Week 13: December 13th

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This week the children prepared for the Advent Service and it was a delight to watch them retell the story of Abraham in word, drama, song and dance.  Well done to all the children on performing so well on Tuesday night.

As part of our RE lessons this week, the children have continued to learn more about the Jesse Tree.  The Jesse Tree is a kind of Advent Calendar. Each day through advent we have been examining a special decoration that tells a story from the Bible and its symbol is hung on the tree. We have also examined the message behind the story of Abraham and the children wrote their own prayers about trusting in God like Abraham.

This week the class watched many of their peers entertain them through their music playing and singing at the Music Concert on Monday afternoon.  Well done to Alice, James, Mia, Aidan, Sandro, Jack, Lottie, William P, William G, Phoebe, Mishka and Ellie who performed so well.

On Tuesday the class watched the KS1 Nativity – the KS1 children worked so hard to remember their lines and all the words to the songs. It was great fun all round and they did themselves very proud. Year 4 really enjoyed watching it just as much as the children enjoyed performing!

On Friday, the choir members went off to sing in the afternoon and those children left back in class were given the task to solve the Christmas Pudding Conundrum!  The children worked really well with their partner to solve the five difficult clues.

Another piece of Good News for the class – Ms Varga had a baby girl on Wednesday morning!  We were all delighted to hear that Baby Anna had arrived.

Thank you to the parents who have already sent in their donation for our Advent Giving Calendar.  Please send in your donation so that we can create a hamper of goodies to donate to the St Vincent de Paul Society to be distributed in our local area.

Homework has been set on Mathletics and Spag.com.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara

Week 12: 6th December, 2019

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Year 4 Class Trip to StAlbans

Arriving at St Albans Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

St Albans Shrine

The Artefact Handling Session

The Roman Wall in Verulamium Park

Sandro and Lily (Flavia) dressed in a tunic and Freddie in a toga.

On Monday Year 4 visited St Albans by coach.  St Albans Cathedral is a great place to visit!  It has the longest nave in England, 85 metres long.  The history of St Albans Cathedral is rich and, over the centuries, this magnificent building has undergone several transformations.

As we stepped inside we found awe inspiring reminders of the Cathedral’s past.  We sat on the high altar admiring the beautiful sculpures  and noticed that the pulpit with a wooden carved eagle and the place where the choristers stand and sing.  We visited the Shrine of St Alban and were told about the shrine being destroyed by King Henry VIII.  St Alban was Britain’s first saint.

The Roman Wall of St Albans, which was built between AD 265 and 270 to defend the Roman city of Verulamium, can still be traced for most of its two-mile circuit. When it was built, the massive structure towered at a height of five metres protecting the fine city.  We had fun running up and down examining the wall and spotting the several layers of terracotta tiles.

We walked onto the Verulamium Museum which is filled with ancient treasures and some of the finest mosaics.  We enjoyed exploring the many interesting displays and artefacts and we participated in an artefact handling session.

We had a great day out!

This week we have also been thinking about good ways to prepare for Christmas. We’ve thought about what Christmas means and what we need to do to get ready. The children have prayed with reverence.

This Advent we, as a school, are supporting the:

Caritas Food Collective – Building Communities and Improving Lives.

Your child has been given a number (register number) and the item attached to that is what we ask for you to donate.  The children who are numbers 25 – 30 in the register have been asked to choose any star on the Advent Giving Calendar and donate their item to this appeal. Bring your star product into school next week to fill our class hamper. Thank you so much for your continued support and generosity.

Homework this week is:

  1.  prepare your costume for the Advent Service on Tuesday evening.
  2. Learn the words for the service (2 sheets have been sent home with your child).
  3. click on the link below to learn our class song:                                  Somewhere Out There
  4. The stars need to learn their dance:  Star Dance
  5. Children to bring into school an item for our class hamper in support of the Caritas Food Collective – Building Communities and Improving Lives.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Mrs McNamara

 

 

 

Week 11: 29th November, 2019

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This week we have been busy continuing with our English work on Gods and Goddesses – the children have planned to write their own Roman Myth and today, they wrote their setting.  The children  worked extremely hard to include a variety of sentence openers and as an extension were able to use a thesaurus to improve their word choices.

In Maths the children used place value counters to help them with formal addition calculations with no regrouping.  They worked hard to ‘build’ the number and record their answer using the vertical layout.

In RE this week, the children researched and found out about St Matthew and inserted their findings onto their wall of knowledge.  We had our class Act of Worship with a focus on Advent and each child wrote their Advent promise.

In DT the children made another moving card using levers and linkages.  Look at some of the wonderful designs that were produced!

Kaz, our Djembe drumming teacher has invited the children to take part in the Potters Bar Music Centre Winter Concert on Saturday 14th December.  Letters have been emailed to you and thank you to the parents who have already returned their reply slips. Please support this wonderful opportunity for your child.

On Wednesday, the children and I said goodbye to Ms Varga who has left to prepare for the coming of her baby.  We wish her  well and look forward to meeting her new addition soon!

DON’T FORGET!!  Year 4 Trip to St Alban’s Verulamium Museum on Monday 2nd December.  The children will be back in time for 3:30pm.

The Year 6 Fairtrade team visited our class to tell us about Fairtrade and we found out many interesting facts about fairtrade and how it changes the way trade works through better prices, decent working conditions and a fairer deal for farmers and workers in developing countries.  Thank you Nick, Angelina, Tanya and Toni for your enthusiasm about such a worthy cause.

See you all at the Christmas Fayre!

Mrs McNamara

 

Homework:  Mathletics

Learn our class song for the Advent Service: Somewhere Out There.

Somewhere Out There Lyrics Click hereSomewhere Out There song The Fairtrade Team

Our Maths Work on the formal method of addition with no regrouping.

DT – using levers and linkages

Good bye Ms Varga

Week 11: 22nd November

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Another busy week of learning!

On Friday, some of Year 4 assisted with the special assembly celebrating Fr Shaun’s Silver anniversary – 25 Years of priesthood.

In RE we learnt about the genealogy of Jesus and the children started to find out about the Jesse Tree. In English the children continued their work on Gods and Goddesses and looked at how metaphors can add description to their writing. In Maths the children continued to work on understanding the equal difference strategy and playing the game ‘Winner Takes All!’ helped them in a competitive way!  In PE we have started our new unit on Gymnastics and in Music,alongside the drumming, they have added to their understanding of notation and note value.

 

Homework: Mathletics and SPAG

Spellings:

Prefixes ‘in-’, ‘il-’, ‘im-’ and ‘ir-’

irregular, irresponsible, irrational, irresistible, irrelevant, illegal, illiterate, illegible, illogical, illuminate

 

 

Week 10: 15th November

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This week was Anti-bullying week and the main focus this year is ‘Change starts with us.’

Here at Pope Paul we are proud to support Anti-Bullying Week and the children participated in a range of activities  to raise awareness. They also took part in a workshop ‘This is Me’ and learnt about how unique they are and how it is important to accept people as they are.

In Maths, the children have continued with introducing equal sum as a strategy using bead strings as an aid.

In RE the children examined the Liturgical Year Calendar and revisited their understanding of Advent.

 

On Tuesday, we had our class mass on the theme of The Eucharist. The children read, sang and prepared well.  As each child played a part in the mass, the mass was a special time for all and we thank you, the parents and carers, and thank the parishioners who came as well.  Having parents and carers/friends present made the mass even more special for us.

The children had a focus on remembrance on Monday in class and made a lovely remembrance focus in class before attending the whole school 2 minute silence reflection at 11am.

This morning straight after assembly, the children walked to Oakmere Library for a wonderful performance of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ presented by Philip for Booster Cushion Theatre.  They were captivated from the start and came away full of inspiration about this story. A number of the children were chosen to take part in the show and the ‘humbugs’ and ‘gold coins’ that were given to them went down a treat!  We hope that you heard lots about it too when the children got home.

Homework: :           Prefixes ‘in-’, ‘il-’, ‘im-’ and ‘ir-’

inactive, incorrect, incredible, inaccurate, indirect, immature, immobile, impossible, impatient, impolite

Practise your 3, 4 and 6 timestables!

Mathletics and SPAG.com

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara     Ms Varga

Week 9: 8th November, 2019

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This week the children have been working hard in many areas of their learning.

In English, they have begun their new unit on Mythical Magic which will be focusing on Roman Myths.  They wrote about their own Gods and Goddesses and will be using these as a writing resource next week.


In Maths the class have been looking at arrays and skip counting.  Using a hundred square they have been discovering patterns when skipping in 3s and 4s and describing the patterns using words such as diagonal, column and row.  The children have also been using the Think 10/100/1000 strategy in answering maths calculations.

In Science they looked at finding patters between the volume of sound and the pitch.  In PE they continued with the focus of invasion games looking at the skill of dribbling.  I can confirm that their skills in this area were fabulous to watch!

In Music the children have continued with Kaz and learnt to follow a round of beats.  Well done to Mia, Lola and Aidan who were chosen to be the leaders when performing this round.

In RE the focus has been on Judasim where the children have learnt about the Torah being the sacred text of the Jewish people and how the Torah refers to the five books of Moses. They also spent time to understand what festivals are connected to the Torah and learnt about Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah celebrates and marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle.

Homework for this weekend is Mathletics and Spag.com.

We have a Class Mass on the theme of the Eucharist next Tuesday and invite you to come and celebrate this with the children.

Have a lovely weekend.

Ms Varga and Mrs McNamara

PS: Have you checked out our class video on the Extraordinary Month of Mission?

 

 

 

 

 

Mission Rosary

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Week 8: 25th October

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One World Week

A fabulous week of learning in Year 4 as we studied Madagascar as part of our topic work.

Please look below to gain an insight into some of the things that Year 4 got up to this week:

Locating Madagascar and developing our understanding of using 4-figure grid references was one of the activities that the children learnt about.

Making a chameleon and learning about the wildlife of Madagascar gave the children insight into how it is home to some of the most unique and unusual species of wildlife in the whole world. Madagascar hosts lemurs, fossas, aye-ayes, and a number of other species found nowhere else in the world.  Most of the species found in Madagascar are endemic, meaning they cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Our Madagascan Wildlife Display.
The children also learnt to play a 700 year old Malagasy Game: Fanorona (Malagasy pronunciation: [fə̥ˈnurnə̥]).  It is a strategy board game for two players and is indigenous to Madagascar.  The children loved playing it and felt that it was challenging, exciting but that they needed to be tactical in playing it.  I have sent home the outline of the game for you to play at home as well!
Even Ms Hilton was challenged !

We continued our Topic Work on finding out about the Vanilla Trade and Madagascar’s economy.

In RE we finished our work on psalms and our act of worship today was focused on the remaining days of the Extraordinary Month of Mission.  Each of the children received a special Missio bookmark and prayed that they will continue to spread God’s love among those they meet – keeping God’s mission alive.  Thank you to Darcie for taking photos of our prayer time.

Finally, it was lovely to see so many of you today at the Harvest Assembly and afterwards in class for your child to celebrate their learning with you.

Thank you for your generous contributions.

Have a wonderful half-term.

Mrs McNamara    Ms Varga

 

 

Week 7: 18th October, 2019

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This week we have continued to enjoy writing towards our non-chronological report on Joan Procter.  The children have been adding subordinating conjunctions and relative clauses to improve their writing further.

In RE we have been looking at the importance of being a missionary as this is the extraordinary month of mission.  They have been discussing about prayer and how they pray.  The children have also examined the rosary as another way to show the importance of prayer and have created some lovely pictures about the various mysteries.

Missio Prayer 2019

In Maths the children have continued with practising their timetables and moved from rounding to a strategy called ‘think 10’ to assist them in solving addition and subtraction calculations.

There’ll be more of this in the week to come.

In History, the children have learnt about Roman Roads and were fascinated in plotting the major roads that were built by the Romans using an atlas.

Home Learning is based on our focus for One World Week: Madagascar.  Please encourage your child to research things about this country and create either an information poster, fact file or leaflet of their choice. There is no Mathletics set for this week or Spag.com.

As was mentioned to you during Parent Consultations a link to pay for the timetables booklet has been organised.

The cost of the book is £1.00.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara

Week 6: 11th October

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This week in Year 4 we have continued with our focus on Joan Procter the Dragon Doctor.  The children have examined and researched about her life as they will be writing their own Non-Chronological Report about Joan next week.  In grammar, they have been working on understanding the use of factual adjectives and fronted adverbials which they will use in their writing also.

In Maths, we are continuing with the work on rounding to the nearest 10/100/1000.

In Science, the children have continued with their work on investigating sound using balloons, tuning forks, metre sticks and tennis balls!

In History, the children did a role play activity on Emperor Claudius to find out why he decided to leave sunny Italy and invade cold, wet Britain!  They were to act as advisers to Claudius and convince him to invade. Mrs Heymoz was  in the hot seat as Emperor Claudius and was delighted by their reasons for invasion.

This afternoon, the children took turns to use our new climbing frame and it went down a treat!  Thank you to FOPPS and all parents who have helped in raising money through the various events during the year.  It will be an added bonus to our play times.

Home Learning is:

Mathletics (Rounding) and SPAG (Fronted Adverbials).

The children will be having their spelling test on Monday on the following words:

buy, by, reign, rain, flour, flower, great, grate, cereal, serial.

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Mrs McNamara  Ms Varga