Living and Learning: What influences us?
In our living and learning session this week, we discussed what influence means and what we think influences us.
The children came up with lots of ideas of what can be an influence on their lives and choices – both positive and negative: parents, friends, teachers, social media, adverts, games, famous people…
They worked as a group to create a diamond nine to represent which of these they felt influenced them most and which influenced them least which led to lots of interesting discussions.
At home, discuss this together, thinking about how friends, for example, can influence us positively and how they can influence us negatively.
Phonics mornings
Don’t forget our phonics mornings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Come along and see how the children have progressed and learn how you can support them in their reading and writing at home.
See you there!
Apostrophes
This week, we have been focusing on the correct use of apostrophes.
The children need to be able to use this punctuation mark within their writing accurately. In English, we use apostrophes in two ways, to show possession and to show contraction (or omission).
Apostrophes are used to tell us that something belongs to someone.
For example, if you were talking about a football belonging to Ben, you would say ‘Ben’s football’.
There is only one of Ben, so this is called singular possession.
In Year 4, children move onto using apostrophes to show plural possession.
If there are two or more people owning something, an apostrophe is needed to show plural possession. In this case the apostrophe goes after the plural owners, so if a group of girls each own a hat and you want to talk about all these hats, you would say ‘the girls’ hats’.
Apostrophes to show contraction or omission
If we put two words together and miss out some letters, we need to add an apostrophe where the missing letters are. For example: ‘do not’ would change to ‘don’t’, the contracted form.
During our lesson, the children attempted an apostrophe puzzle. Communication was a necessary skill required to master this tricky, hexagonal jigsaw. Well done everyone!
Quiz your child on the sentences below. Where does the apostrophe need to go? Can they explain why?
Group or singular possession?
This is Janes cat.
The man stole the ladies handbags.
The womens meeting began at eight.
The little ducks feathers were very soft.
The cars wheels had fallen off.
Marks hair was wet.
Class Fours classroom was very tidy.
Ukulele
Every Tuesday afternoon, the Year 4 classroom is filled with sharp, bright, crisp and lively sounds that resonate all around school. As part of our music lessons, the children have been learning to play the ukulele.
The ukulele is a four-stringed musical instrument made from wood that resembles a small classical guitar. It produces a characteristic sound that immediately takes us to tropical environments. The class have been working with determination to master the various techniques needed in order to confidently play a tune – or two!
The tutor has taught the children all about the seven basic major and minor ukulele chords – A(m), B(m), C(m), D(m), E(m), F(m), G(m) – and how they can be played using between one and four fingers.
Exploring Sculpture
As part of our topic learning around Fighting Fantasy, we’re working towards creating a modroc sculpture of the sort of creature you might come across in Firetop Mountain.
Today, we thought about what sculpture is, looking at some examples and discussing which we like best and why. At home, share any sculptures you know about and see whether your child likes it and why/why not.
Active Blasts
In Year 4, we are starting to incorporate more physical activity into our day by taking part in some ‘active blasts.’
The science behind active learning is that activity promotes better learning and behaviour, whilst improving physical health and mental well-being. Just 20 minutes of exercise increases brain processes and enhances cognitive control for up to 1 hour. Active children develop strong self-esteem and become happier learners.
Our session today was a muscle based activity incorporating a chair. We began with a shoulder squeeze, followed by some bicep curls, shoulder presses, elbow squeezes, seated abs curls, spine twists, standing up and sitting down slowly and controlled, standing up hamstring curls, calve raises and side leg lifts. After each exercise, we had a twenty second rest period.
Question your child about this new regime. Do they enjoy it? Does it help them to concentrate for longer? How do they feel afterwards? Which has been their favourite ‘active blast’ so far?
Leeds Playhouse
Drama can be used to improve the quality of children’s writing. This is because, when children are acting out a story, they’re learning about genre, narrative and how characters function in stories, which improves their knowledge of story structure. As well as this, by taking on a character and becoming immersed in their life and world through drama, children can experience how it feels to be a certain person with a particular personality, which enables pupils to write more thoughtfully and creatively. Drama is also ideal for developing and extending vocabulary.
Today, to enhance our Big Topic, Year 4 have been taking part in a drama workshop delivered by The West Yorkshire Playhouse. The session was based on our current class novel ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman.
After being transported into the story, the children thought about the various characters and how they may have been feeling at different parts in the novel. We were all very impressed by the standard of rich, descriptive language floating around the room.
Following this drama experience, Year 4 will be producing some descriptive writing. The children’s motivation to write has been enhanced by their involvement and enjoyment of today’s workshop.
Vertices? Sides? Lines of symmetry?
As part of our current maths learning on shape, we have been looking at the properties of 2D shapes to help us to sort shapes. This could include the number of sides; number of vertices; name of the shapes; lines of symmetry; curved or straight lines or regular and not regular.
Here are some of the ways we sorted the shapes. Can you think of how to describe each of the groups?
Leeds Art Gallery
Year 1 and 2 have enjoyed an art filled day at the Leeds Art Gallery to link with our current big topic, Katie and… There were no stepping in paintings for us today though.
First of all, we took part in a workshop session based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings which are currently being exhibited in the gallery.
We thought about the following.
- What could we see?
- How did it make us feel?
- What made Leonardo a great artist?
Based on his drawings, here were some of the reasons why we thought Leonardo was a great artist. Then, each group had a challenge to find another piece of art in the gallery that showed the same property.
We presented our findings to the rest of the class.
We enjoyed our lunch in the art studio.
After lunch, it was time to explore the galleries and sketch our own versions of some of the art on display.
Finally, it was time to leave the gallery to return to school. We wondered which paintings Katie would have stepped into and which bench Grandma would have taken a rest.
‘I learnt about Leonardo’s life.’
‘We saw that Leonardo da Vinci drew lots of horses and parts of the body.’
‘I learnt how old the pictures and sculptures were.’
‘I know there are lots of different types of art.’
‘I used to think that painting was easy but now I know the artists have to try really hard.’
‘I was amazed by the size of some of the paintings.’
Fe Fi Fo Fum! The Easter production has begun…
Big news in Years 3 and 4! We have officially kicked off rehearsals for the Easter production.
The production is called ‘Fe Fi Fo Fum’. So far we have held auditions and allocated the parts to pupils. Fe Fi Fo Fum is an action packed panto which brings the story of Jack and the Beanstalk up to date with a hilarious script, colourful characters and irresistible songs. Jack has to overcome his terrible fear of heights – a bit of a problem when trying to climb a beanstalk!
How can you help?
It is vital that your child brings their script into school every day. We are rehearsing regularly and annotating onto our scripts.
Please encourage your child to practise their lines at home and know what they need to say and any actions they need as well.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Easter production. Thank you for your support at home on this.