Year 4

What irresistible learning looks like in Year 4

In Autumn 1 the wonderful year 4 pupils learnt about the fascinating Indus Valley civilisation. They made their own unique, carefully planned and detailed clay seals. They used ideas from photos of original ones which were used by Indus Valley people as logos by when trading goods during this period of time. In our whole class reading sessions, they thoroughly enjoyed reading the text ‘Cloud Tea Monkeys’ by Mal Peet. This was a story based on life in the tea plantations which enabled them to go on and write their very own diary entries in role as the main character ‘Tashi’.

The topic in Autumn 2 was Extreme Earth. The children absolutely loved finding out about how all the incredible earthquakes and volcanoes form and understand how they have affected, impacted and changed the landscape and lives of people over time. They extended their knowledge of technical vocabulary around this topic which equipped them to write their own non-chronological reports which they then published and shared with Year 3 who were such a captivated audience! They had an explosive time designing and creating their own volcano experiment using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.

During the Spring Term, Year 4 focussed on Ancient Greece. They used drama and role-play to act out some Ancient Greek myths and legends. This enabled them to become authors creating their own Greek myths and publishing these in a whole class book. Children enjoyed visiting Reception and reading their myths to the younger children Intricate, decorative and unique Greek clay vases were sculpted and painted as an engaging DT project as part of this topic. Many of our children also had a wonderful time rehearsing and taking part in the magnificent ‘Dance at the Dome’ with other schools across the city. They showed off their dance talents, performance skills and team work brilliantly in front of a huge audience on a massive stage! What a life changing experience which boosted realisation of self –belief, confidence, enjoyment and positivity among the children and across the school community! In PSHE, the children learnt how we are all homo-sapiens and part of the human race. They mixed colours to create their own individual skin tones.

In the Summer Term, Year 4 learn about rainforests. This is such an engrossing and relevant topic for the children who are currently learning about the variety of physical features of the rainforest, the creatures that live there and their different habitats. This knowledge will be applied into planning and creating their own non-chronological report about a rainforest animal incorporating the writing skills they have developed over Year 4. The Whole Class Reading book is called ‘World Burn Down’ by Steve Cole which the children are finding interesting, witty and relevant. Discussion on this will be used to participate in a whole year group debate. Grasshoppers Class were also invited to help Mike and Vicky the ranger develop the ‘B’ Bank over at Queens Park. The children showed such determination and had the most fantastic morning planting over 300 plants. We have scheduled in a date to return before the end of Year 4 to measure the progress.

Year 4’s attitude, positivity and thorough enjoyment of all of their learning shines so brightly every day along with their huge smiles, polite and respectful behaviour, maturity and empathy for others. What brilliant Year 4 group we have!