“Spring…is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”

                                                                           Frances Hodgson Burnet

English

Our ‘book as a hook’ text, The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy, has been very successful in inspiring the children’s creative writing this term. We looked at traditional and ‘twisted’ fairy tales and compared them. We then innovated the Lost Happy Endings, telling the story in a way which would prompt the reader to feel sorry for the witch and see her as less of a villain. The children applied what they had learnt about fronted adverbials of time, to show the witch’s ‘back story’ and describe her life before the events in the Lost Happy Endings, and then jump forward in time to her meeting the character of Jub in the woods. The children have been extremely successful and have produced wonderful pieces of writing.

One day the children  came into class to find a clue! The followed clues around school until eventually they found a letter from Jub, the main character in the Lost Happy Endings!

Their next Book as a Hook was ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell. The children were very excited to come into class and find a letter from a dragon, asking them to help find her missing eggs and some of her babies that had already hatched! The children search the classroom and school grounds until they had found all of the missing eggs and babies, them brought them back to class to keep them safe. 

Maths

In maths, the class have been working hard on their multiplication and division facts: learning and performing a rap, remembering funny rhymes and making up stories to help remember tricky facts. Learn with Emile is great for encouraging the children to practise their tables at home – well done to those who are regularly logging on and stacking up more and more tokens and coins for their Emile.

PE

In PE the class have been working on the gym equipment, developing their skills, core muscles and stamina, as well as working together to plan and perform sequences on the gym equipment. 

Music

This term Years 4 and 5 are further developing their understanding of how to read music and are enjoying playing tuned instruments together. They are getting really good!

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All the children in Year 4 have now had a full term of violin lessons with Miss Hill, our violin teacher. The children have loved learning a new instrument and applying their knowledge of pitch, tempo and timing. Miss Hill is very pleased with their effort and progress: well done everyone!

To join Group 2 for their performance at the end of this week’s lesson, click on the thumbnail below:

History

In their outdoor learning session today Year 4 deepened their understanding of what life was like in Anglo-Saxon Britain by finding out about how they constructed their houses and then having a go at building some wattle and daub. They started off by watching a BBC Bitesize video on Anglo-Saxon settlements, with a section on how they built their houses using natural materials. They then focussed in on how to construct wattle and daub by watching a short clip from Tony Robinson’s ‘Making Histories’ series, before heading into the Forest School area to try their hand at making their own wattle and daub. They found that it was a messy and fiddly job, but nevertheless got stuck in, in true Anglo-Saxon style. They were however very relieved to find that they didn’t need to use all of the materials the Anglo-Saxons would have used (like urine and manure)!