ARCHIVED Year 4 Blog 2024/25

 Year 4 started a new topic all about pocket money. They learnt new vocabulary- items that pocket money is typically spent on. They sang a numbers song and revised giving opinions about different toys, saying whether they liked or disliked a particular toy. They then wrote their opinions to toys using a simple sentence structure.

 At the beginning of the lesson the children recapped what a regions is as well as the region they live in. They then played ‘Where in the World. They looked at key vocabulary such as protected, natural environment, landscape and working landscape.  Through pictures they identified the different physical features of National  Parks and some children talked about their visits to National Parks. As a class they came up with a definition that a National Park is a large area of land that is protected by law. Did you know there are 10 in England, 3 in Wales and 2 in Scotland.  Using an atlas the children then located different places on a map and then they used 5eir directional language and compass points to say where they are found. 

Today, Year 3 and 4 travelled to the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton to experience the wonderful Welsh National Opera performing live in a special Schools' concert. It was a great opportunity to see a production featuring such brilliant instrumentalists and vocalists, and the children recognised many of the songs performed from TV and films that they had seen. All of the children were brilliantly behaved and were a true credit to our school. Well done everyone!  

 Today in Computing, we were introduced to a brand new programming environment: Turtle Graphics. We loved finding out how to program using the text commands, and enjoyed making some fantastic patterns using the software. Please browse a selection below!

 This week in Maths, Year 4 have been subtracting AND exchanging using their column subtraction. It was pretty tricky at first but once the children understood that exchanging 1 10/100/1000 meant that they then had 10 more of a smaller column, it became a lot easier.  Take a look!  

 Today was the first lesson in Geography studying their new topic; United Kingdom - UK Region. Here is the journey the children will be taking.  The lesson started by recapping ‘sticky knowledge’ from previous learning. Then, they completed a game to identify a country from 4 photos.  This lesson was all about regions. The children were given a map of the school grounds where they had to locate the different regions in Opal. This supported the children to come up with a definition that a region is an area. From here, the class were introduced to the regions of the United Kingdom. Using maps, the children were able to discuss that regions are different sizes, shapes and that we live in the South East. They also discussed which one they thought was the wealthiest region and why as well as why we have regions. 

Today, we had the opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by Julia, who talked to us all about SCARF.  SCARF is the scheme that we have been using in our PSHE lessons this year. In the session today we learned how to: Identify personal strengths, skills, achievements and interests and how these contribute to a sense of self-worth; Think about personal identity and what contributes to who we are (e.g. ethnicity, family, gender, faith, culture, hobbies, likes/dislikes); Discuss problem-solving strategies for dealing with emotions, challenges and change, including the transition to a new school; Consider and understand reasons for following and complying with regulations and restrictions (including age restrictions); how these promote personal safety and wellbeing in relation to social media, television programmes, films, games and online gaming. We all really enjoyed the workshop, especially meeting Howard the SCARF giraffe!