Topic – Art
This half term, we are learning about art – both practically and some art history too.
We are learning about Georges Seurat, who used pointillism (dots), and Bridget Riley, who is an optical artist (uses shapes, pattern and colour to create illusions).
We have created dots using cotton buds and bubble wrap.
Help at home by talking about your preferences for certain artists or colours and shapes.
Guided Reading Week 5
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 13th December.
Extra Time: up to chapter ‘Second Half’/page 139.
Divine Freaks: up to chapter 16/page 155.
Mr Gum: finish the book.
How To Train Your Dragon: up to chapter 15/page 191.
Kensuke’s Kingdom: up to chapter 9/page 131.
Living and Learning: Mental Wellbeing
This week was one of our mental wellbeing weeks in school. We’ve been focusing on how we can look after our own mental wellbeing, as well as supporting others.
During our L&L lesson this week, we spoke about change, grief, and loss and how these can cause a wide-range of feelings and behaviours. It’s important to understand that people can respond differently to these feelings and we must always respect that. We discussed lots of self-care techniques we can use when we’re finding something difficult or upsetting.
I can speak to a trusted adult like my mum or teachers at school.
I can write a note to put in the worry box.
I can play with my friends until I feel better.
I can watch my favourite TV show or play my favourite game.
It was great to hear all of your children’s brilliant and mature ideas about how we can promote our own mental wellbeing and support others’.
Help at home: encourage your children to talk openly about their emotions and feelings and discuss which techniques they find useful when they’re feeling down.
Reading records!
Here are some great reading record activities that have been completed recently…
Each week, the children are given one activity to complete in their reading records. This activity shows us at school that they’ve been reading at home!
Even though the children do the same activity, they all are very different e.g. different vocabulary, different stories, fiction, non-fiction.
If you’re ever unsure what do, please ask or choose one of them yourself!
The comment section is a chance to say how your child has read that week and if they have enjoyed it or not.
Help at home by listening to your child reading and leaving a comment about how they got on after!
Autumn 2: Week5
During this week, we have been practising our Christmas songs for the nativity. You may have even heard the children singing them at home. They are enjoying learning the songs and creating actions for them.
Our poem of the week this week is Wise Old Owl. Please encourage your child to share this with you and discuss the key vocabulary.
We are encouraging the children to begin sentence writing during our writing sessions and in the areas. We ask them to think of a sentence, count it, try and write it and then check it. We are not expecting these to be accurate but we are trying to develop a love of writing and modelling the thought process.
Math
We have been working on numeral recognition this week. The children have been finding numbers and then selecting the correct amount of objects to match the number. Alongside this, we’re supporting the children with their accuracy with counting and recognising that the number they finish on is the amount they have – the stopping number.
Help at home: by pointing out numbers in the environment
We have been having lots of fun both inside and outside this week. The children have been working as a team to erect different buildings.
PE: Gymnastics
We have really enjoyed our gymnastics sessions this half term in PE. We have been balancing, travelling and jumping. This week we put lots of these skills together whilst using the equipment. We were very courageous when climbing up the climbing frame and jumping off the high horses. I was very impressed by everybody’s hard work.
Help at home by practising our weekly challenge of balancing on one leg. Can you balance longer than a minute?
Drop-down Morning: geography, history & D&T
Today we had drop-down morning! We use this as an opportunity to recap and strengthen our topic knowledge from previous years.
Today we revisited:
- Geography – Where in the world am I?
- History – Romans and Anglo-Saxons
- D&T – Product design
We started with geography. We were focusing on maps and grid references. Your children had a go at reading maps, identifying and writing their own grid references.
Next, we moved onto history where we played a game of ‘hunt’. The children had a question sheet all about the Romans and Anglo-Saxons and had to hunt around the classroom, gathering the answers from their classmates. They then completed a crossword using all their historical knowledge!
Finally, in D&T we recapped all things product design! We discussed the design process that all products must go through and even had a go at ordering the design process of a new car!
Help at home: choose a product in your house and ask your child to identify some of the design criteria it might have had.
Topic – Art
Our Art Topic has been made up of two parts: art history and art skills.
Our art skills learning is building up to creating a collage inspired by the architecture we’ve been exploring. We’ve been looking at buildings by our chosen architects: Zaha Hadid and Christopher Wren.
To create our collages, we’re using lots of different skills…
- tracing
- observational drawing
- collage
and media…
- carbon paper
- different background materials
- pencils, pens
The media might be different colours like primary, secondary or complementary colours! 
We’re using a lot of line and shape when creating our art. We also might use shade to show darkness and shadows.
Help at home by spotting what shapes you can see on or as part of the architecture you see!
Science: Water Cycle
Year 4 are chemists!
As part of our chemistry unit, we’ve been learning about the water cycle.
- Evaporation is when water turns into water vapour from the heat of the sun.
- Condensation is when water vapour changes back into water and forms a cloud.
- Precipitation is when solid or liquid water falls from the Earth’s atmosphere.
- Collection is when water from precipitation is gather back into lakes, rivers and seas.
We also learnt about the 4 different types of precipitation – rain, snow, sleet and hail.
Your children found it fascinating how all the water on Earth is continually recycled through the water cycle. We even had some interesting discussions about whether we drink the same water that dinosaurs drank!
Help at home: ask your children to talk you through each stage of the water cycle. Make sure they use our key vocabulary:
Leeds Discovery Centre and Royal Armouries
We had a wonderful time at the Royal Armouries and Leeds Discovery Centre yesterday! In the morning, we looked around the Royal Armouries, where the children were able to answer questions about the different artefacts on display. We were lucky enough to witness sword fighting!
At Leeds Discovery Centre we took part in an Ancient Egyptian workshop. The children were able to touch artefacts, design their own Egyptian town and create a self portrait (in the style of hieroglyphics).
The children were amazed by the fascinating Leeds Discovery Centre store, which holds over 1 million artefacts. We were able to look at a range of different items from the past; we even saw Ancient Egyptians bandages that were wrapped around a real mummy at one point!
Help at home: Discuss something they have learnt, their favourite part of the day or a question they now have about Egyptian life.