Year 4 wb 30.11
Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 8:06am
A week of new topics! Our foundation subjects have all moved on to new topics now as we begin a new half term.
This half term, Mrs Pirie is teaching Geography and Year 4 are learning about the bounties of the Nile. Not only will the children be learning about the location and climate of the river, but also about the trading opportunities and how this impacted on the people. This follows on very well with their learning of early trading in Neolithic times.
Mr Cotton has begun an exciting Science topic also, which explains why there is a giant set of jaws in my classroom! He is teaching about the digestive system this time- how our food enters our body, how it gets broken down and inevitably what happens to it in the end. This topic promises to have some interesting experiments over the next few weeks!
In music, we will now focus on making a controlled sound with our bows. The children are learning how to look after the bow by tightening and then slackening the tension of the hair on the bow and also to keep their fingers away from the hair. They are learning the importance of rosin, a powdery substance that allows the bow to draw the string in its vibrations. We will consolidate our string recognition and work on various rhythms.
In RE, we are now wrapping up our thoughts on the qualities needed to become a true king. In the case of David, he displayed many qualities and always followed his faith in God. This week and next, we look at some music based on David’s writing of the Psalms.
And so to our core subjects.
Later next week, we will begin a new theme in Maths- multiplication and division. But for this week, we are honing our addition and subtraction understanding in problem solving. These are 1,2, or 3-step problems in which the children have to break their calcualtions into several stages to solve the problem. We have found that a brief sketch of the problem can help greatly. For example, Maizie is in a relay race and runs 50m. Orla then runs 75m. If the race is 200m in total, how far does Henry have to run to complete the race?
Guided Reading is based on one of my favourite books- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. At present, we are deducing what characteristics Edward possesses by unravelling the hints within the text. After all, a china rabbit with bespoke leather shoes and a gold pocket watch must be a rabbit of exceptional distinction!
English is also based on a magical book- The Lost Happy Endings. Which happy endings and why are they lost, you might ask. Well, all will be revealed over the next week or so. At present we have been focussing on accurate sentence building using picture starters. Spelling rules that have arisen are also being revised. For example, the adding of suffixes ( run, running, fog, foggy, cackle, cackling) and also the distinction between witch and which.
Our times tables will continue to focus on the 6 times table next week. Why not try this rap to see if it inspires: https://numberock.com/lessons/multiples-of-6/
You may or may not thank me for that one!
One of the joys of the week was the new Forest School home. It’s so magnificent even Hagrid would be proud! Mr Simmons welcomed us with hot chocolate and marshmallows to begin our Forest School sessions.
Another addition to our week is our Hymn practice on a Wednesday. At the moment, we are learning gentle reflective songs towards Remembrance, beginning with Make Me a Channel of your Peace.
As the week drew to a close it was Henry who became Star of the Week for some truly outstanding vocabulary choices whilst building sentences. Well done, Henry, on a great week’s work.
Mrs Tice, Mrs Gleave, Mrs Warren
