Welcome to Year 4.
Our Teachers are Mrs Humbles and Mrs Hornblow and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Sedef and Mr Le Roch.
Mar 202026
Viking Day
We have had another fantastic, busy week in school and we ended with an exciting, engaging and educational Viking Day!
Leif Erikson invaded our assembly and told us the story of Beowolf. He showed us his collection of Viking drinking horns, two-handed spears, swords and helmets. We all got the chance to learn that the Vikings were successful warriors because they worked together as a team to lock their shields together in a shield wall. We learnt how to hold a spear and how to terrify the enemy with a ferocious war cry!
After all the excitement we settled down to work as archaeologists using paint brushes to carefully uncover artefacts buried through the ages. We uncovered belt buckles and a brooch as well as lumps of metal which showed us that whoever lived in the area had been working with metal.
In the afternoon, we had the chance to play the Viking game Kubb and some children also played Hnefatafl – a Viking strategy game. Finally we came together as members of a Viking village to make important decisions about the future of the community. The Vikings made decisions in an assembly called a ‘Thing’ where members of the community could put forward arguments for and against a motion before a vote.
What a busy, brilliant day!
Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine.
The Year 4 team.
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Mar 132026
An eggstraordinary week
You may have noticed outside our classrooms some strange looking jars! Year 4 are currently conducting an experiment (eggsperiment!) using … you’ve guessed it eggs! They are a useful replacement for eggs. We have put them in different liquids to see what happens, which we can relate back to sugary and acidic foods and how we care for our teeth. We learnt all about the effect of plaque on our teeth and the importance of brushing our teeth at least twice a day.
In English we have started to plan our Viking adventure story. We have practised using speech and having conversations, which we can use in our stories. We had great fun thinking about different Viking mythological creatures that our Viking Erik could face. Watch out for the many trolls, giants or dragons coming our way!
In maths we have been practicing adding and subtracting using the column methods, this time using decimals. We have been careful to align all the columns and decimal point correctly so that our calculations are accurate.
In history we have been learning all about Viking Warriors. We looked at what they wore and the weapons they carried. We had some fun looking at different names that some of the most famous Viking warriors had, for example – Ragnar Lothbrok, who was nicknamed Shaggy Breeches because one of his wives made him furry trousers out of cow skin! We also can’t forget the notorious Erik Bloodaxe, who killed all 7 of his brothers. Some names we came up with were Ulf Sune – which means Wolf’s Son and Ulf Bjorn which means Wolf Bear. We also talked about the berserkers, named after the bear shirts they wore but they were not afraid to die in battle as it was an honour to end up in Valhalla to feast – the ultimate Viking afterlife!
In DT, we have been busy planning our omelettes, which we shall make next week. We will be using a variety of different meats and some vegetables, as well as cheese, herbs and seasonings to flavour our omelettes.
We hope you have a great weekend,
Year 4 team
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Mar 062026
World Book Day
The highlight of this week was yesterday’s World Book Day. We had some wonderful costumes in Year 4 as well as some cosy looking outfits for reading.
Year 4 expertly drew their favourite book covers, which will be going on display in the library and then completed a ‘Draw-along’ with the illustrator Chris Riddell, drawing some fearsome looking dragons!
Speaking of fearsome things, Year 4 have been learning about the first Viking raid in Britain – the attack on Lindisfarne. We learnt about what the Vikings wanted and why it was such a gruesome attack on the peaceful monks as well as how the Vikings managed to attack so quickly, which was due to their incredible longship design. Have you seen our longships on display?
In science, we have been looking at human teeth considering each type of tooth and why it is necessary. We made these using modelling clay and then drew them, taking note as to whether they were flay, pointy or shovel shaped.
In RE this week we learned about The Last Supper and the significance of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. We questioned whether he should have betrayed Jesus and asked if he hadn’t, would Jesus have suffered the same fate. There were some very deep discussions.
In maths we have continued with our work on decimal place value and ordering decimals. We also have been beginning to make links between decimals and fractions.
In English we have been practising writing descriptions of different settings which are in our story as well as character descriptions, using strong vocabulary.
Have a good weekend.
Year 4 team
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Feb 272026
The Vikings are coming…
A highlight of this week was the transformation of Gold and Saffron classrooms into a Gurdwara and then inviting the Year 3 children to have a tour. The Year 4s were the perfect hosts, showing the Y3s around, making sure they told them about the significance of each room for Sikh people. Everybody took off their shoes, covered their heads and washed their hands before entering the Diwan Hall (Saffron class) where the Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book) was placed under the canopy. There was a box for donations. The tour then led into the Sach Khand (middle room) which was used as the room where the Guru Granth Sahib was put to bed at night. Sikh people believe that the Guru Granth Sahib should be treated like a living person. Following this, the Y3s were guided into the Langar (Gold Classroom), where volunteers served them food. Sikh people believe that everyone should be treated equally and everyone would sit on the floor to eat. It was a lovely way for our work on the Gurdwara to finish and our Year 4 guides were very knowledgeable.
We have also started our next topic of The Vikings. We learnt about Viking longships and how they were so useful for attack due to their sleek design. It also made them good seafaring boats. Year 4 have enjoyed drawing a longship, thinking about shield designs and figureheads to look as menacing as possible.
In English, we have watched a short Viking film as inspiration for our Viking story which we will be telling. It is the story of a young Viking we have named Erik who sets out on a quest to find a missing sword, which is precious to his village. The children will be challenged to write this story and create a suitable climax and conclusion to the story.
In maths we have started work on decimal place value. We have looked at the value of ones, tenths and hundredths and done some work on regrouping to understand that there are ten tenths in a one and ten hundredths in a tenth.
In science we have been looking at some animal skulls and predicting whether the animal was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore just by looking at its teeth. It was fantastic to see real life skulls of animals, including a crocodile to help us with this. If you would like to see them, they are on display outside Gold classroom but we ask you to please not touch them as they are very delicate.
We hope you enjoy your weekend,
Year 4 team
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Feb 132026
We can see the light!
This week we have had 2 themes – Safer Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week. We have focussed on activities for both themes in assemblies and in lessons.
Children’s Mental Health Week asked us all to consider where we belong. We thought about our families, school groups and communities that we all belong to and have created colourful island maps with landmarks showing all of these. When we thought about it, it was amazing how many different groups we do belong to!
We have been working on our final task this week using the book Zoo as our inspiration. We have researched the positives and negatives of zoos in order to prepare for a class debate about whether zoos should be banned. We have learnt a lot about the work of zoos and feel that breeding and conservation programmes as well as education about animals and wildlife are important. However, we were still concerned that animals are kept in enclosures which maybe too small and do not replicate their wild habitat enough, so our vote at the end was a very narrow victory for the work of zoos.
In maths we have been working on symmetry, looking specifically at quadrilaterals. We have predicted which shapes have lines of symmetry and then tested them by folding, finally showing the outcome using dotted lines.
In geography, we have written poems about the area of Malham, based on what we could imagine our experiences to be from looking in depth at the area. We were thrilled to see some of our writing techniques being used such as similes and personification to really make our descriptions stand out.
Most of us have finished our light boxes and they look really effective. We had to take care whilst cutting out some very small holes for the light to come through and we lined these with special wax paper to create a coloured effect. We hope you like them!
We wish you all a very happy half term,
Year 4 Team
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Feb 062026
Shaping Up!
Congratulations to Gold Class today for a fantastic class assembly this morning. Your singing was amazing and you all spoke your words beautifully and clearly. You should be very proud of yourselves.
This week we have been writing our letters of complaint to the zoo about their treatment of the animals. The children have been using language of persuasion, fronted adverbials and extended noun phrases to make their very important points.
In maths we have been learning about lines and shapes. We played a brilliant game where one person had to describe shapes on the board whilst their partner had to draw what was being described. The added challenge was that they weren’t allowed to use the name of the shape, it had to be drawn just from its description! We also had to find the correct shape from its description using loop cards.
In geography, we learnt about the rare feature of a limestone pavement which can be found at the top of Malham Cove. We learnt that Malham Cove, in the Yorkshire Dales, was created after the ice meltwater flowed across the top of it, forming a waterfall. The water and rainwater over the years has weathered and eroded the limestone to create blocks of limestone called clints separated by gaps called grykes. Some of these can be really deep!
In DT, we have been continuing with our light boxes, finalising the designs and creating the gaps so that the light will come through. They will look really impressive when they are finished with a bulb inside.
We hope you all have an enjoyable weekend,
Year 4 team.
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Jan 302026
Light, sound and action!
Well done to Saffron Class for their fantastic assembly this morning. Everyone had learnt their lines, sang with gusto and spoke clearly. Gold class will be doing their assembly next week.
In English we have been looking at a letter of complaint to send to the appalling zoo in Anthony Browne’s book. We have been learning the difference between formal and informal language and have started to think about how we might plan our own letter. Be prepared for some very disgruntled visitors.
In maths we have had fun calculating the perimeter of rectangles using lolly sticks to build the rectangle and then calculating the perimeter using 3 different methods.
In DT we have started to construct our light boxes. We have built our nets using larger squares this time, added tabs and cut out the nets. Some of us have already started to transfer our designs. They will look spectacular when finished!
In RE we are learning about what happens in different parts of a Sikh Gurdwara and why it is important. We will be creating a guide leaflet about the Gurdwara to help visitors to understand.
Gold class made some musical instruments in science this week using containers and elastic bands. They also made a kazoo using a comb and piece of baking paper. It was a good experiment to help us understand pitch and to see and feel the vibrations that high or low notes create.
We hope you have a great weekend,
Year 4 team
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Jan 232026
Good vibrations!
We have had a very successful week in writing emotive, free verse poems about the zoo animals. We have worked really hard to include many techniques including emotive language, personification, similes, metaphors and strong vocabulary. Some of our poems are real tear jerkers!
In maths we have started a unit on data and have created a bar graph of the data we collected in science about the level of noise around the school. We have also looked at some line graphs and have discussed the differences between a bar graph and a line graph.
In science we experimented to learn more about vibrations and the size of vibrations when a loud noise is made compared to a quiet noise. We used string telephones – which do work to send messages through the vibrating string to the other end. We also used some singing bowls which vibrated in our hands as they made beautiful sounds around the classroom.
Saffron class have been working very hard on writing their assembly for next week, and can’t wait to perform it to you all. They have been set the task of learning their lines for homework and we will be practising it a few times next week before Friday morning.
In PE Year 4 have been practising balancing in groups. They have been creating a sequence of balances at different heights which they perform together.
In RE we reminded ourselves of the importance of the Guru Granth Sahib and looked at how it is treated and respected in a Gurdwara. As it contains all the teachings of the previous ten human gurus, it is the eleventh guru and is treated as a human.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team.
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Jan 162026
Sound is all around!
This week we have writing examples of similes and personification and experimenting with the structure of a free verse poem about the animals from the book Zoo. We hope they will help to make our poems more emotive when we write them next week.
In maths we have been learning about different measures and how to convert them. We looked at mass, capacity and time, converting between minutes and hours. Although many Year 4s are more confident in telling the time using both an analogue and digital clocks, any additional support parents could add would be very beneficial. This may include asking what the time is or questions such as how long until dinner, or we need to go out at (insert time here) how long is it until we need to leave etc.
In science we investigated how loud it was in different parts of the school. We used decibel meters and visited different classrooms and spaces in school to find the loudest and quietest locations. Saffron class was up there with one of the loudest! Mrs Stray’s office was one of the quietest, even with a whole class in there!!
In geography, we used the video to find out more about our case study location of Malham. We had a tour of the village and used our map skills to locate various services in the village. We added OS symbols to our key and considered reasons for the facilities being all close together.
In DT we considered the design of our light boxes, trying to link a theme to how we want the light to come through. We planned where to put holes and windows to let light through and considered whether to use other materials to create light effects.
Our Spanish this term will be about our family. We have started by learning the vocabulary for different members of our family. Saffron class have been completing the afternoon register using Spanish numbers. We are working towards saying our numbers fluently and have timed ourselves in completing the register. We have already beaten our first time by quite some margin!
In PE we have been practising our skills in football and dance. One track which has been used is Gangnam Style!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 Team
Jan 092026
Happy New Year!
Welcome back! Happy New Year to you all, we hope you all had a lovely break. The children have been settling in well after the holidays and we have been busy starting new topics and units.
In English, we are using the book Zoo by Anthony Browne as a stimulus to eventually write some emotive poems about an animal from the book. We have spent a long time studying the book and have chosen an animal which we want to focus on. We are developing vocabulary to describe its enclosure and behaviour and also thinking about how far removed it is from its own natural habitat.
In maths we have been looking at conversions of measure. We have thought about how many cm in a metre, mm in a cm, m in a km as well as grams in kilograms and learning how to convert them by multiplying or dividing by 10, 100 or 1000.
Our new science topic is sound and we had a lot of fun this week learning about sound being a vibration and watching how we can make grains of rice vibrate using musical instruments without it even touching it! We learnt that sound travels through the air by making it vibrate, which then enters our ears.
Our new DT project is related to the science we did last term on electricity. We will be making light boxes and this week we created a cube net using polydron and squares, which we cut out and placed into a net shape. We had to work out where to put tabs, which we can then use to glue it together eventually.
We have started a new topic in geography too. We are using our Oddizzi program to discover a rural area in North Yorkshire – Malham. We will be exploring Malham using our excellent fieldwork films and will ultimately answer the enquiry question of Is Malham popular with tourists? Why? This week we worked out, using clues, the location of Malham and observed the surrounding landscape.
So, as you can see, it has been a very busy week.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Year 4 team
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