Stanway Fiveways Primary School

Welcome to Year 4!
It has been wonderful to see the children after the summer break. We’ve had a busy and exciting first week focusing on the continent of Oceania.

The children learned about Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and explored aspects of the culture. They created vibrant Haka masks and even performed the Haka during their PE session. They also enjoyed making Australian animal prints using foam.

What an incredible start to the year — keep it up, Year 4!

This week the children have settled in really well as we began our core and topic units.
They have been busy partitioning numbers using a range of representations, including the part-whole model, bar models, counters, and Base 10.

In Computing, we started our Programming unit, where the children explored a sprite character and learned how to give it specific instructions.

They also enjoyed their Music session, finding the beat and pulse in different rhythms.

It’s been a fantastic start to their learning journey this term!

This week has been another exciting and productive one in Year 4! In English, the children began the Talk for Writing unit, focusing on the imitation phase. They worked hard to learn a warning tale, practising the story’s actions and language with great enthusiasm. In PE, the class thoroughly enjoyed their gymnastics sessions, developing skills such as balances, rolls, jumps, and simple sequences. Meanwhile, in Maths, we continued to strengthen our understanding of place value, using concrete resources to represent numbers and deepen our learning. Well done, Keep it up year 4!

This week in Science, the children worked very hard as we continued our learning about classifying animals. Our focus was on invertebrates, which are animals that do not have a backbone. The children explored different types of invertebrates and practised grouping them according to their characteristics. We looked closely at some insects and even went on an exciting hunt to see what we could find in our environment.

The children were introduced to and used scientific vocabulary such as classify, species, characteristics, insect, and invertebrate. They particularly enjoyed applying this language while making observations and sharing their findings.

This week in English, we have been working on our warning tales. The children are now at the innovation stage and have created some wonderful stories, using impressive vocabulary to bring their ideas to life.

In Maths, we explored Roman numerals, learning the rules and applying them in different activities. The children really enjoyed cracking the Roman code and challenging themselves with bigger numbers.

In PE, we continued our focus on gymnastics, where the children have been developing a range of techniques. They particularly enjoyed practising their skills on the ropes and working on balance and control.

In Art, we began creating our own sculptures using pipe cleaners and foil. Although the sculptures aren’t finished yet, the children thoroughly enjoyed the creative process and were very excited to share their progress so far. We’ll continue working on these over the next few weeks.

This week, Year 4 have been incredibly busy and achieved so much across all areas of learning! In PE, the children continued to develop their gymnastics skills, focusing on using the bars and ropes with confidence and control. They also built on their tag rugby techniques, practising teamwork and key game skills. In Computing, the class worked hard to debug a program identifying what was wrong and successfully fixing the issues like real coders! In English, we began our new non-fiction text about the Rainbow Dragon, with children enthusiastically acting out and learning the text. In Maths, everyone showed great perseverance as they mastered subtracting four-digit numbers with exchange. We ended the week by supporting an important cause-Show Racism the Red Card. The children came to school wearing red, learned about the importance of being anti-racist, and created thoughtful, eye-catching posters to promote kindness, respect, and equality.