News and Pictures

Coronation Chaos!

We have loved marking King Charles III and Queen Camilla's Coronation in year 4, and have dedicated 2 weeks of our curriculum to it by incorporating all of our subjects. We have spent time learning about the fantastic work of the Prince's Trust which we wrote about in a magazine article format, we used our digital art skills to photograph forced perception images that we then collated into a collage of our new King, we even turned half of our face into a monarch! This all culminated in a wonderful Coronation day on Friday where we made flags, crowns, iced cupcakes and celebrated a new era in British history. Long live the King!

Marvellous Maths

We were delighted to have parents/carers join us for a Maths session where we showcased some of our preferred calculation methods here at Firs Farm. Everyone enjoyed the interactive learning and it was fun racing against each other in the game. We are aiming to be experts in all calculations and the revision really helps us!

Brilliant Book Week!

WOW! What a week we had celebrating all things books! We dressed up, dropped everything to read, shared a book with year 1, recited a rap in assembly, sketched, painted and made as well as writing our very own newspaper reports on those cheeky 3 little pigs! It was a jam packed week full of exciting activities that were enjoyed by everybody. We hope that our love for reading was not just for Book Week, but will continue each and every day.

Belonging to a community

What a wonderful morning we had learning all about how Christians belong to a community and their experiences of Ash Wednesday. We heard the story of lent and what it means to Christians. Mother Anna and Mother Patricia showed us all the things they wished they hadn't done, said or thought; threw them away and began a new day! We learnt how important it is to learn from our mistakes and that they do not define us, but we can correct them an move on. A wonderful visit!

Mindfulness Minutes

To celebrate the end of Children's Mental Health week (and half term!) Years 3 and 4 joined together in a mindfulness walk around the playground. Whilst walking, we were thinking and talking about how we'd expressed ourselves and also reflected on what has been happening in the world this week and how fortunate we all are that we were able to donate money to such an important cause. 

This week is Child Mental Health Week. Year 4 have linked this to online safety and being safe and resilient online. We have also learned about ADHD and how we can help. Our theme is connected and we have made connections with other classes in the school as well as with one another.

In 4H we watched elite gymnasts at the Commonwealth Games and then focused on using all of our bodies all the time when using apparatus in gym. We are very good!

Clay Fun!

This half term, we made a link with our D&T and History learning. We have been learning about Roman warriors and specific battles that took place. Did you know that Roman soldiers would carry an aquilla into battle with them. This was a bird on a spear with the phrase SPQR (Senate and the people of Rome). We decided to make our own versions of this historic piece and chose to make Roman aquilla plaques. Take a look at how they turned out!

We have really enjoyed our Science scheme this half term which has given us opportunities to make musical instruments. Here are 4H with their pan pipes. They worked!

Year 4 visit the Synagogue

What a wonderful morning we all had at our local Synagogue. We were kindly welcomed by Rabbi Levy who led us through the vestibule and into the main Synagogue area. We listed to Rabbi Levy as he told us important stories and facts about the Jewish religion; he even answered some of our burning questions! Did you know this Synagogue was completely bombed down during WWII and was rebuilt in 1947?! We thank Rabbi Levy for his generosity and kindness today. Another big thank you to all the parents that supported our trip, as we wouldn't be able to do it without lots of extra hands.

Read with me

What a wonderful afternoon we all had reading with some extra special adults in our class! We hope you enjoyed seeing how we read in our lessons and how we use VIPERS to understand a text. Next up in March...Calculate with me!

Spring Term Learning

It's fair to say we have hit the ground running in Year 4 and have had a jam packed few weeks of learning. Can you see us measuring the volume in Maths? Spot us investigating how sound travels in Science, and take a look at our real life learning in RE with an assembly all about living life as a Hindu from Mrs Juglual!

Music Enrichment

Year 4 have been lucky enough to take part in extra music lessons for free this year. They have been learning the flute, clarinet or violin. Take a look at the pictures below to see how much they're enjoying it. What a fantastic skill to add to their bow (no pun intended!)

Jerusalema is a fantastic dance we have been learning to celebrate Black History month. We have been practicing in our PE lessons ready to perform at the end of the week!

As well as coasters, we have been researching Ethiopia and Madagascar in order to compare the 2 African countries that are on the east of the continent. Take a look at some of the work we produced.....

For Black History month we have been learning about countries on the continent of Africa. We compared Ethiopia and Madagascar. One feature of life common to both countries is traditional art and craft using raffia. This is taken from the leaves of the Palmyra palm tree and is a sustainable product. We had a lot of fun learning how to plait, first with paper and then with raffia ribbon. We made coasters.

The Rhine and Med

Our Geography learning took us across the water to learn about the River Rhine that runs through 6 different countries in Europe before moving onto to look at part of the Mediterranean. This was a great chance for us to taste the foods of this part of the world before our next stop...Firs Farm Wetlands!

Pablo Picasso

Our first 2 weeks of the academic year were focused on the life and artwork of Pablo Picasso. We studied his portraits in detail and was then inspired to create some of our own. Here are our interpretations.

4H sketched, drew, coloured, painted and stuck in the style of Pablo Picasso.

Science Week kicked off in style yesterday for years 3 and 4 with a carousel amongst the phase. Each class went to all 6 rooms to complete different activities including:

• Making space rockets
• Powering the International Station (electricity!)
• Reaching for the sky
• Chromatography
• Boomerangs
• Olympus Mons (volcanoes!)

The children had so much fun going around the school completing these and it was great for the teachers to see how well the children worked together. A lovely had by all.

Coming up later in the week, both year groups will have a Science workshop to further immerse them in 70 years of Space!

While most of Year 4 were staying up all night, the rest of us had fun too. Can you see how we made "Teams" with good teamwork? Then we made Jubilee games and played them with our friends. Also we were lucky enough to watch the play Oliver Twist at school. 

Money madness

We have been making money containers, developing our design and sewing skills. First, we practiced different stitches on binca before choosing our preferred stich and making a purse/wallet. We had to follow our design in order to create a physical object. A growth mindset was a MUST as it was really tricky to thread the cotton through the needle and tie the knot....we all managed in the end, though! Once we had made the basic shape of our wallet, we decorated it with buttons and jewels - matching what we had initially designed. 

The Queen comes to Firs Farm!

After learning about her accession day before half term, Year 4 made information posters all about Her Majesty the Queen’s platinum Jubilee (in preparation for whole school celebrations in June). 4P had their posters sent to Buckingham Palace and were overjoyed when they received a reply the first week back (Miss Price in particular!). We hope to send more Jubilee celebrations her way later on in the year and will wait to see what reponse we get that time….

Living life as a Hindu

Take a look at the wonderful Hindu shrine Mrs Juglual created for us today. She brought all of these items in from home to create a real life learning link to the RE topic we are currently studying. Thank you so much, Mrs Juglual the children of year 4 had a wonderful experience.

Year 4 Children's Mental Health and Internet Safety

This week - 7th to 11th of February we have spent a lot of time considering two very important issues. We have reflected on our mental health and wellbeing and thought of strategies to help us achieve our goals. This has combined well with Internet Safety day and how to be safe and happy online.

Here are some of our digital wellbeing pledges and some of our personal growth hopes and strategies.

We have also Dressed to Express on Friday 11th and had lots of fun being relaxed and creative.

Year 4’s terrific trip to the Science Museum

Take a look at some of the highlights of our trip to the Science Museum. We walked (a lot), took a bus there and back, rode the tube both ways and got to see and explore lots of wonderful objects and artefacts. We each had an object hunt to complete….who could find something made from glass? Who could find something useful? Could you find something really expensive?! It was a lovely day and lots of fun (our teachers were very tired afterwards!) Thank you to everyone that helped to make the trip such a success. It was great to learn outside of school for the day!