Farewell for the summer...

Hi Year 4. Well that's that. The end of term is suddenly here. What a different four months it has been! I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed teaching you and how sorry I was not to have seen the whole year through. You are all amazing and will continue to shine on your journey through Year 5 and Year 6. Remember, always be the best that you can be. Thank you to your parents too, for supporting me and the school during these tricky times. You have been amazing too. Home schooling, as we have found with our two, has definitely not always been an easy task. 

I have put the final chapters of the book, Kensuke's Kingdom, below. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it. Start back at Chapter 1. It brings a tear to my eye every time I have read it and is one of my favourite Michael Morpurgo stories.

Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing your smiling faces in September. Take care. From Mr. Stonebridge.

Our last week in Year 4!

Welcome to your final week of Year 4. What a year it has been! I have put a final few assigments up on Google Classroom, as well as the fact file sheets for Year 5.

I will be posting a final message to you all on Friday. Have a good week and I hope you enjoy hearing the end of the story.

Kensuke's Kingdom

I haven't put any chapters up for the last week. I've been having some data issues uploading. However, I have solved the problem and here are the next three chapters. I will upload the final three chapters tomorrow.

Chapter 5 - I Kensuke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U63nVBgz9_w&t=14s

Chapter 6 - Abunai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VGhwr6aCkg

Chapter 7 - All that silence said https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLjreOxbtk0&t=71s

Mathletics and EdShed

I will be posting final celebrations of the above on Thursday. This gives you a few days to earn a few more points or gain a final certificate! How many points can you get in the next three days?

Spellings

Maths

This is the final week of the White Rose home learning. Remember, the sheets can ve found on Classroom.

Finally, have a final attempt at some learning projects or previous assigments that you may not have tried yet.

End of week update

Hi everyone. I hope you have all had a great week. It's Friday. Hurrah! Well done to all of you who are still working hard on some home learning projects and assignments. I know it has not been easy for many of you at home. I have struggled myself on many occassion, as home life can be very different to school life. The main thing is to keep trying your best. The summer holidays are nearly here. What can you catch up on in your final week of Year 4 that you may not have the opportunity of doing again. Are there some final Mathletic tasks, some writing tasks or spelling activities that could be completed? How about really knowing those final few tables that you may be struggling with or completing the book that you have been meaning to do.

A message from Mr. Napier and Mrs.King

Year 5 awaits you Year 4 and below there is a letter from your new teachers. Please read it through as it will answer some of your questions that you have had about next year.

Week beginning 6th July

Good morning Year 4, welcome to your penultimate week of term! I can not believe how fast time has now flown. Please find below your learning activities for the week. Remember, they are all on Google Classroom and you can attach work to these assignments.

Spellings - A revision of spelling rules.

Here are your ten words for this week.

Maths - Week 11

Please visit Google Classroom for the activity sheets and White Rose home learning for the videos,

Writing

Please write about your time in Year 4. This will really be useful for the Year 3 class to read and help them to know a little about what lies ahead for them next year. It is set as an assignment on Classroom. You can handwrite it too and attach it if you wish. Here are some ideas to think about.

Year 3 will soon become Year 4. Just like you will become Year 5! To help them know what Year 4 is like, it would be great if you could write some reflections on your year. Write about your time in Year 4. Think about using some of these questions to help you write your work.

What was Year 4 like?

What were your worries or concerns before coming to Year 4?

What kind of routines and days do we have? What was your favourite part?

What will you remember the most? What were your lessons like?

What have you achieved?

What are you poroud of?

What will you miss?

What are you looking forward to?

Freestyle assignment

Create a project about something you are interested in. It may be a hobby, a person, a subject - anything that you can write about and tell me about. This is set up on Google Classroom as a Slide assignment, but you can do it using anything you like - writing, Docs, drawing etc.

Week beginning Monday 29th June

Welcome to a new week. I will hopefully be speaking with some of you today to hear how you have been. Keep up the good work everyone. Here's the suggested activities for the week.

Spellings

Revision words part 1. Visit Edshed to complete your spelling challenge for this week. Use the assignment on Google Classroom to write your spelling sentences.

Listen to Kensuke's Kingdom 

I have finally completed Chapter 4 for you. I have had a few problems with the videos (they got corrupted) and then misplaced the book, but the story should be finished this week. There are 6 more chapters to go!

https://youtu.be/Y_1s4DL6iBY

Maths - Week 10 - Statistics

I have uploaded the worksheets to Google Classroom. Follow the videos on White Rose and on BBC Bitesize to help you.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/

Try the MTC times table quiz on EdShed. Go to Maths - Timetables - Year 4 MTC. How many out of 25 could you get right?

https://play.edshed.com/mtc

Science

This term, we would have been finding out all about electricity. We would have also been making circuits. Follow the instructions below and remember that electricity can be very dangerous.

We rely on electricity to power many things around our homes and in school.

There are two main sources of electricity: batteries and mains electricity (where you plug something into a socket in the wall). I would like you to complete 3 activities to introduce this topic. 1- Watch the BBC Bitesize video clips below. 2- Create a poster showing all the uses of electricity around your home. It would be great if you could label whether the appliances use batteries, mains electricity or both. 3- Look at the electricity hazards pdf below and write notes / bullet points describing all the possible dangers that you can spot in the picture. I have set a Google assignment for this too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zqb7tyc

Art

Mrs. Dean was chatting with the Year 3 children in her Educare group at school and they suggested that they would like to do a piece of art work for a home learning task. So they thought that as we've had some lovely weather lately you could sketch, then colour or paint an outdoor sunny scene. For example: a beach, park, your garden, a zoo, mountains, a day out with your family or any outdoor scene that interests you. Take care to sketch your scene carefully, trying to make objects / people correctly proportioned. Then add colour by using pencils or paint. Please upload to Google Classroom or email them to me and we can share on the class pages.

Writing

Write a story based on the picture. You can use the story starter for ideas or create your own. Remember to use:

Accurate sentences with capital letter and full stops.

Paragraphs

Interesting adjectives and verbs for description

A variety of sentence openers like fronted adverbials (when, where, how) , similies or conjuctions (however, although, even though etc)

Friday roundup

Well another week seems to have flown by! I hope you have all been keeping well and not spending too long out in the hot sun. Remember, wear a hat and put on plenty of suncream. The sun is particularly strong this time of year, even when it is cloudy.

I really enjoyed speaking to some of you this week. It was great to hear your news and to catch up with your mums and dads too. I will be making calls again on Monday morning, so if you haven't heard from me yet, you may get to.

There are only three weeks left of term. I know it can be really tricky to keep up with some school work, especially when you have been at home for so long and the sun has come out. However, please try to do some of the suggested activities and keep up with your spellings, maths and reading. I'll be setting some story writing activities next week so I look forward to reading some of those.

Mathletics

Well done to the following children for achieving their certificates over the last two weeks. A special mention to Rocco, who has worked really hard and achieved his bronze, silver and gold. Well done!

Ed Shed

There has been lots of activity on EdShed recently. Cameron has been eating up his words this week and has achieved a staggering 15 million points!

Last week's results

Homelearning

I am always amazed at some of the achievements and learning that you have been doing at home. Here are just a few examples from the last two weeks.

Reuben has been extremely busy. He has kept a great journal of activities during lockdown and has been playing the clarinet and finding out all about evolution.

Aliya has created a great Google Slides about Viking shields and made a brilliant one of her own.

Week beginning Monday June 22nd

Good morning class. It looks like it is going to be a very sunny week. Hooray! I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying time at home. Below are your suggested activities for the week. Please keep letting me know what else you have been up to and I can share with the rest of the class if you are happy for me to do so.

I will be calling your homes on Monday to see how you are getting on. If I miss you, don't worry, I will try again at the end of the week or next week. It will be great to hear your news.

I have posted all your home learning on Google Classroom as usual. Below is a repeat of that.

Spellings: plural apostrophes

Use Spellingshed to help you learn the words and the spelling pdf booklet that I attached a couple of weeks ago.

Maths - White Rose homelearning Week 9 - Money

Use the worksheets that have been attached on Google Classroom.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/

Make a Viking helmet

You will need:

a balloon.

Strips of grey newspaper.

Flour and water mixed together to make a paste or a big pot of PVA glue.

1. Blow up the balloon so it is about the size of your head.

2. Paste your glue on part of the balloon.

3. Add strips of newspaper about 10cm long all over the top half of the balloon.

4. Keep going until you can not see the balloon anymore.

5. Cover atleast 2 more times to give it strength. There should be no balloon showing apart from the bottom part

6. Leave to dry for atleast a day.

7. Pop the balloon. You will mow have a head shape you can cut.

8. You could cut eye arches and leave a strip to cover the nose and ears.

9. Paint brown or grey and decorate with silver paper. Or cover in strong silver foil. 10. Take a picture and upload it to Classroom.

Reading

I have attached some reading comprehensions about mountains below. Keep reading your books at home too. Let me know on Classroom what books you have been reading.

Viking Topic Words Research

You would have been learning all about these words this term. Some are places, some are people or Viking gods. Using the file on Google Classroom, use the Internet to research these words. How many do you know already? Remember, they have a Viking theme. Some of the words are still used today. However, think about their meaning in Viking times.

Week beginning 15th June

I hope you have all had a good weekend. Below, you will find your home learning suggestions for the week ahead. Many of you or your parents are getting in contact with questions or concerns. Please do so if you have anything to ask or you require further help with any home learning or suggested activities.

Wellbeing

Check out the wellbeing section on the front of the school website. There are some great stories for children to help understand about Corona and some calming strategies too.

Spellings

Challenge words:

Please write out sentences with these in and practise using Spellingshed.

Maths

This week, you were due to take the Government MTC challenge at school for your timestables. How many can you get right with only six seconds thinking time? Give yourself a challenge and see how much you can improve. You can access the MTC challenge on Mathsshed and on the link below.

https://urbrainy.com/mtc/test

Please follow week 8 on WhiteRose home learning. The acitivity sheets can be found on Google Classroom or you can email me for them.

Code.org

www.code.org

Let's get coding. I know that many of you have been on Code.org but most of you haven't visited for a while. How much of Section C and D can you complete before the end of Year 4? I have a snapshot of how many lines of code you have written so far. How many more can you add?

English

Please try some of the following comprehensions. There is a selection to choose from. They all have a science theme and follow the VIPERS model - vocab, infer, predict, explain, retrieve, summarise. The answers are at the bottom. Try to not peak before you have tried to answer them yourselves.

Please continue to write your home journals. I have loved hearing what you have been up to. Remember to use accurate sentences with capital letters at the start and punctuation at the end. Check those spellings too.

End of week update

Well done everyone for your learning this week. There has been a great deal of activity on Edshed and Year 4 are top in both Maths and Spelling. Well done.

There have been 12 certificates this week on Mathletics. Well done to Cole, Bella, Sara, Aliya, Sofia, Perez, Oakley and especially Imogen, who has received a bronze, silver and gold!

There has been some great home learning from the class too. Book reviews from Aliya and Sofia, science from Reuben, viking shield making by Imogen and World Ocean day projects by Grace have all taken place. George has been out and about too - he made it on a kayak to Drake's Island!

Welcome to another week of school from your own home. I know that many of you miss seeing your friends and being at school. It can be quite tough, especially when some children are going back or some of your friends are attending because their parents are key workers. Keep positive and enjoy this time at home as much as you can. You are all very much missed. Keep healthy, positive and busy and try some of the activities below. Remember, you can always post some news on Google Classroom or get intouch with me via email. 

We have access to some reading books online via the school library service. If you would like access to these, please email the school office for a username and a password.

admin@st-andrews.plymouth.sch.uk

It is World Ocean Day today, Monday 8th June. Check out some of the activities below.

We are also running our first Oracy competition at school, 'St. Andrew's speaks.' It is a chance to talk for one minute all about our school. It can be filmed and emailed in. The instructions are in the document below.

Monday 8th June Home learning

Maths

Continue to visit Edshed, Mathletics and TTRockstars. I have set new assignments for you on Mathletics. Who can get a certificate this week? I think Bella already has! Ellie is doing well on EdShed too.

We are on week 7 of the White Rose Units. Remember to visit their website and BBC Bitesize. The worksheets are on Google Classroom or email me and I can send them to you.

w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk

World Ocean Day

It is world ocean day today. I have created a new assigment and you can research the wildlife of the ocean habitats. What is threatening our oceans? Where are the oceans? What differenced are there between them? I have attached some resources below for some further suggestions.

Reading

Keep reading at home. Let me know what books you have been reading and send in a picture and short review.

Listen to Kensuke's Kingdom.

Take a look at the questions about each chapter and remember to look at the vocab sheets too. If you are unsure of a word or phrase ask someone at home or try to look it up. You do not need to write down all the answers, but the questions will get you to think more deeply about each chapter after you have heard it.

Design Technology

Have you researched what a Viking shield looked like yet? Look at the pictures below. To make one you will need a large piece of cardboard about 60 to 90 cm across, depending on how large you would like it. That is 2 to 3 rulers wide. You need to make a perfect circle. A good way is to tie string around a pencil and measure out half the width of your circle. Stick the other end of the string in the middle of your carboard and stretch out the string so it is tight. Keeping it tight, draw a circle. You can then cut it out. In the middle, a yogurt pot makes a good boss (this was a metal disc that protected the hand) It can be painted or kept the cardboard colour and decorated with silver paper strips or card strips that have been covered in silver paper. A handle can be made on the reverse. I have set up an assignment on Classroom. Viking helmets and ships to follow.

Spellings

This week, it is the prefix bi. Check SpellingShed and there is an assignment on classroom where you can write your spelling sentences. Well done Cole for writing some great sentences last week!

Chapter 4 - part 1 - Gibbons and Ghosts

This is part one of the chapter. I was on the beach today at a special place near Mothecombe. There were only a handful of people as far as the eye could see and a yacht on the horizon. I had the book with me and thought it would be apt to read the next chapter. The only thing was, the tide was coming in and I didn't have my glasses! If we didn't leave then, we would have been cut off for several hours, so we made a quick dash back just in time. The rest of the chapter I will finish tomorrow. What do you predict is going to happen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt6cmnK5qkE

Chapter 3 - Ship's log

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-1_s6cyvyc&t=30s

Chapter 2 - Kensuke's Kingdom - Water, water everywhere

Hi class, I hope you have all had a good week. For the last 7 days, we've had a visitor coming into our garden each night. You may remember I told you last year about the hedgehog who had appeared and you wrote a story about one. Well here it is.

It comes about 11pm each evening and I have bought some special hedgehog food for it. There are lots of slugs in our garden(as you can see from the picture) and the hedgehog likes to have a munch on these too. They are a natural predator and the slugs are its prey! Remember, if you ever have a hedgehog in your garden, NEVER feed it milk as it makes them very poorly. They are allergic to it (lactose intolerant). I managed to get a little bit of film of it eating too. You can hear it munching away.

https://youtu.be/Q8btmXJJae0

My plants are coming on too. Here is a picture of my hanging tomatoes, potatoes and one of my courgettes. What are the red and white vegetable called?

Maths

Congratulations to Perez and Sara for their Mathletics certificates this week. Perez has now earned 50 certificates for Mathletics for his time in Year 4. That is incredible. Well done!

There has been a lot of activity on Edshed too. Well done!

Home learning

Grace and Khalia have been very busy with their Viking shield research. I will be giving more details next week for how to make one. Imogen has written a great piece about Christopher Columbus. 

Out and about

Reggie has taken a stroll and seen the sunset. Can you recognise where?

Welcome back to the Summer Term 6

Monday June 1st

I hope you all had a great half-term break. I am sure many of you have been enjoying the sunshine and may even have made it to the beach. Upload some pictures to Google Classroom or email them if you would like them shared on here. Please check here regularly for your home learning suggestions. Remember to try your best and to do a little school work each day. Keep reading and practising your tables as well as writing a little something. Check Spellingshed, Mathletics and TTRockstars too. Keep safe and well and remember to still keep your distance if you bump into friends. I know how tempting and hard that can be!

Spellings

Check Spellingshed for your latest spellings. Words with the prefix auto and anti. Remember to write full sentences for practice.

Maths

Please look at the White Rose Home learning pages. We are now on Week 6. Remember that BBC Bitesize also follows this scheme.

I have put the activity sheets in the Year 4 2020 folder on the Google account of the children. Please email me if you would like them sent to you. w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk Some of you may have already done these? If so, check back on the previous weeks on the White Rose home learning to see if you have missed any. Email me if you need anything.

Keep practising your four operations and tables. If you are still struggling to tell the time accurately, make it your mission to learn by the end of the summer term. I will be putting some time activity sheets onto Google Classroom.

History and D.T.

Research what a Viking shield looked like. Design your own and start to think about what materials you could make it from.

End of Term update

Well that's the end of one of the strangest terms I think there ever has been! You have been very much missed and I have missed not being able to teach you in person.

Well done to all of you for keeping safe and positive at home. Many of you have been working really hard and keeping yourselves busy. (see below)

Enjoy your half-term break and the opportunity to get outside a little bit more in the sunshine. (At a distance) Remember to get some pictures of any of the activities that you are up to and you can send them in to be shared on here if you wish or use them in your journal next term. 

It's time to take a break from any school work if you wish. I will not be setting any suggestions until June 1st. If you need anything, remember I can still be contacted at w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk. Take care and keep safe. 

Mr. Stonebridge

Edshed and Mathletics

Once again, many of you have been very busy on the websites. Congratulations to Cameron, Perez and Rocco for their Mathletics certificates.

Well done to Imogen, Emma, Bella and Reuben, Khalia and Grace for their work on Edshed too.

There has been some super home learning taking place.

Imogen has created a fantastic presentation all about the Vikings. It contains some brilliant information and is very well designed.

Grace has worked particularly hard on her persuasive paragraphs. This was an assignment set a week ago. If you haven't tried yet, I suggest you give it a go. Try to convince a grown up at home by talking it aloud first. Grace has certainly convinced me with hers!

Jude has been reading a new book.

Khalia has been writing to the local council. This is a real letter that she has written, asking them to stop building work taking place. Khalia explains what she has done.

Freya has also written some great perusasive paragraphs.

Monday 18th May

Hi Year 4. I hope you all had a good weekend. This is our last week of Term 5! I will not be putting any suggestions up during half-term (It is your half-term holiday) but if you would like to add any news to Classroom then please do.

Below you will find a list of suggested activities for this week.  Remember, if you need to contact me the email is

w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk or you can post a message on Classroom

Maths

Please check Google Classroom or email me for the worksheets for this week. They will match the White Rose Home Learning website and the BBC Bitesize work too.

English

We were due to start looking at how to write persuasively this week. I really enjoy doing this with the class, as they always come up with some great ideas. I have put some suggestions on Classroom and below for how to do this. We can use our oracy talking sentence starters in our sentences to give it structure.

Two activities that you can do involve explaining what your favourite food is and what your favourite tv / film is. Talk it through with someone at home first. For example:

Do you know what the best food is in the world? Well I will tell you. In my opinion, chicken curry is the most scrumptious food in the whole, wide world. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, it smells divine. Secondly, the anticipation of eating the meal makes me feel so excited that my tummy does backflips!. Furthermore, the sight of a golden, steaming curry on top of a bed of rice fills me with delight. Finally, the taste of the spicy chicken with the crunch of a scrumptious poppadom makes me smile all over. Would you not agree? There is no doubt, that a curry is truly the best food in the world. I urge you to eat one as soon as you can.

Do you know what the best t.v. programme is? Well I do! I believe that 'Blue Peter' is the best programme on t.v. I am sure that after reading this you will agree. Firstly, it is very informative and tells you all about the world. Secondly, the presenters are really cool and interesting. In addition to this, my mum and dad really like it too, so we can all watch it together. Finally, some of the activities are really dangerous and I never know if the presenters will survive! I am sure that you will agree and I really hope you you will watch the next episode. Won't you?

Spellings

Your spellings this week have been set on SpellingShed. The sol and sign word families. Remember, to help you learn, please use each of the words in a sentence or try to write a paragraph with all of them in.

End of week update.

Another week has passed by and the sun has come out again. Hooray! What have you all been up to? I have heard from some of you and can see that many of you have been busy on the websites or with some home learning. It would be great to hear about some more of your activities. Remember, you can attach them to Google Classroom or email them to me at w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk

Aliya has been very creative using Google Sites to work on a website: https://sites.google.com/staps.org.uk/wppc

Reggie has bumped into a sheep on his travels on Dartmoor.

Grace has been very productive working on an English activity book.

Freya has discovered lots of slow worms in her garden and her cat brought one to her for a closer look!

I have been planting out my seedlings and encouraging my tomato plants to grow. I am going to hang some upside down this week. I'll put some pictures up when I do.

I've also been running, which as you know keeps me happy and is my special activity where I can think, be positive and make some good plans.

This picture was at 7a.m. Do you know where it was taken?

Lots of you have been busy on EdShed and Mathletics this week.

Congratulations to George, who has had a super week on Spelling Shed and Khalia on MathsShed.

The Lifetime honeypots are very close now too.

Congratulations to Khalia, Sara, Bella and Noah for their Bronze Mathletics certifcates. Remember, you need 4 in a row to get a Silver one. 1000 points is all it takes!

Week beginning 11th May

I hope everyone had a good weekend. You are very much missed and I am sure we would have been having some great fun together at school. In the meantime, make the most of being at home and spending time with your family. Try to make your learning as fun as possible, like we try to at school. Here are some more suggested activities for the week. Please don't worry if you do not do them all. This is not expected. Remember, try to do a little English and maths each day along with another area of learning. Perhaps pick one or two from this list or try some science, music or history.

Maths

If you are using the home learning videos and activities on White Rose then the worksheets are no longer there. I have put them in your Google Drive and you can find them on Google Classroom too. Remember, BBC Bitesize matches these too.

• Keep learning your tables - how quickly can you remember them!
• Visit MathsShed, Mathletics and TT Rockstars
• Revisit the folder I put in your Google folder - there are lesson slides and worksheets that you can do.

English

Your spellings this week are words with 'sol' and 'real' in them. Remember, they are on SpellingShed and writing out a sentence or paragraph with them in helps you to remember them too.

Some of you are keeping up with writing your journals. This is great. Find it in the assignments on Classroom and try writing about what you have been up to. Try adding some pictures to this too.

For those who would like some help writing a story, I have included two booklets below. They are 'Talk for Writing' booklets and explain how you can create a story. It would be good for an adult to help a little bit with you to begin with, if you would like to do these. They follow a structure that we use at school. More inforation can be found on this website and the booklets are below.

https://www.talk4writing.co.uk/covid-19/

Check for a new assignment on Google Classroom if you would like to work through these booklets.

Keep reading. Let me know what new books you are discovering and perhaps write a review. There is an assignment set up on classroom for this.

Other activities to work on:

History and music - visit the BBC Viking Sagas website. Use the information to add to your Google Slide presentations about the Vikings. Learn some songs. If any of you are Zooming together, maybe you could sing one of the songs together?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/20stJyBvh9mv7kpSVgDfKPw/viking-sagas-age-7-11

Measure your seedlings. 

If you have planted any seeds, watch them germinate and then measure them carefully each week. I will put an assingment on Google that you can fill in. Measure in cm and remember to start at 0 on the ruler.

Where did the week go?

I hope you all had a great VE day on Friday. Have you any photo's of your bunting, paintings, cakes or research that you may have done? Emma uploaded a poster that she made.

Grace, Sara and Cole have been busy with some English and Maths sheets and lots of you have been busy on the websites and with other written work.

Cole has also been busy painting the house and reading all about motorbikes with his dad.

Sofia has been busy reading lots of books.

Cameron has been busy in the garden doing some practical scientific work.

Reuben has been doing a variety of great activities. From microscopic science, to biking and playing some great tunes on the clarinet. I'll hopefully put these up soon.

Five people earned a bronze Mathletics certificate this week. Well done to Perez, Noah, Grace, Bella and Sara.

The Boy at the Back of the Class - the final four chapters

Here are the final chapters of our class novel. Make sure you've heard the others before these.

Coming soon......

One of my favourite stories

by Michael Morpurgo.

Monday 4th May

Goodmorning everyone. I hope you had a good weekend. Below you will find some more suggested activities for the week. We all miss you and look forward to the time when we can all meet again! Remember, it's VE Day on Friday too. What can you find out about VE day?

I'm currently typing whilst helping with maths in a pretend shop with Emily. She is sorting her food into least and most expensive, before buying some items. 

I know completing school work at home can be tricky. I'm experiencing it now! You are not expected to achieve everything and complete all the tasks. A little maths and English everyday would be great. Be creative too. You have been really busy baking and gardening I can see. I know lots of you are busy researching the Vikings or wildlife and habitats too. I've enjoyed reading these.

Take care and catch up soon.

Maths learning

For those who are using the White Rose materials for maths, I suggest that you move onto their Week 3 unit.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/

They have worked with the BBC and the Bitesize lessons will also mirror the White Rose content.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/tags/z63tt39/year-4-and-p5-lessons/1

From next week, the activity sheets will nolonger be on the White Rose website. However, they can be found in your child's Google Drive folder as we have paid for them through our subscription. They will be labelled Week 3 etc. They are slightly out of sync, as the rest of the country started back a week later than us (we are actually now in Week 4)

Spellings

Some of you are really doing well with your spellings. Keep this up!

As you know, on EDShed you have had the complete Y3/Y4 spelling list to work through. This term, 4 additional units were added:

Homophones, the suffix -cian, adverbs of manner and challenge words.

This weeks spelling pattern are words with an s sound but spelt with a c - like circle.

How many points can you score? Remember, writing a sentence with the word in really helps you to remember it too.

Suggested writing activities

Try one of these activities each day:

Write your daily journal

Write a prediction and or summary of the class book

Write a poem

Write your own book or chapter review

Answer some questions from Pobble 365 or Onceuponapicture

https://www.pobble365.com/                 https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/

Write a story using the websites above or create your own.

Friday 1st May

Oh my goodness, it's May! I hope you have all had an enjoyable week and maybe tried something new? It's been good to hear from some of you and hear what you have been up to . Remember, upload a pic to Classroom or drop me an email and I can add your pictures here.

Leaf indentifying

Here's a suggestion that I've been upto with my family. Collect a selection of leaves from tress (these are from Central Park) Use the Woodland trust website or app to try to identify them. If you can't find any trees nearby, try using the ones that we found.

EdShed and Mathletics

I am pleased to say that Year 4 have been the busiest class in school this week on EdShed! Well done - Kepp this up!

There has been a change in the weekly effort. See below:

A huge well done to Sara, who must have spent a long time on her 36 rounds on Spelling Shed!

3 class members receive Mathletics certificates this week. Well done to Kai, Bella and Noah.

Monday 27th April

Hi Year 4. I hope all you had a good weekend. I've been busy planting and taking my seedlings from their pots and putting them in the ground. I've been for a few runs and even ran 10km to Devil's Point and back - a new record for me - it was tiring but worth it to see the sea and the sun rise!

I've also been making some home made fertiliser out of nettles. I had left them in a bucket of water for 3 weeks. I have never smelt anything so disgusting! It is now bottled and ready to use on the plants as they grow.

Here are some more suggested activities. Remember, you don't need to do them all.

Have fun - be creative.

Try some maths. Visit White Rose for their daily lessons.

Keep on reading.

Practise your tables and 4 operations.

Visit the websites - see the links below

Visit Pobble 365 for reading and writing ideas

Exercise

Write some stories

Paint some pictures.

Visit BBC Bitesize - watch some of their lessons

Emily, my 6 year old, found some great activities in the Blue Peter archives. They have loads of creative ideas that you can try. I"m currently working on hanging tomato plants from old drinks bottles. I'll put a picture up once finished.

Emily also made (with my help) a great crayon t-shirt. You will need:

Crayons

Sand paper

Oven grease proof paper

A plain white t-shirt

An adult (to use a hot iron)

1.) Make a picture by pressing hard on the sandpaper.

2.) Make sure any letters are back to front

3.) Put sandpaper on flat t-shirt

4.) Cover with grease-proof paper

5.) Get an adult to press down hard on the paper and iron on picture for about 10-15 seconds

I couldn't believe the results. I don't know if it will wash though.

Visit the Blue Peter pages for more details.

Getting in touch.

It is lovely to hear from you and see what you have been up to. Please keep emailing me w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk and uploading pictures to Google Classroom. I'll be adding some more on here soon. If I haven't heard from you yet, please do get in touch.

Friday 24th April

More chapters.

Here are the next two chapters of the book. Enjoy.

Here's the plan from Chapter 17

Online activities

A huge well done to the following children for achieving Mathletics certificates over the last 2 weeks. Each Friday I will reveal who has earned a certificate for that week. More activities have been set for you to have a go at. Congratulations to Sara, Rocco, Perez and Bella, who have been very busy on Mathletics. Who will it be by next Friday? It could be you!

EdShed progress

As you know, you can view the class results on EdShed. If you haven't visited for a while, set yourself a challenge score and then try to improve on it each week. Here is how this week looked in the class.

Who thinks they can improve their score and possibly come in the top 3 for the week? A huge congatulations to Ellie for achieving a staggering 3.7 million and for Rocco too with over a million.

I have set new spelling and maths challenges for you to have a go at!

Thursday 23rd April Update

Corona Creativity

You are all missed by myself, Mrs Eggar and all the staff. If anyone has any concerns, password queries or questions then please remember that your mum or dad can always email the school or myself (w.stonebridge@staps.org.uk) or you can leave a message in Google Classroom. If I haven't heard from you yet, please get in touch using the above. It would be great to hear what you have been up to and that 

you and your family are keeping safe and well!

I have been seeing on Google Classroom some of the great actvities that you have been up to. As time goes by, i'll put some of these pictures up on the class pages. Remember, they can be uploaded to Google Classroom or emailed to me.

Finally, now that the book has been found, here are the next TWO chapters of The Boy at the Back of the Class. Enjoy. More to come on Friday.

Don't forget, Chapters 8 to 13 are below somewhere and on Google Classroom.

Monday 20th April update

Week 2

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend. It looks like it's going to be another fine week! I have put some more suggestions below for learning. Have a look through. I have also said about attaching some photos to Google Classroom assignments to show your creativity and home projects that you have been doing.

My apologies that there have not been any chapters recently. They will start today. The book had gone missing and I found it in my daughter's room whilst tidying yesterday. Hurrah!

Keep letting me know on Classroom how you are finding the work and ideas. Some of you are doing this really well.

Share your creativity.

A local project has been set up by one of our school governors. It is a way to share and celebrate the creativity that is taking place whilst the children are not at school. Take a look and if you can share on it then it would be great to see your creativity. The link is below. 

https://fromlockdownwithlove.org/

Share your learning.

I have set up assignments on classroom where you can show your learning with a picture. This may be artwork. A project you have built. Food you have made. Plants you have grown. Lego you have made. This list is endless. There will be an assignment on Classroom where you can add your pictures. This one was by Cameron.

BBC Bitesize Lessons launch today

You may have heard already, but the BBC have put together a series of lessons for all year groups. They look pretty good and it could be worth visiting the Year 4 section (or others if you are interested in them)

Here is the list of activities.

https://bam.files.bbci.co.uk/bam/live/content/zjh72sg/pdf#sa-link_location=blocks&intlink_from_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fteach%2Fbitesize-daily-schedules-teach%2Fzdtwjhv&intlink_ts=1587368661758-sa

Here is the BBC website

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/dailylessons

Have you made a cake yet or followed a cooking recipe?

Using scales and following the instructions to a recipe is a great activity and uses all sorts of skills. Maybe you could post a picture on Google Classroom of any cooking that you have done! I will create an assignment that you could add your pictures and comments to.

Have you been able to plant anything yet and watch it grow?

Try cutting the tops of root vegetables like carrots and see what happens when they are placed in water. Put the base of a spring onion in an egg cup and watch it grow back. Take seeds from fruit and try to grow them into plants. I've got an avocado seed in some water and hope it turns into a plant! I doubt I'll get any avocados though.

Remember, not all the activities on Classroom or the suggestions given have to be completed. They are ideas that you can follow. If you can complete a couple of hours learning each day during the school week then that would be great.

Timestables and reading

However, please keep practising your tables and reading. Use TT Rockstars and read as many different materials that you can. How fast can you get at Rockstars? If you do not know all your tables yet, make that your lockdown mission!

Welcome to the Summer Term!

Hi class. I hope you have all had a good Easter Holidays. It has certainly been different to other years but at least the sun has been shining and Spring has sprung! 

I have been busy in our small garden with my children and bought a small plastic greenhouse. We ordered some seeds and have been planting cucumbers, marigolds, courgettes and herbs. Some of them are starting to germinate and others are being attacked by nasty slugs and snails!

I know it can be tricky to do school work at home and these are very unusal times, but if you can do a little each day, it will really help to keep you up to date and when we return to school, lessons will not be so much of a shock. A huge well done to those children who have kept a journal or completed their biography, revised some maths or worked on Maths / Spelling Shed, TT Rockstars and Mathletics.

Any work that is suggested, you will hopefully be able to completed yourselves. Your mums and dads will be pretty busy, even if they are at home, so hopefully you can do most of the work yourselves. You can always ask for help or message me on Google Classroom.

Below is what we would have been covering this term for the different subjects. There are also some other suggestions too. I will set up Classroom assignments like before and as you complete any work for a subject you can add to the document. Please don't submit these, as they will be an ongoing live document throughout the term that I can look at. I have been posting comments on the work you have done. Hopefully you have been able to see these. Could you let me know on the Google classroom thread that you can see these comments please.

Story

I will continue to read the story and put the chapters both here and on Classroom.

History

Our topic this term is all about the Vikings. You can research the Vikings and create a Google slide presentation. Use a different slide for different information. As a challenge, can you create a cover slide, a content's slide, information slides and a glossary slide? A further challenge is to try to teach yourself how to use Hyperlinks in the slide to connect them from the contents page and then to link back. How much detail can you find out. This is an ongoing project throughout the term.

Music

There is a wonderful website fromthe BBC that really helps you learn about the Vikings through songs. It is a great source of information. We usually put on a Viking musical this term and the songs come from here. Try learning a few of them!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Tc1vdVTZJfvXPPGp2jSjWY/ks2-music-viking-saga-songs-info

Also, if you have any instruments at home, how about trying to learn how to play it or get better at it. I found a harmonica that I was bought by my mum when I was 7 and have started to learn that!

PE

 Try to keep fit with some exercise every day. If you can have a walk or run with an adult then great or try a GoNoodle song or two like we do at school.

You could also try the Joe Wicks workouts at 9am every morning. They are a tough but super way to start your day before doing any other school work. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

If you fancy learning a dance routine, try Oti's classes from Strictly Come Dancing. My daughter is doing them all the time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qteYfJk3fqQ

Reading

 Try to make a time in the day when you can read. We have just started a family reading time after lunch. We all read our books and then share a few paragraphs of what we have been reading or discuss any words that we were unsure of. It has meant that I get to read more as I usually fall asleep when I read when I go to bed!

Maths

There are daily maths lessons with worksheets that can be access via the following website by White Rose.

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/

 Start from Week 1.

These follow the lesson structure that we would have been following this term. I will include additional powerpoint slides in the Maths folder that will back up these lessons. The content follows a similar structure to my lessons and the worksheets will be familiar to the class.

Writing

Keep writing your journal. It is really interesting hearing what you have been up to. Remember to check your spellings and write accurate sentences with capital letters and full stops.

Write a story! Use the following website to give you inspiration.

https://www.pobble365.com/

Science

Plants and animals

What can you find out about growing plants?

What is the lifecycle of a plant?

What do plants need to grow?

Can you label the parts of a plant?

Where does it get its food?

What is a habitat?

What different habitats can you think of?

What kind of creatures live in these habitats?

What are insects? What are mammals? What are reptiles? What other groups are there?

Websites

Keep visiting TT Rockstars, Maths and Spelling Shed and Mathletics. I will be puting up weekly spellings and activities for you to do.

I look forward to seeing you all again sometime soon. Keep busy, be good and stay positive.

Mr.Stonebridge

Hi Year 4. I hope you are all doing okay in these peculiar times!

Please keep checking the class pages and Google Classroom. Remind others in the class who you are in touch with to do the same. Different work and ideas will appear here, as well as the story.

If you have had trouble hearing the story then I think I have fixed it. There are 3 chapters to listen to now. They can be found on classroom AND below. You can listen directly from here so it may be easier. Well done for getting some work done in these unusual times. I am puting comments against your work but am unsure if you can see them?

Some other ideas:

Cook something and measure out ingredients.
Plant a seed and watch it grow. Record its progress. If you have no seeds, experiment with seeds from fruits!
Write a song or poem about your time at home.
Make recycle projects for the garden (birdfeeders / boxes / windmills)
Excercise - I'm sure you already have - but check out Joe Wicks at 9am each day. I'm finding it exhausting!

You could always take a picture of any of your projects and upload it to the diary sheets of Google classroom. If you keep the one document, it can be an ongoing journal of what you are up to and the different activities you are doing.

The Boy at the  back of the class

Keep listening to the story. Remember to ask someone what a word means if you are unsure.

You can write a summary and prediction after each chapter if you would like on Google Docs.

Year 4

Home Learning

opportunities

Ongoing School Work.

If there is absolutely no Internet access for the children, or to keep them away from the screens,  please help them do the following:

• Keep a daily journal of what they have been doing, including their thoughts and feelings and descriptions of activities.

• Keep practising and learning their tables and all 4 calculation strategies.

• Complete the maths booklets that have been provided.

• Keep reading to and with the children. Get the children to read to you regularly.

• Get the children to generate their own questions.

Try some other activities like planting seeds, cooking, GoNoodling, painting and singing.

If there is access to the Internet, continue as above but more work can be achieved on Google Classroom. Check the school website and class pages for updates of work that needs to be done by the children whilst they are not at school.

Visit the following websites:

• Mathletics

• Times Table Rockstars

• Edshed

• Code.org

The children have all the codes and passwords they need to access the above. I can track their progress.

To log into Google, they need to use their Chrome book user name (staps email) then put in their password. They can then go to Classroom. The children are very used to doing this. They can then see their different tasks and I can see how they are doing.

Happy New Year

Welcome back to 2020!

Please read the class letter and curriculum map for more information about the term.

Children of the World

Topic 

The class have been finding out how children all over the world travel to school. They have been intrigued and fascinated at the hard journeys that they make. The class came up with some great questions that they will be finding the answers out to throughout the term.

Firework Maker's Daughter

The children have thoroughly enjoyed hearing this fantastic story by Philip Pullman. Each child has had a copy of the book and followed the adventures of Lila as she seeks the Royal Sulphur. In English, the children have discovered new vocabulary from the book, predicted what happens next, written summaries, created and answered comprhension questions and written a review.

Mindstorm Lego

The class have all been involved with the buidling of some very complicated lego sets. There will be two teams competing at a City Shaper Lego event where they will need to build and programme a robot and present a project on how they can improve a community.

Hockey

The class have been learning new skills in hockey. For many, this is the first time they have learned how to play. They are being taught by PE specialists from Stoke Damerel Secondary School, who have been very impressed by the children's skills so far.

Clarinets

The children are continuing to develop their clarinet skills.

Our class read

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The children are enjoying their end of day story and have been transported to the magical land of Narnia.

Welcome to Year 4

The Saxons....

People on the move.

Welcome back to an exciting new term. The children are really enthusiastic and have made a super start already. Please find below a copy of our class curriculum map and letter. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please pop in to see me as soon as possible. In this way, we can find a solution together without any unnecessary worry. Enjoy the late summer sunshine and visit these pages regularly to see what the children have been up to.

(Recent pictures coming up soon!)

Homework is given out on a Friday. It will usually be stuck in the children's orange homework book and will often be an English or Maths task related to our learning that week.

All the children will have their spellings stuck in their book too. These need to be written out accurately at least 5 times and a sentence needs to be written containing each of the words, again, ensuring accuracy with capital letters and correct punctuation at the end.

Reading is really important and it is essential to help your child with this, either by reading to them or by listening to them. We expect a school book a week to be exchanged. Make time to discuss new words or to discuss why characters may be acting in different ways.

Finally, times tables knowledge is a key ingredient to success in maths. It is the Government expectation that by the end of

Year 4, all the children will be able to answer 25 random tables questions in 150 seconds. Please help your child practise their tables. They will be having regular practise at school and will be looking for patterns and relationships between the numbers. Please look in the front of their homework books to see one such pattern and how the '21 facts' make 84 different questions.

Again, if you have any questions about this, please come and see me and have a chat.

Homework Week 1

Design an Anglo Saxon outfit. A separate page has been sent home for this.

Make an Anglo Saxon outfit. This will be worn on our Saxon themed days;for example when we visit the Saxon village at Escot. These need to be ready by the 26th September.

Read your school book.

Practise your tables.

Reading with Year 1

Each week the class will be reading with Year 1. I think they were even more excited than the Year 1 children on their first visit to the classroom. It is great to see the class looking after the younger members of the school and for some of them to have the opportunity of reading to their younger siblings.

Looking for Saxon Evidence

How do we know the Saxons were here? The class have been looking for evidence in the names of towns and cities all over England. They really enjoyed searching for places ending in suffixes like  -ton, -ham or -ford. 

Making Roman Numerals

As much as possible in maths, the class will use a concrete, pictorial then abstract approach. In other words, they will use hands-on equipment or materials to embrace a new idea before using picture representations in books and then finally the 'abstract' numbers.

The class used matchsticks to create numbers using Roman numerals before writing anything in their books.

Saxon Trip to Escot

All the children have bought home a letter about our Saxon trip to Escot near Exeter. Please complete this as soon as possible. A copy of the letter is below.

Problem solving and team building.

The class really enjoyed working together to silently arrange themselves in a line relating to their age.

They worked as a team to try to cross the shark infested playground using only three hoops to reach the other side.

Creating a class charter

All the children thought about and discussed their ideas for how they would like to behave in Year 4. It was great to hear so many positive phrases like 'always try you best' and 'never give up' Our final class poster is below.

Basketball

We have been making the most of the good weather and have started our basketball training this term. The class have been improving their chest and bounce passing as well as their dribbling skills.

Coding

The class have begun a new coding unit on Code.org and have shown some very developed skills already. This can be accessed from home at anytime using their school Google login.

Mathletics and Timestable Rockstars

The children will have access to these great maths websites from home. Click on the links below to use them. The logins will be stuck in the children's homework books.

The Talking Together Tree

As a school, we are committed to the emotional wellbeing of the children and the whole St.Andrew's family.

The children have been listening to a story that helps to give them the skills and words to make a 'good plan' when things are not going so well. This is a solution focused approach and enables the children to speak and be listened to when there may be a problem.

Over the term, the class will be developing these key life skills and identify what makes a 'good plan' rather than a 'do nothing' or 'bossy' plan. 

STEM Day

The children had a fantastic morning with Tina. There were a load of activities that really fired their imagination.

The class have been learning Spanish numbers and places around the world in a great cross-curricular morning with Mr. Napier.

'Beowulf'

We have all enjoyed reading this book by the marvellous Michael Morpurgo. 

This week, we begin to hear a tale all about the legendary

King Arthur.