Thank you all!

Well this has definitely been a very different school year. I can't believe that we have all been apart for so long and it made me look back over all of the wonderful times that we spent together before lockdown. Looking at all of our pictures reminded me of all of the amazing things that we did and achieved as a class. Thank you all so much for making this an incredible school year and I cannot wait to see all of your faces in September.  Have a fun and safe summer xx

Can you believe it?

When James sent me this fantastic picture I couldn't quite believe that it was all made from Lego! It is fantastic! James has been thoroughly enjoying learning all about Ancient Greece and as well as making this model he has also created a wonderful PowerPoint and been enjoying lots of Greek myths and Legends. This model shows Mount Olympus, Poseidon’s Underwater Palace, Hades’ Underworld and even all 14 of the Greek Gods.

Let the Battle Commence!

It is Wednesday again already so time for the start of another TTRockstars Battle - this time it is Boys Vs Girls! Make sure you are getting online and taking part in any of the battle modes to score points for your team. You have until next Wednesday to score as many points as possible before the winners are announced. Good Luck!

What are you Reading? 

It feels pretty strange to not be preparing to return to school tomorrow for our last half term in Year 4 and I am looking forward to when it is safe for us to all be back together. Yesterday, I finished my book and straight away had to order some new ones as I have been reading even more than normal over the last few weeks. Luckily, my new books arrived today and I am already loving the one that I have chosen to read first. 

This made me think - what have you been reading during lockdown? Have you discovered a new author who you haven't tried before? Have you got any recommendations of books that you have loved? It would be great if you could let me know (you can use our Year 4 email address) and we can share these with the whole class 

Battle of the Bands!

Over the last week, 4H and 4B have been taking part in some friendly competition linked to Times Tables by completing a Battle of the Bands on TTRockstars. The children certainly stepped up to the challenge and the scores for both classes were incredible. At the end of the full week challenge, the final scores were... 

4H = 11,631    and     4B = 7,388

Well done, 4H for an excellent Battle and a special thank you and well done to the following 3 children who contributed the most points for our class. Keep you eyes peeled for another Battle of the Bands coming soon. 

Fantastic work from 4H!

Another busy week and more fantastic work being carried out by all of the children in 4H. It is lovely to see all of the home learning that you have all been up to and the creative ways that you have chosen to do it. Here are some examples of some of this wonderful work in action from Samuel, Theo and Sophie. 

Fantastic Home Learning

It is so wonderful to see what you have all been getting up to during lockdown. You are very creative!!

Bracken has had a special lockdown haircut (which makes her look very grown up) and has also been decorating her garden wall to celebrate our fantastic NHS. Max has been doing some home learning with the help of his cat. Samuel has been making some delicious-looking Chocolate Crispie Cakes. Harleigh has been working very hard at home on lots of different things including this wonderful drawing of the human body which she has labelled with some of its organs. Jack has created a very interesting Maze linked to our 'Escape' project and has also made a fantastic wordsearch full of different colours. 

I am so proud of you all for the wonderful work that you have completed and the fantastic hobbies and activities that are keeping you busy and most importantly, happy. Keep sharing these, please 

Time for Another Quiz

We have another exciting Quiz which has been created by Samuel (I have sent it to you all by email this morning). I hope lots of you will have a go at answering as many of the questions as you can  - some of them are tricky!

It is lovely sharing the things that you have been doing at home so keep sending them to our Year 4 email address. 

Take care and see you all soon, 

Mrs Hankinson

Quiz Time!

I hope everyone is doing well and keeping themselves and their families safe. 

This morning I have sent an email out which includes a wonderful quiz that James has created. I hope lots of you will have a try at this and maybe you could come up with a quiz of your own. If you do, send it to the Year 4 email address (along with the answers) and I can pass it on to the rest of our class. 

I am sure you are all doing lots of interesting things at home. Remember, learning doesn't just happen in the classroom. Think about all of the things that you can learn to do at home. Maybe, with an adult, you could try baking or cooking something; or use your sewing skills to create something new; or even learn how to do some new chores! Whatever you are doing, I would love to hear about it. 

Take care, 

Mrs Hankinson

Outdoor Maths

We took maths outdoors today and completed a Calculation Scavenger Hunt. Children worked in pairs to find clues to help them solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division questions using the methods that we have been learning in Maths lessons. This was a great way to not only enjoy the sunshine today but also to consolidate all of the skills that we have been developing. 

An Exciting Week Ahead

Next week we have so many exciting things going on but also lots that we must remember. First of all, children have been asked to bring in their outfits for our assembly ASAP so that we have them ready in school. Secondly, Thursday is not only World Book day but we also have a visit to Kings Norton Library to look forward to. Children must ensure that they have something suitable to wear for the walk to and from the library. Finally, Friday is our class assembly. The children have been working incredibly hard to learn their lines and we can't wait to perform for an audience. I hope that lots of you will be able to make it as the children love sharing these things with you. 

Hope you all have a restful weekend - a busy week to follow! 

Penguins galore!

It's a good job that penguins are my favourite animal because our classroom has been filled with them this week. These are just a few examples of the wonderful pictures and models that have been created by children in 4H as part of their Expedition Homework. 

It is wonderful seeing how the children have let their creativity and their imaginations run wild and I hope that they have enjoyed making these as much as I have enjoyed having them in our classroom. 

Puzzling Perimeter

After a week of developing our understanding of shape and perimeter, we set ourselves a challenge with some really tricky shapes. The idea was to put them in order starting with the one with the smallest perimeter. It was AMAZING to see the children working together on a real challenge. Nobody gave up. Nobody got annoyed. Everybody showed their confidence and resilience and it has made my week!

Well done, 4H 

A little bit exciting... 

New books arrived in class today and I'm not sure that 'exciting' even comes close to describing how we all felt about it. Children in 4H all have such enthusiasm for reading and it was lovely to hear the buzz and chatter about these new titles. Lots of these are books that have won prizes or have been recommended so we cannot wait to get stuck into them. 

Penguin Art

Today, we started a new piece of 'Penguin Art' as part of our Expedition topic. The children loved getting creative and finding ways to make their artwork look more realistic - stay tuned to see how they look once they are finished and up on display. 

It's beginning to look (and feel) a lot like Christmas!

Christmas has been building for the last few weeks and despite the nasty, drizzly weather, we are really starting to feel festive in 4H. With our wonderful Christmas party yesterday (where the children may well have been the best behaved children I have ever seen at a Christmas party) and our fantastic pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk this morning, it is no wonder that we are all feeling full of Christmas cheer. 

It has been a long term and the children have worked incredibly hard and settled into Year 4 brilliantly. We have completed two wonderful new topics, Revolting and Illuminate and have really pushed ourselves with our writing and our maths. Children now need a well-deserved rest so that they can come back in January raring to go (because our topic for the Spring Term may just be the best yet). 

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and all the best for what should be a brilliant 2020. 

Wonderful writing!

What a week it has been in school. We have had a Carol Service, Christmas performances and even a day off for voting. Despite all of this, we have managed to cram in some wonderful writing in 4H based on the book that we have been reading  - The Firework Maker's Daughter. Every child has written a fantastic descriptive paragraph about two of the characters in the book - The Fire Fiend and The Goddess of the Lake. Next week, we will be thinking about presenting these beautifully so that we can share them all with you. 

Destroying Decimals!

In Maths this week, we have been showing decimals just how tough we are. These tricky numbers can cause problems but $H have been working hard using lots of different resources to show that they will not be beaten by them. First, we looked at tenths, then hundredths and now we can explain how many tenths and hundredths are in numbers like 0.45 AND EVEN write it as a fraction. 

Researching our Text

This half term our topic is called Illuminate and as part of that, we have been reading The Firework Maker's Daughter. We are loving the book so far as it has it all: secrets, fire fiends, families and even talking elephants! When we are reading though, we sometimes come across words or phrases that we don't quite understand. Lots of these are linked to where and when the story is set. 

So today, we decided to do something about it. We searched the book for people and things linked to China and then used our fantastic ICT skills to research what they are. I think it is safe to say that we all have a better understanding of the place that our story is set and now we are looking forward to finding out what happens next. 

Our challenge - be GREEN!

We don't mean our lovely school uniforms but we mean being green on the inside. 

Children were lucky enough to take part in an Anti-Bullying workshop ran by Malachi this week which encouraged them to think about how we can make sure that our words, actions and behaviours are always green. By green they meant that they were kind and caring and that they would not cause upset or damage to anybody else. 

the children loved having their say about how to make our classroom and our school more of a green place and have all pledged to work together to help us make the change. Well done, 4H! 

Tree Planting

Yesterday we took to the field, all wrapped up in coats, scarves, hats and gloves (plus some very much needed Wellington Boots) on a mission to plant some trees. This wasn't an easy task, especially as the weather recently has meant that our school field looked more like a marsh, but the children did a fantastic job. 

They worked well together in small groups and it was fantastic to see how they helped each other with the task. I was so proud to see children who might not normally work together, putting down their tools and going to help somebody if they were struggling. 

Lets hope that this bad weather doesn't damage our trees before they have grown nice and strong! 

Really Illuminating!

Today we have been exploring our new topic 'Illuminate'. We explored how we could create our own circuits that would light up a bulb and children were amazed when they got theirs working. 

We also talked about how, at this time of year, Fireworks illuminate our night sky. We watched videos of Catherine Wheels and then used paper plates, motors and circuits to create our own moving fireworks. The results were fabulous!

A revolting end to a wonderful half term!

Do you like the look of our Revolting Pizzas? Well we certainly enjoyed making them. These were to celebrate the end of our first Year 4 topic, Revolting!

We have discovered so much this topic and I have been really impressed with everyone's enthusiasm for all that we have done (as well as the wonderful homework that we have received). Next half term, our topic will be 'Illuminate' and I am already really excited about it. Hope you all have a lovely half term. 

Mrs Hankinson

Marshmallow Towers

Today, groups of children worked together to see who could make the tallest tower out of marshmallows and drinking straws. This was part of our Jigsaw lesson this week where we talked about how decisions can be made. Children had to think really carefully about not only the decisions that they were making but also how to make sure that everyone in the group was happy with the final decision. Some children observed the whole activity and then fed back to the class about how decisions were made. 

Monday got a little noisy!!

Today was very noisy in 4H as we tried to discover just how different sounds are made and how our ears help us to hear them. It was great fun exploring different instruments (although Mrs Hankinson's ears were definitely aching by the end). Children have discovered that it is vibrations that help us to hear and that our outer ears act as a funnel to take in these vibrations.

Attendance winners.... two weeks in a row!!

We are so happy to have won the attendance bear for the second week in a row. This shows that we are all trying our best to come to school every day. This week we have had lots of children with sniffles or sore throats but they have made sure that they have tried their best to come to school and to soldier on  - well done, 4H!!

Where does our poo come from?

It is a question that we have been considering in Year 4 this week... and we have carried out our own investigation to see just how our magnificent digestive systems actually work. We started by eating some crackers (unfortunately, not with butter and cheese) to get our saliva working. This is the first part of our digestive journey. Then we used different equipment to represent the different parts of the digestive system: a plastic bag for our stomach; orange juice for the acid inside it; and tights played the part of our intestines. 

It certainly got messy - but we can now tell you exactly what happens to our food and where poo comes from. 

4H go Rugby Mad!

As the world prepares for the Rugby World Cup to begin tomorrow, we have been getting ourselves ready in our PE lesson this week. 4H are letting rugby fever take hold and are using our PE lessons over the next few weeks to learn the art of Tag Rugby - before hopefully competing in our very own competition. Watch this space - the future England Rugby superstars could be coming from Broadmeadow!

Look at what our drinks can do...

4H have been investigating how our teeth can be damaged by different types of drinks. They have also been working on how to carry out a fair test. The results are fairly... disgusting! 

A special visit 

Today the dentist came to visit - don’t worry though, not the Demon one - and showed us how to look after a teeth. We learnt lots about the best ways to brush our teeth and got to ask lots of questions. Children were also lucky enough to receive a goody bag with lots of things to help them to be a Tooth Defender. Thank you very much to Bell’s Lane Surgery for helping up with our new Topic. 

Quick note: if you are using the disclosing tablets with children, please do so straight after brushing teeth and be careful as they can stain clothes. 

Testing our Teeth

Today we have been eating apples - all in the name of science. We used the apples to help us to investigate the different teeth that we have and how each of them work. Here are some photos of us trying to use our incisors to chew the apple (which was not an easy task) 

A Fantastic Start to Year 4!

It has been a very busy week in 4H... but also a very enjoyable one. The children have all come back to school full of enthusiasm and this has been shown in all of their lessons this week. In English we have been exploring some Revolting Rhymes written by the legendary Roald Dahl (and considering why some people would want to complain about them). In Maths, we have explored numbers over 1000 using a range of resources and we have set up our own Science Investigation to discover the affect that different drinks have on our teeth. 

A great start everyone - looking forward to another fantastic week with you all. 

Mrs Hankinson

Welcome to the new school year. Mrs Hankinson will soon be filling this page with lots of exciting

class news, pictures of things we’ve done and more.

Do you have any ideas for this page? If so, then let Mrs Hankinson know!