The highlight of this week was our walk to the river! Despite the rain, everyone really enjoyed themselves. It was great to be able to see some of the things we'd been learning about in our lessons such as meanders, floodplains and how humans have used the areas around rivers. The adults took some speed measurements of the Taw itself and the small tributary, which the children then compared back in the classroom. They drew some excellent field sketches and engaged in some great discussion about what should happen to the former mill. Do have a look at the photo of our River Taw display!
Alongside this, we have started completing our end of unit task in Geography, which is a double page spread answering some key questions including 'Where are the world's rivers?', 'What landforms do rivers create?' and 'What happens when a river floods?' In English, we've started a new (and somewhat festive) unit of work based around the story Mog's Christmas Calamity. You might remember this from a Sainsbury's advert a few years ago! In Maths, we've reached the end of our first unit on multiplication and division so have completed our end of unit assessment here. Life Skills took a look at diversity and what this means. The children had some great things to say during this lesson. We've finally finished lots of Christmas trees in D.T! These decorations reflect weeks of hard work and patience, so please do come along to the Christmas fair next week where you can buy your child's tree, and others! (We will have plenty for sale as everyone has made at least two!) It was really great to speak to lots of you at parents' meetings this week. If you didn't manage to make it, drop me a message on Dojo and we can sort out another time for a catch up. Finally, today we said a great big thank you to Mr Hunt and Miss Wallis, our PGCE students who have been working with us for the past few weeks. They are returning to university until Christmas to continue their studies but will be back in class again in January until February half term. Have a lovely weekend. This week, it's been all about rivers! We've been learning about two important world rivers - the river Volga in Russia and the river Amazon in South America. Did you know the Volga is famous for its caviar and that people use the Amazon river for transportation because there are very few roads in the rainforest? We have also learnt about flooding and the benefits and disadvantages it can bring. We had a great debate about whether rivers should be controlled to prevent flooding. The children raised excellent points about how flooding can provide fertile soil for agriculture but they also considered the negative impacts of buildings and potential lives lost. Our English this week has linked to this theme and the children have been writing their own reports on 'The Perils of a River' including rocks, currents and cold temperatures. I will share some of their writing next week on the blog.
On Tuesday, we are hoping to walk to the river to conduct some fieldwork linked to our learning. As the letter said, I will be monitoring the weather and river levels closely to decide whether it is safe to go. Fingers crossed for a dry spell! Today has been lovely seeing all of the odd socks and support for Children in Need as well as Anti-bullying week. We had a great afternoon waking and talking with the children in Reception class, as well as reading some books together. In other news, the Christmas tree decorations are coming along superbly! Most of the sewing is complete so all that's left to do is decorate them. They are beginning to look very festive. Here is a sneak preview... Today we spent some time learning about Remembrance and why it is important that we show our respects on this day. All of the children demonstrated an excellent attitude and showed great respect throughout the day - well done.
We've had a really busy week again (I seem to say this every week!) and have been working really hard. In English, we've started writing our class report called 'Perils of the Volcano'. This links nicely with our Science topic 'Rocks', where we have been learning about how igneous rocks are formed. Do you know the difference between intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks? Ash class does! In Geography, we've continued learning about rivers and can explain how a meander and oxbow lake are formed. I hope to take the children down to the river to see what we've been learning about in action. This is, of course, weather dependant, so I will keep you updated as necessary. Something the children are working really hard on is sewing their Christmas trees ready to sell at the Christmas fair! I will post some photos next week for you all to see. Have a lovely weekend and see you next week. Hello,
This first week back seems to have flown by! We started the week with an exciting Science investigation. We made Oobleck and made observations about how it behaves as a solid and a liquid. We are now starting a new topic in science - 'Rocks'. The children have really engaged with our new geography topic, 'Rivers', and had a great lesson using atlases to locate world rivers. They also acted out the processes of erosion and transportation... We had some brilliant boulder rolling along the floor! Today in D.T., we started making our products to sell on our class stall at the Christmas fayre which is 3 weeks today! We really hope to see lots of you there. Next week, we are starting a new topic in Maths - Multiplication and Division. On Monday after school, I will be putting out the sign-up sheets for parents' meetings. These will be held on Monday 21st November and Thursday 24th November. Please do sign up for a slot - I'd love to see as many of you as possible to discuss how your child has settled into year 4, how they are getting on now and set some targets for the year ahead. If you would prefer a phone call, please let me know. If you do not come into school to collect your child, please ring the office and they can let you know which slots are available. Have a great weekend! |
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April 2024
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