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Year 4 Curriculum Overview can be found here: Year 4 Curriculum Overview
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Friday 7th July
This week, we have delved deeper into the page of The Last Bear by Hannah Gold and have reached a point of enlightenment – we now know why ‘Bear’ is stuck on the Island and we are all behind April’s plans to take action and get him back to where he belongs. Along with April, we are becoming aware of the environmental factors that led to Bear being stranded far from home: the melting of the Arctic’s Polar ice caps. This has prompted the purpose of our Big Write, where we are writing a persuasive letter to world leaders, urging them to do more in the fight for climate change.
There has been a strong musical theme this week where our iRocks performers jammed to the whole school and proud parents, we were treated to a wonderful violin performance by Clearwater’s very own violin students and we have been finding the rhythm and warming up our vocals to learn the ‘The Octopus Slide’ in music. It was so much fun that they requested their own encore the next day!
In DT, we have made our night light creations, built some circuits and evaluated the effectiveness and appeal of our designs. It was brilliant to see the children taking complete charge of their design and make process and they had remembered all they needed to know about building a working circuit from our science unit in Spring term.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 30th June
Wow, what an enrichment week we’ve had! We have had a brilliant time being out in nature spotting patterns for our art project, learning how to calm our bodies using the power of breath, being blown away by dinosaur facts and demonstrations, creating mathematical codes and building our DT projects.
To top it off, we had an incredible Sports Day where we all raced, cheered, played rounders, fought for our bench in bench ball and relaxed into our mats in yoga. Throughout the entire day, I was blown away with the amazing sportsmanship, courage and togetherness that Year 4 showed. Well done to everyone!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 23rd June
In Maths this week, we took our learning outside during our lesson on perimeter. We investigated what the perimeter was and the best way to measure it. We initially tried using tape measures but soon found that this was not very accurate. We then used a trundle wheel and found that the perimeter of the MUGA was 108m.
This week in Computing we have continued to develop our coding skills. Using scratch.mit.edu the children all successfully animated their name. This involved using code blocks to code each letter and they were also able to personalise the backdrop. Scratch is a free online coding community which the children can use at home too to show you what they can do. Over the next few weeks I am looking forward to seeing the children use these skills to develop a game.
In PE the children have been perfecting their athletic skills in preparation for sports day next week. This coincides with Enrichment week and we are looking forward to sharing what they get up to with you in next weeks blog.
Mrs Le Templier and Mrs Lewis
Friday 16th June
Well done Year 4 you have been amazing this week showing so many of our leaning powers. Parents, you should all be really proud of all the children and how hard they have all tried while completing their Multiplication Check.
This week in Maths we have been looking at converting units of time and have been able to put our growing confidence of multiplication skills to good use. Who would have thought knowing times table facts would make us whizzes in converting hours to minutes and weeks to days?
In DT, having investigated how to make different switches to complete a circuit, we have begun to design our own nightlights. We have each decided who we will be making it for (the user), what we are making (the product) and how it will help (the purpose). I can’t wait to see these designs being brought to life over the next few weeks.
Mrs Le Templier and Mrs Lewis
Friday 9th June
Wow what a busy and exciting first week back. On Monday we went to watch ‘In the Net’ at Kingsway school. The children really enjoyed following Dotty’s journey where she met Icon and Password who helped her learn how to be safe on-line and defeat Virus and his side kick Spam. As always, the children’s behaviour was exceptional and were fantastic representatives for Clearwater.
On Tuesday we were visited by John De Gruyther who read ‘Hedgehog finds her voice’ a book that the children had helped him to develop through their discussions with him on previous visits. The children then discussed who their trusted adults would be. We then had another fantastic swimming lesson – it’s lovely to see them all develop their confidence and skills in the water.
This week in Science as part of our unit on living things and their habitats, we explored our outdoor area and observed the different plants and animals that we share it with. The children then discussed if the trim trail should be developed further and replace the forest school area. Although many liked the idea of this after a great debate they mostly agreed that it was more important to keep our forest school area for other animals who need it for their habitat.
We also started our new text in Literature, ‘The Lost Bear’. The children came up with some interesting questions from the reveal and we look forward to becoming fully immersed in April’s adventure and hope to answer many of these questions along the way.
Mrs Le Templier and Mrs Lewis
Friday 19th May
What a wonderfully busy week we’ve had in Year 4!
We ended the week with a joyful performance of our Wow Assembly and it was truly wonderful to welcome many of our parents and carers into school to share what we have been doing.
This week we have taken every opportunity to enjoy the sunshine by using our outdoor amphitheatre as a perfect rehearsal space for our performance poem. It really challenged us to ensure that we could still be clearly heard and to convey our message accurately.
In preparation for this term’s Big Write, we have been creating our very own main characters, setting and animals to capture. Taking inspiration from How to Train your Dragon’s Hiccup, we will be recreating the ‘capturing the dragon’ with our own unique twists.
In Geography, we have journeyed far from Quedgeley and have been discovering the continent of South America. Using a range of resources- from inflatable gloves, atlases and world maps to digital mapping like Google Earth, the children have taught me all about what this continent has to offer. The children were brilliant at teaching all about the different countries, capital cities, rivers and mountains. Next, we will be diving deeper into the tropical world of Rio De Janeiro!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 5th May
This week in Science, we have found out all that we already know by conducting ‘prior knowledge huddles’ in groups. Here the children wrote, shared and discussed everything they already knew about living things. We have begun this unit by discussing what makes something a ‘living thing’, focussing on the 7 life processes: movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion and nutrition. The children were excellent at building upon their understanding from KS1 as well as making great links with excretion and nutrition to our previous unit on the digestive system!
During our reading sessions, not only have we been delving deeper into the wonderful How to Train your Dragon, but we have also been honing and polishing our ‘presentational talk’ skills by considering how to best perform an environmental poem in preparation for our Wow Assembly later this month. The children have considered the meaning of the poem to create an appropriate tone and how to change the pace and pitch of their voices to create emphasis.
In this term’s Geography unit – What Makes up our World? – the children have developed their learning on how our world is divided up from just continent and oceans to now exploring how ‘invisible’ lines of latitude create the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and our world’s climate zones. The children were talking like geographers as they readily used their newly-acquired language as they explained these global zones.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 21st April
It has been so lovely to see the children return with great enthusiasm for the Summer Term. We were so pleased to welcome Mrs Lewis back into the Year 4 team too!
In maths, we have delved into the new world of decimals for the first time and the children have been superb at understanding and calculating using tenths and hundredths. It’s so lovely to see so much confidence with these new skills.
We have revealed our exciting new book for the term, Cressida Cowell’s How to Train your Dragon and we are really enjoying the whimsical and light-hearted approach that she has taken. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments in the first few pages alone! Taking this as inspiration, we have focussed in on the character of Hiccup and how poorly he is treated by his peers. In their writing, the children have been brilliant at creating precise descriptions of him.
As the King’s Coronation is fast approaching, we have been using all that we have learned in our previous sketching unit to create pencil portraits of the King. So far, the children have studied professional portraits of him and have zoned in on the finer details of this eyes, nose and mouth. I look forward to showcasing some of the results of the finished products in the coming weeks!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 24th March
This week in Year 4 we have been building on our understanding of electricity from last term’s science and learning all about where power comes from and how it reaches our homes and school. Through a group oracy task focussing on ‘instigating’ new information to a discussion, we used research sheets to share information about different energy sources with our peers.
Our Big Write this term has been centred around our incredible digestive systems. The children have been brilliant at showcasing their new writing skills in writing a non-chronological report on the many organs used during digestion. Our bodies are really incredible!
Earlier in the week, we were treated to a captivating Easter Station session at St James Church, led by Revd Mark and his wonderful team. We explored the Last Supper, the garden of Gethsemane and Palm Sunday through active participation and then also looked at Good Friday and Jesus’ death and how that wasn’t the end of the story. We reflected about how Christians feel hope and celebrate new beginnings at Easter as we listened to the story of Easter Sunday.
Friday 17th March
During Science Week, we have been focussing on ‘connections’ in our world and how these are relevant from how our brains continue to make neural connections as we learn throughout our entire life to how communicate and travel within (and beyond!) our world. We started by thinking about how we are connected as a global community by sharing the world’s water. Severn Trent Water company delivered a fascinating workshop around importance and usage of water – it really is everywhere!
Knowing that the world is connected by travel, we ended science week with an exciting and hands-on engineering boat workshop. Ben Edmunds – engineering inspiration extraordinaire – spent the afternoon with us inspiring teams to design and build their owns boats to carry the load of three cans of baked beans. The children were brilliant and innovative in their designs and I was so proud of their teamwork and ‘can do’ spirit.
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, we have been celebrating ours by thinking about the quote: ‘A mother is like a flower, each one is beautiful and unique.’ We made our own unique heart bouquets while we thinking about our mums and all of the little (and big!) things they do for us.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 10th March
In our new Geography unit, we have been thinking about what we need as community of humans. So far, we have thought about what is important (such as water, shelter, healthcare, transport links, water supply and electricity) and ranked them from most to least important. We then designed our very own town, taking all of these factors into consideration.
After getting to grips with the formal method for multiplication over the past couple of weeks, we have now delved into the world of division. So far, we have looked at place value and how dividing a number by 10 and 100 can be calculated and we are now exploring how to divide using a formal written method.
In RE, we started our unit ‘Why do Christians call the day that Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?’ this week by unpicking different Gospels from the Bible and understanding how Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday play a vital role in the events of Holy Week.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 3rd March
This week has proven to be a wonderful start to the new term as we have all fully indulged in our creativity. This began by using a range of pencils and paints to create different skin tones which we then used when sketching a portrait of either Michael Morpurgo, Onjali Q Rauf or Malorie Blackman.
We celebrated World Book Day in style: we attended a live author visit at Quedgeley Library with Lois Kingscott, delved deep into the literary world of Rashmi Sirdeshpande’s How to be a Boss and then reflected on how being an entrepreneur is about finding solutions to real world problems using empathy. We dipped our toes into a few of this year’s World Book Day titles and were transported to an ancient woodland from our classroom, where we built collaborative stories around a campfire and shared some of our favourite books. As night fell on the woodland, we cosied-on-down by the fire and Mrs Le Templier even read us a bedtime story (accompanied by distant sounds of owls and crickets!).
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 17th February
It is getting very exciting in Year 4 as we approach the nail-biting ending of our incredible class book, The Boy at the Back of the Class. Over the past few days, we have learned much more about the mysterious ‘Storyteller’, such as his or her Indonesian heritage and how much length he or she will go to to protect her Syrian refugee friend, Ahmet.
We have had a fantastically arty week, where we have honed our sketching skills by learning how to draw faces, ensuring facial features have the right proportion and size to each other. Next, we will be dabbling with creating different skin tones to create some artwork of people with a wide range of skin colour, including Ahmet!
In History, it was the day we have all been waiting for – what exactly did happen in 1066 that ended the Anglo-Saxon and Viking era in Britain? We now know that it was the infamous Battle of Hastings, when the Normans, led by William the Conqueror, invaded Britain for the crown. We were so excited to realise that King Charles III is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and that we still have the same Monarchy system that was founded by him after he led the Norman army to victory in the Battle of Hastings!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 10th February
It was ‘jolly hockey sticks’ for us this week as we embarked upon our mini hockey unit. It was a wonderfully sunny afternoon as we dribbled, push-passed, travelled passing between us and then got into a rather enthusiastic mini-game of hockey. The children were brilliant at demonstrating their new skills and we all got rather stuck into our match!
This term in science, we have been exploring all things electricity. This week, we combined our learning to make our very own buzz-wire game, where we made our own circuits, then created a ‘switch’ using a copper wire rod and a copper wire – only with this switch, the aim was to not activate the switch!
After finding creative ways to bring characters’ personalities and emotions to life through our writing recently, this week we have learned about how we can made our reader feel like they’re standing in the setting we’re describing by exploring sensory description – what we can see, hear, feel and smell in a character’s surroundings. Next week, we will be using these skills to retell the part of the The Boy at the Back of the Class where Ahmet enters the classroom for the first time, but this time from his perspective.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 27th January
In Year 4, we have been incredibly hands-on this week as we have been using our newly-acquired learning about how circuits work to investigate what materials acts as insulators and which ones conduct electricity. After learning about how conductors help an electrical current to run through a circuit, we tested a range of materials by testing these materials in our own circuits.
We are gearing up for our Oracy competition by splitting into groups to share knowledge and content in our chosen topic for our presentation. We have begun to unpick how our body language, facial expression and use of voice can really help us engage and convince our audience as we started to look at how we can introduce ourselves and the topic we have chosen to speak about.
In RE, we have been thinking all about what temptations we might face as children and how Hindus might be inspired from the story or Rama and Sita and the festival of Diwali to overcome temptations in daily life.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 20th January
What a wonderful week of learning we’ve had in Year 4!
This week, we have delved deep into the Anglo-Saxon times in Britain and explored what life was like, who the Anglo-Saxons were and just how resourceful communities needed to be. The children were in awe of the fact that we are only now the ‘United Kingdom’, ‘united’ because back in the 400s, there were 7 different and separate Kingdoms!
In Science, we used special task cards with various instructions on how to build a circuit. We each made predictions before the circuit was built about whether we thought it would work or not. Through this exploration, we discovered that for the electrical current to flow, we needed to have a complete circuit, which must be connected to both the positive and negative sides of the battery.
We took the opportunity to practice our Oracy skills in RE this week, after learning all about Hindu worship in the community. We found out all about Mandir worship and how it incorporates what we’ve learned about Hindu worship at home. We then stepped into Vraj or Simran’s shows and prepared a presentation for our class at school to teach them about Hinduism.
I hope you all have a restful weekend and we look forward to what we have in store next week!
Friday 13th January
In Science, we have explored what electricity does and where it can come from and how we use it in our everyday lives. After classifying whether something is battery or mains-powered (or both!), we explored the dangers of electricity in our home and how we can act safely and responsibly to keep ourselves and others safe.
In PSHE, we have been refining our oracy skills, while discussing the concept of what aggressive behaviours are, and what might lead to someone displaying them. We used our ‘talk tokens’ and practiced agreeing and disagreeing with others politely and building on what people say. The children were incredible at actively listening to what was being said and responding thoughtfully. We then studied four scenarios about when a person displayed an aggressive behaviour and we looked at why that person was struggling. We then came up with how we could help that person come up with an apology or explanation for their behaviour to help other understand how they feel.
This week, we have reflected on how much compassion the storyteller in The Boy at the Back of the Class is showing towards the new arrival in his classroom, Ahmet, and the challenges they are facing while trying to make friends with him. We are now taking the story a step further by imagining a conversation the storyteller could have with their mum afterschool, when expressing their regret at offering him a fluffy, dirty sweet, and while also talking about their concern for him not making any friends yet.
In RE we have been thinking about how Hindus worship at home, ‘Puja’, using puja trays. We have made connections to other religions – such as Christianity and Judaism – about how Hindus use ‘aarti’ (light) in their worship, when worshipping at home and in a temple.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 9th December
We have ended the week on a festive high – our wonderful KS2 Carol Concert. I am so incredibly proud of each and every child as they sang beautifully and delivered their lines clearly and with heart. The spirit of Christmas was resonating in the air!
From singing to sound, we have delved further into our Science sound unit this week and have explored how sound travels from a sound source to the ear to be heard as sound. We physically explored this by detecting sounds from different areas and distances and through different materials. We were surprised to find that sound vibrations travel through all states – solids, liquids and gases.
In PE this week, we have been further honing our netball skills by refining our chest and bounce passes, defending and using space as a team.
To commemorate us reaching the end of Kensuke’s Kingdom, we are now writing a witness account of Kensuke’s existence from Michael’s perspective. We have really worked hard to develop our description, sentence structures and paragraphing and now we are bringing all our learning together with this wonderful final piece of writing about Kensuke. So far, I am incredibly impressed with how careful the children are being with their presentation and literary choices.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 25th November
What another wonderfully fruitful week we’ve had in Year 4.
We have been rolling up our sleeves and getting handy in the kitchen by preparing and making the soup we have designed for our Soup Kitchen project. The children were so keen to hone their cutting and peeling skills and were quick to use their mathematical skills to measure and calculate the quantities of ingredients. They should all come in handy with their newly-acquired skills in helping to make this year’s Christmas dinner!
In Literacy, the children have been embodying Kensuke from Kensuke’s Kingdom and practicing their use of paragraphs to describe his feelings about Michael’s presence on the island and how he has been defying his clearly laid-out rules.
In maths, we have been developing our mental addition and how using jottings can be incredibly helpful to help us to solve calculations and problems – even the greatest mathematicians in history such as Ada Lovelace used jottings!
Friday 11th November
It has been a wonderful week of learning in Year 4.
In RE, we have been learning all about Baptism: the similarities and differences between infant baptism and adult baptism (Believer’s Baptism) and looking to see how the Holy Trinity is represented within the ceremonies.
In DT, we have been continuing with our ‘Soup Kitchen’ community food project by looking at what makes a balanced diet and then sampling and evaluating different soups before we decide on a recipe for our own.
We capped the week off by having an afternoon of Forest School in our incredible Forest School area. We couldn’t believe how much the environment had changed since the summer! We had so much fun making s’mores, starting mini fires using a flint and steel, kindly catching and observing different minibeasts, making gloopy creations in the mud kitchen and we re-visited our hedgehog hotel to see if we thought there were any in there. We concluded that there probably weren’t as we couldn’t see any clues in the form of animal tracks or droppings nearby.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 4th November
What in incredible week of learning we’ve had in Year 4!
We are getting our teeth into our new class book, ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo and have begun to navigate the changes in Michael’s life and express his experiences through writing in role.
In maths, we have been delving into our 6 and 9 times tables by constructing them, recognising key facts and finding their division inversion facts.
In DT, we have launched our soup kitchen project where the children have been reflecting on how community kitchens can support vulnerable people. We have started to think about the purpose of our project -the soup we will design – and have thought about who we are designing it for and how it might benefit them.
We ended the week with an RE afternoon, learning all about ‘Sparkle the swallow’ who migrates from the UK to South Africa, resting on church rooftops along his journey. Each class chose a country to explore what Christianity can look like there and Year4 focused on Uganda. After splitting into 3 teams, we discovered that 8/10 people in Uganda are Christian, that churches, like places to live, come in all shapes and sizes and that Ugandan gospel music is beautiful!
Friday 14th October
What a wonderful week of learning we’ve had!
In Literacy, we have been busy planning our own endings to The Iron Man and the children have been very thoughtful in their ideas of how the ‘Space-bat-angel-demon’ can be used to save some of the world’s problems.
In RE, we have been looking at the story of Rama and Sita – the beginnings of the Hindu celebration of Diwali. After learning about various deities in previous weeks, we discovered that one of the main characters, Rama, is an avatar of Vishnu. This all made perfect sense as Vishnu represents preservation and protection and Rama saves Sita in the story.
We were incredibly lucky to have a lovely volunteer from Young Gloucestershire to talk to us about the Sea Bin project that we have right here in Gloucester Docks. There are only 8 Sea Bins in the country, all involved in a global project led by the Global Ambassador team in the USA. The sea bin collects rubbish and natural debris and is analysed by a team of volunteers so that we can find out more about what is polluting our waters and why. The children were incredibly inspired by the work and effort of local volunteers and couldn’t ask enough questions at the end!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 7th October
This week started with our wonderful Harvest festival celebration. Year 4 recited and performed ‘A Harvest Poem’ with great enthusiasm, accuracy and clarity. In collaboration with the rest of the juniors, we also sang some of our favourite hymns – ‘Jesus’ Love is Very Wonderful’, ‘Thank You Lord’ and, of course, ‘Jubilate’.
This week in art we have been reflecting on the ending of The Iron Man and recreating the scene using cross-hatching to create shade, shadow and depth. Next week, when we plan our own alternative ending to the story, we will be sketching our own endings using the same skills and then adding colour to represent the emotions of each character.
After learning all about the Roman invasion of Britain, not only have we been writing in role as Roman Soldiers from Vindolanda, but we have also been decoding and building Roman Numerals up to 100. The children were brilliant at building the numbers once they had cracked the basic patterns!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 30th September
This week in Year 4 we have been busy devising, learning and polishing our performance of the poem ‘A Harvest Poem’ in preparation for our Harvest Festival on Monday. We have thought very carefully about how we can adjust the tone, speed and emphasis of our voices to convey our message of thanks to our farmers.
In maths, we have been rounding 2, 3, and 4-digit numbers to the nearest 10 and have been deliberately practicing our place value knowledge of number lines, adding and subtracting 1000 and ordering numbers.
We have been thinking all about how particles of a liquid, solid and a gas behave this week in science and we explored through role-play how this could look under a high-strength microscope. This sets us up perfectly for our upcoming mini-experiment: can a solid and a liquid produce a gas? We will let you know how that goes next week!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 23rd September
In History, we have been delving deep into chronology to place when the Romans invaded Britain. We were so surprised to find that they came to Britain shortly after Jesus died and that they stayed for hundreds of years! Building on from our Stone Age study from Year 3, we couldn’t believe how much more relatively recently it was that the Romans were in Britain!
In Literacy, we put ourselves in Hogarth’s shoes and imagined his guilt about what he did to The Iron Man and then wrote a letter, in role as Hogarth, to his father explaining his thoughts and feelings. The children were incredibly thoughtful in their writing and really delved deep into Hogarth’s conscience!
This week in RE, we have been exploring the Trimurti– three prominent Hindu deities who represent the cycle of creation, preservation and destruction. We reflected on how these elements appear in many cycles in life and thought about the value of destruction in a cycle; without leaves dropping in Autumn on a fruit tree, there would be no new leaves or fruit the following year. The children were impressively thoughtful and reflective when talking about the wonders and sometimes sadness of destruction.
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 16th September
We’ve really go stuck into all things Year 4 this week!
The class have settled so beautifully and are becoming familiar with our systems and routines.
This week, we have been exploring different deities in our Hinduism unit in RE and how each deity represents a different side of Brahman (Hindu God). We liked this to how Prince WIlliam’s different roles show a different side of him and how we all have different roles in our own life – but like Brahman, we are still one person.
In PE, we have been looking at Rugby and how different ways of moving can help us to get past our opponents. This came together wonderfully in a game of Octopus Tag, where it became increasingly difficult to find a way through.
In computing, we have been learning all about networks and how we can all be connected via the internet, in internal and world wide systems.
I wish you all a restful Bank Holiday and I can’t wait to see what next week brings!
Mrs Le Templier
Friday 9th September
What a marvellous first week of Year 4 we’ve had!
We have delved deep into the world of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and have used what we have unveiled to ignite our learning in reading and writing. So far we have already used expanded nouns phrases to write an accurate character description of the Iron Man and have begun to describe the coastline where he fell apart!
In Maths, we have started to unpick the nitty-gritty of 4-digit numbers by exploring place value and what each digit and number really means when dealing with numbers in their thousands.
In Science, we have been thinking about States of Matter – solids, liquids and gases. We have observed what makes something a solid, a liquid and a gas and we have felt our way to classifying objects depending on their state – or even states) of matter using a real-life Venn diagram. The children were wonderful at asking probing questions to ensure and challenge their understanding of the different states. We discovered that a bottle of hand gel is comprises of all three states! The children even told me that a cut (but not dead) flower is both a solid and a liquid, leaning on their knowledge of plant structures from Year 3. Very impressive!
After such an incredible start to the year, I can’t wait to see what this year will bring.
Mrs Le Templier