Welcome to our class web page where you can find out about our amazing learning journey. You will find

information about our activities, examples of our work and comments from us! Please visit often to see our learning journey develop.

Key Information:

4HT have outdoor PE on a Monday with Sporting Chance and indoor PE on a Wednesday. 

4HT's entrance and exit point is through the classroom door leading onto the playground. At the end of the day, children will be released from the coloured spots on the upper  part of the playground. Year 4 teachers have their planning days every other Wednesday so other teachers will be covering their classes.

Year 4 Curriculum Map 2022-23

Term 6

Knowledge Organiser: What effect does Palm Oil have on the World?

Learning Overview

We will be continuing our enquiry 'What effect does palm oil have on the world?' This term, we will be learning about climates and biomes, how they could change over time and the effect that this has on our rainforests. We will also be learning about living things and their habitats, classification and life cycles of different types of animals.  Alongside our enquiry, we will be exploring Global Goal 15 ‘Life on Land’ which looks at protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of the terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests and reversing land degradation and halting biodiversity loss. 

Being an Athlete! Sports Day

Despite the challenges from the weather, we persevered with our sports day and competed in sprint and distance races, throwing vortexes, overcoming obstacles and then the relay for the finale! We got a bit wet but that didn't dampen our spirits and then celebrated with ice lollies afterwards.

Being an Artist - Art Week!

This week we have been artists and practising our drawing skills. We were lucky enough to be joined by Mr Taylor who taught us how to draw cartoons and he explained that most drawings, especially cartoons can be broken down into smaller, simple shapes. This helped us create our own cartoon people and then we followed some videos explaining how to draw cartoon animals and buildings. We also used nature to create art inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy! Finally, we had a visit from Mangotsfield secondary school who taught us new pottery skills as we made a sculpture of some coral using different techniques to create different textures.

Allotment!

This term we have been getting our fingers green by helping out our school gardener, Mr Evans, with harvesting herbs and produce from our school allotment. We have sampled some of the things we have grown including chives, lettuce and different fruits. We have also helped dig up potatoes for the school kitchen and can't wait to try them! Home-grown always tastes better after all

No Pens Day!

Today, we worked on our oracy skills and completed all of our learning without using a pen to write with! In Jigsaw, we learnt about changes. Some changes we have control over whilst we have little or no control over other changes which happen in our lives. To develop our oracy skills further, we discussed a variety of questions such as 'What would you change about the school?' to 'Are tests good for assessing people's skills?'

We all had a lot to say today but we always thought about what we were about to say and used or talk tactics to support us.

Being an Athlete! Orienteering

This Term in PE we have been developing our orienteering skills, marking important sites and features of the school grounds onto a map and using a compass to decide which direction we would have to turn to get from one place to another using degrees. 

Being an Engineer: Enquiry Ambition making soap!

To end our enquiry 'What effects does Palm oil have on the world? we started our ambition to create a household product that doesn't palm oil. We firstly scooped out enough soap base and melted it on the induction hob before pouring it into the silicone mold. We added some soap dye and scent before leaving it to set completely before taking it home and trying it out! We had lots of fun making our soap and are very excited that it not only helps us keep our hands nice and clean but also doesn't have a negative impact on the environment!

Being a Theologian: RE day!

Today we have spent the day learning about different religions including Christianity ad Judaism. We were lucky enough to be joined by Chloe and Sharon from Encounter Christianity and they were talking to us about the different teachings Jesus preached to inspire people. We have also spent the day creating pieces of art to showcase God's green Earth for a national competition. Finally, we had David come and talk to us about Judaism which was really interesting.

Ice lollies in the forest!

To celebrate our hard work learning our times tables and completing the multiplication check this week, Mrs March kindly bought us all ice lollies. We enjoyed them in the shade of the secret forest and they helped us cool down after a very hot week!

Careers Week!

This week we will be thinking about the future and what careers we might like to do when we are old enough. We started off the week with a whole school assembly, we found out that Ms Wilson had had many different jobs including making boxes.

Later on, we had a session with Wayne who runs his own Bike shop. We are really looking forward to finding out about all the amazing jobs we might do in the future.

Term 5

Knowledge Organiser: What effect does Palm Oil have on the world?

Learning Overview

Our new enquiry this term will be 'What effect does palm oil have on the world?' This term, we will be learning about climates and biomes, how they could change over time and the effect that this has on our rainforests. We will also be learning about living things and their habitats, classification and life cycles of different types of animals. As part of our enquiry, we will be visiting the Living Rainforest near Newbury and taking part in some workshops where we will be learning about amazing adaptations.  Alongside our enquiry, we will be exploring Global Goal 15 ‘Life on Land’ which looks at protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of the terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests and reversing land degradation and halting biodiversity loss. 

Athletics in the sunshine

Today we were really lucky, not only to be in school on a Monday but to have the sports coach. In preparation for Sports Day, we were taken through our paces. We worked on our javelin throw, long jump and shot put.

The Living Rainforest!

Year 4 took a trip to the Living Rainforest in Newbury. There, we were given a tour in groups around the centre, learning about the different animals and the amazing ways in which they adapt to their habitats and ensure survival in the rainforest. We had opportunities to ask questions about the different animals - some of whom were free roaming - as well as some independent exploring of this amazing biome. 

Coronation Celebration

Throughout the school we have been celebrating the coronation of King Charles this upcoming weekend. We made bunting to decorate the hall, crowns fit for Kings and Queens and then we designed a portrait ready to hang in the National Gallery! The children were also able to have their lunch as a year group picnic style.

We all had lots of fun and it was a lovely way to end the week!

Engage! Mini biomes within our school

Today we continued with the start of our new enquiry ‘What effect does palm oil have on the world?’ by going out into the school grounds and looking at different ‘mini’ biomes. We visited the pond where we noticed that there were very few visible animals and insects. In contrast, we saw many different insects in the secret garden and under the trees on the corner of the school field. We thought about how these areas change through the seasons and what impact we have on these biomes.

Term 4

In Term 4, we will be continuing with the enquiry, ‘Who were more powerful: the Athenians or the Spartans?'.  We are travelling back in time to Ancient Greece where we will be using our historian skills to explore this famous civilisation, considering their legacies, laws and democracies and how these have impacted us in present day.  As well as this, we will be using our artist skills to create an Greek sculpture. Finally, we will be using our writing skills to create our ambition which will be an orally presented debate answering our enquiry question.

Our class book this term is The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton. We are setting sail with Odysseus as he fights to find his way back home after the brutal Trojan War. On his ten year journey, he endures harrowing ordeals, battles monsters and learns what it means to be a hero. We will be using this book to inspire our writing which will be using fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases with modifiers to add more detail to our writing and exploring using the perfect tense form. 

Being a Scientist! Science Week

As part of our science week in Year 4, we have been developing our understanding of electricity. We learned about the different types of appliances that use mains electricity and battery. We then had a go at creating our own electric circuits using wires, batteries and bulbs. We now know that the wires in a circuit have a very important role and are made of metal because it is an electrical conductor which means it allows the electric current to flow around the circuit and to the bulb to light it up.

No pens day!

Every term, we put down our pens and learn through talking! We explored a new talk tactic of 'probe' which means to dig deeper, ask for evidence or justification of another person's answer. Alongside using this and other talk tactics of build, challenge, summarise and clarify, we discussed several discussion points as well as playing oracy games. 

World Book Day dens and fun

Today we celebrated World Book Day by wearing our PJs, onesies or snuddies. Why you may well ask, because the theme was bedtime stories. We had great fun creating stories in our partners, asking graphic novels based on those stories and shared our books which we had brought in with 6GD and made some reading dens to snuggle into and enjoy a story or two.

Being a Reader!

We have partnered up with 5CC to be reading buddies and are sharing our love of books with other children in the school. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will be reading to them (and hearing them read) after lunch and discussing our books with them. It has been lots of fun getting to know children in a different year group and developing a love of reading across both classrooms

Being an Athlete

This term we have PE outdoors on a Monday with Sporting Chance. We are learning about Hockey and practising our skills at passing the ball with control and making sure that we are holding and using the stick properly. We enjoyed being metacogs and working as a team in some fun mini-matches today! 

Minotaur mayhem!

Today we started off our new writing sequence by immersing ourselves in the Greek myth ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’. We will be using this myth to support our writing over the next few weeks. Our writing will be incorporating inverted commas and complex sentences alongside all the other targets we have learnt so far this year.

To enable us to fully imagine how Theseus felt treading carefully through the dark, dank chambers of the labyrinth, we created our own (using a little imagination) out of cardboard boxes and the play pod equipment. There was even a minotaur roaming the corridors of the labyrinth in the guise of Mr Hamlen!!

Term 3

Knowledge Organiser

Year 4 Learning Overview

In Term 3, we are starting our new enquiry, ‘Who were more powerful: the Athenians or the Spartans?'.  We are travelling back in time to Ancient Greece where we will be using our historian skills to explore this famous civilisation, considering their legacies, laws and democracies and how these have impacted us in present day.  As well as this, we will be using our artist skills to create an Greek sculpture. Finally, we will be using our writing skills to create our ambition which will be an orally presented debate answering our enquiry question.

Our class book this term is The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton. We are setting sail with Odysseus as he fights to find his way back home after the brutal Trojan War. On his ten year journey, he endures harrowing ordeals, battles monsters and learns what it means to be a hero. We will be using this book to inspire our writing which will be using fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases with modifiers to add more detail to our writing and exploring using the perfect tense form. 

Being an Orator: No Pens Day!

Today we had another 'No Pens' Day. This meant that all of our learning was oracy based and we could not write anything down at all. The children explored our new talk tactic of instigating new ideas into their discussions, as well as building upon the tactics they already know. We followed our steps to success for listening and discussing and had lots of interesting points to bring up in debates.

Engage!

Today we started our new enquiry-Who were more powerful: The Athenians or The Spartans? Sadly, a crime had been committed in the classroom. A trial was held to ascertain who the guilty person was. There was a role for each member of the class from Defence Lawyers to Clerk, from Court Ushers to the Jury and of course a Judge.

Each side, presented their case and cross examined a range of witnesses.  Following cross examination, The Jury retired and digested the evidence. In 4HT we could not come to a unanimous decision so a majority verdict was called with a guilty decision given.

Attendance Celebration

Well done to everyone in 4HT for their superb attendance in Term 2! As a result of our class winning the attendance trophy, we were able to wear non-uniform. Let's keep it up! 

Better late than never!

Due to the unexpected early closing of the school at the end of last term, we were not able to do our fun biscuit decorating. Today, we became a little Christmassy again! We decorated three biscuits each, some looked like Rudolph, some were very fancy and some were unique!

Term 2

In Term 2, we are continuing to delve deeper with our enquiry, ‘What is the journey of a raindrop?'.  This will involve learning about the water cycle and the three states of matter: liquids, gases and solids. 

At the end of the enquiry the children will design and make their own pop-up book that will explain the water cycle. This will be completed individually and we are hoping to share our work with children at the infants school.

In addition to our Water Enquiry, we will continue reading 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' within our English lessons. This is a tale about a toy rabbit who goes on adventure with his owner, but soon becomes lost and he encounters a range of different changes and characters throughout the story.

Being an Artist!

This week we have enjoyed being artists and learning about the Japanese printer Hokusai and his famous print of 'The Great Wave'. We have tried printing with a variety of techniques such as cardboard and string and also carving polystyrene. We then printed using special ink into our sketchbooks to try our new skill. We thoroughly enjoyed making our new prints and using our new skills. I'm sure we will see some future artists in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery soon!

Being a Scientist!

This week in our Enquiry lessons, we have been focussing on being scitentists and learning about the different states of matter. We used our bodies to show how solids, liquids and gases are organised in their particles. Solid particles are all tightly packed together which is why solids keep their shape. Liquid particles are slightly further apart which is why liquid can flow and take the shape of the container they're in. Gas particles are further apart which is why gases can move easily and can be compressed. We also had a go at classifying different objects by their state of matter. 

Being an athlete! Supporting the Lions this World Cup

We enjoyed watching England's first match of the World Cup this afternoon and celebrated in style with our England shirts and jubilant celebrations! We will have no doubt that 3 Lions will be able to be heard all the way from Kingswood. 

Being an Orator! No Pens day

Today we have explored our understanding of Oracy and how we use talk to help our learning in school. We played some fun games and also rehearsed a poem 'Please Mrs Butler' By Allen Ahlberg to give some performances to the rest of our class! We hope you enjoy.

Friday 18th November - Children in Need!

Today we wore our very best and spottiest clothes and our cheesiest grins to school in order to celebrate Pudsey Day and raise money for a very important charity: Children in Need.

Being an Athlete!

This term in PE we are developing our football skills with our coach, Mr Robinson. We practised our control of the ball and tackling by trying to get people to move up the pitch after getting them out. As it's only the beginning of term, we fully expect to have a full squad of junior Lions and Lionesses ready for the World Cups later this year and next year by Christmas!

Term 1

Learning Overview

Our first enquiry ‘What is the journey of a raindrop?' will involve learning about the water cycle and the three states of matter: liquids, gases and solids. To help us answer this question we are going to be developing our knowledge and skills as scientists and geographers both in class and during practical fieldwork on our trip to Vassals Park.

 At the end of the enquiry the children will design and make their own pop-up book that will explain the water cycle. This will be completed individually and we are hoping to share our work with children at the infants school.

In addition to our Water Enquiry, we will be reading 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' within our English lessons. This is a tale about a toy rabbit who goes on adventure with his owner, but soon becomes lost and he encounters a range of different changes and characters throughout the story. We will be immersing ourselves into this story and throughout the term we will be writing character descriptions and diary entries from different characters’ perspectives.

This term, when we are being mathematicians, we will be building on our prior understanding of place value to order and compare numbers up to 10,000 as well as revisiting our understanding of the operations addition and subtraction.

Year 4 Trip to Vassals Park. 

This week we put our walking boots on and walked to Vassalls Park. Although it was a long walk, it was well worth the effort as we were able to do a range of activities linked to our enquiry ‘What is the journey of a raindrop?’ Part of our learning means we need to visit a river and carry out observations of the surrounding area. We looked at the River Frome and a couple of tributaries feeding into the river.

We also went on a senses nature walk as well as playing nature bingo. One of the other activities was to sketch different, natural phenomena in the park. A visit to Vassells Park wouldn’t be a full visit without a session in the playground area!

We were very pleased to see school on our return- well done Year 4!

Being a Geographer

As part of the exploration phase for our enquiry 'What is the journey of a raindrop?', we have worked as a year group to create our very own river. We found materials that might be found at the bottom of a river which the water flow might pick up and then some of us acted as the source, pouring the water down our river which had meanders and tributaries. 

Engage!

Today we started off our new enquiry with our engage. We initially looked at the question- ‘What is the journey of a raindrop?’ and unpicked what it meant and what the words journey and raindrop really mean.

We were then scientists and looked at how a raindrop forms and what causes it to change shape. A pipette was used to simulate smaller raindrops coming together to form larger raindrops. We noticed the surface tension of the water made a convex curve.

It was a thoroughly scientific afternoon!

Being an Athlete! Article 31: The right to play and rest

This week, we have put our agility, balance and coordination to the test in some athletics challenges. We have run, jumped and thrown our hearts out and we are now looking forward to getting our results back and using these to be Metacogs and evaluate and improve our skills. 

Voice of the Change Makers

After hearing some amazing speeches and understanding the importance of democracy, we headed to the hall to vote for our favourite girl and boy candidate to be a 'Voice of the Change Maker'. This role is a very important one as the selected candidates will voice their and their peers' opinions on important school matters. It was a really tricky decision for us as there were so many wonderful candidates so we are excited to hear who will fulfil the role soon!

Being an Orator: Article 12 Respecting the views of others

In Week 2,  we have explored and developed our oracy knowledge and skills. We have thought about the steps to succes for being a good listener and having a successful discussion. We have talked about how this might involve politely disagreeing with someone or being open to changing our viewpoint.  We put our class steps to the test in a variety of discussions and games. A particular favourite of ours was the game, would you rather, as we debated questions such as 'Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?' and 'Would you rather travel 100 years back in time or 10 years into the future?" We have looked at talk tactics and how to take different roles in conversations. We have explored the roles of build, challenge and summarise. 

Being a Writer!  Article 28: Access to education

This week we have been immersing ourselves in our class story, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We created freeze frames of a scene from the book and considered what was going through each character's minds at the time.