Wow, what a busy week it has been in Year 4!

 

The children are very excited to start writing their Beowulf play scripts and preparations are well underway for the big performance. We have looked at some different play scripts this week and practised correctly laying one out. The children have also begun their Beowulf themed dance unit and they are starting to think about the type of role they would like to go for: large part, small part, narrator or technical team. In the next few weeks we will be auditioning the children who would like to go for a bigger role - more information on this to follow.

 

In reading, we are continuing to read Harklights as homework (thank you for your continuing support with this - we really do appreciate you hearing your child read and discussing the book with them), while in class we are unpicking the setting and characters in our new text, Whale Boy. We have discovered that Michael, the main character, lives on a tiny Caribbean Island called Liberty. He is desperate to believe that he can find whales near his island, even though he's been told they were all hunted years ago. The children are looking forward to finding out what happens next!

 

This week in maths we have been immersed in our new topic of Time. This is one area of maths that is very different to any other. Some children do find this skill very difficult so please do support your child at home if they are not yet confident at telling the time. There are resources on Google classroom to support them, and regularly looking at clocks at home together will help too. We have agreed 3 steps to telling the time:

1) Look at the minute hand - is it 'past' or 'to'?

2) Count in fives from the 12 (forwards if 'past' and back if 'to')

3) Look at the hour hand.

 

In science we have started our new topic of Plants. We began by revising the parts of a flower, using the handy trick: staMEN = male part and stigMA (like mother) = female part. We enjoyed closely observing the parts of the flowers using a magnifying glass. 

 

We are looking forward to our trip to Butser on Monday. Fingers crossed for good weather but please do pack plenty of layers just in case!

 

Have a fabulous weekend,

The Year 4 Team.