4AA

St Edward’s Sports Week

The liquids that were the most damaging to the egg shell were the sports drink and orange juice. On the other hand, water appeared to have no damaging effects. We think this is because the sports drink and orange juice contain lots of sugar. Sugar can be very damaging to our teeth. Therefore, we should drink sugary drinks in moderation!

On Wednesday we had a very exciting Greenshoots workshop. We learnt about where some of the foods we eat come from and about how it is better for the environment to eat plants that have grown closer to home. We got to plant peas ourselves and are looking forward to caring for them over the next few weeks and seeing how they grow! Check back soon to see their progress!

On Tuesday this week we had the pleasure of welcoming visitors from the charity Stories of Hope and Home and three refugees to our school. We are so grateful to these people for kindly giving up their time to talk to us about the experience of being a refugee and answering our questions as part of a Q&A session. We learnt so much about life as a refugee and are now thinking about what more we can do to help. The children asked lots of thoughtful questions and we are really proud of them for their maturity and the sensitivity they showed our visitors during these sessions. 

On Tuesday 25th April, we celebrated Italian Day at St Edward’s! We started off with an Italian lesson, learning how to say which fruits we liked. Then we learnt all about Michelangelo, La Pieta and the Sistine Chapel! The most fun part of the day was when we had a go at painting like Michelangelo did - upside down! 

In our first week back after Easter we conducted a Science investigation to see where the best place in the classroom would be to dry clothes! We placed four cups of water around our classroom - by the sunny window, in the cupboard, by the radiator, and by the sink. We measured the rate of evaporation by seeing how much water was left in the cup by the end of the experiment. If there was less water in the cup, it meant that had been a faster rate of evaporation. We found that the area in the classroom with the fast rate of evaporation was by the sunny window! We think this is because the sun makes this part of the room warmer, and we know warmer temperatures leads to a faster rate of evaporation. 
 

We have also created artwork celebrating Christ’s Resurrection. Take a look at our work by viewing the slideshow above.

Our class text Viking Boy features a multitude of references to Norse mythology! Since we were unfamiliar with lots of these terms, we spent an English lesson using the iPads to research what they mean. We found out lots about Thor, Odin, Asgard, Bifrost and more… test us on what we know!

What an exciting and fun-filled week it’s been! This week in Year 4 we have celebrated STEM Week by setting up our own dessert businesses! On Monday, we decided on our business names and on what healthy dessert we wanted to create. We created a recipe and drew a diagram of what our dessert would look like. We also conducted an investigation testing whether ice cream or butter melted faster. Which one do you think melts faster and why? 
 

On Tuesday, we conducted our market research to see which tartlet toppings are most popular. We created tally charts and then used the iPads to create bar graphs on BGFL to represent our survey results. We also used the iPads to create our business logos, using the LOGO app on BGFL and our knowledge of coding. 
 

Later in the week, we created our tartlets! We made a yummy cream filling and then topped our tartlets with a range of fruit, including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, banana and kiwi. They were so tasty! 
 

Finally, we produced advertising posters to market our product and persuade people to buy it. 
 

On Tuesday this week we had our Computing Day. We spent the day on the iPads learning about what an algorithm is and learning how to code! We also created bar charts to represent the findings from our market research surveys as part of our STEM Week learning.

Dear Children,

After a very snowy (but fun) morning yesterday, we thought it best to close school ahead of the forecast for today so that everyone can stay safe and warm! 

We have put together some lessons for you to complete. It would be best if you have a device, if not, the worksheets are printable- please do not print it all though.

Maths- We have set work on coordinates, please familiarise yourself with the PowerPoint before having a go at the independent practice. If you do not have a printer, use squared paper or have a go at drawing the grids.

English- Read through chapter 1 of 'Viking Boy'. If you are struggling, you can listen to the chapter here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiubWzYMngg

Once you have listened to the chapter, answer the questions. At the end you will see that we have asked you to produce something for our door display. You could use those suggestions or do something as simple as recreate the book cover.

Italian- Please log onto Language Angels and use our log in: Username: ITALIA4AA  Password: Pisa  Go onto the 'La frutta' page and have a go at some of the games.

We would also like you all to complete a Soundcheck on Times Table Rockstars. We will be checking at the end of the day tomorrow and if you have had a go we will give you a star award.

Finally, ENJOY THE SNOW!

See you next week,

Miss Avery and Miss Kentish x

This week has been a very exciting week! On Monday, we had a very special guest come in. A very popular band from Birmingham called UB40, have you heard of them? They came to watch us perform their songs. When Year 4 performed their song 'Higher Ground', the news said they got really emotional because their band member that wrote it passed away. When we went home, we all tried to spot ourselves in the news. It was amazing because 4AA was featured on BBC.

We have also made our recycled instruments this week and tried to make them change pitch and volume. It was also World Book Day and we had to dress as our favourite words. We came as a 'footballer' and a 'dancer'. Miss Avery came as 'vibrant' and Miss Kentish came as 'illuminate'. Our favourite costume was Ivy's egg costume, it was very funny. We finished our week with a Science escape room- we had fun trying to crack the code!

Speak to you soon,

Violet and Nicola

Over the last half term, Year 4 have been learning about Birmingham band UB40! We have used the iPads to research the band, in English we have written non-chronological reports, we have analysed song lyrics, and learnt the words and actions to their song “Higher Ground”, which we will be performing as part of a special assembly in the first week back after half term!

Year 4 had so much fun yesterday on their Spring 1 Outdoor Day! The day started in the Forest School where the children were assigned to one of three tribes: the Angles, Saxons or Jutes. The three tribes were in competition throughout the day and the children completed a series of challenges to earn points for their team. Extra points could be won for good teamwork! The first challenge was to crack codes written in Runes by searching the Forest School for the Runes letter translations. At the end of this first session, the Jutes were in the lead! 
 

After break the children used the orienteering course to search for digits which they then had to multiply by each other, which tested their multiplication skills as well as teamwork skills! By lunchtime, the Angles had taken the lead! 
 

In the afternoon, we made Anglo-Saxon oatcakes in our groups before recreating our very own Anglo-Saxon village in the Forest School. The creations were fantastic and Miss Kentish and Miss Avery had a very difficult time deciding on a winner! However, due to their brilliant display of teamwork, the winner’s for the final round had to be the Saxons! 
 

We finished the day with some hot chocolate before home time. Yum!

The past week has been very busy in Year 4! Here is a little snippet of what we have been up to.
 

The highlight of our week was performing our assembly on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings to our parents and the rest of the school! As part of our preparation for this, we have designed and created Anglo-Saxon brooches out of clay. We have also looked at the artefacts which were excavated at the Sutton Hoo burial site, using evidence to draw our own conclusions. As part of our Computing Day we used the iPads to work in groups to research the lives and work of important figures such as Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II and St Francis of Assisi. 

Well done to each and every pupil in Year 4 for putting on a fantastic year group assembly last week! We are so proud of you for all your hard work, from learning to speak your lines so eloquently to designing the most creative and impressive Anglo-Saxon and Viking shields! You spoke, sang and danced so wonderfully and all staff have commented on what an outstanding performance it was. We couldn’t be more proud of you and you have certainly set the bar very high for the rest of the school. Well done!

We would like to thank parents as well for all their support with this. 

Outdoor Day - Thursday 22nd September 

Year 4 had a wonderful time this week on their first Outdoor Day of the year! We did lots of work linked to the book we are reading currently - The City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau. We kicked off the morning by assigning the children their jobs for the day, jobs which reflected the work done by the people of Ember. Some were messengers, some cooks, some pipeworks labourers!

The children then worked in their groups to try and crack the code and help Lina and Doon escape Ember. They used maps to navigate their way around our school orienteering course, searching for all the torn up pieces of paper which formed the instructions for leaving Ember! After this, we challenged the children to think from an alternative perspective, and in groups they wrote and delivered speeches as Mayor Cole, convincing the people of Ember not to listen to the city's traitors, Lina and Doon!

Next, linked to our Science topic of Electricity, the children looked at different circuits and made predictions about whether the circuits would work or not. They then had a go at making circuits themselves to see if they could help power the city of Ember! 

After lunch, we did some more orienteering while practising rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and nearest 100. We finished the day with some den-building in Forest School. It was a fun-filled day enjoyed by all! Miss Avery and Miss Kentish want to say a big well done to all the children for how well they worked together throughout the day!

Welcome to 4AA's class page!

Dear Year 4 children and parents,

My name is Miss Avery and this is my third year at St Edward's. After spending a year in Year 2 and Year 4, I now have the pleasure of working in Year 4 again with Miss Kentish and Mrs Laity. Within school, I am the PE lead and help the organisation of extra-curricular clubs. P.E and sport has always played a big role in my life so I am excited to be able to share that with the children. In the past, I have done swimming, gymnastics and dance as well as coaching football and achieving my black belt in karate. 

Outside of school, I am a brownie leader and have done this for 13 years and enjoy going to karate as many times as I possibly can. As well as, this I played steel pans with Mr Phillips for 10 years (from when I was in Primary School myself).

Our P.E. days are currently on Tuesdays and Fridays and just like last year, children can come to school in their PE kit for the whole day. Please remember that no earrings should be worn during lessons and a white round neck t-shirt with the school badge and plain blue or black shorts/ tracksuit bottoms should be worn.

I am so excited to for this year, I have thoroughly enjoyed having some of my Year 2 class back and getting to know the other children more! I have already seen lots wonderful personalities shining through! Please don't hesitate to contact me if there are any issues, I am here to help.

Best wishes,

Miss Avery

The year that was 2021-2022!

Homework WB 04.07.22

Maths- As you are aware, we are currently trialing 'Maths Whizz', an online maths resource tailored to your child's progress and needs in order to fill in any gaps and drive progress. We recommend this is completed twice a week for 20 minutes at home as we do 20 minutes on a Monday at school.

English/Science- We would like you to create a review of 'All Things Wild' to inform our future trips. Remember to write a detailed account of what we did, what you enjoyed and what you think could have been improved. You may wish to use the template below to write on!

Reading/Geography- Last week, we looked at the effects of Single Use Plastics on the Galapagos Islands. To further your understanding and knowledge for future lessons, complete the 60 second read and answer the questions :)

This week we have been doing lots of work around the Queen's Jubilee. This weeks tasks are to further your knowledge about the Queen. Have fun!

During the half term holiday, we are asking you to create a project for the Commonwealth celebrations.

Our class country is... (Drum roll please)!

India

We would like you to create a personal project that is inspired by our class country. You might decide to sculpt, paint, draw, research, cook, design etc...

This is down to you.

Please return your projects to your class teacher on the Monday of the first week back of Summer term 2. We are so excited to see what you have got up to... Maybe even have a taste of it if you are feeling generous!

Happy Researching...

On Friday, we were very lucky to have a visit from Mr Duffy and his Bee hives! We learned all about different types of bees, their jobs and how the bees collect nectar. My favourite fact was that some bees only live for 3 weeks, how shocking is that!

For vocations week, the children applied to take over our jobs! There were so many thoughtful and lovely applications from the children, that the decision was very hard to chose who to be us. A huge congratulations to the children that were selected, and to the children that weren't, there is always next year to try again :)

All children came dressed for the part and did a great job- I was even able to stand back and observe a few lessons! Well done everyone.

English

The author of the Month of May is E.B. White!  Your task is to research E.B White and create a project to present to the rest of the class. This could be a fact file, PowerPoint or an art project for example.

Have fun :)

A HUGE thank you to everyone that sponsored us for our Sponsored Move! We had the best time exercising for an hour and 15 minutes to raise money for our Lenten Charities. Everyone worked their socks off :D

Today was our Easter Bonnet and Easter Garden parade! We loved cheering KS1 on, who paraded their hats around confidently- they all looked fantastic. We then enjoyed looking at the Easter Gardens made by the KS2 children, they were very intricate and encompassed Jesus' tomb perfectly!

In 4AA, our favourite thing to do is to make disgusting things- which is exactly why we had to make intestines using wheetabix (food), orange juice (liquid) and tights (to represent the intestine). We observed how the nutrients get absorbed into our bodies through the intestine walls and how we're left with the waste materials.

Today we had lots of fun in the forest launching our new topic ‘The Viking’s’! Firstly, we begun the day making Viking tents which we made using planks and ropes, just how the Vikings would have if they were travelling and invading. Then we learned about some of the Gods and Goddesses- our class favourites were: Loki (the God of Mischief) and Freya (the Goddess of love and war). After lunch, we made Viking helmets and invaded the Anglo-Saxons (4AD)! We had a fantastic day working as a team to learn about the Vikings, I loved seeing you all overcome challenges and seeing you smile all day long. 

Autumn 2, Week 1.....

This week, the children have had lots of exciting events that they have really enjoyed. Firstly, it has been National Coding Week and the children have been learning about coding and its uses in everyday life. On Tuesday, Loudmouth Theatre group came to deliver an assembly and workshop for us all in Year 3 and 4 to discuss bullying and how it can effect us. We also had outdoor day on Thursday, we enjoyed being outdoors in the fresh air, doing science experiments and exploring the forest. Please see more pictures and information from these below this post!

Aside from this, we have started our new topic 'Listen Up!'. We introduced our new book 'The Firework Maker's Daughter', the children loved coming up with their own instructions on how to make a firework. I have been so impressed with all of their creativity and had a great time reading them. As well as this, we have been looking into COP26 and thinking of ways we can help save the planet.

We would like to wish 'Happy Diwali' to all of our friends and families celebrating it, and urge everyone to stay safe around fireworks this weekend. :)

Outdoor day 

On Thursday 4th November, we had our first outdoor day of the year. We had a fantastic day following instructions to build a rocket, going on a sound walk, retelling the story of 'Moses and the burning bush', coding and generally just exploring and being out in nature! Our main focus of the day was teamwork and working collaboratively through the activities. The children did a great job at working together and impressed us all with their problem solving skills after many failed attempts of making rockets. Read the description of some of the pictures for pupil voice and a greater explanation of what happened...

Coding week 2021

In school this week, we have been focusing on coding and its importance in our everyday lives. We kickstarted our week by learning to code our own names and decoding a secret message during our unplugged lesson. It was amazing to see how many different examples of technology that requires coding in our everyday lives! On our outdoor day, we got into partners and gave each other simple instructions (2 steps forward, 1/4 turn to the right) to navigate the forest which is full of obstacles. During our computing lesson, we did some programming and gave a coding website codes for Minecraft characters to follow. To end coding week, Mr Charlton came to talk to us about coding and consolidate how important coding is. By the end of the week, lots of children now want to go into a job with computer programming!

Loudmouth Theatre Group- Bully 4 U 

On Tuesday 2nd November, the Loudmouth Theatre came into school, to do some work on Anti-Bullying. It was a great change to reinforce the messages we learn in school about what Bulling is (S.T.O.P-Several, Times, On, Purpose). We met the Beat Bullying Superhero’s who combat bad behaviour in others. Once we had watched the different dramas in the hall, we then split into smaller groups to do more discussion work. We had great fun, but also remembered what to do if we saw someone being bullied, if we had problems ourselves, and what we could do to get it stopped. 

African Dance Workshop

To celebrate Black History Month, we were lucky enough to learn a dance to ‘Ah Zebenya’ from The Lion King and some classic African dance moves. We had a great time and we enjoyed embracing different cultures. 

National Fitness Day

On Wednesday 22nd September, the whole school got together for the first time in almost 2 years! We had an amazing afternoon trying to improve our fitness levels when the whole school took part in an amazing Wakeup Shakeup with the teachers. Singing and dancing along to the Cartoonies. Ask us to show you our super dance skills.

Weekly update by… Jessica 

Hello my name is Jess, today I’m going to tell you about what we have been doing this week. This we did some religious artwork and learned about Jacob’s dream, we got to use pastels. We also met as a whole school to do wake up, shake up for National Fitness Day. In science, we did properties of solids, liquids and gases, addition in maths and retold the story of Abraham and Isaac in RE. We did rugby in PE on Tuesday with Coach Colm and Dylan which was fun and netball yesterday. Yesterday we went around the school doing a task for Mrs Carry. Today we wrote a fact file about the author Michael Morpurgo.
 

See some of the pictures of our week below :)

Weekly update by… Aksh

Hello my name is Aksh and I’m here to tell you about our week. We walked to Mass on Wednesday for the first time this year, my favourite hymn was ‘Jesus you can use my hands’. We have also done gymnastics in PE where we have learned some jumps and rolls. Then we learned about a pop artist called Romero Britto, we are going to do some self portraits in his style next week. In English we read about the Birdman and discovered that he had been misunderstood by everyone on the Isles of Scilly and he was actually nice. I have attached some images so you can see some of what we have been up to!

Weekly update by.... Thea

Hello and welcome! This is my class 4AA and I am Thea. This week we have been doing some exciting activities. We made some rockets, which we wrote our aspirations on for Year 4. We also made some stars, we wrote what we need to have a growth mindset and how a person with a growth mindset would think. I wrote "You learn from your mistakes" on mine. We also drew a self portraits showing different emotions, it was really fun. We have started to read 'Why the Whales Came', I really like the Birdman and the book so far!

Have a great weekend :)