April News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Hope you are all well and you had a lovely Easter break. In terms of school days, it hasn't been too long since our last newsletter, but the children have been busy as always.

In Reading, the children have started reading our new class novel, Podkin One Ear. They are really enjoying the story so far as our hero Podkin, the lazy son of a rabbit chieftain, is forced to do battle the evil forces of the Gorm. In Writing, the children have now written an alternative narrative to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The children did so well with this extended write as it is the most complex narrative we write in Year 4. The children have improved massively with their use of direct speech and some of their descriptive writing describing forests and castles was fantastic.

In Maths, the children have been learning to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes on analogue clocks. The children have also started to convert from analogue clocks to 24-hour digital clocks and vice-versa. This week, we have also started to recover the column methods.

In PE the children have started learning to play golf with coach Charlie. Sessions have focussed on learning to consistently swing and strike the ball using a wedge club (launcher) and this week they made their own crazy golf cause and learned to use a putter (roller).

Finally, on our Design Technology Day, the children worked in pairs to build a slingshot car. The children created a chassis using lollipop sticks where they attached the wheels and axels. The children also had to design and attach an aerodynamic car body that would help to reduce air resistance and increase the speed of the car. The cars were propelled using a rubber band that attached to a launcher at the back of the car.

May News 

First of all, I hope you are all well and I hope you have a lovely half term. Hard to believe we only have seven weeks left in Year 4 before the children enter Upper Key Stage 2! We had some very exciting news this week with our class athletes. The Year 4 team won the Ashington heat of Northumberland School Games competition and will now be one of three teams in the final of the competition after half term. Well done to all the children involved!

In English, the children have been continuing to enjoy our class novel, Podkin One Ear. The children have been learning how to sequence and summarise events and have been making informed predictions on what they think will happen next in the narrative. In Writing, the children have now written a persuasive letter based on the book Where the Forest Meets the Sea. The children wrote a letter to King Charles to persuade him to use his power and influence to help protect the rainforest from further deforestation and help prevent further damage to the environment.

In Maths, the children have moved on in their learning regarding column methods. This includes adding and subtracting any 4-digit numbers and multiplying 3-digit numbers by single digits. It will be the Multiplication Tables Check pretty quickly once we return from the half term, so as much practice on Times Table Rockstars completing Soundchecks and completing heatmaps in Garage the better they will do. One last big push would be much appreciated.

In Music the children have continued with their brass lessons with Mrs Chinnery. They are definitely becoming more tuneful which is great and, on the 24th June, parents are invited to come and watch the band perform along with the school mini-band.

Finally, in Science, the children completed their unit of work on Electricity. The children learnt to name the components found in simple series circuits and built circuits to include cells, bulbs, wires and switches and then had to diagnose why broken circuits would not work.