Welcome to our Year 4 Class at St James’
Welcome to Year 4, my name is Mrs Conroy and I am the Class Teacher. Our Teaching Assistant in Year 4 is Mrs Judd. It will be a busy year in Year 4 with lots of fun and exciting learning experiences for the children.
Year 4 Noticeboard
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- Homework is given out each Friday and should be returned for the following Thursday.
- Spellings are handed out on a Friday and will be tested on the following Friday.
- Times table facts are given on a Friday and will be tested the following Friday. We have lots of online support links that we send home which can support with this learning.
- Accelerated reader – The children will read their reading books for 15 minutes every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The children can take their book home for extra reading at the weekend, but this must come back on Monday ready to read in class.
- PE in Year 4 is on Thursdays. Make sure you have your full St James kit.
- Please bring fresh water daily.
Autumn in Year 4
We have had a very busy term settling into our new classroom and our new routines. The children have been truly remarkable and an absolute credit to their families and our St James family.
In RE, we have been looking at People, Bridges of Reconciliation and currently we are learning about the important season of Advent.
In Science, the children have been learning about living things and their habitats with a focus on exploring and using classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment. Additionally, we have been researching significant people such as David Attenborough and understanding the impact of their work on our world.
Our history topic has been the Roman Empire and its significant impact on Britain. We began by researching the origins of Rome and analysing and interpreting sources of information in varying forms. We have been immersing ourselves in the life of a Roman soldier through a series of engaging and stimulating learning experiences. Furthermore, we have researched the significance of why the Romans wanted to invade Britain, important historical figures such as Boudica, performed her famous speeches and explored Roman inventions.
In English we have focused on texts such as The Thieves of Ostia and focused our reading, writing and performing around creating descriptive Roman settings, diary entries, playscripts, persuasive articles as well as newspaper reports based on the events of AD79 in Pompei.
In Mathematics we follow the White Rose scheme. This term we have focused on place value, addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. We have working hard on our reasoning and problem skills as well as learning our multiplications facts up to 12×12.
In Art, we have been studying illuminated letters. We explored the Book of Kells and created our own illuminated letters and zen tangles. We have been learning about the artist Klimt and creating art based on his style.
In November, we celebrated Remembrance Day by writing acrostic poems and making poppies and wreaths to help us remember the lives of those who gave us their day for tomorrow.
We have visit from local fire safety team and taken part in events for Children in Need. Year 4 also certainly enjoyed our snow days and had fun their Christmas party.
Spring in Year 4
The Spring term has been an exceptionally busy one for Year 4 and the children having been working incredibly hard.
In Science, we have been learning about teeth and carrying out an in-depth study of the digestion process. We had numerous opportunities for carrying out investigations which the children were particularly excited about.
Geography this term has been focusing on learning about volcanoes and earthquakes. Our term began by making and testing volcanoes followed by learning about the features and impact on humans and the environment. We were honoured to have a visit from Professor Richard Brown. He is Professor of Volcanology at Durham University. We sent him questions in advance from each of us and he prepared a detailed presentation to help answer them all. He brought with him huge volcanic bombs, magma, volcanic rocks and some even containing diamonds. Amazingly, we all received a piece of pumice which came from Mount Etna.
In Art, we have continued our work learning about the work of Gustav Klimt and the children culminated their learning by creating their own piece inspired by his style. The children created their own little gallery in the classroom.
Learning the times tables in Year 4 has been a particular focus this term. The children have been practising hard through games, songs and the Times table Rockstar Challenge to develop their rapid recall skills of the tables up to 12 x 12.
Additionally, we took part in the South Tyneside Music Festival in March at the Customs House, South Shields. The children worked tirelessly learning our songs and parts for the performance. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to take part in a renowned festival in our local area in partnership with other schools.
During this term we have also celebrated World Book Day and Red Nose Day. The children read the book Mother Earth is Weeping and created beautiful, rhyming poems based on the story. On Red Nose Day, we learnt why we celebrate this important day and where the money we raise goes. The children were eager to see how it helps those in our country and around the world.