Welcome to Year 4

Chestnut Class

Mrs Yates & Mr Smith

Maple Class

Mrs Row & Miss Meeks 

Reminders

Reading: at least 3 times a week with parental signature in reading journal. 

Spellings: Will be put on the class page every Friday and tested the following Friday.

Times tables tests will be every Friday - the children are aware of which times table they are focusing on.

Please ensure that your child’s reading journal is in school on a daily basis.

This term's learning : Ancient Egypt

PE days

Chestnut & Maple

Outside - Wednesday

Inside - Thursday

PE kit should be worn on PE days.

PE kit - white t-shirt, navy or black shorts / joggers, trainers.

Weekly update 26th May 2023

Another busy week this time before the end of term.

The children in Year 4 have been learning to use chipper clubs in Tri-Golf, learning to hit the balls, so that they fly through the air. Great fun was had by all.

In English, the children have learnt all about Haiku's, which is Japanese poetry and have written them using the format of 575 syllables. 

They have finished their unit of work of decimals in their Maths lesson, finishing off rounding numbers to the nearest whole number. All of the children got involved in their sports day, trying their hardest at each station. Well done Year 4!

There are no spellings to practice over half term, but we do ask that the children go on TTRockstars and practice their times tables as much as they can in readiness for the national times table test that they will be doing after half term.

After half term we will be completing our summer DT project, if you are able to send in any of the following resources it would be greatly appreciated.

Year 4 DT wish list for straight after half-term.

- Small yoghurt pots – particularly really small but slightly larger will also be useful for testing, eg, petite filous size.

- Bottle lids – eg milk bottle

- Mini plastic bottles eg fruit shoot, orange juice.

- Scraps of fabric – if you have anything waterproof that could be cut up even better!

Weekly update 19th May 2023

Both classes had great fun visiting the library this week. They were able to look at a range of books and had part of an Egyptian book read to them by one of the librarian's. It was a lovely walk in the sunshine too.

The children have now finished writing their non-chronological reports about Ancient Egypt and have moved on to identifying features of formal letters.

In Maths, the children have been partitioning decimals and answering problem solving questions using this knowledge.

In PE with the sports coach, they completed some team games and it was great to see perserverance from the children when trying to catch a cone after flicking it with their foot or bouncing a ball to make it turn over.

Weekly update 12th May 2023

Year 4 have had a busy week in maths continuing their learning about tenths and hundredths as decimal numbers. Our build up to the national multiplication check is in full swing and the children are working hard practising the timed test. Ask your child their PB so far and see if they can beat it next week! As always, any practise on TT Rockstars will help your child when they are tackling the questions. In English the children have completed their non-chronological report about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt by Howard Carter. The sports coach was impressed with the children's creativity when they were challenged to create their crazy golf courses in Tri-golf this week.

Weekly update 5th May 23

This week, both classes have finished reading the story of Tutankhamun in English, learnt lots of new vocabulary and it's meaning, as well as doing some research for information in order to write their non-chronological report next week.

In Maths, the children have been learning about tenths and hundredths and what these are as decimals.

In History, the children learnt about some of the many Pharoah's and started to understand about the social hierarchy of the Egyptian people as well as some of the symbols that were important to them.

They have continued their work on Diversity in PSHE and they have been practicing their times tables.

Chestnut had a very successful trip to Pizza Express. The staff there commented about the good behaviour of both classes during their trips.

Weekly update 28th April 2023

This week in Year 4, the children have been learning about tenths and hundredths as well as decimals in Maths. In English, they have been thinking of how to write sentences about Tutankhamun using different sentence starters as well as using fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases to add detail. In History, the children started to look at the chronology of Ancient Egypt, realising that 5000 years ago is such a long time ago. The children had another great lesson in golf as well as looking at how environments and animals change due to the different seasons.

Weekly update 21st April 2023

The children have all settled well after the Easter holidays.

This week the children have started reading 'the story of Tutankhamun' as part of their topic of Ancient Egypt. They have been looking at the text and understanding the vocabulary that is contained within it.

In Maths, the children have been learning the bus stop method for division. They have now realised how important it is to have speedy knowledge of their times tables in order to help them with their division.

In Art, the children have leant to use watercolour pencils effectively and have created an Egyptian headdress using these.

They were very excited to start learning tri-golf with the sports coach and all children joined in and showed the Bushmead values brilliantly.

A great first week back!

Weekly update 31st March 2023

A great end to the school term with a school trip to Paxton Pitts which supported the children's learning of habitats in Science. All the children participated fully in all the activities and were a credit to Bushmead. We have now finished swimming for this year, the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we believe that taking the children swimming in Year 4 will prove beneficial for them to learn the skills of swimming early on.

The children are now beginning to see how vital it is having rapid recall of their times table facts, which support them when tackling many areas of maths, including column multiplication, fractions of amounts and equivalent fractions, to name a few.

We have concluded our Geography topic of United We Stand and look forward to starting the topic of ancient Egypt in the summer term.

There are no spellings to learn during the Easter holiday. Have a lovely time and see you after the holidays.

Weekly update 24th March 2023

This week has been another busy week in Year 4.

Maple class had a great visit to Paxton Pitts this week, learning all about different habitats and were able to link their learning to their classwork.

The children have now finished their learning about fractions in Maths and have finished the unit of work with a quiz to test their knowledge.

During English lessons, they have read the story of 'journey' and have used this knowledge to describe the different settings that are contained within the story.

In Geography, the children compared Italy to England, discovering similarities and differences between the two countries.

This week is the final swimming lesson for both classes.

It is really important that all the children keep up with their 15 minutes of times table practice per week on TT Rockstars as they are going to be learning bus stop method for division after Easter and having a good, speedy knowledge of times tables will really support their learning.

As we are testing spellings for the end of the term, there are 15 spellings for each group this week that will be tested next Friday. These spellings are ones that the children have already practiced in class.

Weekly update - 17th March 2023

This week in Year 4 has been assessment week. We have been very proud of how they have tackled them, trying their very best with each question and not giving up when they have found things tricky. 

In Maths, the children have carried on learning about fractions, this week learning how to add fractions together.

In English, the children have started describing settings, thinking about which features they need to include to interest the reader.

In their Geography lesson, they have learnt about why rivers are important for trade and what they are used for now.

This week is the penultimate swimming session where it is going to be a fun session and the children are really looking forward to this.

Please note - the last session of swimming for both classes will be Friday 24th March.

Weekly update 10th March 2023

In Year 4 this week, the children have continued their learning about fractions focusing on equivalent fractions by using a number line and working out the calculations. In English, the children have been looking at the features of setting descriptions and will start to read the story "Journey" next week by Aaron Becker.

Chestnut had a fantastic trip to Paxton Pitts on Tuesday and their favourite activity was pond dipping by far. The staff commented on how polite and well behaved the children were. In PSHE, the children have started a new unit of work about finances and how we earn and spend money. In Geography, they were locating and naming rivers and mountains in the UK.

Weekly update 3rd March 2023

In Year 4, the children have been learning about fractions for the past two weeks. They have found this rather tricky, but have persevered with fractions on a number line as well as looking at improper fractions and mixed number fractions.

In English, the children have learnt about the features of instruction writing and have written their own instructions for making slops for Wilbur the pig, remembering to use imperative verbs, adverbs and time conjunctions.

In Science, the children have started their new topic of living things and their habitats, learning about the 7 life processes and have learnt an acronym about MRS GREN - ask your children about it!

We enjoyed seeing all the different characters from World book day and the children have started to write a class story as part of the World Book Day celebrations.

PE change of day

Please note for Spring 2 half term, Year 4 PE is moving to a Thursday from a Wednesday. This starts this week so children will need to come in PE kit on Thursdays and Fridays for this half term.

Weekly update 10th February 2023

What a busy end of term it has been in Year 4!

The children enjoyed their visit to the museum where they looked at real-life artefacts from the past including a real-life tooth from a woolly mammoth which was fascinating! They also learnt about some of the history of the town too, including that there has been a market every Thursday in St Neots for over 800 years.

The children have also researched, designed, made and evaluated their own quiches in Design Technology. They have used and practiced skills of chopping, grating and breaking eggs when making their quiche as well as learning about seasonal fruit and vegetables.

In English, they have designed and made their own advertisement , persuading people to go and visit Charlotte's web.

In Maths, they have started learning about how to work out the area of a shape by counting squares.

There will be no spellings to practice over half term. Have a lovely half term and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 20th February.

Weekly update 3rd February 2023

What a busy week Year 4 have had!

In Maths, children have been learning efficient methods for subtracting including subtraction on a number line as well as accurate column subtraction.

In English, the children have continued to read Charlotte's web where they have now found out that Charlotte has written 3 different words in her web to try and save Wilbur. The children have written rhetorical questions, learnt the difference between fact and opinion as well as using the language of exaggeration.

On Monday, the children had a computing day, where they learnt all about routers, networks, the difference between a webpage and website as well as learning how to use Chrome Music Lab to create music. Good fun was had by all. 

The children are really getting involved and enjoying their swimming lessons on a Friday afternoon. It is lovely to see their confidence blossoming in the water already!

Weekly update 27th January 2023

In Year 4 this week, the children have written their own adventure stories based on the characters from Charlotte's web. They have had to include things like fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases to interest the reader.

In Maths, the children have been learning about repeated addition as a way of multiplying as well as learning about using column multiplication and they have realised how important it is to have rapid recall of their times tables.

In Geography, they have thought about how St Neots has changed and what could be improved for the future. In Science, they looked at how we hear sound with our ears and made cone ears to see which size would help them hear better. 

In PE, they are continuing to focus on healthy lifestyles and have started doing various different exercises and recording their score each week to see how they have improved.

Weekly update 20th January 2023

This week in Maths, the children have been learning to multiply and divide by 10 and 100 and have been tackling tricky problem solving questions, using this new knowledge.

In English, the children have continued to read Charlotte's web and have now been introduced to the rest of the characters.

In Science, they have been learning about the pitch and volume of a sound and have completed practical tasks to enhance their learning.

In Geography, the children have been locating and naming islands which surround the UK.

They have started the unit of healthy lifestyles in PE, completing different tasks and recording their efforts and scores and they will repeat this to see if their personal score has improved.

All the children enjoyed their first trip to the swimming pool for their lesson. There was mass excitement in both classes on Friday morning!

Helpers needed for trips

We have organised for the children to go on two trips this term as per the letters sent out Friday 20th January.

We are looking for some extra adult helpers on those trips - Museum 7th February for both classes for the morning and Paxton Pitts on 7th March (Chestnut) and 21st March (Maple) all day.

Please see either of us if you are able to help.

Many thanks

Mrs Yates and Mrs Row

Weekly update 13th January 2023

Year 4 have started back with a positive attitude to their learning and in English we have started reading Charlotte's Web and will be writing an adventure story about Wilbur the pig in the next couple of weeks. The children have learnt about negative numbers in maths and estimating numbers on a number line using reasoning skills to explain why they think an answer is correct. During art last week the children produced some lovely interpretations of the Union Jack flag in line with our geography topic, using cardboard combs of their own design.

Weekly update 6th January 2023

Happy New Year to you all!

The children have all settled in well after the Christmas holidays.

The children will now be doing their times table tests on a Friday rather than a Tuesday as we have had to re-adjust the timetable because of swimming on a Friday afternoon.

Please remember to keep practicing TT rockstars and earn 1000 coins a week. Learning your times tables is such a valuable skill and this knowledge will really help in the other areas of Maths eg column multiplication which we will be learning about later on in the term.

Weekly update 21st December 2022

It has been a great first term for the Year 4's who have settled in well to learning this year. They had a busy term focusing on the Romans in history and enjoying their trip to Verulamium museum and learning about electricity and states of matter in science, completing lots of science experiments in both these topics. In Maths, they have really started impressing us with their times table knowledge and we look forward to building on this throughout the next term. The children responded well to Revolt Against the Romans, our text in English and have written some interesting pieces of writing throughout the term. They have made a mosaic shield and Roman style pot in art and worked very hard sewing their brooches in DT. The term was topped off by their super performances in our Christmas play, we could not have been prouder of how hard they worked to learn their lines and the songs.

There are no spellings for the Christmas holidays.

We hope you have a restful Christmas and look forward to starting back in January.

Weekly update 9th December 2022

Year 4 have been immersing themselves in their rehearsals for the Christmas production of "who took the loo roll". They have been remembering to use loud voices and the songs are coming on beautifully.

In Maths, the children have started a new unit about statistics and collecting, representing data in bar graphs and analysing the results.

In English the children have looked at a Christmas advert about "Excitable Edgar", summarising what happens in the video, using fronted adverbials.

Weekly update 2nd December 2022

The children have had a busy week both with assessment week and the trip to Verulamium.

They have all tried really hard with their Maths and Reading assessments, we have all been very pleased with their efforts and perseverance.

The children had a brilliant day at the Roman museum, looking at and handling real life objects from the Roman times. What lucky children they are to have had such a fantastic experience. They also got to look round the museum at the different artefacts that have been discovered in the local area of St Albans including real life mosaics. 

This week's spellings are a revision of all the keyword spellings that the children have learnt this term. They will be tested on them next Friday 9th December. Each group have 15 spellings, most of the spellings will only need to be revised and there are a couple of new ones to learn.

Week ending 25th November

This week in Year 4, the children have been learning about poetry and in particular what a kenning is and how to write one.

They have been practicing making different amounts of money using coins, adding and rounding amounts to make a total.

In Science, they have been learning about reversible and irreversible changes with states of matter. For example when you fry an egg, the change is irreversible.

Play rehearsal is well under way, lots of the children have been learning their lines as well as the songs, so a big well done already!

Monday 21st November - Christmas production song words

The children will be bringing home the words to their Christmas songs to learn today. Please get them to practice their songs, especially Silent Night, as this is the one that they are finding most tricky to learn. You could use a platform like Youtube to help with the backing track and lyrics to help you to practice this song.

Weekly update 18th November 22

This week, the children have been planning and writing their next chapter for "Revolt of the Romans", using fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and conjunctions. They were able to link their ideas from the last chapter in the book to their own chapter, using Marcus as their key character.

In Maths, the children continued their learning on converting cm to mm and started learning about calculating the perimeter of regular shapes.

In Science, the children were learning about gases as part of the states of matter topic. They observed 4 different experiments all to do with gases. They had to predict what they thought would happen, write down their observations and work out what they had learnt from each experiment.They particularly liked the raisins in lemonade experiment as the raisins danced up and down!

On Friday, the children were each given their part for the Christmas production as well as a costume letter. The children will be coming home with lines to practice, they will need to learn them so that they know them off by heart.

Adult helpers required

We are looking for parent helpers for our two trips coming up this month with both Y4 classes.

The first is the cinema trip where we will be walking to the cinema and watching Sing 2 on Thursday 10th November. We will be leaving just after 9am, returning just before lunchtime.

The second is the trip to St Albans  on Tuesday 29th November that is an all-day trip, leaving just before 9am and returning at 3.15pm.

Please see Mrs Yates or Mrs Row if you are available to help out for either of these trips.

Thank you for your support.

Homework - Autumn 2 2022

The expectation for homework going forward is:

- Read at least 3x a week with an adult to sign the reading diary,

- 15 minutes of TT Rockstars a week, earning at least 1000 coins,

- Weekly spellings that are put on the website on a Friday, to be tested the following Friday.

Homework in the green homework book will no longer be given.

Weekly update 11th November

Year 4 have had a very busy week completing their autumn Design and Technology project. The children were tasked with designing and making a brooch out of felt to help a Roman Emperor hold his toga or cloak in place. They had a range of felt fabrics, beads and wool to choose from and have shown great resilience and patience when sewing their brooches together. The finished pieces are really impressive. We also had a great trip to the cinema on Thursday and as always the children were polite and respectful when out of school. 

Maple class are looking forward to their class assembly on Wednesday morning.

Weekly Update - 4th November 

Maples and Chestnut had a great first week back after half term. In English the children were practising different descriptive techniques in preparation for story writing over the next two weeks. In maths they were recognising angles in shapes and identifying different types of triangles. We ended the week beginning to learn the songs for the Christmas performance, I'm sure over the next few weeks that children will be humming and singing them for you at home! On Tuesday this week we will be starting our DT project which includes sewing so if you have a chance at the weekend any help teaching your child to thread a needle would be greatly appreciated!

Weekly update 21st October 2022

There are no spellings or homework during half term.

What a busy half term Chestnut and Maple have had!

In English this week, the children have written formal letters about the conditions of the prison cell Marcus from Revolt of the Romans was put in, practicing their use of formal language.

In Maths, the children have been practising their 7x and 9x tables, finding fact families and working out the corresponding divisions and applying this knowledge when solving problems.

The children have finished their electricity topic with a quiz, getting them to recall all of their knowledge learnt so far.

They have also been learning about online identities and the safety involved about going online and sharing personal information

Weekly update 14th October 2022.

Another busy week in Year 4.

This week, the children have been learning about formal and informal language in English and when would be appropriate to use each one when writing letters.

In Maths, the children have been learning their 6x and 9x tables, doing various activities to support this.

They also had a day focusing on Black History. They learnt about a black inventor called Lewis Latimer who helped Thomas Edison in the design of the lightbulb (linking to our current Science topic of Electricity). He designed a carbon filament to make light bulbs last longer. The children really enjoyed learning about this inventor. Why don't you ask your child about some of the facts they learnt?

Weekly update 7.10.22

The children have been writing informal letters in English this week from Cati, a character in our English story, to her brother Marcus who has been imprisoned by the Roman army. They used descriptive techniques and thoughts and feelings in their writing. In maths they have been practising telling the time, they have wowed us with their resilience with a tricky subject and are looking forward to lots of practise at home to increase their understanding. In science they continued to build circuits predicting whether a circuit was complete and a bulb would light.

Please remember that the expectation for TT Rockstars each week is to earn at least 1000 coins.

Weekly update 30.9.22

The children had fantastic visits to the library this week and it was lovely to see all of the children choosing a book, reading it and really showing engagement. The library staff were very impressed and commented about their good behaviour.

In English, the children have been reading more of 'Revolt of the Romans' as well as focusing on writing using expanded noun phrases, conjunctions and learning the rules of possessive apostrophes.

In Maths, the children have been developing their knowledge of the 3 and 6 times tables, improving their speed of recall of each one.

In Science, the children were given a choice of equipment and they had to make a simple electrical circuit to make it complete so that a light bulb could light up. The children loved doing this practical experiment.

Please remember, the expectation each week for TT Rockstars is to earn 1000 coins.

Weekly update 23.9.22

This week, the children have written their diary entries based on the main character from 'Revolt of the Romans', focusing on using thoughts and feelings as well as adverbs and time conjunctions.

In Maths, children have been learning about column addition and subtraction with exchanging and carrying over, focusing on accuracy.

In Science, children started their new topic of electricity looking at different types, including renewable and non-renewable energy.

In PE, children have continued their orienteering, using maps of the playground and finding objects located on the map as well as in Gymnastics they have practised different balances and thinking about smooth transitions between them.

Weekly Update

This week in English, the children have been learning about fronted adverbials and how to use these effectively to add more detail in their writing.

In Maths, the children have been adding and subtracting 10, 100 and 1000 from a number and have started using column addition.

In Art, the children have designed and created their own mosiac pictures using small pieces of paper in the style of the Artist Metzinger.

In PE, the children have been continuing their orienteering, using a map to find and place cones in different areas of the playground.

Accelerated Reader Books

The Accelerated Reader system is being updated, so at the moment, your child will be bringing a book home that they have chosen to read for pleasure. As soon as the system is up and running, your child will bring home a book that is suited to their AR level.

Weekly update 9th September 2022

The children have settled in really well to Year 4 this week. They have adapted well to the new values of 'Ready, Respectful, learn' and have used these values really positively.

In English, the children have been reading "Revolt against the Romans" and they have been learning lots of new vocabulary that is found in the book.

In Maths, the children have been learning about place value, partitioning numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones.

In Art, the children have been learning about mosiacs, focusing on the artist Metzinger.

Homework

This week, your children will be bringing home a green homework book and their task is to decorate it however they like.

We would also like the children to log onto TT rockstars and practise their times tables for 15 minutes each week that have been allocated to them.

Their log on details are on the inside of their homework books.

Any questions, please ask.

Mrs Yates & Mrs Row