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It’s been a busy start to this term and the children have been great at exploring the new concepts being taught. They loved their Polar Explorer day, where they explored what types of animals they might find in the Arctic and Antarctic. They also created some amazing artwork inspired by the story, ‘Poles Apart’.

We have been busy learning about the story, ‘The Great Explorer’ and the children have written some fantastic letters imagining they are the explorer and telling us all about his adventures. We have also been continuing our maths learning, thinking about how to add single-digit numbers within 10 and finding different ways to make numbers up to 10.

This week we also thought about Remembrance Day and created artwork.

Thank you for all your continued support.

Year 1 Team

What a wonderful return the children have had to school! They are such a pleasure to teach and we are thoroughly enjoying each and every day in Year 4!

Soon, you will be able to find our Knowledge Organiser and Topic Web linked to our current topic, ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ on the school website. Please do discuss the content of these with your children to bring our current learning to life at home! We know they will have lots of information to share with you already which is fantastic!

Geography

Our topic has started off brilliantly! We have already discovered where we are located in the world and what countries form to make the United Kingdom. The children have been asking some excellent questions in our sessions to develop their understanding which has been very impressive.

During our first week back, we received a very official letter from Mr. Clarke – the CEO of ‘Hampshire Homes’ – asking if the Year 4 children would like to submit their ideas for a new housing development in Basingstoke, which the company are planning to construct next year. Of course, the children were exceptionally keen to reply to Mr. Clarke straight away (see a response below). As part of the project, the children will need to choose an appropriate place in Basingstoke for the housing development to be located, think about the facilities the new community will need, draw a plan of their development idea and have given a significant amount of thought to how the construction may impact the environment in a positive and negative way.

We will keep you updated with our progress in the coming weeks!

English

We have recently introduced a slightly new way of teaching English to the children. So far, it has been received exceptionally well! The new format allows the children to use their creativity to make more independent vocabulary choices and develop a stronger composition to their writing. We’re sure you’ll agree with how super these sound so far:

Homework

We know that some children have worked really hard on their weekly homework tasks this term. Each week we have posted spellings on Google Classroom and have asked the children to use TT Rockstars to learn their times tables. Whilst the recall of times table facts has improved for many, there is still a large number of Year 4 children not practising their times tables. Being able to recall these key facts quickly is vital for finding success in many areas of mathematics. Please make sure your child is practising on Rockstars for at least 30 minutes a week – it really does make a difference.

After Christmas, we will be re-introducing another piece of homework to what we already set. This will either be a piece of Maths or Grammar and will cover different Year 4 skills the children will come across throughout the year. We know this will give the children an opportunity to reinforce what they are learning in the classroom.

We look forward to sharing more of our learning with you soon!

The Year 4 team

We could not be more proud of how respectfully and thoughtfully the children participated in Remembrance Day today. This children began the week by decorating the classroom windows and we are sure that you will agree with us when we say that they look incredible!

Then today, the children kickstarted their day with a wonderful worship from Rev. May, where they thought about the importance of today and they were also keen to share their own experiences of family members, past and present, who have had connections to the World Wars in different ways.

Then, at 11am, the children stood so respectfully for their two minute silence on the playgrounds whilst they were treated to a bugle performance, which was really moving. 

Finally, after learning more about the symbolism of poppies and reading the ‘In Flanders Field’ poem, the children painted their own silhouette images to reflect the act of remembering. 

We are so proud of the children today, and always. 

The Year 5 team.