Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
'Living, Loving, Learning Together'
Year 4
Welcome to Year 4's Class Page
I am Miss Davey, the Year 4 class teacher. The children are also supported in their learning by Miss Shields. The children in Year 4 are fantastic learners. Explore our Class page to see some of the fantastic, exciting things we have done this year. You can also head over to our 'Curriculum' page to see more about what we are learning this year!
PE is now taught on a Tuesday afternoon, where the children will be taking part in Rugby sessions. Please ensure your child has a full PE kit in school on Tuesday afternoons. It is vital for health and safety reasons that the children have the correct PE kit.
A positive work ethos makes all the difference to your child's learning, so your support from home is welcomed and encouraged. Reading is a very important aspect of learning, so we actively encourage children to read every night. It is important that your child has a book bag so they are able to take home their Reading Record and Reading book. Book bags can be purchased at the main office.
Every Friday, homework will be given out and is to be handed in on Thursday the following week. The purpose of this homework is to review what the children have learnt during the week. The children will also be given weekly spellings to learn.
Land Art
Invertebrate Hunt
Year 4 explored their local environment to find, identify and name invertebrates. The children recorded the invertebrates they found on the school playground. The children carefully captured their invertebrate specimen and studied it carefully using a magnifying glass.
Slow down for Bobby
Year 4 learnt about Road Safety. They learnt that Road Safety is for everyone! The children know the importance of keeping themselves safe near roads. Stop, look and listen before crossing the road. Hold an adult's hand or stay close to an adult when crossing.
Eid Celebrations
The Year 4 children in the class who follow the Islam religion shared their wonderful stories of how they celebrated Eid. The children spoke about how they went to the Mosque for prayers, dressed in their best clothing and thanked Allah for all the blessings they have received. Some of the children wore their traditional dress to show the class! Eid is a time when they visit family and friends as well as offering presents. Eid is also a time to give to charity to help poorer people buy new clothes and food so they too can celebrate. The children brought some yummy foods for the class to taste, so we could join in with the celebrations too!
Computing - Creating a World Cup Computer game
Year 4 used their fantastic computing skills to create a World Cup 2018 computer game!
Gymnastics
The Beatles - Blackbird
Year 4 enjoying singing 'Blackbird' by The Beatles - a song about civil rights.
The British Isles
Liverpool Artwork
This week, the children have been working with Miss Kronenburg to create art work that will contribute to a whole class piece based on Love, Care, Peace and Unity. The children used key words in different languages within their designs.
Cooking Apple Crumble
How sugary drinks are bad for our teeth
PSHE - Friendship
Year 4 watched a video about two friends that had fallen out, but they made friends again in the end! The children created posters about what they could do to be a good friend. We then picked names from Year 4 out of a box. We wrote a secret, special, kind message to that person in the class. At the end of the day, the children received their kind message!
Poetry Workshop
Year 4 enjoyed writing poems with Andy Tooze! The children wrote their own poem about body parts which linked nicely to our current science topic about Animals including Humans!
Printing
Year 4 enjoyed using printing to create beautiful patterns. The children created jungle patterns, and Liverpool themed patterns to decorate Liver birds and SuperLambananas!
PSHE - Books are banned!
Year 4 listened to a story in which a book about flowers was banned! The children took turns acting as the guard in the middle of the circle. The rest of the class had to pass the book behind their backs without the guard spotting them! We spoke about how important it is to have opinions and ask questions!
Cooking - Baking Biscuits!
RE - Artwork. A triptych depicting the resurrection of Jesus.
Computing - Animations
Year 4 created their own animation! Using play-doh to create small figures, the children recreated a battle of a siege of a castle. The children took a photograph of their scene using the iPads, before moving the figures a little bit and then taking another photograph. We put the photographs together to create an excellent animation!
Science - The human digestive system
Year 4 enjoyed creating our own human digestive system! We began by crunching Weetabix with forks as if we were munching it with our teeth. Using a bit of water to add some saliva. We then imagined the food had been swallowed and travelled down the oesophagus into the stomach. We added some red food colouring to act as the acids in the stomach. We then uses tights to act a the large intestines pushing the waste through the body. We added green food colouring to act as the bile. We then looked at the waste that was produced in the bowl!!
Norman Clay Plaque
The children used clay to create a plaque for their castles they created. The children carved their designs into the clay.
Electricity - Conductors and Insulators
As part of our Science topic 'Electricity', the children created a simple circuit. They then tested a range of different materials to find out if they are electrical insulators or conductors of electricity.
Designing a Norman Castle
Year 4 created their own Norman castle with a drawbridge and a watchtower.
After researching different castles in the UK and learning about the features of a Norman Motte and Bailey castle. Year 4 designed their own Norman castle. The children created their own design success criteria and had a good discussion about how to create a good Norman Motte and Bailey castle.
Science - Electricity
Pobble Day
The children enjoyed Pobble Day. The children wrote stories about time travel. Year 4 linked the story to their WW2 topic in English and travelled back in time to WW2. Year 4 are looking forward to viewing their stories and others' stories on Pobble.
The Normans - The Bayeux Tapestry
The children explored an image from the Bayeux Tapestry. The Tapestry displayed an image of the congregation at Harold Godwinson's coronation. The people in Tapestry noticed Halley's Comet overhead and look shocked. The comet was seen as a bad omen for Harold's reign. The Bayeux Tapestry was commissioned and made by the Normans so it depicts the events from a Norman point of view. The children took a section of the tapestry to focus on and use pastels to explore in their sketchbooks. The children then recreated the Bayeux Tapestry using pastels.
Art Workshop - The Little Match Girl
Drama Workshop - The Little Match Girl
World Book Day
Science - Mini Water Worlds
The children in Year 4 created mini water worlds. The children will be able to use their water worlds to view evaporation, condensation and precipitation in action over the next few days. The children have taken their water worlds home and have been given homework to draw their water world as it develops.
World Religions Week - Hinduism
Year 4 enjoyed learning about Hinduism as part of World Religions Week. The children in the class who believe in Hinduism taught the rest of the class all about the Hindu religion. They had prepared an excellent presentation. It was so interesting. We looked at different images of the different gods. We watched some beautiful Indian dancing and even tasted some yummy Indian foods!
Our DT Project - Creating gas masks
For our Design Technology project, Year 4 created their own gas masks. Using our maths skills, we used rulers to measure to make sure our gas masks fitted our faces correctly. We then had the difficult task of creating a box to carry the gas mask in. We explored a range of different 3d shape nets and decided which net we thought would be appropriate for our product. Making the box was very tricky. But we created some amazing gas masks and boxes!
NSPCC Number Day
Year 4 enjoyed completing a range of different challenging number activities to celebrate number day! The children enjoyed 'dressing up for digits'. We are proud that the school managed to raise £140 for the NSPCC charity.
Problem solving in Maths
Year 4 enjoyed using their multiplication skills to answer a range of challenging problems in Maths. We love solving challenging problems! The children used a range of different equipment to represent numbers in different ways.
World War One Art
Year 4 enjoyed using their sketchbooks to create beautiful artwork about WW1. The children used charcoal to represent the darkness of the war. They then added bright red poppies, using a range of different materials, including; red paint, tissue paper, and red materials, with a stunning effect.
World War One letters
In English, Year 4 explored suitcases filled with WW1 artefacts and letters home from soldiers to their loved ones. Year 4 enjoyed writing their own letters as a soldier to a loved one, or from a family member to a soldier in WW1. We then did some hot-seating where the children answered questions as a WW1 soldier!
World War One and Two Artefacts
Miss Berry kindly brought in some amazing WW1 and WW2 artefacts for Year 4 to explore. The class wore gloves to touch the artefacts because they were so old and delicate. We looked at a range of different artefacts including; a rationing book, an identity card, an old camera and many other things! It was so interesting exploring the different objects!
Science Experiment - Chocolate in different temperatures
Life as a child 100 years ago
Year 4 created their own PowerPoints, using KeyNote on the iPads, to present to the class what it was like to live as a child 100 years ago.
Stop! It's no good to be a bully!
Year 4 enjoyed learning how to sing and rap in a music lesson. They sung and rapped a song which taught them the importance of anti-bullying. The rap song had an importance message to stop bullying and be friends with everyone. Year 4 think it's no good to be a bully and we definitely understand this fully! We are all friends, till the end!
Rugby Tots
Year 4 are now having sessions with the Rugby Tots company for PE. Year 4 loved their Rugby session and enjoyed learning lots of new skills. The children practised throwing and catching the rugby ball. The children found that they should throw the ball in front of the person running, to where they are running to, rather than throwing it at the person! We are looking forward to our new weekly session.
Christmas activities - sewing, making cards and using our maths skills to solve the mystery of Mrs Claus's cake.
Walker Art Gallery
Year 4 enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Walker Art Gallery. As soon as we arrived, we completed different art activities in our sketch books to warm up. We then found the painting we'd been working on in class called 'Faithful unto Death'. Which portrayed the story of a soldier who remained at his post, motionless during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii, he remained faithful to his post and his duty. Year 4 then completed a Seasons trail of the Art Gallery, finding different paintings displaying the different seasons. We had a wonderful time.
Using Glockenspiels
Computing - We are Software Developers
The children used Purple Mash to design their own games.
Year 4 enjoyed their yummy Christmas dinners!
Computing - We are Software Developers
In our Computing lessons, we used a storyboard to design our own educational game for children. Many of us chose games to help children learn their times tables. We then used Sketch Nation to create our own game.
Computing - We are Toy Designers
In our Computing sessions, we spoke about what objects have computers in. We spoke about toys that have computers in that make the toys do exciting things. We designed our toy using Scratch Junior on the iPads. We then pitched our toy design in a Dragon's Den style lesson to the class.
Problem Solving Workshop
The Problem Solving Company worked with Year 4. They completed a Lego problem, working as a team. The children enjoyed the maths session with no pencils, paper and rulers!
Equality Lesson - King and King
The children in Year 4 learnt about equality through a beautiful story about a prince who wanted to marry another prince. We discussed what marriage is and why people get married. We then created our own beautiful wedding invitations.
British Values
In Year 4, we learnt about our British Values in PSHE. We discussed how we are proud of being British and we are proud of our identities. We created our own flags to represent us. Our flags included our families, friends, religion, culture, interests, hobbies, etc. We are all special and unique.
Learning our 6, 7 and 9 times tables
Year 4 have been working hard to learn their times tables by having times tables parties! We sung songs about the different times tables and played a range of different times tables games.
Networking in the classroom - Sticky Fingers
In Year 4, we often use 'Sticky Fingers'. We move around the classroom and listen for when Miss Davey says 'Sticky Fingers', then we find the person closest to us. We then read that person's work. We tell that person things we like about their work and things they can improve on.
Premier League Primary Stars
The whole school had a wonderful assembly from the Premier League Primary Stars. The assembly covered many important topics such as; resilience, diversity and self-esteem. The children looked at top figures of the sporting world and discussed how they can be positive role models for them to aspire to.
NSPCC - Let's talk PANTS
Talking PANTS teaches children important messages, like their body belongs to them and they should tell an adult if they're upset or worried.
Silhouette Artwork of the Houses of Parliament
The children created beautiful silhouette artwork of the Houses of Parliament.
Royal Reader
In Year 4 we choose the Royal Reader, which is someone who reads lots at home and in school and is trying hard to improve their reading. Year 4 need to bring in their reading records every day to be in with a chance of winning the Royal Reader.
Measuring in Maths
In Maths we learnt about ‘estimation’. We thought about where estimating is used and why it is used. Year 4 jumped, rolled hula hoops and threw beans bags as far as they could. They then used metre sticks to measure how far they went. The children estimated the total and difference of their group's results.
Trip to Liverpool Library
Year 4 enjoyed a trip to the library. They listened to a brilliant poet called Ian Bland. They loved doing the 'Dinner Lady' dance.
Music - Mamma Mia
The children enjoyed performing 'Mamma Mia' by Abba. The children listened to a selection of different Abba songs as we discussed what musical instruments we could hear, and what we disliked and liked about the songs. The children sang Mamma Mia beautifully. They were also able to find the pulse of the song, using their bodies in different ways to show the beat of the song. The children enjoyed using the glockenspiels in their performance too.
Science - Creating our own musical instruments
The children watched a band online called the 'Weapons of Sound'. They used junk materials to create their own instruments. We were inspired by this band to create our own musical instruments using only junk materials. We discussed how our instruments could make a high and a low sound.
Science - Creating string telephones
Virtual Reality - Parliament
Life Skills - The dangers of smoking
Dogs don't do Ballet
Year 4 learnt about the importance of equality. We read a story about a dog who always dreamed about being a ballerina. Everyone in the story told him he couldn't do it. We wrote him a letter encouraging him to follow his dreams and not give up. We all agreed that everyone should have the chance to follow their dreams.
Lifesize drawing of a Roman Soldier
Year 4 made their own Roman Shields
Virtual Reality - The Romans
Mr Mills visited Year 4 to give the children the opportunity use interesting technology to learn all about Ancient Rome. The children had the exciting opportunity to experience 'Virtual Reality' as they explored different areas in Ancient Rome. The children then experienced riding on a rollercoaster, being underwater with the sharks and being in the jungle surrounded by monkeys. Year 4 loved it and we cannot wait for Mr Mills to bring more exciting ICT equipment for us to use.
Creating a timeline
