Cardinals (Year 4)

Year 4 Music Production - YouTube

 

Check out our music perfomance.

Welcome to Year 4

 

Our class is called Cardinals. 

Cardinals are taught by Mrs Ryder (Mon to Thurs) and Mrs Walters (Fri).  Cardinals are supported by Miss Parsley. 

 

 

Things to remember:

Library will take place in class on a Monday.  Please remember to bring back your book each Monday, so you can choose a new one.

Spelling folders will be collected every Monday.

PE will take place on a Wednesday. Please come into school on Wednesdays wearing your PE kit. 

 

What a year it has been! We are so very proud of our year 4s and all their hard work through the ups and downs of the past few terms.

 

We will certainly miss them! Wishing all year 4s and their families a wonderful break over the Summer. 

 

The best of luck in year 5 - you are all amazing!

 

Mrs Ryder, Mrs Walters and Miss Parsley

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Term

Weeks 7 and 8

Year 4 have worked really hard over the past couple of weeks. Here are some of their adventures...

 

In English, we have learning the features of persuasive writing and the class have created their own theme parks! From Snake Island to Pokeland to Button Island and Puppy Park, they have been persuading the reader to come and experience an exciting day! We have learnt that rhetorical questions aren't necessarily to be answered but really persuade the reader. What are you waiting for?

 

In Maths, lots of us have been working hard to get another improvement star added to our Times Table board. This means that we have been learning our tables and improved from the previous week. We even get a reward when we collect 4 stars!

We have also been calculating and measuring the perimeter of shapes and had fun with our metre sticks on the playground.

 

In Science our new topic is SOUND! We have been learning that sound is created by vibrations - the louder the sound the bigger the vibration, the quieter the sound the smaller the vibration. We created a Science Show to help explain. Here are a few examples....

 

In topic we have been translating messages using hieroglyphs. We also made our own tombs and even the brain which gets taken out of mummies to prevent decay of the body. We left the heart inside because they would need it in the afterlife! 

 

Summer Term

Weeks 5 and 6

We are incredibly proud of our year 4s who have taken on challenges and pushed themselves right to the end of a busy half term. They definitely deserve a restful break!

Here is a taste of what we have been doing over the past couple of weeks...

 

In English, the class have written their own myths. This has got us thinking about: settings, the hero, the monster and what problem had to be overcome. We have used the skills we have learnt using figurative language and speech marks to make these pieces of writing as powerful as possible.

In maths we have been looking at written methods for division and putting our skills into practise with some word problems. 

As our states of matter topic has come to an end, we have finished by looking at the water cycle which involves solids, liquids and gases! Here are a few artistic collages of the water cycle:

 

In PE, we have been learning skills in rounders such as throwing and hitting a ball. These lesson are always fun as we end by having a class game! Cardinals have also been having a go at hurdles and sprinting where we have used a stopwatch to time ourselves and then try and improve each time. Look at Amal and Scarlett go!

 

 

Our topic theme continues to be Ancient Egypt but there is so much to learn! The class have really enjoyed the art activities inspired by this interesting period of time.

 

 

 

Mrs Walters, Miss Parsley and myself are so proud of this class who are a delight and lots of fun to teach. 

 

Whatever you may be doing this half term break, be safe, have fun and enjoy your time together.

 

Summer Term

Weeks 3 and 4

Cardinals have been curious and creative learners over the past couple of weeks and I'm excited to share some of our adventures with you... 

In English we have been continuing our topic on Roman Myths and the children have been learning how to use figurative language in their writing to make it more interesting for the reader and create a picture in their head. We have been exploring with similes and metaphors, and using drama to understand more about the feelings and behaviours of particular Roman Gods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a look at this myth opening we wrote together as a class...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In maths we have been learning how to interpret line graphs and have begun to explore negative numbers. It is really useful to think about where we might need these maths skills in real life; for example, when we need to measure the temperature to see if it's the right weather for ice creams!

We still continue to do some fun, fast paced fluency sessions each day to keep our basic maths skills up to scratch. We sometimes use a game called 'Daily Give Me Ten' which you can find at www.topmarks.com if you want to try it at home. 

 

We have been having lots of fun in science learning about States of Matter. Through investigations, we have discovered the relationship between solids, liquids and gases and have even had a go at acting out the particle behaviour! Probably one of our favourite lessons was learning about melting and freezing as we all got to eat melted chocolate on strawberries and marshmallows at the end - delicious! 

 

Here we are acting out gas particles that move freely with lots of space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are melting a cube of chocolate at different temperatures and using a thermometer and stop watch to record our observations.

We then did an experiment to see how tasty the chocolate was!

 

 

We are continuing our theme in Topic as Ancient Egypt and we have been learning about pyramids and making coffins and the mummies out of clay. We have spent some time looking at ancient artefacts that were discovered inside Tutankhamun's tomb and seeing what we can learn from this amazing time in history.

 

I look forward to updating you on some more of our learning here in year 4 very soon.

 

 

 

Weeks 1 and 2

Cardinals have had a smashing start to the term with lots of new learning, exciting topics and great pieces of work. Where to even begin sharing it with you all?!

 

In English, we have started a very exciting new topic on Roman Myths: Gods and Goddesses. Cardinals have had a look at some of the most famous Gods including; Mars - God of War, Cupid - God of Love and Saturn - God of Time. They even had a go at creating their own thinking carefully about their powers and special attributes.

 

In Maths, we have been learning about 12 and 24 hour time and how to convert between them. Cardinals have also explored working out the difference between two numbers within a word problem. Have you heard them rapping their 4 or 6 times tables yet? They are pretty good so ask them for a rendition!

 

In Topic, Mrs Walters has been creating some very exciting lesson based on our new theme: Ancient Egypt. The class have been archeologists digging for artefacts in tombs and creating their own passports to go on an exciting plane ride.

Miss Parsley has even turned herself into Tutankhamen this week in full outfit! We do love to have some fun!

 

I look forward to updating you on some more of our learning adventures very soon!

 

 

 

 

Autumn Term 2

Week 7-8

English 

We wrote our own adventures carrying on from Biscuit Bear. We focused on using a breadth of conjunctions, prepositions and time fronted adverbials, to meet the Year 4 Writing criteria.

 

ICT

We used our ICT videography skills to film us reading our Biscuit Bear adventure stories so that we could share them with children in KS1 at our school in a socially safe way. 

 

Maths

This week we learnt the method for long multiplication. We learnt the importance of fluently knowing our Times Tables as this massively aided our long multiplication method.

Art

We created our own 2021 calendars using our chalk pastel drawings or the Northern Lights.

Science

We designed poster titled 'All about Electricity' to showcase the knowledge we have acquired this half term.

Topic

We researched the famous landmarks in some of Europe's capital cities. We created drawings using chalk pastels and combined our science knowledge to make Lego versions using circuits to light the architecture up.

 

Week 5-6

English 

This week we started our new book focus on 'The Biscuit Bear' by Mini Grey. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be using this book as inspiration to write a similar story to children in KS1 at our school. 

We wrote diary entries from both the perspective of Horace (the baker) and Biscuit Bear (the biscuit). 

Maths

We moved our focus to telling the time and recalling facts related to time, such as how many minutes make an hour and which months have 31 days using the knuckle trick.

Science

We made our own simple circuits using a light bulb and buzzer. We then used our acquired knowledge that some metals are conductors of electricity, to make our own switches for our circuits using paperclips and split pins.

PE

This week we built on our knowledge of the different positions to make sure we weren't breaking the 5 rules of Netball. We focused mainly on footwork faults and the areas in which different positions are allowed to be in. We found this quite challenging at first, but with practice, we played a high-quality match, with very few foot or position faults given.

Topic

We used the iPads to research the capital cities in Europe, why they are significant and which buildings they have.

Week 3-4

English 

We finished our sequence of work on the book 'The King who banned the dark.' We wrote our own speeches, acting as the dark, trying to persuade people to write to the King to stop the ban on the dark. 

Maths

This week in Maths, we have been focusing on multiplying by 10,100 and 1,000 and dividing by 10,100 and 1,000. We have been using place value grids to help us to understand how many moves we need to make. 

Science

In Science, we wore headbands with different electrical components to illustrate the difference between an open (complete) and closed (incomplete) circuit. 

Art

We used our Topic of Europe as our focus and used pastels and glitter to make our own Northern Lights inspired pieces.

Topic

This week, we used atlases to name and locate all of the countries in Europe. We verbally rehearsed how to say these countries and pointed out that as they are all names, they all need a capital letter at the beginning.

 

PE

Our netball skills are ever growing! This week we learnt all about the different positions in Netball and locations on the court. We understood the importance of the different positions by watching a clip from the 2019 Netball World Cup, where players were penalised for breaking their position rules. 

Music

This week in Music, we started learning our Christmas Carol concert song, using xylophones and the piano to read the music.

Week 1-2

English 

This week in English, we started our new book 'The King who banned the dark' by Emily Haworth. We will be working towards a persuasive piece of writing surrounding banning the dark. We worked collaboratively to collate the positives and negatives of banning the dark, understanding ways we can use language to persuade.

Maths

Multiples of 6,8,9 and 25 have been our focus this week. We have been looking at answers which are seen in multiple times tables. We have been used verbal chanting to aid our memory of times tables as well as daily TT Rockstars practice.

 

Topic

Europe is the new focus for Topic this half term. We made our own globes, using our gained knowledge of the 7 continents of the world as a basis for where the continents should be placed. 

Science

We started our new focus on Electricity and thought about which sources of energy are renewable and non-renewable. We then used our knowledge of what electrical appliances we have at home and what life would be like if we keep using non-renewable energy and run out.

 

PE

This week we looked at our new sport's focus of Netball. We started off the unit by watching a World Cup Netball match and identified some of the features of the game. We then went outside and focused on our position when shooting. We out-stretched our non-writing hand to help with our aiming and held the Netball with our writing hand, just using the fingertips. 

Autumn Term 1

Week 5-6

English 

This week in English we started our new book ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope.’ 
We have been encouraging use of adverbs, powerful verbs and conjunctions (and, but, or).

Independently we designed our own Mythical creature who was travelling on our maps.

Maths

Our focus has been on decimals (comparing, estimating and rounding).

We have been using cherry models, number lines and place value grids to illustrate this.

Science

This week we researched positive and negative man made changes in our local environment. We will be writing a letter to David Attenborough all about what environmental changes we agree and disagree with in St Albans.

We also planted our own herbs, which have been our own responsibility to water and take care of them.

Topic

We researched what the Vikings wore and what materials were used. We then used this research to make ourself into a Viking creating the clothes from a variety of materials.

PE

This week we focused on tackling and defending in Hockey. We worked hard to improve our skills of changing the direction of the hockey stick quickly.

Week 3-4

English

We used our work on the wordless picture book, 'Journey' by Aaron Becker to write the words to go alongside the illustrations. We focused on the use of adverbs, prepositions and commas within lists. 

Maths

This week we focused on place value and comparing and ordering numbers up to 4-digits. We have been using number lines, cherry models, base ten and number sentences to illustrate this. 

Science

On Tuesday, we went on a mini-beast hunt within our school Forest Area looking for invertebrates. We found a caterpillar, snail, centipede, woodlice, ladybirds and spiders. 

We observed the invertebrates' features carefully and closely using a magnifying glass and classified what type of invertebrate it was that we found. 

We even used our class visualiser to zoom in on the different parts of a snail, which is a Mollusc, due to its slimy foot and shell features.

 

French

This week we have been focusing on colours. We made rainbows and labelled the colours. 

Topic

We researched the features of a Viking longship and wrote about why the longships were so effective for a speedy but silent transportation method for the Vikings. 

Music

On Wednesday afternoon with Mr Mitchell, we used a variety of drums to make a whole-class piece of music, using different speeds and hand motions.

Week 1-2

English

This week in Literacy we have been looking at a picture book called Journey by Aaron Becker. We have been using our inference skills to think about how the main character might be feeling during different events.
 

Maths

We started the term by reflecting on our key learning from last year (place value, times tables and time). We used different forms of representation to illustrate 3-digit numbers to compare, estimate and order.

 

PE

In PE we have started our unit of work on hockey. We have practice dribbling round cones and changing our speed to be more accurate.

 

Science

We introduced our topic of Living Things and their Habitats and used the mnemonic MRS GREN to describe the characteristics of all living things.

We then dissected a sunflower and identified its individual parts.

Topic

The journey of the Vikings started in Scandinavia and ended in Britain. We showed our knowledge on a map of Europe and explained that the reason the Vikings made this journey was due to the lack of farming potential in their homeland, leading to a settlement in Britain with fertile land. 

 

Art

We used our Literacy book as a focus and used chalk pastels to portray an event, using red or purple as a pop of colour, which was a technique mirrored in the book.

We also made our own chalk pastel Van Gogh based on his piece Starry Night.