Year 4
Welcome to Year 4!
2024-25
In Year 4, our teachers are Miss Quick (Class 4), Miss Chisnall and Miss Scott (Class 5), and Mrs Becousse (Class 6). We are also supported by our dedicated Learning Support Assistant (LSA): Mrs Bridgeman.
If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher. If they are not around at pick-up, you can speak to them by phoning the school office and requesting an appointment.
Keep referring back to this page for regular updates about the children's learning.
Curriculum Newsletters
Update - Friday 29th November 2024
In maths, we have continued working hard on our times tables as part of our multiplication and division unit. We have focussed on the 3, 6, 9 and 7 times tables, finding patterns that link the times tables together. We have become much more confident in our knowledge of the times tables which is fantastic as a core skill in Year 4!
We are currently reading Loki and focusing on a range of reading skills. This week, we practised them by playing a game of snakes and ladders to help us recall information about the chapters we had read.
In geography, we consolidated our knowledge of the countries in North and South America, recalling what we know about their climates and cultures. As part of our new learning, we also began to research physical features in the UK. We researched them using Google and noted the information we found about the New Forest, the River Tay, and Snowdonia, focussing on Mount Snowdon.
We also continued to complete our weaving this week - add more colours. Then we undertook the tricky task of removing the weaving from the loom that we made! Thankfully, the children did an excellent job and there was little to no unravelling!
Updated - Friday 22nd November 2024
In English, we have been working on our editing skills this week. We have used our apprentice pieces to develop our sentences further using conjunctions, ensure we can group our ideas into more effective paragraphs, and edit our grammar and spellings accurately. Next week, we will move onto our final pieces of writing and apply these editing skills further!
In History, we have been focussing on the Viking invasions. We have learnt about the invasion of Lindisfarne in more detail. We discussed the events from the perspective of the Vikings who invaded and the monks who were living there at the time - the children loved hearing and can recall the dramatic violence that occurred!
In Art this week, we have been learning to weave! We started by making our looms using cardboard and then we did the warp with yarn. Afterwards, we used coloured wool and a needle to weave the weft!
In Science, we have also developed our knowledge about how we hear sounds. We learnt about sound travelling in waves from the source through air particles to the ear. This week, our focus was on the parts of the ear and how sound is processed so that we can hear it.
Updated - Friday 15th November 2024
In English, we have been building up our persuasive letter writing this week. We have begun to focus on using subordinating conjunctions to extend our sentences, in order to add more reasons and explanation points for why Loki wants to return to Asgard. We used coloured paper to show the main clause and subordinate clause, learning about how we can swap the two clauses around.
We have been learning about area in Maths this week before we begin our multiplication unit. We learnt that the area of a shape is the space inside a closed-2D shape, we counted the squares inside the shapes when they were on squared paper. We also used post it notes to create different shapes with the same area.
In Art this week, we have been getting started with our new 'Warp and Weft' weaving topic. This week, we looked at different materials used for weaving, different types of yarn and annotated them in our art books.
In Geography, we have continued looked at North and South America. We have learnt about the different climates in different American countries, learnt about some of the physical features and developed that further this week, exploring what life was like in the different locations. We researched and compared USA, Canada, Brazil and Ecuador and have created leaflets and posters about the different contrasting cultures.
Last Friday evening, our Year 4s shone at the Diwali parade in Basingstoke! They took part in the lantern procession through town and performed their fantastic dance! A huge well done for all who participated!
Updated - Friday 8th November 2024
This week, we received a letter from Loki - the mischievous god who had been banished from Asgard to Misgard (earth) to live amongst humans. He introduced himself to us, and we got to know about the trickery and chaos that he brings wherever he goes! We will be using this to do some persuasive letter writing, taking on Loki's character to ask that Odin (the god in charge) allows him to return to Asgard.
In science, we have begun our new topic on 'Sound'. This week we explored musical instruments to being thinking about how sound is produced. This even included hitting a drum with rice on top on the playground!
For our new art, we will be learning about weaving in our unit 'Warp and Weft'. We have explored some of the initial information about weaving and the key vocabulary. We then learnt about weaving over time, from the first instances in the Egyptian times all the way through to modern day. We learnt about key changes in the loom and machinery, the fabrics produced, the scale of production and colour/patterns produced. We put these in order along a timeline.
We learnt about assumptions in our PSHE lesson this week. We learnt what they are, where they come from and the affect that they have on people. We thought about how we should not make judgements about people, especially people that we don't know or based simply on their appearance!
Updated - Friday 25th October 2024
This week in History, we have reached the end of the Anglo-Saxon era and we are now beginning to look at when the Vikings invaded Britain. This week we did our first lesson and had lots of fun doing freeze frames and hot seating of Viking people!
In DT, we completed our units of work where we made our healthy fruit kebabs and created effective packaging for them too. We made sure to include bright packaging which had all the needed ingredients and expiry information too! Thankfully, the fruits were incredibly tasty and the kebabs were a hit with the children who enjoyed eating them too!
We also concluded our science experiment where we found that adult toothpaste was the most effective because it contained more fluoride which helped to protect the egg against decay from the vinegar. The other eggs with less fluoride to protect the shell became weak and soft!
Updated - Friday 18th October 2024
This week in maths, we have continued learning written strategies for addition. We have been using column method, increasing the number of exchanges that occur within the problems. We have also begun learning column subtraction. Here is one of our Year 4s teaching the method to her class!
In History, we have continued our Invasion topic. We have been learning about life in the Anglo-Saxon times once they had invaded and settled in Britain. We have learnt about the changes that were made to religion and how Christianity grew within the country from the pope and saints who came to convert the pagans in Britain. We learnt about how this happened and how it united the different kingdoms. We have also used evidence to look at how other aspects of life changed - the housing, hierarchy, crime and punishments, farming and leisure time.
In Science, we have started and investigation to explore the benefits and best type of toothpaste to protect our teeth! We used eggs to replicate our teeth in the experiment and will continue to look at the results and analyse the evidence found next week!
We have started zooming in on North and South America in our Geography lessons this week. We have learnt about the different countries located in the two continents as we begin to familiarise ourselves. We played 'Atlas Dash' a game to help us learn which countries are there and race to find them in the atlas! Over the next few lessons, we will learn more about and compare what life, features and climate is like in North and South America.
Update - Friday 11th October 2024
In English, we have been looking at expanded noun phrases to describe Katherine Johnson. As we work towards writing a biography, we have been including these phrases within sentences about her and her life.
We have moved onto our addition and subtraction unit in Maths this week. We have started to look at how to use the column method to solve calculations building from no exchanging to include more exchanging. Some children have been solving questions at the board to model how to use this method!
We have looked at the different type of teeth in Science. This week, we were eating pieces of apple and bread to identify which teeth were used for the different food products!
In RE, we have looked at what it means to be a neighbour. We looked at our experiences of being a neighbour to others and did a card sorting task to look at what this means to us.
For our DT lessons, we have been building our skills for slicing, chopping, mashing and peeling foods. We have used these skills for fruit products as we look at and taste different healthy snacks. The children did a great job of trying new foods and tasting the ones that they were less keen or sure about!
Updated - Friday 4th October 2024
In English this week, we have started our new unit of writing. It is now October where we celebrate Black History Month and learn about the significance of this celebration. Our new writing is focussing on the life of Katherine Johnson - an incredibly talented mathematician who faced trials and inequality growing up. She moved on to become one of the leading specialists within NASA who was highly regarded and helped save an Apollo Mission! This week we had clues that introduced us to her life and significance. We also did 'vocabulary shopping' to look for synonyms to uplevel the language we will be using within this topic to describe Katherine.
In our maths, we are now coming to the end of our 'Place Value' unit of work and within the next week we will begin looking more at 'Addition and Subtraction', applying and developing on our knowledge from Year 3.
In DT, we explored different shaped nets as part of our healthy foods topic. The focus for this was to explore different shaped packaging, thinking about materials and which shapes would be most structurally beneficial for different food products.
We also concluded our Fables writing topic by sharing our final pieces with our Year 2 children. We really enjoyed visiting Year 2 and reading them our work with great pride! The younger children also appeared to enjoy hearing our stories too, listened beautifully and even gave some great compliments!
In PSHE, we have continued thinking about the zones of regulations linking to how we are feeling. We have also discussed how these emotions and feelings present inside us, what they are like e.g. bounciness, waving arms, smile, fizzy tummy etc.
Update - Thursday 26th September 2024
In English this week, we have done work on using a dictionary to locate words to find their correct spellings and meanings. We focussed on a selection of Year 3 and 4 spelling words and included our 'Dictionary Dash' race game to find the words at speed too!
We also looked at using tense correctly in our writing to focus our attention on using correct grammar. We did a sorting activity to group sentences based on whether they were past, present or future tense and looked at the verbs used in each of the sentences to help us.
In DT, we have started our new 'Fresh Food, Good Food' unit of work. This week, we looked at a variety of packaging to find out about how it was kept fresh and how the food-life was preserved. We learnt about salting, drying, canning, freezing, packaging and refrigeration processes. We then observed and explored different packaging to look at the information on it including expiry and best before dates.
In History, we have continued our work on chronology. We looked specifically at events that happened within the Anglo-Saxon time period. We ordered the events and started to discuss how the events linked together or had a knock on effect on the next. We looked at the Anglo Saxon kingdoms and King Alfred and how these were significant within the Anglo-Saxon period.
Finally, we have been really lucky to have visitors come and teach us dances for Diwali. Our children will have the opportunity to take part in the Diwali parade in Basingstoke and have had a lot of fun learning the dances so far!
Update - Friday 20th September 2024
In Science this week, we have been learning about food webs. We reminded ourselves about the different key vocabulary within food chains and then discussed how this builds into a food web to make wider connections.
For our History topic, we looked into the chronology of British invasions that occurred involving the Picts, Scots, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. We looked at the dates when the invasions took place, using historical vocabulary linking to chronology and then ordered events in the correct order.
In Art, we have continued our learning about the theory of using and mixing colours. This week, we learnt about colour within culture, focussing on Aboriginal Art. We used cotton buds to help us replicate their dotting technique and used natural colours that featured in their pieces of art.
In RE, we have been learning about parables (stories that Jesus told in Christianity). Last week, we created story cubes and this week we were acting out the parables too. Here are some photos of these activities taking place!
We have also been learning about democracy in our PSHE lessons. We have learnt that we all have the right to have and use our voice and that we can express this through voting on decisions. We have held our school council elections for this year and have three new school councillors to represent our Year 4 classes. Congratulations to all those who put themselves forward, prepared speeches and to those newly elected!
Update - Friday 13th September 2024
In Maths, we have been looking at how to partition 4-digit numbers this week. We first learnt how to do it simply by looking at the number of thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. We then have looked at flexible partitioning where the values are regrouped in different ways. This is quite tricky to visualise so we used counters to help us see the different ways we could partition the numbers!
In Science, we started learning about food chains this week. We learnt what they were and specific vocabulary for the different elements of the chain. We did a sorting task to apply our learning!
We did our exciting experience lesson to kick-start our History unit on Invasions too. We had a variety of Anglo-Saxon artefacts that we studied in groups. We observed (like historians) to find out what we thought the items were and what they may have been used for, the materials that made them and what this told us about Anglo-Saxon life.
In English, we have focussed on using inverted commas and relevant speech punctuation in our fable 'the Hare and the Tortoise'. We used the story to identify how speech had been used and balanced alongside the narrative retelling. We also retold and rewrote our versions of the Hare and the Tortoise as part of our apprentice piece writing.
Updated: Friday 6th September 2024
We have had a very positive and busy start in Year 4 this week!
We have started learning the fable The Hare and the Tortoise in English. We have been drawing the story map and using actions to recall the story verbally. We also began thinking about the speech involved with the story and how to punctuate this correctly. This photo shows us retelling the story using our story maps:
In PSHE, we introduced the zones of regulation for thinking about our feelings. We discussed how we associated different colours with our feelings and why this might be the case. We also began thinking about what it meant to be a class team. Here is a mind map of some of the qualities we discussed:
In History, we began our Invasion unit. We were thinking about where we left off, learning about the Romans in year 3 and why they left Britain. We had picture clues to help us determine the reasons for their departure. We then looked at how life in Britain changed afterwards and how different groups began their invasions from the north and northeast!
We also began our Art unit by looking at warm and cool colours. We began by thinking about what we already knew about colour and then drew photos of flowers in a vase. To apply our learning, we used watercolours to colour the vase in cool colours and the flowers in warm colours.
