Hello,
It's good to be back after half term and what's more, be making the most of the sunshine! This week in Ash Class, we have worked in Maths learning how to tell the time. Why not practise this over the weekend? In English, we started a new text called 'A Walk in London'. The children were able to transform this into some instructions for their own walk in London, pointing out all of the best sights to see. Science involved learning about organs of the human body including their functions. We have started a unit on natural resources in Geography and had some interesting discussions about which natural resources created the objects we use everyday. We have also started practising for the KS2 play 'Cinderella Rockerfella'. The songs are coming along nicely and the children are aware of their roles and what's involved. Next week, we will learn some dances and spend time practising when different children need to be on stage. Next week, we have our Year 4 multiplication checks. I'm so proud of how hard the children have worked for this and I know they will all try their best. Let's have a weekend of lots of practise to make sure they feel as confident as possible! See you next week, Miss Radbourne. Welcome to the summer term! The weeks seem to be passing by ever so quickly but I'm looking forward to warmer, sunny days and getting outside a lot more this term.
This week, we've been finishing off a few things from last term as well as starting new topics in lots of subjects. We began the week by concluding our geography learning about migration, writing newspaper reports giving information about what migration is, the reasons behind it and also some of the impacts of it. In English, we've started learning about persuasive writing. We read a letter from the RSPB trying to persuade people to become members and we identified lots of persuasive techniques including speaking directly to the reader, using rhetorical questions and using emotive language. In Maths, we've continued our unit on decimals and have learnt about hundredths this week. This term, we swap from geography back to history and our focus is now on the Vikings. We learnt about the reasons Vikings left their homelands in Scandinavia and why they raided and invaded lots of countries including Britain. In science, we are looking at animal and plant adaptations. This week, we learnt what an adaptation is and looked at lots of different examples of adaptations in nature. We have some very active Thursdays ahead this term with our SAINTS PE lesson and swimming on the same day! With SAINTS, the children are going to be playing tennis for the next few weeks. The children had a great first swimming lesson - everyone got in the pool and enjoyed their lesson. Well done! A few pictures follow of our Art this week - designing and creating our own mandalas. Have a great weekend everyone. This week was biscuit week in Ash Class! We all really enjoyed Tuesday's DT project. The day started with tasting some different biscuits and evaluating them. The children thought about appearance, texture and taste and used this to help decide what to include in their own biscuits. They they were able to adapt a recipe and followed these to mix up the ingredients and create their biscuits. An afternoon of cooking and then the biscuits were baked! The classroom smelt like a lovely bakery...
Another highlight for me this week was reading the children's finished writing in English. They have been writing their own version of the book 'Leon and the Place Between'. The writing was so descriptive and imaginative - I really enjoyed reading their work. We have been learning about decimals in Maths this week and revisited what a tenth is and the different ways we can represent it (as a fraction, decimal, on a place value chart or on a number line). We also looked again at how to divide a number by 10 using a place value chart. In geography, we explored how climate change is going to have an impact on migration. We learnt about how rising sea levels and drought (two of the major impacts of climate change) will force people to leave their homes and they will become 'climate refugees'. Science was a lovely lesson learning about different astronomers. We read about astronomers through time including the Ancient Mayans, Copernicus, Katherine Johnson and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. In PE, we had a bench ball tournament for our indoors lesson and then a handball tournament for our outdoor SAINTS lesson. From Miss Boyce In music this term, we have been learning about the origin and features of rock and roll music. Children have learnt how to play the Hand Jive and Rock Around the Clock, looking specifically at a walking bass line, before performing a piece as a class. Children have been learning to:
Although quite short, we've packed a lot into this term! A trip to Tiverton museum, the zoo trip, baking biscuits, learning Ukrainian dancing, a lot of Art and so much more. I hope everyone has a lovely Easter holiday and I look forward to seeing you in the summer term! This week, we have been undertaking our spring term assessments. The children have had a great attitude to these and have shown their best effort in the reading and Maths assessments. Well done to everyone for taking these in their stride!
Amongst the assessments, we've been busy in all of the other subjects. In science, we learnt about what the universe is and the scientific theory of how it began. Geography was a two part lesson: First, we learnt about economic migration and then we discussed why some people are forced to leave their homes and migrate. In Life Skills, we continued our learning about money and finances. We talked about how it's important to keep track of your money and be able to recognise scams. We've had a really active week this week which began, on Monday afternoon, with taking part in the Fun Fitness event organised by Mrs Ahmad. All of the children had a really good time and got involved with the different activities which ranged from penalty shoot outs to parachute games to obstacle courses. We then had our indoor PE lesson on Wednesday and our outdoor PE lesson on Thursday. Plenty of exercise! It's been really lovely to see so many of you at parents meetings this week. If you couldn't make it, I'm always happy to offer a phone call at another time so just get in touch. Have a lovely weekend. What a brilliant Science week we've had!
The week started with our trip to Newquay zoo. We all enjoyed making our way around the zoo and observing and learning about the animals there. Highlights included the lemurs, penguins and of course the capybaras (a current favourite animal in Ash Class!) We also enjoyed an informative talk by one of the zoo keepers during which the children learnt about how animals have adapted to their environments. There was also the opportunity to ask lots of questions. On Tuesday, the day began with a workshop from Devon County Council about composting. This was really engaging and the children particularly enjoyed searching for minibeasts in some compost which had been brought along. We found all sorts using the magnifying glasses and were able to use identification keys to discover what species they were. We continue to learn about space in our Science curriculum lessons and this week, discovered what stars are as well as the importance of our sun. We had great fun making our own constellations! Next week is looking like a busy week. We will be undertaking our termly assessments in reading and Maths, as well as continuing with our topics across all of our subjects. I also look forward to seeing many of you at parents evenings on Wednesday and Thursday. Have a fab weekend. Another week passes by!
In English this week, the children story mapped the text 'Leon and the Place Between'. This helps them remember the language and sentence structures used so that they can replicate these in their own writing. The story maps look great and really embedded the story in their minds. In Maths, we've been exploring fractions in depth. We've been converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions using number lines, bar models and physical resources to help us with this. Our next step is to be able to find equivalent fractions. Science was a lovely lesson where we learnt about the planets in our solar system. I shared my mnemonic which helps me remember them: My (Mercury), Very (Venus), Early (Earth), Morning (Mars), Jam (Jupiter), Sandwiches (Saturn), Usually (Uranus), Nauseate (Neptune)! There were some very creative ideas for other mnemonics also. In Geography, we talked about some of the possible advantages and disadvantages of migration on the source and host countries. The children took a very mature approach to this and we had some fab discussions. PE was great fun this week as Sofiia kindly helped to lead the session and share some traditional Ukrainian dance moves with us! Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was lovely to be able to share different cultures. Next week we look forward to our trip to Newquay zoo and lots of other exciting Science week activities! Have a great weekend. Hello everyone.
I'm really pleased with how the children's cinquain poems turned out. We made our class poetry book and it's lovely to have this as it's a permanent feature which can be read any time. We're now moving on from poetry to a fiction unit of writing based on the book 'Leon and the Place Between.' I'm looking forward to some creative imagination for a future story. In maths, we've begun a unit on Fractions. After recapping what a fraction is and how we can represent fractions, we've been learning about fractions greater than one whole and how these can be written as mixed numbers and improper fractions. We're continuing to learn about migration in geography and, this week, we looked at the reasons why people migrate. We categorised these into 'push' factors (things that make someone want to leave a place) and 'pull' factors (things that draw people to a new place). Our science lesson explored some of the things we can find in our solar system including comets, meteors and asteroids. Next week, we will be discovering facts about the planets in our solar system. It was great to see some of you for the information evening about the Year 4 Multiplication Check. I'm noticing great improvements from some of the children's scores, so please do keep practising daily at home - it makes all the difference! Also keep practising spellings and reading as well. To finish off today's blog, have a look at how fab our dragon eye display looks. We've had a great start to this term here in Ash Class. The children have all been really engaged with their learning and have put some great effort in. We're having a focus on handwriting this week so well done to the children who consistently used their neatest handwriting and earnt themselves a smelly sticker! I will choose more handwriting stars every day next week... English has been lots of fun this week as we've been writing cinquain poems. These are poems with 5 lines and a set pattern of syllables. As a class, we wrote a cinquain poem together yesterday: Tiger Furry, stripy Prowling, pouncing, stalking Hiding in the rainforest trees Big cat Next week, once everyone has written their own cinquains, we will compile these into our very own poetry book. Watch this space! In Maths, we've finished off our unit on Length and Perimeter and have started a new unit on Fractions. To introduce this topic, we had an investigation lesson today. The challenge was to find as many possible ways of making one half from a piece of A4 paper. There were some great ideas and reasoning skills used during this lesson. We have also started new topics in our other areas of learning too. In science, we are learning all about Space! We explored what solar and lunar eclipses are and look forward to finding out more about the universe and planets in future lessons. We finished our history topic about the Anglo-Saxons this week and the children wrote an essay entitled 'How did the Anglo-Saxons change Britain?' I was very impressed with these! This term, we are focusing on geography, learning all about migration and why people move from place to place.
It's also been a very sporty week this week with our two PE lessons plus a Futsal tournament at school organised by OCRA. There was great some sportsmanship on show and fab effort by all. Next week, on Monday straight after school, I am holding an information session about the Year 4 Multiplication Check. Please do come along and find out how this statutory check works and what you can do at home to support your children. Just a reminder that children need to be practising their times tables daily, as well as reading daily and practising spellings. That's it from me this week so have a lovely weekend. Today has been a bit of a sad day because we said farewell to Miss Wallis and Mr Hunt, our student teachers. They have been working with us for a few months now and will really be missed. We thank them so much for all of their hard work and for being part of the Ash Class team!
This week, we went on our trip to Tiverton Museum on Tuesday. We took part in three workshops - one which epxlored Anglo-Saxon farming and settlements, one which looked at their traditions such as writing with runes, and another in which we had the opportunity to do some traditional weaving. After the Anglo-Saxon themed morning, we got to look around the rest of the museum during the afternoon. The children particularly enjoyed looking at the 'Tivvy Bumper' steam engine and exploring the WW1 and WW2 exhibition. You can have a look at the photos on our ClassDojo page. The rest of the week has been busy too! We've finished our extra chapter to the Beowulf story and I've read some great descriptive writing full of monsters, battles and heroes. We've carried on finding perimeters in Maths and learnt how to find missing sides. We finished off the 'Light' topic by discovering some uses of light including periscopes and telescopes. This will lead nicely into our next science topic... Space! Here is the acrostic poem from Miss Wallis' guided reading group this week: S - searing your eyes U - using water to reflect N - never look at me Have a great half term everyone! How brilliant does the children's artwork look on display? I wish we could have fitted them all on because they were great! Lots of children and staff have walked past the display and taken the time to stop and look, admiring the different pictures from different angles.
In Maths this week, we have been learning about length and perimeter. The children have been able to convert between metres and kilometres, and began to calculate perimeter of rectangle using a grid. Next week they will build on this learning and calculate perimeter of rectilinear shapes, deducing the lengths of missing sides from the information they already have. We've had some brilliant creative writing in English this week as we continue our sequence of work based on the book 'Beowulf the Monster Slayer'. Next week, the children will be writing their own chapter where their monster is defeated by their hero. Our art lesson this week links in with English as the children are beginning work on some oil pastel dragon eyes. Watch this space for photos! In history, we learnt about the heptarchy. This was the arrangement of England into 7 kingdoms by the Anglo-Saxons. It was a very turbulent and violent time in British history so we learnt about which weapons were used in battles and what battles might have been like. Archaeology has uncovered clues to this. Well done to the seven children who represented our school in the cross country this afternoon. |
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April 2024
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