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.
Below you will find lots of useful information about what we will learn, as well as weekly updates sharing highlights of what we have done as a class, so please visit this page regularly for the latest news!
Year 4 Newsletters - 24/25
Year 4 Curriculum Maps - 24/25
Week Beginning 3rd February 2025
Let's have a look at some highlights from this week's learning in Y4L...
On Wednesday morning both Year 4 classes held their 'Stay and Learn' session. In 4L we had many parents join their children in class to get involved in some learning about how much 'tech time' we have on a normal day. We thought about what was a positive use of our time on technology and what was maybe less useful. We also took the opportunity to do some fun games and activities to promote our wellbeing as part of Children's Mental Health Week.
In Maths this week, we have different ways of presenting data and interpreting what those results have shown us. This has included looking at and drawing bar charts and line graphs. The children rose to the challenge of making sure their graphs were accurate and precise to reflect the data they were presenting.
In our recent Reading sessions, we have been enjoying the book, The Tin Forest. This has been a great opportunity to develop our inference skills, not only through focusing on key words in the text, but also by looking at clues in the way the images have been presented. Linking with our Maths work, we have reflected on the 'emotional journey' of the main character throughout the text, considering how this would look on a line graph.
Friday 7th February is the NSPCC's 'Number Day'. Within our Maths on that day, we used this as an opportunity to refine our times table work by creating fun board games that help the players to show off their times table knowledge.
Week Beginning 27th January 2025
Here is a selection of some this week's many highlights in fabulous 4L!
As a whole school, we were very lucky to have the opportunity to have a cricket coach visit us and run sessions with each class. In 4L's session we practised three skills: bowling, catching and striking the ball. It was a lot of fun and the coach explained that there are weekly sessions at Gateshead Leisure Centre for the children to attend!
Recently in our Science lessons, the class have been looking at 'sound', including how we hear sounds and how to vary the pitch of sounds. This week's lesson focused on how to produce loud and quiet sounds, using a range of musical instruments to produce our own compositions called 'The Storm'. It was quite a noisy lesson, but when we had the chance to listen to each groups work, we could definitely see (and hear!) that the children knew how to vary the volume on their instruments at different stages of 'the storm'.
In our English lessons this week, we have looked at the features of a newspaper report and have begun to try out some of these features in our own work, including headlines, introductions and quotes so far. We have also enjoyed some role-play work on presenting a TV news report based on a fairy tale. It has really made us think carefully about the language we will need to put into our own writing!
Pupil of the week 31st January 2025
Congratulations to our two pupils of the week: Isla and Lenny!
Isla is such a fantastic helper to everyone in the class and is always keen to do jobs. She has also been recognised as a very kind friend to so many of her classmates! Well done Isla.
Lenny has really developed his confidence in answering questions and getting involved in small group work, and whole class discussions too! Keep it up Lenny.
Week beginning 20th January 2025
Please enjoy reading a little update about some of the many exciting things we have been learning this week in 4L.
In PE, we continued to develop our creativity and collaboration in our Dance lesson. This week we focused on showing expression and working in unison by getting into character as aliens and astronauts! (see photos)
Our RE topic on the Jewish calendar continued with a lesson focusing on Hanukkah. We had to concentrate on a very detailed story about the miracle of the menorah and then show that we had understood it with some challenging questions. Finally, we used 2D nets to make a 'dreidel' - a traditional toy that Jewish children play with during Hanukkah.
In our Music this week, we revisited a song for earlier in the year to check our progress: 'I Wanna SIng Scat'. We had to add a second part and learn to sing as two groups. It was quite a challenge, but the video we recorded showed that had done a great job!
To acknowledge our former chair of governors, Alan Sergison, and to raise funds for a cancer charity, on Friday children were invited to bring in one pound and wear something red. Check out our colourful photo!
Week Beginning 13th January 2025
Please have a look through our summary of the second week of term. As usual, it's been a busy, exciting week!
In English this week, we have continued to look at the story called, "After The Fall". It is about what happened to Humpty Dumpty after he fell off the wall. We have been using the book to help us learn about characterisation and to develop our speaking and listening skills also (see the photos).
We had so much fun in Spanish this week because we learned how to describe what the weather is like today, performing the phrases we'd learned in a rap! We had to be very good listeners in order to understand each other's descriptions.
In our Reading sessions, we have continued to read a bit more of 'Into the Forest'. It is a great book which has been reminding us of different fairy tales we already know. It has given us a great opportunity to explore the idea of suspense in fiction writing and we have also worked on our comprehension skills and drama through role-playing key moments in the story. (see photos!)
In Music, we have continued learning about chords, specifically triads and have enjoyed applying our understanding to the 'Doot Doot Song'!
The children had their second swimming session this week and I am already hearing great things about the progress being made! In our other weekly PE sessions, we have been working on the dance topic of 'Space', with a focus this week on working 'in canon' with a partner. It has been a joy to watch the children apply their ideas creatively.
Pupil of the Week 17th January 2025
A huge 'well done' to our two pupils of the week - our first in 2025!
Klayton has really impressed every staff member who has worked with him since the start of term. It is fair to say that there has been a lot that has felt 'new' to Klayton so far this term but he has dealt with it all very sensibly and always tried his best, even when things seemed to be very challenging. Keep on impressing us Klayton!
Ayo has made some fabulous progress in her contributions to class discussions. She is now so confident to share her ideas in front of her peers! As well as this, Ayo is an absolute star when it comes to her presentation - her handwriting is beautiful and you can see this in EVERY piece of work she does.
Congratulations to both of you!
Week Beginning 6th January 2025
Happy New Year! It was lovely to see everyone back after the school holidays, ready to learn and feeling refreshed.
It has been another busy and varied week as we always have. The children have worked so hard on lots of new topics. Here is a summary of some highlights of the week.
In our Science learning we are exploring 'Sound' and this week we focused on how sound is produced. (See the photos!)
In our RE lesson this week we focused on the importance of the festival of Passover in Judaism. We tried out some of the elements of the Seder meal and learned about the significance of each element.
For our PSHCE learning this week we looked at learning from mistakes and showing resilience. This included listening to, and discussing, a story and trying to complete a tricky maze!
In our Geography learning this week, we looked at rainfall and temperature in different areas of the UK to develop our understanding of what we mean by the term 'climate'.
Week Beginning 16th December 2024
What an eventful, enjoyable, exciting week we've had in Year 4L!
We have completed our Science topic on Living Things and Their Habitats.
We have completed our Geography topic on Sustainability.
We have completed our Spanish topic on Describing Animals.
We have completed our DT topic on Adapting a Recipe!!
We have also had lots of festive fun, including:
Our Lower Key Stage Two Christmas Party
Watching the Key Stage Two Brighton's Got Talent show, won by our very own dancing superstar, Holly!!!!
Enjoying Mr Parkin's band perform their Christmas show
Making our 2025 calendars
Watching a festive film
Watching the nativity performance
Celebrating Christmas with lovely singing at church
Celebrating good attendance with "In it to win it"
Raising funds buying tasty treats at the tuck shop
Celebrating excellent behaviour with our half-termly Behaviour Awards
Recognising brilliant reading with books won from our Book Vending Machine
Golden Day fun!
All in all, it's been a VERY busy week!
Wishing everyone a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Remember, we're back on 6th January and your child will be attending their first swimming lesson on that day.
Week Beginning 9th December 2024
During this week, we have been feeling very festive! On Thursday, we had our delicious Christmas lunch, sitting together as a year group with 4B in the Community Room and on Friday we watched a Christmas film together in our PJs as a year group, whilst enjoying some hot chocolate and tasty treats!
Earlier in the week, the children all worked so hard to show off just how much they'd learned this term during our English and Maths assessments. We are so impressed with their efforts.
On Thursday, we also had a great visit to Gateshead Library, where we familiarised ourselves with where to locate different books in the children's area as well as tips on how to choose a book. As usual, librarian Mark, was very friendly and helpful, sharing lots of festive jokes with us too!
Alongside assessments and Christmas fun, lots of other learning has carried on. The children have learned a lot about how to describe animals in Spanish, shown off how much their hockey skills have developed in recent weeks in lots of small-sided games, explored the idea of sustainability yet further in Geography and performed on the ukuleles to an audience of Reception children! In addition, the pupils have worked together to follow a recipe to make some basic biscuits. This is after having had a taste test of popular biscuits. After having tasted their own creations, the next step will be to plan their own recipes, including considering budgets and packaging.
Lots more to learn and enjoy in the final week of term next week!
Pupil of the Week 13th December 2024
A huge congratulations to this week's two pupils of the week: Keira and Maria!
Maria is the newest addition to our class, and she has settled so well into new routines, making new friends, getting to know new members of staff and beginning to pick up a whole new language! Unfortunately, Maria was unwell for her big moment in assembly and for her photo today.
Keira has been an absolute star this week, as she is every week! She is always up for learning something new, helping others, being friendly and kind, trying her hardest and producing top quality pieces of work. She is a delight to have in our class!
Well done to both of you!
Weeks Beginning 25th November and 2nd December 2024
Let's have a little look back at some highlights from the last two weeks in 4L.
In our Science learning at the moment we are looking at living things and their habitats. We have discovered an interesting range of living things right outside our classroom and we have used classification keys to understand and identify which groups certain animals belong to.
We really enjoyed our 'Stay and Play' activity this week, which was an opportunity to get creative - with many parents and carers able to join us. It was lovely to see them working alongside their children to create some great Christmas picture cards!
In PE, the children have continued to grow in confidence as they develop their hockey skills. Their dribbling is improving and we also focused on shooting skills this week!
Our Geography work has been all about sustainability, which fits in very well with our whole school's drive to ensure that, as a school, we are aware of how to use energy sustainably, recycle materials, re-use products and so on. This week, we looked at Solar and Wind energy production.
Pupil of the Week 6th December 2024
This week's pupils of the week are Jaeden and Rhodes. Both pupils have shown some great progress lately in becoming increasingly confident in their learning; Rhodes is joining in and raising his hand so much more now and Jaeden works much more independently.
We are really proud of them both and are so happy to have them in our class. Well done boys!
Week Beginning 18th November 2024
Let's have a look at some of this week's highlights:
Despite this week's cold weather, our class had a very enjoyable time in 'Muddy Monsters' (Forest School) on Monday morning with Phil. They chopped wood, built dens and swings and played games together. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to do this regularly and learn new skills!
As part of our STEAM learning, on Friday the class worked in pairs and small groups on a DT project to design cars, based on the idea of working as a team like Formula 1 teams do. We looked at real life examples of careers such as engineers and designers.
In Music, the class have continued to prepare their Christmas song on the ukuleles with Mr Parkin. It is coming along really well. The song is sounding more fluent an professional all the time. I am sure it will be a great success when it's time to perform it!
The class are continuing to make progress in their spelling. Having just focused on the prefix 'auto', meaning 'self', they have now moved on to adding the suffix 'ly' to and adjective to make an adverb, including what to do when the adjective ends in a 'y'. The class are also making good progress with their multiplication table fact knowledge. Please keep on practising at home too! In school, our Maths has focused on the formal multiplication method, so that times table knowledge has been crucial!
Pupil of the week - 22nd November 2024
Congratulations to our two pupils of the week: Michelle and Kristian. Both of them truly deserve to be recognised for their efforts in our class. Kristian is such a hard-working and polite young man. He is always determined to complete every task that he is set and his presentation is outstanding! Michelle is also super-polite and very kind. This week she has shown this in helping to welcome a new pupil to our class. We are very pleased that she is part of 4L!
Well done to both of you!
Week Beginning 11th November 2024
Here are some highlights of our week in 4L:
On Monday, we joined with the rest of the school to observe a two minutes' silence to remember those affected by war. Everyone was impeccable in their respect and attitude to this important occasion
Our English work this week has focused on using inverted commas accurately and adding engaging and interesting dialogue to the book: Leon and the Place Between. The children are really enjoying the story and this has meant that their writing has been a pleasure to read!
In Maths we have built on and applied our knowledge of addition and subtraction methods, including using the inverse to check answers. It has been a lot to understand but the class are always up for a challenge!
We have begun our Science topic: Living Things and Environments, by looking at what the features of living things are and how to classify different types of vertebrate. It has been an enjoyable start to the new topic.
The children have continued to develop their tennis skills, ukulele-playing skills, singing skills, coding skills and so much more in PSHE and RE. We also continued our Wellbeing theme of Take Notice, including how to foster positive thinking. We have also reminded ourselves of the importance of speaking out to stay safe.
Friday is Children in Need Day. The children donated a pound to wear non uniform as a way to raise funds and were all treated to squash and a biscuit, plus we did some enjoyable activities to mark the day.
Pupil of the week - 15th November 2024
Congratulations to 4L's two pupils of the week: Ester and Gabriel!
Ester is a fabulous role model of kindness and good manners. She is always so polite whoever she is speaking to. She remembers to use polite words and listens to her friends and adults in school. Ester is always keen to do jobs to help the teachers and to help classmates too! Great job Ester!
Gabriel has worked really hard since arriving in our school earlier this term. So much was new for him, so it has been a big, challenging transition, but he has met that challenge with calmness and a conscientious attitude. We are really happy to have him in 4L!
Week Beginning 4th November 2024
This week was our first week back after the half term break and we have hit the ground running in 4L!
In Maths we have been learning how to us the formal column methods for addition and subtraction, applying these to a range of problems. We have really challenged ourselves to take care with using the method accurately and thinking carefully about what the problems are asking us to do.
In English, we have begun to read the story of Alice in Wonderland in our Reading sessions, make predictions and finding evidence about the characters we have met so far. We have also begun to write some fantastic descriptions based on the setting in the book: Leon and the Place Between. The class have used a range of interesting fronted adverbials to extend their sentences and create a picture in the reader's minds, focusing on the senses and prepositions.
We have also begun a new topic in Geography this half term, looking at the idea of sustainability, linking with some of our current work on 'STEAM' around careers in new technologies in energy production.
In Computing, we refreshed our memories of our coding work using 'Scratch' from Year 3, exploring the different coding blocks.
In preparation for Monday's two minutes' silence for Remembrance Day, we learned about the tradition of buying and wearing poppies, understanding the origin of the tradition as well as how the funds raised are used. In addition, we looked at the other colours of poppies that people can buy today. We have decorated our classroom windows with our own poppies.
Pupil of the Week 8th November 2024
For the first week back after half term, we have chosen Edgar and Mason as our two pupils of the week. In fact, they were both chosen for very similar reasons. Both boys are very enthusiastic learners - always keen to raise their hands and share their ideas and to ask good questions. Edgar's presentation is always amazing and Mason always wants to push on and be successful in every lesson. I am so impressed with both of them. Well deserved boys!!!
Week Beginning 21st October 2024
We have had a big focus on Art, Spanish and Music this week in 4L.
The children have done a fantastic job acquiring new vocabulary in Spanish for numbers, days and months and they have then applied this knowledge to different games and songs to reinforce their understanding. They have worked very hard and gained so much in confidence.
In Music, the class have had lots of fun singing, playing, improvising and appreciating many different pieces of music in the gospel genre, with the main focus being the song This Little Light of Mine. As well as developing their musical skills so much, the pupils have all had a great time trying different things out and performing together.
The class completed their Art unit on Friday with a lesson called 'Power Prints'. They collaborated to create printing blocks from polystyrene tiles and used rollers and paint to create some fantastic pieces based on their abstract collages from earlier in the unit.
In Science, we applied our learning on forces and magnets to create fun games that used magnets. The children really enjoyed playing them too!
As part of Golden Afternoon on Friday, three children were the lucky winners of a token for the book vending machine. Each of them has impressed us so much with their application and effort in reading this half term! Well done to Michelle, Rhodes and Daniel!
Please enjoy looking at some photos from this week and have a great half term break!
Week Beginning 14th October 2024
Well, we are at the end of another fun, full week of great learning in 4L. The class have been learning so many different things this week and as usual, they've been working very hard. They even had an exciting Times Table Rockstars Battle against 4B!
We have been using our knowledge of Roman Britain this week, as well as extra research carried out during the week, to begin planning and writing our own informative non-chronological reports on the topic.
In our Maths, we have continued to learn more about fractions - in particular equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions.
Our PE work on netball skills was put to good use this week, with the weather holding out enough for us to enjoy a round robin of exciting small-sided games. It was a lot of fun!
Pupil of the Week 18th October 2024
Our two pupils of the week this time around are Arish and Jerzi. Jerzi has been with us just a few weeks and has already settled brilliantly into the class, making lots of new friends, working very hard and having lovely manners with everyone she speaks to in school. We're so happy to have her with us and we are really pleased with the start she has made to the year. Arish has been a superstar this week, just like every week in fact! He is a great partner to the other children he works with, he always tries his best in every single subject and he is a great friend to many of the class. We are all so happy that he is in our class. Great job Arish!
Congratulations to both pupils!
Week Beginning 7th October 2024
This week our pupils have impressed us with their extended writing in the style of a historical narrative. It has been very enjoyable to read their writing!
We have moved into fractions and decimals in Maths this week. This has included looking at tenths and dividing by ten to produce decimals.
We have rehearsed our Harvest Song ready for next week's performance. If you are coming along, you are in for a treat!
In Reading, we considered how characters felt at the most dramatic parts of the story so far. We took some freeze frame photos to show this. I think you will enjoy looking at the pictures!
Pupil of the Week 11th October 2024
This week's two lovely pupils of the week are Holly and Silas! Congratulations to them both.
Silas is someone in our class who will always raise his hand and share fantastic ideas in all lessons. He has lovely manners and we are all very proud of him as he recently represented our school in cross country running!
Holly is just the kindest person you could meet. She loves doing lots of little jobs and is very friendly to everyone, which is great because our class is growing in numbers all the time! We are very proud of you Holly.
Week Beginning 23rd September and Week Beginning 30th September
Lots of fantastic learning has taken place in Year 4L over these last two weeks. This has included: understanding the properties of magnets in Science, getting a more in depth look at the beliefs of Hinduism - including a visit to a local mandir, ordering and sequencing numbers (including describing the rule) in Maths, describing settings using fronted adverbials and developing characterisation through dialogue and action in English, improving our ukulele playing skills in Music (and also rehearsing our harvest song!), working on our expertise in drawing in our Art lessons, understanding more about life in Roman Britain - particularly along Hadrian's Wall, and so much more!
Please enjoy looking at some photos from these last two weeks.
Pupil of the week 27th September and Pupil of the week 4th October
A huge congratulations to our most recent pupils of the week: Daniel, Taranom, Darrell and Ewa.
They have all made fantastic contributions to our learning lately. Daniel has been so conscientious and hard-working every day, impressing all the staff members who work in 4L. Taranom has been making a great effort in her writing lately and tries so hard all the time. Darrell has displayed some impressive acting skills in some of our recent drama work linked to our Roman Rescue story in English! The whole class loved it. Finally, Ewa especially impressed Mrs Herbert with her artwork recently.
Well done to all four pupils!
Week Beginning 16th September
Goodness me - what a busy week it has been! The class has worked SO hard in our first full week of Maths, English, Science, History, Computing, PSHE, RE, PE, Art, Reading, Music, Spanish...
In our PE lessons, the pupils have had a lot fun trying out different games where they had to work in teams, communicating and trying out a range strategies and ideas.
In our English work, the pupils have focused on writing some very engaging descriptions of characters and settings. To help us we used some drama techniques, including freeze frames (see the photos!)
Our Maths work has focused on place value - looking at: rounding, writing numbers in both words and figures, as well as ordering and comparing numbers. Their rounding skills in particular have been very impressive!
As part of looking after ourselves on Wellbeing Wednesday and with it having been National First Aid Day recently, we were shown some useful reminders of how to help someone in emergency situations. The children enjoyed acting the roles of patient and carer!
We can't wait for our next exciting week of learning!
Pupil of the Week 20th September
Congratulations to both of this week's pupils of the week: Ahmad and Kayden.
Ahmad has shown the most impeccable manners since the start of the year. He is always so polite to all of the other children, as well as the adults. His hand is up all the time to answer questions and share ideas. I'm sure he has a sore arm by now!
Kayden has impressed his new teacher with his calm manner in his learning and the effort he makes in all subjects. Great job Kayden!
Well done to both boys!
Week Beginning 9th September 2024
This has been a fantastic first full week of term for the lovely 4L! There has been a heavy Art focus this week with the pupils completing many lessons developing their skills at using tints and shades to create 3D effects. They have also done a brilliant job of trying out various painting techniques such as: dabbing, stippling, pointillism, washes and using other tools. I have been so impressed with how they have used these techniques to create their own still life compositions.
We have also completed a lesson on online safety this week. The class impressed me with how much they already knew about this important topic, but we also learned a lot of new things about reliable search results when using search engines.
4L have begun their History topic too, with their first two lessons on the Romans. The pupils have explored why the Romans came to Britain and how Boudica and her tribe fought back to try and save their people.
Pupil of the Week 13th September 2024
The first pupils of the week for this school year are the super Scarlett-Rose and the awesome Ava! Both girls have had a fantastic start to the year! Ava has especially impressed staff with her brilliant artistic ability. She has produced a great piece of work to show light and dark, creating a 3D effect. Scarlett has made such a brilliant start to the year and is a great role model to the class. She is always listening, always raising her hand with ideas and questions and has worked so hard all week long!
Great job girls!