January News 

The first month back after Christmas has absolutely flown over! We had our Ellington Values assembly last week so congratulations again to our four winners from the Autumn Term and a huge thanks to the parents and carers of the winners that were able to attend to help celebrate their achievements. As always, we have been working incredibly hard in all subjects, but I thought it would be good to outline some of the learning opportunities the children have had in the foundation subjects of late.

For PSHE we had a fantastic visit from the Bee You Mental Health Team that talked to us about self-esteem. The children really enjoyed talking to our visitors about what they like about themselves and they also wrote some nice self-affirmation statements that they can read to themselves to help build their self-confidence. 

In Science we have now finished our work on changing states. We completed an interesting experiment looking at how the temperature of the air effects the rate of evaporation. The children had to identify the one variable we could change and worked together to ensure all the other possible variables stayed the same. This included using syringes to ensure the same amount of water was placed in each dish. 

The children have continued to do very well with their work in their Brass lessons with Mrs Chinnery. The class have been so good Mrs Chinnery picked them to be recorded to become part of a video that demonstrates the types of lessons and activities the music service offers to schools. 

We had a lovely art day this week. The children completed the unit Light and Dark. They learnt to make tints and shades by mixing colours with white or black and then used this new knowledge to help create a 3D feel in their paintings by completing a still life painting of a cup. The children also experimented with different painting techniques including stippling, pointillism, and dabbing as well as adding texture to their paint by adding glitter or oats. 

Finally, in PE we had our Year 4 skipping festival. The children learnt a variety of new skipping skills including double bounce, speed bounce and side swipes. The children did brilliantly and had an incredible workout and played some very impressive team games!

February News 

Hope you are all well. It hasn’t been long since our last newsletter, with the recent half term. Thanks to all parents that came to the information evening about Ford Castle. I am really looking forward to the trip next month as you get to see the children really challenge themselves and grow in confidence. If you have any questions about the trip or want to find out any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In class, we have had a busy couple of weeks. In English, the children have really enjoyed our unit of work on Joe Todd-Stanton’s book Arthur and The Golden Rope. The children have written and edited some excellent newspaper articles and as part of the preparation for the write the children wrote their own Newsround style news reports detailing the attack on the town by the evil wolf Fenrir. You can watch some of the newscasts below.           

In Maths, we have been doing very well with our fractions work. The children have learnt to multiply unit fractions by whole numbers as well as simplifying complex fractions by applying their knowledge of times tables. The children now only have a few months until the official Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check so as much TTRS the children can do at home and in school will go a long way to help prepare them. 

We had a very enjoyable RE day looking at what it is like to be a Hindu in Britain. We learnt about the ideas of reincarnation and Karma and how this can influence how Hindus choose to live for example by serving others or being vegetarian. We also learnt about the Hindu place of worship, a mandir as well as the Hindu festivals of Diwali and Holi. 

 Finally, in PE the children did brilliantly with Coach Charlie in their first Hockey lesson. The children are learning to refine their dribbling skills to help them to score a goal within small competitive games.