Year 4

Welcome to the Year 4 Chaffinches and Woodpeckers page

The Year 4 Team

Chaffinches Class

Teacher: Mrs Martin

Teaching Assistant: Miss Brock

Woodpeckers Class

Teacher Mrs Thijssen-Jones

Teaching Assistant: Miss Rideout

PE is on Fridays, and the children should come to school wearing their PE kit.

All children have all taken their reading book and diary home. Please make sure that books are changed weekly, and we are more than happy to change them more than once! 

Maths homework will go out on Fridays, to be handed in at the latest, the following Thursday.  This will start in week 2.   

Week beginning 22 June 

A very hot week indeed!  The children have been fantastic in trying to stay cool. We made the most of the beautiful garden during this heat and spent some quiet time reading our books.  During PE we had water races in the shade, and strictly no running, which was great fun, and refreshing! 

On Monday we had a visit from 'Helping Hands'.  This organisation led an amazing assembly about how to stay safe. It was a great performance and it provided the children with lots of tips on how to stay safe in different scenarios, i.e. on line, under peer pressure, county lines etc.  There were powerful messages for all and it went hand-in-hand with the work we have done earlier in the year, the Taking Care Project. 

We have been doing some Art work using pastels on our Rainforest topic.

Our study of plants has included the role of roots, leaves and how plants germinate. We have experimented on some flowers and dissected them. 

We were so lucky to have Ruth come to school and do a composting workshop with us. She demonstrated and explained how compost is made and how to make our own paper pots. We learned so much about the idea recipe for successful compost and trouble-shooting if our compost is not ideal. This linked perfectly with our curriculum in Science next week. 

A big thank you to all parents who came in to our English Open Afternoon which helped to make it a huge success. Take a look at a few of the photos we took of parents and children happily engaged in tasks related to the focus book Dear Earth by Isabel Otter. This ties in with our focus on Sustainability this half term.

Dear Parents and Carers, 

For homework this week, we are asking for your support in helping your child practise their timetables.  

Over the last few months, the children have been working incredibly hard to become fluent with their multiplication facts.  As we know, these facts are fundamental to many areas of mathematics, including fractions, percentages, division and problem-solving throughout their education and beyond.  

We would like the children to be as prepared as possible for the Multiplication Tables Check, which will take place between Friday 5th June and Friday 12th June. 

The website TimesTables.co.uk has an excellent practice test available for children to use.  We encourage them to practise daily and review their results after each test.  It can be helpful to make a note of any misconceptions or tricky facts and display them somewhere visible at home, such as Post-it notes on the fridge, to reinforce learning throughout the week.  (Please note that the facts for 6, 7,8 and 9 appear most frequently in the tests.)

If your child finds a particular times table more challenging, Hit The Button is an fantastic game that allows them to focus on specific tables.  Of course, TT Rockstar is also a great way to improve speed, accuracy and confidence.  

We also have plenty of paper based practice resources available. Please let us know is you would like copies of any specific times tables sent home. 

Thank you for your continued support! 

Best wishes, 

The Year 4 Team

Summer 2 

Our exciting new topic is called Under the Canopy! Building on their learning about rainforests in Year 3, the children will deepen their understanding of these amazing environments and discover why they are so important to our planet. Through our geography and history learning, they will explore the wonders of the rainforest, including the people, animals and habitats found there.

As part of this topic, the children will also learn about the lives of people in different parts of the world and begin to understand how we are all connected. They will develop a greater awareness of their own place within the wider global community, encouraging curiosity, respect and care for the world around them.

Week 5 and 6

Please enjoy a selection of photos from the last couple of weeks in the Woodpeckers’ class. These showcase some fantastic learning experiences, including more pupil-led mini lessons, a fun geometry lesson using mirrors and lolly sticks to explore symmetry, and an outdoor art session focusing on line drawing while sketching the school. The children also created some wonderful “Well Done” cards during their DT lessons, showing great creativity and effort throughout.

Bell Heath Trip

We had the most amazing trip to Bell Heath where we divided into four groups to challenge ourselves on the Zip Wire, Nightline and Mine, Orienteering and Archery. In addition to trying new skills and activities, we were able to practice our team-building skills, communication skills, resilience and perseverance. All pupils showed our values of Ready, Respectful, Safe, Growth, and Empathy and adults were very proud of them. 

PSHE: We are in charge! 

As part of our exciting Law and Order topic, the children have taken on the challenge of planning and delivering their own mini lessons to the class. This hands-on experience not only deepens their understanding of the importance of rules within the classroom, but also helps them develop key leadership skills.

Through their research into how people learn best, the children discovered that we all use our senses to support our learning. They quickly realised that lessons are most effective when they engage multiple senses, so each mini lesson has been designed to include audible, visual, and kinaesthetic activities.

We have been incredibly impressed by the creativity, professionalism, and maturity the children have shown throughout this process. So far, in the Woodpeckers' class, we have enjoyed a wide range of engaging lessons, including topics such as South Africa, football and netball skills, meditation, solar systems, art techniques, and times tables.

It has also been wonderful to see the respect and encouragement shown by classmates as they listen and learn from one another. We are very much looking forward to discovering what the next mini lessons will bring!

Summer 1 Law and Order 

This week we have been starting DT: To design, make and evaluate a mechanical system.

Mrs Cathline was very lucky and went on a trip with Chaffinches. She says: Chaffinches had a fantastic trip with the Royal Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for Play in a Day. The children worked incredibly hard to prepare their own version of Macbeth in just one day, before performing it to parents and carers at the end of the day.

The workshop took place in the beautiful setting of Shakespeare’s New Place, which made the experience even more special. The children did brilliantly and gave an excellent performance—we are very proud of them!

A Play in a Day

Both Year 4 classes had the exciting opportunity to take part in A Play in a Day during Shakespeare Week at the end of March. Organised by the RSC, this fantastic experience allowed the children to explore one of Shakespeare’s well-known stories in a fun and engaging way.

The Bridgetown children were a real credit to our school, demonstrating wonderful enthusiasm, excellent manners and lots of smiling faces throughout the day. A huge thank you to the volunteers who supported us and helped make the day such a success!

The Dimension topic 'Rocky the Findosaur' has been great fun for Year 4. As the topic is primarily science-based, the children have had numerous opportunities to conduct experiments. Through this, they have developed their ability to work scientifically, including planning and carrying out fair tests, making careful observations, and collecting, analysing, and interpreting evidence to draw informed conclusions.

The experiments have included investigations into the permeability and hardness of various types of rock. The children have also explored different soil types and, with many thanks to Kinga, the Woodpeckers class had the opportunity to create their own ‘soil cocktails’. By mixing soil samples with water and leaving them overnight, they were able to observe clearly the distinct layers and components that formed within their jars.

They have also created their own fossils, which was hugely popular! Enjoy the photos below to get a taste of what we have been up to the last few weeks. 

World Book Day

We all had so much fun!  Have a look at the amazing outfits, there was a huge variety including marine biologists, dreamers, the Potters group, adventures and of course some great characters from Minecraft to name but a few. 

Science - Erosion experiment

As part of our Dimension curriculum, we carried out an investigation to find out which types of rock would be most likely to be affected by erosion.  We made sure this was a Fair Test, keeping all variables the same, apart from the one that we are testing - the type of rock. All children had a go and each time it was the pumice stone that showed the most amount of dust, followed closely by chalk!  Your child will be able to tell you how we carried out the test, and which rocks showed very little dust.  

Spring 2 

After our successful journey in Cry Freedom last half term, we are now excited to start our second topic of the Dimension Curriculum, Rocky the Findosaur - Rocks and Fossils. Please look at the information below to see what we will be covering during the next five weeks.   

We are looking forward to the extra cricket lessons on Tuesday. This will be in addition to our PE lessons on Friday so please ensure that the children wear PE clothes on both those days.  

As we are getting closer to the Multiplication Tables Check in June, the children will get lots of opportunity in school to become fluent with their time tables.  Please carry on practising at home as well, we cannot emphasise enough how essential fluency with timetables is as a life skill moving forward.  

This website is great practice, it shows how the test will be set out and will therefore make sure the children are familiar with the process.   https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check

Daily practice on TT Rockstar is also very important, little and often does the trick! 

If you would like any more information or support with this, please do not hesitate to contact us either in the playground at pick up time, or by making an appointment via the office. 

Even though Mrs Tilford has now retired, and is looking forward to spend time with her brand new grand daughter, we are extremely lucky and very grateful that she is returning to Year 4 as a volunteer, helping with phonics and reading.  We are looking forward to see her!  

Week 5 and 6 

We are looking forward to our extra dance workshop this week, delivered by Miss Sutor, a dance expert. To fit in with our new Dimensions' Curriculum and the culture aspect,  the workshops will be based on African Dance. Please ensure that the Woodpeckers come to school in their PE kit on Monday, and the Chaffinches on Thursday.  They will both also have their normal PE lesson on Friday.  Look out for some photos here to show you how they got on! 

As well as working hard in the classroom, the classes love spending time in the library.  It is great to see that many of the children are reading for pleasure and enjoy choosing their own books to read. 

Week 3 and 4

With our new Dimension Curriculum in full swing, we have dived deeper into the theme of Slavery.  Having researched slavery in Ancient Greece, Asia, Africa and America, we quickly realised that slavery has existed for thousands of years and in every part of the world. The children were shocked to hear about the dreadful devastation and depopulation it caused in Africa, and the terrible legacies of racism, which still remain today.  

Both classes wrote beautiful and very thoughtful poems, based on the poem 'Only a Few Coins' to show how very little the slaves were worth to their owners.  Please look at the pictures below to see the children performing their poetry. 

PSHE

In PSHE we looked at what makes us 'us'.  We focussed on our own skills, preferences, characteristics and personalities and realised how important they all are.  Each child created their own jigsaw piece, and once assembled, we could see the great representation of our class.  The fact that we are all different makes us unique and special and we need each and every one of us the make the jigsaw complete! 

Spring 1

Happy new year to all of you! We have been really impressed with the enthusiasm and positive mindset the children have started this spring term with.

In English, we are studying a fantastic book called 'The Lost Happy Endings' by Carol Ann Duffy, illustrated beautifully by Jane Ray.  And as the happy ending are lost, the children will write their own 'unhappy, twisted and cruel' endings to the familiar fairy tales.  

In Maths, we have started learning about Length - specifically Perimeter and will move onto Fractions shortly. We are also working hard on learning the times tables, this half term our Kirfs cover the 7 and 11 times table. Please keep practising these at home too, ready for the National Multiplication Check in the summer. We have set up different groups to practise their tables and we are more than happy to hand out printed sheets on specific tables if this would help at home, just let us know.  

The new Dimensions Curriculum has started with the topic 'Cry Freedom'.  During the sessions, we look at this history of Slavery across the world as well as incorporating Science, Art, ICT, PSHE and Dance.  As you can imagine, we have had great debates about human rights, Democracy, poverty to name but a few.  We have also looked at the importance of our own names, and how that is part of our identity; the children were shocked to find out that slaves often had their names taken away! 

During Drama the children created freeze frames for Wanted Posters.  We also divided the class in two groups, pro slavery and against, and we enjoyed a healthy but feisty debate where both groups were trying to convince us! Please look at the photos below. 

The children in Chaffinches were very excited to hear about the Pongal harvest festival from our lovely Teaching Assistants and we had a great discussion and questions session.