Welcome to Year 4
Summer 2024
What a lovely end of the year. I had loved working with my year 4 class and sharing lots of learning experiences this year. It was wonderful to end such a fantastic year with our Manchester trip. It was such a treat!
To support our learning about dips for chips and how to prepare a dip from scratch in the kitchen, we let our taste buds do the research. We tried various dips to find out what ingredients and textures we liked best. We then recorded this information our out iPads and used it to support the making sections of our design and technology lessons.
We had a brilliant dancing with Pam for our dance unit in PE. It was wonderful to watch the children preform and bring all of their dance skills together. The children used their music skills to listen to the beat of the music. They were very professional when they preformed for the other classes. We ended our PE lessons with a unit in OAA which the children loved. We explored new areas of the school and learnt that you don't always have to go outside to take part in an outdoor adventure activity.
During our trip to Barrow library we met Steven Bonham, the author of 'The Spirt Dog'. He shared his heart-warming and true story about a mysterious dog named Black who adopts author Steve Bonham and his friend Moha as they journey through the High Atlas Mountains towards the Sahara Desert. The children loved this work shop as they got to work with the authors team. Drawing sketches with the illustrator and creating music with Steven Bonham's friend, who wrote a song about the spirt dog.
Spring 2024
During our spring term the children explored drawing in art. They used different textile and materials to hatch, draw with fine line and smudge. In Design and technology the children really put their design and making skills to good use. The year 4 children built fully functioning torches. It was very impressive watching them evaluate their products and make alterations so that their final products were good.
In history our topic was The Romans. The children loved exploring this topic, especially exploring the excavation site; Vindolana. During this trip the children had a Romans classroom experience. This was great as their made compassions to their previous history trip (Beamish) where they had a Victorian classroom experience.
Autumn 2 2023
We have had a very exciting half term in year 4 . We have been learning about the Victorians in History and this topic has led to some fantastic learning opportunities.
In History the children had to become Historians whilst working with primary recourses from the Victorian era. We had a wonderful time exploring these resources by touching, smelling and looking at them before making our predictions on what the Victorians would have used them for.
The highlight of this half term was our trip to the world famous, open aired museum, Beamish. Beamish tells the story of life in England during the 1820s, 1900s, 1940, and 1950s. During our trip to Beamish our class visited an old Victorian school, where we learnt about what life would have been like for Victorian children and, the children's favourite part, learning all about Victorian school punishments.
Finally, in writing and reading we continued with our Victorian theme and the children took on the role of Victorian children and produced fantastic Biography's based on a rich or poor Victorian child's life.. To support the children with their writing and to make their experiences more memorable, we also had a Victorian day in school. The children (and the teachers) loved dressing up and getting into character for the day
Autumn 1 2023
What a lovely start to the year. Our new Year 4 class has settled in wonderfully and we’ve already had a range of wonderful learning experiences.
To support our learning about rainforests and how they are used in Geography, we ventured to our local woodland to compare how our woodland is used in comparison to the rainforest in Brazil. We took our iPads to record what we could see in the woodland and made predictions on how people might use this area. We then recorded how many people we could see using the woodland that day and made suggestions on how we can use the woodland in a more sustainable way. When we got back to school we discussed the differences and similarities between how our woodland is used and how the rainforest is used.
We had a brilliant art day with Sophie Martin, the children decorated the cross with designs linked to the gospel values using bright oils pastels and sharpie pens for intricate designs. We then finished the designs with dark green paint wash to give the deigns a stained glass window look.
During our trip to Barrow library we played book bingo, this allowed the children to find a range of different books they might not usually explore. They really enjoyed exploring these books independently and with their peers. This activity helped us to discover new authors we hadn't come across before. When we got back to school we used our library session to see if our school library had any books by the newly discovered authors.
Summer 2 2023
What a lovely final half-term.
We had fun making smoothies on the smoothie bike, some of us trying flavours that we weren’t too sure about for the first time.
We had some walks out around our local area to support our learning in history and geography.
Finally, the biggest highlight was our end-of-year trip to Manchester. We visited the Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park where we got to act out the roles of various airport staff, including sitting in the pilot’s seat of an aircraft. We saw Concorde and even got a wave from the pilot of an arriving Airbus A380! We then went to Chill Factore where we had a ski taster session and played on the snow park. We finished the day with a visit to the theatre to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Summer 1 2023
What a lovely half-term. Amongst other highlights we enjoyed our regular trip to Mass at St Mary’s followed by a visit to the library. We read books including poetry with the librarians and spent some time exploring the library and choosing books to read.
We really enjoyed our trip to Furness Abbey to learn about our local history. We were accompanied on our trip by the artist Sophie Martin who taught us about using different media for sketching landscapes.
We also had great fun completing our design and technology project in which we designed and built a lamp suitable for a child to use as a bedside light, including building the circuit.
Spring 2 2023
This half term we had a trip to enhance our learning about Romans. In art we also studied Roman mosaics and made our own mosaic coaster. We all enjoyed getting dressed up for book day and we were really moved by the story ‘The Invisible’ which we used as inspiration for our writing.
We had a lovely mindful trip to the woods and enjoyed learning about the Angelus prayer with Mrs Wright. Two of our boys brought us gifts of sweets and cake and told us all about how and why they will fast during Ramadan.
Spring 1 2023
We have had a lovely half term again. We have learned a lot about the Romans and their impact on Britain. In music we enjoyed listening to ABBA and creating our own improvisations based on their songs.
We had a lovely trip to the library and were amazed by the visit of Lancaster University’s planetarium. We were lucky enough to go to mass on the feast of Candlemass in which we experienced a very prayerful candle lit procession through church and had our school candles blessed.
Autumn 2 2022
We have had another lovely half-term leading up to Christmas.
In Design and Technology, we have been learning about mechanical systems including pivots, linkages and levers. We have used our learning to design and make an interactive poster to persuade other children to visit Beamish (where we went for our trip).
In art, we have been studying the work of L. S. Lowry. We learned about his life and his painting techniques, using brushes, sticks and even our fingers to paint. We found out about how he used perspective in his art work then created our own painting in his style, using his techniques.
In HIstory, we have been finding out about Victorian Britain, including taking part in some of the awful tasks carried out by prisoners and investigating artifacts from the Dock Museum to find out about Victorian wash day.
The highlight of our History learning was a fabulous trip to Beamish where we took part in a Victorian lesson. The teacher was terrifying!
Finally, we have finished off with an amazing nativity performance. We performed three songs, including Silent Night in German. Our lovely Governor, Mrs Casey, a retired languages teacher, came in to help us get our pronunciation perfect.
Autumn 1 2022
What a lovely start to the year. Our new Year 4 class has settled in wonderfully and we’ve already had a range of wonderful learning experiences.
Our music lessons this half-term were led by Mr Stoneham who taught us how to hold and play a brass instrument. We learned how to read and play our first few notes to play a tune. Some of us have opted to continue playing brass instruments in a lunch time club.
One of the highlights of our half-term was a trip to the library. We met an author who taught us about dances from different cultures. We combined the Hakka and Bollywood dancing to create a performance.
To support our learning about how we can live more sustainably in Geography, we took part in an Explore and Restore Visit at Brockhole. We created some leaf printing art and learned how to plant an acorn ready to be planted out into the woodland. We then headed outside and went pond dipping. The Brockhole staff showed us how they conserved the environment to encourage wildlife. We also spent some time in the woods, looking at the types of habitats that different creatures need.
Summer 2 2022
We have done lots of fun learning in Year 4 this half-term including Geography and History topics that focussed on our local area, including the history of our beautiful local landmark, Furness Abbey
To enhance our learning, we visited the abbey for the day. We met Gill Jepson, a local author who has written extensively about the abbey, and she gave us a tour, showing us many fascinating things. We also took a local artist with us to support our art project of sketching Furness Abbey using a variety of media.
We have had fun in DT tasting and preparing food for our project Dips and Dippers.
We had a fabulous trip to the library to learn about how to find books and explore the different things we can borrow from the there..
And, of course, we had our end of year trip to Manchester. What a day! We visited the Runway Visitor Park where we were shown how to take off and land by a retired aitline pilot, we saw the world's biggest passenger plane land right infront of us and we even got to sit under the nose of Concord. We then went to Chill Factore for a ski taster session and to play on the snow park. Finally, we ended the day with our evening meal at Pizza Hut in the Trafford Centre.
Furness Abbey Visit
Summer 1 2022
We started the term by completing our artwork inspired by our visit to the woods the previous term earning the school 5 points towards our Woodland Trust Green Tree Awards platinum award.
Mr Stoneham was back teaching us to play our brass instruments and how to read musical notation.
We really enjoyed a visit from Fran who taught us about electrical circuits, enhancing our learning from Science and making nightlights in DT the previous term.
We really enjoyed our Marian Procession at the end of the half-term, in which the children from our class had the honour of leading the procession and crowning Our Lady.
Spring 2 2022
We have had great fun this half term. We thoroughly enjoyed going to St Mary's Church again for Mass. We had fantastic fun dressing up for Book Day and using the book Journey to inspire us.
In DT we researched, designed and created our own nightlights. We had a lovely time using the woods at St Paul's School for our Wellbeing in the Woods afternoon. We used some of our time to create some photographs for our Woodland Trust Green Tree Awards project about viewing woods from different perspectives. We then used these images to create our own painting back at school.
Our most exciting day was our trip to Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum to enhance our learning about the Romans in Britain.
Spring 1 2022
This half term we learned about why jungles are so wet and deserts so dry in Geography. In art we enhanced our learning about the Romans by studying mosaics and making our own Roman mosaic shields. As part of ourPE we went to the local pool for swimming lessons. I DT we learned about mechanisms including linkages and levers.
Autumn 2 2021
We have had such an exciting Half-term. In History we learned about the Victorians, and in art we studied and painted in the style of L S Lowry. Used a variety of implements to paint with just like the artist himself, including our fingers!
The highlights of the half-term were our trips. We went for a one night residential trip to Brockhole and Grasmere to enhance our learning about sustainability and habitats from last half-term’s Geography and we had an amazing day out at Beamish to support our learning about the Victorian s. In Beamish, we experienced a Victorian lesson, went down a mine and walked the streets of a Victorian town.
Generation Green Residential Trip
We had such a lovely time on our one-night residential trip to Brockhole and Grasmere.
We had a fantastic time learning about our local nature and habitats. Our trip really helped us to extend our Geography work on sustainable development and habitat creation.
Autumn 1 2021
What a lovely start to the year! We were lucky enough to to have Mass in school and we dodged the rain to complete our sponsored run.
in English we collected autumn items from the school field and used them to help us write and perform our own autumn poetry.
We learned to sing ‘Lean on Me’ in music and performed it for another class.
On art day we studied the artist Wassily Kandinsky. We learned about his life and art and then produced our own version of one of his paintings.
Summer 2 2021
The end of a difficult year was great fun and action packed.
We visited Furness Abbey and borrowed some monk costumes to support our learning about our local history.
We were lucky enough to be allowed back into church for Mass and some of the class went on an orienteering morning at the local zoo.
The highlight of the half-term was our trip to Manchester where we visited Old Trafford, went to Chill Factore and had our evening meal at Pizza Hut in the Trafford Centre.
Summer 1 2021
We had a lovely first half to the summer term. On Art Day we planned and made a Roman coiled pot, and painted them.
We had a lovely pyjama day ending in a bedtime story with cushions and teddies.
We learned about why deserts are dry and jungles are wet by learning about climate zones. And we enjoyed getting outside for our PE and other learning as the weather warmed up.
Spring 2 2021
What an amazing half term! We started by welcoming our new student teacher, Miss Watkin, to our class. Next, we welcomed three new class members to our class, and then, to top it all off, we welcomed our whole class back into the classroom! It was so lovely to all be back together again and Mr McGoldrick treated us all to an ice cream!
We had a fabulous interactive internet safety session provided by Internet Legends. We have all been very excited about our writing this half term. It has all been based around the book 'When the Crayons Came Home'. First we wrote a letter in character as Maroon Crayon and then we wrote a narrative based on the book.
In DT we have planned and made a Roman Bulla to hold Roman coins and lucky charms to be made on Art Day. Also, in History we learned about why the Romans invaded Britannia.
Spring 1 2021
This half term we came back to school with only some of our pupils in class. It has been lovely to see our classmates on Zoom, but it just hasn't been the same as being able to talk and play together like normal. We continued with all our usual learning, using Zoom and Showbie to support our learning.
We started our fabulous new book Roman Quests: Escape from Rome, ready to support our Romans topic next half term. We had fun with our teachers doing a masked reader event, and we wrote letters to our friends who we couldn't see in person because of the lockdown.
