Swimming

This half term, year 4 will be going swimming. Please see the dates below:

Wednesday 27th April

Wednesday 11th May

Wednesday 25th May

Wednesday 15th June

Wednesday 29th June

Our theme this half term is, ‘The Art of Food’

In art children will,

•  explore still life artists from the Dutch Masters through to Renoir’s study of onions or Cezanne’s apples.
• Children will make observational studies of food and fruit displayed in a still life and could also arrange the objects.
• They will have drawing opportunities in sketchbooks can be developed into paintings which, in turn, can be developed further into 3-D sculptures. Numerous drawing and painting opportunities better inform children when creating 3-D sculptures.

We have started our art unit by creating our front covers. Have a look at some of the children’s work below.

Science

We will be learning all about teeth and the digestive system. Our key questions for this unit will be;

Our key questions will be;

    Why do we have teeth?

   What do the teeth do?

   How many teeth do we have? Is it the same for everyone?

   Why do we lose teeth?

  How can we care for our teeth and gums?

  What are the teeth like of other animals?

 How does this give us information about what they eat?

 How are the teeth of carnivores and herbivores similar or different? Why?

  What happens to our food once it enters our mouths?

         What happens in our bodies between eating our food and going to the toilet?

The children have learnt about the digestive system this week. They have created their own digestive systems in class. The children loved replicating the digestive system and what happens inside our body. The children put bananas and crackers inside a food bag, which represented the stomach before adding orange juice and water (acid and enzymes). They then transferred this into tights with represented the intestines. They squeezed and pushed the water out into a bowl. Then then used a cup to apply pressure to the paste inside the intestine before it came out of the hole in the cup. Have a look at the photos below!

Passport to Europe

Geography

Our key questions for this unit are;

• What do the children know already about our selected region? What would they like to know or find out?
• Where is the our selected region located? How far away is this region? How might people travel there?
• What is the physical geography like e.g. climate, landscape, rivers, mountains etc? What distinctive features does the region have?
• What is the human geography like e.g. settlement size, transport, tourist attractions, economic activity and trade links?
• Why have towns and cities developed where they are?
• How does location, climate etc. have a bearing on economic activity in the region?
• What are the similarities and differences between this region and the region of the UK that has been explored previously in Year Three?
• What are the lives of children in this region like? How are their lives similar to ours? What would it be like to live in this place?

Design and Technology

Happy New Year and welcome back.

This week, the children in Year 4 have been learning about the water cycle. The children made their own water cycles in a bag. We are going to stick them on the window and see what happens. Keep an eye out for a later update.

New books! 

This week, the staff in Year 4 revamped our bookcase with some brand new books! The look on the their  faces  when they saw the books was priceless. The children were eager to get stuck into their new books and we spent some time in the afternoon getting comfy on cushions, beanbags and sat down to read ,along with a cup of juice.

Welcome Back for Autumn 2.

We’ve had a fantastic start to our Year 4 journey. We have another jam packed term ahead of us filled with lots of learning and fun!

English

Mathematics 

History

This half term, Year 4 have been learning about the Great Plague. To start our topic, the children discussed their knowledge about events and periods in History. Children then placed their events on a timeline on our working wall. Children then were presented with a suitcase (They were very excited!) an item at a time was revealed and the children discussed the items and asked questions about the items. The items in the suitcase were linked to our current pandemic. We looked at how it started, how it spread, how people were protected and how the spread can be stopped. Children were then presented with images related to the Great Plague.  The children really enjoyed this topic and created interactive quizzes using what they have learnt. Scan the QR code below to play.

In our Geography unit, we have been learning about the importance of caring for our environment.  To start at our unit, we discussed what the word ‘environment’ means.  Children were able to give great examples and were able to compare them and say what they liked and disliked about each one. We then collected junk mail and were amazed at how much junk mail we have collected. The children then looked at the purpose of junk mail and we created an argument for and against companies sending junk mail.  Children showed a great understanding of how we can care for our environment and were very annoyed and upset when we looked at fly tipping. They were really passionate about people do doing this and created some great information poster to educate people not to fly tip. We will be continuing our learning about caring for the environment in the Spring term with our exciting trout project with the Ribble Valley Trust and the Friends of Towneley Park

Children have been using the image of skulls as their art focus this term. Children were shown images of skulls and they discussed what they represented and how they made them feel. We then learnt about the artwork of Damien Hirst. Children then searched for images of skulls that they later draw using different drawing materials such as chalk, pencils, pastels and charcoal. We then looked at different painting techniques. Children are in the planning stage of creating their own print using skulls.

English

To start our term in Year 4, we will be using the text ‘Until I Met Dudley’ by Roger McGough.

This week, children in Year 4 have been using actions to retell an explanation from the text ‘Until I Met Dudley’. Children were able to orally retell how a toaster works. Have a look at our action shots below. Can you work out what each action means?

Our next text we will be using in English is the fantasy story, The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman.

Key Learning Writing:
• Create sentences with fronted adverbials for when e.g. As the clock struck twelve, the soldiers sprang into action.
• Use inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech.
• Explore, identify, collect and use noun phrases e.g. The crumbly cookie with tasty marshmallow pieces melted in my mouth.
• Read and analyse narrative.
• Discuss and record ideas for planning e.g. story board, boxing-up text types to create a plan.
• Organise paragraphs in narrative.
• Link ideas within paragraphs e.g. fronted adverbials for when e.g. In the distance, a lone wolf howled.
• Generate and select from vocabulary banks e.g. powerful adverbs, adverbial phrases, appropriate to text type.

Key Learning Reading

• Regularly listen to whole novels read aloud by the teacher.
• Identify, discuss and collect effective words and phrases which capture the reader’s interest and imagination e.g. metaphors, similes.
• Make predictions based on information stated and implied.
• Demonstrate active reading strategies e.g. generate questions, find answers, refine thinking, modify questions, construct images.
• Draw inferences around characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions and motives, and justify with evidence from the text using point and evidence.
• Make and respond to contributions in a variety of group situations e.g. whole class, independent reading groups, book circles.

This week, children used conscious ally in our English lesson. This allowed the children to explore their reasons for and against our main character Lila wanting to leave. Each children had to give their reason to either leave or stay to Lila. When our character Lila got to the end of the ally, she had to decide if she had been convinced to stay or still leave.

Science

This term, we will be exploring electricity. In this unit children will be able to;

• Identify common appliances that run on electricity.
• Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers.
• Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
• Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Last week, year 4 were given a challenge in science. They had to make a burglar alarm. The children used their learning from our unit to help them to complete this task. It wasn’t easy and the children showed great perseverance and resilience throughout this challenge.

D.T

In this unit, children will be using their learning of circuits to create their own light up box. Within this unit children will understand and use electrical systems in products.

This week, children created a simple circuit to make a picture light up.

Last week, children began the design process of their light up boxes. On Friday, children created their boxes and we had lots of fun decorating them! We cannot wait to add our circuits to them this week. Keep your eyes peeled!

Year 4 have tested their light up boxes today. They each created a circuit containing light blubs (some used more than one). Have a look at their light up boxes.

PE

Our PE days this term will be on;

• Tuesday
• Thursday ( Mr Archer)

Please remember to come to school in your PE kit on these days.

This term on Tuesdays, year 4 have been using their learning of electricity and circuits to create movements, group dances and duet dances. Here are a few snaps from our lesson last week.