'Wilbur didn’t want food, he wanted love. He wanted a friend—someone who would play with him.' (E.B White - Charlotte's Web)
It has been a really delightful week in Year 4. Despite coughs and colds we have been such enthusiastic learners! We have delved right into our Charlotte’s Web novel and feel like the characters are our new friends! We also looked closely at the subject of friendship - which is explored in the novel. We thought about what makes a good friend and how we could offer this friendship to others. We also thought about what might upset people and put them off being friends with us, using characters from the novel as an example.
We have learned about formal and informal language - all children wrote formally to Charlotte when they were ‘making her acquaintance!’ Alongside practising many reading skills, such as performing parts aloud, inferring and finding evidence to prove a point, we have been collecting vocabulary and using it when we talk and write!
In maths we have all been ‘Tommy Turtles’ who have a go and work really hard on our addition and subtraction strategies. We are now ready to begin column addition and subtraction next week.
On Wednesday, we had a lovely lesson all about angels. Children asked so many interesting questions about them then we found evidence from the bible to see what angels do. We learned a lovely prayer about angels and then children formulated their own beliefs about what they think angels are and where they come from. It was beautiful when they looked at each others ideas and decided they had changed their beliefs slightly according to what their partner had said. The mysteries of our faith are so interesting to ponder upon!
Let’s celebrate!
This week, the french stars were Aya and Daniel. Our swimming stars were Lily A and Clayton. A Tommy Turtle certificate went to Lily A, who is a brave learner. She has a good go at anything! Clayton received a Kiki Chameleon certificate for voicing his deep and interesting thoughts in class. Well done!
Notices
Please remember flutes on Monday for our Flute concert which takes place at 2.45 in the hall - you are most welcome.
Next Friday is Christmas jumpers and silly socks day. Please bring a kind donation of £1 which we will give to Brian House. This was Year 5’s idea to raise as much money as possible for those less fortunate than them.
Our Key Stage 2 Christmas party is on Wednesday 18th December. Children can come in their own clothes (Christmasy if they wish) They may bring one special snack on this day (eg/ a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps and also a drink (not fizzy please)
Next week is our final week of swimming for this term.
Our final Advent mass is next Friday at 8am at school. It is so lovely to share this with so many of you each week.
Key Stage 2 Christmas performance in church on Tuesday 17th December at 2.00pm and at 6.30pm.
Have a lovely weekend with your little cherubs! God bless you all..
Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Mrs Kennedy and Miss Atkinson
"Without a song or a dance what are we?" (Abba!)
May we first say a massive well done to our dancers who were in the dance festival on Monday night. You danced your hearts out and did so well. Today has also been a celebration of all things musical as we went to the Parish Pantomime - Rumplestiltskin. Children had a brilliant time and joined in with so many songs. Some even had chance to go on the stage and sing. It was a super performance full of laughter and joy.
Highlights this week:
We are in full flow with our new novel - ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ Already we love Wilbur the pig and are learning important skills of inference and finding evidence in the text to prove a point. Today children made Advent promises to grow closer to Jesus this season and have created a poster, informing people all about how and why Christians celebrate Advent. Why not chat about this at the weekend? We have been wise mathematicians this week as we have been learning/revising lots more addition/subtraction strategies and thinking about when it is best to use them.
Let’s Celebrate!
This week our learning certificates (Sadie Spider) went to Jessica and Bella. Both of you are trying so hard to achieve and be perseverant learners - well done!
Our swimming stars this week were Olivia, Clayton and Jacob.
Our French star was Kaya and our Yoga stars were Victor and Emma. Well done!
Notices
Flute concert for parents on Monday 9th December at 2.45. We hope you can come!
On Friday 13th December, come to school in a Christmas Jumper and/or silly socks and bring a pound. This is an initiative created by Year 5 children who want us to raise money for Brian house.
Tuesday 17th November - Key stage 2 Christmas performance in church - 2.00pm and 6.30pm.
Advent mass at school each Friday at 8.00am
Have a lovely first weekend of Advent!!
Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Mrs Kennedy and Miss Atkinson
Some super Year 4 explanation texts about The Water Cycle!
' I opened two gifts this morning - they were my eyes!'
It was lovely seeing so many of you at our curriculum evening which was all about maths! I enjoyed sharing our strategies and teaching children some multiplication and division concepts! There is a real buzz around maths in our class. At the moment, we are revising all of our strategies for addition and thinking about the place value of the numbers to help us. This week, we have looked at number bonds, number patterns and families and also bridging.
We have been noticing the good deeds of others this week and had a lovely worship on Monday all about seeking the Kingdom of God. We have a class gratitude box and children have filled it with things they have been thankful for this week. On Thursday, we were very proud of Adam, Lorna-Jane and Finian who delivered a lovely worship about how Jesus cares for us, reading the story of the Lost Sheep….so it has been a real celebration of thanks to God this week. In our RE lessons, we have been thinking about what trust means to us and times when it is a challenge to trust in God.
Science understanding has sky rocketed this week as children learned all about evaporation, condensation and the water cycle. They have written another explanation text all about this. Some of their vocabulary has been amazing. We are collecting vocabulary from our reading books that we like on the class windows!
Let’s Celebrate!
This week, the learning certificates went to Victor, who has settled in so nicely and tries so hard that he got a Sadie Spider certificate! A Kiki Chameleon certificate went to Lorna-Jane who always puts a lot of thought into all she does - she likes to wonder and use her creativity.
Yoga stars this week, were Harry and Sophie and our Swimming stars were Kaya and Adam. Well done everyone!
Notices:
Our pantomime is on Friday next week. Children will have lunch at school as normal and should be back at school for 3.30.
Flute concert for parents: Come and see how your children are getting along! They will be performing a Christmas concert in the hall on Monday 9th December at 2.45pm. You are most welcome!
Our Key stage 2 Christmas performance is on Tuesday 17th December at 2pm and again at 6.30pm. The songs they sing are beautiful
Our Advent masses begin next Friday morning - at 8.00am in school. Please come and join us - it is always such a lovely time.
Nearly every great discovery in Science has come as the result of providing a new question, rather than a new answer. (Paul A. Mackintosh)
We have had a week of real Science discoveries! Our trip to UCLAN was amazing - and we were blown away with some of the children’s questions to the tutors! Children learned all about states of matter and even about acid, alkali and neutral substances. Have a look below - they were so engaged and of course loved the products they made!
We have also been examining changes in temperature in our Science lessons in class. We have even taken the temperature of our classroom throughout the day to look at how it changes!Children have produced their own movies all about solids, liquids and gases and have evaluated their movie making skills. Today they learned how to make animations in flipbook form and on purple mash - they can make one for homework too!
Thanks so much for all your kind donations today for Children in Need Day. All proceeds will go to Brian House. It was nice to meet so many new friends today - especially a very hard-working shark!!
Let’s Celebrate!
This week our Yoga stars were Olivia and Clayton for super yoga poses. Our Swimming stars were Jacob and Lily L.
A Lizzie Ladybird certificate went to Aya for improving so much this last few weeks in all she does. A Bobby Bee certificate went to Lily for always being so enthusiastic and learning so keenly. A Sadie Spider certificate went to Megan for trying so hard and being resilient if something is tricky. I am so lucky to have such a class of great learners!
Times tables stars
This week 4 Clara Clownfish points go these children who got 18/18 on their times tables test:
Harry, Faye, Lorna-Jane, Emma, Finian, Ava, Olivia, Elise, Georgia, Bella, Lily L, Daniel, Jessica, James, Sophie, Megan, Clayton, Kaya, Zac, Lily A, Victor.
Well done!
Notices
Please come along to our wonderful curriculum evening on Thursday night between 6pm-8pm. Our school will be full of maths activities which you can do together - a celebration of all things maths! There may even be some Year 4 ‘s helping with some activities. If you want to find out all about how to help your child it would be lovely to see you there!
Parish Pantomime - Rumplestiltskin - Friday 29th November. The class will be attending this as a nice (early) Christmas treat! The cost of the trip is £5 payable on parentpay please.
As the temperature goes down, its that time to snuggle up at home with your lovely children! Have a great weekend,
Mrs Lyons, Miss Atkinson, Mrs Mather and Mrs Kennedy.
If you have hope, this will make you cheerful! (St Paul - 66AD)
It has been a week of discovery this week as children were asked the question, “What is everything in the world made of?” After a very interesting discussion about this, we started to learn about three states of matter - solids, liquids and gases. We began by making our own ice-cream - the excitement was palpable! We worked in teams to freeze our cream, milk and sugar mixture by shaking it in a bag of ice. We were very successful! The mixture solidified and we ate lots of delicious ice cream! We then investigated how we can decide if something is a solid or a liquid, by examining items and coming up with a set of qualities that they have. We have started to make our own group movies on ‘imovie’ to describe the differences between the two states. Why not spot some solids and liquids this weekend - and discuss what a gas is. We are looking forward to our trip on Tuesday to find out more about this.
We have come to the end of our unit on place value in maths this week. We will be using all this knowledge and understanding when we develop our skills in addition and subtraction, multiplication and division next. We have been busy writing our own stories based on the Pied piper this week and have really improved our writing through this process- where the teacher models one part of the story and the children imitate and innovate on it. Today we wrote our version of ‘The Little Match Girl,’ independently. Children are trying so hard to become Year 4 writers! In RE, we have been praying the our Father and thinking about the meaning. We wrote it in our own words then thought about what God wants from us, using the inspirations of Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David from the Old Testament stories we have been studying. As a school, we are learning this half term to become faith-filled and hopeful.
Let’s celebrate!
This week our yoga stars were Jessica and Emmanuel for being beautifully still and peaceful. Our swimming stars this week were Olivia - for strong butterfly stroke and Zac for super strokes.
Our learning certificates went to Daniel - who received a Cooper Crab for managing distractions around him and learning how to get lost in his task and Meadow for listening to teacher’s advice and bubbling with enthusiasm for all her learning.
Notices
Children who gave permission have had their flu vaccinations today.
Class trip on Tuesday - please ensure children are in school uniform and if not having a packed lunch from Jackie please bring a packed lunch in a plastic bag - named. Children will need coats and a water bottle.
Have a lovely weekend with your families. God bless,
Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Mrs Kennedy and Miss Atkinson
Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. (Helen Keller)
We have had a really good first week back! Children are really settling down and coming together as a class now, which is lovely. We will be welcoming Victor, who some children remember from nursery, on Monday. Children are so excited to get to know him again!
Today we celebrated a lovely mass together in church. Children were so prayerful and really sung their hearts out. In RE this week, we have been considering ‘What is God like?’ and using what is revealed to us in the Old Testament to find out. This led to children asking a barrage of questions about God, which they have recorded in their RE books! We went deep!
In our English this week, we have practised reading skills of inference and finding evidence from the text. Then we have planned our own story based on the Pied Piper and begun to write it. In french we have been learning about different rooms in the house whilst also learning all the french words for ‘the’ and ‘a’ Sometimes it feels like a high school class in French but the children really rise to it!
In yoga, children are becoming very good yogis too - they were so still this week! They have been practising techniques for relaxing at bedtime and going to sleep. Why not practise at home?
In maths this week, we have been comparing and ordering our larger numbers and making sure we understand this language: greater than, smaller than, fewer, ascending order and descending order.
Let’s celebrate!
This week, three Sadie Spider certificates for effort and hard work were given out - well done Eli, Harvey and James. You are working your socks off!
Our french stars this week were Finian and Jacob. Our swimming stars were Olivia and Jacob and our yoga stars were Jacob and Lorna-Jane. Well done!
Notices:
Please could any outstanding sponsorship money be handed in on Monday. Many thanks for all your kind donations.
Our trip on Tuesday 12 November - please pay by parentpay
Have a nice restful weekend with your lovely children. God bless.
Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Mrs Kennedy and Miss Atkinson.
Year 4 homework to be in for Thursday 7th November
Flute
Please log into charanga below. Practise your songs Strictly B and B Blues
Spelling investigation
We have been learning about the meaning of different prefixes. Please use the sheet given out and a dictionary. Look up the meaning of the prefixes. Then find some examples of words with this prefix meaning. If your child for any reason does not have the sheet, there is a copy below!
Maths IXL units A12 A13 A14. Each unit goes beyond 10,000 when you get to about 80 points. You do not need to complete these parts if you are too confused - as we have only gone up to 10,000 in class.
Reading: Please continue to read for 20 minutes each day. This will help you to get really into what you are reading and enjoy your story.
Danceathon
Danceathon
Tuesday 29th October 2019
We had super fun today raising money for our school playground. From a whole class lesson in the hall, learning the Cha Cha Cha, to dropping everything and jumping into song and dance at a moments notice.
Year 4 school trip - UCLAN to study Cosmetic Chemistry
This trip will help us to find out more about solids, liquids and gases. It is on Tuesday 12th November - children to be at school at normal time. The cost of the trip is £12 payable now on parentpay.
If you are curious you will find the puzzles all around you. If you are determined, you will solve them!
What a great week we have had in Year 4. We were so proud of you all in assembly on Tuesday - you spoke with confidence and were so independent - you worked as a great team to teach everyone the joy of living in curiosity, awe and wonder. We have had such a great time studying plants and you really demonstrated this! Well done to all.
My head spins with all that we have achieved this week - from typing a newspaper report all about Moses and the ten plagues of Egypt to all of our lovely research in Geography into extreme environments and plants around the world. You have become really effective searchers! In maths we are breaking those larger numbers up to understand and describe them in different ways. English has been very exciting - starting our new fiction topic into fairy tales and the opening of ‘The Pied Piper.’ We have been trying out some new learning strategies too - playing a game called ‘Centrepiece’ to help us gather information in groups together and another game called ‘Ideas round up,’ to discover everyone’s predictions of what might happen next in the story. Not to mention an exciting tournament with Mr Nay today in PE - which will conclude on Monday!
We wish William well as he starts his new journey in a different school. There were many tears today - your classmates love you William and I am sure you will make so many more new ones. We all wish you the very best.
Let’s Celebrate!
This week three learning certificates were awarded. Olivia received a Lizzie Ladybird certificate for acting on and learning from teacher feedback. Sophie received a Tommy Turtle certificate for letting the whole class share her mistake and learn from it and Ava received a Cooper Crab certificate for being such a ready and keen learner - you do not miss a trick! All three of you girls are so helpful in class too!
Emmanuel and James were our swimming stars this week. Your excellent listening helped you both progress really well. We are proud of you.
Notices
Please continue to send in noodles packets for our harvest collection on Tuesday
Harcourt and Marsden won the house competition this half term and can come in their house colours on Tuesday.
Wednesday is photograph day.
Please continue to collect sponsorship money for our Danceathon on the first week back.
We break up on Wednesday at 3.30pm and then I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday for our ten minute appointment to share your child’s start to year 4.
Have a lovely weekend together with your families. God bless,
Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather, Miss Atkinson and Mrs Kennedy.
Some of our excellent Life Cycle writing
Some of our super Year 4 writing about Seed Dispersal.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore, is not an act but a habit (Aristotle)
What a super, interesting week we have had in Year 4!We have been busy explaining the life cycle of a flowering plant in our English lessons. Children have shown such understanding. In ourr RE this week, we have learned the Old Testament story of Joseph and really got to grips with the feelings and faith shown by the key figures in it. Children performed some wonderful drama in these sessions.
In our Geography lessons we have been finding out about biomes and researching one with our partner. We are learning in our Computing sessions how to effectively search on a search engine - so this was a perfect task to practise. In maths, we are showing a good understanding of 4 digit numbers now. We have started to solve some puzzles with them today.
We are coming on really nicely with our assembly - please practise parts over weekend and come and watch on Tuesday (9.10am or 9.35)
Let’s Celebrate!
Lots to celebrate this week! A Cooper Crab certificate went to Ava for always being ready to learn. A Tommy Turtle certificate went to Mark for being a really brave learner in front of his whole class.
Top Spellers!
This week the following children got 12/12 for their spellings and receive 3 SS points:
Bella, Kaya, Daniel, Faye, Olivia, Ava, Lily L, Meadow, Elise. Well done to all the children too who were very close!
Also this week:
Yoga stars were Aya and Zac
SWimming stars were Ava and Olivia and Lily A
In Key stage 2, two year 4 children were chosen this week for being super at lunchtime:
Eli for MARVELLOUS MANNERS and
Ava for Role model of the week.
Notices
We are doing our harvest collection for a food bank this year. Year 4 are collecting pot noodles or other packets of dry noodles.
We will be going on a trip on Tuesday 12th November to UCLAN to learn Cosmetic Chemistry as part of our Science topic - Solids, Liquids and Gases. It will be on parent pay next week.
Have a lovely, albeit rainy weekend! God bless,
Mrs Lyons, Miss Atkinson, Mrs Mather and Mrs Kennedy.
The Merchant of Venice
As part of our back stage experience Leo and Casey Hornby , who are in charge of marketing, would like to invite you to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. The show will be performed at Our Lady of the Assumption on Tuesday 8th October at 7pm. Tickets on sale at Our Lady of the Assumption reception. Or you could come along to the Grand in Blackpool. On Saturday at 1:30pm 20 children from our school will be part of the production both backstage and front of house. Casey and Leo will be there to greet you!
“The quality of mercy is not strained.It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”
I think to myself.... what a wonderful World! (Louis Armstrong)
What a lovely week it has been! We began on Monday morning with a reflective worship in our school chapel - all about creating the kingdom of God on earth, through loving one another. We have been so busy typing our improved explanation text all about Seed dispersal in our English lessons and today we planned our new one - The Life Cycle of A Flowering Plant. We dissected lilies to discover all its different male and female parts and we even looked at pollen through a microscope! All very exciting! We need next week to explain how plants are pollinated by bees - why not have a chat about it this weekend and watch a bee in action?
Other highlights this week included doing a Computing lesson all about how to effectively search on the internet where children found lots of different information. We have been getting to grips with 4 digit thousands numbers this week and we are understanding really well so far. We have also given out assembly parts today to practise over the weekend.
This week we have welcomed a new teaching assistant to our class - Miss Atkinson. She has fitted in seamlessly to class life already! Welcome to our school!
Let’s Celebrate
This week two Sadie Spider certificates for resilience were give out - one to Fin and one to Zac. You both try so hard boys and are role models for the class.
Our French stars this week were Lorna-Jane and Harvey.
Swimming stars were Harvey and Penny - super swimming you two!
We did pick Yoga stars too - but Mrs Lyons cannot remember who they were! Perhaps you do children! I know that we picked them for allowing themselves to be calm and still. A good skill to have!
Notices
Our class assembly is on Tuesday 8th October at 9.10 and again at 9.35
There are an incredible amount of PE jackets and even some PE trousers along with cardigans and jumpers in class. Most do not have names so I cannot give them out. I will leave them outside the class on Monday or Tuesday evening to be claimed!
Please could we make sure that all homework is completed and handed in on Thursdays so that it can be marked. Many thanks.
Have a lovely last weekend of September. (Where does time go?)
God bless,
Mrs Lyons, Miss Atkinson, Mrs Kennedy and Mrs Mather
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” E.B. White
What a lovely, exciting week it has been. We have experienced a lot of awe and wonder this week as we thought about God’s creation. We each examined a leaf and looked at the intricate patterns, different shapes and veins running through it. Just one tiny part of God’s creation, yet so amazing! We wrote poems/prayers praising God and asking Him to help us look after our world. They were beautiful.
Today, as part of our English lesson on explaining seed dispersal, we learned about the humble dandelion and how it awaits the wind to disperse each seed by individual parachute away from the adult plant. It is a great time of year to look at seeds and dispersal as all the flowers are dying - why not have a look round the garden and find the seeds of plants growing?
Also to practise the language of explanation, children have been pretending they were Goldilocks and explaining how it came about that they ended up causing such disaster in the 3 bears’ cottage! I have been VERY impressed with how hard they have worked.
We have also cracked on with maths this week - Roman numerals at the beginning of the week, moving on to exploring our own number system. We are understanding place value - this means really getting to grips with the value of each number and what it means. We are trying hard.
Children enjoyed flute this week - they learned how to play their mouthpieces. It can take quite a while to master how to blow correctly so don’t worry children if you do not get it right away. Next Monday, there is no flute lesson, but the Monday after they should be bringing their flutes home.
We are continuing with all our plant investigations. Poor Harcourt’s plant is losing flowers rapidly as it only receives 10ml of water a day. We have a plant without leaves that is looking pretty sad too! We have discovered that seeds need warmth to germinate as the ones in the freezer have not! We also think that they need air, because the one immersed in water is not germinating either! However, the one growing in a paper towel has germinated which proves they don’t need soil. Children are really enjoying drawing conclusions from these investigations.
It was lovely to see so many parents (some familiar) on Wednesday evening. I am getting to know your faces now! Below is a link to the powerpoint presentation I gave, in case you could not make it.
Let’s Celebrate!
Children this week have voted for their Year 6 house captains and Year 6 have been given all their positions of responsibility. Our class have also voted for their class councillors who will represent year 4 in school council meetings. Well done Georgia and Daniel.
In our first week of learning certificates, Clayton received a Bobby Bee certificate for always joining in every lesson and buzzing with enthusiasm. It is lovely to see you believing in yourself like Bobby Bee!
Emma received a Cooper Crab certificate for being such a focused learner - you are always ready to learn and you listen to every word. Well done for managing distractions.
Notices
Monday - dance auditions for any children wanting to take part.
Wednesday - Parkview trip. Normal time
Thursday - Swimming - prompt at 8.30 please
PE days Monday- Mr Nay’s sports club at lunch, Wednesday - Yoga, Thursday - swimming, Friday - PE outside.
Choir begins on Monday 30th September
Please bring all paperwork back on Monday so we can update our records.
Please could we ensure children have their reading books every day.
Please visit the Discover part of our website to look at recommended snacks to bring in each day.
Have a beautiful Autumn weekend with your family looking at God’s wonderful creation - especially those beautiful children!
God bless, Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather and Mrs Kennedy.
Our Trip to Parkview - Dinner time
Next Wednesday is our trip to Parkview. If you normally have school dinners Jackie will prepare children a packed lunch.
If you are not normally school dinners on Wednesday but you would like to pay for Jackie to prepare one on this day that is also fine.
The choices of sandwich are tuna, cheese or ham. Please could you talk to your child and decide together what they would like and let me know by Friday so that Jackie is prepared!
Kind regards,
Mrs Lyons
Welcome to Year 4
Welcome to a New Beginning - I have been busy planning lots of exciting learning for our first half term. Here are a few things you need to know:
Pencil Cases
Children are allowed to bring their own pencil cases and a small ruler, one rubber and a sharpener. (optional) School will provide all the rest - they will be given pens, glue sticks, scissors, whiteboard markers and these will all be labelled with their names. Do not worry if they do not have the optional resources - school can provide them.
Swimming
This will start a week on Thursday Children need to be in school on Thursdays at 8.30. We are having a visit from the swimming teacher on Wednesday and we will send letters out that night to tell you all about it.
PE
PE day is Wednesday - Yoga in the morning and outdoor games lesson in the afternoon. It would be best to come in tracksuits on Wednesday and Thursday. They have lunchtime sports club with Mr Nay on Monday so can come in PE clothes on Mondays too. It would be handy to keep a pair of school PE shorts in their trays or bags
Dates
Wednesday 11th September 6:00pm - Our KS2 induction evening. This is a time to get to know about learning and routines in Year 4 and ask any questions. Please come along it will be lovely to meet you and see some familiar faces too!
Wednesday 18th September school trip to Parkview in morning to learn about seeds and plants.
Tuesday 8th October Our Class Assembly
Kind regards
Mrs Lyons