This week, as part of Anti-Bullying week, we have focussed on race, racism and what it means to be anti-racist.  We discussed key terms and cleared misconceptions before discussing scenario cards to gain understanding of acts of racism whereby a person treats another unfairly due to their race. Later on, we have participated in a group activity to find strategies when faced with an act of racism and to understand the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist.

In Maths, we consolidated column subtraction and extended our understanding of the formal methods by solving a complex Maths Mystery.

In English, we focused on one particular character from our book, Ice Palace and wrote first person accounts to explain who this character is and what it tries to achieve. We also read the remaining part of the book and mapped out any additional details using our story maps from an earlier lesson.

In RE, we prayed the Lectio Divina twice using Isaiah’s and Mark’s Gospels and their powerful messages. The children showed great reverence during these special prayer sessions and their reflections showed a deep understanding of their faith.

We also allocated parts to the Key Stage Two Advent Service and started learning our beautiful class song about St. Lucia in Swedish!

In Art, we moved on to creating our final pieces for this term’s Drawing unit, incorporating all techniques learnt.

In PE, we practiced ways of travelling and pair- balances using apparatus.

Next week Monday, the choir is out on their trip to the Royal Albert Hall. Children in Year 4, who are NOT part of the choir should come into school in their normal school uniforms as we are NOT going to have PE.

However, on Tuesday, 21st November, Year 4 is participating in a Multi-Skills Sport Festival at the Furzefield Sport Centre. CHildren should come in their full PE kit on that day, making sure that it’s appropriate for the weather (we might be outside) and they MUST have a coat as we are walking back from the Centre together.

Thank you so much for all parents who sent in junk modelling items. I can confirm that we have a rich selection of materials now which will enable the children to investigate sound using their hand made instruments thoroughly.

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga

Although the weather wasn’t the best, the children had a lovely, active week back after Half term. In Maths, the class moved onto mental strategies for addition and subtraction and learnt about ‘Think 10/100/1000’ and ‘equal sum’ as two new useful methods to add 3 and 4 digit numbers.

In English, we started our new narrative unit based on Robert Swindells’ wonderful book, titled Ice Palace. The children have shown great interest towards the story so far and enjoyed listening to the often scary and mysterious details of Starjik’s land. This week, the class spent time revising their understanding of figurative language and explored personification, similes and metaphors as ways to improve their descriptions.

In RE, the children wrote letters to a friend to explain to them the actions, symbols and words associated with the final Sacrament of Initiation: Confirmation. They made links with Pentecost when the Disciples received the Holy Spirit and watched video clips to understand the Liturgy.

We attended the All Saint Mass on Wednesday, where the children sang beautifully and their reverence created a deeply prayerful atmosphere.

In Science, we also started a new unit on Sound. The children went outside to investigate the effect of distance on the quality of sound. They used percussion instruments and measured their distance from the source using meter sticks to later allocate a score to the volume of the sound.

In PE, we started Gymnastics, revising our knowledge on point and patch balances and innovative ways of travelling.

In 2 weeks time, the class in going to investigate pitch, frequency and volume as part of their Science learning. In order to do that, they will make instruments in class using junk modelling materials. Please, if you can, support us with this by sending in: clean empty crisp tubes (Pringles crisps, etc), paper tubes from paper towels, thinner cardboard pieces (Some Amazon packaging uses them), empty tissue boxes, small clean glass jars, paper straws, small plastic tubs with lids, beads, pipe cleaners. Any support with this is greatly appreciated.

Have a lovely, dry weekend,

Ms Varga

This week, the children in Year 4 continued their Maths learning of Place Value by looking at number magnitude and rounding.

In English, they have participated in a rainbow group writing activity, where they have written engaging paragraphs in ‘newspaper style’ warning residents of the evil Spider and his cunning plan.

In RE, the class looked at the Liturgy of the Eucharist and reflected on how the Eucharist is the summit and source of our lives through water colour art.

In Science, they wrote diary entries as a piece of food, naming the most important parts of the human digestive system, explaining their functions along the way.

In PE, we moved on to ‘shielding’ as a new skill which the children practiced through 3 sports: football, basketball and tennis.

A huge well done goes to the children, who performed in their first class assembly with excellence this Thursday! Lovely reading and acting; I was very impressed with their maturity and sense of responsibility! No rest for us though, as we immediately move onto practicing for our class Mass on Wednesday, 11th October in the morning. Parents are welcome!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga