Friday 22 May 2015

Magnificent May Half Term!





It may only have been a short half term but it seems year 4 have packed lots in as usual!

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been focussing on our discussion text unit in English. The children have done really well, learning how to use topic sentences and supporting evidence to build strong arguments for and against issues. As a class, we have debated the following issues, which the children were very passionate about as you can imagine!
Should children do housework?
Should children at Crabtree Juniors be allowed a class pet?
Should a swimming pool be built on the field at Crabtree?

After half term, we will be learning how to write engaging stories with dilemmas. Keep an eye out for these types of stories over half term!

In Science, the children have been exploring habitats and had the opportunity to go on a bug hunt around school. Poor Birch did get caught in the rain, so we might have another look after half term! 

Homework set over half term is spellings and topic work. This is due in on the first day back (Wednesday).

We hope you all have a lovely half term break and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday evening for our summer music concert. Don't forget to rehearse the songs as often as you can!

The year 4 team. 




Tuesday 5 May 2015

What have year 4 been up to?


Can you believe we are already 3 weeks into the summer term? How time has flown!


We apologise once again for the cancellation of our Harpenden visit at short notice, especially to the kind parents who had offered to accompany us. However, we would not have been able to do all the lovely things that we had planned on a soggy common! Let's keep an eye on the weather over the next few weeks for a solid week of good opportunities. We will let you know as soon as we have a date in mind.


Year 4 have spent the last few weeks getting stuck into their latest English unit based on stories from other cultures. We looked at the story of Gregory Cool and this week are preparing to write our own versions of the story, however this time set in Vietnam. This would be a fantastic opportunity to look up some more information about Vietnam and the differences to England.  


Please may we take this opportunity to remind you of the importance that children have the correct equipment in their pencil case. We have found that we are lending out far too many pens, pencils, whiteboard pens and glue sticks. We will be sending pencil cases home on Friday and ask that you check that your child has at the least: a pencil, a blue pen, a sharpener, a rubber, a whiteboard pen, a glue stick and a ruler (30cm preferably). We do understand that items get lost but often these are un-named. Please could you ensure that from now on, all items are labelled so that they can be returned if found. We will be checking all childrens' pencil case on Monday to ensure that they have what they need.


We would also like to remind you of the expectation in terms of reading records as despite many bringing in their reading records consistently, we have found some children are forgetting. Please remember it is the children's responsibility to complete their reading record with the date, the title of the book, the page numbers they have read and 3 wow words that they could use in their own writing. Children who do not complete their reading record will lose time at break when they will have to fill it in.


Thank you for your assistance in advance.


Miss Clements and Mrs Renier