Year 4

Year 4 Picasso

This term has been all about the United Kingdom and India. We have been improving our map skills by locating both places on a map, comparing the human and physical geography and the surrounding countries and seas. We focussed on London as a major city in the United Kingdom and made models to show some of the main features of it – such as the River Thames and major buildings. We have also been finding out some interesting facts about both places. Did you know the national animal of India is the tiger? We even managed to link our PE to our topic and in groups, we created some fantastic Bollywood dances.

In English, we have read The Royal Rabbits of London by Santa Montefiore and The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We have spent time discussing the fantastic vocabulary and grammatical features in the books. We have learnt about expanded noun phrases, similes and fronted adverbials. We have even found time to write character descriptions, diaries, newspapers and are currently working on writing our own stories.

Maths has had a big focus on number. We have consolidated our understanding of place value, addition and subtraction. Working in pairs, we have built numbers with concrete resources and worked really hard on our problem solving and reasoning. We have also been preparing for the Multiplication Tables Check by exploring our timestables in a number of ways – singing songs, using a counting stick and playing games.

Our learning has not stopped there. In science we have looked at Electricity, we have improved our football skills in outdoor PE and learnt about Hinduism during our RE lessons. We have also looked at the British Values and have discussed how we follow them in our everyday lives.

In our music lessons we have been learning the trumpets. We have been practising hard in class and at home and we look forward to sharing our new-found trumpet skills with you in December.

We have really enjoyed the challenge of Year 4 so far and are looking forward to all our new topics.

Year 4 Dali

In Dali class, we have made a very positive and enthusiastic start to year 4.  Our topic work this term has been based all around India.

In geography, we have improved our map work skills by locating India on world maps and by identifying the seas and countries surrounding it. As well as studying what life is like in some parts of India, we have also tried to experience it ourselves, by learning Bollywood dancing in PE and tasting different types of tea during our India day. We also studied Hinduism during our RE lessons.

In English, we have read and enjoyed The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We have worked on understanding and using fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and figurative language to improve our writing. We have been very busy writing diary entries in role, character descriptions, setting descriptions and news reports, as well as our own Iron Man adventure story.

In maths, we have focused on number and the formal methods of addition, subtraction and multiplication. We have improved our problem solving and reasoning skills and have been hard at work practising our times tables to make sure that we can recall them all at speed and know the inverse by the end of the year 4.

We have all thoroughly enjoyed all our PE lessons this term. We have been exceptionally lucky to learn both gymnastics and squash from qualified coaches from outside of school. In gymnastics, this has meant that we are now all getting really good at performing routines including backward rolls and headstands. We have also enjoyed our squash lessons at the tennis club and are learning the rules of the game.

Year 4 Lowry

In 4 Lowry class we have had an enthusiastic and hardworking start to the school year. All of the children are showing a positive attitude to learning and are excited about their new learning in the year ahead.

In English, we have read The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We used both books to create some fantastic pieces of writing, including newspaper reports, diary entries and even our own story! We have learnt about similes, expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials. We have also been learning about poems, and some of us have performed our own to the class. Our maths learning has been focused on number during the Autumn term. We have consolidated our understanding of place value and the key operations. We have learnt more about using the Bar Model to help us solve word problems, along with other concrete methods to help us with our problem solving and reasoning.

In RE, we have been learning about Hinduism, and in geography, we have been studying India. We have been very fortunate to have squash lessons over at Surbiton Tennis Club this term, and have all thoroughly enjoyed learning the rules and playing matches against one another. In science, we are now electricity experts, too!

We are looking forward to the rest of year 4 and all of our new topics!