Mrs Shires - sshires@st-peters.wakefield.sch.uk
A big welcome to year 4, we are really looking forward to working with your child and you throughout the year. Our classrooms may have changed a little and some things will be different but our amazing topics and fun curriculum will still be as exciting and engaging as ever. We will be updating the class pages with photos and the exciting things we have been doing as often as possible.
In year 4 we work as a team, we help and support each other as we become more independent learners. We have the St Peters Spirit at the heart of what we do and we are proud of our achievements big and small.
Our current topic is Coal Mining; we will be looking at how coal mining has changed throughout history. The children are already very keen on learning about how children and animals were used in mines, as well as learning about local coal mines. If you have any relatives that worked in the coal mines or have visited the coal mining museum these are good things to be talking to your child about.
In Design and Technology we will be making a wearable mining lamp hat, we are thinking about the materials to use and what will work best.
In literacy our focus book will be The Firework Makers Daughter and the journey that Lila takes. We will learn how to write expanded noun phrases and describe characters and settings.
Our Maths focus will be numbers and the number system introducing number work to include numerals over 1000. By the end of year 4 the children will be expected to know all of the times table and in June they will take a short times table test. The children can practise their times tables by using the Times Table Rock Star website, this helps to improves the pace as well as the table skills. The children can even challenge Mr Gunning and Mrs Shires to a times table battle!
PE days are Tuesday and Thursdays. Please send your child in their PE kit on PE days and they will stay in it all day. All items should be named. Outdoor kit is required at the moment.
Spellings are been done in school every morning so your child will not be bringing home a spelling book.
Reading is a very important skill that the children need to access all areas of the curriculum, you can support us with your child’s reading journey by listening to your child read for 10 minutes every night. This can then be recorded in the reading record.
Mathletics activities will be set for homework on a weekly basis.
We have had a great start to the year and the children have settled in to year 4 with no problems.
We have used The River by Valerie Bloom as our performance poetry unit. We have planned, prepped and performed the poem. Here are the finished poems.
We are inspired by David Hockney's swimming pool pictures. We have created little pictures and then worked together to create a big art.
We have been learning to play the ukulele this half term and although we are not able to host concerts in school at the moment, Mrs Shires thought it would be lovely for parents to see the children perform. Parents were invited to watch the performance live via Teams, and it was recorded too. You can watch it here.
We enjoyed working from the wordless picture book FLOOD. Here are some of the photographs of us using drama to convey what the author was telling us in the pictures.
We have had enjoyed our topic Invaders and Raiders this half term. In science we learnt about sound and made Viking ear defenders. Our Viking day was a big success and we could fit the whole class in our long boat.
We have had a buzzing good time making our own games with buzzers, lights and learning how circuits have to be complete.
4SS are developing their rugby skills, we can side pass, move with the ball and are beginning to understand the rules of the game.
We have now planned, made and evaluated our miners lamps and hats. We have recognised what worked well and where we would need to change our designs if we did them again. We used a variety of materials to put them together and have learnt new joining skills and which work best for different materials.
4SS have enjoyed looking at the mining lamp a class member brought in. Our topic on mining is getting off to a great start.
Over the next few weeks 4SS and 4MG will be designing a miner's lamp. The children are coming up with some great ideas, please could you help us by donating boxes, tubes (not toilet rolls), paper/plastic cups or plates and any other reusable items. Thanks