Croeso i flwyddyn pedwar - Welcome to Year 4! 

This year Mr. Jones is the Year 4 teacher and we are super lucky to have Mrs. Abbruzzese supporting us too!  Mr. Jones has moved from Year 6 so is very excited to be working with another year group and some new, fantastic projects!

Our first one, up until the October half term, is called Come Fly With Me.  This will be a Science and Humanities based project.  The children will be learning about the continents of the world, investigating what impacts the amount of friction on cars moving and will also be trying a variety of food from different countries.

Other projects over the year include:

Autumn Term

• Come Fly With Me
• School Of Rock

Spring Term

• Our Roots
• Influencers, Movers and Shakers

Summer Term

• Seven Worlds, One Planet
• Endless Energy

More about these projects will be added before each one.

Don't forget book bags EVERY DAY and we can swap your reading whenever you finish your book.  If you need to get in touch please do so by using SeeSaw.

I hope that your children will have a fabulous year with myself and Mrs. Abbruzzese! 

Autumn Term 2 - School Of Rock

Our second project was called School Of Rock and it started with a bang. We were fortunate enough to get Kinetic Theatre Group in to teach us a song from the School Of Rock musical - Stick It To The Man.  The children loved singing this and dancing to the music as well.

Pupils listened to a variety of music from different decades to see which one they liked the best.  They thought about the different elements - instruments, vocals, speed, pitch etc. - and evaluated each one from different decades.

The pupils used Microsoft Excel to cost up their own concert.  This involved pricing up artists, stages, prop, food and drink, and then using formulas to see which ones they could afford.  This also included the really important skill of managing money. They also used many websites and apps, including GarageBand, to produce their own music.  Some pupils even managed to write and record some raps!

The final weeks of the project (before we got into the Christmas spirit), was looking at the fashion through the ages and how music influenced this fashion.  They especially researched the Mods v Rockers style and this enabled them to design their own clothes.  We managed to get parents in to help with the sewing which was wonderful to see.

The children deserved a well earned break over the Christmas period and we are looking forward to coming back nice and refreshed for our next project in the Spring Term - Our Roots

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Autumn Term 1 - Come Fly With Me

Well, this was an extremely interesting project.  We covered so many aspects that it is hard to put down everything we did, but here are just a few things:

Literacy - We watched a short film called 'Taking Flight' and thought about each character and how they felt throughout the film. We wrote interview questions and hot-seated the different characters trying to explain our thoughts.

We investigated how children from around the world got to school.  We found that some children run 3-5 miles barefoot, others have to climb up steep mountains whilst others take boats and cross rivers to get to school.  It made our journeys quite boring (in a good way!) From this, we were able to write a diary account from these children's point of view.

The children thought about the term 'Fast Fashion' and what it meant.  This initiated great discussion among the pupils who thought about whether it was a good thing or not.  They produced a list of reasons for and against and wrote a discussion text with facts, quotes and statistics.

Humanities - Pupils looked at a world map to find where each continent was.  They also researched which countries were found in each continent as well.  The children looked at how planes have developed over the years and produced a fact-file all about The Wright Brothers.

Creative Art - We used a 3D website to look at planes from all different angles - front, back, side, above and below.  The pupils sketched them in their books and it gave them a better understanding of how they are designed.  Pupils thought about where they would like to go on holiday, and then used this to find a famous landmark of that country.  They used pastels to create a sunset and then cut out black card to create a silhouette of that landmark.

Science - The pupils investigated which surface caused the most friction.  They were able to write a scientific experiment using language such as fair test, variables, prediction and conclusion.  They also wrote their results in a table.  We also investigated the link between airplanes and birds - how the structure of the wings of a bird helps them fly.  We also had our 'Forest Schools' lessons, which included trying to fly a kite.  Luckily, the conditions were perfect for this and lots of pupils succeeded!

The project culminated in a fantastic visit to the South Wales Air Museum.  The child absolutely loved looking at the old planes, finding out more about them and asking lots of questions about them.