Parables and Parenthesis

This week began with us finishing of our discussions on deforestation and completing a warm write of the same text type. Although this has possibly been the trickiest text type so far the year the children really did themselves proud! Every one showed some form of progress from the cold write and learnt one (if not more) grammar skill. Having finished our discussions unit we will now be moving onto performance poetry and possibly in the form of rap.

Maths has been all about focusing on the aspects of fractions that we are finding tricky and many of the children have proven to me that they are ready to move on.

During RE this week the children looked at the parable of the lost son and used drama to recreate each scene by splitting into groups...

 During theme this week the children have been looking at lines of latitude and longitude and how this may give clues to the climate of a country. We compared the climate of Madagascar to that of Colchester. 

During science the Year 4s investigated the four different types of human teeth and thought about how we can tell if an animal is a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore by its teeth...

Discussions and Digestion

This week in class four we have been getting our teeth into our discussion writing about deforestation. Discussions as a text type can be a little bit tricky but the children have done very well to grasp the main structure. We are now almost finished writing our discussions as we look to write 2/3 paragraphs for both for and against arguments. 

Maths has been focused on fractions of amounts and comparing fractions. Both of these proved to be tricky at the beginning of the week but much progress and confidence was shown along the way. We will be continuing these two areas into next week to really make this understanding concrete. 

During theme we have been thinking about where humans first settled many thousands of years ago. From this the children organised different natural factors into groups thinking about whether they were positive or negative in terms making a settlement near them.


During science this week year four conducted a scientific demonstration of how the digestive system works. This involved using a plastic bag for the stomach; crackers and banana for food; water and orange juice for saliva and acid; tights for the small intestine and cups for the large intestine. The demonstration took us all the way from food entering the mouth to it coming out as poo.

 

Forests and Fractions

We have have a lovely first full week in Class 4 and have settled back into our full working rhythm again. In English we have spent a few lessons researching deforestation, interview key people and debating. The children created posters about the for and against arguments of deforestation in preparation for our writing next week...

In maths we have been looking at fractions of amounts and equivalent fractions. The children have already shown confidence in this area after citing it as a bit of a scary subject. Next week we will continue with fractions of amount and equivalence but start to moving into comparing and ordering fractions for some children.

In theme lessons we have been looking at plotting countries on maps using atlases. The children estimated the location before researching in the atlas. This brought about some fantastic conversations about continents, country independence, land locked counties and a country's change of name. RE this term will be focus on parables and the children looked at the meaning of a few on Tuesday.

I can also not write this blog without mentioning the one year anniversary of the 'Angry Carrots'. A story created by some of the children last year in a grammar session which is still being talked about and used one year on....

Notices: Could I just put out a reminder that if for some reason a child is unable to do PE, they need a note which they can produce to the person leading that session.

 

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everybody! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Although we have only been back at school for two days, we have already well and truly started our learning for the half term.

The whole school theme this term is Africa and Class four will be focusing on Madagascar. This theme will run through all of our learning when possible. English this half term will be focused on discussion texts, specifically thinking about deforestation. We will also cover performance poetry linked to Africa.

Maths will be entirely focused on fractions this half term for which we have already completed a cold task.

Notices:
- PE is now on a Monday (squash) and Thursday (fitness), so could all PE kits be in by Monday please.
- New spelling and maths homework will be handed out next week
- We will be trialling a new times table website for which a letter will be going out next week.