I'll start this week's blog with a 'well done' to my times table stars! These children have all improved their score on the practice Year 4 Multiplication Check we have been doing in class: Ivy, Dexter, Heath, Tam, Jessica, Isabel, Sonny, Ben S-S, Izzy, Amelia, Matilda. Please keep practising this at home. It's great to see scores going up each week and hopefully soon we'll have lots of children scoring nearly full marks! 

In English this week, we started our new unit of work based on the story 'Mog's Christmas Calamity'. The children have really enjoyed getting stuck into this story and watching the video. They know it really well now! In Maths, we have completed our first week of Multiplication and Division, learning how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100, and 1 and 0. We had a really fun lesson in Science learning about star constellations and recreating them using glow in the dark stars and glow sticks (although unfortunately, these didn't glow so well!) Geography this week was all about climate change - the causes, effects and what we can do about it. We will continue these units of work next week, along with tag rugby in PE and creating 'willow patterns' in Art.

Spellings this week:
- though
- although
- dough
- through
- breakthrough
- thought
- bought
- brought
- fought
- ought

Have a lovely weekend. Keep warm! 

Another Friday already! This week seems to have flown by. Before we know it, it will be December.
A round up of the week:
In English, the children wrote their own versions of 'Perils of Everest' and once again, I'm pleased with their writing. They worked hard to include our list of success criteria. In Maths, we have just finished our unit 'Length and Perimeter' and begin a unit on 'Multiplication and Division' next week. I can't stress enough how important it is that children are learning their times tables off by heart. They need to speedily recall them. The expectation is that they know all tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of Year 4. Wider curriculum subjects have been interesting this week, learning about the Earth's orbit in Science and air masses which influence UK weather in Geography. We practised our still life drawing skills in Art this afternoon and have been enjoying Tag Rugby in PE.
​
It was lovely to see everybody dressing up and getting into the spirit of Children in Need today, raising plenty of money. We enjoyed our 'Run for Fun' and singing the Children in Need song! We also had a special assembly today delivered by a police officer all about road safety. Please make sure children are wearing bright clothes now the nights are getting darker, are walking on pavements and are not playing in roads.

Have a great weekend.

​Hello everyone,
Another busy week here! I'm really pleased with the children's writing this week. They have been writing a report called 'Perils of Space', outlining some of the dangers people might face when they travel in space. They will use the same skills next week to write their own report, choosing their location. Watch this space for 'Perils of ____'! 
In Maths, we are halfway through our Length and Measurement unit. We've spent lots of time converting between mm, cm, m and km.
Science involved learning the order of the planets in the solar system and we had some very creative mnemonics to help us remember!
This afternoon, we had a lovely Art lesson making Space optical illusions. 
​
Have a great weekend!

Now that half term is done, it's hard to believe we are on the build up to Christmas! I look forward to the songs, decorations and festivities that lie ahead later this term.

For now though, a quick look back at this week. In English, we have started our new text called 'Everest'. We will be using this to write a non-chronological report giving information about the hazards of a particular place. We have just finished our Maths unit on Addition and Subtraction and next week we will begin 2 weeks learning about Length and Perimeter. In Science, we have started a unit all about Space which seems to have captured everybody's interest! We are moving our Humanities focus from History to Geography this term and will be learning all about Water, Weather and Climate. This week, we learnt about the water cycle and found that there were lots of new words to understand such as 'evaporation', 'evotranspiration' and 'precipitation'.
In PE, we continue with our outdoors lessons and will be playing some Tag Rugby. Please do send in extra layers on Thursday PE day as the weather gets colder. We've had a couple of lovely Art activities to do this week. First, the children designed and created their own Christmas cards which went home yesterday. If you would like to order some, please send in your order form and money on Monday. Then this afternoon, we created some lovely remembrance Art featuring silhouettes on a blended watercolour wash background.

Just a reminder from me that children should be reading every day for at least 10 minutes and recording this in their reading folders. They also need to practising their times tables daily. Next week, I will give out more information about the times table check which will happen next year, and how you can help your child prepare for this.

That's just about all from me this week so have a great weekend!