What a busy term Cherry Class has had! We have started swimming on a Friday (Cherry’s favourite time of the week!), began rehearsals for our production ‘When I Grow Up’ and visited the Roman Baths.
Similarly to this, Cherry enjoyed STEM Week and taking part in the science fair and meeting visitors who came in to speak about their STEM jobs- it was very interesting. Cherry did a brilliant job explaining their experiment focusing on viscosity to others really well. In addition to this, Cherry have absorbed our Science topic of electricity and have looked at how to make a successful circuit and where electricity comes from.
In Forest sessions, Cherry has spent time going on a nature walk, making hammocks, dens and using the fire to keep themselves warm by cooking and having hot chocolate.
In English Cherry has focused on improving sentence structure and cohesion within both fiction and non-fiction genres. At the beginning of the term, we wrote to entertain, continuing the plot from our class writing model based on the story, ‘The Great Chocoplot’. Later, Cherry wrote a newspaper article. Their focus was to inform readers on the impact of plastic pollution on our sea life.
Our Guided Reading lessons have also focused on ‘The Great Chocoplot’ before moving onto ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ -a very chocolatey theme this half term! Cherry has explored vocabulary, inferences, made predictions, developed our explanation answers and secured retrieval practice.
Cherry has found their Maths topic (length and perimeter) interesting and have used oracy to identify which objects would be measured with either centimetres, metres or kilometres. They have recapped times tables- with clear focus on the 8s. Please continue to practise these at home. Cherry has also recapped their division of 3 and 2-digit numbers by a 1-digit number through the bus stop method, as well as multiplying 3 and 2-digit numbers by a 1-digit number.
The History focus has been on The Romans. Cherry has used oracy tasks to learn about Roman culture and society and how the Roman Empire grew. They established where they came in history and what legacy they left behind.
Cherry’s PSHE focus was ‘Dreams and Goals’ and they have looked at what these are before exploring solutions, feelings and emotions that run alongside them. Also, Cherry now understand that dreams and goals may not always go to plan, and we may experience disappointment before we achieve. Cherry turned our RE focus back to Buddhism. We have continued to understand how Buddhists view life and have used stories to help us with applying this understanding.
Remember to keep up to date with Cherry Class on our Longvernal Facebook page.
Have a lovely and restful half term!
Miss Black
Logistics for Term 4
Tuesday – Forest (full forest kit to be in school)
Friday – Swimming
Homework
10 minutes Doodle Maths or DoodleTables
Learn their personal spellings (Friday – spelling test)
Complete a Journal entry
Read at least 3x weekly
Please learn any lines over the half term for our school production.
*Homework is checked on a Friday*
The Year 4 Times Table Check is fast approaching, please continue to rehearse timetables up to 12x12 as often as possible.
What a very busy half term for Cherry Class! We have enjoyed the lead up to Christmas with the Carol Concert and Christmas craft morning. It has been a busy, yet exciting Term 2.
In Maths this term we have heavily focused on our times tables. We have learnt both multiplication and division facts for several of our times tables applying our knowledge to reasoning and problem-solving questions. We also continue to use Doodle Tables to enhance our recall.
In our Guided Reading lessons we focused on the text, ‘Shackleton’s Journey’ as this closely links with our Geography topic of Antarctica. We have been able to retrieve and identify pieces of text that will support our explanations and inferences. Furthermore, we have learnt new vocabulary and applied this to our understanding in our Geography lessons. In Geography we have identified the physical features of Antarctica and how life can survive through adaptation. Later in the half term we discussed how global warming is affecting the continent.
In our English writing lessons, we have written both fiction (poem based on a season of our choice) and non-fiction (persuasive advert based on edible cups!). We worked together to collect relevant vocabulary to enhance our writing along with ‘deepening the moment’ through use of metaphor and simile. Why not ask us about what Edi-Cups are?
We have loved having Mr. Phillips teach us football in PE. We have worked upon our attacking and defending skills. In the forest, we climbed trees, built dens, cooked on the fire and whittled. Some of us also enjoyed making Remembrance themed God’s Eyes.
In PSHE we have built upon our BIG IDEA of Celebrating Differences and we are now able to define vocabulary such as: stereotypes, prejudice, unique and judgement. In RE we have developed and deepened our knowledge of the Nativity story, with a main focus on symbolism.
Remember, to keep checking the Longvernal Facebook Page to see what Cherry Class have been up to!
I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
Best wishes,
Logistics for Term 3
PE – Friday afternoon (SWIMMING)
Forest – Tuesday afternoon Homework
Homework continuation into Term 3- Children are to learn their personal spellings, read a minimum of 3 times a week (recorded in their reading log), complete a scrapbook style journal entry and complete 10 minutes of Doodle Maths or Doodle Tables. Ideally, children need to practise their times tables as often as possible.
Cherry Class have settled exceptionally well into Year 4 life and we have had lots of fun grasping new topics across the curriculum.
In Maths, we have worked hard to build upon our place value knowledge, learning the value of digits, adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000, as well as learning Roman numerals and ordering and comparing numbers to 10,000. We have also been spending a lot of time practising our times tables.
In English, we have enjoyed writing a narrative based on ‘Feast’, a short Disney film. We have introduced new writing techniques and recapped previous ones. Guided Reading lessons have allowed us to explore ‘Roar’, which we are also enjoying as a class novel. We also focused on novels and non-fiction texts based on inspirational black people, such as Nelson Mandela, during the month of October to recognise Black History Month. We have focused on making links between books, retrieving information and defining new vocabulary. We have also finished our holiday brochure about Sicily. We enjoyed our own plane ride in the classroom and taking part in an Italian tasting session to gather new vocabulary and visualise what Sicily might be like.
We have focused on fitness in our PE lessons, exploring how to improve our balance, agility and speed. We have used stop watches to look at how we can further our speed and have worked closely in teams to support each other.
In Forest we have been climbing trees, building dens and playing in the mud kitchen. Furthermore, we have created leaf mobiles, had s’mores around the fire and linked our session to a real life situation creating a shelter to support ourselves from rain and wind.
In History our focus has been the Ancient Greeks, we have explored who were the smartest Greeks, become familiar with who Alexander the Great was and identified what legacy the Greeks left behind, we have done all of this through a variety of oracy tasks, which has been great!
In PSHE, we have focused on ‘Being Me in My World’, we have had many class discussions on how we fit into our communities, and what democracy is and putting that into practice by voting for our class school counsellor.
Our Art lessons consisted of learning how to use shading to create a 3D image. We later developed tone, texture and proportion in our drawings.
A firm favourite of ours this half term has definitely been our Science lessons which focused on states of matter. We have learnt the properties of solids, liquids and gases and have been able to sort and group materials. We have carried out some investigations to identify how temperature affects state; focusing on melting point and also what the water cycle is and if temperature and location affect rates of evaporation.
I hope that you all have a great half term and come back feeling refreshed ready for the lead up to Christmas!
Keep checking the Longvernal Facebook Page to see what Cherry Class have been up to!
Best wishes
Logistics:
Homework – Children are to learn their personal spellings, read a minimum of 3 times a week (recorded in their reading log), complete a scrapbook style journal entry and complete 10 minutes of Doodle Maths or Doodle Tables. Ideally, children need to practise their times tables as often as possible.
Forest – Tuesday afternoon
PE – Friday afternoon
Welcome to Cherry Class!
What a lovely few days Cherry Class has had! It has been fantastic to begin teaching this wonderful class again and exploring life together in Year 4. The children have all settled back into school life so well and they have loved being back with their friends. The children have got straight back into learning new things and working hard.
We have started our place value topic in Maths, along with beginning to practice and rehearse our times tables (a huge focus for us this year!) In English we have started writing a narrative based on the short Disney film, Feast. The children are very excited to find out what happens as we get further into the plot. In Science we are exploring states of matter and are very much looking forward to making Oobleck to identify the differences between states! These are just a few of the highlights so far and there is much more to come so keep an eye on our Facebook page and website for further Cherry Class updates.
Important Information:
Tuesday – Forest
Forest school will take place regardless of the weather (unless extreme) so please can you ensure your child is wearing appropriate clothing (long sleeve tops and trousers) as well as bringing their wellies and waterproofs in a separate labelled bag to change in and out of, if necessary.
Thursday – PE
Please could children come into school wearing the correct PE kit (Longvernal P.E. t-shirt, black shorts or sports trousers and trainers). PE will be outside for the first term, so black Longvernal fleeces or green Longvernal jumpers can also be worn.
Homework –
Weekly (personal) spellings – your child will have these written down, and they will be tested on them every Friday.
Read a minimum of 3 times a week (recorded in their reading log)
Complete a scrapbook style journal entry
Complete 10 minutes of Doodle Maths/Tables
Practise their times tables as often as possible.
Finally, please could you give the office an up-to-date ‘approved pick up list’ for your child, which we can update in records. This should include anyone who may be likely to pick your child up at the end of the day. For safety reasons, I will not let your child go home with anyone who is not on the list or been discussed with either
myself or the office prior to pick up, regardless of whether the child knows the person or not. Thank you with your cooperation with this matter.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me either before or after school with any questions, or alternatively, my email is ablack@longvernal.mnsp.org.uk.
I am very much looking forward to an exciting year ahead!