Stanway Fiveways Primary School

What a busy week we have had as a school this week! The travelling pantomime were in on Monday for Year 4 and they had a really good time watching 'Scroogical' based on A Christmas Carol. The children enjoyed the dancing and chanting that came with the pantomime. We also had our Christmas Dinner and Jumper day on Wednesday, that was a huge success and the children made cards for each other in the afternoon. Some siblings also got to go and watch Early Years and Year 1 perform their nativities, which was a lovely experience for them. 

This week was a shorter week than normal, but that didn't stop us from fitting lots in for Year 4! The main highlight of the week was going to Colchester Castle. It was a fabulous day and all of the children engaged really well with the learning and were really well behaved. We explored the museum and its artefacts, we built a Iron-Age Roundhouse and a Roman Villa and we had a tour underneath the castle, where the tour guides taught us about the Romans and the Celts. A great day was had by all adults and children. 

This week, we explored sound in some of our Science lessons. Year 4 have begun to show some good understanding of how sound is made and how it travels. It was a busy week with beginning to design our Cross Stitch patterns. In PE, we continued with our dance routines and the children began to show off their excellent dance moves. 

This week, the children had their second session with Mr Watts and the other amazing SCS coaches. They worked in small teams to develop their hockey skills further. We also began our Dance unit in PE. This was introduced by Miss Barnes. She taught them a variety of Hip Hop dance moves like the Bart Simpson or the Biz Markie. The children (and adults) tried really hard to keep up with Miss Barnes! In computing, we had an unplugged lesson where we explored the beginnings of animation by making flip books. Some of the children really enjoyed this and made multiple flipbooks with different characters and events. On Friday, we had Children in Need. Many of the chidlren donated and wore spots or yellow to commemorate the day. We spent the afternoon creating characters to be friends with Pudsey and solving some Pudsey puzzles. 

Since returning back after the half term, it has been full steam ahead for year 4. They began their learning about the Romans and explored the British timeline and recapped their learning from last year about the Anglos Saxons, Vikings and Through the Ages topics. This week we also had the lovely SCS coaches in to begin our PE unit of Hockey. The children behaved beautifully for the coaches and definitely made the most of the time and were able to apply the skill that they were focusing on. In PSHE, we have started our unit about feelings. The children had a lot of fun showing different emotions and making their own feelings fortune teller. In Maths, we were learning about area and using squares to make and count area of rectilinear shapes. 

This week in Damson class, the children have been learning about environmental dangers posed by humans, including deforestation, pollution and urbanisation and the impact this has on the habitat of plants and animals. They created visual mind maps to explain what they had learnt. All year 4 classes have started Christmas very early, by creating Christmas card designs that can be sent off to be printed, which was organised by the PTA. The children were very excited at the mention of Christmas! In English they have been working hard to independently plan and write their own information texts based on a mythical creature. In maths, year 4 have been developing their problem solving skills, including using the inverse to check answers, estimating answers to problems using rounding and solving 1 and 2 step addition and subtraction problems.

This week the children in Acacia class have enjoyed learning how to locate places using grid references. Damson class learnt to use a classification key to answer yes and no questions in order to identify the creatures that they found outside in the wild area. Year 4 have also been creatively exploring how to shape and manipulate wire and foil to create their own sculptures of plants and animals, which were all very unique. In maths, they have been learning how to subtract using the concrete, pictorial and abstract method. Initially they used place value counters to represent numbers to subtract, before moving onto representing them in place value columns in order to understand what it means when we exchange a ten, hundred or thousand from one column to another. In English, the children have been planning and writing their own innovated version of The Rainbow Dragon information text, which was about the Sea Unicorn.

This week the children have been working hard in English to independently write their own warning tale, using the language and grammar that they have learnt in the last few weeks. In maths, they have been learning about 'dive deeper'. This is a series of activities in maths which the children can use to deepen and extend their learning. After completing a maths question, they can choose to 'story it', 'explain it', 'make a mistake', 'justify it' or 'draw it'. Thus enabling them to explain their learning and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the method or mathematical theory. Damson class enjoyed a bug hunt, linking to their science work on classifying animals. Acacia class have begun their wire sculptures in art, using the wire to sculpt the shape of a British animal. Chestnut class have continued to develop their computing skills when using the program 'Scratch'.

As part of our topic for this half-term, 'Our local area', year 4 have enjoyed a walk around Stanway to explore the local area. The children created their own aerial view map, showing local shops, schools, houses, the community hall and scout hut while on the walk. It was a very exciting trip for everyone and the children loved the opportunity to apply what they have learning about maps to a practical task. When back at school, they drew a neater version of their aerial view maps, including a key so they could group together and colour code different items on the maps, such as schools or shops. In maths, they have been learning about rounding up to 4 digit numbers to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 and have made great progress in this area. In English, they have begun writing up their warning tales, drawing inspiration from the story that they have learnt in the last two weeks. All of the children have been working hard on their writing to include the grammar tools that they have been taught.

Welcome to the Year 4! This year we have so many exciting events, trips and activities to look forward to. The children have begun year 4 learning about the continent of Oceania, particularly focussing on Australia and New Zealand. They have identified key landmarks, cities and territories on a map of Australia, created Aboriginal inspired dot paintings and used printing with a tile and paint to create a painting of an australian animal. In Damson class, we also enjoyed creating masks and performing a Haka dance.