Year 4
Year Four Lisbon is taught by Orla Reilly. Year Four Padua is taught by Abbie Clark. The Year 4 TAs are Carole Boyle and Reiko Gall. The Year Four classrooms are in the St Francis building and they share the back playground with the rest of KS2.
Weekly Class Updates
Verulamium Museum
We recently visited the Verulamium Museum in St Albans. We enjoyed learning about the old Roman town and were even able to handle some of the artefacts. We also enjoyed walking around the park and looking at the Hypocaust.
World Book Day
For World Book Day we came to school in our pyjamas to ‘get cosy with a book’. We took part in lots of different World Book Day activities, including completing a book hunt, decorating our classroom door and creating our own bookmarks.
Forest School
During the Autumn term, Year 4 took part in Forest school. In these sessions the children had lots of opportunities to develop skills and followed their own interests to meet different needs. They took part in lots of different activities such as cooking, den building, tree planting and crafts using natural materials.
We are Scientists
In science this half term, we are looking at Projects and Scientists. We have recently planned our own experiment and looked to investigate whether a citrus fruit was able to light a bulb within an electrical circuit. We recorded our results within a results table and used our findings to write a conclusion.
The Day the chairs went on strike!
Our chairs went on strike! We arrived on Monday morning to a letter from our chairs telling us they’ve had enough and that we would have to complete our work without them. We worked hard to write persuasive speeches explaining to the chairs why we needed them and why we were sorry for swinging on them.
Melissa said, “I was annoyed that I had to sit on the carpet while trying to do my work.”
Evie said, “When we eventually got our chairs back, my knees were really sore.”
Albin said, “My back hurt so much when we had to sit on the carpet. We really tried very hard to persuade the chairs that we needed them before the tables disappeared too!”
Story Telling through drawing
Our topic for art this half term is ‘Storytelling Through Drawing’. We started the topic by thinking about the story of us by using our names and transforming them into things we enjoy such as our favourite animals, colours, and food. We then focused on using charcoal to create a mood or texture within a picture which followed the same process that Laura Carlin uses when illustrating books.
Most recently, we read the poem ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ by Ogden Nash to become illustrators ourselves. We each got a stanza of the poem and had to illustrate what we thought was happening using a variety of materials available.
Reading with Reception
In Year 4 we have been writing our own stories about the Colour Monster. As Reception had also read the Colour Monster stories, we then took our stories over to Reception to read them to the younger children.
Cassiobury Farm
In September 2023, both Year 4 classes visited Cassiobury Farm. This was in connection with their Science topic about habitats and environmental changes. Year 4 are working to raise money to save the Lemurs in Madagascar with Project Ala whish will plant more trees to expand the Lemurs’ habitat. The children will continue with this work throughout the year.
Our Retreat to Aylesford
In July we visited Aylesford Friary where we had a talk from a Friar, visited their different chapels and then walked the Rosary Way. We spoke about each of the different mysteries that we have been learning about this year in our Rosary work. The children were very respectful all day and enjoyed reflecting on their learning this year.
Our Science Experiment
In Science, we have been looking at electricity. We have been able to create a human circuit by pretending we are components such as batteries, bulbs and wires using our arms. We have also been drawing circuits and challenged ourselves to use the scientific symbols to represent each piece of equipment.
Callum Early Trophy
Every year, Years 3 and 4 hold the Callum Early Trophy which is an inter house cricket and rounders tournament in memory of a past pupil. The children started the day with some reflection time and then the games took place. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed their day and the blue team won.
The Tale of the Three Trees
At Easter time lower key stage 2 came together and created a performance of The Tale of the Three Trees. This is a lovely story of three trees that wanted to great things. The children told the story how one tree was made into the crib where Jesus was laid when he was born, one tree became the boat where Jesus was when he calmed the storm and the final tree was made into the cross that Jesus carried. The children’s performance was fantastic and they told this lovely story brilliantly.
Cassiobury Farm
In October 2022, both Year 4 classes visited Cassiobury Farm. This was in connection with their Science topic about habitats and environmental changes. Year 4 are working to raise money to save the Lemurs in Madagascar with Project Ala whish will plant more trees to expand the Lemurs’ habitat. The children will continue with this work throughout the year.
Our Science Investigation
As part of their Science topic, Year 4 have completed different investigations. In this particular investigation they were trying to see if they could blow up a balloon without using their mouth. The children mixed bicarbonate of soda with vinegar and placed the balloon on top to see what would happen. Then they investigated other acidic liquids such as lemon and lime juice.
