Ash Year 4 | Fir Tree Junior School

This week, the children went on a hunt to find different characters from books, they had turns at trying to start a fire using cotton wool and the children also created their own food chains.

World Book Day - Author visit

On World Book Day, we were very lucky to have Christopher Edge, a famous author visit Fir Tree.

We had an assembly called "How to be a Writer" where Christopher spoke to year 3 and 4 about the inspiration he had which inspired some of the books he has written. He spoke about the following pieces as inspiration; a grain of sugar, a banana, a question such as "Do you believe in aliens?", starting a story with "Once upon a time" and even using puzzles or secret codes.

"Did you know that a banana is radio active? Can you guess the magic ingredient which makes this so?"

One child asked: "what does it take to be a writer" and Christopher replied "Doing lots and lots of reading to give you inspiration." He said "I would not be a writer if it wasn't for all the numerous books I have read."

English - Freeze frames

In English, we created freeze frames showing different scenes in Fantastic Mr Fox from chapters 10 - 15. The next day, we used a photo of our freeze frame to describe that scene in our books, we focused on the use of adjectives and fronted adverbials to answer the 5w questions.

"The 5 W's are who, what, why, when and where."

Science - Sound

In Science this week, we learnt about how we can hear sounds. First, we went over how vibrations are made and the bigger the sound, the bigger the vibration. Then, we discussed loud and quiet sounds, focusing on how certain materials can make sound muffled. Finally, we learnt about the different parts inside our each and how each one contributes to the sound being hard, then transferred to our brains. As a class, we made notes on whiteboards and created our own TV shows to share the information we had learnt.

"Sound moves using particles in the air."

PE - cricket

Our second lesson of cricket focused on how to correctly hold a cricket bat and how to accurately bat and field. We practised our batting in small groups, trying defensive hits where the ball rolls across the ground, instead of flying in the air. Then, we played a small game where some of us were fielding and the rest were batting.

"If I play a defensive hit, I am less likely to be out by a player catching the ball."

"If someone catches the ball, the batter would be automatically out."

English - Hot Seating

To help us become more familiar with the characters in Fantastic Mr Fox, we did Hot Seating in drama to explore development and understanding of the characters. We took it in turns to enter into the classroom as a character of our choosing, then the other children asked questions to find out more.

Tudors

To finish off our 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' from last term, we had a week being historians and produced a research page in our books all about the Tudors.

"Did you know the Tudors ate peacock?"

"Only the rich would have the finest silks."

"Did you know only the boys went to school?"

PE - Cricket

Our warm up was called 'Ball' and Mr Mule would shout out different things for us to do, for example "star jumps" or "lie on your backs" or "touch the cone". When he shouted "ball" we had to race our partners to be the first to pick up the ball. Then we practised our throwing and catching skills; we did underarm and overarm throws, catching with our hands as a basket (closed together) or in a 'w' position.

"Underarm throws are more accurate."

"Overarm throws have more power."

"Have your hands as a basket when the ball is falling into your hands."

"The 'w' catching position is when the ball is heading at your chest height."

Music - brass

During our first brass lesson, we recapped what a rhythm and pulse was. Then we learnt how to make a sound on our cornet, focusing on buzzing our lips and incorporating just enough air to make a long sound. First, we practised buzzing our lips, then we made a noise using our mouth piece, and finally we used our cornet. We are excited for our future lessons.

Skatingboard Workshop

We were very lucky that we got to try out skateboarding with an instructor who came to our school. It was a lot of fun, we started by learning how to confidently move in a line on the skateboard and by the end we were completing a trick called the 'Pancake Flip'. This is when you put the board upside down, put your toes under the board and flip it forward whilst jumping with the board and landing on the board with 2 feet. We saw brilliant team work, with children helping each other by holding their hands. There were so many pictures, please see a slide show below.

Term 3 - Our projects are 'Take One Piece' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' with 'Bright Sparks' in Science.

Project Homework

We are extremely proud of everyone's hard work on their project homework this term.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - DT

As part of our project, we designed and made puppets recreating one of the characters from a Midsummer Night's Dream. We are very proud of our puppet which used a wooden spoon as the base, along with various other art resources.

Science

In this lesson, we were learning how switches work and why they are needed in a circuit. First, we identified different types of switches and thier functions, then we made circuits using a switch.

Science

This week, we have been learning about insulators and conductors. We used different materials to test whether they conducted electricity. In small groups, we worked together to create different circuits and recorded our findings in our books.

"If the light bulb turns on, it is a conductor."

"All the conductors are metal."

"That lesson was so fun!"

PE - Hockey

In this game, we began playing a game called "Golden Eggs", this is where you work in teams to try and collect as many eggs as possible from the basket in the middle, the team with the most amount of balls collected won. Next, we played "King of the Ring" where everyone had to work either independently or in pairs to protect their ball from being knocked out of the square. Finally, we played matches and worked together in teams to score.

Science - Electricity

In Science, we began learning about circuits and predicting whether a circuit is complete or incomplete.

What do you need for a circuit to be successful?

"A constant flow of electricity."

"Make sure to attach wires to the positive and negatives ends of the battery."

"No gaps."

PSHCE - Dreams and Goals

This term, we have been learning about hopes and dreams, and how it feels when we overcome disappointment. In today's lesson, we created role plays in different groups acting out a scenario when a person had overcome disappointment. Then the audience gave advice to the group about how to overcome the upset.

Below are some of the scenario's we were using:

Emma and Oliver are promised a puppy which is then not allowed in the flats where they live.

Farida breaks her leg before her gymnastics competition.

Issa thought he would be selected for the school football team but finds out he is only the reserve.

The holiday is cancelled because a relative of Roisin has to go into hospital.

Jacob finds out he is not to be in the same class as his friends next year.

PE - Hockey

In hockey, we recapped how to correctly hold the hockey stick and passed a ball between pairs. We then played a game called 'King of the Ring' where we had to work to ensure our ball was not knocked out of the coned area. First, we played individually then we began playing in pairs and groups of four. It was important we discussed our strategy in teams and protected the ball as a group.

Science - Electricity

To start our learning about electricity, we created our own TV programmes to explain how electricity is generated.

We learned about re-newable and non re-newable ways of generating electricity, including fossils fuels, hydro and wind, geothermal, solar and nuclear.

Take One Piece

Our second lesson focusing on 'Connect It' by Anna Meredith incorported small groups creating their own body percussion pieces of music. We used a body percussion grid to write down our movements, using a maximum beat of 16. Examples include; clapping, stamping, shouting "yay" or "yeah", jumping, saying "shh", clicking, hitting toungue on root of mouth, hitting thighs.

PE - Hockey

This term, we will be learning the following three things; weak hand at top, strong in the middle; keep the stick below your knees; thumbs pointing to the floor, down the stick. All these apply to the correct way to hold the hockey sticks. In our first lesson, we focused on holding the hockey stick correctly, passing to a partner and played team games dribbling around cones.

Take One Piece

To start term 3, our first project is focused on a song called 'Connect It' by Anna Meredith. Our first lesson focused on use of body percussion, we worked in a cannon style to create a class song. Everyone worked hard to create different sounds including clapping, clicking, shouting, stomping, all inspired by the song.

Term 2 - Our projects for this term are 'Marvellous Mappers' and 'Disgusting Digestion'

Year 4 Football Tournament

Christmas lunch

Science - Food Chains

For our final lesson this term, we worked in groups to create freezeframes showing a food chain. Below are what the pictures are showing:

Amira, Livvy and Sophie S - Grass → Slug → Bird

Louie, Oliver, Logan, Matilda, Molly - Grass → Sheep → Wolf → Tiger → Lion

Freya, Pixie, Adi - Algae → Fish → Shark

Cassie, Rose, Milly, Darcey, Olivia - Grass → Rabbit → Fox → Wolf →Hyena

Sophie H, Arven, Heidi - Leaf → Sloth → Eagle

Ethan, Tommy, Phoenix, Mason - Rat → Snake → Wolf → Eagle

Myles, Alfie, Fynley - Fox → Wolf → Bear

Christmas Table Decoration

Fir Tree's art ambassadors set everyone the challenge of competing in a Christmas Table Decoration competition. We had lots of fun designing and making our decorations, working independently or in pairs. We are extremely proud of everyone's hard work and congratulations to Cassie and Rose who were voted the winners by the upper school art ambassadors.

Class makes

For the Christmas Craft fayre, each class made their own make which they got to buy back for a small amount. We were very proud of our christmas present tags, all the children worked hard.

Street Art

We carried out research exploring Street Art and Graffiti styles, see what we found out below.

Inspired by Warhol

During our lessons, we have been exploring styles of artwork by Andy Warhol. Each child drew around the outline of a self-portrait and then we photocopied the outline so we had 4 photos on one page. Then we used colouring pencils to make our picture colourful and different in each one.

Art - researching an artist

In art, we have been learning about Andy Warhol and created our own research pages about his life and famous pieces of art.

Children in Need

We had challenges in every class and year 4 decided to see which class could run the most lap around the playground in 20 minutes. We had lots of fun cheering on our class members and were very proud of everyone's efforts!

PE

During this lesson, we were focusing on our catching skills, specifically aiming for the other's chest, throwing with fingertips, and throwing from the pocket. When catching we focused on having our hands in a 'w' position. Then, we played some mini matches focusing on throwing the player to the other players.

Geography

In this lesson, we were learning about OS map symbols. We used a small map of Wallingford and a larger map of Oxford. Using the maps, we needed to identify different symbols and what they represented.

"I think this is a church because it has a cross."

"This is a campsite because there is a tent."

"A 'P' stands for parking."

PE

In this lesson, we started working in pairs to 'tag' the cones and mirror each other's actions. Once we'd tagged the cone, our partner had to copy and try to keep up as the first partner gradually moved faster. We then focused on target practise and dodging skills in groups; one person needed to run and dodge the rugby balls, whilst the other players threw the balls.

Geography - Compass Points

In Geography, we have been learning about the differen compass points. We drew our own compass in our books labelling each point, then we went into the hall and used challenge cards to direct our partner in different directions using compass points.

PE - Tag Rugby

In this lesson, we began by playing ultimate tag to warm up and to begin understanding the 'tag' concept of tag rugby. Then, we played a game where we had 3 'sharks' tagging people and once you lost one tag, you became 'seaweed' in the centre. The 'seaweed' began acting as a wall for the children to run through, the seaweed could only move their top half. We played a second round and made it more challenging by saying you had to be tagged twice before becoming seaweed. The class requested for adults to become sharks, who had lots of fun joining in.

Science - Digestive System

In this lesson, we began learning how the digestive system works by identifying each part and labelling each feature. We worked in small groups to draw our own person, labelling each part of the digestive system and working in a team to complete our work.

Forest School

Our Forest School with Lizzie was lots of fun where we made leaf necklaces and toasted marshmallows. There were so many great photo’s opportunities that we have put these into a slide how, to celebrate them all.