Fir – Hazeldown Primary School

Year 4 – Memories of Heatree

In Fir and Redwood class, we have started thinking about the letter we are writing to a Chinese school. We have learnt a lot about Chinese schools and we used this to create some questions we would like to ask them:

Do you like your uniform?

Do you like dinosaurs, if so would you like to be a paleontologist?

Do you have a school uniform you have to wear?

Do you know the English alphabet?

What do you do in mathematics?

When do you stop for summer holidays?

What is your lucky number?

How hard is it to work with 50 people in your class?

How long is your normal school day?

What is your favourite subject?

Do you find using chop-sticks easy or hard?

How old are you?

Year 3 and 4 had the most amazing time sampling a wide range of foods connected to China. The teachers were especially impressed by all of the lovely sharing that took place (as well as children being very daring with trying new things!).

Please have a look at this short video we made to remember the event:

It was lovely today to stand back and see the range of activities happening in our S.O.L.E. sessions. One one classroom we had children: using Google Maps to explore local and national locations, creating a perfect plate of Chinese food (in their opinion) and using pop up cards to reflect on Chinese new year.

In the other classroom the children were busy learning a range of french vocabulary as well as researching what different Hindu symbols meant.

Another fabulous day at Hazeldown Primary School!

Year 4 spellings

W/b: 4.02.2019

Tested: 11.02.2019

Focus: Word ending -ly

happily
sadly
beautifully
hopefully
angrily
slowly
calmly

women
increase
naughty

In Year 4 (Fir and Redwood), we have been starting to work on our Dragon Dance inspired by our China topic.

Last week we had developed our movements by imitating the different animals in the Chinese Zodiac.

This week we focused mainly on the Dragon. In fours we thought of different ways to move around our space, whilst looking as dragon-like as possible.

In case you haven’t seen our e-mail, we’re here!

Check the blog later today for pictures of our day! 🙂

Today the children of Fir class were able to use the Chromebooks, which were funded by the PTA, for Literacy.

The children were able to experience word processing and were able to have a go at typing and working within google docs.

The Chromebooks will be used throughout all the learning at Hazeldown and will allow the children to be immersed into the ICT curriculum.

World Book day is here and there is no better way to celebrate than reading your favourite books. Fir class travelled down to Maple and were able to share their fantastic fancy dress and stories that they enjoy.

Here are some pictures,

For the next 6 weeks, Ben will be coming into school to teach Fir class a mixture of football and dodgeball. Today the class experienced dribbling and passing and some competitive matches against each other.

Here are a few pictures from this mornings session.

This week the class, along with year 3 and Redwood, have been getting ready for the Chinese New Year. The children have been learning how to make handheld Chinese dragons, lanterns and hung bao (red envelopes).

Also the children have started to create a life size Chinese dragon to accompany the dragon dance being learnt in PE.

Year 4 Home Learning

Friday 20th January; To be handed in on Wednesday 25^th January

Task 1 – Maths

After the Maths morning last week, we would like you to play one the games that we had a go at.

The game Nice ‘n’ Nasty is extremely beneficial and allows the children to look at place value, as well as move on addition and subtraction.

Can you play Nice ‘n’ Nasty with someone at home? The children have played this game lots and should know all the rules and different variations.

Use the link below if you get stuck.

https://nrich.maths.org/6605

Task 2 – Word Class Poem

The children are required to know the different word classes within SPaG and literacy. This week we would like the children to have a go at learning the following poem.

Word Class Poem

A NOUN names each idea or thing,

As school, computer, fear, or swing;

ADJECTIVES describe the noun,

As true, new, frantic, sharp or brown;

Instead of nouns the PRONOUNS sit –

As he, you, my, they or it;

The VERB means action, something done –

To read, to write, to have, to run;

How, when and where the ADVERBS tell,

As slowly, soon, now, near, or well;

CONJUNCTIONS join the words together,

As ‘men and women’, ‘wind or weather’;

A PREPOSITION stands before a noun,

As in, behind or through the town;

Which noun you mean DETERMINERS tell –

The ball, two books, those pens, my bell;

Through Poetry, we learn how each

of these make up THE PARTS OF SPEECH!

If you are unable to access the home learning or are finding it difficult, please speak to your teacher.

Today the children had a go at making freeze frames. The children picked parts of ‘The Great Race’ and thought about what the characters might be thinking and saying.

Today the children had a go at making their own terracotta figure. The children designed their figure, shaped the clay and then used a variety of tools to present their designs.

The children worked extremely hard to succeed and were able to show off their great imaginations.

Mr Pattison’s Spelling Group – Week 1 Focus: Prefix – inter

Handed out on Friday 13th January; Tested on Friday 20th January

interact
intercity
international
interrelated
intercept
interchangeable
interclub
answer
forward
continue

Note: Spellings 1-7 focus on this week’s focus; spellings 8-10 are from the Year 3 & 4 word list.

Today the children revisited some previous learning. The children of Fir class have been learning about the reason we revisited different learning to train our brain to retain information.

Did you know you have to do something or hear something 500 times to retain it?

The children looked at adding and subtracting today by playing one of their favourite games – Nice and Nasty. The children are able to challenge each other to create the biggest number through adding or the smallest through subtraction.

Year 4 Home Learning

Friday 11^th November; To be handed in on Wednesday 16^th November

Task 1 – SOLE

What would your Viking name be?

We have met Stoick the Vast, a big, burly Viking, who is imposing to others. Now it is your turn to come up with your own Viking name. Will you have a scary name, or a pleasant name? Think about your hobbies and personality, could that influence your name choice?

Coat of arms

Now you have your Viking name, can you create a coat of arms? Make sure you include your name on it somewhere and items that represent your personality and interests.

Please complete on plain paper, so it can be stuck into your SOLE book.

If you are unable to get some plain paper, please speak to your teacher

From Mrs Cooke the Reader, Mr Pattison the Burly and Mr Evans the Cheerful

Screen Shot 2016-11-10 at 13.00.54

Ongoing tasks

Times tables: Keep practising those times table facts – you need to know all facts up to 12 x 12 inside out, at the click of your fingers! Make sure you are rehearsing these facts regularly, preferably several times a week.

Reading: Remember that you should be reading on a daily basis at home, and should be discussing this reading with an adult – talking about the text, commenting on the author’s purpose, noticing particular features of certain genres, etc. In reading record books, please could children/parents write a comment about this reading.

Spellings: Remember to spend time daily learning your spellings – will you earn both of your raffle tickets this week?

This half term the children have the opportunity to take part in some tag rugby sessions delivered by the Exeter Chiefs. Richie and Aaron will be imparting their knowledge to help the children improve.

The first session saw the children do some ball skills and play some invasion games!

Viking fever has hit year 4. The children are really getting stuck int their learning and even bringing in things from home. Here is an example of a cow horn, Viking helmet and a replica axe that has been crafted by one of the children in Fir.

The children completed there topic on Bears today, and to celebrate they had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. The children were very excited and were able to show off all the learning they had done, discussing what they did and what they may do differently next time.

Task 1 – SPaG

The children have been looking at Non-chronological reports within literacy.

We would like the children to complete the pages 22-23 on conjunctions.

Task 2 – Maths

Times Tables – We are embarking on Multiplication and Division in maths. The children are going to be using their times tables on a daily basis to help complete calculations. We would like the children to practise their times tables in any way they would like.

Here are some ideas to help you:

Times tables games on the internet
MangaHigh – some challenges have been set
Make your own mini times tables tests
Write out the times tables in your H/L book

Today the class became feature detectives. The new literacy topic is under way with the Bg Write happening at the end of next week. The children immersed themselves into a non- chronological report and found the features that they will be expected to include in their own!

The children of Fir class are working extremely hard to reach their targets this term. The added incentive of Hazeldown Hatch has meant that the children are reading in their free time, at home and during SOLE. The dedication is definitely paying off with nearly every child moving up the tree this week.

This week is also super special as one member of the class has reached their target!!!

Max the teddy arrived in Fir Class today.

This morning, a special parcel arrived. Inside was a teddy bear with the tag ‘please look after this bear, thank you’, along with a diary. The children named the bear Max and are excited to share their adventures with him.

Each week, a child from the class will take Max home and be able to share their weekend with him. We would like the children to write about what they have done, it could be a walk with the family, reading a story, dinner time or even a day out somewhere. We are encouraging the children to have a picture of Max on his adventures to be shared in th diary.

This term, Fir class are getting the opportunity to learn brass with local teacher Mrs Price. They are able to have a go at playing the pocket trumpet, cornet and trumpet on a weekly basis. The children are progressing well and are able to play a couple of notes so far. Over the next 8 weeks, they will be developing their skills and learning some tunes to perform as a whole class!

Today, the children of Fir class ventured to Teignmouth library to immerse themselves in books about bears. The children were able to read books about fictional bears and explore facts about real life bears in non-fiction books.

Week 3 update!

The children are continuing to read and ar starting to reach new levels! The boys were at the top last week but have been swiftly overtaken.

Keep up the good work!

The children in Fir class have been inspired to read this week and have already started to make progress towards their targets!

Keep a look out for an update every Friday!! Will you be stood in front of the tree next?

John Townsend thrilled the children with some brilliant stories about snakes and tigers!

We’ve been effectively using the spell checkers to help us spell impressive words which we have used in our ‘Big Writes.’

We have used emotive language and powerful adjectives to persuade our readers to adopt an endangered animal from the Amazon.

Today in maths, children were set the challenge to investigate magic number squares. They realised that the sum of the columns, rows and diagnals all had to add up to the same number. Then they had to complete their own magic squares using careful mathematical thinking and of course lots of resilience!

Today we have been writing gripping introductions for our balanced arguments about whether birds should be kept in captivity. Sarah is very proud of her paragraph because, in addition to the content being very impressive, she has also joined her writing (which is her target).

Everyone else also worked incredibly hard. We’re looking forward to seeing the final versions during our ‘Big Write’

Costume designs are in full flow! Have a look at Henry’s super instructions explaining how he has made his! Also look at Ella’s fantastic design using a small cut out drawing!

Today we had to use quotations to support our arguments. We learnt that factual evidence from valuable sources such as scientists and journalists help to make the argument more powerful! Have a look at the example. Can you spot the quote?

Today in Literacy, we watched a clip of Steve Backshall gathering information about Mount Snowdon. He was discussing the reasons for and against tourism. We had to use these ideas to create sentences using sophisticated connectives, adjectives and adverbs.

During SOLE today, some children chose to draw an animal from the Amazon Rainforest in the style of Millie Marotta (an artist who uses intricate patterns to show the detail)

They also had to write a reflection of the audition process for iCan.

It it would be great if you could have a go at home at some more animal drawings using Millie Marotta as inspiration!

Here is an example of a fantastic headdress made by Heather and modelled by Ciara. It’s brilliant to hear about the wonderful designs that you are all coming up with.

Have a look this one for inspiration!

Today, we started rehearsing for our samba performance at the Princess Theatre!

Today, we have used cuisenaire rods to investigate fractions. We found several ways of making halves. We also found thirds, quarters, tenths and fifths. Some of us even managed to relate the fractions to the decimal equivalents. E.g. 1/2 = 0.5 and 1/4 = 0.25

Can you work out the decimal equivalent for 1/10?

Today the children have been researching facts about animals which can be found in the Amazon Rainforest. They also used Shoo Rayner tutorials to draw the animals.

Have a go at drawing some of the creatures at home! Just search for Shoo Rayner videos.

Today the children shared their musical talents with us so we could start to plan our show!

We we were blown away with the incredible dancing, singing and drumming on display.

I hope you’re all looking forward to the show!

This afternoon, we transformed our year 4 classrooms into science labs consisting of 6 fascinating activities.

In the physics room, we had:

Investigating sound- using drums and guitars, we observed the difference in vibrations between the variety of sized drums and strings. We realised that the larger drums make slower vibrations and therefore deeper sounds causing the spaghetti to bounce up and down. The smaller drums had tighter skins, which vibrate quicker so the spaghetti did not bounce up and down as much.
Friction- rolling a car down a ramp, we investigated the friction caused by different materials. We found that the towel created the most friction and the large books the least.
Electricity- we experimented with circuits to make bulbs light up and to power buzzers. We found out the a circuit needs to be complete for the electricity to travel.

As part of science week, year 4 were invited to take part in a science lesson at TCS.

They were very impressed with the facilities and resources on offer in the science lab.

They carried out a variety of experiments and witnessed chemical reactions involving hydrochloric acid and magnesium. They also made a special goo using pva glue mixed with chemicals.

Can you remember why the magnesium caused the test tube to heat up?

After an incredibly exciting assembly full of explosions and reactions, year 4 spent the afternoon with Mr G experimenting with different scientific concepts.

This included:

Making vibrations to create sounds in different ways using slinkys, straws and cups
experimenting with water displacement
learning how our eyes work
Using the force of air from a balloon to move CDs

Isn’t science fancinsting!

Can you explain how these things work?

What a jam packed day of fun!

All children experienced the extremely high ropes course, some went on an adventurous walk over the moors and others got caked in mud during their low adventure course.

After a delicious roast, we had a camp fire followed by a talent show.

All staff are incredibly proud of the values the children have portrayed over the 2 days. They’ve had a great time and they are all looking forward to seeing their parents tomorrow. I’m sure you’ve all missed them!

We have had a fantastic first day at Heatree!

After settling into their rooms and unpacking, the children spent the afternoon doing an exciting activity around the beautiful grounds of Heatree.

Some of the groups took part in a team quest whilst others experienced the challenging low adventure course-filled with mud and obstacles to overcome.

What will tomorrow have in store?

In preparation for our residential, we have spent the day carrying out a variety of activities to help us learn about Dartmoor. These have included: Map reading skills, learning about the country code, making information posters about plants and animals and taking part in a quiz.

Furthermore, we organised a competiton which involved having to put a duvet cover on a duvet (a skill they will need for tomorrow). Children worked in pairs and were judged on speed, technique and aesthetics.