Welcome to Year 4.
Our Teachers are Mrs Humbles and Mr Hartington and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Sedef and Miss Felgueiras.
Jun 132025
Explanations, multiplications and classifications!
This week Year 4 have been busy researching about the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) as it has featured within our English text ‘The Ever Changing Earth’. We are turning our research into an explanation text for one of the characters from the book. We have planned our research in to 4 sections to explain what the aurora is, what happens at the start, how the solar particles travel and what happens when they reach Earth’s atmosphere. We hope to have some very informative writing.
In maths we have been using our times table knowledge to work on formal multiplication. We have learnt how to set this out and what happens to numbers when they have been regrouped.
In Science, we have been sorting and classifying creatures with different features into Venn diagrams and Carroll diagrams. We were looking at similarities and differences from creatures who can fly, have fur, feathers or scales, live on land or in water.
In geography, we looked at the source of the River Thames and were surprised by what it looks like. We did not expect that a river could form because water bubbled up from a ground spring, and we definitely did not expect there to be as much water as there is from that point.
In art, we have been working very hard towards our piece for the art exhibition. We have concentrated really hard on making sure our tessellations fit together well and that our patterns are really striking. We think you will be amazed by the results and can’t wait to reveal it to you at the exhibition.
Our FeelIt emotion for this week is feeling connected. We discussed when the last time we felt connected. We talked about how sports teams, singing together and yoga make us feel connected to our friends, family and ourselves.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 Team
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Jun 062025
Welcome back!
Welcome back to our final half term of the year. We hope you all enjoyed the half term break.
We have been straight back into things here this week. We have been busy in maths, making sure our times tables were polished and we are very proud of all the children for how hard they have worked and how they have shown their resilience with the multiplication check this week. However, just because that is over, does not mean that we forget about them! We must keep up the practice!
Our new English topic is centred around the book The Ever-Changing Earth by Grahame Baker Smith. We received a message from Kun who sent us a fossil and lots of questions about the earth, which we have been trying to answer. We have been using fronted adverbials and conjunctions to write comparative sentences about how the earth once was many millions of years ago, noting the changes to now.
In Science this week, we have been understanding how the digestive system works and had the challenge of placing all the organs required for digestion on to an outline of the human body. We talked about which processes happen at each stage of digestion, linking it back to our practical work before half term.
We have also started our new geography topic of rivers. So far, we have thought about what a river is and named rivers of the UK on a map. We shall be focussing on the River Thames, tracking its journey from source to mouth.
In RE we have discussed the story of Adam and Eve and how they were tempted to eat the apple in the Garden of Eden. We discussed what temptation is and what caused Adam and Eve to give into it. We also looked at the consequences of what happened after they had eaten the apple, including their banishment from the garden.
Our Feel It emotion this week was the emotion of being insecure and what that may feel like. We discussed what we can do if we are feeling insecure and how we could help others.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 Team
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May 232025
Ready, steady…Go!
What a fantastic Sports Day this afternoon. It was lovely to see all the children working well as a team and having fun. There were lots of smiles and it was a brilliant afternoon. Well done everyone!
Year 4 have been working hard on equivalent fractions this week, drawing bar models to show how fractions can be the same, even though they have different denominators.
We had a very interesting time in science this week, learning all about the digestive system. We replicated it by mashing up a biscuit, banana, and water as saliva to show what happens to food in our mouth. This was then transferred to a ‘stomach’ masquerading as a plastic bag and orange juice as the stomach acid, before transferring this to some tights which acted as the small and large intestine. Finally, we cut a hole in the bottom and the rest you can work out yourself! We had some very squeamish Year 4s!!
We have also seen some very creative art work this week as we have continued our unit on pattern making. This week we have made tessellating patterns. We created our own stencil using a square piece of card. We drew a shape and cut it out on one side and stuck it to the opposite side. we did the same on the adjacent side and then we drew around it to create a repeating pattern. Some of our stencils looked like different animals. Can you spot them in the pictures?
We hope you all have a lovely half term,
Year 4 Team
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May 092025
VE Day and Animal Skulls
One of this week’s highlights was our outdoor VE Day activities yesterday. It was lovely to see everyone playing games which would have been played in 1945. Some of the activities were making and flying paper planes, pick up sticks, battleships and learning to play hopscotch. I know some of them enjoyed playing hopscotch during their lunchtime too!
Another highlight of the week was exploring some real animal skulls which we have loaned from the Natural History Museum at Tring. We looked at the teeth of each skull and worked out whether they were a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore. Our skulls included a squirrel, cat, sheep, muntjac deer, macaque monkey and our favourite was a crocodile! We were amazed by how much the monkey looked like a human skull.
In English this week we have been planning our writing about Viking Gods. We have researched what they were god of, how they may have looked, their personality and their special powers and weapons. We will write this up next week.
In maths, we have been adding and subtracting fractions. To help with this we have drawn bars to show the fractions and added on or taken away any fractions to help find the answer.
In Art we looked at the work of Sol LeWitt, who created art on walls using dots and drawing lines. He applied a rule to each of his designs, for example draw straight lines between each dot. We have used this idea to make our own designs. Can you work out our rule? Half way through, we decided to add a second rule to see how this would change our design.
Have a great weekend,
Year 4 Team
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May 022025
Scientific Eggsperiments
The highlight of this week has been our egg experiment in Science. We were using the eggs as the shells act in a similar way to our teeth when left in different liquids. We left the eggs overnight in either water, cola, orange juice and vinegar to see what effect they would have. Fortunately, we were using white eggs and we were surprised and appalled at the colour our teeth could be stained if we drank too much cola! We talked about how plaque on our teeth feeds off the sugar from these drinks, turning it into acid and discussed how it was this acid which causes tooth decay. The shell on the egg which had been in the vinegar had already started to dissolve, even after a few hours. We therefore talked about the importance of brushing our teeth at least twice a day.
In maths the children have been working hard to answer their questions involving fractions. We have been finding complements to wholes, adding and subtracting – and even started to regroup and create mixed numbers!
Our english has continued to build on our Vikings topic, as we have been researching the Norse Gods Thor, Loki, Frigg and Odin. We are planning to make detailed character profiles, so we have been improving our vocabulary, and practising expanded noun phrases and adverbials.
In R.E., we have returned to our topic of Sikhism, and considered what the life of someone of the Sikh faith may look like compared to our own. The children made some lovely puzzle-piece diagrams that showed all of the things they feel are important to them, and compared these to one they made for a member of the Sikh religion!
This week the children have handled the heat really well, and Saffron took the opportunity to visit the field and make the most of the sun. Hopefully it stays nice for the bank holiday weekend!
We hope you have a lovely and restful long weekend! – Year 4 Team
Apr 252025
Playground fun!
What a lovely start to the term we have had! The sun has been shining and Year 4 have been making very good use of the new playground features. They have loved playing with the small parts which have been provided such as planks, crates, cable reels and mats. We have seen surfing, seesaws, slides, obstacle courses, floor is lava and an incredible human launcher!! Year 4 have also loved challenging themselves on the new climbing equipment, hanging out in the hang out and rainbow shelters and honing their basketball skills. It has been so lovely to see all their smiles and cooperation with each other. Well done Year 4, we can’t wait to see what new adventures they have next week!
In the classroom, we have started our new topic of teeth. We explored the types of human teeth and then created one of each type using plasticine. We could use the shape of each tooth to identify its function.
In maths we have been subtracting money as decimals and using this skill to use a menu and work out a meal we would like with a budget of £20. We then had to calculate how much change we would receive.
We have started our new topic of exploring pattern in art. We started by looking at the artists Gillian Adair McFarland who creates relief patterns using sharp objects such as pencils and sewing needles, which we had a go at. We also explored the art of kirigami (folding and cutting paper) like the artist Shaheem Ahmed uses to create 3D sculpture in paper. We learnt how she uses her art to empathise with people across the world who are affected by injustice and conflict.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend.
Year 4 team
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Apr 042025
Spring has sprung!
What a lovely week of weather we have had this last week! I hope everyone has been enjoying the sunshine!
We have been hard at work finishing our water cycle work, by writing an informal report, which we have turned into videos to help teach other children about the processes of the water cycle. We have used slang terms, contractions and maybe a few jokes, to try and get our message across. In science we were using this same knowledge to write a quiz based on our water cycle knowledge.
In history, we have been looking at evidence which was left behind by the Vikings in York. We learned that they were not just vicious raiders, but also skilled craftspeople who made leather shoes, intricate combs out of antler and turned wooden bowls or cups. The wooden bowls or cups was the main trade of the people of Coppergate in York, copper coming from the word cup!
In maths we have continued to work on decimals and ended the week adding decimals as money, making sure we have the right amount of digits in the correct places!
Gold class have finished their pizzas and very tasty they look too with all their delicious toppings!
It has been lovely to hear about all cooking which has been going on at home after our omelette making and from the people who attended Cookery Club. Maybe we have inspired some of you to cook a little more at home or become chefs in the future! It’s great to hear that you have been using your learning at home! Well done!
We hope you all enjoy a fabulous Easter break – and long may this sunshine continue!
Year 4 Team
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Mar 282025
Eggciting Omelettes!
This week Saffron Class have enjoyed making their omelettes. They added ingredients from a choice of bacon, ham, chicken, cheese, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and basil. They had fun making them and even more eating them! They were very proud of their achievements and a special mention has to go to Eligh and Rosie who have been inspired to make their own omelettes at home. Eligh even made some for his whole family! Well done! We hope you enjoy the pictures of our tasty endeavours.
We also enjoyed a trip to St Peter’s Church this week, where Mark spoke to us about the Easter story, particularly the Last Supper and how Christians remember the events of the Last Supper in church today. through the Eucharist.
In maths we have continued to work on decimals including rounding, finding complements to 1 and addition of decimals using the column method.
We have started a new informal report unit in English, which links to our science of the water cycle. We introduced a new text and identified the features of a report including subheadings, key vocabulary and slang terms. In our science this week we were investigating condensation. We placed warm water and cold water in separate cups and placed a tinfoil lid with an ice cube on the top. After a while we compared which cup produced the most condensation and why.
We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend – don’t forget the clocks move forward!
Year 4 team
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Mar 212025
Food, glorious food!
This week we have been working on finishing our Viking adventure stories. Everyone has been trying really hard to up-level their vocabulary and description of places and characters in their stories. We have also learnt how to use speech punctuation correctly to add meaningful dialogue in our work.
We have been focussing on decimals in maths, placing them on a number line and linking fractions to their equivalent decimal using a hundred square. We will be continuing decimal work next week.
Saffron class are looking forward to cooking their omelettes next week. They have designed them and considered which ingredients would go well together.
Gold class have had a great time painting their pizza slices, which they have been creating in art. They have thought carefully how they could create texture to their work to make their pizza as realistic as possible.
In history we looked at how the Anglo Saxons managed to stop the Vikings from taking control of the whole country under the leadership of King Alfred of Wessex. We learnt that after burning his landlady’s bread (or cakes) whilst he was in hiding, he decided he would not fail in his duties. He led a battle at Edington where he defeated the Vikings and then made a deal, which gave the Vikings land in the north and east becoming known as Danelaw.
We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
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Mar 142025
Going berserk!!
It has been another busy week this week. We have been busy preparing and planning for our Viking adventure story, trying to make really good choices with our vocabulary and thinking about whether it is an adjective we would usually use or could it be upleveled to another.
In Maths we have completed our unit on symmetry and started our new work on decimals. We have been exploring decimal place value of tenths and hundredths and regrouping when we have 10 or more in any column.
In science we made observations of our water worlds, which we created last week. We noticed that there was lots of condensation on the sides of each cup as well as what had gathered on the underside of the cling film over the top. We discussed how the water managed to go from the soil to the cling film through the processes of evaporation as water vapour and condensation when the gas cooled down, turning it back into a liquid. We were able to even witness precipitation as some of the water droplets collected were so large, that when moved fell as rain would also do naturally. Added to this, the seeds we planted had also grown!
This week in history, we looked at why the Vikings were so strong when they reached Britain, which enabled them to conquer some parts of the country, including York, Northumbria and East Anglia. We looked at how well the Vikings were equipped for battle and what made them so fearsome. Did you know that we get the word ‘berserk’ from the Vikings? The berserkers would go into battle wearing bear skins (which is the literal translation of the word) but would be fearless, as they wouldn’t mind if they died, as they believed they would end up in Valhalla. This made them so fearsome to the Anglo Saxons as they were wild and out of control, which is where the modern meaning of the word berserk comes from.
In Art, Gold class have been busy making their pizza slices using card, newspaper and modroc to give it texture and structure. They look like they will be delicious! Saffron have been researching where our different foods may come from and locating those places on the world map.
In music, we have been learning new chords on the ukulele. We now know the chords of C, F, Am and G7. It will mean that we could start to play a few songs soon!
Our FeelIT emotion this week continues to be shocked. We have discussed how you can get over the feeling of being shocked in a bad way.
We hope you have a great weekend,
Year 4 Team
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