Welcome to 4S!

We are taught by Mrs Stafford and Miss Wright helps us too! 

Please explore our class page to see our amazing learning.

Every 4 weeks, we celebrate the Year 4 stars. 

Congratulations to our class STARS! We celebrated your achievements in our classroom and enjoyed a virtual STARS assembly.

We enjoyed seeing the STARS in the other Year 4 classes too! Well done!

SIGN LANGUAGE

In our classroom, learning sign language is something we really enjoy to do. We have learnt the alphabet, numbers, basic greetings, colours, emotions and other simple phrases. We love learning how to sign songs and at Christmas time we learnt 'Merry Christmas Everybody' too!
As part of Autism Awareness Week, we learnt the song 'This Is Me' in sign language. It made us think all about ourselves and being confident with who we are!
We hope you enjoy!

ENGLISH

Term 6

During the start of Term 6, our focus has been on SPEECH. We have been busy learning all about dialogue. As pairs, we worked together to read dialogue taken from the story 'The Balaclava Boys'. We talked about the importance of expression and practised showing off the Westgate 6 Ps of reading! 

Moving on, we learnt all about speech punctuation and practised writing speech down.

Here are our TOP TIPS:

1. Open speech marks

2. Write out the speech (what is being said) 

3. Add a punctuation mark 

4. Close speech marks

5. Include a verb

6. Add the name of who is talking

Term 5 

Over the next 3 weeks, we are learning all about Sir David Attenborough. His work will help to inspire our writing. 

We will be writing 3 different texts:

- Animal/habitat descriptions

- Short narratives

- Animal poetry

First, we spent a lesson learning all about Sir David Attenborough and created our own thought showers to showcase this. Then, we used drama and narration to recreate scenes taken from some of his most famous documentaries. After this, we spent time thinking carefully about his narrating style and we listed these. Finally, we have worked together to write an animal description as a whole class.

Check out our drama videos, photos of our learning and our whole class animal description below. 

Term 5

We started this term focusing on a new English unit: Discussion.

To begin, we talked about what discussions are and shared our first thoughts on our discussion point: Should animals be kept in captivity? The children shared their own experiences of going to a zoo and we noticed that these were all positive experiences.

We then looked at a selection of photos and watched a video. Children begun to notice some of the issues relating to animals being kept in captivity.

We worked in pairs and then together to identify the features of a discussion text. 

Emotive language is key to getting the reader to really feel what you are saying! We talked about ways in which animals may feel if they are not properly looked after in zoos and learnt about the word 'zoochosis'. Zoochosis is a term used to explain the stereotypical behaviour of animals in captivity. This may result in them showing stress and depression through swaying, walking up and down or by showing unusual behaviour. See below for examples of our emotive language!

Our debate!

We enjoyed getting involved in a whole class debate. Half of the class were arguing FOR zoos and the other half were arguing AGAINST. Some fantastic discussions had. The children showed great use of opposing conjunctions. Check out some photos taken from our debate below! 

We are going to be writing our own opinion blog about whether animals should be kept in captivity. To begin, we spent time planning our own discussion texts.  

Check out some of our plans and get ready to be impressed by reading the start of our blogs.

Term 4

In English, we have been learning all about persuasion. We are working towards creating our very own European chocolate bar to pitch to the Dragons!

So far we have:
- Developed our understanding of different persuasive techniques

-  Analysed existing products by tasting and looking closely at the packaging

- Practised our use of emotive language

- Designed our own packaging based on our European country: France

- Created a jingle

- Written a clear pitch 

We have now spent time in our teams completing many elements of our pitch ready so that we can practise and then film it for the Dragons. From advertising to costing - we really do have everything we need to make our pitch fantastic and very persuasive. We thoroughly enjoyed making our chocolate too - yummy!

MATHS

Friday 28th May

Today, we enjoyed showcasing all of our fraction knowledge using GRAFFITI MATHS!

Take a look at our creations below...

Term 5

We are now learning all about fractions.

So far, we have learnt about what fractions are and linked our learning to real-life (pizzas, chocolate bars and cakes). We have explored tenths too as well as enjoy a practical activity investigating equivalent fractions. 

We have been thinking about all 'Metacognition'. This is when we think about thinking. We thought of the different ways we can work out one single multiplication calculation. As a class, we managed to come up with 9 different ways to solve 6 x 8. We then solved 7 x 3 using these different methods. Check out the pictures below...

Multiplication and Division

We have been learning how to use the formal methods for multiplication and division. 

Check out our examples below...

Term 4

We have been focusing on learning to tell the time and have all shown great self belief! 

We have completed a variety of activities and enjoyed our practical lesson where we played a range of games related to both analogue and digital time. 

We have moved onto recapping our place value knowledge.

First up - Rounding. 

We recapped the method and then the children raced to write down the nearest 10, nearest 100 or nearest 1000 on their whiteboards. 

READING

Term 5

This term we are reading 'How to Train Your Dragon'.

We have begun by reading chapter one and we were introduce to the character 'Gobber the Belch'. Using the descriptions from the text, the children had to draw what they think Gobber looked like. Can you spot his bulging muscles and bright red face?

As we have continued the book, we used our COMPARING skills to compare two of the characters: Snotlout and Fishlegs. 

Term 4

We are reading 'Rooftoppers'. It is all about a young girl who was found in a cello case floating across the English Channel. It has us gripped and we are thoroughly enjoying it! We even had a go at drawing our very own cellos.

We completed jigsaw pieces as we found out more about Sophie's mother. 

TOPIC

Term 5 - All Creatures Great and Small

Our Topic this term links all of our Science learning in too.

We started of by learning all about the seven life processes. We use the acronym: MRS GREN to help us remember all of them. 

M - MOVEMENT

R - RESPIRATION

S - SENSITIVITY

G - GROWTH

R - REPRODUCTION

E - EXCRETION

N - NUTRITION

We then moved on to developing our own classification keys so that we could sort livings things. 

Check out some of the amazing examples below...

Term 4 - Exploring Europe

We have focused on three different European countries: Italy, Sweden and France. 

We completed fact files and enjoyed tasting some Italian and French foods. 

Look at our awesome work!

COMPUTING

Online Safety

Click the links below to view a range of Online Safety videos and learn a little bit more about it. 

Coding

Over the last 3 weeks, we have been using Purple Mash to design and create our own coding programs. We have learnt how to use timers, if/else blocks and variables. As well as this, we have used the designing tool to create backgrounds, sound effects and text inputs. 

Take a look at one child's coding!

EVERYTHING ELSE

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK! 

One member from our class has worked incredibly hard all week on our topic learning. He has planned, baked and decorated his own under the sea themed cake. He showed kindness by sharing this with our whole class to enjoy during Golden Time.