April 2022

We started off April with lots of fun activities in preparation for Easter. We did a wonderful Easter egg hunt with Mrs Aso where the children did a great job at guessing the clues!

We also had our rainforest theme day where we made clay animals, a tasty fruit salad and took part in a Kahoot quiz which tested our knowledge on The Amazon Rainforest.

It was then time to have a well-earned rest after a very busy spring term.

In PE, we started our athletics unit where the children recapped on the fundamentals – jumping running and throwing. The children had a great time designing a hopscotch on the playground.

We had a visit from BSYW where they delivered The Diary of a Disciple workshop. The children listened to Luke’s story and recreated the stories he told. They got to create tiny boxes to store their tiny book in which reminded them of the story.

The whole class took part in a Young Poets event with The Literacy Trust. A group of children performed their poems in front of schools across the country. Their poems were described as ‘hopeful’ and ‘uplifting’. They also got to watch poets perform their own work.

March 2022

We started the month off with World Book Day where we did lots of activities based around our class story, ‘Gangsta Granny’. The children enjoyed writing new recipes including Granny’s favourite ingredient… cabbage!

In art, we explored different watercolour techniques in preparation for our final piece of art. We also looked at the artist John Dyer to inspire our rainforest drawings.

The children are progressing well in ukulele and have learned the song ‘Happy Birthday’.

We had a fantastic trip to The Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Preston. The children listened to a very interesting presentation and had the opportunity to ask questions. We were also keen to share all we had learned in our Sikhism unit.

We celebrated science week with the rest of the school which began with a show from The Royal Institution on explosive food. The children thoroughly enjoyed the live experiments and taking part in the show. For the rest of the week, we did lots of exciting experiments involving food. This included looking at the fat content in food, a biscuit bonanza and ice investigation. We had lots of fun!

February 2022

February was another busy month! We enjoyed an informative talk from Dogs Talk where we learned about how to behave safely around dogs. We asked some great questions and had the opportunity to share our own experiences. We had a session with Primary Futures on tackling gender stereotypes and it was interesting to learn about the volunteer’s jobs.

We were back with Tales retold and the children thoroughly enjoyed their first session. They continued to impress Emily and Chris with their acting skills where everyone showed great enthusiasm and confidence. This time the children are applying themes from the story Gangsta Granny within the sessions.

We have continued with our topic where we learned that the rainforest is much more than simply beautiful, we rely on it for everyday items such as medicines, coffee, spices etc. The children did some research and produced an excellent piece of writing.

The children worked hard on their dilemma stories which were based on ‘The Balaclava Story’ by George Layton. They were great to read!

January 2022

The children settled well after the Christmas break and were ready to start the new year. We began with our new topic ‘The Amazing Amazon’. The children revisited continent work, looked specifically at South America and the countries within. We did some great research to identify the different foods and products produced in the rainforest. This topic work will be displayed in our classroom.

In ukulele lessons, the children have continued to make great progress. I am told that the ukulele teacher is very impressed with their ability and that they are learning some quite complex pop songs. It is fantastic to hear that the children are doing so well!

In English, we started with a poetry unit based on the performance of the poem ‘Macavity: The Mystery Cat” by T.S Elliot. Then we started to look at stories with issues and dilemmas where we based our plot structure on the story ‘The Balaclava Story’ by George Layton. The children had some great discussions on a variety of different dilemmas and what they would choose to do.

In Maths, we have been working hard on multiplication and division. The children have continued to use manipulatives to support their understanding before moving onto reasoning and problem-solving questions. We’ve also been doing lots of times tables practise to support quick recall of multiplication facts.

We look forward to going deeper into The Amazon over the coming weeks.

December 2021

December was certainly the fastest month of year! We packed so much into such a short a space of time but had lots of fun.

In art, we worked incredibly hard to produce our fantastic Egyptian death masks. The children used a variety of skills including papier mache, Modroc (plaster of Paris), drawing and painting. In D&T, we produced a 3D structure and created 3D pyramids on an Egyptian landscape scene.

In English, we read the Pied Piper story and then used the plot structure to write our own fantasy story. The children used their imagination to produce some very interesting stories.

In maths, we worked on multiplication and division skills using practical equipment and then applied this into reasoning and problem-solving questions.

We had a visit from Coram Life Education where we concentrated on the theme ‘It’s great to be me’. The children contributed to discussions with some great points and asked some very important questions. We also loved seeing Harold the Giraffe again.

We had a very interesting talk from UK Parliament. We learnt about the difference between The House of Commons and The House of Lords, the work of MPs, how laws are made and voices are heard. The children also got the opportunity to ask some interesting questions.

The festivities were well underway starting with our Christmas film night. The children loved watching The Nativity film and eating their sweet treats! We also enjoyed a fantastic trip to The Grand Theatre to watch the pantomime ‘Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs’. The children thoroughly enjoyed it and it got us all in the Christmas spirit. Our school cook produced a delicious Christmas dinner and the children loved wearing their Christmas hats and pulling their crackers.

We finished the Christmas festivities with a brilliant performance in our Nativity which we had all worked extremely hard on. Our class Christmas party was a success and the children enjoyed playing a variety of games and dancing.

It was time for a well-deserved rest over Christmas!

November 2021

WOW, November has certainly flown by! The children have continued to work hard and be fully immersed in our Egyptian topic.

In English, we have been learning about playscripts. We learnt about the key features to write our own. We used the short film ‘Marshmallows’ to write a playscript where we used dialogue, stage directions and setting descriptions. They were fantastic!

In Maths, we have been learning about length and perimeter as well as multiplication and division. The children have continued to develop their problem-solving skills.

We continued with our Tales Retold sessions, focusing on belonging and coping. The children always contribute well to these sessions and participate fully. It is great to see the children be so creative!

We were fortunate enough to have a live author visit from Jacqueline Wilson where she talked about her new book ‘The Primrose Railway Children’. It was also great to listen to her illustrator about how she develops the characters. We have some keen artists in our class, so they were very interested in this as a prospective career.

We had a session with Primary Futures where we learned about the different job roles connected with Blackpool illuminations. It was interesting to listen to some of the roles and the children asked some great questions.

Finally, we finished November with our fantastic Egyptian theme day. We made Egyptian reed boats, traditional sweets, created secret messages on a hieroglyphic typewriter and composed Egyptian music. The children looked wonderful, and it was a great day!

October 2021

October was another busy month in Year 4!

In English we read the text ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ and the children explored various drama techniques to understand the characters. We used this text as an inspiration to write our own fantasy texts which the children worked hard on.

In Maths we have been working on 4-digit addition and subtraction. The children have used practical resources such as place value counters to work alongside the written method. They have worked hard on their reasoning and problem-solving skills which have enabled them to apply the skills they have learned.

In topic we have continued with our Egyptian theme. We have used compass points to locate various places in Egypt. We have produced some fantastic artwork on papyrus paper.

October was also the start of our tales retold sessions with The Grand Theatre where the children have been exploring resilience through drama. The children have been FANTASTIC and have contributed whole-heartedly to the project. Everyone has been blown away by their effort and enthusiasm.

We had a visit from the poet Charlotte Wetton which is in conjunction with the project for Blackpool Young Poets and The National Literacy Trust. Charlotte worked on helping the children with their editing and performance techniques in poetry.

Finally, the children have also continued to impress with their ukulele skills. Their confidence is increasing and they are progressing well. They worked hard on the piece ‘rock on’ which involved moving their fingers on and off the ukulele.

Library Visit- 1st October 2021

Year 4 September 2021

Year 4 have had a great September! They settled in very well and adapted to the new routines quickly.

In English, we have been looking at explanation texts where we designed an invention and explained how it worked. We loved basing our ideas on Wallace and Gromit’s cracking contraptions. The children came up with some fantastic ideas. We have also looked at fantasy texts where we have been reading the story “The Firework-Maker’s Daughter’.

In Maths, we have been looking at place value, addition and subtraction. We have been using the place value counters to make more than one exchange when adding two 4-digit numbers. The children have been showing some great problem-solving skills.

In topic, we have been looking at modern Egypt and using lots of geographical vocabulary. The children have made some great fact pages which are displayed in our classroom. We also compared Egypt to England.

We have enjoyed our ukulele lessons with Mrs Shepherd from Blackpool Music Service. The children are progressing well and are learning some key concepts in music.

Finally, we enjoyed a trip to Blackpool Central Library where we worked with The National Literacy Trust and Young Blackpool Poets. We looked at the beautiful stained-glass windows which will be an inspiration for our poetry writing back in class.

Year 4 – Walk Like an Egyptian

This term in Year 4 we have been busy learning about the Ancient Egyptians and discovering what life may have been like over 4000 years ago. During the topic we have learnt about the key dates in the history of Ancient Egypt and ‘freeze framed’ some of these dates. We learnt about the importance of the River Nile to Egyptians, and made our own Shaduf so we could see how the Egyptians would have watered their crops. During our Egyptian Theme day, we all dressed in Ancient Egyptian style clothing and learnt about writing hieroglyphics like a scribe, made our own jewellery and even tried some Egyptian style food and drink.

Wild Aid
On 1^st March, we were visited by Charlie at Wild Aid, who came to talk to us about different species of birds. During his visit, we created our own bird feed recipes and put them in the school garden to see which were the most popular ingredients. In the afternoon, we also made our own bird feeders.

Rainforest project
Over half-term, Year 4 were given the mission to create their own Amazon Rainforest by researching the different features and adding these to their own design. The children were told they could design their project in any mode they liked and the designs they came up with were amazing, ranging from cakes, to 3D posters, to rainforests in boxes.

Life education Bus
On Thursday 6^th December, we had a very special visit from the Life Education Bus, where we learned all about the human body and what we can do to look after it. We looked at the special model ‘Tammy’ and the different parts of her body lit up. We also followed Harold and his friends on their journey around a theme park and took a visit to ‘Conformatron’ where the rule was that everybody was the same. This showed us how important it was to embrace everyone’s unique qualities.

Egyptian Class Assembly
During our Egyptian topic in Autumn Term, we enjoyed showing our parents what we had learned throughout our topic during our ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ class assembly. We even had a ‘real life’ Mummy to demonstrate how Egyptian bodies were mummified after death.

The Christmas Period
Over Christmas, we took part in lots of fun and festive activities, for example, our school nativity where we played the scene of the Census Office. We also enjoyed a Christmas dinner as a whole class with Christmas crackers, hats and jokes. During our class party, we also enjoyed a visit from Father Christmas himself.