Welcome to the Summer Term!

We can't wait to share all of our exciting learning with you. We particularly love this time of year as we start to get outside more to enjoy our learning and make more connections across our learning from the whole of Year Four.

As ever, we continue to build a strong class team, where we share together in the vision of our school,

'Encouraging each other, overflowing with hope,' 

through the living out of our core values throughout all that we do each day.

Fellowship- Respect- Resilience- Trust- Compassion

We completed our Platinum Jubilee celebrations by watching the coronation and creating portraits of The Queen. Applying our learning about Rembrandt, we created sketches using pen, pencil and water colours after looking at how Quentin Blake represented The Queen in his illustrations in the BFG.

What a fantastic day making memories! We began our celebrations by making crowns before joining the whole school outside for a street party. Each year group sang a song or performed a dance from the decades before we all tucked into our lunch.

After we had packed away, we were treated to an ice cream from local firm Skinner's. We then enjoyed time in the Reflective Garden as we ate. 

This week, we set off outside to locate micro habitats within school and begin to identify some of the living things. Sadly, we got rained off but we can't wait to complete this learning after our half term break!

To show mastery of our knowledge of the weather, we completed a weather chart each day this week. We asked the question to our peers in French and answered it, recording responses. 

A big thank you to Sam who works for Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership who came to chat to Year Four about in car safety. We had a great knowledge between us, which allowed us to contribute to discussion in a meaningful way. Exploring our responsibility within the car to keep ourselves and others safe, we identified some of the different ways we must behave. After listening to a story of Poppy and her family travelling on holiday, we identified dangers in the ways they were behaving and how we can ensure we are sensible passengers.

We were also able to draw on our experience of coach journeys and reminded ourselves of how we behave when travelling o a coach.

To conclude our session, we discussed who needs a booster seat in a car and who does not. Same had a stick with her marked at different heights. We know that at a height of 135cm and below, a booster seat is still required and we all lined up to check to see of we needed one or not!

As we end of unit of work on sculpture and architecture, we were proud to share our finished sculptures with one another. After exploring the work of Hermann Finsterlin, sketching our own ideas, creating models using newspaper, adding Modroc to create our sculpture and painting them- we are finally finished! We discussed with our peers the type of place our sculptures would be placed in the world. For some, they would camouflage and blend into their surroundings and others would be bright buildings on the landscape to create conversation and intrigue. Can you identify which are which from our photos?

After recalling telling the time to the nearest minute last week, we have been looking at showing if it is morning or afternoon by using am and pm.  We began our week by sequencing times correctly looking at the am and pm, thinking carefully about which order they come in if midnight is 12am and midday is 12pm.

In English, we continue to write to entertain this week. After watching a short film clip, we role played being the birds in groups, thinking about the conversation they would be having with each other. This will support our written work tomorrow, when we look at correctly punctuating speech once again.

This term in French we have been asking and answering questions about the weather. We named the different types of weather in French, spoke about the weather we like and dislike, answered true and false questions and located cities and their weather on maps. For our final week of term we are keeping a weather diary, asking ourselves the question each day, 'Quel temps fait-il?' and recording the results.

Revisiting learning from Autumn term, we worked again as cartographers. For retrieval, we identified Ordnance Survey symbols and then put this knowledge into practice as we explored maps. We identified key places of interest and then learnt how to use four figure grid references to locate key places of interest. We learnt how to use Eastings, the numbers than run form left to right on the map, first and then Northings, the numbers that run from South to North. 

Recalling the work of Hermann Finsterlin, we worked as architects to design buildings in his style using curved lines and 3D shapes. We used 3D shape kits to help us explore structures and how they can be balanced to create work in his style. After deciding on a shape for our work, we made it out of newspaper, before adding modroc strips to create a solid structure. Once it had dried, we then added paint, thinking carefully about the colour palette that we wanted to use. We also thought about where our structure would be built and if we wanted it to camouflage into its surroundings or stand out and be iconic with its style and colour.

We look forward to sharing our finished work with you!

We loved having time to choose and read books with our friends.

What are you reading for pleasure at the moment?

Would you recommend it to a friend?

In English, we have been writing to entertain. After exploring humorous texts, including George's Marvellous Medicine, we wrote our own short stories based upon it. Choosing characters that didn't see eye to eye, we then created a magical medicine or food with some hilarious effects!

We loved sharing them with our friends as we edited together, ensuring they make sense. 

What makes a community?

PSHE has given us the opportunity to explore what makes a community and how people can be made welcome into a community. We revisited the book Beegu and thought about how he was treated and how he should have been included in the new community he found himself in. We reflected on how we treat people in our school community and how we can build a community spirit through our actions, words and deeds. In groups, we worked to create our own communities, adding homes, shared spaces, leisure activities, access to healthcare, religious groups and education. This activity allowed us to explain our choices and think about the needs of a community to enable them to work together and be successful.

After identifying what a Pilgrimage is and who might go on one, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Reverend Jane. She shared with us her own experience of Pilgrimage when she visited the Holy Island in Northumberland. The journey from the mainland was difficult at times as they walked to the island across the seabed at low tide. The risk of the tide coming in at any time, means the Pilgrim has to stay focussed and move with some speed. During her visit, she remained silent on this journey, allowing her time to focus on the journey and being with God. She also shared some of her knowledge about Walsingham, a Christian Pilgrimage site that we will visit next term.

In orienteering, we used a map to navigate around a netball court. Using the markings on the playground, cones were set into position and maps given out to show each cone. After navigating to the correct cone, we looked at the number on the bottom and reported the number back to check we had been to the correct cone.

This activity enabled us to work in pairs to follow simple instructions and use a map correctly, ensuring it stayed set.

Since September, we have focused on identifying our different feelings and how we can get help and support when needed. Every day we talk about how we are feeling during our morning greeting time and share them with our peers and adults. In Courage Class we have a 'What I want my teacher to know box', where we can share any private thoughts we are finding tricky to voice. This enables the adults to come to us and start the conversation so that any issue can be solved or supported by working together.

We love recalling our work in transition on The Colour Monster and all of the colours we associate with different feelings.

In Computing, we have been exploring yes and no questions that are asked to enable us to sort objects according to their attributes. We looked at suitable sentence openers, like 'Is it...?' or 'Does it..?' to enable us to get a yes or no answer. We then sorted a group of dinosaurs according to their features, selecting and answering an appropriate answer to enable us to sort. This is the start of our creation of branching databases.

As we begin to explore our Geography big question, we identified what we thought a settlement must have, what it would be good to have and what wasn't needed. We were able to apply prior knowledge from our History learning from the Autumn Term, to identify how Anglo Saxons and Vikings chose suitable settlements.

Using our knowledge of rivers and their formation, we began to reflect on where would be a good site for a settlement where there was access to water, which wasn't on a flood plain, farming land and access to other vital resources needed. We reflected on how settlements today may have different essentials to those in the time of Anglo Saxons and Vikings.

We began our Science by retrieving what we know about living things from previous learning in Years 2 and 3. We focused on how we know if something is alive or not. Many of us made connections with things needing to eat and drink in some way to be alive. 

We were then introduced to MRS NERG and how she can help us to remember the seven life processes that show something is alive. After learning these, we were able to identify if things are living or not.

Is a flame alive?

We had great discussion about whether a flame was alive or not. Using what we know about the seven processes, we established that it wasn't but it did fulfil some of the criteria but not all seven to be alive.

In Maths this week, we have been recalling all that we know about money. Making connections between pounds and pence and our work on decimal numbers, we were able to compare, order, estimate by rounding and calculate amounts. Focusing on the value of each coin, we explored the different ways of making £1 using different coins. Could it be made with 1,2,3 and then 4 coins? How many different ways could we find?

By exploring the different ways of making amounts, we were able to identify how we can then partition amounts in different ways, which can help when we are giving change.

As part of Collective Worship this week, we were able to go outside to the reflective garden and  think of all of the opportunities we are thankful for. We concluded our discussions by saying a thank you prayer, each adding something or just saying 'thank you' if we weren't able to pinpoint something specific.

To compliment our work on tolerance this week in classroom Collective Worship, each class was given a wrapped book. After exploring three key words from the text, we predicted what the book might be about. We then unwrapped it and read about Malala Yousafzai someone who campaigned for education for all in her home country of Pakistan. We discussed the injustice of some children not having access to education and reflected on the opportunities we are all given.

We were able to make some comparisons to Barack Obama and the significance of him becoming President of the US.

LO: To be able to navigate around cones.

Today we worked in pairs to follow a route around cones. Keeping the map in the correct orientation, we were able to support one another to move around the map, using compass points to help us. We started where the red triangle was and then moved until we got to the red circle to symbolise the end of the route. We complete routes using both nine and eighteen cones.

Do major and minor chords change the mood of a song?

Music this term sees us continuing our learning of Ukuleles looking at major and minor chords. We began by recalling what we knew and how to hold it correctly. We also revisited Science learning from the Autumn Term as we discussed how the sound is made by the strings vibrating after being strummed or plucked.

This week we had a lovely surprise as a reading picnic, or 'booknic' was set up for us on the field. We went outside and enjoyed sharing books together, reading and discussing books with friends or sitting quietly to get a few chapters ahead with the book we had already been enjoying at home!

This week we recalled the different parts of the digestive system, explaining what happens to food once it has passed through our mouth. We recalled the different parts and what their functions were.

How are architecture and sculpture similar?

This term we are exploring the work of German architect Hermann Finsterlin. Looking at his sketches we noted his use of curved lines, 3D shapes and colour. Commenting on his somewhat crazy designs, we explored how he had created the sketches by creating the lines for ourselves using different media, similar to Finsterlin.

We began our orienteering this term, by working in groups to memorise maps. We each had a set of pieces from a map and after memorising one,  had to run to the other end of the playground to see which was the matching image- taking notice of the number next to it. We then ran back and noted the number down, this continued with us each taking turns to work as a team. After completing them all, we were given the pieces of a map cut up and had to put them back together to create the map of our school grounds.