Year 4RJ: Blog items
Date: 26th Apr 2024 @ 7:26am
For our Art this week, we analysed pictures of Castleton and identified features of the landscape and how it is different
from Clayton. We then developed our skills in cutting and attaching in order to create balanced freestanding sculptures.
We developed awareness of composition within a 3D context and thought about pattern to create our Castleton Composition. Have a look at the attached pictures of our fantastic models :)
Date: 19th Apr 2024 @ 2:16pm
What time is it? Summer time - well the Summer term at least, despite the weather!
Our geography learning this half term is about Castleton and Clayton, and we began by conducting field work around the school. Furthermore, we conducted a traffic survey, a field sketch and explored human and physical features in Clayton. We will compare these to Castleton in a few weeks once we visit there. Letters will be sent out next week about this trip.
We've continued with our fractions learning this week, and have been busy multiplying fractions.
We began this half term's artwork this week, and there will be some pictures uploaded next week of this.
Additionally, we will be visitng Alma Park Primary School next week Friday, so if you have not brought in your letter yet, please make sure that you bring it in by next Friday.
Homework has been sent out today, have a great weekend!
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 1:41pm
What fantastic entries we had as part of our Easter competition. Year 3 and 4 made some fantastic entries, and everybody's efforts deserve recognition. As a prize for entering the competition, every entry will recieve a chocolate lolly. Other prizes have been given for the most independent, and best use of every day materials.
Have a look at the entries on the attached document - you'll be amazed!
Circuits and Switches in Science!
Date: 22nd Mar 2024 @ 2:05pm
This week, in our science lesson, we were learning about electrical circuits and what the use of a switch is. We all made circuits that had to have a switch. We also used lamps and buzzers in our circuits, by joining the crocodile clips to different parts together.
We started off by making a simple circuit with a lamp, a cell and some wires. We knew that we had to make a simple circuit first so that when we added in the switch, we would be able to see if it worked.
We had to show our learning powers of resilience and collaboration. We learnt about the different symbols that are used in electrical circuits, such as the symbol for a lamp, a cell and a switch.
We were asked the enquiry question, does it matter where you put a switch in a circuit? We found out that it did not matter where we put a switch as long as the circuit was complete. This built upon our learning about conductors and insulators.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended parents meeting with Miss Ratcliffe or Mr Jones this week.
A letter is being sent out today about a trip to Alma Park Primary School which will take place next half term. Please make sure you read the letter and return it as soon as possible.
Date: 15th Mar 2024 @ 12:17pm
Friday morning, we took part in a fantastic workshop. We used glue, food colouring, bicarbinate soda and an activator. The first time we picked it up, it was soooooooooooo gooey! Then, after a while of rubbing it in our hands, it turned into a ball of slime!
Have a look at the pictures!
4RJ puppets for World Book Day
Date: 8th Mar 2024 @ 12:20pm
What a wonderful World Book Day! We started the morning by creating puppets from our favourite texts that we hae either read this year, or read at home! We also had parents/carers reading with us in the hall. We shared a story with RCW. Have a look at the picture of our puppets! Remember to read at home!
Date: 1st Mar 2024 @ 7:52am
This week, we have begun exploring our enquiry question for this half term's history unit: When and why did the Saxons come to Britain?
We've completed some Anglo-Saxon inspired weaving. These were the design specifications:
- Create and use a card loom.
- Your loom must be A6 sized.
- Your weft and warp must include at least 2 different colours.
- The weft must be made from wool.
- Each weft must be the same size.
Take a look at the results!
Date: 16th Feb 2024 @ 12:14pm
What a busy final week of the half term. We've been working with Miss Mcaffer this week on some water inspired artwork. We took inspiration last week from 'The Great Wave'. This week, we were inspired by an artist named Paolo Terdich to create some oil pastel artwork and some sketching.
Take a look at our pictures on the attached document: you'll agree that it is simply amazing!
Holiday homework has been sent home today too so make sure you get creative!
Remember over half term to stay safe, responsible and respectful, even outside of school!
Date: 9th Feb 2024 @ 1:54pm
What a wonderful week of learning! Faizan says, "This week, we have been learning about fractions!".
Jahmai explained, "A non-unit fraction has a numerator which is not 1."
Isla said, "Unit fractions can only have a numerator which is 1."
Parker said, "We began the week by learning about unit fractions, and today we have learnt about non-unit fractions."
"For unit and non-unit fractions, they can have different denominator. The denominator is how many parts a whole has been split into."
"In our maths lessons, we have been learning about parts and wholes," explained Rayyan.
Natalie explained, "The numerator is the number on the top, which shows me how many parts I have, and the denominator tells me how many parts the whole unit has been split into."
Jaxson summarised this by saying, "the bigger the denominator, the smaller the part."
Date: 2nd Feb 2024 @ 1:56pm
What a busy week! This week, Mrs Hughes wrote a letter in response to our letters, whereby we asked to either keep the mysterious egg that we found in the playground, or to get rid of it. Fortunately or unfortunately, for some people, Mrs Hughes decided that it would not be safe to keep the egg so Mr Jones took it to a special unit at Chester zoo. Have a look at her letter which is attached to this post.
Date: 26th Jan 2024 @ 2:07pm
On Tuesday, we went to the River Medlock to discover new things about the water cycle because in our geography lessons, we are learning about how the water cycle works and how rivers are formed. When we went to the river, we saw a meander,(which is where the river curves). We also saw that this river bank had been created by humans, and that although rivers are usually physical features, there can sometimes be human features too (like with the river Medlock). The water was flowing even faster than usual because of the precipitation (that means rain!)
Date: 19th Jan 2024 @ 2:08pm
Another busy week in 4RJ. We began this icy week with lots of snow on Tuesday, we even went out to the playground and threw lots of snowballs at Mr Jones! In our maths, we have been learning how to translate points and polygons on grids! We have also finished writing our persuasive letters to Mrs Hughes who will be collecting them on Monday, we hope she makes the right decision when it comes to keeping or getting rid of the egg. On Thursday, we checked our rain gauges which were icy! In science with Mrs Ratcliffe, we experimented to find out why things melt. We found out that the hotter the water was, the quicker the chocolate would melt!
Homework is already on the website as Spring 1 W3 Spelling Maths.
Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 2:12pm
What a busy week we have had!
As part of our geography learning, we have created some rain gauges to see how much rainfall there will be in our area over the next two weeks. Each Tuesday and Thursday, we will go to the playground and check our rain gauges to see how much water is inside of them. We are measuring in cm. We have also said that because next week is forecasting cold temperatures, our rain gauges might even freeze! We put our rain gauges in the forest school garden, but we had to ask for Mrs Thewlis's permission first! We hope that it will rain so that we can see how much rainfall there is!
Don't forget we have our visit to the river Medlock on Tuesday, to conduct a river study. Please make sure that children are wearing a warm coat, and sensible shoes. We will still have PE on Tuesday morning.
Date: 5th Jan 2024 @ 1:50pm
WOW! What a week it has been!
On Thursday 4th January, we discovered a mysterious egg on the playground. Parker thinks that might be an alien or T-Rex in the egg. We've been discussing the egg a lot this week, and what we should do about it! We have decided that we will write a letter to Mrs Hughes, to convince her to keep the egg, or to not keep the egg. Some people want us to keep the egg so that we might be able to have a pet, whereas others don't want to keep it incase it is dangerous. Take a look at the egg on the attached document...we're sure it moves!
In our science lesson, we have been learning about solids, liquids and gases which are the three states of matter. Have a look at the attached document for some pictures!
Homework is being sent out this week, so please return it by next Friday.
Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 2:02pm
What a busy week! We have visited St Cross today (Friday 24th November 2023), where we met Father Chris who taught us a lot about Christianity. This is a part of our RE learning about What it means to be a Christian in Britain today.
Mrs Hughes received an email from Father Chris saying how utterly utterly delightful Y4 were. Mrs Hughes was very proud. Please see some of the pictures below. Because of this lovely comment, we have managed to earn some extra golden time...
Date: 17th Nov 2023 @ 12:21pm
What a busy week we have had this week. It has been maths week, so we have been challenging eachother on TT rockstars, and Mrs Ranyard has been in to tell us our scores. We've also had parent workshops for our MTC.
On Tuesday, we had our first art session with Miss McAffer and we learned about an American artist named Margaret Taylor-Burroughs. She focussed on printing images using patterns. We made some patterns of our own, using ink. Have a look at our pictures below.
Next week, we have our trip to St Cross Church (Friday 24th), so please make sure you return the permission slips!
Date: 10th Nov 2023 @ 3:26pm
As part of our Diwali learning, we visited Gita Bhavan Hindu Temple. We learned lots about the Hindu religion. As part of our learning, we also performed the story of Rami and Sita to the children in Reception. Look at some of the pictures we took!
Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 1:46pm
This week, we have begun our new CC geography unit about California. As part of this unit, we will learn lots about our planet. This week we discovered that there are four main layers to the Earth. The crust, which is the layer we live on, is the thinnest layer, then we have the mantle, then the outer core and finally the inner core. The inner core is around 5000-6000 degrees celsius hot.
As part of our CC learning, we have begun to read a new core text called I survived the San Francisco earthquake 1906 which contains fictional characters, but it is based around real events. This week have written similes and methaphors as well as using a range of sentence starters.
In in our science lesson, we have begun to learn about the digestive system, which is how food travel in, around and out of the body.
Next week we will be visiting a Hindu Temple on Thursday. Please return your letter if you have not brought it yet.
Our assembly today was presented by two firefighters who told us all about their work and how we can keep safe around bonfires.
Homework has been sent home today, and spellings/timestables will be tested next Friday.
4RJ Final week - Maya Tortillas
Date: 20th Oct 2023 @ 1:49pm
This week, we invited parents and carers into school to make our maya tortillas! We first wrote our instructions using imperative verbs, fronted adverbials, numbers for listing and bullet points.
We followed these instructions carefully and had to explain to the parents/carers who visited how to make a Maya tortilla. The recipes have also been sent home in a Maya-inspired cook book. We're sure that over the hal term, lots of parents will want to make the Maya tortillas at home!
Jahmai said, "It was good, but I didn't like the avacado and the black beans."
Keira said, "The tortilla was tasty, I enjoyed putting the cocao nibs on the tortilla."
Isla said, "My mum hated the taste of the tortilla, but yum yum, I loved it."
Holiday homework is being sent home today, and the autumn 2 overview for parents.
Have a great break!
Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 12:44pm
What a fantastic time year 4 have had with Rabaz. Rabaz taught the children some fantastic football skills and tricks! Have a look at some of the pictures!
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 6:27pm
What a week for us. We have been super scientists this week, exploring the effects of tooth decay. We are conducting an observation over time to look at the effects of different liquids on eggshells. The reason we are doing this is because egg shells are similar to the enemael of our teeth. So far, we have observed the shells for two days. In those two days, we have seen that the orange juice seems to have had the greatest effect on the egg shells The shells which are in orange juice look like they have begun to bubble, and the colour has changed a lot.
Faizan says that the egg that was in the orange seems to 'have veins.'
Jahmai says that the colour of the egg that is in the cola has gone darker.
Aayan I says that the eggs in the water, and the egg in the milk have not changed at all.
Noah says that we might still be able to eat egg that's in the water because we sometimes boil eggs in water.
We're excted to see what happens over the weekend and what changes there might be on Monday morning, so check back next week to see picture of our experiment and all of our results.
Homework has been sent out today, and next Friday we will test our 5 and 10 times tables and some more spellings.
Have a great weekend.
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 2:13pm
It's Friday again and it's been another busy week.
Monday afternoon was spent doing some purposeful play, we spent time at different stations, foucssing on the skill of listening. Lots of the children enjoyed having an opportunity to play with a range of different activities.
In science, we explored how tooth decay was caused. There is a special formula to remember how acid is created. Elyas says "bacteria + sugar = acid." "Acid + Time = tooth decay." So make sure that you are brushing your teeth at least twice a day!
During our swimming lesson, lots of children had the opportunity to swim on their backs, some for the very first time!
With Miss Kent, some children attended glee club in addition to our music lesson. In our music lesson we explored using instruments which all belong to one family, percussion instruments.
Homework is being sent home today (Friday 29th), there will be spellings, times-tables and maths work to practise. Please return your home by Friday 6th of October. Spellings and timestables will be tested then.
Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 2:14pm
SPORTS DAY! Despite the weather forecast, children in 4RJ were atheletes today. With Mr Jones they were astronauts, using their travelling skills to travel across the astro court, and earn points for their houses. With Miss Brookes, the children had to get cones for their houses and earn points! With Miss Khan the children practised their throwing skills, by using bean bags and other things. Miss Higgins turned the children into cars who would transport around the multicourt.
As part of our golden today, the children had earnt the treat of decorating biscuits, with icing , sprinkles and chocolate chips. This was because of the fantastic behaviour shown across the week.
All of these treats are halal.
Homework is being sent home today (Friday 22nd), there will be spellings, times-tables and maths work to practise. Please return your home by Friday 29th of September. Spellings and timestables will be tested then.
Date: 15th Sep 2023 @ 1:52pm
What a week! This week we began our swimming lessons, which we really enjoyed!
"Swimming was fun and amazing, we had a good time!" reported Natalie.
"Some people went in the big pool and some went in the shallow pool," shared Shardane.
"Swimming was amazing and the best part was swimming in the deep pool!" beamed Rayyan.
We began our science unit on teeth and learned that there are different types of teeth such as the incisor which is used to cut and chop. The canine is used to rip or tear. The premolars and molars are used to chew our food and help us to eat.
In maths we used words such as minuend and subtrahend and difference. Maybe some of the chidlren can test their parents to see if they know what these words mean! That's a challenge.
Homework is being sent home today (Friday 15th), there will be spellings, times-tables and maths work to practise. Please return your home by Friday 22nd of September. Spellings and timestables will be tested next week.
Date: 8th Sep 2023 @ 2:07pm
This week has been a busy week in year 4. We have begun our maths learning, and used words such as addend and sum. As part of our CC, we created our Maya masks which look fantastic on the front cover of our books. In addition, we also played the Pok-Ta-Pok Maya game, which during the Maya time was very dangerous (luckily we stayed safe). Friday morning we welcomed some parents and carers in to our classroom as part of our meet-the-teacher sessions. All the information that was shared can be found on our class page.
Next week, we have PE on Monday so we'll need to wear the correct kit, and we begin swimming on Wednesday. A letter about swimming has been sent home.
Check back next week for more information!