Living and Learning – Safety Online
In Year 4, we regularly chat and remind the children of the importance of staying safe online. This afternoon, we had a discussion about some of the potential issues that could arise when using technology.
We used this video to remind us of all the safety problems and how to solve them.
Another useful site is www.thinkuknow.co.uk.
There are age-appropriate activities on both these sites.
Ask your child are they SMART:
Digestion
Today, we welcomed three university students who are currently studying medicine.
They gave a very informative talk to the class all about the digestive system. The children asked some great questions about the varying functions of different organs during the digestive process.
It was interesting to find out about each organ and the crucial role it plays breaking down the food, keeping the food we need for our bodies and getting rid of the waste!
Skipping
Funded through our PE and Sport Premium, Year 2 and Year 4 have recently taken part in a skipping workshop led by ‘Skipping School’; both classes will then be part of a Leeds wide skipping competition.
- ‘I learnt a lot! It was fun and I learnt new skills.’
- ‘I think it is a good idea to skip because we are a happy and healthy school.’
- ‘I liked the skipping because I got to learn new things.’
- ‘I loved the skipping and the new skills because skipping makes you fit.’
- ‘First, I was really bad at skipping but when Jodi came I got better. Now I like skipping.’
We are offering all children the opportunity to learn these new skills, from their peers, by introducing skipping as a physical activity at lunchtimes. This is one way we are promoting physical activity during the school day for children to get their active 30 minutes.
The Government’s Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action, shares the expectation for all primary schools to provide a minimum of 30 active minutes every day for all pupils. The Chief Medical Officers recommend a minimum of 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity for children aged 5-18. Schools are expected to provide 30 of these minutes and families to achieve the other 30.
‘Skipping School’ also sell their ropes and we would like to offer all children the chance to buy a rope at a heavily subsided price (funded by our PE Premium) to continue learning these fundamental movement skills at home.
Ropes will be on sale at a price of £2 (normal price £5) before and after school during the week of 05 February. Starting with a stall at the PTA cake sale, Year 6 children will be selling the ropes in the playground subject to the weather. Please bring exact change wherever possible.
Fractions
Year 4 have been learning all about fractions and their equivalents. Some children were finding this concept quite tricky in class. We’d like the children to revise fractions at home and below is some useful information and ideas to support your child.
All children in Year 4 are expected, by the end of the year, to be able to recognise and show, using diagrams, families of common equivalent fractions.
What is a fraction?
A fraction represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half and three-quarters. The numerator (the top number) represents a number of equal parts, and the denominator (the bottom number), which cannot be zero, indicates how many of those parts make up a unit or a whole. For example, in the fraction 3/4, the numerator, 3, tells us that the fraction represents 3 equal parts, and the denominator, 4, tells us that 4 parts make up a whole.
This is a cake with one quarter removed. The remaining three quarters are shown. Dotted lines indicate where the cake may be cut in order to divide it into equal parts. Each part of the cake is denoted by the fraction 1/4.
- Cut fruit and veg into pieces of equal amounts and look closely at the sizes of each piece. How many are equivalent to a half? Children find it hard to see that the larger the denominator, the smaller part.
- Ask word problems to secure understanding. If I had 48 grapes and my friend ate a quarter, how many grapes did my friend eat? Prove it!
- If ¼ of a packet of Jelly Babies is 7 sweets, how many are there in a whole packet?
- How many eighths are equivalent to one quarter? How do you know?
- How many eighths are equivalent to three quarters? Draw a diagram to show how you worked this out.
- True or false? Four sixths are larger than one half. Prove it.
There are fraction related activities on Mathletics that will also help your child to further their understanding.
Homework
Last week, the children were asked to show what they’ve learnt about habitats or food chains.
Yet again, the standard of homework produced was excellent and so very creative. Ranging from food chains made with paper links to lifelike habitats, Year 4 had the lot!
All the staff are constantly amazed by how much effort the children put into their homework. It is always a pleasure to see the class celebrate and share their work with each other. There are lots of great examples of homework below. Well done, Year 4!
Exploring classification
We began our topic lesson today with some Liquorice Allsorts on our desks. Why, we hear you ask?
The children were asked to work as a group to sort the sweets according to clear characteristics that can split the specimens into two new groups.
They had to think of some questions that may help them to sort and split the sweets. The children thought about the following characteristics or features:
• structure (layered, encased in a shell)
• shape
• size
• colour
Using the idea of a flow chart, we began to group the sweets. The children tried to make their questions interesting and ensured that they always needed a ‘yes’/‘no’ answer, for example, ‘Is the sweet a primary colour?’
Next, our aim was to recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.
Using the same idea as before, the children had to generate questions that only had a yes/no answer, such as:
- Can the animal fly?
- Does it lay eggs?
- Does it have feathers?
- Is it a mammal?
- Does it breathe air?
- Does it live in water?
- Does it live on land?
The class were able to create their own animal flow charts to group the various creatures.
After-school clubs
Safer Internet Day 06 February
Splats Team Robot v Meanies e-Safety Show
As part of Safer Internet Day, on February 06, the pupils from Years 3 to 6 are learning and performing a show-in-a-day with Splats Entertainment e-Safety show.
The day is all about how we act online and in life. Each group of pupils work with the ‘Splats’ director where they learn their scene and then they make props in the classroom. The show is then being performed at the end of school at 2:30pm which we would like to invite you to attend. The day and performance is led by the ‘Splats’ director and the pupils join in and act out the parts.
It is a fun and light-hearted look at what is, of course, a very important issue of safety. The day is designed to get the pupils thinking, talking and developing their awareness of their online behaviour. We hope it will help facilitate discussion at school and at home and help the pupils be responsible and careful in their online activity.
Topics covered during the day include: keeping personal information safe; how we never know who we are talking to online; how to deal with any mean messages; how we never know how other people feel with what we say online; and if we are unsure of anything, we should always seek help from a trusted adult.
If you would like to come and watch the e-safety show, please complete the reply slip, on your child’s letter, and return to school as soon as possible as we have a limited number of spaces.
An unforgettable experience!
This week, Year 4 enjoyed a visit from The Mimika Theatre Group.
We were transported through a non verbal exploration of four contrasting areas of the natural world.
Landscapes is a unique show featuring puppets, mime, lights and sound which was designed to communicate through atmosphere.
We witnessed remarkable visual effects and transformations all set inside a beautiful dome.
Throughout the 45 minute session we enjoyed atmosphere, movements, rhythms, and sounds of four contrasting areas of the natural world.
The Sun rises over a buzzing desert, a chick hatches.
The Eagle leaves the nest in search of food.
Below, the Meerkats are alert.
The journey begins…..
Desert
Where the meerkats,lizards, snakes and scorpions battle each other but all live under the constant threat of danger from above…
…the ever circling Eagle searching for prey.
Rainforest
Where Apes and even the butterflies,spiders and birds are all drawn to a clutch of eggs on the riverbank but, the Crocodile is always on guard.
Sea
A crowded kaleidoscope of constant movement, the large and the small, the speedy and the slow, the beautiful and the ugly, the familiar and the bizarre.
Antarctic
Where the snow and the wind, the cold and the ice provide a harsh but beautiful background for the setting sun at journey’s end.
- environments
- habitats
- different species
- adaptation
- predators and prey
- life cylces
- food chains
We also discussed how using music in the production created an atmosphere for each environment.
“You can tell by the change in the music when a predator is nearby,” said Poppy, hiding behind her hands!
I really enjoyed the show and didn’t want it to end,” Henry said.
“We can honestly say that we found Landscapes to be one the most exciting, moving, educational performances we have ever seen. All the staff witnessed an awe of wonder on every child’s face as they watched this incredible show. Indeed, we were all very privileged to be a part of this journey through different lands. All this without a word being spoken,” discussed Mrs Freeman, Mrs Charlesworth (who was none to keen on the snakes) and Mrs Pearson.
Below, there are some images from the Mikika Theatre website for you to enjoy with your child. Ask them to describe each picture and which creatures inhabit the environment shown.
Our newest class member
To fit in with our topic of Life Forces, Year 4 have adopted a gorilla in support of the WWF charity.This incredible charity works to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable animals. 
ADOPT A GORILLAThe powerful mountain gorilla, now critically endangered with only around 880 left in the wild. The mountain gorilla is one of four surviving gorilla subspecies. They’re found in just two isolated populations – in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, and the Virunga volcanoes – which span the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We will be looking very closely at all aspects that are affecting and causing the decline in population. The adoption and support will to do many things. Such as:
Today, in class, the children were very excited to begin learning about these magnificent creatures. Lots of question were asked and we hope, in time, we will be able to answer them. The children received their first Gorilla update from the charity. This is The Year 4’s first Gorilla update.
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