"Love one another as I have loved you."

John 13:34-35

Welcome to the Year 4

2017-2018

Sir and Mrs Sutton would like to welcome you to the Year 4 page.  We look forward to showing you all the wide variety of things that happen in our class throughout the year.

WINNERS!

Year 4 won the attendance award for the spring term. We were the class with the best attendance over the 10 weeks. Through the School Council initiative, we voted for a chill-out morning. We played board games, ate hot dogs and doughnuts, played on-iPads and had a great time. 

General Information: Spring Term

The school day starts at 8.55 am. 

Children need to bring their book bag containing their reading book and homework diary to school each day. 

A school hot dinner costs £9.00 per week. Money is payable on a Monday morning, and should be brought to school in an envelope clearly marked with the child's name, class and amount of money it contains. 

Toast is available to buy on Mondays and Wednesdays at a cost of 10p. 

​Brass band will take place on a Tuesday afternoon. During these sessions the children will be taught to play either a trumpet, a trombone or a baritone. So if your child brings their instrument home to practise, it must be brought into school for Tuesday's lesson.

Over the course of the year there will be several more sacramental meetings for parents. These will usually take place on a Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the school hall. As soon as dates are confirmed with Fr Barry, we will let you know.

For the next three half terms the children will have swimming lessons on a Thursday afternoon at Bootle Leisure Centre. For these sessions we have to follow the rules set down by the Bootle baths which means all children must have a swimming cap and no jewellery can be worn.

Homework:

Reading: Children are expected to read every night with an adult and have their reading records signed. It is important to discuss the text with your child to help develop skills of comprehension.

Spellings: spellings are given on a Monday and need to be practised each night before the test on Friday. The books will be sent home so that you can see how your child is doing but it is important that they are returned to school the next day.

Times Tables: tables practice sheets will be given daily. The children will work on a particular table for two weeks and need to be able to instantly recall not only the multiplication facts but also the related division facts. At the end of every two week block there will be a test to check that the tables have been learnt.

Maths: maths homework will be given over the weekend when appropriate.

English: There will also be a piece of grammar/punctuation homework set during the week usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Dates for Your Diary:

2nd Half Term

Macbeth

As an introduction to our new literacy topic, Macbeth, we worked with Barry from Altru Drama to create a play in a day. At the start of the day we knew little about the story but we spent the day learning lines and rehearsing different scenes so that by the end of the day we were able to put on a performance of Macbeth for other classes in the school. We had a great day and learnt so much. We are really looking forward to studying the story in more detail.

Written Methods of Subtraction

We have been learning how to record subtraction calculations using an efficient !written method. To help us understand the method we used place value charts and place value counters. They really helped!

Hindu Dance

Recently, we have been learning about the Hindu religion. One of our lesson involved learning about story telling through dance.

Electricity

Our current science topic is all about electrical circuits. We learnt how to build circuits to power bulbs, buzzers and motors. We have made our own switches to add some control to the circuits and have even managed to send messages using Morse Code.

Sportshall Athletics

We had a great morning at the Hawthornes where we took part in an athletics event competing against other Bootle schools. Running, throwing and jumping; we tried them all, some with great success. But the main thing was we all had great fun.

English: Play Scripts

We have been studying Shakespeare's Macbeth this term and we had a go at writing some scenes of our own. We then acted them out. 

Computing

On Monday we had a session that focused upon how to stay safe when we are on-line. Mr Melia came in to speak to us about the things we do online and the steps we can take to keep safe. Being online can be great fun and can offer us so many possibilities but we do need to know how to use things correctly and how we can keep ourselves safe. 

After this assembly we learnt some basic coding on the ipads using an app called Hopscotch. It was tricky at frist but by the end of the session we had all mastered it. We were able to use our finger to write our names anywhere on the screen in rotating emojis. 

Sacramental Meeting

Our recent sacramental meeting was based around the theme of prayer and in particular the Our Father. We worked with family members to complete the workbook together.

Play in a Day: Ancient Greece

To begin our topic of Ancient Greece we we spent the day with Kate from Altru Drama preparing our play-in-a-day. We learnt about life in Ancient Greece including: Greek gods, myths & legends, everyday Greek life and the Olympics. it was great fun as you can see from the photos.

Geography: Where is Greece?

To start our Geography topic of Greece we have being using atlases and iPads to research the country and see how it compares with England.

World Book Day

For world book day the whole school studied the Alison Jay book 'Bee & Me'. We all came to school dressed in black and yellow.

Hydraulic Heads

We recently had a design technology day linked to our topic of Ancient Greece. We made hydraulic heads based upon Greek myths and legends. The hydraulic system opened and closed the mouths. 

Sport Relief 2018

To help raise money for Sport Relief the School Council organised a 'danceathon'. The idea was for the school to be dancing all day. Year 4 were the class to start it all off. We had great fun.

General Information: Autumn Term

The school day begins with registration at 8.55 am and we really appreciate prompt time-keeping to get the children off to a good start. 

Reading books should be brought in daily as the children may be asked to read throughout the week. It is important that the children read to an adult each night and their diaries should be signed and a comment written to inform of their progress. We will collect reading records in as often as we can and attempt to sign them regularly. 

Spellings will be given out every day so the children can practise each night and hand them in the following day. They will then be tested on the weekly word list on a Friday.

Times tables will also be given out on a daily basis with the children expected to practise each night and hand the sheet in the next day. There will also be a weekly Friday test on these. Extra sheets are available so that you can get involved and practise with the children.

Maths and English homework will be given out during the week to reinforce work completed in class. 

P.E.

PE takes place each Thursday and it is important that the children have their full kit in school for the lesson. 

Dates for Your Diary:

2nd Half Term

Keeping Safe 

During the first week back Year 4 discussed and researched e-safety and how we can keep ourselves safe on-line. The children then used iPads to create their own posters delivering a clear message about how we should behave when on-line to keep safe. 

Our School Mission 

During our 2nd week back at school we spent time reminding ourselves of our school mission statement and how important it is to daily life in school. We spent some time thinking about ways in which we can live out our mission statement and the whole school was involved in a  Mission Collective Worship.

Democracy in Action 

Well done to everyone who took part in the school council elections and put themselves forward to be a school councillor. The standard was very high this year and it was a very difficult job for the children to decide who to vote for. After listening to each candidates' manifestos all of the class went to the polling station to cast their votes. it was a close run thing. Congratulations to our two new year 4 councillors! 

Anglo Saxons in Mere Tun

Year 4 recently visited the Anglo Saxon settlement of Mere Tun as part of this term's history topic. They entered fully into village life. They learnt how to defend the village using swords and shields; they went foraging in the nearby woodland; learnt how to weave  with willow to make pig pens and also how to thatch a roof. A great day was had by all despite the poor weather. 

Mathematics in Year 4

Our first maths topic this year was place value. During this topic we learnt to read, write and partition 4-digit numbers.

Science in Year 4

Our first science topic this year is entitled What Happens to the Food we Eat? We started by explaining what we already know about digestion and the digestive system.