Author: Miss Newman

Today, Year 4 applied their column addition and subtraction skills to a real-world scenario – a restaurant.

The children were given a (very expensive) menu and chose three things they would like to order. Using their column addition, they worked out the total cost of their bill. After this, they were given a gift voucher to spend in the restaurant. They used their column subtraction to work out the total cost of their bill after their gift voucher had been applied.

It was a really fun way for the children to demonstrate their column addition and subtraction skills!

Help at home: look at the menu and ask the children to order three items and use column addition to work out their total.

This week, Year 4 have started our chemistry topic of states of matter. We’ve looked at the three states of matter and discussed their properties.

• solid – fixed shape and fixed volume
• liquid – non-fixed shape and fixed volume
• gas – non-fixed shape and non-fixed volume

After that, we explored how temperature can change states of matter.

Help at home: ask your children what temperatures change our states of matter (eg below 0°c = freezing).

This week in L&L, we’ve been focusing on one of our British Values – democracy. Democracy means that power is in the hands of the people.

Our topic this half-term has been Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks founded democracy so the children already had a great understanding of what this meant.

The word democracy comes from Greek:

•  dêmos – people
•  krátos – power/rule

We’ve learnt about democracy in our country and how this works. The children were really interested in learning about the central and local government and the roles of political parties. We also discussed how we’re involved in democratic decisions at school:

We get to vote for how we use our reward time.

We get to vote for our JLT in school.

At the start of the year we got to vote for the name of our class reward points.

Next week, we’ll have our own democratic vote to elect our new JLT members for this year.

Help at home: create your speech for becoming a JLT candidate.

• What good qualities do you have to be a good leader?

“I would be a great leader because I listen to, and respect, other’s views.”

• How can you help your class?

“I would help Year 4 by listening to your opinions and ideas and sharing these with Mr Wilks and Mrs Weekes.”

Yesterday, Year 3 and 4 visited Lotherton Hall on a school trip! This trip linked to this our science topic: grouping and classifying living things.

We began the day by exploring the Wildlife World and we saw some incredible animals! Some of your children’s particular favourites included the capybara, tapir, emus, Humboldt penguins and flamingos! It was amazing to be able to get so close and admire these fantastic animals.

Later, we were lucky enough to attend a workshop all about classifying animals. I was so impressed with all your children’s science knowledge! They explored the five groups of vertebrates:

• mammals
• reptiles
• amphibians
• fish
• birds

At the end of the workshop, each table got a replica skull to study. They looked at the teeth to decipher whether it was a herbivore or carnivore and the eye sockets to determine whether it was a predator or prey. It was fascinating!

It was a brilliant day filled with exciting and interactive learning – we’d love to go back!

Help at home: ask your children to name the different animals they saw at Wildlife World and classify them into their vertebrate group.

This week, we’ve loved doing column addition!

We began the week with column addition without exchanging and once your children were confident with this, we moved onto column addition with exchanging.

You can exchange 10 ones for 1 ten.

You can exchange 10 tens for 1 hundred.

You can exchange 10 hundreds for 1 thousand.

I’ve been wowed by your children’s column addition this week! They’ve demonstrated some fantastic knowledge of how and why we use column addition.

Help at home by asking  your children to complete the following calculations using column addition:

2910 + 5839 =

1092 + 7233 =

2649 + 7221 =

8323 + 1284 =

Today we had drop-down morning! This is an entire morning dedicated to recapping our topic learning from previous years. In Year 4, we recapped:

• history – heroes
• geography – explorers
• computing – algorithms

We began the day with history. We discussed two influential figures in history: Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen. I was so impressed with your children’s knowledge about these two individuals and they demonstrated this in ‘Walkabout Bingo’. Our bingo cards had 15 questions about either Nelson Mandela or Leonora Cohen and, to fill these, the children needed to ask each other for the answers. It was a really fun way for your children to test each other’s knowledge!

For our geography topic, we compared York and Venice. We recapped what we knew about the human and physical geography of both cities before revisiting the idea of overtourism. The children’s job was to read a selection of issues that’ve arisen due to overtourism in York and Venice and, in groups, come up with some solutions. It was great to hear your children’s discussions and they came up with some excellent solutions!

Finally, we recapped our Year 3 computing on algorithms.

An algorithm is a set of instructions or rules to complete a task.

Our focus was on creating effective algorithms in the simplest form (to make it easier for our computers to follow). We practised creating and writing a variety of different algorithms and even debugging some!

Help at home:

• Ask your child to tell you about Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen and why they’re such influential figures in history.
• Create a list of physical and human geographical features with your child.
• Download ScratchJr and ask your child to show you how to create algorithms.
• Alternatively, ask your child to write an algorithm for this grid:

Every Friday, your children share their love of reading in our Book Club sessions. As part of their homework, they complete one activity in their reading records each week, relating to the book they’re reading. This week it was ‘Predict the Future’.

We then discussed our class novel ‘Greek Myths’ by Geraldine McCaughrean – specifically the myth of ‘Daedalus and Icarus’ which we’re half way through. Your children shared their own predictions of what might happen:

I predict that Icarus is going to get too close to the sun and burn.

I predict that Icarus’ wings are going to fall off and he is going to fall but then Daedalus is going to catch him.

I predict that Icarus’ wings are going to melt off and he is going to fall but one of the guards is going to catch him and lock him up again.

We’re all very excited to finish the myth and find out if our predictions were correct!

Help at home: Read with your child daily and encourage meaningful conversations about their books. What do you think will happen next? Who is your favourite character and why? If you had to describe this book in three words, which would you choose?

This week, our L&L statement was: I know that rights come with responsibilities.

We had a brilliant discussion about how we all have rights, however these come with certain responsibilities. As a class we came up with some rights we have within school and the responsibilities that come with these:

• We have a right to playtime but a responsibility to play safely and respectfully.
• We have a right to learn but a responsibility to be great learners.
• We have a right to eat lunch but a responsibility to be respectful and polite to the lunchtime staff.
• We have a right to use the classroom equipment but a responsibility to look after it.
• We have a right to share our opinions in circle time but a responsibility to do so respectfully.

After, we looked into some children’s rights in the UK:

Help at home: Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9_IvXFEyJo and ask your child what rights and responsibilities they have at home (eg. they have the right to play with their toys but a responsibility to do this safely).

This half-term in PE we’re playing hockey!

This week, we’ve learnt how to correctly hold a hockey stick and explored two types of passes: a hit pass and a push pass. We discussed how to make sure our passes are accurate and controlled, and practised passing in partners.

We then played a game of ‘Piggy in the Middle’, where the children had to pass the ball to their partner without it being intercepted by a defender. This was a fun way for them to practise both their passing and their defending.

They all demonstrated brilliant hockey skills – their passes were controlled, on target and powerful. I’m looking forward to seeing these skills exhibited in a match later this half-term!

Help at home: ask your children to show and explain to you how to correctly hold a hockey stick (you could use a broom or anything you have lying around the house). You could also watch this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVNiYGHcC8) and get your children to identify the different passes they can see.

Today, Year 4 held a debate over which Ancient Greek city state was better – Athens or Sparta.

The children used the city state fact files they’d made in the previous lesson to debate over topics including the economy, education, women’s rights and the government.

We learnt some top tips for debating:

• Have confident body language.
• Prepare arguments to counter your side’s weaknesses.
• Use key debating vocabulary (e.g. “You make a good point. However…”).
• Listen carefully to the other side so you can respond appropriately.
• Project your voice.

Although Athens won the debate, all children demonstrated brilliant debating and oracy (speaking and listening) skills. It was fantastic!

Help at home: Practise the top tips for debating at home. Should children have to go to school on weekends? Should video games be allowed in school?