Year 4
Latest Learning 2024-2025
13.12.24 - English!
This week in Blue Base, we have been writing our Hot Tasks! Based on the story of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, our job was to write a newspaper article based on Chapter 5. The book takes an unexpected turn, when a space-bat-angel-dragon draws closer and closer to earth and finally lands on Australia demanding to be fed! The children have been practising writing summarising sentences, time adverbials, enticing descriptions in their quotes from onlookers and finally, extra information that informs the reader.
In our final week of school, before the winter break, we are going to perform The Iron Man and put into practise all of his wonderful phrases through a drama performance.
By Afeefa (Year 4)
In the early hours of this morning, a space-bat-angel-dragon landed on Australia.
A few days ago, an astronomer in Mexico was the first to see the unusual speck. “I discovered the black creature on Thursday at 8pm, when I was looking through the telescope. Over the last two days, it has got bigger and nearer to earth. I believe that the speck will land on the earth in the next 24 hours,” said Dr Romi Willson, Head of the Institute of Astronomy. Fortunately, Dr Willson is advising the government to prepare.
06.12.24 - French Cafe!
This week, we have had the opportunity to practise our French in our cafe workshop! Each class has enjoyed talking about French food practises around mealtimes, learning the vocabulary for French food! Our children love learning a foreign language, and we want to foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world around them. We want to give them opportunities to use their skills in real-life situations and equip them with a strong foundation for further study of modern languages at high school.
29.11.24 - PSHE!
This week and over the last few weeks we have been learning about the role of government in our lives. The importance of democracy and the right to speak and be heard. We have learnt how we change and make laws, who we need to speak to and even made our own placards for issues that are close to our hearts. The children wanted all war to stop. They wanted to save the earth and look after the rainforests. They wanted it to be against the law to make and sell bombs. We have talked about conflict resolution in our own classroom and school and how we give imessages, to say how we feel. That we learn from our mistakes and move on, and we keep safe hands and feet in and out of the classroom.
22.11.24 - Reading!
At Bankside in the last two weeks, we have hundreds of new levelled books for children to enjoy for their home reading. It has been fantastic for children to choose these brand new books and feel the pleasure of opening them up! Every afternoon, teachers and teaching assistants are reading with your children and helping them to practise. They have been fantastic at reading three times a week, signing their planners and bringing their books back to change them. We want our children to enjoy reading as a hobby, as a time to relax from the world! We have been teaching the children about ‘book care’ and looking after these precious books so that others can enjoy them too for many years to come. Banksiders Love Books!
15.11.24 - Anti-Bullying Week 2024
Anti-bullying lies at the heart of our week this week and every week at Bankside. We are determined as a community and school to develop the empathy and compassion of our pupils through a rich PSHE curriculum and behaviour policy that allows time for reflection.
The children have been learning about what bullying is - “lots of times and on purpose” as well as our mantra - “Everyone is welcome here.”
We have enjoyed completing odd sock designs in a competition to show that everyone is unique and we are wearing odd socks on Friday to celebrate our learning this week and to remind us all that we are different and the same.
08.11.24 - Writing Through Drama!
In Blue Base this week, we have fully immersed ourselves in The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We have questioned and wondered, we have discussed, visualised and predicted as we read Chapters 1 and 2.
Your children have been taking it in turns to be the interviewer and the eyewitness. Giving accounts of their experiences, using vocabulary from the story, as if they were Hogarth (who saw the Iron Man first) or Hogarth’s dad (who believed his son and went straight out in search of the creature).
Many of your children have been brave performers. Standing up in front of the class, the headteacher and visitors showing off their reporting skills.
25.10.24 - PE!
We are practising our Personal Cog from Real PE this term. Which means we have been working on footwork and balance. In this unit, the children will develop and apply their footwork and one leg balance through focused skill development sessions, healthy competition, cooperative games and group Personal Best challenges. We encourage all children to understand their own abilities and to exceed their expectations through perseverance and resilience!
18.10.24 - Geography!
In this unit of work, the children have been learning about map-reading. We started with a compass, and discovering north, south, east and west. Many of the children were excellent at this skill as they know to pray in a certain direction. We then moved on to reading maps, using co-ordinates. Followed by understanding international symbols so that maps can be read and understood all over the world. You can see some ideas for map symbols the children have created!
04.10.24 - Science!
In Blue Base this week, we have been learning practically all about the digestive system. Each class has had a full afternoon of carousel learning. Firstly, the digestive system: naming, identifying and placing the organs into the correct places in the model. Secondly, mimicking the action of digestion (with the help of a pair of tights) and understanding the processes that take place when the body absorbs vitamins and minerals from food and how it gets rid of waste product. Finally, understanding how teeth play a role in the digestive system and how the teeth have evolved to help us chew. A fantastic afternoon for all of Blue Base, bringing their scientific knowledge to life.
27.09.24 - Reading!
In English, Blue Base have been reading ‘The Black Dog’ by Levi Pinfold. We have been immersing ourselves in creating a “writing toolkit” and practising writing sentences that include the following: noun phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbs, contractions, verbs and speech.
Some children have been working on building their own sentences using colourful semantics.
We have been practising each one individually, building up to creating sentences that include all of them! Next week, we will be innovating the story, changing characters and setting to create a new story of their own - I will send home a copy for you to enjoy!
20.09.24 - Maths!
In Maths this week we have been partitioning numbers up to 10,000. This means that we are flexibly being able to read, write and represent numbers using mental maths and becoming familiar and fluent in manipulating them. We have also been outside, making hay while the sun shines, practising number lines with chalk on the school playground and inside exploring some of our resources that help us to understand order number.
13.09.24 - Reading!
In Blue Base we are proud to be readers EVERYDAY. Each child has a levelled reading book and green reading record. Bring this in everyday in your bookbag and once a week (or more if needed) it will be swapped for a new one!
In each class, we have a cosy reading area where each child can choose a book to enjoy. On Friday’s, every child in blue base visits the library in the afternoon for storytime and a lovely ending to our week of learning and playing together. Mrs Aslam who is an expert teacher of reading, helps our children to achieve great fluency!
06/09/24 - Welcome Back to School!
Blue Base have had a wonderful start to the new school year. We have very high expectations for behaviour and have been practising our smart, silent lines as we move around school. We are settling into our new classrooms, making class agreements so that each child feels safe and happy every day. We have all visited the library and have a book to enjoy as well as a phonics book to read at home, which we need to bring into school everyday with our green reading record!
We have been team building this week, learning words to express how we feel. We hope to see ALL the parents at the meeting on Thursday morning to talk to you about our home- school agreement. It has been a pleasure to teach your children this week.
Archive - Latest Learning From 2023-2024
05.07.24 - Skelton Grange!
Blue Base has had an amazing time at Skelton Grange learning about food chains and habitats by pond dipping, hunting for mini beasts and hiding using camouflage. The weather was not as sunny as we had hoped, but we still had an amazing time with our friends and classmates!
21.06.24 - Euros 2024!
In Blue Base we have been enjoying all of our learning linked to the Euros. We started the week researching and writing reports about the different host cities in Germany. We are also writing persuasive adverts for new styles of football boots.
14.06.24 - International Day of Play!
To celebrate the International Day of Play, we incorporated play into our maths lesson. Children completed a carousel of activities including a shape hunt, drawing 2D shapes and a calculation relay race. We had lots of fun with our learning in an active way.
07.06.24 - Brilliant Brazil!
To finish off our Brilliant Brazil topic, all of the children in Blue Base used their creativity cog to design and make their own carnival masks. We used paper mache to create the masks and paint, feathers and sequins to decorate them.
24.05.24 - Brazil!
In Blue Base we have been using our independence and resilience cogs to draft, edit and publish persuasive leaflets to persuade people to visit Rio de Janeiro for their holiday. The effort and care that has gone into every step has been amazing and Blue Base has produced some fantastic writing.
17.05.24 - Maths!
In Blue Base we have been focusing on learning all of our times tables. We have been practising using our times tables booklets and using TT Rockstars. We will be completing the multiplication check in June and are making sure we are fluent with this knowledge in preparation for the test!
10.05.24 - Science!
In Science, Blue Base have been learning about the water cycle. We have made our own mini-water worlds by planting cress and watering it in a cup covered with cling film. Over the week, the water should evaporate and condense on the cling film, forming water droplets. We are all excited to observe our water cycles in action.
03.05.24 - Reading!
In our Fluency lessons this week we have been reading a holiday leaflet trying to persuade people to visit Brazil. We practised our reading skills with choral, echo and partner reading before answering questions about what we had read. Reading this leaflet will also help us when we come to write our own persuasive leaflet about Rio de Janeiro.
26.04.24 - Brilliant Brazil!
Blue base have been very excited to start our new topic 'Brilliant Brazil'. Some children shared that they knew Brazil was famous for their football team. In Geography, we used an Atlas to locate Brazil and name the other countries of South America. We are looking forward to learning more over this half-term.
15.04.24 - Benjamin Zephaniah Week!
In Blue Base, we have enjoyed learning all about Benjamin Zephaniah this week. Inspired by his Poem, People Need People, we have written fact files, created art based and written a class verse based on the poem. We really enjoyed creating our own poetry and exploring and experimenting with language and vocabulary as part of our learning journey this week!
22.03.24 - Computing!
This week in Blue Base, we have continued to develop our coding skills on code.org. The children have created their own programmes and edited code to help fix issues in certain code. The children have particularly enjoyed starting their own projects using their knowledge of code which has been developed over the year.
15.03.24 - Personal, Social, Economic and Health Learning (PSHE)!
In Blue Base, we have been learning about human rights in our PSHE. The children found it particularly interesting when we discussed the special rights children had and we showed great respect to our peers when sharing thoughts and questions.
08.03.24 - RE!
In Year 4 this week, we have been learning about the different features of mosques in our RE work. The children talked about the key features in small groups and then created their own designs for a mosque, making sure to include the key parts from their discussions.
01.03.24 - Art!
In Blue base, we have been creating pottery inspired by the Ancient Greeks. The children created tiles, pots and coil pots using different techniques. This week the children have been decorating their pottery using paint and thought carefully about the patterns and designs for each piece!
23.02.24 - History!
In Year 4 this week, we have been learning about the Ancient Greek Olympic Games. The children learnt about ancient Olympic events and even planned their own Ancient Greek Olympics with religious, sporting and social activities. The children then competed in their very own classroom Olympic Event of javelin throwing!
09.02.24 - PE!
In PE this week, Year 4 having been recapping and showcasing the skills they have developed in different Real PE cog areas so far this year. The children showed great determination and focus to complete their different tasks correctly with increasing difficulty.
02.02.24 - Super Science!
In Science, we have been learning all about Sound. During this lesson, the children investigated change of pitch using test tubes and different levels of liquid. The children really enjoyed discussing how the pitch changed from high to low and recorded their results effectively!
22.01.24 - Marvellous Maths!
This week in Year 4, we have been developing our understanding of division. The children have learnt how to divide both 2 and 3 digit numbers by a single digit number. The children have been reflecting on their learning as the week has progressed and have used our maths resources such as place value counters and base 10 to help support their understanding.
15.01.24 - Focus on Literacy!
Year 4 have started our new literacy topic focused around Greek Mythology. The children have been focusing on the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. We have spent time learning the story through "S plans" and the children particularly enjoyed our drama session where we performed different parts of the story. We have now begun to think about developing our descriptive writing around mythical characters. The children thought carefully about using expanded noun phrases to describe the different features of the Minotaur, and they have now innovated and described their own character for the story!
