Year 4L

Welcome to Year 4L

Welcome to fantastic, fun, fabulous 4L!  In our class we relish a challenge and enjoy learning in all different types of ways.  We always strive to achieve success for all because we know that every child is a star.  We show this by bringing a positive attitude to our learning every day and by supporting and encouraging each other. 

We know that we are all different and that our differences make us special.  We value each other and demonstrate that in everything we do.

Keep reading to find out more.

Week Beginning 22nd April 2024

This has been a very busy, hard-working week for all the pupils in Year 4L!

In English, the pupils used the expanded noun phrases and preposition phrases we'd been practising to help them write fantastic extended writing character descriptions based on our book, Kensuke's Kingdom.  We have also begun looking at how to set out and write dialogue correctly, including accurate speech punctuation.  Next week's written work will include this and will be amazing!

Our Maths learning has continued to focus on the four written methods, especially multiplication and division.  The pupils have been challenged to apply these in reasoning and real-life problems.  They have responded well to this and thought carefully about how to answer the different questions they were asked.

Our PE sessions this week have focused on bowling and small practice games in cricket and how to run fast in athletics.  The children tried to: keep their heads facing forward, raise their knees high to generate power, pump their arms and run on the balls on their feet.  They all really felt the difference when they did this successfully!

In our Megacities topic in Geography, we focused on learning about Baghdad - the world's first 'megacity'.  We found out all about what made it such an important place.

In our DT, we built on last week's learning about how different food grows in different climates by focusing on seasonal food.

Science this week was about spotting dangers in the home when using electricity.  The class created some great leaflets about how to stay safe!

In our Music lesson, the class chose the song they will be learning for their ukulele performance later in the term.  They are getting excited about this already!

The pupils re-capped their learning of Spanish vocabulary for family members and then moved on to saying the alphabet in Spanish and using this to spell their names.  The class did really well at this!

In RE, the pupils learned all about the importance of the pilgrimage to Mecca (or 'hajj') for Muslims.  This was a great way to follow up from the class's visit to a mosque last week.

Below are some photos from this week's cricket lesson in PE and some freeze frames from our reading lessons on Kensuke's Kingdom.

Pupil of the week - 26th April 2024

Congratulations to our two wonderful pupils of the week: Alex and Vihaan.  Both boys always try their best in the learning and have demonstrated great resilience this week especially.  They are always so well-mannered and helpful to others.

Well done to both of you!

Week Beginning 15th April 2024

It has been an exciting first week back for 4L after our Easter break.  We all came back feeling refreshed and we hit the ground running!

One of the most enjoyable parts of the week was Tuesday morning because the class had their half-termly 'Muddy Monsters' session of forest school with Phil.  I have to say that I think this week's session was our best yet.  The den-building skills on show were very very impressive!  Each child had the opportunity to cook over a fire they had lit themselves.  They made tasty cheese and tomato folded wrap pizzas, each eating a delicious slice!

Tuesday afternoon held even more excitement for the class as they had the opportunity to watch and listen to our school's latest 'Rocksteady' concert performance.  Two pupils in our class (Jacob and Christine) were on stage for the first time and they did themselves (and their parents watching on) very proud!  What a lot of fun!

Another great part of our week was visiting a mosque in Newcastle along with the three other Lower Key Stage Two classes.  All the pupils did themselves proud listening to Brother Khadim explaining some key aspects of the Muslim faith and the role of the mosque.  The pupils also asked some very thoughtful questions.  It is so important to visit different places of worship and listen to people of different faiths as part of our Religious Education and Wednesday's visit was a very enriching and informative part of our learning.  

In addition to these exciting aspects of the week, the class worked hard all week long, getting back into the swing of our other subjects.  A great first week of the Summer Term!

Pupil of the Week - 19th April 2024

Congratulations to our two pupils of the week - Jagoda and Mia.  Both children have worked so hard all week long.  They are always polite and well-mannered, quietly showing resilience and determination to achieve their best every day.  They also show kindness to their friends at all times.  Well done girls!

Week Beginning 25th March 2024

This week has been a wonderful few days in Year 4L.

Our week got off to a great start as we had a full morning doing some fantastic 3D artwork with a real North-East based artist - Paul Raymond.  The children absolutely loved working with him to produce some great, abstract standing structures based on the theme of playgrounds.  They worked so efficiently in their groups to create some lovely pieces of work, remembering to consider negative and positive space.

This week, we also finished our PE units on tennis and dance.  The tennis lessons for this half term ended with a really fun tournament where the pupils could show off all their skills.  Our final dance session for this half term saw the class imagine how we could perform the role of bad magical characters through our dance movements.  The children then paired up to take turns casting their wicked spells on each other!  It was a lot of fun!

The class also completed their Science topic for the term with a lesson on the digestive system.  We all learned lots about the different stages of the system as food passes through the body.  There were lots of fantastic explanations in the children's books.

It was lovely to see all the entries for our Easter egg decorating competition come in this week.  Every entry was very inventive, fun to look at, and of a very high standard!  Mrs Jones was the judge and she had the difficult task of picking to winning entries per class.  She chose Drew's "Egg Sheeran" and Emily's science-themed creation.  Congratulations to both of them and a big 'well done' to everyone who took part.

Three lucky pupils in the class earned the right to choose a book from our book vending machine.  They have all impressed us with their attitude, effort and progress in reading.  Please have a look at our photos.  Well done Jagoda, Christine and Jacob!!

The final day of term was our usual 'Golden Day' with everyone enjoying their regular treats for great work and good behaviour: fun games in the hall, buying treats at the tuck shop, spending their well-earned 'In It to Win It' goodies and enjoying 'golden time' in the afternoon.

A lovely way to end the term.

We wish you all a fantastic break and look forward to seeing you all again when we come back.

Week Beginning 18th March 2024

Hello.  Please have a look at what our class has been doing this week.  

We have completed writing our fantastic playscripts this week.  We published our final versions in our Extended Writing books, focusing on our audience (KS1) and making sure what we wrote was entertaining.  We also included all the features of a playscript that we'd been learning about.  The stories were all on the theme of the 'Tinga Tinga Tales', such as 'Why Giraffe has a long neck'.

Our Maths learning this week has focused on money problems.  We continued to make use of the 'RUCSAC' strategy for answering these types of questions and remembered to 'line up the snowman's buttons' (decimal points), when answering the calculations.

In PE, we had another great session with our tennis  coach.  Indoors, our PE lesson this week was all about developing our pair work in our 'magical-themed' dance movements.  We have particularly looked at how we could demonstrate 'flow' in our movements, looking and commenting on each other's work so that we could improve our movements.

Our Science learning this week has focused on teeth:  the different teeth that we have - and their different roles.  We also created brilliant leaflet designs all about what we must do to look after our teeth.  Lots of the class told me that they went home to share the good advice we'd been learning about!

We have learned all about how different locations around the world can be affected in different ways by earthquakes of the same magnitude or strength.  We are also now experts on what causes a volcano to be formed, where these can be found and why.

In Computing we now have a good understanding of some of they key components found inside a computer.  We had a fun task to demonstrate how a CPU and GPU communicate to create an image on the screen and we completed a scavenger hunt to help us understand the different functions of parts of a computer!

Our Music lessons with Mr Parkin continue to be lots and lots of fun.  Our skills on the ukuleles have been improving so much and we all really enjoy the way Mr Parkin teaches us.  

Our Spanish lesson this week focused on body parts.  We played Simon Says in Spanish and had fun with a new song too.  

In PSHE, the class were fantastic at learning and understanding what to do in a medical emergency - including what to look for, how to ask for help and how to reassure the person who is unwell.  Their acting skills in their role plays were fantastic!!

In our Art, we continued to develop our skills in creating free-standing sculptures using a range of techniques, ready for our artist visitor next week.

Here are a selection of photos from this lesson.

Pupil of the Week - 22nd March 2024

Congratulations to our two lovely Pupil of the Week winners - Faith and Cassidy!

Faith has had yet another fabulous week.  She always has such lovely manners and lately has become more and more confident working independently and confidently!  Great job Faith!

Cassidy is another superstar when it comes to manners - he is such a polite young man!  Lately he has also developed his resilience and determination even when the work gets challenging.  Well done Cassidy!!

Week Beginning 11th March 2024

Hello.  Here's a little overview of our week in Year 4L.  

We have continued to do some fantastic playscript work this week.  Everyone has tried to really hard to make their writing suit its purpose (playscript) and to reflect its audience (KS1 children).  There have been some very entertaining ideas!

Our Maths learning this week has been all about problem solving and reasoning.  We have challenged ourselves to prove why statements are true or false (or in some cases just true some of the time!)  Everyone's effort in Maths this week has been very impressive.

In PE, we have enjoyed developing our tennis skills outdoors with our PE coach.  This week's lesson focused on learning how to do an underarm serve.  Our indoor PE lesson this week we have created movements that reflect the movement of feathers, floating through the air - and then being controlled by magic, under a spell!  It has been a lot of fun!

Our Science learning this week has focused on teeth:  the different teeth that we have - and their different roles.  We also learned how and why animals' teeth are not the same as ours.  To help us remember the different types of teeth in our mouths, we had fun making a set of teeth with play dough!  Finally, we were lucky enough to have a streamed dental care session from experts who could show us how to look after our teeth.

We have learned all about what causes the earthquakes that happen in New Zealand in Geography and have presented our knowledge in an information text in our Geography books.

In Computing we have begun to learn about what is inside a computer!  The children have been fascinated by what we have learned so far.

Our Music lessons with Mr Parkin continue to be lots and lots of fun.  Our skills on the ukuleles have been improving so much and we all really enjoy the way Mr Parkin teaches us.  

Our Spanish lesson this week focused on the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.  We looked at his artwork - in particular his work on faces.  This was a perfect way to help us develop or language skills describing faces.

Here are a few photos of our week.

Pupils of the week - March 15th 2024

We are super proud of our pupils of the week.  This time, our two winners are Oyaus and Christine.

Oyaus always works hard at sharing his ideas and contributing to the class discussions.  We are all so impressed with how much he wants to learn and ask questions.

Christine has impressed us this week with her handwriting.  We have seen beautiful presentation in all her books.  Not only this, but she has also really grown in confidence lately and we are all so impressed with her.

Well done both!

Week Beginning 4th March 2024

It's been another exciting, hardworking and enjoyable week in 4L.  

There has been some fantastic writing of playscripts this week.  Everyone has tried to really hard to make their writing enjoyable to read and also useful as a playscript, by including stage directions in brackets.

Our Maths learning this week has been all about statistics.  I have been so impressed with how the class have drawn accurate bar charts and line graphs using data we collected ourselves.

In PE, we have continued developing our tennis skills outdoors and during our indoor PE time we have created movements that flow and are entertaining to represent magical characters metamorphosing between being human and then small or large imaginary magical creatures.  It has been a lot of fun!

Our Science learning this week has focused on understanding how interconnected our natural world is by understanding what food webs represent.  It has been quite challenging, but definitely very interesting!!

We have learned all about the intensity of earthquakes in New Zealand in Geography, focusing on mapping the epicentres of many major earthquakes in the country and looking for patterns.

Our Spanish learning has focused on describing faces.  We had to draw and write about some faces.  The pupils also joined in with a rhyme to help them learn the vocabulary.  They did a great job!

Thursday was World Book Day, which worked out perfectly for us as we went to Gateshead Library that day!  Mark was very friendly and helpful, teaching us how to file books away correctly and helping us to choose some new books.  It was a great visit, as always!

We celebrated World Book Day in school on Friday, which meant that we did lots of different things!  These included: a BBC 'live lesson' about genres of books, designing bookmarks, listening to a couple of books being read to us, enjoying the 'World Book Day' song, guessing who 'The Masked Readers' were (and which book character they were reading).  We also put the finishing touches to our Mother's Day cards.  What a fun day!

Here are a few photos of our week.

Pupils of the Week - 8th March 2024

Congratulations to our fabulous pupils of the week:  Nickan and Trang.

It's so great having Nickan in our class.  He always has lots of fantastic ideas to share with the class in all kinds of lessons and that really helps everyone to learn!  In addition, Nickan always has wonderful, polite manners with all the staff and children.

Trang also deserves a lot of praise for her effort in all subjects.  Whatever we are learning, she always tries so hard because she is determined to achieve her absolute best in everything we do.

Well done to both of you!

Week Beginning 26th February 2024

We have had a very busy and varied first week back for what is now the second half of Year 4!

Tuesday morning was a real treat for us as we had our half-termly 'Muddy Monsters' slot with Phil.  He taught the children how to use flint and steel to create sparks safely that could light a fire.  Our forest school skills continue to develop.  The children enjoyed learning through creative, team-building, play activities, including making a swing and creating ramps for toy cars.

Later that day, we continued to develop our tennis skills in PE.  The difference between last half term and this is that we now are lucky enough to have a tennis coach to teach the sessions, so I am sure that our skills will progress fantastically over the next few weeks!

We moved on in our Science topic to learn all about food chains and we are now experts on the terms: producer, consumer, predator, prey, omnivore, herbivore and carnivore.

This week's Art lesson was a lot of fun as we began to explore ways to attach different pieces of card without using any other resources.  We had to be very creative and imaginative to make our simple 3D standing structures!

In English we began to learn all about the features of a playscript and we put these into action by using and improving on some simple scripts to create fun performances of traditional tales!

Our Maths learning this week has focused on time.  We have re-capped on analogue time-telling and looked at how to convert this into digital time (both 12 and 24 hour).  The children have made fab progress this week!

On Friday morning, the whole school was lucky enough to have a special visitor who inspired us to carry out some thought-provoking workshops on the theme of kindness.  We all enjoyed the task and the quizzes and learned a lot!

It has been a brilliant week!

Week Beginning 12th February 2024

It's been an exciting final week of the first half of Spring Term for all the pupils in 4L.

We completed our pneumatic toys and had lots of fun making their mouths open and shut!  When we evaluated our products we all felt that they had been a great success but could also point out areas for development.  

We came to the end of our Computing topic this week.  We can clearly see that we now know lots more about how to send and receive emails, and how to identify fake or dangerous emails.  This builds on last week's learning for Safer Internet Day.

On Monday, we completed our challenging investigation work into measuring the perimeter of sections of our playground to see if we could make some changes to it.  It was great to apply our knowledge in a real-life situation.

Thursday saw us enjoy an afternoon of reading for pleasure in our 'Reading Cafe'.  We had a relaxing and enjoyable time reading our own and each other's books as well as books from school, as we drank squash and ate biscuits.  There were also a great many trades of books between the children with our 'book swap'.  Three children in our class who have impressed myself, Mrs Herbert and Miss Bailes with their reading have also 'bought' a book for free from our book vending machine!  (See photo)

The final event of Thursday was our Whole School Behaviour Assembly, where we recognised every class's efforts this half term.  I am very proud to say that 4L was full of Platinum awards along with just a few Gold awards.  We're aiming for Platinum all round next time!

Friday was our Golden Day when the children are rewarded for their efforts over the half term.  The tuck shop was as popular as ever, as well as the 'In It To Win It' shop where lots of toys and treats were 'bought' along with fun experiences across the school such as the Vex Robotics, crafts, dancing and more!!

We hope the children have a fun half term and get plenty of rest before returning for Spring 2!

Week beginning 5th February 2024

We have had a brilliant week in Year 4L this week.  As ever, we have worked very hard across our many subjects, helping and encouraging our friends along the way.

This week has been Children's Mental Health week and Tuesday was Safer Internet Day.  We have learned a lot about showing kindness to others and how good this is for our wellbeing, as well as how to stay safe online.

In English this week, everyone has written a fantastic, fairy-tale based newspaper report.  We have remembered to include key features such as a 5 Ws introduction, key events, quotes and a conclusion.  Great work everyone!

Our Maths lessons this week have moved on to calculating area and then using this knowledge to investigate patterns and links between area and perimeter.  We enjoyed using our problem solving skills this week.

In our DT topic about making pneumatic toys we have continued making our toys look smart with lots of fun features.  Next week they will be finished and working!

In our Science we had a very energetic lesson increasing our heart rate and then comparing it to its resting rate.  We challenged ourselves to record our results on a line graph and then interpret what it tells us.

Our PE this week has continued to focus on movements of the body that convey different characters and personalities.  Outdoors, we have developed our tennis skills further and are becoming more proficient with striking the ball (forehand) with control.

In History we have looked at artefacts found in a 'cist', a Bronze Age burial chamber, to find out what it tells us about the person that was buried there.  We love being budding archaeologists!

In Computing this week, we have focused on being kind and safe online.

In Music this week, we sang our fantastic anti-bullying song.  

In addition to this, we had a visitor speak to us about her faith - Hinduism.  The children all listened beautifully and asked some very thoughtful and challenging questions!

Next week will be another exciting week!

Pupil of the week - 9th February 2024

Congratulations to our two pupils of the week: Julia and Rian.

Both children are always super polite and respectful - just how we expect our children to be here.  They are wonderful role models in their work ethic and their presentation in their books too.  If the teachers could, these two could be chosen by them every week!

Great job Rian and Julia!

Week beginning 29th January 2024

In English this week, the pupils have continued to work on newspaper report features, including quotes and headlines. We have also role-played presenting a news story to each other to help us think about the language we need to use.  It was a lot of fun!

Our Maths lessons this week have focused on measuring and calculating perimeter.  We applied our skills out on our playground, trying to solve some challenging problems!

In our DT topic about making pneumatic toys we reached an exciting stage where we have begun to decorate our pneumatic toys.  They are beginning to look very colourful!!

Science this week has been all about muscles working in pairs to make us move.  We have particularly focused on biceps and triceps, making models to show how they work.

Our PE this week has continued to focus on movements of the body that convey different characters and personalities.  Outdoors, we have developed our tennis skills further and are becoming more proficient with striking the ball (forehand) with control.

Our History this week has given us an opportunity to use our skills as archaeologists to look at what certain clues tell us about a fascinating Bronze Age site in Devon.

In Computing this week, we again had the opportunity to send emails to each other.  Moving on from last week, we now know how to attach documents to emails we send and understand why people might need to do this.

In Music this week, we continued learning a new song which has an anti-bullying theme.  We had lots of fun singing the parts.  We are getting better and better at some of the rapping - which is quite a challenge!!

After all of that busy-ness, we are ready for the weekend!

Pupil of the Week - 2nd February 2024

Congratulations to our two pupils of the week: Emily and Marcus!

Emily has been a superstar this week - as she ALWAYS is.  Emily has worked hard in every single lesson, pushing herself to achieve her absolute best all the time.  Her manners have been up to the usual impeccable standard we expect.  Great effort Emily!

Marcus has had a brilliant week.  All week long, he's had his hand up to share his ideas and they have been very good ideas because he has listened so well.  His effort in his written work has also been great.  Good job Marcus!

Week beginning 22nd January 2024

In English this week, the pupils re-wrote their own fantastic versions of 'After the Fall', describing Humpty's changing emotions at varying stages throughout the story.  We have also begun looking at features of newspaper reports.

Our Maths lessons this week have focused on co-ordinates and translation.  The children have been fantastic at understanding this topic!!

In our DT topic about making pneumatic toys we began have been drawing our designs as thumbnails, exploded diagrams and detailed diagrams.

This week's Science has seen the class focusing on the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates, looking at features and examples.

Our PE this week has focused on movements of the body that convey different characters and personalities.

Our History this week has been an opportunity to explore what a monument is and what its purpose is.  This has included looking at some local ones such as Grey's Monument and the Millennium Bridge.

We really enjoyed Computing this week as we had the opportunity to send emails to each other.  We now understand a bit more about their purpose and how they work.

In Music this week, we continued learning a new song which has an anti-bullying theme.  We had lots of fun singing the parts.

As you can see, it has been a very busy week!

Pupil of the Week - 26th January 2024

Congratulations to both Drew and Elli!  Drew has had a great week, enthusiastically challenging himself in his learning all week long, as well as picking up on 'deliberate' mistakes on the board!  Elli has been her usual superstar self this week.  She is always keen to do jobs, always smiley and most importantly she ALWAYS gives 100% in every lesson.

Well done to both of you!

Week Beginning 15th January 2024

Well, this has been a very exciting and eventful week in Year 4L.  Our class so lucky to have had some fun experiences this week.

Firstly, on Tuesday afternoon, it was our turn to do 'Muddy Monsters' with Phil.  We had VERY chilly weather for the afternoon but this did not stop us from having a great time.  We learned how to whittle will sticks to a point and we built swings and made 'chocolate' in the mud kitchen.  There were plenty of other games and activities to keep us busy too.  At the end of our session, Phil lit a fire for us and we were all able to toast a marshmallow each safely, and, of course, eat it!

On Thursday morning, we also had something special happen in our class.  We had a history expert from Durham University come to speak to us all about prehistoric times.  We played games and learned how to be a historian by handling real artefacts and developing sensible ideas about what the items could be.  It was a treat to have a real expert with us who could explain lots about the past and how inspiring it is to become an expert at university in a chosen subject.  

In addition to this, we also did some great learning this week, focusing on properties of shape in Maths, building tension in our writing in English, inference in our reading, why we need bones in Science, how to send e-mails in Computing, etc. etc!!

Here is a selection of photos from the week.

Pupil of the Week - 19th January 2024

Congratulations to both Aminah and Oscar!  They were both chosen for their fantastic attitude during Muddy Monsters this week.  Their enthusiasm, co-operation, listening skills, determination and sense of fun really meant that they got the absolute maximum out of their session.  Great job!!

Week Beginning 8th January 2024

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  

It's 2024 and our second term has started off with a bang.  We have hit the ground running with new topics and hard work galore!  Read on for an overview of the highlights of our week.

In English this week, we have been learning how to write some fantastic sentences using subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions.  This has enabled us to vary our sentence types when we've been writing Humpty Dumpty's diary entry after he fell off the wall, based on the excellent book, "After the Fall".

Our Maths lessons this week have focused on properties of shapes and we are now much more confident at using language such as: " acute, obtuse, right angle, parallel, perpendicular, lines of symmetry, etc."

Our new DT topic is going to be all about making pneumatic toys and this week we began by exploring what we know about words such as 'pneumatic', 'mechanism', and 'energy'.

This week's Science has seen the class focusing on what makes us healthy, focusing especially on the different food groups and how they help our bodies, as well as ensuring that we eat a balanced diet.

PE this week has been an opportunity to develop some of the skills needed to play tennis; in particular, we have practised throwing and catching accurately, striking the ball with control (forehand) and trying to get rallies going.  It has certainly been an opportunity to develop new skills!!

Continuing the theme of beginning new topics, in History this week we have moved on in time from our previous topic: The Stone Age, to look at the transition from that period into the Bronze Age.  We were fascinated to find out how people at this time made bronze from copper and tin!  We thought carefully about the impact that this change would have had on people's lives by looking at artefacts from the time.

In Music this week, we began learning a new song which has an anti-bullying theme.  We focused on different instruments used in the song and the different elements of the song's structure (chorus, verse, instrumental solo, etc.)  The class had to find the pulse and clap back patterns along to the song.

This week's Spanish was mainly an opportunity to look back at our learning on colours.  We had to do some 'colour Maths' this week, which tested our knowledge of colour mixing as well as our previous learning of Spanish colours!!

As you can see, it has been a very busy week!

Pupil of the week - 12th January 2024

Congratulations to our fantastic pupils of the week.  They are Jayden and Jacob.  We celebrate our pupils of the week in our Friday assemblies, but unfortunately neither of this week's pupils were in for the certificate today so we have no happy photo to share with you this time!

Jacob was chosen because he is someone who is always keen to share his great, imaginative ideas, thoughtful questions and impressive subject knowledge with the class.  It is so good to have him sharing these with us as everyone in the class benefits.  Keep it up Jacob!

In 4L we are so proud of Jayden.  He joined us early in the year and was quite shy and since then he has made so much progress coming out of his shell and working hard.  His English has improved so much and he has become such a well-liked member of our class.  What a fantastic effort Jayden!

Week Beginning 18th December 2023

What a fun and exciting week we have had in Year 4L!  

On Tuesday, we joined with the whole school for a fantastic and festive Carol Concert at St George's Church.  It put all of us in a very Christmassy mood and was a lovely way to spend the morning.

On Wednesday morning, our entrants to the Brighton's Got Talent competition, Aminah and Julia sang their song beautifully!  We are very proud of them.  The whole occasion was a great success with wonderful performers to enjoy from throughout the school, as well as some very entertaining judges!

Wednesday was also the day for the Year 3 and 4 Christmas party.  There were plenty of fun games with lots of prizes to be won.  In addition, there was some wonderful dancing from all four classes.  Finally, the pupils enjoyed plenty of delicious party food and drink.

This week, the whole school had their behaviour assembly and I have to say that I am very proud of the behaviour of everyone in our class.  We were able to celebrate the excellent attitude and application of our pupils.  Well done everyone!

Another celebration this week was for fantastic achievement and progress in reading this term.  Three lucky pupils got to use a token to select a book from our special book vending machine!  (See the photos!)

Friday was our 'Golden Day'.  Along with all the other classes, we have enjoyed the opportunity for fun games in the hall, spending our 'in it to win it' points and popping along to the tuck shop for some tasty treats.  Some of us also had earned enough points to do some fun activities with other teachers - such as football and arts and crafts.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday, celebrating and resting.  We look forward to seeing you all safe and sound in January.

Merry Christmas!

Week Beginning 11th December 2023

Well it's been another varied and exciting week for Year 4L this week. 

We have created some fantastic 'book sleeves' in our 'fastenings' unit in DT.  This developed our needlework skills and helped us to consider a range of fastening options for the purpose of our design.  Have a look at our colourful designs!

We have spent a lot of time this week using the laptops to build our coding skills.  To do this we have used Scratch and collaborated with partners to create our own Maths quizzes.  We now know how to add variables to our code so that our sprite can ask and remember the player's name and tell the player whether their answer are right or wrong.  In addition, the children can add code that will keep a track of the scores in the games they create.  Fantastic work everyone!!

In PE, the pupils put together their own performances, containing balances, rolls and bridges.  In our dodgeball lesson, the pupils had great fun playing a new 'dragons and dragon slayers' game.  We adapted the game as we went along to make it more competitive and evenly balanced.  It was great fun!

In Science, we continued to explore evaporation with an investigation to test out a variable that we thought could affect the rate of evaporation.

We all enjoyed the Rock Steady concert this week too.  This had fantastic performances from lots of pupils across the school as well as some of our super-talented teachers!!

Please take a look at our photos...

Pupil of the Week - 15th December 2023

Congratulations to both of our two wonderful pupils of the week: Oyaus and Sienna-Rose.  They have both been super impressive this week.  We have been working on creating 'book sleeves' with fastenings in DT - developing our sewing skills.  Oyaus has revealed himself to be a fantastic needle threader, as well as generally being a brilliant hard worker all week long, especially in our Computing work.  Sienna-Rose has also shared her fantastic sewing skills this week, helping lots of her classmates who were finding the tasks challenging.  What a kind young lady!  Well done to both children!

Week beginning 4th December 2023

It has been quite a different kind of week in Year 4 this week.  We have been busy showing off our knowledge on our end of term assessments.  Everybody has worked hard to do their absolute best.  Great job!  In our class, we have also learned lots in Science and DT.

Here are some highlights:

PE - This week in Gymnastics, we challenged ourselves to complete some tricky balances.  Take a look at some of our photos!  In our dodgeball lesson, we tried out some fun new games which included treasure, pirates and the navy!

Science - we have had a very busy time in science this week, learning all about the water cycle and water changing state. If you look at the photos you will see an investigation we did on our class window!

DT - We have begun thinking about and planning our designs for our 'book sleeves', exploring different types of fastenings and making a prototype version of our designs.

Geography - This week we compared the climate in Florida and the UK, focusing on data from Miami and London.  We considered precipitation, rainfall and sunlight.  Many of us thought that, despite the heavy rain, the warmth and the sunlight made Miami more appealing!

Music - In this week's music lesson, our class have continued their learning of a festive tune on glockenspiels, ukuleles and the keyboard!  Mr Parkin said this was our best week yet!

Pupil of the Week - 8th December 2023

Well done to Marky and Jagoda for being our class's pupils of the week.  Their effort in our assessments this week has been fantastic, as has their manners and politeness within the class.

Both children truly deserve the recognition they had today.  Congratulations to them both!!

Week beginning 27th November 2023

In Year 4L we have had a fantastic week and have begun to feel festive already, having made some beautiful Christmas cards to take home and with many of us having lots of festive fun at the school Christmas fair after school on Wednesday.  Read on to find out more about our week.

Here are some highlights:

PE - This week in Gymnastics, our coach - Hannah, was helping us to focus on improving our 'connections' transitioning between different movements.  In our dodgeball lesson, we were improving our aiming, throwing and catching skills.  We used them in a fun new game.

Spanish - This week we used the language we've learned about birthdays to create our very own party invitations.

Writing/English - This week has been a poetry week, with a focus on rhyming patterns and similes.  In addition, we have developed our performance skills to bring some of the poems we've looked at to life, using excellent tips from Michael Rosen.

Reading - to link with our poetry topic, we have looked at an exciting poem about an island that seems calm and peaceful at first but develops into something a little more sinister!  Again, we have used our performance skills to bring the ideas in the poem to life.

Maths - This week we have had a focus on written division methods and written problems.  We have worked hard to put our times table knowledge into practice!!  We have also had a bit of a practice and refresher of some of the new things we've learned so far in Year 4 ready for our upcoming assessments.

Geography - Since our topic has a focus on Florida, we have looked at hurricanes and how they affect the state.  We learned all about what the people there do to stay safe in the event of a hurricane, making lovely leaflets full of advice.

Music - In this week's music lesson, our class have been learning to play a festive tune on glockenspiels, ukuleles and the keyboard!  We are sounding better each week!

Pupils of the week - 1st December 2023

Congratulations to our two pupils of the week, who have both shone in our class this week.

Sorena has been showing more and more independence in his learning and he helps his classmates at his table whenever he can.

Rian never fails to display polite manners, kindness to others and a hardworking, conscientious attitude to all of his learning.

Well done to both of you!  We are really proud to have you in our class!

Week beginning 20th November 2023

In Year 4L we have had a varied and busy week with lots of fantastic learning!

Here are some highlights:

PE - In gymnastics, we built on last week's skills to create routines in small groups.  In our dodgeball lesson, we focused on our aiming and accuracy, and we also began to learn a new game - it was lots of fun!!

Spanish - This week we focused on language around birthdays.  We have been using a great animated programme to help us learn.  We have really enjoyed it!

Writing - we have worked our way towards writing a fantastic narrative extract (today) based on our favourite part of 'Leon and the Place Between'.  We have included lots of great descriptive ideas and have improved our use of punctuation so much!

Reading - we have continued to enjoy reading 'Leon and the Place Between'.  We have responded to the text with freeze frames, drama and sharing our ideas with each other.

Maths - This week we have had a focus on written multiplication methods and written problems.  We have worked hard to put our times table knowledge into practice!!

Geography - This week we have been answering the question: what is a peninsula?  Using the atlases, we have located many of them around the world, using grid references.

Music - In this week's music lesson, we worked on our understanding of musical notation and played the tune on glockenspiels and a keyboard.  Our playing is really coming along!

We are looking forward to next week's school Christmas Fayre on 29th November.  See you there!

Pupils of the week 24th November 2023

A massive congratulations to Jacob and Christine for being chosen as our pupils of the week.  They have impressed us so much for different reasons.  Christine has shown fantastic resilience and determination in her learning.  She is trying so hard in every subject and responds so well to feedback and support from teachers.  On top of this, she is always super-polite and friendly to everyone in the class.

Jacob has had a great week.  His effort and application has been exactly what we expect of him and his contributions to the class discussions have been so good and helped others in the class to extend their learning too!  Fab job, both of you.

Week beginning 13th November 2023

We have had a wonderful week in Year 4L!

Here are some highlights:

PE - practising a range of rolls, incorporating different gymnastics equipment to challenge ourselves; developing our throwing and dodging skills in our first dodgeball lesson of this half term - it was lots of fun!!

Computing - we had fun playing a coding game and then reminded ourselves of some of the key skills we'd learned in year 3.

Writing - we did a great job of understanding the rules of how to set out speech, as well as how to make it interesting with lovely descriptive details

Reading - we continued to enjoy reading our text 'Leon and the Place Between' and thinking about some of main characters and key events of the story so far.

Maths - we have looked at written problems this week and also inverse operations.  We certainly needed to show perseverance and resilience in our tasks!!

Geography - This week, we focused on what is meant by differing standards of living and how this varies around the world.

On Friday, we enjoyed dressing in non-uniform in order to raise money for a good cause: Children in Need.

Pupils of the Week!

Congratulations to Mia and Oscar.

This week we have been so proud of their efforts.  Both children absolutely deserve their recognition.  Oscar has been fantastic in becoming more independent within his learning and Mia has shown her calm, hard-working and well-mannered attitude to learning - as she always does!!

Well done to both of you!

Week Beginning 6th November 2023

Well our first week back has picked up where we left off from before the holidays!  We've had a busy and exciting week starting off our new topics for this half term.  In Maths, the focus has been on the formal written methods for column addition and subtraction and there has been great progress already in just the few days we've had this week.  In English we have begun looking at our new text, 'Leon and the Place Between'.  We have looked at how to use short sentences to create a feeling of suspense.  This half term we have a Geography focus and this week we started looking at the US state of Florida, finding its position on a map in our atlases and comparing its position with ours here in the UK, using compass points and grid references.  Our learning in music took a new focus, looking at how music is written.  The children have taken on a lot of new information already!  

This week, our pupils also had the opportunity to enjoy a morning of 'Muddy Monsters', which developed their outdoor learning skills further.  In PE, we learned and developed our skills in performing a range of rolls in a controlled way.  

Along with the rest of the school, we took part in a two minutes' silence of remembrance, which was beautifully observed.  We stood alongside the 'poppy field' that the whole school had put together this week.

Pupils of the week!  10th November 2023

This week we are proud to say that our two pupils of the week are the two newest members of our class:  Cassidy and Dolcyny.  They have both impressed us with their resilience, good manners and enthusiasm to adapt to a new school, new class, new friends and new staff members.  

Well done to both of them,  We are very proud of you!

Week Beginning 23rd October 2023

What an eventful week we've had this week in 4L!  As we came to the end of our first half term in Year 4, we were in the mood to celebrate this first part of the year.  This included our school's harvest celebration at Alive church on Monday morning.  We enjoyed everyone's performances and were proud of our own rendition of 'It's Harvest Time'.  Other teachers commented on how they were impressed with the actions we added into our performance.  A lot of this week has focused on our Art topic of prehistoric art.  We looked at real examples of Stone Age art, discussing the techniques, methods and materials that must have been used.  We experimented with different resources that we found naturally in our Forest School area, seeing what marks they made and deciding which ones worked well or not.  We also developed our line drawing skills and made our own choices of animal that we found in our natural environment to paint. 

The highlight of our week was undoubtedly our visit to the Hancock Museum.  In our workshop session, we learned all about different types of rock, using lenses used by real geologists to observe and classify them.  Our tutor was impressed with our knowledge from this term's Science lessons.  We also enjoyed exploring different parts of the museum - completing scavenger hunts and activities.  I was super-impressed with the class's enthusiasm, curiosity and manners as we moved around the museum looked at the exhibits.

Fun Friday was a fabulous success with pupils enjoying their well-earned fun activities to round off a brilliant first half term of year 4.

Enjoy your half term holiday!

Week beginning 16th October 2023

It feels like this week has been our busiest yet in 4L!  Our Gymnastics learning continues to develop, as we worked in pairs and small groups to move our learning on about creating bridges in a sequence that flows.  In our other weekly PE slot we have put our basketball skills to use by holding a fun, competitive mini tournament.  It was great to see those skills on show.

Our ukulele playing continues to come along really well and it was great to see new pupils making a huge effort to pick up the basics and catch up with other class members.  In our Computing lesson this week, we have learned what the purpose of a router is and how it is used in different locations.
 

Our writing this week has focused on showing off what we have been learning about the Stone Age in history.  We have written some fantastic non-chronological reports, implementing many features and vocabulary that we have picked up along the way.  Our Spanish lesson this week built on last week's focus on birthdays and we've definitely made some progress over the two lessons!!

Finally, we have managed to squeeze in some time to practise our Harvest song for Monday's celebration at church.  We can't wait to perform it!

Have a look at our photos to discover more!

Pupil of the Week - 20th October 2023

Congratulations to our two pupils of the week:  Julia and Alex.

Julia always comes to school with a smile on her face and works hard throughout the day - every day!  She loves to have extra responsibilities and do jobs around the classroom.  Her work is always beautifully presented and she is always willing to help any children if they're finding something a little tricky.  What a role model!

Alex is another member of the class who loves extra responsibilities.  He also is someone who always shows a keen interest in all of our subjects and shares fabulous and thoughtful ideas with the class.  Great job Alex!

Congratulations to Nickan and Vihaan, who were our pupils of the week this week.  They have both shown imagination and creativity in their ideas this week and are both always keen to contribute and share ideas, making them both fantastic assets to our class!

Well done to both of you.

Week beginning 9th October 2023

It has been another busy week in 4L full of lots of exciting learning.  For example, in Gymnastics our children made some clever bridges in groups.  In our other weekly PE slot we have continued to develop our skills, focusing this week on defending and marking, followed by implementing these skills in small-sided games.  

I was so proud of the class this week as Mr Parkin told me that this was 4L's best week yet in their Ukulele lessons!   Fantastic!

We have had a special focus this week on looking after our wellbeing as part of our learning for Mental Health Day.  Some of our photos show you the activities we have done.  In history we looked at genuine historical artefacts to discover how archaeologists would use them to learn about the past.  Our Spanish lesson this week was focusing on birthdays as a way of learning the vocabulary for days, numbers and months.  It was quite challenging, but we are definitely improving!!

Have a look at our photos to discover more!

Pupil of the Week - 4th October 2023

A huge well done to Drew and Trang who are this week's pupils of the week in Year 4L.  Drew had a fantastic week, making good behaviour choices and sharing lots of great ideas in all of his learning.  We are very impressed with him!

Trang has worked hard all week long, always going the extra mile in every lesson and also sharing lots of great ideas throughout the week.  Well done Trang!

Week Beginning - 2nd October 2023

It's been another great (and busy!) week in Year 4L.   The children have continued to develop their gymnastics skills with Hannah.  Mr Parkin was very impressed with our ukulele playing this week, commenting on our progress compared to previous weeks. 

We hope you enjoy looking at some of our action photos from this week's gymnastics and basketball lessons in PE!

In our Stone Ages topic in History this week, we learned about some very old footprints that we discovered in Norfolk and used our historian skills to make good suggestions about what the people there could or could not have been doing. In Maths, we looked at how the Roman Numeral system works.

We also completed our unit of work on 'How to Skin a Bear' by writing our own versions of one of the chapters; adding imaginative details throughout.  Great work Year 4!

National Poetry Day - On the Move Again

For National Poetry Day 2023, we spent time looked at a poem called 'On the Move Again' by MIchael Rosen.

We explored its themes and what it meant to us.  We also considered how Michael Rosen performed it and then practised our own performances of it.  As a class, we recorded our performance for you to enjoy.

Multiplication Tables Check Meeting

A big thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to attend our meeting this afternoon. It was so lovely to see so many of you. If you were unable to attend, please find the information that was shared below. Your child will also bring home a paper copy of the information for you to read. If you have any questions or concerns about the MTC, please speak to a member of the Year 4 team. 

Pupil of the Week - 27.09.23

A huge well done to Darius and Jayden who are this week's Pupils of the Week. Jayden has settled in extremely well to life at Brighton Avenue and we couldn't be prouder of hard he has worked. Darius has settled when into life in Year 4. He has shown manners and a determination to be the best he can possibly be. Well done you two!

Week Beginning - 26th September 2023

This week, we have continued to shine like the stars we are! From scoring 10 out of 10 with Parkin in our ukulele lesson, to being incredible archaeologists in History, we are still maintaining those incredible high standards and work ethic! Well done all of you!

In Maths, we discovered number sequences and learned how to complete them by finding the rule. We learned about the 25 times table and how we can spot patterns in even the biggest of sequences. We then used our reasoning skills to explain how we knew certain answers could or could not be true. In English, we put into practise everything we have been learning about so far in our narrative writing. We learned how to use a range of conjunctions to extend our ideas and give more information to the reader. We then used short sentences to keep the reader on the edge of their seats. 

Week Beginning - 18th September 2023

It's been another busy week in Year 4L this week. In their writing, the children have been using expanded noun phrases and adverbs to add detail and description to their writing about storms.

In Maths, we have been focusing on place value in 3 or 4 digit numbers and have worked on reasoning questions on this topic to test our understanding.  In Science, we learned more about different types of rocks and how they are formed in the Rock Cycle. 

We had a fantastic start to the week with our Muddy Monsters session with Phil. We learned how to work collaboratively in a team and spent time doing our favourite activities, such as den-building and being creative in the mud kitchen. In Spanish, we revised the vocabulary for numbers up to 31, days of the week and months of the year.  As usual, we had a fantastic session with our gymnastics coach, who taught us how to create bridges with our bodies. Please enjoy our photos, highlighting some of the best bits of our week.

What a great week in 4L!!

Pupil of the Week - 20th September 2023

A huge congratulations to Emily and Elli - our pupils of the week.

Both children truly deserve their awards as they always show determination and resilience to do their best in all subject areas,  They have set a great example this week.

Well done to both of you!

Week Beginning 11th September 2023

In Year 4L this week, we began our Maths and English learning and we also began our foundation subjects across the curriculum. In English, we learned how to begin our sentences fronted adverbials, including a comma. We used amazing sentences to describe a Stone Age village, as well as many amazing adjectives.  In Maths, ordered and compared four digit numbers.  We also learned how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000!  Our gymnastics coach, Hannah, taught us many different controlled positions and movements. In PE, we practised our dribbling and used those skills in small-sided games.  In Science, we learned about the properties of rocks and sorted them using Venn and Carroll diagrams.  In Music, we enjoyed developing our skills on the ukulele.

We are excited that next week we will have our first Muddy Monsters lesson of the year.  We will also have our Multiplication Tables Check meeting on Thursday afternoon which we hope you can attend. 

Week beginning 4th September 2023

We have had a fantastic first week as 4L! The children have produced some fabulous artwork, focusing on botanical drawings and the work of Georgia O' Keeffe.  They have learned to 'see like an artist'. In Spanish, we have had a refresher on classroom vocabulary and greetings.  We have also reviewed our learning of how to stay safe online ready for the coming year. 

In PSHE we have learned all about how we can help someone if the are stung or bitten.  I have discovered that we are a very caring class!

Both myself and Mrs Herbert have been very impressed with how the year has started and we are looking forward to getting into our Maths and English lessons next week.

Enjoy the warm weather and many thanks for your support in your children's learning.