Year 4

December 2024

Time has flown by - how is it nearly Christmas already! Our fun has continued this half term. Continuing with sound, we learnt about how our ears hear sound and investigated pitch and volume using cups, rice and elastic bands. Did you know the tighter the elastic band, the higher the pitch?

In geography, we used compasses to locate cities in Spain. Madrid is in the center of Spain, so that was our point of reference. We also used 4-figure grid references to locate these cities too. We rounded off our learning by giving a tour of Madrid as a double page spread. Key landmarks were research and then written about. 

In English, we watched a video about a girl named Lily who forgot her beloved snowman after years of prioritising work. We wrote narratives based on this video, portraying Lily's emotions and dialogue between the characters.

This week, we heard from Mrs Viner that she was going to cancel our Christmas festivities! We were very unhappy, so we have planned to write a letter of complaint. Let's hope she changes her mind before disco time!

November 2024

We have had a busy half term so far! 

We dived straight into our new science topic - Sound. We began by collating all the knowledge we knew already about sound such as, when items collide, a sound is produced. Next, we learnt about how sound is made and how we are able to hear it. Using cups and string, we investigated sound and learnt that it vibrates through molecules in the air!

In our geography topic, Spain, we learnt about the human and physical features of the country. There are mountain ranges, different cities and oceans surrounding the country. Recently, we compared the climate of Madrid to London, the amount of rain was similar but it was a lot hotter in Madrid!

In English, we innovated our own chapter based on the story of Edward Tulane, where Edward kept getting lost. We had lost in the cinema, going on holiday, moving house and even falling off a balcony! This week, we discovered that a crime had taken place and that Goldilocks may have been guilty! We wrote a crime report, character reference and next week, a newspaper report. We became detectives and examined evidence and interviewed key witnesses. 

We are looking forward to progressing further with our learning and to the lead up to Christmas. 

October 2024

The beginning of our Year 4 learning journey has been jam packed! Our electricity topic has hooked us in as we have been building circuits, exploring why some of they might now work, and attended our trip at the Museum of Power. History has been very interesting this half term too learning about the Windrush. We started our enquiry by learning about why pioneers came over and then what difficulties they faced since arriving. We recently learnt about how they impacted Britain, which included music, food and sport. Our writing topics have been engaging as we thought Mrs Viner had changed our packed lunches! We had to write her a persuasive letter and we believe it has worked. In DT, we are making our won biscuits where we adapted the recipe to fit a budget. So far, we have planned and made prototype packaging. It is too tempting not to make and eat them already. We can't wait to continue with all our exciting learning.

2023-2024

What an exciting first week back we have had! Feeling refreshed over the break, we have jumped straight into our new topics. Learning about the Digestive System, we learnt about the different organs and their responsibilities. Did you know the small intestines can stretch to around 8 metres? Beginning our Anglo-Saxon topic, we used sources and artefacts to make inferences about how they lived, what they did and what life was like. We know that they were religious due to the churches and stained-glass windows and we know that they fought in wars due to the helmets found! We are excited to learn more and to attend our trip. In DT, we are to design and create a pavilion, which is a light, flexible permanent structure so we have been using toothpicks and blu tack to build a structure, focusing on strength and stability. 

Year 4 have had yet another exciting term!

We made circuits in Science to investigate switches and buzzers – it got very noisy!

This highlight of this half term was our Spanish Enrichment Day, which we all loved, and immersed into the new culture. I think the best part of the day for most was trying the Spanish food!

We have worked hard in English, writing new chapters of Edward Tulane and responding with a complaint that Mrs Viner cancelled Christmas! Luckily, we were able to partake in the different activities. 

On Wednesday, Year 4 visited the Tower of London. In out topic this half-term, we have learnt all about who built the tower and how its uses have changed over time – from a fortress, a prison, a zoo and now a tourist attraction. We saw the Crown Jewels, which were pretty, and went inside the White Tower to look at the armour of the different Kings throughout history. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the Crown Jewels. The Bloody Tower showed us all the different torture devices used on prisoners (good job they are not used still today!). Overall, it was a really fun day out!

In Year 4, the students have been working hard and started planning for a persuasive letter to the Headteacher in about what they think should be allowed in their packed lunches. They were excited to discuss their ideas and started writing their reply.

In Year 4 we have been designing and constructing prototypes for a pavilion to commemorate the King's coronation. We used wooden sticks and jelly sweets to construct our designs. In our next lesson we will be creating a detailed blueprint design before constructing our pavilion.