It’s been a wonderful week in which we have welcomed the children back into school.

They have been working extremely hard….catching up with all their peers and embracing their learning.

The health and wellbeing of the children is our priority over the coming weeks.  We have a series of planned activities woven into our curriculum to ensure that we are managing as positively and as sensitively as possible the transition back into school which may well be a challenging aspect for our children to face. Our aim is to make the transition as smooth as possible for each and every child.

As part of this transition back, each day we have walked or run many laps of the school field – completing our school mile!   We have noticed that the children have become a little faster at getting around the field…keep this up children!

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day – the children were dressed in an array of costumes – Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara came as characters from ‘The Scarecrow’s Wedding’!

Home Learning this week.

Focus is on:  St Joseph.

The feast of St Joseph is on Friday 19th March. Earlier this term, we learnt about some of the
characteristics of this special saint. He trusted in God, he listened to God, he looked after Mary and
Joseph and he brought Jesus up in his faith.
There are many different images and paintings of St Joseph created by many different artists.

We would like your child to create their own A4 painting /drawing of St Joseph, using any medium they like and bring their work into school by Friday 19th March and give it to Ms Varga.

Some of them will be displayed in Our Lady and St Vincent’s Church.

Click here for the school newsletter.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and a Happy Mother’s Day.

Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara

What a festive week Year 4 has had!

Today, they had a visit from Father Christmas. They could ask all sorts of ‘Top Secret’ questions and Father Christmas was very patient answering all of them. They were delighted to receive their box of chocolate!

The children looked fantastic in their Christmas jumpers too!

Earlier in the week. the children did some gardening to plant Spring bulbs into our class gardens and made coins using aluminium foil, inspired by our story ‘The Magic Coin’.

They have made Christmas cards including mechanisms to create moving parts and decorated their classroom with a selection of paper ornaments.

Well done to Alfie and his Mummy making this record sized rubber band ball, which he is very proud of.

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara

See Home Learning below:

Exploring Multiplication Games on Maths Frame using Multiplication Tile Crash and Multiplication Miner….the children used their knowledge of their times tables and other tools to assist them.

This week, the children have focussed on starting their story plans based on ‘The Magic Coin’ story as well as developing their understanding of dialogue and ensuring they can use the correct punctuation for this in their work.

We have been reading our class book on Half Magic and the children have immersed themselves in this story which is about a girl called Jane who finds a strange coin.  It turns out that the coin grants wishes but only by half!  Ask your child to tell you about this exciting book! Alfie and Ti took the opportunity to show the class their coin collection which the children really enjoyed.

In Maths, the children have been creating and regrouping arrays for multiplication (using the distribution law) and learning multiplication facts through building arrays.  The children have been encouraged to learn the facts for the 2 – 12 times tables as this will  develop their understanding of this solving problems involving multiplying.

Over the last two weeks, the children have been finding out about how scientists have made a difference to our society.  They learnt about George Washington Carver , a world-renowned American Botanist, who devoted his life’s work to helping farmers successfully grow their crops and they have learnt about Dr Ayanna Howard who designed the Safe Navigation Rover to assess the terrain on Mars using human-based logic and choose safe paths accordingly.

In design and technology, the children continued to develop their understanding of mechanics and levers, creating a waving hand mechanism and a moving dragon.  We were delighted to see some of the children try their skills at home too.

Wishing you and your family a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara and Ms Varga

Homework for this week:

The Suffix – ous

Year 4 had another busy week. In Maths, the children carried on developing their column addition skills and have now moved onto formal written subtraction. In English they have practiced constructing expanded noun phrases and have planned how to turn our shared play script, ‘The Fly and the Fool’ into a narrative.

On Wednesday, Year 4, as well as all year groups, took part in a live Remembrance Assembly. They  used what they learnt and in an art session, painted water colour pictures themed around poppies.

They had karate this week learning a new sequence with Arthur and Kian showing the rest of the class a chosen sequence alongside Michael.  On Wednesday the children logged onto their Year 4 Google Classroom, took part in a Maths Quiz and then wrote a Book Review using Google Docs.  This session showed us how independent and confident they are growing in using this learning tool.

Today, we said Goodbye to Angela who is leaving our school and going to Cranbourne Primary School.  The children wished her all the best and Maria and Hebe organised a card for her from the class.  We will miss her and wish her all the best.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara

Thank you Eric for sharing this picture of you with us!

Our Karate Session with Michael

Using water colours on our poppy designs.

Please see your Home Learning below:

Year 4 has had another busy week.

The children participated in One World Week, where they focused on the United States of America. They have learnt about its location and searched for ‘megacities’. They took part in a treasure hunt outside where they looked for information about other important cities and located them on maps. The children also completed activities on the Mississippi River identifying its stages. As part of One World Week they tasted Giant Marshmallows, a typical American treat!

On Wednesday, the children lead Mass in their classroom on the theme of Community and Participation. They celebrated the Eucharist and revised the importance of Holy Communion as a sacrament. Fr Shaun helped them to revise all the special things that are found on the altar. Today in class, the children had the chance to set up the altar and learn again about the sacred items that are used and what they are used for. Thank you to Sophie, Eimear and Alfie who read beautifully during the mass and the class who followed Fr Shaun’s sign language for the songs.

Following all their hard work in preparation for their writing, the children completed their River Story narratives and we have enjoyed reading such descriptive narratives.  Well done!   They loved their karate session on Wednesday afternoon!

On Friday, Year 4 participated in a Harvest Act of Worship lead by several members of the class: Macy, Johanna, Gabriela, Hebe, Leon, Elle, Arthur, Charlie, Ben and Oskar.  Eric took photos which you will see below.

At the end of today before heading home, Johanna shared a quiz with the class that she had designed on British English words and American English words.  We really enjoyed the quiz – even I didn’t know all the answers!

Look below to see some of the quiz questions.

Wishing you and your family a restful half term.  See you back on Tuesday 3rd November!

Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara

The American Treasure Hunt!

Johanna’s Quiz!

What is the American English word for our  English word flat?

Answer:  apartment

What is the American English word for our English word sweets?

Answer: candy.

What is the English word for the American word cotton candy?

Answer:  candyfloss

What is the American English word for our English word postcode?

Answer:  zip code.