Lomeshaye Junior School

Hello and as-salamu alaykum to you all!

This term in Year 4, we have worked extremely hard to develop and acquire new skills.

In writing, we have been busy preparing to write a persuasive text all about water pollution. We have acquired new grammar skills, such as using complex sentences with if/ therefore subordinating conjunctions and using Standard English. During the gathering content phase, we have been developing the skill of note taking to help us with research for writing a non-fictional report and linking ideas across paragraphs.

In maths, we have focussed on place value, developing the skills of rounding, ordering numbers including decimals on a number line and investigating positive and negative numbers. Most recently, we have been completing a unit of work on multiplication and division, looking at different strategies depending on the numbers involved in the calculation. These include mental strategies, using partitioning to double or halve using known facts and using formal methods such as the grid method for multiplication and chunking for division.

In science we completed our Electricity unit of learning and have most recently been learning about Living Things and their Habitats. We have been studying the characteristics of all living things and learning how to group or classify living things based on their characteristics. These groups include plants and animals, vertebrates and invertebrates and mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds.

In History, we have been learning about the Romans in Britain. We have been investigating why they came to Britain, the three invasions of Britain, different Roman leaders, resistance to Roman occupation and the legacy that the Romans left behind. We enjoyed studying different primary and secondary sources and writing a diary entry from the point of view of a Briton living in Rome discussing the importance of Roman achievements in Britain and the legacy this has left.

 In RE we have studied Christianity. Our driver question was, ‘How should we live our lives?’ and we have been learning about how Christian teachings in the Bible influence the way Christians live their lives and the decisions that they make. We have been learning about the important value of sacrifice within Christianity and how Jesus showed sacrifice through the Easter Story in the Bible. Our PSHE learning has focused on Health and Wellbeing, discussing the importance of looking after our physical and mental health and strategies we can use to support this.

This term in Year 4, we have worked extremely hard to develop and acquire new skills.

In Reading, we have been exploring a range of fantasy texts, analysing the features and language that the author uses to create atmosphere. We have been using the context of the text to work out meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary as well as making inferences about a character’s thoughts, feelings and actions.

“I have really enjoyed looking at fantasy texts such as the Hobbit and Lothlorien, as the author creates such a magical atmosphere”- RS

 In Writing, we have been busy preparing to write our fantasy narrative based on our class text, ‘The Dragon Machine’. We have acquired new grammar skills, such as  using complex sentences with adverb openers and expanded noun phrases. In the gathering content phase, we have been looking at how to create characterisation and setting descriptions, using vocabulary to create atmosphere.

 In Maths, we have focused on time and shape. We have developed our knowledge of analogue and digital time and can now tell the time up to the nearest minute! Test your children at home so they can show off their new amazing skills. They have also been evolving their understanding of shapes by using the properties (faces, edges and vertices) to identify and sort 3-D shapes including, hexagonal prisms, cuboids, cylinders and pentagonal pyramids.

In Science we investigated electricity, our driver question was, ‘How would we cope without electricity?’ We started by finding out what electricity is and what we need it for. Then, we debated which electrical appliances we wouldn’t be able to live without and provided reasons for our opinions. We also learned about the dangers of electricity. We used, wires, bulbs and batteries to make our own circuits and then drew these as diagrams. Finally, we investigated materials to find out whether they were conductors or insulators.

In RE we have studied Sikh Dharma. Our driver question was, ‘How do Sikhs express their beliefs and values?’ 

We studied a range of stories from the Sikh faith and identified the moral guidance that they contained. We made links between the morals of these stories and other stories that we have learned about from other faiths.

We looked at the symbol of Sikh Dharma and learned what each part of it means.

In Computing, we have been editing photos using an app called ‘paint’. We learned how to crop an image using the select tool and then we used the lasso tool to crop a more precise part of the image. We then inserted our cropped image onto a background.

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