Throughout the year, we will use this page to keep Year 4 children and adults up to date with our fantastic learning, photos and other important information. 

This marks the children’s second year in lower KS2, building and consolidating their learning from Year 3 and preparing them for upper KS2.

The Year Four teachers encourage pupils to develop and share their own individual gifts as they shine in the light of Jesus.

Children are given the opportunity to experience a broad, balanced and creative curriculum, while being encouraged to become more independent in their thinking and learning.

Jesus said: I have come that they might have life in all its fullness [John 10:10]

In Year 4 we enjoy our learning. We grow in independence, take responsibility for our learning and take pride in the work we produce.

We aim to develop curiosity, ask lots of questions and take an interest in the world around us. We follow the fruits of the Holy Spirit: Courage, Thoughtfulness, Thankfulness, Truthfulness, Kindness and Friendship in order to become well-rounded individuals that care for each other and treat people with respect.

Everyone is valued and encouraged to be the best we can be.

A reminder about online safety:

If you are online, don’t forget to be safe and savvy! 

Never give personal information to anyone! Think about the safety of what you are sharing or posting if you are online or on your phone.

Do not share your school log-ins or change your log-in details. We won’t ask you to do that.

Make sure you are accessing online material that is relevant for your age and tell an adult at home if you come across something that is not suitable for you, or if someone is trying to contact/talk to you that is not someone you know.

This term, to link to our history topic, we are reading a fictional novel that is based on the Ancient Egyptians - 'The Time-Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess' by Julia Jarman. Ka, the time travelling cat, returns to Ancient Egypt and is to be sacrificed by an Egyptian Goddess. Will Topher save him in time? What problems will he encounter on his journey?

So far, we have discussed the 3 elements in a story: character, setting and plot. We have described characters in the story using expanded noun phrases and we are now writing about settings using similes, alliteration and expanded noun phrases.

In English this week, we have been creating a class story together, with the 5 parts of a story: 

• Introduction
• Build up
• Climax
• Resolution
• Ending

Look at the pictures of us working together and read our story below!

Here is the poem which we learnt over the holidays and finally got to perform in assembly! 

It is called 'The River' by Valerie Bloom.

In maths we are looking at place value. We have been making, comparing and ordering numbers to 10,000 and we are moving onto rounding.

Times tables - these are extremely important in Year Four, as in summer term the children will be sitting the government's 'Multiplication tables check'. This is because the expectation by the end of Year 4 is that the children know all of the multiplication facts to 12x12. Please practise as much as possible at home with your children. There are some links below that the children can use. The children's TTRS (Times Tables Rock Stars) logins are also up and running again - please ask the class teacher if you need the log in again.

In science, we have been learning about the states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) and the water cycle. Take a look at the children learning about the molecular structure of the states and then performing a song to remember the stages of the cycle: Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation and Collection. 

In History, we have been learning about the ancient Egyptians. Take a look at the pictures of us hunting for clues in the classroom about Ancient Egypt and some other ancient civilisations: Ancient Sumer, Shang Dynasty and Indus Valley.

In October, we took part in Black History Month and learnt about the Bristol Bus Boycott.

How can we divide the world up?

The children began by recapping the 7 continents and 5 oceans which is how we learnt to divide the world up in Years 1 and 2. Now we are looking into the lines of latitude to deepen our understanding of global geography. Parents, why don't you ask your child some facts about the equator? Or year 4, tell your grown ups everything you have learnt so far! What are the 2 Tropics we have learnt about? What is a hemisphere? Can you remember compass directions and use a compass?

See below some pictures of the children working together to recap compass directions before moving onto our new topic.

Our artist this term is Suzanne Valadon, who is a post-impressionist artist. Look at us in action below!

In DT this term, our design brief was to 'design, make and evaluate a toy with either a light, or light and motor for younger children to play with'. 

The children used their scientific knowledge of making circuits to create a wonderful light-up toy. Check out the wonderful products they designed!!

Check out some pictures from our Gym sessions in PE below:

Check out our photo from Hello Yellow day!

We enjoyed using the Chromebooks together for our computing day - the children were very enthusiastic and keen learners and they created their own eBooks!