Year 4 Spelling -  Autumn 2 In the picture below, you can see the weekly focus for this half term and also a list of some of the words that match the learning. It is important that the children do not try to memorise these words. They are learning the rule and how to use the phonic skills of segmenting and blending to help them to spell. Mr Faithfull and Mr Collingwood.

 The Nature Clubbers have discussed what we can do to improve habitats within the school grounds and all agree that an insect hotel would be possible, useful and practical. Today we moved onto thinking about the materials and the site, whilst not forgetting which insects we would most like to see.

 Yesterday afternoon, we were visited by two members of the Chelmsford Mounterring Club and this linked to our geography learning perfectly. Piers and Imogen spoke about features of a mountain, mountain ranges and where in the world we might find some of the highest mountains. They talked about thier own experiences climbing mountains and shared some amazing photos. Also, they showed some of pictures of some of the wildlife they had seen when climbing. These photos were really cool! Finally, they even allowed us to hold and handle some of their climbing equipment. There was so much! This part was amazing and very inspiring. We would like to say a huge thank you to Piers and Imogen for coming in. 

 This morning, we had a visitor from the Essex Fire/ Police Service education team to speak to us about safety around Halloween and Bonfire Night. They left us the following leaflet with their top tips for you to browse and have asked the children to pass on what they have learnt so that the season runs smoothly. 

The children in year four had two guests from Chelmsford Mountaineering Club visit the school. This visit linked to our topic of mountains, earthquakes and volcanoes. The children learnt more about mountains and what it is like to climb a mountain. They also had the chance to learn about and hold some actual climbing equipment.  Thank you to Chelmsford Mountaineering Club for providing this experience.

 The children have had a busy week of learning in year four. In maths, we have continued our study of place value and focused on number lines and rounding. Our English lessons have been all about poetry and how we can use an image to generate ideas. We will be writing our poems next week. We have continued to learn about states of matter in science. We learnt that sublimation is when a solid turns straight into a liquid through intense heating. Homophones have been our spelling topic for this week and last. I wonder if the children can explain what a homophone is and give five examples? Next week, we will be looking at words spelt with the 'shun' sound spelt 'sion'. Our geography topic has taken us around the world looking at different active volcanoes and what the impact was when they erupted. Don't forget that next Friday is 4C's sharing assembly.  Have a good weekend. Mr Faithfull and Mr Collingwood.

 The children in year four have enjoyed reading the story or Ariki and the Giant Shark. The story centres on a young girl who is washed up on an island in the South Pacific. Initially seen as an outsider, she helps 'protect' the island from a giant shark who is actually in the area to give birth to the next generation of her family.  This book is part of a serious and the next title is currently on offer via Amazon for less than £5.

 Today in Nature Club we have been learning about habitats, what they are and how to identify them. We have also discussed biomes. In the Eco-Garden area we have identified habitats and discussed how we can improve the biodiversity of them. There have been some great suggestions and I'll have a look and see which ones might be appropriate in the Eco-Garden area. Mr Hopegood

 This week my band of nature investigators evaluated the bird feeders from last week. Our intentions were: to see if they were still in place and if not to understand why to see if they had been part of the feeding cycle of a group of animals ( we thought birds, small mammals and insects most likely ) to re-site fallen feeders Our observations were: most of the feeders were there roughly a third were on the ground all with signs of animal feeding about half were still hanging, not all showed obvious signs of feeding there were a few strings from the missing feeders evident but none of the lolly stick perches Our conclusions were: the feeders on the ground had helped to feed insects (entering around the lolly stick holes and bruises), rodents (there were some definite nibble marks) but we couldn't be sure if any ground feeding birds had made use of them some of the hanging feeders had peck marks but not many, we didn't think the birds needed them yet some of the missing ones wer...

  Today in English, we learnt all about the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. We learnt about his life and the positive influence he had on poetry. We had great fun reading some of his poems aloud. Then, we reflected on the poems by thinking about what we liked about them and what they made us think of. 

 This afternoon, we looked at how heat can speed up the process of melting. We found out that the particles in a solid are tight and compact, but when heat is applied the particles start to break up and become weaker. This means the solid turns into a liquid. We observed this with ice cubes and warm water. One cup contained just a single ice cube, but the other cup had an ice cube and warm water. The ice cup melted quicker in this cup as we discussed the effect of the warm water on the particles, and they became weaker much quicker. 

Below are details for this half term's creative homework. Mr Faithfull and Mr Collingwood 

In year four, we will focus on a different spelling pattern or rule each week. In the picture below, you can see the weekly focus for this half term and also a list of some of the words that match the learning. It is important that the children do not try to memorise these words. They are learning the rule and how to use the phonic skills of segmenting and blending to help them to spell. We will discuss this further in tomorrow's parent meeting. Mr Faithfull and Mr Collingwood.

 A big thank you to all the parents and carers who have been so generous to the Year 4 team. Again, thank you for all the support that you have given us this year with homework, home reading and re-inforcing expectations.

 We finished our Shakespeare unit with the children acting their rewritten versions of Act 1, Scene 2 of The Tempest. The characters here are Prospero, Miranda and Ariel.