Welcome to Year 4!

15th November 2024

Travail Fantastique!

In science, we have begun to investigate solids, liquids and gases in our new topic, States of Matter.  Having explored the properties of these different states, the children grouped materials according to whether they were solids, liquids or gases. Some of the materials, such as sand and flour, were harder to sort, so we closely observed how they behaved when poured from one container to another.

Our violin lessons are progressing well and the children have begun to use the bow! They have now learnt the string notes (G, D, A and E) and we have enjoyed playing our first pieces together. As a magical finale to last week’s lesson, we all enjoyed listening to Mrs Edwardson playing a piece from Harry Potter.

In English, inspired by Anna Atkins in The Bluest of Blues, we have been ‘bonkers about beetles’, undertaking research so that we can produce our own non-fiction books all about beetles. The children were amazed to discover that beetles are one of the oldest animals in the world and have been around for over 250 million years!

On Friday 8^th November, we had a fantastic day celebrating French Day. We tried some delicious croissants with jam and practised asking for them in French. We made sure to say s’il vous plait and merci. The children also shared their creative Eiffel Tower models and explained how they had constructed them. In the afternoon, we had a go at creating Eiffel Tower pictures in the style of a famous French artist, Robert Delaunay. The children liked his unusual patchwork style and the vibrant colours used.

25th October 2024

Hello and Welcome to Summercroft News!

Firstly, we would like to congratulate all of the children for their excellent presentation about the Amazing Amazon Rainforest last week. With great enthusiasm and confidence, they showcased their topic work and we were very proud of their animal eye art, hard-hitting poems and storming soundscape performances. The hall was teeming with squawking and whistling birds, croaking frogs, chirping insects and loud howler monkeys as we were transported to the deepest layers of the rainforest. The children hope that they have inspired you to make changes in your everyday lives to help save the rainforests.  

In news closer to home, throughout this week’s Arts Week we have immersed ourselves in all things blue. We began by exploring shades (darker) and tints (lighter) of blue by adding white or black to blue paint and discovered that there are many words to describe the huge variety of blues around us! The children further developed their understanding of tonal shading by using sketching pencils to make their drawing of an object appear 3D. Their still life observational drawings of blue objects were very impressive! We have also been working hard to develop our poetry performances for the whole-school Poetry Slam.

Our English lessons have also had a bit of a blue theme recently as we have been inspired by a beautiful picture book, The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs, which tells the story of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. Before writing a diary entry in role, the children ventured outside to be treasure hunters, just like Anna, and chose flowers to be arranged and pressed back in the classroom. They thought carefully about how they wanted to lay their flowers out and why they chose their particular flowers. We look forward to revealing our pressed flowers in the coming weeks.

11th October 2024

What Do You Think Counts?

On National Poetry Day, we joined thousands of children across the country to take part in an attempt to break the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for Largest Poetry Lesson! The lesson was led by children’s poet Laura Mucha and we helped to create a poem that has been published on the Children’s Poetry Archive and will be published across the UK (including on radio and in newspapers and magazines). The children were excited to vote for different ideas as we edited the poem during the live lesson. The poem is called ‘What Do You Think Counts?’ and is all about encouraging others to pause and reflect on what’s really important in life. It can be found here: https://childrens.poetryarchive.org/poem/what-counts/ We are excited to find out if we have helped to break the record! 

We have continued to develop our knowledge of the Amazon Rainforest and we have started to think about how we will share this in our presentation. We are hoping to encourage our families to make some small changes in order to help save the rainforests. We have also begun to recreate the sounds of the rainforest using body percussion and are looking forward to adding some animals into our soundscape.

So far, in science lessons, the children have sorted vertebrates and invertebrates into groups and been introduced to classification keys. These are sets of questions that help people to classify living things. In this step, the children used simple keys to sort animals and plants correctly and created closed questions that can be answered with either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We look forward to revisiting classification keys later in the year.

Monday afternoons are packed full of hands on learning opportunities in Year 4. Whilst Mr Eaton has been teaching coding in computing lessons, Mrs Ede enjoys singing through her repertoire of ABBA songs. We are coming to the end of our first music unit and, mamma mia, the children’s  musicality has been impressive! Moving to the pulse, repeating rhythms and singing sweetly is certainly a lively way to start our week. Whole class violin lessons have just begun and the children have made a fabulous start, plucking their way enthusiastically through their first tune, Kangaroo.

20 September 2024

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again…

The children have made an excellent start to the new school year – they have settled back into school life quickly and we have enjoyed getting to know them all.

Year 4 have been exploring the sights and sounds of the Amazon Rainforest as our new topic was introduced. The children listened to sounds of the jungle and investigated a range of creatures as they discovered that we would be studying the tropical rainforests of the world, specifically the Amazon. We began a close study of animal eyes, practising our sketching and watercolour skills in preparation for our first piece of art work. The children have also been learning all about the different layers of the rainforest – the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory and the forest floor – and what creatures might be found in each one. Their challenge is to become experts on the Amazon and prepare a presentation all about this vital rainforest and how we can protect it.

We have continued the theme of the natural environment by finding out about living things and their habitats in our science lessons. The children started by looking at the characteristics of animals and then grouped examples of vertebrates according to their features.

In English, we have ventured into a magical circus visited by a young boy called Leon. We have performed parts of the text, experimenting with how we can use our voices and actions to tell the story. The children have described daring trapeze artists, breath-taking aerial silk acts and magnificent magicians. We can’t wait to see how Leon might be swept up into the magic …

Music lessons have been joyous and we began our topic, Mamma Mia, by listening to and appraising this popular song. Finding the pulse, the children found their own way to tap along and we look forward to accompanying the song with instruments.