. The children have worked very hard on their use of rhythm, syllables and rhyme as part of their drafting and editing process. We look forward to publishing and displaying our work in the Year 4 shared area this week.

In Maths, our learning has been focused upon telling the time to the nearest minute and 5 minute intervals. We have used analogue clock faces to support our understanding of the relationship between the minute and the hour hand. We have also made links to our fractions learning to help us remember where we would find half past, quarter past and quarter to when telling 12 hour time. Next week, we shall be starting to work on digital time and how to convert between 12 hour and 24 hour time.

A few quick reminders for you:

1. Please continue to work on your Spring Term reading passports. We recommend your child selects books from the library in order to help them with completing this task over the term.
2. Homework for spelling, vocabulary and Maths (including Time Table Rockstars) will be due on Friday 28th January 2022. Please encourage your child to hand in their work as soon as it is completed through the week, to enable us to review their learning by the Friday.
3. All children to please wear their PE kits for a hockey lesson with their class teacher on the afternoon of Monday 24th January 2022.

We hope that you all have an excellent weekend,

With very best wishes,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackon-Nash and Mrs Cairns.

Hello everyone,

We hope you are well and keeping safe.

This week, we have been very busy with lots of learning. In English, we have been looking at time and place adverbials. The children have been writing safety instructions on how to keep your snowman safe.

In Maths, the children have started their fraction unit. We have been very surprised with the children as they have been using their derived facts when dividing a whole by tenths and hundredths. Next week, we will begin to explore equivalent fractions and finding the amounts.

During Black History Month, year 4 were given the amazing Miriam Makeba, also known as Mama Africa, to explore and research. They researched all about her life, from when she was a child during the apartheid, to being exiled from her country, fighting against discrimination and then returning to her home country once the apartheid was quashed. Koalas and Kangroos were so inspired by her story that as a class they created a song which they performed to the class in their own ‘Miriam Makeba’ concert. We were very proud of the children for not only performing, but being so passionate and standing up against discrimination.

Just a few reminders –

• Thank you to all parents who attended the virtual Parent’s evenings. It was so lovely to chat and meet you properly. If you have any further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to call or message the school and we will try our best to help.
• Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to walk with the school for St Peter’s Advent service taking place at the Sacred Heart Church in Waterlooville. This will take place on Tuesday, so please send your child into school wearing appropriate and smart footwear.
• Reading passports are due 8.12.21
• Please send your child into school in their PE kits on Monday 29th November 2021.
• As the weather is getting colder and bitter, please send your child in wearing warm clothes such as gloves, hats and coats as at break and lunch the children will be on the playground.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell, Mrs Cairns and Miss Ranson