Year Four Blog - Paused

At the end of the 2023/24 school year, we are pausing the use of this blog space. For further information, please see our school's main website: www.crosshalljunior.co.uk. 

March in Year 4

What a busy month Year 4 have had. From dressing up for World Book Day, becoming rock stars for our TT Rock Stars day and wearing red for Comic Relief it seems our uniforms have not had a huge amount of wear! All of these exciting activities while still learning about fractions, play scripts and states of matter to name a few.

World Book Day 

Although we had celebrated our love of books and reading in the Autumn Term with our book week, we couldn't see the official World Book Day go past without celebrating again! On Thursday 7th March we all dressed up as something connected to books and enjoyed sharing our outfits and creating story cubes and short stories using these with our CJS families in the afternoon.

Play Scripts

While dressed up for World Book Day, we were lucky enough to have one of our parents, who is an actor, join us to run a workshop. This aimed to help the children understand more about how a play script is used to produce a performance and direct actors, supporting them to write their own play script based on a Horrid Henry story.

International Women's Day

On Friday 8th we marked International Women's day by researching and creating a poster about Grace Hopper in each class. She was a computer scientist and mathematician, who was involved in developing  a computer programming language still used today.

Science Day and Comic Relief

Friday 15th had us all celebrating the wonders of science with our science day while dressed in red to raise money for Comic Relief. The theme for this year's science day was time and Year Four were able to participate in a workshop looking at a timeline of different electrical inventions and used themselves to create a circuit diagram. They also found out about some endangered animals, including some which we had never heard of such as the Humphead Wrasse which could reach 180cm long! We also carried out an investigation to find out how the length of a pendulum affects the number of swings it does in a minute.

TT Rock Stars Day

Year Four have been busy all year working on their Times Tables knowledge ready for the National Multiplication Tests all year four children now take in the summer term. The Year Four area was turned into a disco and everyone dressed as rock stars and spent the day participating in lots of fun times tables activities to allow them to see how far they have come in their journey to Times Table Rock Heroes. Some parents were able to join us and get tested themselves by their children, sorry parents! Everyone looked amazing and showed why they should be so proud of themselves for their hard work.

Belfast Bonus Day

4CHe learnt a bit more about St Patrick's day as part of their Belfast bonus day and made their own shamrocks, which looked amazing!

After such a busy month the children now have a well deserved Easter break. We hope you all enjoy the holiday and come back ready to see what April will bring.

February in Year 4

 February

In February, Year Four worked extremely hard to earn their well-deserved break.  We hope you enjoyed the time off and now feel refreshed ready for the second half of Spring term.  Below are a few highlights from February. 

PE

In February, the children continued to enjoy their PE topic - points of balance.  We integrated the equipment to show transitions between different types of balances. Look how amazing we are! 

 

Internet Safety Day

On Tuesday 6th of February, along with lots of the world, we took part in Safer Internet Day.  Year Four showed their knowledge and understanding of how to be safe online and how technology has changed over time. 

English

We have just begun our new topic in English and we are looking at play scripts! On Monday, Year Four enjoyed their sparky start looking at the Twits story which will be used throughout this term. 

Science

Our topic this term is all to do with states of matter. This will help us to solve a mystery problem in our final lesson! The children thoroughly enjoyed observing what happened to the ice hands over the course of the afternoon and discussing which parts would melt first. 

We are currently half way through the academic year. We thoroughly look forward to what the second half of Year Four will bring!

January in Year Four

 January

We have had a great start to the year in Year Four with lots of fantastic learning taking place. At the beginning of the year, we looked at New Year's resolutions and made targets for the year ahead. 

At the start of January, we undertook the OUMTC (Official Unofficial Multiplication TimesTable Check) provided by TTRockstars to help prepare the children for the official government-provided test later on in the year. Children had six seconds to answer each question and had 25 questions to answer in total. Lots of children have been working extremely hard to meet the expectations of knowing all their timetables up to 12 x 12 and many children were achieving 25/25 - well done to all! 

In computing, we have been looking at creating audio using a range of devices. We have looked at various recording devices and have challenged children to create their own audio recordings via GarageBand and edit them. We also hope to use the fabulous new podcast room to record and edit some of our dairy entries in English later this month.  

In geography, we have been working hard to learn all about the United Kingdom and its capital cities. We have been using our map skills to locate counties and identify where we live on our own maps. 

 

In P.E., the children have been super enthusiastic about our topic of balance. The children have been learning about the three principles of balance and creating some wonderful sequences. We have been amazed by the children's creativity and skills. 

We look forward to the month ahead! 

December in Year Four

December In Year Four

Design Technology - Our design project linked back to the work we had completed in Science when studying electricity.  The children designed and made torches.

Computing - The pupils of Year Four learned about editing digital images using a variety of techniques.  

Science - We concluded our work on sound by making our own musical instruments!

 

Year Four's November

It has been another busy, but exciting, month in Year 4. We have started our photo editing unit in computing, enjoyed 'making noise' in anti-bullying week, and science, and used balloons to demonstrate knowledge of the Earth's invisible lines.

Anti-bullying Week

Children started the week by wearing their odd socks and designing some of their own. Although it was the first half of November, Christmas was already featuring in the designs! Classes participated in a live lesson, which helped them understand key features of bullying and what they can do to help themselves or someone else if they are being bullied by making noise. They also filled compliment cups and made pledges for what they would do to help keep bullying out of our school.

Science

In science, we have been learning all about how sound is made through vibrations. We made some straw pipes to help us understand how pitch changes depending on the size of an instrument. Longer, thicker pipes produced a lower pitch while shorter, thinner pipes were higher pitched.

Geography

Children have been reviewing and extending their locational knowledge in geography by reviewing their knowledge of the 7 continents and 5 oceans and drawing the invisible lines of the Earth on balloons.

Computing

Children have been creating their own photographic portfolio to demonstrate show the editing skills they have been developing. They have learnt how to crop photographs of each other on the iPads and used google photos to add filters to enhance some landscape photographs.

Times Tables 

Children are still working hard on their times tables learning. Lots more children have reached the top sections of our speed status board and now they are also focusing on their accuracy in sound-checks to join our 25 club. Everyone has been very excited to see how they have all been improving..

Year Four's October

Year 4

Year Four have had a super October! Lots of children have been working hard on learning their multiplication facts, which can be seen by many children moving along on the TT Rock Star display - well done Y4!

Art: Cave Art

This term, Year Four have embraced their artistic side by producing some brilliant Stone Age cave art.  Shown in the pictures are some examples of their final outcomes.

Book Week

Last week was Book Week, in which we had many exciting activities, including an author visit, books on tour, guess the reader, dressing up on Friday and many, many more!  Great effort from everyone - well done! 

PSCHE: Citizenship

Year Four have completed and thoroughly enjoyed their first topic in PSCHE of citizenship.  In one lesson, the children spoke about their needs and wants in life, also what they would need versus want to take to a desert island (as shown in the image below).  They understood that not every child's needs are met therefore there are laws in places to support this. 

In another lesson, they matched their rights with their responsibilities. Lots of children were shocked about their responsibilities!