Hogwarts – Y4 (2020-21)

English

In English we have been reading the books ‘Can you Catch a Mermaid’ and ‘The Unicorn Prince’. We looked at the themes of friendship and kindness in each story and picked out the key features. We acted out parts of the books and focus on the vocabulary used to describe. We then wrote our own stories that contained mythological creatures and strong description.

Maths

This term we have focused on place value to 10,000. We have looked at what each digit is worth and how to write a 4-digit number. Using this, we have learnt how to order and compare 4-digit numbers as well as how you round numbers to the nearest 10, 100, and 1000.

History

In history we are looking at the Romans in Britain. We have investigated why the Romans invaded Britain and why they had failed in the past. We also looked at how they were almost defeated by Boudica and her Celtic tribes and compared the two armies. Investigating wealthier Romans we read a letter from a Roman woman to her sister inviting her to a birthday celebration and wrote a reply using similar language.

Geography

For our Geography this term we have looked at The Magic Kingdom in Florida. We investigated why it is such a popular theme park and where many of its visitors come from. We also researched other states in America some of their key features.

Computing

In computing we have been learning how to code. We have used PurpleMash to solve problems in coding and to create small animations.

PE

In PE we have be practicing our attacking and defending schools for invasion games. We have also looked at our dodging skills using games of tail tag to improve our special awareness and footwork. For our ball skills we focused on chest and bounce passes and we have practiced dribbling skills.

PSHE

In PSHE we have looked at our rights and responsibilities at school and in the wider world. We have also looked at how working as a team and our behaviours can affect the learning of others.

RE

For the whole year we are focusing on the question ‘How should we live our lives?’. This half-term we have looked at this question within Christianity. We have investigated why Christian’s believe the stories and teachings of Jesus are so important and why these encourage them to perform loving acts. We also looked at the life of Mother Teresa and how she showed a selfless love for others.

Science

In science we have looked at the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. We have investigated how the particles of these 3 states look and act and how some materials can change state through freezing, melting, evaporating and condensing. Our experiments have also shown us how the water cycle works.

Art

This half-term we have focused on drawing from observation. We looked in detail at the patterns in leaves and drew these with pencil and charcoal. We also focused on different drawing techniques and how we could use these to improve our drawings.

Music

Year 4 children have been studying different genres of music. They have tried to recognise a range of music from other countries and cultures from around the world. Their  favourite genre was Rock Music.

The children also played along to the ABBA song Mama Mia on their glockenspiels using notes A and G. In addition they enjoyed playing the sharps and flats to mimic Chinese Music.

English

In English we have been looking at persuasive writing texts. We looked at how these texts set out arguments and what methods they used to persuade. We talked about why you might write a persuasive text and what makes it effective. Using what we had leant we then wrote 2 of our own texts. One to try and persuade Mrs Nasim to let us have a class pat and another to persuade people to help us save the turtles.

Maths

This term we have looked a lot at column addition and subtraction with increasingly larger and more complex numbers. We have also focused a lot on our times tables and different ways of working out the trickier ones. We have used Times Table Rockstars and competed in competitions to help us practice our times tables.

History

During the half term we finished our Romans in Britain topic. We looked at what Hadrian’s Wall is and why it was used to keep the Picts out of Britain. Looking at Roman towns we compared them to the Celtic ones that were in Britain before them. Finally, we looked at gladiators and why the Romans put on gladiatorial games.

Geography

We have continued to look at Florida and have been comparing its climate to ours. We talked about when in the year we would most like to visit Florida based on the weather. We also looked at why turtles around the coast of Florida are endangered and what we can do to help. We linked this with our English to help us write a persuasive text.

Computing

In computing we have focused on E-Safety. We have looked at how we can keep ourselves and our information safe on the internet and what to do if we feel uncomfortable or worried while using it.

PE

This half term we have been developing our throwing and catching and racket skills. We have thought about how we need to move our bodies in order to intercept a ball and whether we should use an overarm or underarm throw to get tennis ball to hit different targets. We have also practiced how to hold a tennis racket correctly to hit a ball.

PSHE

In PSHE we have looked at how we may be wrong when we make a first impression about some one and how it is okay to change what we think about them. We have also talked about what a stereotype is and how these can be hurtful to people. Finally, we looked at what we should do if we witness bullying and the reasons why someone might become a bully.

RE

This half term we have looked at Hinduism and why they believe in the concept of good overcoming evil show in the story of Rama and Sita. We have discussed why Hindus see light as a symbol of hope and what we would use as a symbol of hope in our own lives.

Science

In science we have been investigating sound and how it travels. We have discovered that sound travels as a wave and how tall the is wave determines how loud the sound is and how long or short the wave is determines the pitch. We also looked at how different instruments can make different sounds and then made our own.

DT

Throughout this term we have looked at rollercoasters. We thought about what we would need to build our own and how we would determine if it was successful. We then spent a week building and testing our rollercoasters before painting them. We have used fantastic team work to create our final rollercoaster and are very proud of what we have accomplished.

Music

Year 4, Hogwarts, have been learning to use musical language to appraise a piece or style of music. To help us with this target we have learnt the mnemonic ~ Dr. B. Pitts.

One piece of music we appraised was In The Hall of the Mountain King by Amadeo Lopez and Edvard Grieg, we used musical language to explain what we heard e.g. dynamics- loud or quiet, at the beginning, middle or end, was there a crescendo or diminuendo?

We also enjoyed following a graphic score to play the Christmas tunes – Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Jingle Bells on glockenspiels.

With Mr Garrett, we learnt about pulse, the history of carols and we sang Stile Nacht – Silent Night in German, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

English

We have looked at a variety of different things in English this half-term including: Kenning poems, using simple, compound and complex sentences and expanded noun phrases. We looked at how to use some of these in our writing and created short stories about a little boat and a dragon slayer.

The Dragon Slayer By Maya Mirza I killed the huge dragon and I was ready to go home and rest. But suddenly I noticed a little creature in the bush. ‘What is it?’ I thought to myself. Then I realised it was a baby dragon. I didn’t want to kill it so I walked away to my horse. My horse didn’t move. The little dragon would not leave me alone. It was scared at first but it was very cute and friendly after. It had big blue round eyes, tiny ears and chunky feet. Because I killed his mum, I felt bad about leaving him all alone. He followed me everywhere. Although I am a human, he must have thought I was a dragon too. I decided to take him home because I didn’t want to leave this poor little thing alone. I think he thought I was his dad.

The Little Boat By Evie-Rae Hindley A small, fragile boat was floating calmly along the ocean. Although the room on the boat is very little, two hyper and energetic monkeys take a relaxing ride on the vessel. One naughty monkey pushes his brother off the tiny boat but then falls in himself. When the boat floats past a green field, the scared deer scarpered. The boat dragged some clothing off the washing line. A soldier hanging from a tree spots the vessel and uses it to get him back to the battle.

Maths

For our maths this half-term we have been practicing our times tables with weekly competitions on TTRockstars. We also looked at multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100, calculating amounts of money and change, fractions and the properties of different 2D shapes. In the final week we had a Maths on the Move Day with children using different things around their house to complete different mathematical investigations.

History

This term we have started to look at the Anglo-Saxons who came to Britain after the Romans left. We have looked at why the Romans left, where the Anglo-Saxon people came from and what their religion was before they converted to Christianity. We had a go a drawing our own Anglo-Saxon villages.

Geography

We have been looking at hurricanes in Geography and how these affect the lives of people living in Florida. We have also investigated what you should do before, during and after a hurricane using this information we created a short leaflet on how to survive a hurricane.

 

Science

For this term we have investigated electricity. We have learnt how electricity is created, how to stay safe around electricity, what complete and incomplete circuits look like and what insulators and conductors are.

Religious Education

This half-term we have looked a Judaism and how a Jewish person’s beliefs affect their actions. We learnt about the Shema pray and what is means to a Jewish person. We then thought about how our own beliefs may affect our actions in our lives.

PSHCE

For our PSHCE we have focused on how we can preserver if we do not achieve our dreams and goal. We have looked at why it is important to set goals and suggested ways people can keep going even if they don’t achieve their goal or dream. As part of this the class were set a goal to create the Funniest Potato Person. They had to think about how to achieve this goal then think what they could improve upon if they were to do it again.

Computing

For our computing we have been using the program 2Calculate on Purple Mash to create spreadsheets that help with our maths skills. We also learnt about internet safety and thinking carefully about whether our favourite online influences are trying to sell us things.

Art

We have looked at different artist and are styles this term including: Kandinsky, Mondrian and pointillism. We then created our own pictures in these styles.

Music

Whilst learning online at home, the children have recapped their musical knowledge and trying some musical maths, using crotchets, minims and semibreves. Then used their music skills to play the music games within ‘ClassicsforKids.com’ and ‘Purple Mash. These websites allow the children to compose music.

The children then looked at the orchestra and the instrument families.

Hogwarts finished off their half term music joining in with the online music session recorded by Jesse Liversidge.

English

Last term we read the book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’. The book follows a man as he tries to cut down a kapok tree in the rainforest and how the animals try to persuade him not to. We thought about how we could describe the rainforest and made a list of powerful descriptive phrases. We also created a playscript to argue for and against cutting down trees in the rainforest.

Maths

For maths we have been playing lots of game to help us improve our times tables. We then looked at how we can use these times tables to work out 1-digit times 2-digit multiplications. Using a formal method, we worked out the answers to these harder questions.

History

We have been looking at the Anglo-Saxon for our history. We found why the Romans left Britain and where the Anglo=Saxons came from. We also drew and labelled our own Anglo-Saxon settlements based on evidence we were given. Finally, we investigate the findings at the burial pit at Sutton Hoo. We thought about who was buried here and why so many items had been buried with them.

Geography

In geography, we have started to think about sustainability. We have talked about what activities are sustainable such as creating electricity using wind power and what activities are unsustainable such as burning coal or oil. We also talked about how our school could be more sustainable and why this is important in our world.

DT & Computing

For our DT we have started to design an electric car. We have discussed what features our electric car needs to have and why they are better for the environment than petrol or diesel cars. To help us design our car, we have used a programme on Purple Mash and link this in with our computing lessons. We will be building these cars in the next term.

PSHE

Last term we looked out how to keep ourselves healthy. We thought about this in terms of physical health and mental health. For our physical health we talk about why smoking is harmful to us and why some people might start to smoke. For our mental health we talked about what peer pressure is and how to be resilient against it.

RE

For RE we have looked at why Christians celebrate Easter and what they do during Lent. We looked at the Easter Story and talk about the sacrifice Christians believe Jesus gave and why sacrifice is important in Christianity. We also looked at why sacrifice might be important in our own lives and who we might make sacrifices for and why such as giving money to charity.

Science

Last term we looked at animals including humans. We thought about how our bodies digest food and learnt the names and jobs of each of the organs in our digestive system. We also conducted an experiment on tooth decay. We used eggs to mimic our tooth enamel and left them in different drinks for 5 days and recorded what happened to the eggshells to find out which drink were more likely to cause tooth decay.

Music

Hogwarts have enjoyed searching through Yumu and finding the lessons they have access to at home. We have created music compositions in Purple Mash. Then had fun with some Easter action songs – our favourite is ‘Be Bold Be Strong’.