Year 4

This term, Year 4 have been reading ‘Hope Jones Saves the World’ by Josh Lacey and today we were lucky enough to be able to speak to him and ask him questions about his books.

The children asked lots of questions and were really interested in Josh’s replies. They were amazed that he had written over 40 books so far and that it takes around 2 years to create a book from initial idea to published article. Josh explained how he edits his books and how hard he finds this process, which the children really agreed with, but they understood how important it is to do it to make sure your finished story is the best it can be.

Josh also told them how he works with lots of different people when publishing his books, from editors who look at the words of the story to illustrators and designers who create the look of the book.  Sometimes he doesn’t even meet the people face-to-face because they live in other countries!

It was a lovely afternoon and we are very grateful to Josh for giving up his precious time to speak to us.

On 12th / 13th October, Beech and Birch classes spent 2 days and 1 night away from home at the wonderful Kench Hill Centre near Tenterden. The moods in the days leading up to the trip were ones of excitement and worry – excitement about the amazing activities they had heard about, and worry as for many this was their first time ever away from home.

After everyone had arrived, we started with a welcome from Barney and the team and we were shown around the grounds, seeing some of the activities we were going to take part in, meeting some of the other team members as well as the animals – ponies and chickens!

Day 1 – Morning Activities

Our first two activities were shelter building and orienteering.  We split into our two classes for these activities, swapping half-way through the morning.

In shelter building, we went into the wooded area next to the Kench Hill grounds and the children built shelters using the living trees, large wooden branches and tarpaulin.  The aim was to make them waterproof and they were going to be tested at the end!

The orienteering activity started in the classroom to allow the children time to familiarise themselves with map orientation, compass points (N,S,E,W) and map keys. When they headed outside they were guided to various points on the map, ensuring they kept the map orientated correctly at all times. Once they were ready, different maps were distributed to the teams and they were set off on their task to find codes to release the treasure. The children had to work as a team and no new clues were given unless the whole team arrived back to provide their answers!

Day 1 – Afternoon Activities

After we a shared a lovely lunch, the afternoon was packed with 3 different activities.  The classes were split into 3 groups and rotated around the different activities throughout the afternoon. They had a go at the climbing wall and the blindfolded obstacle course, circus skills and soft archery.

Campfire

We finished our day after dinner with hot chocolate and a snack around the campfire, singing our favourite songs and enjoying watching the flames crackling in the fire pit.

Day 2 – Morning Activities

After a night’s sleep (well, most of the night anyway!) and breakfast, we had two different morning activities – animal habitats and breadmaking.

Day 2 – Afternoon – Kench Hill Olympics!

We finished our time together at Kench Hill with team games and problem solving activities as part of the Kench Hill Olympics! The children were in 8 groups and they had to choose a country to represent – we had Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, India, United States of America, Turkey, Australia and Italy. And our winners were… Spain!

The children all had a fantastic time and did not want it to end

This week for our arts week project “we are architects”, the children have been creating pictures of houses using their sewing skills.  They started by sketching several pictures using various images for inspiration.  They chose their favourite picture and transferred it using pencil or markers to the felt backing.  Once complete, they used running stitch and backstitch to create their house, adding different fabrics and buttons to add detail.

Sketching

Sewing

Sketchbooks and Final Pieces

Today, year 4 were outside in the sunshine for their PE lessons.  Birch were learning basketball skills and Beech were practising the ball control in tennis.

Basketball
Birch played some short basketball games in small teams.

Tennis
Beech practised controlled hitting over a net of cones to their partner.

 

Today, year 4 led our key stage 2 worship in the hall.  Our theme was Jesus’ teachings about our actions. Our worship leaders from last year presented alongside our new worship leaders, handing over the reins to them for this year.

The children read from Matthew 7:15-20 in which Jesus talked about good and bad trees – good trees produce good fruit, bad trees produce bad fruit.  Jesus was talking about us and how our actions (our fruit) speak louder than words. Other people know us by our actions, often before even meeting us, so it is important that we show our best side at all times.

One of the children became a fruit tree, bearing good fruit from the suggestions made by the children across years 3 to 6. You can see their suggestions for good actions in the pictures!

After we sang together (When I needed a neighbour…), the children finished our worship with a prayer:

Dear God,
May our actions always be good so that people will know us by the good ways we behave.
Help us always to try our best to follow your ways.
Amen

Today was our first opportunity to visit the school library and look at all the books there are on offer. The children were able to borrow a book to take home and enjoy with their families and read as part of their daily home reading.  They absolutely loved picking out a book as you can see from the photos!

We’ve had a stunning start this week to our first term in year 4.  We have been blessed with wonderful weather which has allowed us to spend plenty of time outside working together in our new classes. During our orientation week, the children have been thinking about how communities work together, be that the school community, class community, table community. They have been engaged in lots of team work activities, thinking about how we can collaborate with each other in fun ways.  We have been thinking about why we have rules in school, what behaviours we would expect everyone to display in class to allow us to succeed with our learning, looking at our school values and in particular focusing on our term 1 value of community.

We have also been learning about place value and number using maths games and solving riddles.  We have completed some still-life drawings, identifying shapes in objects to get started, then using pencil strokes to improve the lines of the drawing along with shading techniques to add light and shadow. We rounded off the week with #ReadHour – reading books outside in the shade to keep us cool!

Class Charters

PE ~ Teamwork games

Still Life Drawing

Maths Games

#ReadHour

Hello everyone and welcome back! A huge ‘hello’ to our new children and families joining us this year too, we hope you enjoy your time with us.

You’ll find below our learning overview for term 1 across all our subjects along with our Key Instant Recall Facts for maths for this term (number bonds to 100). We are looking forward to an exciting term of learning ahead which we will share both here and on ClassDojo.

PE this year is split across 2 different days – Mondays and Wednesdays.  Please can you ensure your child brings their full PE kit into school every Monday, clearly labelled so they can participate fully in our PE activities. PE kit for all children: Navy Shorts and white T-shirt, plimsolls/ trainers. A navy-blue tracksuit for colder weather – further details can be found on the school website by following this link – School Uniform

The classrooms can be very warm with everyone busy learning, so please ensure your child has a clearly labelled water bottle with them in school each day to keep them hydrated and able to learn.

As a reminder, the school day starts at 8.30 am and ends at 3.15 pm.  Please aim to arrive at school at 8.30am as important Start Of Day Activities (SODA) take place during the time before worship and we would like all children to benefit from the maximum amount of learning time.

We are really looking forward to getting started and getting to know you all over the next few weeks.  If you have any queries, please direct them to your class teacher via ClassDojo or at the classroom door.

The Year 4 Team

Birch – Miss Fellows, Miss Wayland and Mr Shearn
Beech – Mr Houghton, Miss Hatwell and Miss Ellis

Term 1 Overview – Rivers (PDF Download)

KIRFs Term 1 – Number Bonds to 100 (PDF Download)