Science: On Monday we went into Forest School with Miss Hamer to take photos of different plants for our scientific investigation on the topic of plant classification and characteristics. We made Book Creators, predicting what we thought each plant was and next week we will be using the Plant.net website to see if our predictions are correct.
Geography: In Geography, we are continuing to explore resources and trade. This week we researched a specific country and mineral to learn about how it is mined and what it is used for, as well as the advantages and disadvantages. We used our research to create some beautiful and informative posters on gold mining in the USA, copper mining in Chile and diamond mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
RSHE: We had an exciting Teams call with the Canal River Trust where we learnt all about how to stay safe when near water, especially rivers and canals. There is one important rule we must follow when around water which uses the acronym SAFE - Stay Away From the Edge!
French: In French we had a fun lesson using the Now Press Play headphones and took a trip to Chester Zoo to consolidate our knowledge of animals in French!
French Day: On Friday we celebrated Bastille Day by coming to school in some beautiful red, white and blue outfits. Mr Smart hosted a fun French quiz in assembly and at break time we could buy some delicious French treats! We had a go at Pointillism painting, a technique that uses lots of small dots in different colours which blend together to create an image.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 6 July
Week 5: Super Shapes
Maths: In Maths, we are continuing to work hard on our shape topic. This week we have been busy exploring the properties of triangles quadrilaterals and polygons before moving on to symmetry. Miss Greatrex has been very impressed by our fantastic knowledge and use of mathematical vocabulary!
DT: This term we are studying electronics. Our design brief is to create a new battery operated light for the staff at St Charles'. We have been drawing on and expanding our super knowledge of circuits and electricity when designing our products, as well as working hard to analyse our brief using ACCESSFM. Tomorrow we will be making our circuits - we hope they are successful!
RE: The theme of our new RE topic is the Universal Church and our unit is called 'God's People.' We will be exploring why people do extraordinary things, and so we started off the topic thinking about different Saints. We wrote some brilliant questions we would like to ask a Saint and took part in a fun hot seating activity! The second half of the lesson was very reflective. We learnt about the speech Pope Benedict XVI gave to children in Catholic schools. We were particularly inspired by his words about how we are the Saints of the future. We finished the lesson by thoughtfully reflecting on the question: 'What type of person would I like to be?'
Have a great weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 29 June
Week 4: Careers Week
English: This week we started our new English topic exploring the beautiful picture book 'Nen And The Lonely Fisherman.' Miss Greatrex slowly revealed information about the text which we used to make predictions about the story. Tomorrow we are excited to write a character description of Nen to go alongside the incredible illustrations in the book.
Maths: We have finished our Maths topic of Time and started our new unit on Shape. We had a fun outdoor Maths lesson using turns (such as quarter turn, half turn, full turn) and directions (clockwise and anticlockwise) to direct our partners around the yard.
Geography: In Geography, we are learning about resources and trade. Last week, we explored different types of resources and learnt how to categorise them. This week, we used our map skills to investigate which countries have good access to different essential resources like food and water.
PE: On Wednesday, we had another fantastic training session with South Northumberland Cricket Club! We practised our throwing and catching in a fast-paced team game and we each had a turn to show Miss Greatrex some of our excellent batting skills.
Celebration Assembly: Thank you to our grown ups for coming to the Year 4 Celebration Assembly. We loved sharing all of the amazing experiences and exciting learning we have done this year!
Careers Week: After a special assembly on Monday, we have been enjoying exploring some different careers to celebrate National Careers Week. A big thank you to Mrs Matthews and Mr Bone for sharing their exciting and inspiring jobs with us!
Have a super weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 22 June
Week 3: Terrific Time!
English: We have been doing some fantastic writing this week as we continue to explore the Literacy Shed video 'Ride Of Passage.' Miss Greatrex has been particularly impressed by our use of interesting adjectives, fronted adverbials and figurative language. Tomorrow we will be planning our narratives ahead of writing our final pieces next week.
Maths: We have moved on to time in Maths and are working hard converting between analogue and digital time, as well as converting between 12-hour and 24-hour clocks. Year 4, can you remember our rhyme for reciting the number of days in each month?
PE: We had another fantastic session with the coaches from South Northumberland Cricket Club where we practised throwing at a target and ended the lesson with a fun game. In tomorrow's PE lesson we will be continuing our Athletics topic, refining our running techniques and practising some skills we will need for Sports Day.
Geography: Our final Humanities topic of the year is Resources and Trade. We had a really interesting lesson discussing the different resources we use everyday. We learnt how to categorise different types of resources and finished by ranking the resources we think are the most important.
We're really excited for our Celebration Assembly next Tuesday and have been working hard practising our words and songs.
Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 15 June
Week 2: Computing and Cricket Coaches
English: This week, we enjoyed exploring our Literacy Shed video 'Ride Of Passage' and making predictions on what we thought it would be about from just the name, opening title and image of the main character. We also worked hard summarising the main events of the video in a story map.
Maths: We are continuing to work hard at our money topic, making estimations with money and completing money calculations. Year 4 also completed the Multiplication Check and Miss Greatrex is really impressed with the results! She can tell we have worked hard practising our times tables both in school and at home. Thank you to our grown ups for your help and support!
PE: This term we are receiving weekly training sessions from South Northumberland Cricket Club. We had lots of fun learning bowling and batting techniques in Wednesday's lesson.
Computing: In Computing, we are using Scratch to explore repetition in programming . We will be learning how to create different types of loops, skills which we will use to modify existing animations and games using repetition before designing and making a game which uses repetition.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 8 June
Week 1: A Trio Of Trips
We have had a super busy but very exciting start to the term with two trips already this week and one more tomorrow!
Laing Art Gallery: On Wednesday, Year 4 visited the Laing Art Gallery where we took part in a fantastic workshop on 'Local Landscapes.' We had fun practising some different painting techniques using watercolours before we created our own landscape, seascape or skyscape. After lunch, we enjoyed exploring the gallery and even had a go at sketching some of the art.
Trust Art Exhibition: On Thursday, we had a great afternoon visiting the Discovery Museum with Year 3 to see the beautiful art we created for the Bishop Bewick Trust's exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was 'Stronger Together' and it was really exciting to see our light writing on display alongside all the other amazing pieces of art from the schools in our trust.
Live Theatre Live Tales: Tomorrow we have our third and final trip of the week to the Live Theatre where we will be taking part in a Live Tales writing workshop.
Maths: We are continuing our topic on money and this week we have been working hard converting between pounds and pence and comparing different amounts of money.
English: We are starting our new writing topic where we will be exploring a story from a different culture. We will be studying a video from The Literacy Shed called 'Ride Of Passage.'
Have a great weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 25 May
Week 6: Marvellous Money
Maths: This week we have began using our super knowledge of decimals in our new money topic. We enjoyed using the coin manipulatives to re-familiarise ourselves with money and make different amounts. We have also been practising writing money as decimals.
English: Tomorrow we will be writing our very important letters to the Prime Minister telling him all about the negative impacts of deforestation. We have worked really hard on our letters topic so Miss Greatrex is very excited to read our final pieces.
Art: To finish our Art topic we had a lovely lesson in the sun using clay to sculpt abstract pieces based on the work of Henry Moore.
Commando Joe's: We had a fantastic afternoon on Wednesday completing lots of different Commando Joe's Missions. Following in the footsteps of explorer Leif Erikson, we had to work as a team to navigate the crossing of a shark-infested river; carefully and safely dismantle an ice blockade using ropes; balance across a treacherous terrain without alerting wild beasts hiding in the undergrowth; plan and assemble the building of a new community; and design and create a statue in honour of our great leader, Leif Erikson.
Creative Prayer: For our mission and creative prayer this week, we wrote beautiful gratitude prayers onto leaves from which we created a prayer tree to reflect everything we are thankful for.
Hope you have a fantastic half term break! We can't wait for all the exciting trips Year 4 have planned on the first week back.
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 18 May
Week 5: Roman Roads
English: Inspired by the work of Wangari Maathai, we are writing some important formal letters in English: Year 4 are writing to the government about the negative impacts of deforestation. This week we have done lots of research on the topic of deforestation, explored the features of a formal letter and practised writing our introduction. We are really excited to plan and write our final letters to Mr Sunak next week!
Maths: This week we have worked hard flexibly partitioning decimals, rounding to the nearest whole number and identifying equivalent fractions and decimals.
History: We had lots of fun exploring different sources in our historical enquiry History lesson. We looked at a range of secondary sources, including videos, website, fact files, maps and books, to explore both the impact of Roman Roads and how the Romans changed towns in Britain. We completed the lesson by writing our own judgements.
Science: In Science, we made and tested our own switches to explore how they can control an electrical circuit.
Class Liturgies: We have enjoyed planning and leading some beautiful class liturgies, one for the month of Mary and one for the end of our Lent topic in RE. Thank you to our grown ups who joined today’s class liturgy!
Have a great weekend.
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 11 May
Week 4: Let's Get Arty!
Art: We had lots of fun working with Year 3 and Mr Gray to create a special piece of art for the Bishop Bewick Trust's upcoming art exhibition. We used torches and photography to create some beautiful light writing, as well as drawing some bright and colourful designs that will be the background and border of our piece. We can't wait for the big reveal and for our hard work to be exhibited in a real gallery!
English: This week we finished our poetry topic exploring the work of Grace Nichols. Inspired by her poem 'Island Man,' we wrote our own figurative language poems describing the experiences of a Caribbean man who dreams he is in his tropical hometown but wakes up to find he is in the bustling (and sometimes very rainy!) city of Newcastle. Our next text is 'Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted A Million Trees.' We are really excited to learn more about the inspirational Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.
Maths: Year 4 have been working really hard on our times tables - Miss Greatrex can tell we have been practising at home! With not long to go until the times table check it's vital that we keep learning and practising those all-important multiplication facts!
Swimming: Tomorrow is our final swimming lesson and it's going to be an exciting but also very valuable one. We will be bringing our pyjamas to the pool for our session on water safety. Well done Year 4 for all your hard work during your swimming lessons!
Have a super weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 4 May
Week 3: Super Swimming!
Maths: Year 4 are working really hard on our current Maths topic of decimals. We have a good understanding of tenths and hundredths so this week we have been partitioning a whole as well as using tenths and hundredths to make a whole.
Art: In Art we are studying the work of Henry Moore. We have created fact files on the artist and practised different techniques of joining clay ready for when we create sculptures of our own designs.
History: Our historical skill this week was cause and consequence. We learnt about why Hadrian's Wall was built and explored the impact it had on both the local area and the Roman Empire.
Swimming: We are really enjoying our afternoon swimming lessons. We're working very hard in the pool developing our different strokes and styles. Miss Greatrex is really proud of the energy and enthusiasm we bring to every swimming lesson!
Creative Prayer: In creative prayer, Year 4 are crafting Seven Sorrows of Mary mobiles. These will help us to remember and reflect on the sorrows Mary experienced as we think about Our Lady and pray for her during the month of Mary.
We are very excited to finish the week with Coronation celebrations and activities tomorrow, as well as another swimming lesson!
Enjoy the long weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 27 April
Week 2: The Discovery Museum
The Discovery Museum: We had a fantastic time on our school trip to the Discovery Museum on Wednesday! After riding the metro to the city centre, we explored the exciting exhibits in the museum. We travelled through time learning about the history of Newcastle, experimented with different Science equipment and explored the history of the River Tyne. After lunch, we took part in a circuits and light bulbs workshop where we learnt all about the history of the light bulb, experimented making different circuits and created our own torches.
Science: Our exciting, science-filled week continued on Thursday when we explored sheep's organs as part of last term's Science topic on Humans and Other Animals. Miss Greatrex was super impressed by how we all confidently, enthusiastically and safely explored the organs in what was an unforgettable lesson!
English: This week we deepened our understanding of Grace Nichol's poem 'Island Man.' We looked in detail at the figurative language and imagery used in the poem and used our senses to further explore the contrast between the two locations Nichols writes about.
History: Our new Humanities topic is a local study of Hadrian's Wall and the impact the Romans had on our local area. We recapped our previous knowledge of the Romans, impressing both ourselves and Miss Greatrex with all the knowledge we could recall. We also created timelines plotting on the important dates in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
Have a super bank holiday weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 20 April
Week 1: It's The Summer Term!
Welcome back! We hope everyone had a lovely and relaxing Easter break.
English: For our new English topic we are exploring the work of Guyanese poet Grace Nichols. We are enjoying reading 'Island Man' and making comparisons between London and the Caribbean. We have also been exploring the figurative language Nichols uses in her poetry. This week we started writing our own similes and metaphors to highlight the contrast between the UK and Guyana.
Maths: We have been working super hard this week on our decimals unit, learning all about tenths and hundredths and dividing 1-digit and 2-digit numbers by ten and one hundred.
DT: We finished our textiles topic with a fantastic lesson sewing our phone cases! We worked really hard to create some beautiful designs and cases. A special big thank you to the adults who helped us, we hope you had as much fun as we did!
Science: This half term we are learning all about electricity. We began our topic by identifying and classifying electrical and non-electrical appliances. We also used our prediction and observation skills to build and test circuits.
Well done for a super first week back!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 30 March
Week 5: SafetyWorks!
SafetyWorks!: On Friday, we had a fantastic time on our school trip to SafetyWorks! We learnt how to keep ourselves safe in five different environments: in and around water; on the Metro; online including games and apps; with dogs; in the house including how to prevent a fire and what to do if one happens. We had fun and learnt lots of safety information. At the end of the day, we were really excited to share our important knowledge with our family and friends.
English: This week, we are exploring explanation texts. We enjoyed reading the funny but factual book 'Until I Met Dudley.' A little girl tells us how she thought things work, such as a dragon inside the toaster and cats licking plates in the dishwasher, until she met Dudley, an intelligent dog who teaches her how things actually work! We will be writing our own explanation texts linked to our Science topic on the digestive system. We had lots of fun creating imaginary descriptions of how the digestive system works which will be written alongside our factual explanations.
RE: On Tuesday, Year 4 led a beautiful Holy Week Liturgical Prayer where we shared the story of The Last Supper. In our RE lessons we started our new topic on Easter/Lent where we will be exploring the theme of self-discipline.
Science: To complete our topic on 'Humans and Other Animals' this week we explored and constructed food chains. We are really confident using technical vocabulary such as consumer, producer, herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.
Hope everyone has a happy Easter and a fantastic break!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 23 March
Week 4: National Poetry Day
National Poetry Day: To celebrate National Poetry Day on Tuesday, we enjoyed writing our own personification poems based on different pieces of Bible Scripture. From Noah and the Flood to The Good Samaritan, The Nativity to Adam and Eve, Jesus' Crucifixion to Zacchaeus The Tax Collector, Year 4 had lots of fun writing some fantastic poems based on our favourite stories from the Gospel.
Maths: In Maths, we are continuing our topic on fractions. This week we became experts on equivalent fractions and have learnt how to add and subtract fractions.
RE: We have come to the end of our unit learning about Catholic Mass and the Eucharist, so this week Year 4 planned and led a beautiful class liturgical prayer. Thank you to our grown ups who attended our class liturgy, we loved sharing this special and reflective time with you all.
Geography: This week we learnt about the journey of a river. We can use geographical vocabulary to describe the shape of the land, width of the river and physical features at the beginning (or source), middle and end (or mouth) of a river.
Creative Prayer: For our Creative Prayer this week, Year 4 wrote some special prayers which we pushed into balloons, blew up and then released on the yard. We enjoyed chasing after the balloons and sharing our prayers.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 16 March
Week 3: Mountains and Molars
Science: We are really enjoying our current topic learning all about the human digestive system. This week, we explored our different types of teeth and learnt which teeth we use to chew and eat different foods.
Geography: This half term we are studying mountains and rivers. We found locating mountain ranges both in the UK and around the world really interesting. We can describe the location of lots of different peaks including Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis, Mount Snowdon and Mount Everest. On Friday, we visited Miss Greatrex's Mountain Art Gallery to explore the physical features found on mountains.
English: Our current text is the fantastic 'Escape From Pompeii' by Christina Balit. At the end of the unit, we will be writing our own mystery stories based on this book. This week we worked really hard exploring the vocabulary used in a mystery text. We enjoyed using dictionaries and thesauruses to define new words and find lots of synonyms we can use in our writing.
The Big Lent Walk: Year 4's total distance for the Big Lent Walk is steadily climbing and we had lots of fun going out on the yard to do some walking together as a class as we continue to raise money for CAFOD. Our grown ups can still sponsor us via the link sent home and we have a collection box in the classroom for any loose change.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 9 March
Week 2: Author Visit
Author Visit: On Monday, we were visited by amazing author Jenny Pearson. We had a special assembly where she told us all about her books, tested our knowledge with some fun quizzes and even attempted to break a World Record! In the afternoon, we took part in her story writing workshop where she gave us lots of advice on how to plan a story. We were really inspired by Jenny's work and are looking forward to using her tips and strategies in our own writing.
RE: In our 'Eucharist' RE topic we are learning about all the different parts of Catholic Mass, including how we prepare for Mass, what happens during the service and the importance of each rite. We created some beautiful Spiritual Art inspired by the words of the 'Gloria' which we say at the beginning of Mass to show we are ready to give praise and glory to God.
Maths: Miss Greatrex is really impressed by how hard we are working in Maths on our current fractions topic. So far we have explored fractions bigger than 1, learnt all about mixed numbers, practised changing mixed numbers to improper fractions and practised changing improper fractions to mixed numbers.
DT: We have been given a very important design brief in DT... Apple have been in touch and want some new phone case design ideas. Can you create a phone case they could use for their new iPhone? It will be made from felt, use contrasting colours, and include a hole for the camera and charger. Last week we completed our task analysis using ACCESSFM. This week we began practising our sewing skills for when we come to make our final product. Miss Greatrex was so proud of how we remembered and applied the sewing skills and techniques we learnt in last term's Art topic. We showed lots of resilience and perseverance as we practised the running stitch. Next week we have the exciting task of designing our phone case!
Stay safe and warm over the weekend.
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 2 March
Week 1: World Book Day!
Year 4 have had a very busy and exciting first week back after half term!
Mosque Trip: On Monday, we visited Newcastle Central Mosque and had a fantastic morning learning about Allah, Prophet Muhammad and the 5 Pillars of Islam. This completed our RE topic from before half term.
The Big Lent Walk: Tuesday saw the launch of The Big Lent Walk. We really enjoyed being out on the yard with the whole school and can't wait to raise lots of money for CAFOD. Thank you to our grown ups who have already made a donation,.
Science: Our new Science topic is all about animals including humans - specifically what do our bodies do with the food we eat? We had lots of fun creating models of the digestive system as we explored the functions of the mouth, teeth, tongue, oesophagus, stomach and intestines.
Music: We are excited to be participating in a Samba workshop for our music lessons this half term! On Wednesday, we practised our drumming technique and learnt how to successfully play bass, tempo and slap.
World Book Day: We had a brilliant time celebrating World Book Day on Thursday. Miss Greatrex was super impressed by all of our beautiful and imaginative costumes. We enjoyed breakfast at the Book Bistro, scored top marks in the Literacy Trust's Great Big Footy and Booky Quiz, and spent the day working hard as authors and illustrators as we created our own concertina story books.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 16 February
Week 6: Happy Half Term!
English: We have been working hard this week exploring poetry and using different types of figurative language. We wrote similes to describe a friendly monster, used onomatopoeia for writing about different sounds we could hear in the classroom and created metaphors to write some beautiful poems about someone who inspires us. Miss Greatrex has been very impressed by our hard work, creative ideas and imaginative vocabulary!
Maths: This week we have finished our measurement topic on perimeter. We have been learning how to calculate missing lengths and find the perimeter of rectilinear shapes. Tomorrow, we will apply our skills and knowledge to working out the perimeter of regular and irregular polygons. We have also been working hard practising our times tables. Miss Greatrex will be really impressed if we can continue to use Timestables.co.uk to practise our times tables over half term.
History: We really enjoyed learning about the Olympics in this week's History lesson. It was super interesting to explore how the Olympics have changed over time from Ancient Greece to the modern games we know today.
Creative Prayer: In our prayer time this week we used finger painting to create a piece of artwork to represent how we can show love in our heart for everyone.
Miss Greatrex really enjoyed sharing our progress with our grown ups during this week's parents meetings. Thank you to everyone for your continued support!
Year 4 have had a fantastic start to 2023 and worked extremely hard! Wishing you all a safe and restful half term.
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 9 February
Week 5: Team Challenge Day!
Maths: Our current Maths topic is all about measurement. This week we have been working hard converting measurements between metres and kilometres, discussing the most appropriate units for different distances (e.g. metres for measuring the school yard, centimetres to refer to the length of a pencil and kilometres for the distance between Newcastle and London), exploring equivalent lengths and calculating the perimeter of rectangles.
Science: We had lots of fun making and testing string telephones to investigate how sounds change over distance.
RE: On Thursday, we started our new RE topic on Islam. We learnt lots about the Qur'an and are looking forward to visiting a local mosque after half term.
Computing: For Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 7 February, we learnt about online reputation and explored the impact of having friends and family on social media. We watched a fantastic video of YouTuber and online personal trainer Scola interviewing her mum about being on social media. In the interview, they talk about how our online actions are there for everyone to see. Following this year's Safer Internet Day theme 'Want To Talk About It?" we discussed how we can create a positive online reputation and the need to be careful before sharing anything online. We then made our own videos where we role played chatting to an adult about the impacts of social media.
Team Challenge Day: On Wednesday, we enjoyed our Team Challenge Day! We worked together in teams to learn Combat Survival skills, including tent-building, code-breaking and bridge-crossing. We all had lots of fun and developed our skills of teamwork, resilience and problem-solving.
Have a super weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 2 February
Week 4: Community
English: This week we did some fantastic role play in English as we explored eyewitness quotes for our newspaper reports. We worked in pairs acting as either a newspaper reporter, Spartan soldier or Athenian civilian. We produced some great interviews and had lots of fun pretending to be witnesses of the Spartan invasion!
Reading Skills: Our text this week is the poem 'The Lion and Albert.' We have been practising our skills of reading aloud as we explore how to perform poetry. We have learnt about tone, intonation, expression and volume. We chose sections of the poems and thought really hard about how we would read each line, looking closely at the punctuation and content in the text. Miss Greatrex was particularly impressed by how we performed the lines: 'Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence, / And didn't know what to do next, / Said 'Mother! Yon Lion's 'et Albert', / And Mother said 'Well, I am vexed!'
PE: In our outdoor PE lessons we are having lots of fun learning how to play hockey. So far, we have practised how to correctly hold a hockey stick, push passes, dribbling, receiving the ball and stopping the ball. We put our new skills to the test in some small 1-v-3 games where defenders had to pass the ball to one another while the attacker attempted to intercept their passes.
RE: To celebrate the end of our Local Church topic on 'Community,' we planned and led a beautiful class liturgy. It was lovely to invite our friends and family to join our worship where we shared how Jesus has inspired us to be whole-hearted and enthusiastic members of our different communities.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 26 January
Week 3: This is Sparta!
English: This week, we have moved back to non-fiction and are studying newspaper reports. We have explored the features of newspaper reports and used the iPads to research information for our own articles. We will be writing a report on the battle of Athens and Sparta. This links to our History topic of the Ancient Greeks.
History: During History, we used the iPads to research the similarities and differences between Athens and Sparta. We investigated different areas of life in Ancient Greece, including the lives of citizens, warfare, slaves and religion. We found lots of interesting information which we can also use in our newspaper reports!
Maths: We have been working really hard on our multiplication and division unit. First, we used manipulatives, such as Base Ten and number lines, to explore informal written methods of multiplication. We have now moved on to formal methods of multiplication and division. We're confident working with 3-digit numbers for both operations and have impressed Miss Greatrex with our mathematical skills and knowledge!
Science: In Science, we investigated if there is a link between the loudness of a sound and the strength of the vibrations by using rice and drums. We had lots of fun, and our experiment concluded that the louder the sound, the bigger the vibrations.
Enjoy the weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 19 January
Week 2: Snow, Sound and Sewing!
It's been another busy week in Year 4!
Art: We continued our textiles topic by having a go at some Indian embroidery. We tried, using a simplified version of the Indian Ari technique, to create some nature-inspired designs. Some of us haven't had much experience of sewing but Miss Greatrex was very impressed by the whole class's resilience, perseverance and determination!
Science: Our new Science topic is sound. This week, we investigated how different sized and shaped ears change the way we hear sounds. We looked at different animals' ears and made our own paper cones or "ears" to investigate how they change sounds.
Maths: Once a week, in our times table slot, we will be using the iPads to practise our time stables. We're really excited to become times tables experts through lots of practise, including using the Soundchecks on Times Table Rockstars both in school and at home.
Music: We really enjoyed trying some graphic composing in music this week. We listened to a piece of music and drew different shapes to represent the sounds and tempo we could hear.
Reading Skills: We've been delving deeper into our class novel, 'Beowulf' by Michael Morpurgo, in our Reading Skills lessons. We follow the VIPERS scheme which helps us to practise six different and very important reading skills - vocabulary, infer, predict, explain, retrieve and summarise. Miss Greatrex has attached a list of questions to this week's blog which are similar to the work we do in Reading Skills. It would be great if we could practise these questions with our adults when reading at home as this will help us with our reading comprehension in lessons.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 12 January
Week 1: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! It's been lovely welcoming everyone back to school after the Christmas break. Here's what Year 4 have been up to this week.
English: In English, we are thoroughly enjoying studying the epic poem 'Beowulf' as we prepare to write our own story with a historical setting. We have wowed Miss Greatrex with some fantastic descriptions of the hero Beowulf and the deadly fiend Grendel.
Art: This term, we are studying textiles and collage in Art and we will be exploring the techniques of African Batik printing and Indian embroidery. This week we looked at the works of Xenobia Bailey and Bisa Butler and created some beautiful fact files on these artists.
RE: What communities do we belong to? This is the Big Question for our new RE topic. In Year 4 we belong to lots of different communities including our families, our school, our neighbourhoods and our parish as well as football clubs, swimming groups, Brownies, Cubs and lots more! We each painted a beautiful leaf for our spiritual art which we will use to create a display to represent our class community.
Creative Prayer: During our prayer time this week, we listened to a calming piece of music and drew pictures while we prayed. Miss Greatrex was really impressed by the thought-provoking images we created and it was lovely to spend some time reflecting on the first school week of 2023.
Have a brilliant weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 22 December
Week 8: Merry Christmas!
Well done for all of your hard work this term Year 4!
Wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you have a lovely and well-deserved break!
See you in 2023!
Miss Greatrex
Thursday 15 December
Week 7: Christmas Carols
Design and Technology: This week we had lots of fun making our healthy sandwiches in DT. We used the bridge and claw cutting techniques we practised last lesson to prepare a range of delicious vegetables for our sandwiches. We can confidently talk about all the different nutrients included in our sandwich, as well as describe why we need each nutrient.
RE: For our creative prayer, we created a peace paper chain. First, we made chains individually or in small groups and then we joined them all together to create one, long class paper chain. This symbolises how Christians come together in peace to celebrate the birth of Jesus our Saviour. In our RE lessons, we finished our Advent topic on gifts by comparing hymns about the Three Wise Men with Matthew's account in the Gospel. We also enjoyed using our Let Us Pray 2together resource box to plan our class liturgy.
Carol Service: We had a fantastic time on Wednesday evening singing in the Key Stage Two carol service! Well done to everyone for all your hard work and beautiful singing. Thank you to everyone who attended the service - it was wonderful to sing to all our family and friends!
Enjoy the weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 8 December
Week 6: DT and Diaries
Design and Technology: In DT, we are learning about healthy and balanced diets. We have been given the brief of designing and making a healthy sandwich for the St Charles’ School Christmas Party. Our sandwich must include the five main food groups and give us plenty of energy for the party games, as well as taste delicious! We analysed some existing products and have designed our own sandwiches. This week, we practised the knife techniques we will use to make our sandwich. We had lots of fun cutting different fruits and vegetables using the claw technique and the bridge technique.
English: For our new English topic, we are reading the beautiful story of the ‘Matchbox Diary.’ We loved exploring the different objects in the grandad’s matchboxes and we have already wowed Miss Greatrex with some fantastic diary writing of our own!
Science: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Our Science lesson linked well with the weather because this week we learnt all about the water cycle! We have some super knowledge of the different processes of the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection.
Festive Fun: Christmas has definitely arrived in Year 4! Our class Elf, Buddy, has been up to all sorts of mischief - we can’t wait to see what more tricks he has in store for us. On Thursday, we had the treat of watching the dress rehearsal performance of Early Years’ Nativity. We were so impressed by the younger children’s fantastic speaking, wonderful singing and brilliant dancing! Tomorrow is Christmas jumper day and in the afternoon we will be working with our house groups to make Christmas crafts for the Christmas Fayre.
Keep safe and warm this weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 1 December
Week 5: Human Geography
Geography: This week in Geography, we explored the human features of Barcelona. Using Google Maps, we located famous landmarks in Barcelona and plotted them on our own maps. Then we analysed the location of the landmarks, described where they are in the city and linked them to Catalonia's economy.
RE: We enjoyed exploring our new Let Us Pray 2together resource box and used it to help us plan our weekly class liturgical prayer. We held a special class liturgy linked to our current RE topic on Advent. In our RE lessons, we wrote some beautiful thank you letters to God thanking him for sending us the gift of Jesus.
English: Tomorrow, we will be writing our final piece for our Adventure Story topic. Miss Greatrex has been very impressed with our work so far and she is super excited to read our imaginative narrative for the picture book 'Journey.'
Enjoy the weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 24 November
Week 4: Gifts
Maths: For our multiplication and division topic, we have been learning about the 3, 6 and 9 times tables. We used the manipulatives to see how many different ways we can represent 9. We also enjoyed spotting patterns between the different tables and exploring different tricks for working out if a number is a multiple of 3 or 9.
Science: We had lots of fun in Science this week learning about materials as they change state. We investigated the melting point of different types of chocolate.
RE: With one month to go, the countdown to Christmas has begun! Our new RE topic throughout Advent is on Gifts. We thought about the gifts our friends and family give us including love, care and fun. We also wrote some special hymns to thank God for giving us the gift of Jesus. For our spiritual art, we created some beautiful oil pastel scenes of the Three Wise Men on their journey to give their gifts to Jesus.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 17 November
Week 3: Anti-Bullying Week
Anti-Bullying Week: This week is Anti-Bullying Week and the theme this year is 'Reach Out.' On Monday, we wore odd socks to school to celebrate our differences. It was fantastic to see everyone's crazy, colourful socks! We discussed who we can reach out to if we are being bullied or if we know someone who is being bullied. There are lots of trusted adults we can speak to in school and at home. On Tuesday, we reached out to each other by writing secret compliments. We really enjoyed both giving and receiving lots of lovely compliments!
English: Our new English topic is adventure stories. We are exploring the beautiful picture book 'Journey' by Aaron Becker. We are using our imaginations to write our own narrative for the story, including lots of different features such as expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and similes.
Maths: In Maths, we have finished our topic on area and are now exploring multiplication and division. In our timestable lessons, we enjoyed using manipulatives to make lots of different representations of the number four.
RE: To finish our RE topic on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we planned and held a special class liturgy. We thought about all the things we are sorry for and all the ways we can show we are sorry. We know that just saying sorry isn't enough; we have to change our behaviour in order to reconcile our relationship with the person we have hurt and also with God.
Well done for your super work this week!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 10 November
Week 2: Commando Joe's
Commando Joe’s: On Wednesday, we completed our first Commando Joe’s day of the school year. The theme of our missions was survival. Inspired by Levison Wood’s intrepid expeditions across dangerous and hostile environments, we imagined we were stranded in the Himalayan region of Jammu. To successfully survive and escape, we had to transport water across rocky terrain, collect a range of nutritional food, build a bridge to cross a racing river, design and build a buggy to transport us to the extraction point and choose the best SOS signal to call for help from the mountains. Miss Greatrex was impressed by our teamwork, creativity, leadership and communication!
Maths: We have started our new topic on measuring area. To explore area, we had to make as many different rectilinear shapes as possible using four post-it notes. We are excited to learn more about measuring the area of different shapes!
RE: We had a special visitor this week: Father Michael came to talk to the class about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and answer our questions. In our RE lessons, we discussed what it means to say and show you are sorry. We explored the story of ‘Jesus Forgives a Sinful Woman,’ and we were given different scenarios of examples of sins. We discussed the scenarios and wrote scripts to describe how the characters can say and show they are sorry.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 3 November
Week 1: A Fantastic Start To Autumn 2
English: Are you tired of the rampant, repetitive rain and cold, dreary weather that plagues England? Do you want a break from work and school to explore an exciting new location where you can enjoy scorching, sizzling sunshine? Rhetorical questions are just one of the persuasive devices we have been exploring this week as we start our new English topic on persuasive writing. To link with our Geography topic, we will be writing a persuasive text trying to convince the reader to go on holiday to Catalonia!
Geography: Tomorrow we will start our European Study topic in Geography. We will be exploring the similarities and differences between Newcastle and Catalonia. We are excited to practise our map skills as well as find out lots of interesting facts we can link to our persuasive writing.
PE: This term, our indoor PE topic is gymnastics. We had a fantastic time practising individual and partner balances. We learnt the importance of communicating with and trusting our partners. This allowed us to create some very tricky and highly inventive balances!
Science: In Science, we are learning about states of matter. We identified the properties of solids, liquids and gases and we described the particles of each state. We are looking forward to doing lots of scientific investigations as we explore states of matter over the coming weeks.
Well done for a fantastic start to the term!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 20 October
Week 7: Building Bridges
PE: To finish our topic on fundamental movements, we have been practicing skipping with a rope. We really enjoy this skill and Miss Greatrex was particularly impressed by our partner skipping!
Music: In Music this week, we enjoyed learning to play some different melodies and songs on the glockenspiels.
Maths: We have been recapping the column subtraction method and applying it to four-digit numbers. We have been doing sums with lots of exchanges, using place value counters to help us visualise this process.
English: In English this week, we wrote our potion instructions using lots of expanded noun phrases to describe our ingredients and imperative verbs to command the reader. From love spells, to super-strength tonics, sleeping draughts to healing elixirs, there is something for everyone in Year 4's potion class!
RE: This week, we were excited to start our new topic learning about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We explored building bridges of friendship and produced some beautiful spiritual art to capture these special relationships. We also discussed the story of The Good Shepherd and wrote some reflective prayers thanking God for his unconditional love and forgiveness.
October is Black History Month and tomorrow we will be learning about the significant individual Martin Luther King Jr.
Well done for all your hard work this half term Year 4! Wishing you a safe, happy and restful half term holiday.
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 13 October
Week 6: Take One Picture
Take One Picture: For the next few days, we are taking part in 'Take One Picture' during which we will be exploring Claude-Joseph Vernet's 'A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas.' We discussed what we like and dislike about the painting, created a beautiful fact file on the artist, practiced different sculpture techniques and designed a lighthouse. Tomorrow we will be constructing our lighthouses using clay and the techniques we have learnt, such as pinch, coil, carve and slip.
Science: We explored the negative impacts different natural changes can have on living things and their habitats. These included drought, wildfire, flood and volcanic eruption!
English: In English this week we have begun our new topic on instructional writing. So far, we have identified a number of features of instructional writing, practiced writing commands using different imperative verbs and explored the text we will be basing our instructions on: 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.' Next week, we will write our own instructions for how to make a potent potion. Miss Greatrex can't wait to see what wonderous wizardry and ingenious imagination we use in our writing!
Enjoy the weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 6 October
Week 5: Carnival Capers and Mini-Beast Hunting!
Macmillan Carnival: Last Friday, we had a fantastic afternoon playing carnival games and raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The school council team organised lots of fun activities including balloon limbo, memory matching, giant jenga, feed the monster and pin the bow on Poppy the dog.
Science: For our Science topic, we planned and carried out a scientific investigation where we explored living things in their habitat. We searched for invertebrates in forest school, identified their characteristics and discussed why each characteristic makes the creature suited to its habitat. Some of the mini-beasts we found included worms, slugs, spiders and woodlice.
English: Following our lessons last week on Alice In Wonderland, we have been working very hard this week on writing a fiction narrative with our own alternative twist. In our versions, Alice does not follow the White Rabbit into Wonderland, she falls into a super spooky haunted house. We kept Miss Greatrex on the edge of her seat with our nail-biting descriptions of the perils Alice has to face!
PE: During our indoor PE lessons, we have been developing a range of fundamental movement skills including running, jumping, balancing, throwing and catching. This week we focused on practising our balancing skills and saw how many bean bags we could keep on our bodies at one time!
Have a fantastic weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 29 September
Week 4: Adventures In Wonderland
English: For our fiction topic, we are exploring a story from our literary heritage - Alice In Wonderland! We have enjoyed using the five senses to deepen our descriptive writing. Miss Greatrex has been super impressed by our use of expanded noun phrases, adverbs and fronted adverbials. We are excited to write our own alternative ending to this well-loved story next week.
Art: This week, in our formal elements topic, we constructed our own stamps and then used them to print different patterns. It was great fun to explore the different shapes and textures we could create.
Science: In Science, we are learning about living things and their habitats. This week we planned a mini-beast hunt for our scientific investigation. Using our knowledge of different habitats, we have predicted which invertebrates we will find in Forest School. We can't wait to see if our predictions are right!
It was lovely to see parents and carers at our curriculum evening. For those of you who were unable to make it, please find the PowerPoint slides above.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 22 September
Week 3: Let's Vote!
School Elections: Last Friday, we practised our British value of Democracy by voting for our new House Captains. We were really impressed by the Year 6's inspiring speeches and we had lots of fun casting our votes at the polling station.
Maths: For our Place Value topic in Maths, we have been reading, writing, representing and partitioning numbers up to 10,000. We are also focusing on our 2, 5 and 10 times tables and we had some nail-biting multiplication partner races this week.
RE: In our People topic for RE, we are learning about Jesus' family tree. We particularly enjoyed the story of Jacob and Esau and we had lots of fun creating our own drama performances.
PE: One of our favourite Outdoor Adventurous Activities during PE was working in teams to make different letters using our bodies. We really impressed Miss Greatrex with our creativity and ingenuity.
We look forward to welcoming our parents and carers to school for our Curriculum evening next week.
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
Thursday 8 September
Week 1: Welcome Back!
Welcome back everyone! Year 4 are super excited to be back at school – lots of us have grown over the summer and we are sporting some very smart haircuts
We have had a jam-packed first week back filled with lots of fun activities…
English: In English we have been exploring Kennings poems – we can’t wait to have a go at writing our own next week!
Art: To begin our topic on formal elements, we practised mark marking with black pastels and white chalk. We expressed different words (such as tiny, huge, messy, strong, slow, fast) in an abstract way without drawing pictures.
History: Salvē! This is how the Romans greeted each other – and just one of the many things we learnt during our fantastic History workshop on Wednesday. This half term we are studying The Romans and after a morning of being taught by a Roman citizen we already feel like experts! We learnt lots of Latin words, we marched like a centurion of Roman soldiers, we wore Roman armour, we handled Roman artefacts (including swords, shields, pots and a Roman war javelin), we made our own ink and wrote in Latin, and we played the Roman game ‘Rota.’
Bikeability: On Thursday, we brought our bikes to school and learnt the important rules of Road Safety. We can’t wait to go out and about on our bikes and impress our friends and family with our new knowledge and skills.
It has been lovely welcoming the children back this week and we are looking forward to the year ahead!
Miss Greatrex and Year 4
We join with Bishop Robert and the whole of BBCET, to mourn the loss of our beloved Queen. We pray for the repose of her soul and for her family. We are very grateful for her years of service. We give thanks to God for everything she has done. May she rest in peace.
