Year 4

What we are learning this week:

Spring 2, Week 6

English

This week, we have been editing and publishing all or just our favourite parts of our stories. There have also been lots of opportunities to illustrate too.

Maths

This week, we are continuing our unit on fractions greater than 1. We have been looking at how to compare fractions with the same denominators but different numerators. Then we looked at how to compare fractions with the same numerators but different denominators before ending the week adding and subtracting mixed numbers with the same denominator.

Photos

This week, the children have worked in groups to make and paper their art structures, ready to be painted and walked in the children’s parade after the Easter holidays. Thank you to any adults that were able to come in and support with this.

Spring 2, Week 5

English

This week, we have been applying all of our year 4 skills to write our own story based on “Winter’s Child”. We have been calling this “Spring’s Daughter” and have focused on time adverbs, expanded noun phrases, correct speech punctuation, conjunctions and prepositional phrases. Next week, to celebrate, the children will be publishing these.

Maths

This week, we have start our new unit on fraction greater than one. We have learnt how to write and express mixed numbers and have been counting mixed numbers on a numberline before attempting to mark and label our own number lines.

Photos

This week, the children were visited by Rainbow Theatre and participated in a dramatised Viking workshop. It was great fun and we loved the experience.

Spring 2, Week 4

English

This week, we have finished “Winter’s Child” and have considered the key points from the story, using something similar to plan a sequel, which we will write next week, called “Spring’s Daughter”.

Maths

This week, we have been revising our knowledge of fractions, thinking about parts and wholes and whether shapes have been equally or unequally split.

Photos

This week, the children were visited by SameSky, who organise the children’s parade, and were treated to a show of all the wonderful things that can be crafted using household waste. Then, they were given an introduction on how to use willow, which we will be using in art before we break up, to create things like stars and speech bubbles ready for the parade. The children also got a sneak peak at Balfour’s Big Make, which Miss Jackson, Mr Stevenson and Miss Wallace went to make earlier in the term.

Spring 2, Week 3

English

This week, we have started a new unit, looking at a beautifully illustrated book called “Winter’s Child”. We have been looking at the story and using the pictures to support us in practising possessive apostrophes by writing poems, prepositions by writing postcards and direct speech using correct punctuation by writing the goodbye between Tom (the main character) and his newfound friend, Winter’s Child.

Maths

This week, we have been completing our spring maths tests. We are moving onto fractions next, starting with revising what is a part and what is a whole.

Photos

This week, we have celebrated Science Week (the theme this year is “Change and Adapt”) and have had a fantastic week full of Now Press Play live experiences, Balfour parents coming in to run workshops and assemblies to talk about their STEM jobs and we have also tried to adapt a game for a child with a visual impairment, experimented with filtering microplastics out of water and learnt about the importance of glaciers and what could happen if the Earth continues to warm.

Spring 2, Week 2

English

This week, we have planned, written and edited our instructions on “How to complete a successful Viking raid”. The children have been focusing on using headings and subheadings, bullet points and commas in lists, imperative verbs, fronted adverbials and complex sentences using subordinating conjunctions.

Maths

This week, we have continued to look at coordinates and translation of polygons. We have played battleships and completed our end of unit assessment ready to start fractions next week!

Photos

This week, we have celebrated World Book Day with our bedtime stories and book-loving related activities and have also had art workshops with some visitors in the sports hall.

Spring 2, Week 1

English

This week, we have started our new unit on instructions. The children all had to attempt to follow instructions to make a Viking longboat, but some had better instructions than others and the children quickly identified some key steps to success. We’ve also been practising using our time conjunctions to help order steps as well as using those “bossy” (imperative) verbs to make sure we are clear and direct when giving commands.

Maths

This week, we have begun looking at translating shapes on a grid. First, we learnt to count and record the translation using how many squares right/left and up/down the shape had been moved. Then, we attempted to follow directions to translate shapes ourselves. Some of the shapes have proven really tricky to draw in their new locations after being translated! Next, we are moving onto coordinates.

Photos

Here we are trying to follow some good and bad examples of instructions in order to make a Viking longboat as agroup.

Spring 1, Week 6

English

This week, we planned, written and published our own explanation text on a made up cracking contraption. The children’s ideas have been fantastic and Wallace and Gromit would definitely be as proud as their teachers!

Maths

This week, we have been continuing to learn about what happens when we multiply and divide by 100. We have finished this unit now so have also completed a small, informal assessment.

Photos

We have been lucky enough to visit a real synagogue this week. Thank you to Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue for hosting all of year 4 across 2 days this week and sharing your artefacts and beliefs with us.

Spring 1, Week 5

English

This week, we have started our new unit on explanation texts using Wallace and Gromit’s “Cracking Contraptions” short videos to inspire us. So far, we have been identifying what an explanation does and looked at the steps to success. We have been practising writing in present tense, using causal conjunctions and revising our knowledge of time adverbs.

Maths

This week, we have been learning about what happens when we multiple and divide by 100. We have also looked at the link between 100 being the same as 10x10.

In DT this week, we have applied all of our research and skills to create our nightlights, ensuring we meet our own generated design specifications.

Spring 1, Week 4

English

This week, we have been finishing, editing and publishing our own quest story using a similar style to “Arthur ad the Golden Rope”. We have been continuing to focus on the non-negotiables of capital letters and full stops as well as our Y4 writing features of expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, prepositional phrases and subordinating conjunctions.

Maths

This week, we have been learning about what happens when we multiple and divide by 10.

Spring 1, Week 3

English

This week, we have been planning and beginning to write our own quest story using a similar style to “Arthur ad the Golden Rope”. We have been continuing to focus on the non-negotiables of capital letters and full stops as well as our Y4 writing features of expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, prepositional phrases and subordinating conjunctions.

Maths

This week, we have been looking at commutative multiplication and related division facts as well as the difference between multiplying by 0 and 1.

Photos

In RE this week, we have been learning about Mezuzahs and have attempted to make our own or something similar in class.

Spring 1, Week 2

English

This week, we have been practising our writing skills using “Arthur and the Golden Rope” as inspiration. We have been working on consolidating the use of capital letters and full stops, spelling high frequency words correctly, expanded noun phrases, prepositional phrases and subordinating conjunctions. These skills will be put to use next week when we begin to plan and write our own quest story.

Maths

This week, we have been looking at square numbers and division patterns before completing our end of unit test

Spring 1, Week 1

English

This week, we have been focusing on our grammar skills, we have looked at contractions, the present perfect tense and different types of sentences.

Maths

This week, we have been looking at the divisibility rules of 3, 6 and 9.

Autumn 2, Week 5

English

This week, we have started our new unit – debates! We have learning what a debate is and have begun learning and practising our debate skills: rhetorical questions, listening in order to counter argue and having a go at formally presenting our arguments using suggested stem sentence starters.

Maths

This week, we have picked up again on our times tables, looking at how knowing your 3x table can help with working out your 6x table before looking at the 9x table.

Photos

We had wellbeing workshops this week, thinking about what it feels like to be angry and how to help ourselves regulate and calm down. We have also been making Anglo Saxon amulets that could have been found at Sutton Hoo burial site.

Autumn 2, Week 4

English

This week, we have finished and published our stories on Beowulf defeating Grendel. These have been put on display around the year 4 corridor for all to enjoy!

Maths

This week, we have been completing test week and will continue with normal lessons from next week.

Autumn 2, Week 3

English

This week, we have been planning and beginning to write a story retelling Beowulf’s victory over the monster Grendel. We used drama to recreate the scene and are going to continue to write, edit and publish next week.

Maths

This week, we have been trying consolidate and build upon our knowledge of the 3 and 6 x table using known facts to help us work out unknown facts.

Photos

Here, the children pretended to be characters from the story Beowulf as he and Grendel fought.

Autumn 2, Week 2

English

This week, we have been continuing to learn about the story of Beowulf and have been highlighting the text and watching video clips of the story to help us practise conjunctions, expanded noun phrases and speech. We have also written a short description of Beowulf’s journey crossing the North Sea.

Maths

This week, we have finished our learning on perimeter and have been trying to work out missing lengths of compound shapes using bar model.

Autumn 2, Week 1

English

This week, we have started our text “Beowulf” by Michael Morpurgo. We have made a list of new and historical vocabulary, practised writing expanded noun phrases about Grendel (a monstrous character) and have even completed some hot seating drama.

Maths

This week, we have been continuing our learning on perimeter by trying to count lengths to find a total before then moving onto finding out missing lengths using the information we have been given.

Photos

We used practical resources in maths to help us count the perimeter of rectangles.

Autumn 1, Week 8

English

This week, we have been writing, editing and publishing our own version of the Jabberwocky after creating our own animals that might live in the Tulgey Wood

Maths

This week, we have finished our current unit on numbers up to 1,000 and have begun practical investigations to prepare us for our learning on perimeter after the half term

Photos

We have been using the Now press Play headsets to learn about the Moses and the 10 plagues (RE) as well as rivers (Geography).

Autumn 1, Week 7

English

This week, we have started our unit on poetry and the children have been immersing themselves into Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, The Jabberwocky. They have been trying to work out his nonsense language, act out and perform the poem and even try to use evidence from the poem to draw the Jabberwocky.

Maths

This week, we have been revising subtraction using column addition with multiple exchanges. We have also been looking at selecting efficient methods to help us solve complex subtraction problems.

Photos

Oxygen and Orbit had their trip on Friday to Pulborough Brooks. It was a fantastic day that not only linked to geography, but science as well! The children dipped in the pond and classified what they found and had to use a compass and a map to direct everyone to a bird hide. Here, we saw the floodplain and used binoculars to look at all the birds that are currently migrating back to the UK. We even saw some birds of prey!

Autumn 1, Week 6

English

This week, we have been continuing to write, edit and publish our explanation texts on how rivers work. The children have drawn and annotated detailed diagrams, published using their neatest handwriting and chosen how to lay out this work.

Maths

This week, we have been continuing our work on rounding 4-digist numbers to tens, hundred and thousands. We have recapped adding using column addition with multiples regroups and have started to revise column subtraction with one exchange.

Photos

We have been continuing to make our stuffed toys. Thank you to all the adults who have been able to come in and support us with this.

Autumn 1, Week 5

English

This week, we have been planning, note taking and beginning to write the very beginnings of our explanation texts on rivers, which we will finish, edit and publish next week.

Maths

This week, we have been partitioning 4-digit numbers in different ways and re-capping rounding, moving onto rounding 4-digit numbers.

We are starting to pin and cut our patterns and sew our stuffed toys.

Autumn 1, Week 4

English

This week, we have been immersing ourselves in our new unit: explanation texts. We have been identifying the steps to success for explanation texts, tried to order a text that had been jumbled up and even completed some drama, pretending to be a river starting at its source and moving down each of the courses until reaching the mouth.

Maths

This week, we have been using a variety of different strategies (including using what we know, partitioning and bridging) to help us add multiples of 100.

Photos

In English we role played the journey of a river in small groups.

Autumn 1, Week 3

English

This week, we have been re-writing, editing and publishing the build up from ‘Rhythm of the Rain’ using all the skills we have revised from last week: fronted adverbials, speech and expanded noun phrases

Maths

This week, we have been consolidating our understanding of column subtraction.

Photos

In geography, we have been using playdoh to learn and re-create how a river forms, from its original source, all the way to where it meets the ocean.

Autumn 1, Week 1

English

This week, we have been reading a book called The Rhythm of the Rain. The children have been learning about expanded noun phrases.

Maths

This week, we have been consolidating our understanding of column addition.

Photos

In English we re-enacted our memorable water experiences.

Summer 2, week 6

English- ‘The Secrets of a Sun King’

We have continued with our focus story in both English and Shared Reading session; ‘Secrets of A Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.

The story involves a thirteen-year-old Lilian and her Egyptologist keen Grandad, and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. We have started a new focus in writing, moving towards the children creating their own Narrative of the main characters from 1922 discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun before the famous archaeologist, Howard Carter.

We have completed Story-Maps to help us to plan our own narratives, which we will be in the final week of school to write our own narratives. The children are writing a narrative concerning the main characters returning the heart of Tutankhamun into a secret tomb.

Maths

This week, we have started our final Maths topic of SYMMETRY, looking at practical ways to help us to understand where the lines of symmetry are on shapes, and exploring how the lines can be found when 2D shapes are folded over. We also introduced a new Mathematical term, Congruent Shapes- shapes that are EXACTLY the same.

We have continued learning ROMAN NUMERALS throughout the week, looking at how to write numerals 1- 100!

History

This week, the children enjoyed our ‘Ancient Egypt Day’, which saw the children immerse themselves in History lessons all day, whilst dressed in Ancient Egyptian costumes. The learning covered Mummification, the Afterlife and Hieroglyphics!

Summer 2, week 5

English- ‘The Secrets of a Sun King’

We have continued with our focus story in both English and Shared Reading session; ‘Secrets of A Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.

We have concentrated on using a writing technique called ‘Showing Not Telling’, where we try to describe how characters are feeling rather than simply stating how they feel. Here are some examples:

Example 1

Telling: “She was happy."

Showing: “She skipped down the hallway, a wide smile spreading across her face, and her eyes sparkled with joy."

Example 2

Telling: "He was tired."

Showing: “He dragged his feet and yawned repeatedly, rubbing his sleepy eyes."

Example 3

Telling: “The cake was delicious."

Showing: "The rich chocolate melted in her mouth, and the sweet, creamy frosting left a delightful taste on her tongue."

Maths

This week, we have continued to revise and practise ALL of the Maths skills that we have learn during Year 4, but with a focus on reasoning and word problems.

We have also started learning ROMAN NUMERALS throughout the week, explaining their relevant to us in the modern day, linking back to clocks and telling the time with Roman numerals.

Science

For our current of ‘Sound’, we continued to explore how sound is produced by vibrations. We used instruments and rulers to demonstrate and prove to ourselves that pitch is determined by the size of the object making the sound. These photos help to explain what we did:

Summer 2, week 4

English- ‘The Secrets of a Sun King’

We have continued with our focus story in both English and Shared Reading session; ‘Secrets of A Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.

Maths

This week, we have revised and practised ALL of the Maths skills that we have learnt during Year 4, focussing on our Arithmetic skills. Next week, we will be focusing on revising and practising these skills in reasoning and word problems.

At home, you could start to play with ROMAN NUMERALS, with your child, as this is the area of learning that we will be exploring in a couple of weeks’ time.

Art

This week, Art was linked to the Ancient Egyptians, and the understanding of how they would make pigments in their paint from a variety of materials. To explore this, the children used different brush techniques; ‘scumbling’, ‘mixing wet-on-wet’, ‘crosshatching’, ‘stippling’. Finally, they mixed different materials into paint to see their effect on the texture, such as soil, grass and sand.

Summer 2, week 2

English- ‘The Secrets of a Sun King’

We have continued with our focus story in both English and Shared Reading session; ‘Secrets of A Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.

The story involves a thirteen-year-old Lilian and her Egyptologist keen Grandad, and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. In a couple of weeks, the children will be writing their own narrative story of a Tutankhamun chariot race.

This week’s focus was on the description of a chariot race in Ancient Egypt that saw the Pharoah Tutankhamun crash. The children are working towards writing their own NEWSPAPER report of the event, and using evidence to indicate whether this was an accident or not.

Maths

We completed our statutory Multiplication Check this week, and we are very proud of how the children conducted themselves with this!

Since then, we have started our new Maths topic of TIME! So far, we have concentrated on the Months of the Year, Hours in the day and the intervals of 5 minutes. #

We have focussed on the following ‘traditional’ rhyme to help us to remember which months have 30, 31, 28 or 29 days:

30 days has September,

April, June and November,

All the rest have 31

Except February, 28 days here

Or 29 in each leap year.

Science- Good Vibrations!

Our new topic for Science this term is ‘Sound’! The first lesson’s focus centred on how sound is created via objects (sound sources) vibrating and travelling through the air as sound waves (related to our understanding of how particles work from our previous Science unit of ‘States Of Matter’). As a consequence, this lesson was LOUD!

The children HIT, STRUMMED and BLEW different instruments to explore and demonstrate how vibrations are created. See the marbles moving over the drum skin photo below!

Summer 2, week 1

English- ‘The Secrets of a Sun King’

We have started our new focus story in both English and Shared Reading session; ‘Secrets of A Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.

Maths

We have continued our consolidation of Times Tables knowledge, getting the children all ready for taking the statutory Multiplication Tables Check (MTC). To read more about this, please see:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multiplication-tables-check

To help the children with this, we have been using the following website for practise:

https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/

As you can see, it is all about recalling their Times Tables at speed. In fact, the children have 6 seconds to answer each question online. Please note, YEAR 4 WILL DO THIS CHECK THE WEEK BEGINNING 10th JUNE 2024.

Computing

Our new topic is ‘We Are Meteorologists’, where we will cover collecting and analysing weather data. Over the next week, we will be collecting data, both descriptive and numerical, about the weather at Balfour. We will be collecting it daily via analogue (paper!) methods, and in week 3 we will be putting all of the data in spreadsheets (digital) and analysing the weather patterns.

Summer 1, week 6

English- POETRY SLAM!

We continued our unit on Performance Poetry, where we immersed ourselves in lots of different forms of poetry that could be performed. Children have been encouraged to bring their favourite (or their family’s favourite) poems into school to share in performances. This week, each class voted for their favourite performances from their peers. The top 3 groups from each class will be performing outside in our Year 4 POETRY SLAM on the last day of term. Checkout the Balfour Twitter account in the future for photos!

Maths

This week has seen further consolidation of our Times Tables, getting the children all ready for taking the statutory Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) in early June. To read more about this, please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multiplication-tables-check

To help the children with this, we have been using the following website for practise: https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/

As you can see, it is all about recalling their Times Tables at speed.

Samba Band Visit!

Year 4 had a visit from Year 10 and 11 students from Varndean Secondary school this week, where they demonstrated their Samba Band. Various children were invited up to participate- it was incredibly loud!

Stool Ball Training Visit

We have another visit from a Sports Leaders group, to teach both the children AND the teachers how to play Stool Ball (a game that originated in Sussex!).

Summer 1, week 5

English- POETRY SLAM!

We started a new, short unit on Performance Poetry, where we immersed ourselves in lots of different forms of poetry that could be performed. Chidlren have been encouraged to bring their favourite (or their family’s favourite) poems into school to share in performances.

See the genius of Michael Rosen describing what makes a good, effective performance of a poem at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvV23xoZRkI

Subsquently, the children have begun to work in small groups, to harness all of these perfomance poetry skills. The culumination of this performance poetry will be a GRAND Year 4 POETRY SLAM on the last day of term, where the best performers (voted for by their peers) will showcase their talents across the year group.

Maths

We have been continuing our learning about Division with Remainders, by delving into word problems and practical problems that combined our knowledge of Multiplication Facts, Division and Remainders. Here are a couple of example questions so you are able to discuss these with your children:

Science- Changing from Liquids to Gases

Continuing our current Science topic of ‘States of Matter’, and last week’s learning around the Water Cycle, this week we started an experiment to investigate (via a FAIR TEST) what effect that temperature has on the Rate of EVAPORATION.

Various vessels of water were located around each classroom, in locations where there is temperature difference. For example, one in a cupboard, one on the teacher’s desk and one by the warmer window.

The children have predicted how the different temperature will affect how quickly the water evaporates (i.e., the Rate of Evaporation).

Summer 1, week 4

English

We have been editing and subsequently publishing our Amazonian narratives, based on the tale of ‘The Ride of Passage’, about an Amazonian boy who is tasked with capturing animals by his tribe’s elders.

The following video was discussed with the children, because it gives a great understanding of how to edit a piece of writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUScPnDwzPU

Each child produced and PUBLISHED a small book of their narrative:

Maths

We have started a new unit of learning, ‘Division with Remainders’. We have looked at solving division problem using our Multiplication knowledge (Times Tables!).

We have challenged the children to remember the mathematical names for each part of a Division equation, by leaving these displayed around school:

For the Division problems, we have looked at the following STEM sentences:

For examples, 21 cows divided between two cow sheds would be, ’21 divided between 2 is equal to 10 each, with a remainder of 1’.

We have progressed to understanding how we check if the DIVIDEND of a number is a multiple of the DIVISOR, i.e.. is it a number in the times table of the Divisor?

Science- The Water Cycle!

Since the current Science topic is ‘States of Matter’, this week we have discussed how LIQUIDS turn to GAS (vapour) by EVAPORATION, and subsequently CONDENSING back to water droplets in the WATER CYCLE.

We have discussed how this happens at home with bathrooms and showers, producing water vapour (STEAM) which then CONDENSES on to windows and mirrors.

Geography- The Amazing Amazon

We have continued to learn about the Amazon river the Amazon basin, making our own Fact Files:

We have also learnt to compare the Human and Physical geography of The Thames and The Amazon rivers, looking at both the similarities and the differences.

Summer 1, week 3

English

We have continued our English focus of stories from other cultures, with the aim of the children writing their own story from Amazonian culture based around a moral. We have specifically focused on the tale of ‘The Ride of Passage’ about an Amazonian boy who is tasked with capturing animals by his tribe’s elders. Does he succeed? Please watch the story with your children if you wish, as they will be writing their own version of this next week. It can be found at: https://www.literacyshed.com/the-other-cultures-shed.html

Maths

We continued with our fraction learning, and consolidated our different strategies for adding and subtracting fractions that we learnt in week 2. The children have been further encouraged to use ALL of the methods, and subsequently to choose their preferred methods.

ART- The Children’s Parade!

As you may know, Year 4 have been in charge of making the structure for this year’s Children’s Parade. The overall theme is ‘Dreams’, and we have chosen to make a Big Make structure of a giant GNOME! Each individual class has been making different accessories to follow this theme, which the children will carry in the parade; lanterns, fish and giant flowers. All Year 4 children have been invited to join the Parade on Saturday 4th May in central Brighton.

Science- States of Matter!

We have continued our science topic of the ‘States of Matter’, looking at the properties of Solids, Liquids and Gases. This week’s focus was on how solids MELT into liquids. The children designed a FAIR TESTS with ice cubes MELTING over time, and how chocolate reacts with warm water.

Summer 1, week 2

English

Maths

We continued with our fraction learning, but it got progressively more challenging throughout the week, as we looked how to SUBTRACT different types of fractions, using different methods. The following photos show the methods that teachers modelled for the children to follow:

The children have been encourage to use ALL of the methods, and subsequently to express which method they found to be the most efficient and effective for their individual learning styles.

Science- States of Matter!

We have started our new topic of the ‘States of Matter’, looking at the properties of Solids, Liquids and Gases, and trying to categorise them. We consequently explored the role of PARTICLES in states of matter, and how particles behave differently in each state. The children ‘role-played’ each state of matter on the playground, using the following guides:

Computing- We Are Artists

We have been continuing with our unit looking at the idea of ‘Tessellating Shapes’, using the following definition:

The children continued to explore a new (for us!) software program entitled ‘Inkscape’ that allows them to experiment with rotating and tessellating shapes.

It would be great to challenge the children to discover tessellations around them in the outside world (natural or human-made). If you (they!) discover any that they would like to share, please feel free to share with your class teacher. Mr Huxley will collate them, and share them with the whole year group. There might even be a winner!

Summer 1, week 1

English

This week launched our new English focus of looking at stories from other cultures, with the aim of the children, in two weeks’ time, writing their own story from Amazonian culture based around a moral. This connects with our Geography topic of ‘Amazing Amazon’. We have read several traditional tales from different cultures, and discussed their associated morals. The stories have included, ’The Tortoise and The Vulture’, ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ and ‘The Legend of Juratai’

Maths

We are continuing with fraction learning for the next couple of weeks, exploring how Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions are related. For example, 2 and 1/5 is a Mixed Number because it uses a mix of a whole(s) and a fraction. It can also be expressed as an Improper Fraction, as 11/5, because there are 11 fifths in 2 and 1/5. This is demonstrated in the model below:

This has been requiring our knowledge and skills of our Multiplication Table knowledge too.

Computing- We Are Artists

We have a new unit in Computing; We Are Artists. The children were introduced to the idea of ‘Tessellating Shapes’ this week, using the following definition:

They began to explore a software program entitled ‘Inkscape’ that allows them to experiment with rotating and tessellating shapes.

We discussed how nature can produce tessellating shapes. For example, the arrays of hexagonal cells in a honeycomb, or the diamond-shaped scales that a snake skin pattern makes. We also looked

at how tessellating shapes occur in the human world. For example, brickwork or artwork (like Escher’s art work with tessellating animals).

Author Visit!

The children’s author, Hannah Peckham (see https://hannahpeckham.co.uk/) visited KS2 today. As well as reading a selection of her books, Hannah explained how her books use animals to explain and help with mental health issues.

She also very kindly took a very long Q&A session about how she became an author, what motivates her to write, where she gets her ideas from and publishers!

Spring 2, Week 4

English: We have continued our writing unit on how to write ‘Instructions’, focusing on our end goal of being able to write instructions for Vikings to use on a Viking raid. We recreated the famous Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793AD, within the classroom, and thought about what the Vikings needed to do to prepare for the raid, activities done during the raid and afterwards. Please see the following photos to demonstrate how much the children threw themselves into the roles!

Maths: We have continued to learn about fractions, as well as spending the week assessing the children’s knowledge of all of the Maths that they have learnt so far. We have looked at Mixed Fractions and Partitioning Wholes into Fractions.

Science Week!

Our theme in Year 4 for Science week has been ‘Time’ in Science, and specifically ‘Time Travellers’ (designing a time travelling programme on Scratch), ‘Design A Farm of The Future’ and ‘Nature in the Future’ (where the children explored and discussed how we could improve the nature in the school grounds).

Spring 2, Week 3

English: We have started a new writing unit on how to write ‘Instructions’, which includes the use of Imperative Verbs (which we can also call ‘BOSSY’ verbs), e.g., ‘eat’, ‘tidy’, ‘write’ and ‘walk’. The children are working towards writing a set of instructions for a Viking raid on England, but from the point of view of the monks at the monasteries that the Vikings blundered.

Maths: We have started learning about fractions! We have specifically looked at how to explain why a PART can only be defined in relation to a WHOLE (e.g., ‘If Europe is the whole, then the United Kingdom is part of the whole) and identifying the number of EQUAL or UNEQUAL parts in a WHOLE.

WORLD BOOK DAY!

The whole of Balfour Primary embraced World Book Day on the 7th March, and the children of Year 4 didn’t disappoint!

Spring 2, Week 2

English: We completed our unit on ‘Information Texts’, combining all of our learning together to create a page for an Information Text on Mountains, with a special focus on Mount Everest. We used ‘conjunction’s, ‘fronted adverbial’s and making sure we used Capitals for ‘proper’ nouns.

Maths: We finished our unit of learning on coordinates, by plotting shapes on to grids using several coordinates.

History: Our topic of ‘VICIOUS VIKINGS’ has allowed us to explore what ‘conflict’ means, and put this into the context of the Viking period in Great Britain. We researched what ‘offensive’ moves and strategies the Vikings used, and consequently the ‘defensive’ strategies that Alfred the Great deployed against the Vikings. The fortunes of the Vikings were then plotted on to a ‘Living Graph’ (see photo below).

Spring 2, Week 1

English

We have continued our focus on creating an Information Text about Mount Everest, by following the journey of Hillary and Tenzing, and all of the attempts to climb Everest. We have used the English grammar skills of ‘Possessive Apostrophes’, ‘Proper’ nouns and ‘Fronted Adverbials’.

Maths

This half-term has seen us focus on ‘coordinates’, and especially describing how Polygon shapes have ‘moved’ or have been ‘translated’ on a grid. Please see the photos below for examples of the children’s learning!

History

We have started our new History topic of ‘VICIOUS VIKINGS’, by linking the Viking period of English history to the Anglo-Saxon period (which the children learnt in the Autumn term in Year 4). We tried to remember the 7 Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms across England- see if your child can remember them!

Then, we learnt how Alfred the Great agreed a treaty with Viking raiders and created the area known as Danelaw.

Spring 1, Week 5

English- POETRY!

We finished our unit on poetry, focusing on ‘IMAGERY’ in poetry. The children produced some great imagery. For example, ‘the sun kisses the top of the mountain’ and ‘the echo of a distant waterfall’.

As a reminder, you could ask the children to explain Similes (e.g. ‘as slow as a snail’), Personification (e.g. ‘darkness creeped over the field) and Metaphors (e.g. ‘the classroom was a zoo’), as well as using all of the 5 SENSES, to see how much they remember.

Maths

We have focussed on dividing by 100 in different ways, and focusing on the relationships of numbers. For example, knowing ‘70 ÷ 10 = 7’ means that you also know ‘700 ÷ 10 = 70’, or knowing ‘120 ÷ 10 = 12’ means that you also know ‘1,200 ÷ 10 = 120’.

Science- Electricity

We have continued our theme of Electricity by discussing ‘switches’, and how they operate by CONNECTING a CLOSED circuit of electricity or BREAKING a CLOSED circuit of electricity.

Spring 1, Week 4

English- POETRY!

We have started a 2 week unit of poetry, focusing on ‘IMAGERY’ in poetry, and trying to convince the children that poetry does NOT have to rhyme! The focus has been on different types of imagery, but all with the aim of asking the children to PAINT A PICTURE WITH WORDS, using vivid language.

We have focused on Similes (e.g. ‘as slow as a snail’), Personification (e.g. ‘darkness creeped over the field) and Metaphors (e.g. ‘the classroom was a zoo’), as well as using all of the 5 SENSES.

The children will be writing their own imagery poem next week, based on the awe-inspiring nature of mountains. The photos that follow show the children’s initial thoughts about imagery that they might use. Any help at home to discuss how to describe the awesomeness of mountains, using vivid language, would be greatly appreciated!

Maths- We have focussed on further multiplication strategies, with a focus on multiplying and dividing by 10. i.e., when multiple a 2- digit number by 10, then a ‘zero’ needs to be added, e.g. 24 x 10= 240.

Science- Electricity

We have continued our theme of Electricity by discussed materials that conduct or insulate, ‘conductors’ and ‘insulators’, by testing various materials to determine that metals are conductors. Ask your children if they know what materials make good conductors!

Spring 1, Week 3

English: The children planned and wrote their narrative stories based on our focus book, ‘Arthur and Golden Rope’ By Joe Todd- Stanton, where the focus was on describing characters and their actions with ‘powerful’ verbs and adverbs, alongside including the conjunctions of ‘when’, ‘while’ and ‘if’ in their writing. The stories were ‘published’ into old style journals (see the photos).

Maths: We have focussed on multiplication equations, using parts of multiplication and division equations in word problems, as well as understanding that if the number 0 (ZERO) is in a multiplication equation (e.g. 5 x 0 = ) the answer will always be 0. This was quite mind-blowing for the children!

Geography- ‘Touching The Sky’

This term’s Geography focus is the understanding of mountains, under the title ‘Touching The Sky’. So far this half-term, the children have explored the different types of mountains, how mountains are formed and the features of mountain ranges. They have been exposed to the following related vocabulary- base/foot, snow line, peak/ summit, face, ridge, slope, tree line and plateau.

Spring 1, Week 2

English: We have continued with our focus book, ‘Arthur and Golden Rope’ By Joe Todd- Stanton, with a focus on the use of verbs and adverbs to describe the actions of a character. For example, Mr. Huxley ran (the verb) quickly (the adverb) for the bus, while he was on his way to the airport.

Consequently, we have challenged the children to use more ‘powerful’ verb and adverbs. For example, Mr. Huxley hurtled (the ‘powerful’ verb) frantically (the ‘powerful’ adverb) for the bus, while he was on his way to the airport.

Maths: We have continued to focus on the 7 times table, practising our recall and developing our understanding of word problems using the 7 times table.

Computing: We have started a new unit, called ‘We Are Musicians’ where the children have begun to use the Garage Band app on the school iPads, with the aim of developing repeated percussion patterns and loops.

Science: Our science topic is Electricity (‘You Are In For A Shock!’), and so far, the children have categorised appliances that use either Mains power, Battery power or both. This week they explored how to make electrical circuits, using sets of bulbs, cables and batteries, and discussed ‘Open Circuits’ and ‘Loops’. We have also discussed safety around Main power.

Spring 1, Week 1

English

We started looking at our focus book, ‘Arthur and Golden Rope’ By Joe Todd- Stanton. The children explored a book by the same author in Year 3 (‘The Secret Of Black Rock’). The focus for the next three weeks is to develop the children’s ability in their narrative writing, and we have started to think about powers that artefacts and objects might have. The English skill is to use the conjunctions of ‘when’, ‘while’ and ‘if’ to describe the powers of the artefacts. The pictures below show their ideas!

Maths

We have focussed on the 7 times table, practising our recall and developing our understanding of word problems using the 7 times table.

Autumn 2, Week 4

English:

In English, we have started reading and exploring the story of Beowulf. We focused particularly on Grendel, using expanded noun phrases to describe the beast!

Maths:

In Maths we have been developing our understanding of the 3, 6 and 9 times tables.

Autumn 2, Week 3

English:

In English we completed out debate topic by carrying out an in-class debate regarding ‘Should children wear school uniform?’.

Maths:

In Maths we have been developing our understanding of the 3 and 6 times tables.

Photos:

In Art we have continued to develop our drawing skills by using different techniques to give objects more depth. We practised these skills when doing observational drawings of Anglo-Saxon style pots.

Autumn 2, Week 2

English:

In English we have been looking at the structure of debates and exploring different debate topics.

Maths:

In Maths we completed our topic on perimeter. We completed an end of topic assessment.

Photos:

In Art we have loved experimenting with different drawing techniques to represent different textures. We then applied these skills when drawing an Anglo-Saxon warrior.

Autumn 2, Week 1

English:

This week we have been writing poems about the course of a river. The children have been using, perfect, syllabic and slant rhymes!

Maths:

In Maths we have been exploring types of polygons and perimeter.

Photos:

In History, we enjoyed sorting and acting out the Anglo-Saxon timeline!

Autumn 1, Week 7

English:

This week, our focus has been poetry! We have spent time exploring different types of rhymes; perfect, syllabic and slant rhymes. Slant rhymes were the most popular by far i.e. trousers and houses!

Maths:

This week, we revisited column addition and subtraction and completed an end of topic assessment.

Photos:

This week the children visited Pulborough Brooks. We went pond dipping, orienteering and did observational drawing of the stunning landscape. It was a truly magical trip!

Autumn 1, Week 5

English:

This week we have written our own explanation texts on volcanoes! We then planned a new explanation text based on our topic ‘Go with the Flow’.

Maths:

This week, we have been rounding to the nearest 100 and 1000.

Photos:

This week the children have been Times Table Rockstars!

Autumn 1, Week 4

English: This week we have exploring explanation texts and picking out their features.

Maths: This week, we have been adding and subtracting 100s to make 1000s. We have been exploring how many 1s, 10s, and 100s you need to make 1000.

Photos: In Geography we created our own rivers and analysed how erosion and deposition create meanders.

Autumn 1, Week 3

English: This week was our composition week in writing. Using the book, The Rhythm of the Rain, pupils wrote their own ‘build up’ narrative. Their build ups followed Issac’s journey through the river to the sea, following his little jar of water. The focus was on using, inverted commas to punctuate speech, expanded noun phrases, adverbials, fronted adverbials and past tense verbs.

Maths: This week, we have continued consolidating our understanding of column addition and subtraction. We also completed an end of unit assessment.

Photos: In Geography, all classes had great fun creating a playdough diagram of a river’s structure!

Autumn 1, Week 2

English: This week, we have continued reading The Rhythm of the Rain. The children have been practicing punctuating direct speech to express characters thoughts and feelings. They have also been using fronted adverbials.

Maths: This week, we have continued consolidating our understanding of column addition and subtraction.

Photos: In Maths we had lots of fun playing a column addition game. In pairs, the children had to roll dice and chose where to input those numbers in order to create the greatest number. This really helped secure the children’s understanding of the importance of place value.

Autumn 1, Week 1

English: This week, we have been reading a book called The Rhythm of the Rain. The children have been learning about expanded noun phrases.

Maths: This week, we have been consolidating our understanding of column addition and subtraction.

Photos: In English we have been re-enacting our memorable water experiences.