Year 4 Newsletter

 Last week, Year 4 began publishing their Viking myths in preparation for the book launches we have coming up this week. Many children were able to show off their fantastic computing skills and enjoyed reading back through the fantastic stories they had created.

In our History lessons, we discussed the different legacies that the Viking's had left behind. We discovered that some of the words we use today were actually invented by the Vikings! Who knew that the words 'egg' and 'Thursday' were so old?

Our science lessons have involved us recapping the digestive system and talking about the different functions each organ has.

Year 4 Newsletter

 Wow, what a busy week it has been in Year 4!

Writing

We have just started writing our own Viking myths in our Writing lessons. It has been fantastic to see so many children's creativity come to life as they imagine themselves as a fearless Viking God or Goddess. We have discussed our striking features and why we are Gods that should worshipped by the Viking society!

Topic

Finding out about the Vikings has really inspired so many children in Year 4 and it has been wonderful to see so many of them immersed in this topic. We spent last week looking at Alfred the Great, discovering what made him great and how he unified the country between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Using freeze frames, we explored what Alfred's life might have been like and how he worked tirelessly to improve Britain. 

Science

Wow! This week Year 4 have been making poo! Yes.. Poo! We used everyday materials to create the digestive system and replicate the journey that food goes on when travelling through our bodies. We were amazed with how the children threw themselves into this experiment and many of them acted like true scientists. 

Year 4 Newsletter

What an amazing week it has been in Year 4!

Thank you to everyone who attended our exhibition of work on Friday. It was fantastic to see all of the hard work the children have done this year and how much amazing progress they have all made. We are all so proud of the children and their remarkable work!

Last week Year 4 were lucky enough to engage in a Forensic Science workshop. The children worked in groups, finding clues and putting them all together to uncover who committed the awful crime. 

In writing, the children have been writing a diary entry based on Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition. They have been using a variety of lenses from our Writing Rainbow, such as speech, similes   to create fantastic pieces of writing.

Well done Year 4 for all your fantastic work!

Year 4 Newsletter

 What a busy week it has been in Year 4!

On Tuesday Ben and Frida took to the stage at the Windhill21 Speech Evening - "We are all Changemakers". The quality of the children's speeches was impeccable and both of the Year 4 pupils went above and beyond with their performances. After such fantastic speeches from all year groups, Ben was named as the winner for Lower Key Stage 2. A huge well done to them both for such excellent and mature performances. 

In writing, the children have completed an independent write - crafting their own non-chronological report all about Leopard Seals and how they have adapted to the harsh climate in Antarctica. We were captivated by the shocking facts and the amazing adaptation's of this marvellous animal. It looks like we might just have the next David Attenborough at Windhill21. 

Rowling class also got to visit the homeless shelter on Tuesday morning. We asked lots of questions and gave the volunteers a brilliant supply of donations. Thank you so much for all your generous donations, they were hugely appreciated by the homeless shelter and they were overwhelmed by the donation of £85 raised by our fantastic clock faces.

Well done Year 4!

Year 4 Newsletter

Year 4 have been extremely busy over the last few weeks!

In writing we began our new speech unit where we are focussing on the extreme damage caused by air pollution. To help us write or speeches we researched about air pollution, only to uncover horrifying facts and figures. We then worked in pairs and trios to order the facts and think of fronted adverbials to use with them. The children have used their passion and concern on the topic to help craft their amazing speeches which they now will begin rehearsing (we cannot wait!).

In maths we have been learning about fractions and how we can spot them in everyday life, finding parts of different wholes all around us. This then helped us when learning about unit and non-unit fractions. The whole of Year 4 has been extremely motivated in this topic and have embodied all our agents here at Windhill21. Well done Year 4!

We were also lucky enough to be involved in the Festival of Literature, where we enjoyed our zoom calls with famous authors and illustrators. This even inspired some children to start writing their own novels or to illustrate their favourite book!

Big Ben Sketches

 This afternoon Year 4 became sketching artists and after studying the detail of Big Ben (The Elizabeth Tower) we had a go at sketching it.  At first we pressed very lightly with our pencils and used dots to show the rough dimensions of our sketches. Then, we started to add more and more detail to our drawings focusing on the outline shape before the actual clock face. 

We are so proud of the work we created - please find some examples below: 

Year 4 newsletter

 This week Year 4 have been very busy learning how to wash all sorts of unusual animals... we mimed the actions to washing an elephant, snake, snail, giraffe and a jellyfish!  Since then, we have been writing the instructions of how to wash a jellyfish. Warning.... never turn your back on the creature! 

In maths, we have been really focusing on our 9x table. We were taught the ‘hand trick’ to help us learn. If we haven’t shown you already, we will do so this week!  We have also been focusing on finding the factors of numbers in our maths lessons.  In doing this topic, we have realised how important it is that we know our times table facts!  

Finally, we started our new science topic, Sound!  With a guitar as the sound source, we became vibrating air particles that sent sound waves to Curtis’ ear (sorry Curtis!) 

Year 4 Newsletter

Year 4 have had an exciting and intriguing week at Windhill21. 

The children have shown great confidence when using column addition and subtraction in Maths, using their understanding of place value to complete tricky calculations. The children became detectives in maths when spotting mistakes and correcting them. They also adopted an open minded approach to find multiple answers to calculations when challenging themselves. 

Also, the children have been using drama techniques to explore the lives and jobs of Victorian children. This sparked an interesting discussion of how different life was for Victorian children compared to theirs. The children transferred this to their independent write. 

In Art the children have been exploring mark-marking techniques and using a variety of pencils to create different shades and tones. They have also discussed the artwork of L.S. Lowry and his use of perspective and colour to create paintings of London. 

Finally, a huge well done to Year 4 for another great week and for writing such fantastic diary entries as a matchstick girl.

Year 4 Newsletter

 Year 4 have had another very busy and exciting week! 

Retune

Year 4 were lucky enough to be visited by Retune, a wellbeing workshop. We were able to tune into our own mental wellbeing and used music and art as a creative outlet. We even got to write our own songs. 

Science

In science we are continuing to learn about electricity and circuits. To help our understanding we became a circuit passing around electrons (plastic balls) to make our bulb light up. We were also able to explore why a bulb might not light up. We then used our scientific knowledge to identify whether a light bulb would turn on or not when looking at circuits. 

English

This week in English we concluded our stories about the Blue umbrella and his adventure to find his true love. We used a variety of lenses and techniques from our writing rainbow and even developed editing our own work. A huge congratulations to all of Year 4 for the fantastic stories and for becoming amazing authors.

Maths

Maths has been great week of understanding and developing the skill of rounding. We have had great fun challenging ourselves by developing to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.