End of term!

What an amazing term we have had in Year 4.  The children have settled in fantastically and we are very proud of all their hard work this term.

We have had a wonderful final week, and we all really enjoyed the party yesterday (thank you grown ups for the food and drinks you provided for us)!

All the staff in Year 4 wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas! See you in 2014!

Learning multiplication facts!

Today we have been learning about our times tables.

Step 1 was to learn 1 new fact we didn't know before.

Step 2 was to learn 2 new facts we didn't know before.

Step 3 was to learn 3 or more facts we didn't know before.

 

Some of us were completing our multiplication grids and some of us were finding different rules for the different times tables.

 

 

 

Brandon got to step 2 today. He learned 7 x 2 = 14 and 9 x 1 = 9.

Jodie learned that 9 x 5 = 45.

 

Morgan was looking for patterns. She noticed that 6 x were a bit like 4x because both of them keep repeating themselves.

 

Kieran noticed that in your 5 x tables, the pattern is 0, 5, 0, 5 an so on.

 

What else did you notice? Which other facts did you learn?



Performing poems: The Magic Box

In Literacy we performed poems.

Our steps to succes were:

• I have used a clear voice.
• I have used actions.
• I have used intonation in my voice. 

Which parts of the poem do you think they were performing from their actions?

How much progress did you make? Which step did you get to?



William Blake: Christmas poetry

Today in Guided Reading, some of us studied a poem written by William Blake, written many, many years ago.

First, we clarified lots of vocabulary we didnt know before. You can see our notes on the poem. We considered imagery, asked questions about the poem, we summarised the whole poem and tried to predict what the poem was about and what else might happen next.

What do you think the poem is about?



Fashion Designers: Indian fashion

This week we tried on some real Indian clothing and designed some of our own outfits!

 

What did you think? Did you like them? What did you like about them?

 

What's typical of Indian fashions, Year 4?

Year 4 learned how to cook traditional Indian food today.

 

What did they think about it?



Christmas Decoration Morning!

Thank you so much to all the grown ups who joined us for our morning making Christmas decorations. The children really enjoyed themselves and we hope you did too! Christmas Decoration Morning! on PhotoPeach

Adverbs

Today we learned how to use adverbs in our sentences. Adverbs are words that describe verbs and usually end with 'ly'.

We used adverbs we knew, adverbs we had never used before and even used them to write complex sentences.

 

 

Could you write any more complex sentences using adverbs?

 

Year 4 ordering decimals

Year 4 learned about decimals today and began to order them.



Fraction Fun

We have been working on fractions in Year 4 this week, and we have used counters to create fraction sentences.

E.g. 1/4 of 8 counters = 2.

Have a look at this photograph of a sandwich.  Can you comment below and tell me what fractions the sandwich has been divided into?
To challenge yourself you could tell me what fraction would be left if 1 piece of each sandwich was eaten!

November 11th

As everybody knows, November 11th is a special day to remember those who have fought and are fighting for our country.

For this reason, I decided to base our multi-faceted learning all around Remembrance Day.

We had a very moving assembly this morning from Mrs Longhawn, and following this we went back to class to have a look at the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

Inspired by the poem, we created pictures showing Flanders Field, paying particular attention to making a foreground, middle ground and back ground.  I'm sure you'll agree, the finished products look fantastic.

One group used 'Purple Mash' to create an information poster about Remembrance Day using Internet research to add to their existing knowledge.

The final facet created wonderful pieces of Remembrance poetry, that truly moved Mrs Jarrett and I.

Please leave a comment about what you have learned today!

Storyboards and Performance Poetry

We have been creating storyboards for the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  We have been thinking carefully about the different stages of the story, and creating pictures to show these different events taking place.

This week we have created 'shape' poetry.  We chose an item that interested us, and created a short poem around that item, writing the words in a relevant shape.

Today we watched a performance of 'Chocolate Cake' by Michael Rosen.  This gave us some great ideas about how we could perform our own poetry.  We had a wonderful time putting actions and sound effects to our poems!

What did you learn today?

Storyboards and Performing Poetry on PhotoPeach

Chembakolli Houses

We made a fantastic start on our Chembakolli houses today.

Before half term, we studied the different types of houses in Chembakolli and chose a particular house to model our replica on.

We created a design plan in our teams which we have followed today and has really reminded us what we needed to do.

We were using specific Design Technology skills today; selecting appropriate equipment for making our replica, measuring and shaping a range of materials, and using fantastic communication in our team to make sure we were all knew what we were supposed to be doing.

Chembakolli Houses

Learning Logs

We are now on to the third cycle of Learning Logs and so far they have been absolutely fantastic!
We displayed the Learning Logs around the classroom and voted for our favourites. 

We all made comments about each others Learning Logs.

Here are a few I would like to share:

"I really like the way Hannah has presented her work".

"I found the information that Charlie put in really interesting".

"I liked reading Olivia's Learning Log".

"I think that Mason's pictures are really interesting".

"I like the way Evie has done her work".

 

Well done Year 4 for your wonderful mature attitudes. 

A busy few days

We have had a fantastic few days in Year 4.

 Today some children gave a dramatic performance of a poem written about the landscape of Chembakolli. We also performed our 'Talk for Writing' story with actions in full, and started learning about how to share numbers equally using bus stop division.



Last week we wrote some fantastic stories about another culture, and gave each other a star and a wish using our best handwriting and our teacher heads!


What have you learnt today? A busy few days on PhotoPeach

Year 4 Hockey

Year 4 have worked really hard to perfect their hockey skills ober the last half term.

 

Can you tell us some of the things you have learned during this P.E. unit?

Multifaceted Learning



Lots of things happened in our classroom this afternoon and lots of learning took place. What did you learn this afternoon?

Black History Month

We were lucky enough to enjoy a workshop this morning from a man from Zimbabwe, who came to tell us about life in Africa.

I'm sure all the children will agree it was a fantastic morning, and a big thank you to Mrs Cameron for organising such a treat for KS2!

Black History Month on PhotoPeach

Tingatinga Art

As part of Black History Month, we created some pieces of African Art based on the 'Tingatinga' style.

We used chalks on a dark background and created wild animals such as zebras, tigers and giraffes, and then chalked on a desert background.

 I was so impressed with the creativity of your work Year 4, lots of budding artists!


Tingatinga Art on PhotoPeach

A walk and a visitor!

As part of our topic work we went on a walk around Whinmoor armed with photographs from 15 years ago.

 We found the same spots the photographs had been taken from and then took our own to see the changes.

Today we had a very special visitor. Mrs Grealish is an estate agent and she came to our class to talk about her work and answer all of our questions.

What did you learn about being an estate agent? Do you think it would be a fun job to have? Thank you so much for your visit Mrs Grealish - it was fantastic! A special visitor on PhotoPeach


A special visitor on PhotoPeach

Our investigation into the best way to clean water



Whinmoor history

Next week as part of our Topic work we are going to go on a walk around our local area to have a look at the different houses in our locality. We will be comparing the materials they are made from, and judging how old we think the buildings are.

It would be wonderful if you could ask your parents or grandparents if they have any old photographs of Whinmoor so that we can see how it has changed over time.

I had a look on this website Historic photographs of Whinmoor and found some photographs of our school taken in the year 2000, 13 years ago.



Which part of the school is this? What is different? What is the same?

Reminder to all children

Can I please remind all children to bring in their reading book on Thursdays (except for free readers).  We are very lucky to have a volunteer reader, Mr Pressley, come in and listen to our children read every Thursday afternoon so it is really important that all children bring in their reading book on this day.

Thank you!

3D Shape Hunt

Over the past two days we have been investigating 3D shapes and their properties. We are really good at recognising and naming the main 3D shapes such as cylinder, cube and sphere. Whilst some of us stayed in the classroom using polydron to make 3D shape nets, some children went on a 'shape hunt' around school to see how many 3D shapes are around us every day.

Can you name these 3D shapes? How many faces, edges and corners do they have?

Shape Hunters on PhotoPeach

Fieldhead Carr Estate Agents: Would you like to buy a house?

Some of Year were buying and selling houses here.

 

 

What would your ideal house be like if you could buy any house?



A bedroom in a shoe box: Creating our mood boards.

We thought about colours and fabrics and items we would have in our ideal bedrooms.

We used all these ides to create our mood boards.

 

 

We used magazine cuttings and colouring pencils to create our mood boards.

What would you have in your ideal bedroom?

 

SEAL: New beginnings and the feelings we have

We worked in the school garden. We discussed a story about a boy called Sami. He was from a different country and had lots of mixed feelings about starting a new school in a new country.



 

 

 

 

 

We wrote down all the feelings we though Sami would feel.

 

What do you think he would be feeling?

What could he do to make himself deal with these feelings?

 

 

See our fantastic work on symmetry!

 

 Some of us classified shapes. We looked at how many lines of symmetry they had.

 

 

Some of us worked in pairs. We drew half a shape and then our partner had to draw the symmetrical side.

Everyone can now explain what a line of symmetry is!

Which shapes have lines of symmetry? How many lines do they have?

Quadblogging

This week it's our turn to be the focus class.  We really enjoyed reading Mrs Hamman's class blog last week and we hope our buddies enjoy ours!

A big HELLO to our Quadblogging buddies!

Insulators and Conductors

Here is a Science game similar to the one we played last Friday. You will need to use you knowledge of electrical insulators and electrical conductors to help you. Can anyone tell me which material is a super electrical conductor? Let me know how you get on with the game! Miss Carr

Busy Day!

We have had another action packed day in Year 4.

In maths, we were learning how to sort shapes into Venn and Carroll Diagrams, using our own right-angle munchers to find out which shapes had right angles.

For our multi-faceted learning our activities included creating an information poster about a Hindu Mandir, and ordering houses through history.

What have you learnt today?

Miss Carr Another fantastic day on PhotoPeach

Quadblogging

This week the focus school is Four Peaks Elementary School in the USA.

They have been doing a very interesting Maths activity involving biscuits...perhaps we could try something similar in our class, it looks like fun!

Please visit their blog and leave a comment by clicking on the comments box on the left hand side.

The link to the blog is here.

Miss Carr

New Learning

We have been busy in Year 4 in the last few days doing lots of new learning.

We have been enjoying our multi-faceted learning, we have done our very first Big Write, and we have mastered doubling in maths!

What have you learned this week?

Miss Carr

                                          Concentrating!

                                         Stopping to think

 

                                             Independent RE work using the Fizzbooks
                                        

                                         Examining a map of Chembakolli

                                           Our findings!                                     

                                          

                                            Busy bees hard at work

 

                                          Presentation to be proud of