Year 4

Yearly overview

Our theme for Autumn 2019 term is

"Ancient Egypt- Who built the pyramids?"

We will be taking a journey along the River Nile, learning about its features and considering the question 'Who built the pyramids?' We will join Howard Carter's expedition as he discovers the "wonderful things" in Tutankhamun's tomb. We will also be learning about pharaohs, gods,the afterlife and what life was like for the Ancient Egyptians.

Autumn Term Class Letter.pdf

Some helpful documents and links for helping your child

cursivehandwriting.pdf

Newsround Keep up to date with the latest news.

Hit the Button Great for practising Times Tables, Division Facts and Number Bonds

The Children's University of Manchester Ancient Egyptian resources for KS2

Research Information about Egypt and the River Nile

Wednesday 6th November - Mental Health and Well-being with Gloucester Rugby Club

Year 4 have started a six week Mental Health and Well-being programme which is being delivered by Gloucester Rugby Club. The children will be learning about the '5 ways to well-being' and how following these principles will improve physical, emotional and mental well-being. In today's session the children learnt about the importance of connecting with people and having face to face interactions in world dominated by social media and technology. They enjoyed creating friendship handshakes and then discussed the skills required to strike up new friendships such as eye contact, smiling, listening and positive body language.

Friday 11th October - One legged balancing - it is harder than you think!

Friday 27th September - Creating Dancing Egyptian Paperchains

Summer 2019 - Pigeons and Pumps!

Our topic for the summer term is Pigeons and Pumps! This is an exciting new topic for Year 4. We will be discovering and exploring the rich history of Cheltenham and its importance as a Spa town.

Did you know, Cheltenham's first healing spring waters were discovered by pigeons pecking at the ground!

Summer Term Class Letter.pdf

On Monday, we were all involved in an active play session led by two instructors from Kings Camp. We had a lot of fun and learnt some great new playground games.

Thursday 20th June - Gymnastics

Year 4 were invited to a gymnastics session at Rowan Gym Club. The children practised handstands, cartwheels, forward rolls and enjoyed getting to experience a sprung floor as well as using equipment such as the bars and trampoline. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and really improved their gymnastic skills.

Thank you to Mrs Dove and Dave for coaching us!

Sports Day 2019

The rain stayed away and we had an amazing time at our Sports Day!

Everyone tried their best in all activities and the end result was really close however Warwick were this year's winners. Well done Year 4!!

Forest School

Year 4 are loving their time at Forest School. Every week they are involved in a variety of activities such as; leaf rubbings, making nests, mini-beast hunts, building shelters, making bracelets, climbing trees and of course getting muddy!

Friday 7th June - Cheltenham Science Festival

Today we went to the Cheltenham Science Festival (in the pouring rain!). We went to a talk by Jon Chase on the science of Roald Dahl. We learnt that it would have taken over 2 million seagulls to lift the Giant Peach, which would have had to have been over 12 metres in diameter to float in the water as Roald Dahl described. We discovered that in reality it takes 21 helium filled balloons to lift one true size peach from the ground.

We also learnt how George would have been able to make his magical potions change colour using red cabbage juice as an indicator for acid and alkali liquids in George's Marvellous Medicine! Other scientific facts were based around the stories of The Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We then went to The Discovery Zone where we investigated how boats travel through locks, programmed robots, flew paper airplanes, and much more.....we even ate meal-worms!!

Residential to Deanfields!

On 15th May we travelled to the Forest of Dean for a two night adventure at the Dean Field Studies Centre. We waved goodbye to our parents and set off for a fun-filled time surrounded by nature. We participated in many activities such as climbing, tunnelling, forest walks, minibeast hunts and pond dipping (or sunglass fishing!) During our few days away, we developed our teamwork skills and showed many of our core school values - especially perseverance - in order to overcome many personal and physical challenges.

Our fantastic PowerPoints are available below for you to view...

Christian Arts Festival Theatre Visit

Year 4 were lucky enough to visit Sale Church today along with year 3 to see a theatre production by the 4front theatre group. They performed A Fisherman’s Tale, a lively and enjoyable play about how Jesus helped the fishermen who were struggling to catch fish and later went on to become his disciples. Through laughter and song, the miracles Jesus performed were retold along with how his disciples then betrayed him before finding peace through his resurrection. A thoroughly enjoyable morning with an important message!

The Wilson

We visited The Edward Wilson Gallery for a fascinating insight into Cheltenham during the Georgian period. We enjoyed dressing up in Georgian clothes and looking at the various artefacts. We learnt all about the 'fan language' which was used by wealthy Georgian women.

St Mary's Church

We visited St Mary's Church which is the oldest building in Cheltenham dating back to the mid 11th century. There is a stained glass window called the Rose Window. It is very beautiful but has a deliberate mistake. Can you spot it and explain why?

Spring 2019 - 'Vikings - Raiders or Traders?'

Our topic for the spring term will be looking at whether the Vikings deserved the reputation that they have today. We will look at the trade routes that they established and the legacies that they have left in modern Britain today.

Important days to remember this term!

We have a busy timetable this term with lots of activities happening during the week.

children will need kit for:

Swimming on Tuesdays
Indoor PE on Wednesdays
Outdoor PE on Thursdays

It would be helpful if children had their full PE kit in school throughout the week should we need to change our timetable for any reason. With the weather turning colder, children will need to have navy blue tracksuit bottoms and a sweatshirt in their PE kit, they may even wish to have a pair of gloves!

Monday 25th March- Climbing To The Top!

In the spring sunshine, Year 4 took on a new challenge today! They were faced with a 9m climbing wall and every member of the class took on their own personal challenge. For some it was climbing slightly higher than they thought they could get, for others it was the mission of getting to the top, while for the most adventurous it was to see how fast they could reach the summit. Every child completed their challenge with great determination and a smile! Before climbing, the children spoke about this terms value of perseverance and how this would help them to keep going and take on their challenge.

World Book Day!

Viking drama workshop Monday 25th February

We really enjoyed our drama workshop with Etheldren from The Freshwater Theatre Company.

Children found out how Anglo-Saxons built their houses, what jobs they did and what they did in their leisure time.

We loved re-enacting the story of Beowulf. It was gruesome!

String Telephones!

Who needs a smart phone when you can use a cup and a piece of string! We have been investigating how sound travels and noticed that when you speak into a cup at one end of the string telephone it can be heard at the other end. We are now able to explain this process using lots of scientific vocabulary!

Year 4 Artic Alive Morning!

On Tuesday 12th February we learnt all about the Artic Circle and Global Warming.

We loved using a giant sized map, which covered most of the hall floor. We also did some experiments with ice, compared the Artic with Antarctica and played the Explorer Sleeping Bag Race! It was great fun; even our Teachers discovered a lot!

Thursday 31st January

Gymnastics Success!

A team of Year 3 & 4 children took part in the 'Key Steps Gymnastics' competition at Rowan Gym Club. They completed both floor and vault routines and their scores went towards both team and individual results. Lexie proudly returned to school with a silver medal in the vault!

Well Done, we are very proud of you!

Viking Armour!

We were lucky enough to borrow some artefacts from the Wilson gallery in Cheltenham. We tried on the Viking armour and experienced how heavy it was! We don’t think we would have been very good going into battle!

Dance Lessons!

Wednesday afternoons are are busy for us in Year 4! Before learning to play the violin, we have dance lessons with Tanya. She has been teaching us lots of different moves from a variety of dance genres. Some of the moves have been easy while others we have found quite challenging and had to persevere until we get them right. We hope to be able to perform our dance to other classes in school when we have finished.

Violin lessons!

We have been making amazing music on Wednesday afternoons! We started by learning how to hold the violin and pluck the strings. We found out the different thickness strings made different notes. After week 2, we learnt how to hold the bow and use the bow to play different notes. We are looking forward to inviting parents to listen to us performing in a few weeks when we have learnt even more!