Year 4
Welcome to Year 4!
Welcome to our Year 4 page. Here you will find important information about our Class routines, curriculum and general information. We will also keep you updated about the amazing activities we have been getting up to at school. Please scroll down to keep up to date with our class blog.
Our Year 4 staff:
Miss Soulsby – Teacher
Miss Quinn – Teaching Assistant
5.7.19
On Monday, we had our school visit to the Palace Green Library in Durham. We took part in a workshop and we learned a lot more about the Tudors. We were able to examine real Tudor artefacts and we considered what they told us about the Tudors. We also looked at the Tudor alphabet and practised writing with a feather quill and ink. On the afternoon, we went on a walk around Durham and explored what Durham city would have been like in the Tudor times.
This week, rehearsals have also been underway for our summer production ‘Sherlock and Cinders’. We are looking forward to the performances on the 15th and 16th of July.
Head Teacher’s Award: Finlay
Core Value of the Week: Caiden
Rockstar of the Week: Reece C
21.6.19
In maths, Year 4 have been learning about coordinates. We have all been using coordinates to describe position and to plot points on a grid. To begin our learning, we went on to the school playground and practised on a large grid with our partners. We moved along the x axis and up the y axis to find the correct coordinates.
In topic, we have been learning about Tudor medicine. We couldn’t believe the strange ways they treated illnesses for example rubbing snail slime on burns. We were all very pleased that we now have much better treatments!
In art, we have completed our very own Tudor portraits. Over the half term, we have been practising our drawing techniques and learning how to get the proportions correct when drawing a face. We all really improved from out first attempt. Take a look at our work!
Head Teacher’s Award: Thomas
Core Value of the Week: Megan
Rockstar of the Week: Jacob
14.6.19
This week, Year 4 have been taking part in well-being week in school to learn all about how to stay healthy. We have taken part in a lot of exciting workshops throughout the week. On Thursday, we took part in a yoga session. We loved learning all of the different yoga poses and practising different relaxation techniques. It was more difficult than we thought and some of us found it hard to keep our balance in some of the poses! On Friday, we had more visitors who spoke to us all about having a healthy diet. We were shocked to learn how much sugar is in some of the foods we eat. In one can of fizzy pop and a chocolate bar there were 18 teaspoons of sugar. Can you believe it? We also got to go on the smoothie bike to help blend a healthy smoothie and we got to taste it afterwards. It was delicious!
In topic this week, we have been learning all about Tudor crime and punishment. We were shocked to learn all about the gruesome methods of punishment they used and we thought some of the punishments were very unfair.
Head Teacher’s Award: Calvin
Core Value of the Week: Madison
Rockstar of the Week: Calvin
7.6.19
Welcome back, I hope you all had an enjoyable half term and are ready for the last half term in Year 4. In English this week, we have enjoyed reading our new book ‘The Lost Happy Endings’. We have been making predictions and asking a lot of questions about the book and the main character ‘Jub’. In maths, we have continued to learn about money. This week, we have focussed on estimating with money so we can work out the approximate cost shopping. In science, we have been learning about sound. We can now explain how sounds are made by vibrations and how these vibrations travel through the ear.
Head Teacher’s Award: Sonny
Core Value of the Week: Caiden
Rockstar of the Week: Katie B
24.5.19
Year 4 have had a busy half term! We have been learning all about the Tudors and King Henry VIII. We have enjoyed learning about the Tudor family tree and Henry’s 6 wives! We have been having a discussion about whether Henry VIII was a good or bad king. To help us decide, we looked at statements describing what he did during his time as king and considered whether they were a good or bad thing.
In maths, we have been learning about money. This week, we have been converting money from pounds to pence and ordering different amounts of money. In English, we have been working towards writing a newspaper report about one of ‘Horrid Henry’s’ terrible tricks. We have been looking at the different key features we need to included in our reports, including learning how to use speech marks to write quotes from witnesses. Our final newspaper reports are fantastic!
On Tuesday, Year 4 attended the skipping festival final at the Beacon of Light. We had a fantastic morning and it was great to have parents join us at the event. I’m sure you will all agree, Year 4 did an amazing job in the competition events and performing their skip dance together as a whole class. We are all proud of their hard work!
Headteacher’s Award: Christian
Skipping Festival
On Tuesday 26th March, Year 4 attended the skipping festival at Oxclose Academy. They competed against 5 different schools in various skipping techniques including double bounce, speed bounce and pretzel! They also performed their amazing skip dance routine. It was a fantastic team effort and they were announced the winners after earning the most points. We are super proud of how hard they have worked and they will now be taking place in the finals on Tuesday 21st May. Take a look at them in action below!
15.3.19
This week has been super busy in Year 4! On Monday, we had our school trip to York! When we arrived, we had a busy day completing three different activities. To begin the day, we visited the DIG museum where we excavated artefacts from the Viking Age and took part in a workshop to learn all about Viking weapons and battle tactics. Then, we visited the YORVICK centre where we went on the interactive ride to experience life in the Viking age.
This week has also been Engineering Week in school. On Tuesday, we had a visit from Nissan Engineers, who told us all about their jobs and how they became an engineer. We then began to create our own inventions, after being asked ‘What would you do if you were an Engineer?’. There are lots of fantastic creations and all of the children’s work will be entered into the competition.
Head Teacher’s Award: Joshua
Core Value of the Week: Finlay
8.3.19
On Monday, we celebrated World Book Day in school. The storyteller Chris Bostock visited school and told Year 4 some fantastic stories. Back in class, we used this as inspiration to write our own stories. It was great to see the amazing book character costumes as well, take a look at us all dressed up below.
On Friday, in our science lesson we were learning all about the different types of teeth. To show our understand of the shapes and functions of the different types of teeth, we created our own teeth models out of modelling clay.
Head Teacher’s Award: Che
Core Value of the Week: Jamie
Mathlete of the Week: Ava
15.2.19
We hope you all enjoyed our class assembly this week. Year 4 definitely all enjoyed themselves and we are super proud of how well they all performed! Take a look a us on stage below.
Head Teacher’s Award: Jacob
Core Value of the Week: Katie B
8.2.19
This week, we have been celebrating Chinese New Year across school. Year 4 have created good luck decorations with different Chinese symbols, including luck, hope and peace. Take a look at Year 4’s completed display below:
Head Teacher’s Award: Madison
Core Value of the Week: Freddie
Mathlete of the Week: Eva
24.1.19
This week, it has been great to see some fantastic homework projects coming into school. Remember these are due in on Monday 28th January. In maths, we have been continuing our learning on multiplication. We have been learning to use a formal written method of multiplication so we can multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number. In English, we have been continuing to focus on the features of an explanation text ready to write our next explanation of ‘How to look after a dragon’ next week. In topic, we have been learning about Viking family life and we now know what life would have been like for an average Viking child.
Head Teacher’s Award: Corey W
18.1.19
We have had another busy week in Year 4! This week in maths, we have continued our learning on multiplication and division. We have been focusing on recalling our 7 and 9 times table facts, it is great to hear the children becoming faster at recalling these key facts. In English, we have been learning about explanation texts and the key features they include. We have wrote our own fantastic explanations explaining how to catch a dragon using our text ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ for our information. We have also been working hard to transform our classroom to reflect our Vikings topic, photographs to follow soon!
Head Teacher’s Award: Maisie
Core Value of the Week: Megan
11.1.19
Welcome back to the first part of Spring term! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday and are looking forward to the next half term. This term year 4 will be performing their class assembly on Wednesday 13th February, more details will follow later.
This week, we have began our learning in our new topic about the Vikings. We have started of by generating questions that we would like to answer during the topic and finding out where the Vikings came from and where they invaded and settled in the UK.This week in maths, we have been focusing on multiplication and division. We have learned how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100 and have began to focus on our times table facts. In English, we have been enjoying reading our new focus text ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell. We have been exploring the characters and vocabulary within the text.
On Thursday, we also had a special visit from our attendance mascot in assembly as our 100% attendance certificates were handed out.
Head Teacher’s Award: Kaitlyn
Core Value of the Week: Jamie
Mathlete of the Week: Summer
23.11.18
On Tuesday afternoon, we had a visit from Hoopstarz. We all had a great time learning how to hula hoop and we were even shown how to do loads of different tricks!
On Thursday, we had our school trip to the Blue Reef Aquarium. To begin our day, we took part in a workshop. We learned more about classifying different types of animals and we discussed how we would classify a star fish and a sea anemone. We even got them out of the tank to see them more closely! After that, we explored the rest of the aquarium and saw a wide range of sea creatures, reptiles and even monkeys! Despite the rain, we loved watching the seal show and some of us were even brave enough to go into the splash zone while the seals did their show!
This week, we have also began to make our products for the Christmas Fair. We have made our own air drying clay and used this to create parts for our final products. The Christmas Fair will take place on Friday 30th November.
Head teacher’s Award: Ava
Core Value:
16.11.18
We have been very busy in school this week! On Tuesday, we all got to watch a pantomime in the school hall, we all really enjoyed the performance of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. On Wednesday, to mark Anti-Bullying week, we learned all about the different types of bullying and discussed what we could do in a range of scenarios to prevent and stop bullying. We also created our part of the whole school Anti-Bullying display. Today, we ended our week with a fundraising day for Children in Need and we came to school in our pyjamas. We even had a visit from Pudsey Bear in assembly! We have also wrote a fantastic persuasive letter in English and in maths we have continued to learn about perimeter.
Head Teacher’s Award: Freddie
Core Value of the Week: Kaine
Mathlete of the Week: Isabella
9.11.18
This week in maths, we have been learning to calculate the perimeter of rectangles and rectilinear shapes. We are able to work out the value of missing sides and use our addition skills to find the total perimeter of shapes. In English, we have been looking at persuasive writing. We have identified the key features of a persuasive letter and have been learning to use persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions.
On Friday, to commemorate Remembrance Day across school each child created a poppy which will be displayed in a whole school display. In Year 4, we created a poppy using the end of a plastic bottle and paint. Take a look at our creations below.
Congratulations to:
Head Teacher’s Award: Isabella
Core Value of the Week: Summer
2.11.18
Welcome back to school, I hope you all had a lovely half term. Year 4 have been working very hard this week. In English, we have began to read our new text ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Squiglet Pig’ and have been generating fantastic vocabulary to describe the fish in the text. In Maths, we have been learning to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and have been applying these skills to problem solving tasks. We have also began to practice our skipping skills after a visit from Nick from the Skipping School as we prepare to take part in a Skipping Festival. Lots of Year 4 have been enjoying practicing the different skills during play times. If children wish to purchase their own skipping rope, they are available to buy from school for £5. On Wednesday, we really enjoyed our spooky Halloween day! There were a lot of fantastic costumes and we had fun playing Halloween themed games in the hall. Take a look at our scary costumes below!
Congratulations to:
Head Teacher’s Award: Maia
Core Value of the Week: Freddie
Mathlete of the Week: Madison
12.10.18
On Monday, Year 4 had their own hockey tournament. A PE teacher from Biddick came to help us to improve our hockey skills and we then played several games against each other. We all had a great afternoon. In English, we have been learning to write a narrative based on a video called ‘The Lighthouse’. We have included excellent fronted adverbials and descriptive vocabulary in our stories. In Maths, Year 4 have been learning to use the column method of subtraction to subtract two four digit numbers. In Geography, we have continued our focus on water and have been comparing the water usage and supply in the UK to Kenya.
Congratulations to:
Head Teacher’s Award: Ruby
Core Value of the Week: Madison
Mathlete of the Week: Lexi W
5.10.18
This week in Maths, Year 4 have been learning to use the column method of addition to add two four digit numbers. We have also been writing newspaper reports in English and in Geography we learned about the process water goes through to be cleaned before it comes out of our taps. In Science, we have been exploring melting and freezing points of materials. We even got to make ice cream in our Science lesson without using a freezer! We had a sealed bag of strawberry milk which we then placed inside a bag of ice and salt. Then, we shook the bag for five minutes and we had created ice cream! We discussed how the salt lowers the freezing point of ice which caused our milk mixture to freeze. Take a look at use making our ice cream below.
Congratulations to:
Head Teacher’s Award: Charlie
Core Value of the Week: Lexi W
Mathlete of the Week: Katie B
28.9.18
This week in English, we have explored newspaper reports and their key features. We will be writing one of our own next week based on the ‘The River’ text we are continuing to read. In maths, we have been introduced to negative numbers. We have been learning to continue sequences counting backwards past zero and can identify which of two negative numbers is the largest. In music, Year Four have enjoyed learning to play the Ukulele with their music teacher, take a look at the pictures of us in action below.
Congratulations to:
Mathlete of the Week: Joseph
21.9.18
In Science, we have been learning all about states of matter. We have explored the properties of solids, liquids and gasses and we demonstrated their particle arrangement. We also carried out an experiment to discover whether all solids would melt at the same temperature, we got to melt chocolate, butter and ice. In Maths, we have been learning to count in multiples of 6, 7 and 25. In English we have been continuing to read our book ‘A River’ by Marc Martin and we have all been working very hard to write a diary entry.
The core value this week was supportive and this was awarded to Isabella.
The Head Teacher’s Award was awarded to Katie B for amazing effort when writing a diary entry in English.
The mathlete of the week goes to Noah!
Summer Reflection Video
