Year 4

We will be using Google Classroom for our Virtual learning. Please find the link above. 

Thank you.

Hello and welcome to Year 4. I am Ms Andrews, the class teacher, and Mrs Young is our class teaching assistant.

I think Year 4 is a wonderful year group to be in as the children are old enough to think for themselves and yet still have all the energy, enthusiasm, freedom and humour of younger children. It's a lovely age.

We continually endeavour to make our learning as interesting and enjoyable as we possibly can. By linking learning across the curriculum we hope to engage the children, capture their imaginations and help them remember what we are learning!

Our aims are to encourage independence and self-confidence whilst instilling a love for learning. We hope these skills will help equip the children throughout their future education and in their wider lives. 

We're sure you will enjoy looking at some of the learning the children have completed on our class page. I have noticed how much Year 4 love seeing their work on display and how proud they are with their finished results! The majority of our displays are whole class, everyone's learning is up (unless they were absent).

In English this term we are studying the Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The children are really enjoying writing their own versions, based on the original book, and editing and improving their writing in preparation for making their own books.

Linked to their book study, in art we have collected single use plastics to create assemblage pieces of their own. Assemblage is a work of art made by grouping together objects. The finished pieces have been joined together to form an Iron Man class sculpture. 

I can't wait to see the children's finished books - their illustrations are amazing!

Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed Nurture Nature week and all it had to offer!

One of the highlights of the week was our visit to Leeson House where the children enjoyed: pond dipping, bush craft, orienteering and team building games. A little bit of rain didn't stop us having the most magical of days!

Linked to our science topic, Habitats and Human Impact, Year 4 have been observing invertebrates.

At Leeson House we were able to observe some fresh water invertebrates up close in their natural habitat. We decided to paint our stones, part of the wonderful Nature Nurture Week, using our knowledge of invertebrates. The children are really pleased with the results they achieved using acrylic outdoor paints and pens.

A huge thank you to Jacob, who let us use his fantastic invertebrate collection for our observational drawing.

Year 4 really enjoyed their camouflage workshop and the opportunity of painting each others' faces. They did such a good job it was hard to find them amongst the trees! 

We enjoyed a fantastic outdoor learning session with Mrs Bird Hawkins based on Sound. The children loved creating sounds linked to, The Sound Collector poem, by Roger McGough and then recording the sounds they could hear on the front lawn. 

One of the wonderful activities we took part in, as part of Nature Nurture Week, was to create art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who creates land art. Year 4 loved working with a variety of natural materials, kindly donated by parents, creating their own land art. Following the session we viewed each others art and critiqued the positive aspects of the work.

It was a particularly rainy day when Year 4 visited Studland Beach to find the Dynamic Dunescapes cows. The weather didn't dampen spirits as the children trampled the dunes in search of cows, led by Julia Galbenu, from the National Trust. We felt a real sense of wilderness with the stormy skies surrounding us and the sand and heather beneath our feet.

After a soggy picnic lunch we went onto the sand to create group sand sculptures which luckily took our minds of the clouds above us! 

It really was a wonderful day - thankyou so much to our wonderful parent helpers: Albert, Sophie and Amelie P's mums and Cobie's dad.

Year 4 were very lucky to be picked to take part in the Dynamic Dunescape's project. Following a zoom meeting with Julia Galbenu, who explained the ideas behind the project, the children started thinking about possible designs for their cow. In the end we used a mixture of images from the children's initial ideas. Everyone shared responsibility for the design and painting and took part in the painting of the cow! It is entirely the children's own work and I think we have a great set of designers in the making!

It was a wonderful chance to work outdoors and enjoy the wonderful March sunshine.

We are very pleased to announce that Dragonflies is our new Year 4 class name!

Dragonflies are insects with large eyes and two pairs of strong, transparent wings and an elongated body. Many dragonflies have brilliant irredescent or metallic colours. They are also agile fliers. 

In many parts of the world the dragonfly symbolises wisdom, change, transformation and light.

As part of our lockdown learning Year 4 made wonderful dragonfly mobiles using twigs from Wareham Forest. 

Fairtrade

What is Fairtrade and why is it important?

Fairtrade is a way of buying and selling products that allows the farmers to be paid a fair price for their produce and have better working conditions. Trade is unfair when farmers receive low incomes and have poor conditions to work in while the companies that sell their products make lots of money from them. Buying products that are Fairtrade means that farmers are paid fairly.

Emilia

Change the World Through Your Choices

Our actions have global consequences.

Fair trade is so important because it means farmers, countries and families are paid a fair price for their work. We can all contribute to fair trade by buying fair trade products such as bananas, cocoa, coffee, flowers, sugar, tea, fruit juices and more. You will know if something is fair trade from the label.

We can also make a difference by buying fair trade clothes and taking your old ones to a charity and not throwing them out.     

In my house we choose to buy fair trade products when we go food shopping, so we know farmers are paid a fair price in countries such as Kenya and Sri Lanka so they can spend it on health care, education and other needs.

Oliver

As young people we have the power to make a difference in the world through the choices we make every day.

• When I grow out of my clothes I always give them to a friend or my mum takes them to the charity shop or clothing bank where they can re-use them.
• When I get too old for my toys and books I donate them to the charity shop so other children can enjoy them. 
• Rather than buying vegetables from the supermarket in plastic wrappers I go to the market to buy them or better still you could grow your own ( I grew some tomatoes, basil and pumpkins last summer)
• We recycle plastic, glass and cardboard so it can be reused.
• At home I have a bamboo toothbrush rather than a plastic one so when I need a new one I can recycle it rather than throwing it away.

Amelie P

Our topic in RE this term is, 'What is the Trinity?'

As part of this topic we have thought about the importance of water; how it is life giving, refreshing, powerful, still, refective... (this links well with our Rivers and Changing States topics) 

We shared the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist : Matthew 3:11-17 and looked at paintings by Verrocchio and Daniel Bonnell.

Next we thought about how God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all present at Jesus's baptism.

The children completed their own stained glass window designs. 

Poems based on, 'Slowly,' by James Reeves

Slowly the sun rose over the World

Slowly it set like a shining pearl

Slowly the clouds drift past as I watch from my bed

Slowly the thoughts float around in my head

Slowly the winter waits for the Spring

Slowly the plants wake up and sing

The World turns so slowly I can’t even see

Slowly it’s happening - all around me

Oscar

Slowly bowls of breakfast to tasty tea,  

Slowly the running river flows into the sea.

Slowly making honey from the black striped bees,

Slowly the running racer has done their very long run.

Slowly the election is done,

Slowly the beautiful baby is born.

Slowly cunning Christmas comes,

Slowly grows the green,gorgeous,tremendous trees.

Sophia

Slowly the icicles melt on a frosty morning.

Slowly the leaves turn orange in  Autumn.

Slowly the snail slivered across the green grass.

Slowly  the shiny pea rolled past the glass.

Slowly the prickly hedgehog woke up from hibernation.

Slowly the fluffy white clouds drift by.

Slowly the calm flowing river meanders to the sea.

Slowly the sleepy sloth climbed up  the palm tree.

Jacob

Slowly  the big blue whale comes up from the deep blue sea,

Slowly  the big blue stream flows down the field so green.   

Slowly in the shop things go out of stock,

Slowly the world orbits the big bright sun. 

Slowly during autumn the colorful  leafs fall of the tree ,

Slowly the long green grass grows and grasshoppers jump in glee.

Slowly the small green trees grow in to a sprout of leafs

Slowly you grow taller taller than can be .

Amelie C

As part of our Poetry topic Year 4 have looked at the poem 'Slowly,' by James Reeves.

The children completed their own continuum lines of things that can take a long time to happen.

Then they followed the pattern of the original poem, writing their own poems using a range of poetic devices.

The children thought of some wonderful ideas for showing how slowly time can pass, including: 

snow dissolving,nail varnish drying, fluffy clouds drifting by, cocooned caterpillars turning into beautiful butterflies, waking up in the morning and waiting for summer to come!

A calligram is text arranged in such a way that it creates a visual representation of the word itself.

A calligram can be a poem, a phrase or a single word. As part of our Poetry learning Year 4 enjoyed exploring and designing some calligrams of their own.

As part of our, 'Where does all that food go?' science topic we investigated the effects of different liquids on egg shells. We wanted to see which ones could cause tooth decay.

Our investigation started by carefully measuring out 100ml of each liquid, thinking about fair testing. We then made predictions about what would happen to each egg.

"I think the egg in coke will turn yellow because the yoke might explode. I think this because of the sugar in the coke."  Owen 

"The egg in the coke will go mouldy and break the shell before it explodes."  Peyton

 "I predict the egg in the sugar free blackcurrant squash will be fine because it is sugar free and sugar is bad for your teeth."  Amelie P

The children are trying to remember to give explanations to support their predictions. 

We made observations of the eggs after a week in the liquids. 

"The egg in the sugar-free blackcurrant squash was covered in blue mould and looked disgusting."  Josh 

"The egg in the vinegar has been pickled and is now soft and squishy; the egg shell has completely disappeared."  Cobie

We then compared the outcomes of the investigation with our original predictions. 

"My prediction was incorrect and we found out that sugar free might not be that good for you."  Sophia

"My prediction was wrong, I thought the coke would crack the egg. We found out that coke is not as bad as we thought."  Tommy

"My prediction was right, the egg in water was fine and had not even cracked."  Kai

"My prediction was wrong because I thought the egg in vinegar would rot and disappear but it didn't. I was surprised the egg went bouncy."  Cobie

We tested the bounciness of the egg in vinegar by volunteering to play catch with the egg. It definitely was bouncy!

Finally we discussed the reliability of our investigation - our results are not conclusive as we only tested six eggs for one week. To be certain of our results we would have to test many more eggs for a greater length of time. But the classroom was getting a little bit smelly!

Following a lesson on the Blitz, the children were asked to imagine they were evacuees being sent away from their homes and families in London to a new temporary life in the country.

We watched real life evacuees recall their experiences and discussed children who were evacuated to Stoborough during the Blitz. We were also lucky enough to have a video call with Hannah's grandad who told us first hand what it was like to be evacuated.

We imagined how difficult it would be leaving our families but also recognised how exciting it would have been for the children, seeing the delights of the countryside for the first time.

I was very impressed with the empathy and understanding the children showed in their letters; they definitely didn't like the idea of being sent away from their lovely families.

As part of our science topic, 'Where does all that food go?' the children have been learning about the digestive system. Our initial lesson was quite interesting as the children were a little unsure of where the different parts could be found...

We used mnemonics to try and help us remember and then invented food characters who went on perilous journeys through the digestive system. Of course the children's favourite part was when the characters turned into poo and were flushed down the loo! 

Their final writing shows a good understanding of the science objective and I was also very pleased with their use of scientific vocabulary. My favourite part however, has to be the illustrations, the children produced, to support their story lines. I think they are wonderful!

To help the children settle in and ease some of their worries we shared the, 'What If?' poem. The children loved the humour in this poem and we discussed how some real life worries were sandwiched inbetween the silliness. They loved having the opportunity to share their thoughts and worries writing their own, 'What If?' poems and inventing, 'What If?' characters.

Throughout the autumn term we have been reflecting on the importance of friendship. The children had clearly missed being with their peers throughout lockdown!  

Observational drawings were created from photographs taken in class which were then painted in watercolours. We also thought about the background and the children mixed their own colours using acrylic paints. The finished images are amazing and it is lovely to see the resemblances!