This week in year 4 we have begun to explore our new topic Roman Rampage. In English we have begun to explore Roman gods and goddesses through myths and in history we looked at the timeline of the Roman Empire and how far they conquered. The children have really enjoyed beginning to explore this new area of learning. 

We have begun our year 4 maths looking at the place value of numbers up to 10,000. The KIRFs for this half term have been put up on the class dojo, so please do work on these at home.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Horton

We’ve had another wonderful week in Year 4. We have continued to explore colour through our English work the book ‘The Day The Colours Quit’ and through science by experimenting with skittles and water. In maths we have continued to recap some year 3 place value objectives ready to move into the year 4 curriculum next week. We are also enjoying our extra time in forest school. 

The children have taken on their first year 4 responsibility by helping to film mini videos about what they love about Tardebigge First School for our virtual open day. It’s great being able to see them enjoy a year 4 responsibility.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Horton :)

What a lovely week it has been again in Year 4. The children have continued to settle in beautifully and it is wonderful to see their smiling faces every day.

We are currently exploring ‘colour’ through lots of our learning, from reading The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, to writing in the style of the author, growing rainbows in science, and exploring tints, shades and tones in art. We will continue this next week.

This week we welcomed Miss Cowels into the year 4 bubble. Miss Cowels has worked with Tardebigge before and is thrilled to back working with us. A passion of hers is art and she can’t wait to explore this with the class.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Horton :)

Thank you for such a wonderful first week back, Year 4. We know that lots of you felt quite nervous to come back to school and so we are extremely proud of the way you came in so sensibly on Wednesday morning and the huge smiles we saw! We have really enjoyed catching up with you all and have enjoyed hearning the news you have shared. Have a very well deserved rest this weekend! 

Mrs Horton and Mrs Stevens 

This week we have celebrated British Science Week across the school! The theme for this year was 'Our Diverse Planet', and the children have taken part in a range of scientific activities linked to this theme.

On Monday, Year 4 explored how animals use camouflage. After discussing ideas of which animals have camouflage and why, they created their own camouflage butterflies by colouring in paper butterflies to match different surroundings around the classroom. Some were very tricky to spot!

On Tuesday, we had a visit from some chemistry scientists from the University of Birmingham. The chemistry experts set up an experiment involving milk and food colouring; the children observed how the fat and food colouring would repel from a cotton bud dipped in washing up liquid, which created some amazing patterns.

Wednesday saw the whole school engage in different experiments in different classrooms. The children travelled between 5 different classes throughout the day and got some experience of creating a boat to carry weight, using magnets, test balloon rockets and exploring resistance in different liquids. It was wonderful to see so many parents and grandparents come back into school at the end of the day to give it a try too!

On Thursday, Year 4 learned about one of history's most important figures, Alexander Graham Bell. The children learned how he studied sound from a young age, how his parents inspired him, and how he came to eventually invent the telephone. After learning facts about his life, everybody wrote a biography for Bell. It's impossible to imagine what the world would be like today without his invention! In the afternoon, the children explored some diverse places on Earth, particularly focusing on Antarctica. They learned about how Antarctica was discovered, and then created a powerpoint about the things we would need to explore this frozen continent and how we would survive!

The past two Friday mornings have been wonderful in Forest School! The children have loved playing in the outdoors, with some children getting particularly muddy and others getting totally covered! Next week, Forest School will be cancelled due to the Mothering Sunday service and activities. We look forward to seeing lots of family members on Friday morning to do crafts and for the children to share their song in the service. 

Have a great weekend,

Mr Bennett

World Book Day! - On Thursday this week, we celebrated World Book Day in school. I have never seen such a stripy classroom, it was like we had an unusual new uniform of stripes and messy hair! The Beano and Dandy theme was really well received across the school, and lots of children who were unfamiliar with some of the lesser known characters enjoyed learning about them too. We had a cartoon drawing session in the afternoon where we used online tutorials to learn to draw Dennis, Gnasher and Walter, then the children used these skills to create their own new comic strip. We also spent a lot of time in the day discussing an listening to stories; Mrs Clarkson read Cliffhanger! by Jeremy Strong, Mrs Cutler read Into the Forest by Anthony Brown and I started reading My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons with the class, which we will continue for the foreseeable future. It has been great to hear the children speak so passionately about the books and authors they are currently reading.

Maths - We have finished off our focus on long multiplication and have just started moving into division. For now, the children are able to use times tables knowledge to help them divide (for example in calculations such as 66 divided by 3, when they can see that the tens and ones can easily divisible by 3). However, we will move onto more tricky examples over the coming week.

P.E. - We have began exploring gymnastics in P.E. and working in partners to create balances. For now, the children are exploring a range of balances they can construct together, but will son be weaving them into a sequence. They have worked hard to use tension and extension to get the most out of their different balances. 

Science - We have started learning about Sound this week. We have collated ideas that the children already have regarding how sound is made, how it travels and why we can hear sounds. Some children have started to notice in some of the experiments we have done that there are vibrations involved, which they began to understand is a big part of sound. Next week is British Science Week, and we will be sure to be taking part in much more hands on Science next week too!

Thank you to all who came in to parents consultations this week, it was a really fantastic opportunity to discuss the progress of all the children, as well as discuss how they are feeling about coming towards the end of their Tardebigge journeys and soon onto pastures new! Please get in touch if there are any other queries or questions throughout the remainder of the year.

The Cross Country Trials have now been rescheduled for Thursday 12th March, and will take place in the morning. We will leave the school promptly after the register. On Wednesday night, we will send children home with their P.E. kits and a jacket and jogging bottoms pair from school which they can come into school wearing the next day. They will also need to come in trainers, bring water bottles, and also bring their uniform to change into when we come back to school. If there are any other changes due to weather we will be sure to let you know. 

Have a fantastic weekend everyone,

Mr Bennett

English - The children are working towards writing their own 'escape story'. This week they started by looking at an example, and identifying the features to include in this text type. We focsued on two skills in particular; using speech punctuation and using a possessive apostrophe. The latter being particularly tricky when we use plural nouns, such as wolves, children and volcanoes.

Maths - Although we have been practising times tables frequently, we have moved onto further multiplication and division. This involves some tricky calculations; timesing 10 and 100, multiplying 3 numbers together, 2 x 1 digit and 3 x 1 digits. Everyone has really persevered as the challenges have got tough. Using the times tables has been necessary for the calculations, and quick recall has been particularly helpful!

Shared Reading - As a class we have been reading and discussing, 'The Captive Celt' by Terry Deary. The children have loved reading this historical fiction text, and enjoyed that there is a mix of fact and fiction throughout the story. This is one of the 'Roman Tales' series from Terry Deary, but he has also written a number of 'tales' from other periods in history that I'm sure many of the children would like to read.

Computing - Our new focus has been 'We are Music Makers' and the children have used a game called 'Isle of Tune' to create a range of sounds to build some music. This helped us learn about sequencing and building up patterns using software. The childrne have really enjoyed creating different sounds, and we even built this into our music lesson and combined the glockenspiels with the digital music.

R.E. - The children have been thinking about 'What sort of World would Jesus want?', and are starting to consider what sort of World they would like for themselves too. The children are considering our Christian values as part of their thinking, as well as many new ideas of their own!

It was such a shame that the cross country trials were cancelled this week, although considering the weather this was certainly the right decision! We will let you know when the trials will be rearranged for. Next Friday, we intend to start Forest School with Year 4 again. The children can come to school wearing their waterproofs and warm clothes ready for the session, although please can they bring any muddy wellies or boots in a bag to change into. I know the children will look forward to getting out into the fresh air on Friday, weather permitting! 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Bennett

English - We have been learning more about Pompeii in English. This week, the children have planned, written, edited and redrafted a setting description for the eruption. Phew! They have worked really hard and produced some wonderful pieces of writing. 

Maths - We have started learning more about multiplication and division, and focused on reinforcing some key facts; including what happens when we multiply a number by 0 and 1, and what happens when we multiply 3 numbers. We have also been doing a lot of times tables this week, which we will continue doing for the rest of the year. This will prepare the children for the MTC (multiplication tables check) later this year, as well as giving them quick recall of important multiplication facts that will hold them in good stead for middle school and beyond.

Science - We are lucky to have a set of microscopes in school! The class loved exploring the different materials under the microscopes; particularly looking at a wasp very close up!

Computing - This week we took part in Safer Internet Day. We discussed ways that the children keep themselves safe online, but also about their online identity. We discussed ways to make the internet a better place so people can feel free to be themselves. #freetobe

PE - We have done some more Cross Country practise today and I have been so impressed by the perseverence and determination of everybody in Year 4! I know they are all going to do us proud when we go to Birchensale on the first Friday back to do the Cross Country trials.

The children have worked really hard throughout this half term and have earned a well deserved rest this week! All the adults in Year 4 wish everyone a great week off and look forward to another exciting half term in a weeks time. 

Mr Bennett

We can't believe there is only one week left until half term, January has certainly flown by!

English - This week we have began learning about volcanoes. As we build to writing a description of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the disastrous effect it had on Pompeii, we have been focusing mostly on 'volcanic vocabulary' in order to build up some relevant words for our writing. We have read a variety of texts, including webpages, in order to develop this vocabulary. The children have picked up many volcano facts along the way!

Maths - We have been learning about symmetry this week. The children have worked really hard on spotting symmetrical shapes, as well as reflecting shapes along lines of symmetry.

Science - We have carried out an experiment to test different materials to see if they are conductors or insulators. In conclusion, the children found that the different metals that we tested were the most effective conductors, which explains why wires are often made from copper!

RE - We have watched a video adaptation on 'The calling of the first disciples', where Jesus performed a miracle to help the fishermen catch much more fish, even after a very unsuccessful trip. We then observed and discussed a range of artwork that depicts parts of the story, which inspired the children to have a go at creating their own piece of artwork with watercolour paints.

History - We have learned more about the three invasions of the Romans on Britannia, with the third one by Emperor Claudius being finally successful! We retold the story of each invasion using drama, then the children told this story again with drawings and writing in their books.

Some of the home learning that has already come into school has been brilliant! Thank you so much for all the support with the topic home learning tasks, and the continued support with reading and maths homework too. This weekend, the class have also taken home brand new home reading books, which are levelled to their Guided Reading band. The children are very enthusiastic to get stuck into their new books!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Mr Bennett

In History this week, Year 4 have learned more about the life of a Roman soldier and how the Roman army was so powerful. They identified necessary items that each soldier had to carry with them, including a gladius (sword), scutum (shield) and pila (javelin). The children learned how weapons that the Romans carried were often very different to that of their enemy, which along with a strict training schedule and rules, resulted in such a powerful army!

In Maths, the class have been learning about geometry. We have identified isosceles, scalene and equilateral triangles as well as a variety of quadrilaterals. 

In English, we are concluding our focus on Marcus the Roman soldier by redrafting and editing the diary entries the children have written from his point of view. I am so impressed with how well the class have taken on the role of this character, and particularly thought about his feelings at a time of war, something very difficult to imagine!

As part of our Electricity topic in Science, the children have learned about Thomas Edison. Having discovered facts about his inventions (the light bulb in particular), the class have made posters to display what they have learned about this fascinating inventor!

Finally, in PE this week, we have continued circuit training. The children are really enthusiastic about pushing themselves to the limit when training! They have enjoyed setting themselves a challenge and making little improvments to beat it. No doubt all this cardio will give them an added boost when it comes to cross country later this year!

Roman topic homework sheets went home this week, and we look forward to seeing lots of wonderful creations come into school over the next few weeks. The children have always been really proud to bring in and show their home learning, and we appreciate all the time and effort put in by parents and family members to support them.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Mr Bennett