Writing – Diary entries
We’ve really enjoyed writing our diary entries this week! We’ve been bringing our learning about volcanoes from Geography into our writing by writing a diary entry about the day a volcano erupted. We’ve been using expanded noun phrases to provide a detailed description and conjunctions to join clauses.
Elara was really proud of her writing, particularly when she reviewed it against the R2s (things we need to do to be successful.)
Elara’s writing skills continued to amaze me when the next day she wrote another diary entry. We will be editing and self-assessing these next week but you can already see how she has used more conjunctions and expanded noun phrases in the initial draft of the second diary entry. This time she also used her dictionary skills to correct her spelling mistakes.
Check back next week to see some more of our formidable writing!
Cross Country!
Over 40 of our Key Stage Two pupils recently took part in the East Leeds Cross Country Competition. From Year 3 races of 900m, to Years 5 and 6 running a whopping 1500m, these tough tasks were met with enthusiasm and brilliant attitudes from the children at St James. Every single child managed to finish their race, showing resilience and determination throughout. I was really impressed with how well children conducted themselves – they were brilliant role models for our school. Finally, a huge congratulations to one of our runners, Lily, who has qualified for the next round of the competition by finishing 6th in her race!
Reading – unfamiliar words
It was great to welcome you to our classroom this week to share some ideas of how you might practise times tables and reading at home. If you were unable to join us this time, please let me know if you would like to find out about the ideas we shared.
One of the ideas we looked at was what you can do when you come across an exciting or unfamiliar word when you are reading at home. In class we use a frayer model (pictured below) to gain a better understanding of a word. At home you could use one part of the model or discuss a couple of the parts.
For example, if you were reading part of our class novel, The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman, your child might not be confident with the meaning of the word “muttered”.
You could start by looking for clues in the text as to what it means by asking questions such as:
What other word could have been used in the sentence to make this make sense?
How do you think they might be talking? Would they be shouting? Whispering? Would they be excited? Nervous?
After your child has used the clues in the text, they could use a dictionary or an online search engine to research the meaning of the word.
You could talk about how the -ed suffix shows that it is in the past tense.
Finally, you could challenge your child to think of their own sentence using the word muttered. Alternatively, could they think of any synonyms (words with the same meaning) or antonyms (words with the opposite meaning)?
Geography – How are mountains formed?
In Geography this half-term, we are learning about natural disasters with a particular focus on volcanoes and earthquakes.
We have been fascinated to learn about the layers of the Earth and tectonic plates. On Thursday we investigated how mountains are formed. The children were challenged to read an explanation of how volcanoes can form mountains and to draw a picture that they could use to describe the process.
Help at home – Can your child use a picture to explain this process to you?
Writing – using conjunctions
In writing, we have been working hard to fix squashed sentences.
On Friday, we used our understanding of main clauses and subordinate clauses to use subordinating conjunctions. We used this image to help us recall some of the most popular subordinating conjunctions:
We used subordinating conjunctions to write sentences about natural disasters (linking to our learning in Geography). I think you will be particularly impressed with Alara’s sentences as she has used a subordinate conjunction in the middle of one sentence and a different subordinate conjunction at the start of the other sentences.
Help at home – if your child is interested in learning some alternative subordinating conjunctions, you could use this song from Grammasaurus to give them other ideas they could use in their writing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2Gyto5gTQ
Next week we will begin writing our diary entry about escaping from a volcanic eruption so there will be plenty of opportunities to show off all that we have learned about coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
Living and Learning – I know what a drug is and that some drugs can be harmful
This week in living and learning we have been discussing how medicines and household products can help us, what the risks are of using them and how we can reduce these risks.
Year 4 were unanimous in their appreciation of medicine as something which can help you “to get better” but noted the risks:
- that if you take too much of it you may become more ill
- that you could choke on a tablet
- you might be allergic to it.
Their top tips to minimise these risks are:
- keep it in a high drawer
- if you use a syringe look at the back of the box to see how much you need
- be slow when you take it
- always do it with your grown up
- ask the doctor if you are not sure
Help at home: discuss with your child how you store and access medicine at home to keep them safe. Can you work with your child to do a ‘safety audit’ around the house to find any risks associated with medicine or household products that could be mitigated?
Maths – Multiplying 3 numbers
On Thursday and Friday, Year 4 explored how to multiply three single digit numbers efficiently. We started with a maths story …
The children used the picture to help them to visualise the maths story and then recorded their method for calculating how many counters there were altogether.
As a team, we shared our different methods and discussed which ones were the most efficient.
Our oracy target this half-term is all about using others in the group. The class worked collaboratively to ensure that they explained their method. When other learners didn’t understand, they rephrased their explanation and used clear descriptions to help their peers visualise their method. I was really proud of how the children were brave and used our Christian Value of honesty to tell their peers when they didn’t understand their method. The children showed compassion to each other by being patient and explaining in a different way to make sure that we could all move forward together.
Having discussed and picked apart the different methods, we realised that the pictures helped us to do part of the calculation in our head but if we wanted to be able to calculate with bigger numbers or evaluate maths stories without a picture, it would be useful to find a method we could apply consistently. This lead us to investigate whether it mattered what order you multiply factors if there are more than two factors.
Great teamwork Year 4! What amazing mathematicians and collaborative learners you are!
Food Technology – egg pots
Today we have been busy making our egg pots. We learned lots of new skills including how to use a bridge cut to cut the tomatoes and how to open a tin of beans safely.
Back in class, we evaluated our product with some children reflecting that they would refine the recipe by including carrots or cooking and serving the ingredients separately.
Thank you for the donations made towards the ingredients, we are already looking forward to our next project in the new year.
Help at home: Try one of these recipes and let us know if any are particularly popular with your family.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/family-health/top-10-healthy-meals-for-kids
Art – collages inspired by the work of Zaha Hadid and Sir Christopher Wren
We have thoroughly enjoyed our learning this half-term about the work of architects Zaha Hadid and Sir Christopher Wren.
As well as learning about the work of these architects, we have also developed our art skills to use techniques such as tracing, using carbon paper and freehand drawing.
Having honed these skills, we created multiple pieces which we then combined to form a collage. The children have thought carefully about the use of technique, colour, space and the composition of their final pieces.
Each piece was truly unique and it was wonderful to see the happiness experienced during the creation of the collages!
Gymnastics – applying our learning to big apparatus
There was much excitement in Year 4’s PE lesson this week!
The children applied what they have learned about jumping and travelling to the big apparatus. They showed courage and resilience pushing themselves to achieve new personal goals in gymnastics.
They followed the rules to ensure that they kept themselves and each other safe. There was a great sense of pride in the room as we reflected on what we had achieved by believing in ourselves. A great opportunity to see our school vision being lived.