Welcome to Year 4.
Our Teachers are Mrs Humbles and Mrs Hornblow and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Sedef and Mr Le Roch.
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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Dec 192025
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Our last week of the Autumn term has been spent in a very creative way.
We completed our adventure stories based on the book Journey and we are very proud of Year 4 in how they worked, the content of their stories and the inventiveness of their endings. They will look forward to showing you their stories.
We have been doing work on 2D and 3D shapes in maths, making Christmas decorations as we learnt. We practised measuring using a ruler correctly, and used this to draw super accurate rectangles, which we then turned into sphere shaped baubles.
In geography, we consolidated our knowledge of 4 figure grid references to create our own imaginary islands.
We enjoyed listening to everyone perform at our class Christmas Concerts within our music lessons this week. We are so proud of you all for performing a variety of songs and playing your musical instruments! Keep it up!
In RE, we have been busy researching how other countries celebrate Christmas. Did you know that in Japan, the Christmas Day meal of choice is KFC? You have to book early though, you can’t just turn up and expect food!! In Australia, sometimes Santa gives his reindeer a rest and uses kangaroos to get around! Everyone enjoyed learning new facts about other people’s traditions and then presented these to the rest of the class.
We hope that everyone has a fabulous holiday and manages to find time to do some lovely fun things.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Year 4 team
Dec 122025
What a Journey!
This week, Year 4 have started to write their adventure stories based on the book Journey. We are so proud of how they have worked on them. They have remembered to use all the techniques we have been talking about to write exciting stories based on the journey of the girl with the magic pen. We can’t wait for you to read them when they are finished!
In maths we have continued to work on multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100. We have practised moving the digits to the left or right and been careful not to fall into the trap of just adding a zero.
In geography, we have started to use 4 figure grid references to locate features on a map. We had to locate some features on to a treasure island using the gird references to make sure they were accurately placed.
In science we used our electricity knowledge to light an elf’s or Rudolph’s nose. Some people challenged themselves to add a switch or incorporate their circuit into a game.
This afternoon, Saffron class enjoyed their class treat for filling the jar with marbles twice! They had fun decorating gingerbread biscuits and making gonks!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
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Nov 282025
A hair-raising week!
This week’s highlight was a visit from Mr Crick, who brought his Van de Graaff generator to show Year 4 the effects of electricity. He used it to make his hair stand on end and explained how lightning can strike Earth. It was fun to watch flying pie plates and packing peanuts! In science we also tested circuits with different conductors and insulators.
In English, we have started using a new book – Journey by Aaron Becker, which tells it’s story using beautiful illustrations. Over the next few weeks, we will be building up to write our own adventure story telling the story and writing our own ending.
Gold class have been working on their charcoal artwork, creating stunning images of different creatures from the Jabberwocky poem. They have used different shading techniques, creating backgrounds and making their creatures really stand out.
Saffron’s ice creams are taking shape and some colour has been added.
In maths we have been solving word problems by building bar models.
In geography we have researched physical landmarks of the world to find interesting facts about what they are and how they might have been formed.
We hope you enjoy the Winter Fair,
Year 4 Team
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Nov 212025
Circuits and Ice Cream Cones
What a busy week, Year 4!
This week in English, we have seen spectacular performances of The Jabberwocky and written our own versions of the classic poem. In Maths, we continue to work on our times tables and we have been using our understanding of multiplication to learn about one-to-one and one-to-many correspondence.
Gold Class have been adding the finishing touches to their ice cream sculptures and Saffron Class have been working with St Albans School to build their cones to add to their ice creams. The children are working very hard on this project and the results are spectacular!
This week in music, Year 4 practised the C and F chords on their ukuleles adn played the song ‘My Dog Has Fleas!’
In Science, we continued to learn about electrical circuits and this week the children were given images of broken circuits to make and then fix. Children had to observe closely to see if the circuit was closed or open, whether it had a cell and whether the battery holder was connected properly so + and – were connected correctly. The children worked hard to solve their problems and then they drew the completed circuits. Well done Year 4!
The weather is turning colder and it is due to be wet next week, so please remember to always bring a waterproof coat to school and wet weather shoes (a spare pair of socks is handy to keep in your P.E. bag too)!
Have a wonderful weekend.
The Year 4 Team
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Nov 142025
‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves
This week we have observing Anti-Bullying week through our assemblies and activities in the classroom. We learnt about what bullying is, as a repeated act, with an imbalance of power in person or online and thought about what we should do if it happens. We watched a BBC Live assembly and thought about how we could use our powers for good. We learnt about the difference between a bystander (who sees bullying happen and does nothing about it) and an upstander, who uses their powers if they see bullying happen and then does something to help. We also linked this to Friendship Friday and thought about what makes a good friend, creating a word cloud with our ideas as well as drawing a picture of a good friend who displays these qualities.
This week has been very exciting in English as we have continued with our work on the Jabberwocky poem. We started off this week by creating a whole class performance of the poem. Year 4 were brilliant at using facial expressions, gesticulation, tone and volume of their voices to make their performance come alive. Some groups even used musical instruments to enhance their verse! It was great to see everyone join in and we keep hearing how many people have learnt sections of the poem off by heart and some have learnt the whole poem!! Well done Y4! We will look forward next week to creating our own compositions in the same style!
In maths we have continued our work on multiples, delving into the 7 times tables and testing laws of divisibility. We also looked for patterns within our times tables by plotting the repeating pattern of the ones digit into a dial. We created some complex stars and decagons!
In science, we were testing electrical circuits to see if they actually were a circuit or not. We could prove it if the bulb lit or buzzer sounded. We had to work out what was wrong and why it didn’t work.
Saffron class have started on their ice cream making journey this week, makini the ice cream part of their cones. It was quite tricky to make a swirl using a piece of card, but we all managed it and we then covered it in masking tape.
We hope you enjoy your weekend,
Year 4 team
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