Year 4

Year Four

Key Stage Two

The children in these classes are in the second year of the National Curriculum Key Stage Two Programme of Study which covers a four year period.

You can contact the Year Four teachers by emailing:

year4@jupitercfs.org.uk

Year 4 Blog

Woodpeckers and Kingfishers will be adding regular updates about their learning to this page. Enjoy!

Friday 28th June 2019

In Literacy this week the children wrote a recount from the point of view of an eye witness in the form of a newspaper report. They used expanded noun phrases to express how the characters felt when they first met Aslan and wrote their own prophecy based on the one in the story.

In Maths this week the focus was division. The children were looking at partitioning the number before dividing and then used the bus stop method. The children realised that they had to know their times tables as this made division MUCH easier!

On Tuesday, we carried out a Science investigation to identify whether solutions were acid or alkali. We used red cabbage water as the universal indicator. The children came up for every day uses for this. Skye had watched a video about a man testing the water in his pond and another child mentioned doctors testing your urine using indicator strips.

In theme, the children created their own natural artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. These were left outside for others to see. They were all beautiful!

Friday 21st June 2019

In Literacy, the children have started reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The children practised dropping relative clauses into a simple sentence - Mr Tumnus, who had lived in Narnia forever, was bewildered. They compared Narnia to Lucy's world. We then focused on the Turkish Delight that Edmund was given . The children used their sense to draw out noun phrases to describe it. They then focused on their own choice of sweet and write a poem about it.

The instant I saw the mesmerising packet, I was under a spell,

It was as crunchy as a crisp,

It was a packet of glory,

Soft and gooey caramel stuck to the roof of my mouth.

The golden packet of heaven,

It opened as slowly as a sloth,

The caramel was as stringy as a cobweb,

When you see them, you can't resist, you just devour it.

by Emily P

In maths, we learnt about quadrilaterals. We looked at the properties of a trapezium, a rhombus, a parallelogram and a kite. We linked a rhombus to a squashed square and a parallelogram to a squashed rectangle to help us remember which is which. We then went on to learn about coordinates and plotted them by going along the corridor and up the stairs.

In theme, we focused on Klimt and made clay plaques inspired by the painting called The Flower Garden. We then looked at Picasso portraits and discussed the Cubist movement.

Next week, we need natural objects as we are starting to look at a new artist - Andy Goldsworthy. Please see the email sent on Wednesday!

Wednesday 12th June 2019

In maths this week, we have been adding decimal numbers. We had to be careful about which digit we were altering and how zero is used as a place holder.

In science, we learnt about human impact. We looked at how environments had been changed. Human impact could be positive or negative. We also talked about biodiversity and how important it is to look after plants and animals in their habitats and that some species are protected.

In literacy, we have looked at the nonsense words used in The Jabberwocky and created our own nonsense words so that we could write our own version.

In RE, we researched how different religions celebrate different events like births and weddings.

Friday 7th June 2019

This week has been Outdoor Learning Week. The children have had loads of fantastic opportunities to work outside. These included using hand tools to fashion a wand from hazel twigs, cooking orange cakes on a campfire, fire skills where the children looked at different ways of lighting fires and den building. These activities helped children to work collaboratively, listen to others, follow instructions, think about health and safety issues and get out and about in nature.

It was noted last week that very few children had read and finished their reading books over half term, which is a great shame. A big 'well done' to those few who did change their book on Monday!

New homework and spellings are now on the website. Please encourage your children to take part in the homework activities. It is really valuable to spend one to one time with your child and share in their learning.

Friday 24th May 2019

In Literacy, the children have been using the book 'Shackleton's Journey' to base all their literacy work on. They have written letters of application to join the expedition, goodbye letters to our families, diaries and dialogue between two crew members using body language to make the dialogue even more interesting to read. We thoroughly enjoyed the book and we were all fascinated by the events that took place in the Antarctic just over 100 years ago.

In Maths, the year group have focused on capacity. The children have converted between millilitres and litres including decimals. They have used multiplication to convert from larger to smaller amounts and have read scales with differently numbered demarcations. We have also had a lesson on using reasoning skills to solve problems. The children said they needed to read the problem VERY carefully, underline any important information and then decide which operation they would use to solve it.

In theme, we have finished our Earth topic by looking at different climate zones across the world. We discussed why the Earth had different climates and what each was like.

 Please keep up the reading throughout next week. We expect to see all books complete by Monday 3rd June so that every child can change their books.

Have a lovely half term!

Monday 7th May 2019

Important Reading Reminder

Please remember that children in Year 4 still need to be reading to an adult at home at least 5 times a week. This is crucial to help expand vocabularies, increase comprehension skills and understand and use inference skills. Please make sure that you write in your child's Reading Record every time your child reads to an adult at home. Reading is not just being able to decode and read words but, more crucially, understanding the text. As the children read longer, more complicated texts it is even more vital that an adult ensures they understand what they are reading. One to one with your child at home offers an invaluable opportunity to support your child, increase their confidence and improve their comprehension skills.  The following link will open up a sheet with question prompts that will really help you to support your child's reading and comprehension at home, for example, pick out unusual phrases and words and ask your child if they can work out what they mean. These will build your child's higher order reading skills.

Friday 3rd May 2019

We have had a really busy start to the summer term. Our new geography based theme is Earth. The children have learnt about how mountains are formed. They found out about volcanoes and labelled the inside of one. We discussed the Ring of Fire and how this is where the majority of the world's volcanoes are located. The children then spent time looking at the woodblock print, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, by the Japanese artist Hokusai. They used this as inspiration for their own paintings. You can see the volcano, Mount Fuji, in the background.

In Literacy, we have been reading an inspiring book called Weslandia. This tells the story of a boy who doesn't fit in. We all felt we could relate to Wesley in some way. The children then discovered that Wesley created his own fascinating mini-civilization in his back garden and suddenly lots of his class mates were interested in what he was doing. Year 4 have planned a non-chronological report of Weslandia in the form of a spider diagram. They are going to use this plan to write a brochure about Weslandia.

In Maths, the children have learnt about negative numbers. They have also been practising their column addition and subtraction skills. We have been focusing on setting out each calculation clearly so that regrouping (exchanging) is easy to see. This has included using pounds and pence. At the end of the week the children have been using their mathematical reasoning to solve number investigations.

Friday 15th March 2019

In Maths this week we have been learning about statistics and data handling. We had to look at a tally chart and transferred  the information onto a bar graph. We also made line graphs and had to answer questions by looking at the graphs.

Darcey-Rose

In Literacy we wrote our own chapter for Harry Potter that included our own professor we had created. We also wrote instructions about how to fly a broomstick, these had to include imperative verbs. We wrote a letter to Mr Jones to try and persuade him to let Quidditch be part of our PE curriculum.

Emily P

In theme, the children have designed and made their own owls out of clay. They had to use different tools to create texture and details.

World Book Day - Thursday 7th March 2019

World Book Day has been a whole day of fun activities for all of the members of Jupiter. Assembly kicked off the festivities with the winners of the potato book character competition being announced. The winners took home a great book each. Well done to Scarlett in Year 4! 

Each class then shared a book in jar. The clues were read out to the school and everyone had to guess the book.

Finally, children had a go at matching the book covers to the teacher as they had displayed their favourite childhood books.

This afternoon it was Year 4's turn for our book swap. All children chose a new book to take home to enjoy. 

What a brilliant day, not to mention all of the fantastic costumes!!!

Friday 1st March 2019

This week in Literacy in Year 4, the children have started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. They have written a comparison of different front covers of the book from around the world, about the descriptive features of the characters and a comparison of two of the characters. The children also wrote a diary entry for Harry when he was in his cupboard under the stairs. The children decided that they were pleased they weren't in there with him!

In Maths this week, the children have been practising adding and subtracting mentally, using a blank number line and using the column method. They had to write their own one- and two-step word problems for a given calculation and then had to solve it. Finally, the children were solving word problems by working systematically and by applying their mathematical knowledge.

We have begun a new theme on Significant People. We discussed what the word 'significant' meant and how it differed from the word 'famous'. The children learnt about the amazing life of Nelson Mandela. They ordered the important events in his life chronologically on a timeline. The children then had to write about what 'apartheid' was and how this looked in South Africa. Each child then wrote some very moving sentences giving their opinions on what they felt about apartheid. Year 4 then created Free Nelson Mandela posters.

We have had a great first week back after half term and are all looking forward to World Book Day next week. Remember to bring in your dressed potatoes on Monday!!

Friday 15th February 2019

This week in Literacy, the children have been looking at the poetry of Michael Rosen. They have used his poems to innovate their own poetry and have practised performing both poems by Michael Rosen and by the group they were working with. 

In maths, the children have been practising converting between different units of measurement, for example, metres to kilometres, centimetres to metres and millimetres to centimetres.

Today all the children took part in a talk about e-safety and how they can ensure they stay safe online. Please have a discussion with your child and find out what they have learnt. 

After half term, the children will be electing a Jupiter School Council member from their class. Each child has brought home a sheet. Should they wish to be considered for the role of School Councillor, they will need to fill in the sheet and return it to the class after half term. By the end of the first week back, each class will have voted for its School Councillor and our School Council will be in full force!

Have a wonderful half term break!

Tuesday 5th February 2019

Today is Safer Internet Day 2019! The theme this year is 'Together for a Better Internet' with a focus on how consent works in an online context. We explored how we ask, give, and receive consent online. This could be in our friendships, how we take and share images and videos or how we manage our privacy and data.

The Safer Internet campaign encourages young people to explore how the internet works, who owns the information that is shared on it, and how they can actively take ownership of digital spaces. Our computing lesson looked to empower young people to take control of their online lives and to feel that they can harness and use the positive power of the internet for good. 

Friday 25th January 2019

In Computing, Woodpeckers have began to learn all about HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language. They have used Mozilla Goggles to look under the surface of their favourite websites and understand more about the special language used to help make them look the way they do. They have especially enjoyed changing this code to 'hack the net'! We learnt that the webpages we changed were stored only on the Mozilla server, and so would not effect what other people read on BBC News - but it proved how easy it can be to make 'Fake News'.

In Science, Kingfishers have been learning Biology. They have been looking at teeth.

"We need to brush them at least twice a day. Don't eat too many sweets or fizzy drinks. We have been learning about the different types of teeth: molars, canines and incisors. This week we had to make a PowerPoint about how to look after our teeth for Year 1 children." Lulu

In Literacy, the children have enjoyed reading a new text, 'The Selfish Giant'. They have continued to develop their understanding of noun phrases, and create their own interesting phrases using prepositions, adverbs and adjectives. The children have also worked hard to develop understanding of different types of conjunctions and the best way to use this in our writing.

In Maths,  we have been very successful learning all about angles! We recapped what a right angle is and looks like, at exactly 90 degrees. We also looked at acute and obtuse angles, and worked on recognising this within 2D shapes. We finally worked on developing our understanding of regular and irregular shapes - did you know that for a shape to be regular, it needs to have equal length sides and equal angles?

In Theme, we have continued to explore the world of Norse myth. We looked closer at the geographical features that make up Scandinavia, the land where Norse myth originated. We then learnt about how the Vikings believed the world was made - did you know they believed in not one, but 9 worlds, all connected together by a giant tree Yggdrasil? 

Friday 18th January 2019

What a busy half term we have had already!

Literacy: Lacey - "In Literacy these past two weeks, we have been focusing on a story called 'Winter's Child'. This week, we have been planning and writing our own sequel called 'Spring's Daughter'. To make it interesting, we had to include fronted adverbials, adjectives, noun phrases, conjunctions and prepositions."

Maths: Austin - "In Maths this week, we have been learning column subtraction. First you have to lay the numbers so they are in columns. You take away starting from the right hand side. If you can't take away, you have to cross a number from the next column and move a 1 digit over to make it 10 times bigger."

Theme: Tulah "In theme this week, we have been learning about Norse myths and legends. We have been drawing some of Loki's monstrous children. We also learnt about the story of Thor and his mighty hammer."

PE: Daniella "We have been learning a Spy dance! Our dance moves involved using our legs and arms, trying to look like a secret spy. I have enjoyed it because it helps me move my body more - and is interesting and fun at the same time!"

Friday 7th December

This week in Maths we have been learning different ways of setting out multiplication calculations. We were practising the expanded grid method.

In Literacy we have been practising our descriptive writing and explanation writing. We had to remember to use expanded noun phrases, possessive apostrophes, prepositions and fronted adverbials.  

Expanded noun phrase - the large, mechanical rubbish truck with a flashing, warning light on top

Possessive apostrophe - the truck's ejector

Prepositions - on top, inside, on the back

Fronted adverbial - As quick as a flash, Later that day,

Julian & Lily

Friday 30th November 2018

Austin: "Today in Art we create a Winter scence - we had a a piece of paper and we were tapping our fingers against the paint brush with paint on it so it spread across our paper."

Maisy : "This was in the style of Jackson Pollock!"

Arahn: "I have really enjoyed writing about our new Literacy text, 'Until I met Dudley'. We have been learning about how daily objects in our lives work. We had to use conjunctions, fronted adverbials, adjectives, and prepositions to make interesting noun phrases and sentences."

Preposition: Tells you where something is, e.g. above, beside, below  (Robert)

Fronted adverbial: These always go at the beginning of a sentence  and are followed by a comma. They are words like first, next, lastly, happily, unnecessarily (Austin)

Conjunctions - these can be coordinating or subordinating.

Coordinating conjunctions - and, for, nor, yet, so

Subordinating conjunctions - while, when, but, becauseSw

Maths - Finley "We have been learning all of our times tables this week. My trickiest one is my 7s!"

Swimming - Scarlett "This week we had a fire alarm during swimming which gave us all a headache! We also completed a swimming test."

Monday 26th November 2018

Theme - What makes bread rise?

" I found out that when you mix yeast and sugar in warm water it produces bubbles and a gas named carbon dioxide. To test if the gas was carbon dioxide and not oxygen, we let the gas out over a flame. If it was oxygen the flame would have got bigger but instead the flame blew out completely, so we knew it was carbon dioxide."

Kieran

"Yeast produces carbon dioxide which causes the bread to rise because the bubbles go into the dough."

Kayleigh

Wednesday 21st November

In Theme this week, we have designed our very own healthy sandwich. The children needed to think carefully about healthy ingredients to include in their sandwich. They needed to use imperative verbs (to command), sequencing adverbs (to tell us when to do the actions), and conjunctions to add further detail.

In Literacy,  we have planned and begun to write our very own sequel to the class text, FArTHER.  We have thought carefully about interesting fronted adverbials to open each part of our story. We have also thought about interesting vocabulary we can use to make our stories more interesting.

In Maths, we have continued learning about decimals, applying our knowledge to mass (weight). We have practiced converting kilograms into grams, rounding decimal masses to whole numbers and estimating mass.

Friday 16th November

This morning, Woodpeckers had their class assembly. It went really well and all hard work practicing paid off!

This afternoon, we were tasting different breads. We tasted Warburton's fruit loaf, milk roll, wholemeal and toastie.

Austin: "I thought the toastie bread was soft. I liked it and gave it 5/5."

Amalia: "I liked the fruit loaf because it was tasty. 5/5"

Noah: "I didn't like the fruit loaf because it tasted sour and the raisins felt weird. 0/5"

Scarlett "I enjoyed swimming this week because we worked in partners getting a hoop from underwater. It was fun!"

Maisy "I liked swimming because we had to get some sinkers."

Sophie "I liked doing maths. We were changing decimals into fractions. It was a little bit tricky - but in the end it was fine!"

Daniella "I really loved literacy because we got to describe our flying machines and how they work."

Tulah: "I liked maths because we got to practice rounding numbers up and down."

Wednesday 14th November

As we reach the mid point for this week, the children have learnt so much.

In Maths, they have been learning all about decimal numbers. The children have solidified understanding of rounding and applied this to numbers with one decimal place. We will finish the week by applying our learning to word based maths problems.

In Literacy, the children have sequenced the story and written a diary entry!

Friday 9th November

It has been a busy week in Year 4.

In Maths we have further developed our skills using the column method to solve addition problems.

In Literacy, we have closely analysed the language within our new text, FArTHER. We thought carefully about our likes, dislikes, puzzles (things we wonder further about) and made connections with the text and other books we have read.

In Theme, we have continued to learn about food. We learnt of the history of Warburtons - did you know they began as a family grocers in Bolton in 1876?

Monday 5th November

What a start back to school!

In Literacy, we have begun a new text FArTHER. We discussed our own dreams and ambitions and predicted what might happen in the story, just from looking at the front cover.

In Maths, we practiced our mental addition skills, using known number facts to help us without writing a more formal method down.

In Theme, we all came together as a year group to discuss our half term baking achievements! We shared our recipes and even got to taste some of the food!

Thursday 25th October

Noah: "Today in the diving pit I practiced jumping into the pool! It enjoyed it because it was so deep I nearly reached the bottom."

Scarlett: "Today in swimming my group practiced swimming backwards. We had to remember to keep our chin upwards and keep kicking!"

Arahn: "My group were practicing breast stroke kicking on our front and back. We had to practice using penguin feet from inwards to outwards - heels in, toes out! Keep practicing!"

Austin: "I enjoyed maths this week - we were solving 2 step problems using column addition and subtraction."

Robert: "In Literacy we finished making our leaflets. We had to put lots of diagrams and description."

Wednesday 24th October

Today we learnt about the Hindu gods and goddesses. Here are some facts.

Robert: "Brahma is the god who created the universe. He has four heads, four arms and usually sits on a flower."

Lacey: "Vishnu is the preserver of the universe - this means he looks after it. He is often riding a mythical bird Garuda and is blue with four arms!"

Ignacy: "Shiva is the god of destruction and creation. He has a snake around his neck."

Monday 22nd October 2018

Year 4 have started a new theme called Food, Glorious Food! Today they got to test autumnal fruit and vegetables. It may surprise you to know that everyone tasted apples, blackberries, swede, sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower! I think some children even surprised themselves, as sprouts turned out to be quite popular. The children had to think of different words to describe them. 

Friday 19th October

"In Swimming we practised dolphin kicks. We also practised swimming on our back." Evie

"In Maths this week we completed checkpoints - it was pretty fun." Julian.

Thursday 18th October 2018

In Woodpeckers, we have continued learning how to code the Ohbots! Today we looked at how to make our Ohbot blink, nod and shake its head like a human would! We also logged into Duolingo and practised our Spanish!

In Kingfishers, we have started a new topic in Science - Our Changing World. The class looked at leaves and their different characteristics; stalk or no stalk, simple or compound, leaf edges and leaf arrangement. After they had investigated outside, the children had to draw and label these characteristics.

Wednesday 17th October 2018

Thank you to all who attended our Harvest Festival assembly yesterday! The children have worked incredibly hard this term to learn poems and songs to share with you. We hope you enjoyed the performance. :)

The children have made real progress creating leaflets explaining the life cycle of a plant! So far they have explained the process of germination, growth (light and water) and pollination. We will continue to explain fertilisation and seed dispersal.

Monday 15th October 2018

In Spanish today the children are taking control of their own learning. They have been learning new words - bebo, aqui, nesecito, agua, niño, tengo, por favor. Ask us what they mean!

12.10.18

Wow! What a Principal's Award Assembly we had this week. Lots of Year 4 children were awarded Pen Licences or received times table awards.

As we are ever improving our teaching and learning, we have adapted our times table scheme to recgonise the importance of learning all multiplication tables up to 12, before then using this knowledge to secure understanding of division and missing number. This has meant a lot of children have now gone home with a Bronze Warrior, Gladiator or even a Titan award this week.

In Literacy we have looked at the theme of change present in our class text, Varmints. We have then explored the growth of plants. The children have learnt the life cycle of plants, including,  germination, growth, pollination, fertilisation and seed dispersal. We shall be returning to this next week as we create leaflets explaining the care of plants.

In Computing in Woodpeckers, we have begun to code our new Ohbots! They run on a program very similar to Scratch and the children have been very excited to program the various parts of our robot to move.

10.10.18

In maths this week, we have been learning coordinates. We had to figure out where all of the agents had gone by using a coordinate grid. To remember which axis was first we had to say, "Along the corridor and up the stairs." So it is the x axis first and then the y axis.

Tasmai

5.10.2018

The Viking Day photos are available to view now!

"I loved the Viking day because my favourite activity was making candles from bees wax!" Sophie

"My favourite activity was we made ugly faces out of clay to scare the elves away!" Victor

"I liked it when we made medicine. We had to get ingredients and mash them up and put them in a small tissue to smell." Robert

"I liked making Viking pots out of clay" Isabel

Maths: "In Maths this week, we have learning about fractions. We learnt about halves and quarters. We learnt about unit and non-unit fractions. Unit fractions always have a 1 as the numerator. Non-unit fractions always have a number bigger than one as their numerator." Luyanda

Literacy: "In Literacy this week, we started reading a new book - Varmints. The word 'varmints' means pest. We watched a short film based on the book." Kayleigh.

Harvest Festival: "This week we have been learning our songs in music. We have also practiced reading a poem." Amalia

4.10.18

Today is National Poetry Day. We are sharing our favourite poems in assembly this afternoon.

Click here to hear Mrs Waggeh's favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7pGb9VtQg

26.9.18

"This week in Kingfishers we have been learning about how sound travels through molecules. The further you go away from the source of the sound, the quieter it gets until it eventually disappears.

We have been writing a story similar to The Iron Man just with different characters and slightly different events.  We had to try and build suspense by using short sentences, lots of commas and questions."

Ryan H

In Woodpeckers, we have had success creating our educational maths games on Scratch! The children have worked hard to create and use variables to keep track of their scores and ask randomly generated multiplication questions. They then spent the afternoon testing each other's games and suggesting improvements.

21.09.2018

​​​​​​Swimming: What a success! All of the children gave their swimming lesson their very best this week and it was wonderful to see their confidence growing in the water.

Literacy: We have created an alternative character for the Iron Man! We then developed this further using a 'story mountain', considering the problem our character would cause, the semi-solution and its failure, and final resolution.

Maths: The children have really enjoyed learning about symmetry this week. We finished the week, looking at how to use reflection to create simple repeating patterns.

Woodpeckers have been learning how to create and code their own educational interactive game on Scratch using Computing. We learnt how to create variables and use the 'repeat' block to simplify our coding.

Kingfishers have continued exploring sound during Science. They have created 'ear bangers' using wire clothes hangers and explored how the sound can travel through string.

Spanish: This week we recapped greetings and responses.

19.09.2018

We have been learning all about symmetry this week! The children have explored identfying lines of symmetry, reflecting shapes and creating simple patterns using reflections.

The children are very excited as we draw closer to the end of The Iron Man! Today we read all about the Iron Man's challenge of strength against the Bat-Lizard-Space-Dragon. The children thought carefully about how both characters felt and created a storyboard to demonstrate this.

17.9.18

Year 4 have had an incredibly fun afternoon using the Now Press Play headsets. The children  pretended that they were Anglo-Saxons and were taken back in time to when the Vikings invaded. They used their listening skills plus their imagination to really get the most out of this experience. Photographs will be added to our pages later this week.

17.09.2018

As we enter our third week of term, it is wonderful to reflect on how much learning has already occurred. The children have approached Year 4 with great enthusiasm and are settling well to the routines and expectations.

In Literacy, we have begun reading Ted Hughes ‘The Iron Man.’ The children have studied the text in detail to explore how the author creates suspense (a feeling of anxiety or uncertainty about something unknown about to happen or become known). They have summarised the plot so far, and predicted what will happen next. This week, we will continue to explore the use of imagery within The Iron Man and use this within our own poetry.

In Maths, we have strengthened our understanding of place value in up to 4 digit numbers. We have developed our mental arithmetic using the bridging method to add or subtract without using more formal written methods. (See picture for an example piece of work)

In Theme, we have explored ‘Belonging’. We have worked in our new classes to create a class charter, explored what it means to belong and the groups we belong to. This week, we begin our new Theme, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. We will learn when and where the Vikings came from, and their impact on the UK.

The children have also had a very successful first Swimming lesson at Hemel Hempstead Leisure Centre! We are very much looking forward to returning next Thursday.

Welcome to the Year 4 blog! Kingfishers and Woodpeckers will be adding regular updates about their learning to this page. Enjoy!