Times Tables Rockstar News

Well done to our Prize winners

Times Tables Rockstar (TTRS) -

The highest scorer in the school was Maimoona from Elephants.

Other high scorers -

Ash & Ethan - Zebras

Megan & Paige - Elephants

Hannah - Turtles

Whole School Tournament

Friday 18th June 14:00 - Sunday 20th June 17:00

Beat the Teachers

Sunday 27th June 08:00 - 20:00

Charity Challenge

We were set a challenge to do something around the number 100 in honour of Captain Sir Tom Moor who walked a hundred laps of his garden to raise Money for the NHS.  Sir Tim Moor would have celebrated his 101^st birthday.

Zebras planted 100 plants and seedlings.  We also managed 1800-man minutes of gardening and caring for the environment.

Important Dates

• Wednesday 23rd June - Year 4 photographs (Please come to school in your school uniform).
• Wednesday 7th July - Birchensale Transition Day
• Thursday 8th July - Birchensale Transition Day
• Tuesday 20th July - Break up for Summer

Important Information

• Children should have their reading records and a water bottle at school, every day!
• Please ensure your child has a marked hat and sun cream at school please. 
• Tuck need to be paid on Mondays ONLY (£1 per week).

Earth Day 2021

Summer 2 - English

The whole school is taking part in a writing project this half term.  The whole school is reading the same book, Flotsam by David Wiesner. Year 4 is working towards a fact file on our own choice of sea creature. 

What is a fact file?

A Fact File is a short report of all the most important information on one subject. This subject can be a thing, a place or even a person.

Features of a fact file

Summer 1 - English

This half term we will be reading 'The Secret Garden' retold by Susanna Davidson (based on the story by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Children will create there own secret place and we will create a new profile for a new character. Then we will be innovating the story.

We have moved on to our next book, 'Voices in the Park' by Anthony Browne.  Click here to listen to the story online.  Children are leaning about 'juxtaposition and perspective. (Ask your child about 'new' vocabulary they learned this half-term).

Summer 2 - Maths

We started this half term learning to tell the time to the nearest minute.  

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/time/teaching-clock

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=telling+time

https://www.visnos.com/demos/clock

Later this week, we will be interpreting charts.  We will solve comparison, sum and difference problems using discrete data with a range of scales. 

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/51/bar-charts

https://www.hpp.school/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Tuesday%20Sum%20and%20Difference%20Task%201.pdf

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=statistics

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/data-handling

Summer 1 - Maths

This half term we are learning to convert fractions to decimals.  We also learned what happened when a number is divided by 10 or 100.

When a number is divided by 10 the number is shared into 10 equal parts and 10 times smaller.  

When a number is divided by 100 the number is shared into 100 equal parts and 100 times smaller.  

https://www.mathsisfun.com/decimals.html

https://www.theschoolrun.com/teachers-tricks-decimals

Now that we are experts in decimals, we are moving on to learn about money.  We will make links between money and decimals.  We will order money and make the same value using different denominations.  We will also add and subtract money and solve problems related to money. 

Summer 2 - Science 

Animals including humans

This half term we will be looking at animals including humans.  We will have a closer look at:

• The digestive system 
• types and functions of teeth 
• tooth decay and
• food chains

Summer 1 - Science / Theme

This half term we will be learning what electricity is, where it comes from, how it travels.  We will also be learning about static electricity, circuits and conductors.  We will be building a Art-bot and parents will be asked to make a small contribution (if the children would like to keep their art-bots).

Spring 2 - English

It is Shakespeare week from 15th March -21st March.  Year 4 will be doing a lot of work on Shakespeare.  Every year 4 child and the school stand a change to earn a Discovery Arts Award.  So, all support will be appreciated.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright, actor and poet, and is widely regarded as the greatest English writer of all time. His plays have been translated into more than 100 languages and continue to be performed around the world to this day.

Live Online Poetry

We were lucky enough today to have a live online poetry workshop, today. During this workshop:

• we were character statues
• we learned about characters in various Shakespeare plays
• we did drama
• we wrote cinquains

The children really enjoyed all the activities, he had a marvellous English lesson.

We all wrote cinquains. A cinquains is a poem with five lines. 

First line - 1 word

Second line - 2 words

Third line - 3 words

Fourth line - 4 words

Fifth line - 5 words

To Thine Own Self (Caliban) Cinquain by Lizzy

Caliban

Monstrous abomination

Proud of bravery 

Wishes of nice friend

You are amazing and caring

To Thine Own Self (Caliban) Cinquain by Kelsie

Caliban

Love island

Proud of friends

Dreams to be king

You are amazing and loved 

To Thine Own Self (Caliban) Cinquain by Kieran

Caliban

Detected danger

Man and monster

Dreams of being King

Be calm and carry on

To Thine Own Self (Caliban) Cinquain by Georgia

Caliban

Dangerous ugly

Has caring friends

Wish he has treasure

You should always trust yourself

To Thine Own Self (Zebras)

Zebras

Fast Growing

Eager to learn

Curious, Kind, Respectful, Proud

We will never give up

This week we are learning about the area of a shape.

Area is the term used to define the amount of space taken up by a 2D shape or surface. We measure area in square units : cm² or m². Area is calculated by multiplying the length of a shape by its width.

We have created 'The Winter's Child' during the first week. We used metaphors, similes and alliteration.  This week we created 'The Summer's Child'.  

On Monday we interviewed 'The Winter's Child' - Zebras was very lucky as they had an exclusive visit from The Summer's Child herself (see image below).

On Tuesday we had 'Summer on a Plate' to inspires us with our senses when writing. We tasted and smelled watermelon and strawberries prior our writing.  We then went on and collected vocabulary for our character description.  In the afternoon we drew and coloured our 'Summer's child'. 

On Thursday we wrote out character description using everything we've learned so far to get the best possible outcome. We then edited and improved it.

On Friday we re-wrote out description (Published it) using our best handwriting. Our teachers will choose some of the pieces to be entered into the various categories for the writing competition.

Maths Learning - Autumn 2

This half term will start with investigating different methods to subtract numbers.

Maths Learning - Autumn 1

This half term we learn different methods to add numbers together.  We used the line method, part part whole and column addition.

English Learning - Autumn 1

This half term we looked at 'The Journey' by Aaron Becker (a wordless book)

Mutating Mansion by Luke Temple

Part of this half term Year 4 had a masterclass with Luke Temple.

We learned how to write EXCITING descriptions using...

SIMILES.
A simile describes something by comparing it to something else, using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’.

ADJECTIVES.
An adjective is a word that describes a noun (the name of a thing or a place).

METAPHORS:
A metaphor is a word or a phrase used to describe something as if it were something else.

ALLITERATION:
Alliteration is when two or more words close together start with the same letter or sound.

We also used our SENSES to help with our stories:

What can the characters SEE , HEAR , SMELL , TASTE or TOUCH?
If you include sentences that describe these senses, it will help the reader to feel like they are involved in the story with your characters.

Another way to 'paint a picture in the readers' minds is...

SHOW don’t TELL
Another way to get readers interested in your story is to show how the characters are feeling rather than tell what they are feeling.

SHORT sentences
When you are writing something that includes lots of action and drama, you can use shorter sentences to make your writing more exciting and to add tension.

EDITING

One of the most important parts of writing a story, is editing it.  Authors never just use one version of their story.  After they have written it all down the first time, they read the story again and think about how they can improve it. 

When Luke is editing a story, he asks himself the following questions:
• Does everything make sense? Are there any mistakes?
• Are there any boring bits?
• How can I make the story more exciting / dramatic / scary?
He also asks himself whether he has used all the tools from this masterclass:
• Have I used enough adjectives, similes, metaphors and alliteration to make my descriptions interesting?
• Senses: have I helped the reader to be involved by describing more than one of the character’s senses?
• Show don’t tell: have I shown, instead of telling, how the character is feeling?
• Short sentences: have I used short sentences to help make my writing exciting and add tension?

Finally - we created a cover for the book. 

Book covers are really important. They help readers to know what sort of story is inside and get them excited about reading the book.

Theme

We received a parcel from the 'British Museum' asking for help.  The parcel contained items from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Mayans, the Romans, Vikings and the Iron Age. 

We learned about the way these civilisations communicated, where and when these people lived.

Useful websites

Geography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFIS3aLQPfs

Maths

Place Value

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/place-value-basketball

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/place-value/place-value-charts

Column Addition and Subtraction

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zy2mn39/articles/z3kmrwx

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zy2mn39/articles/zc78srd

Times Tables

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/times-tables

https://www.timestables.co.uk/

English

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkgcwmn/articles/zbsbwty

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z2yycdm/articles/z2gk9qt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TJiEDWaas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROmKMtLWY14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVNal4_izVU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqBZMR83wCg