What a busy and brilliant week of learning we have had in Year 4! The children have shown fantastic dedication, teamwork and enthusiasm across the curriculum. Here is a look at what we have been up to:

Writing

This week, we tackled the rules of direct speech! To help fix these rules firmly in our minds, we learned a fun Year 4 speech chant, which was a huge hit in the classroom.

Using our novel Who Let the Gods Out?, the children applied these rules to write animated dialogue between the main characters, Elliot and Virgo. In our final piece, we blended speech with narrative description - challenging ourselves to include fronted adverbials and rich adjectives to build atmosphere. We were incredibly impressed by the high standard of writing and the exceptional effort shown by everyone!

Maths

Building on their Year 3 foundation of 3-digit subtraction, pupils stepped up to 4-digit numbers this week. We systematically built our skills:

• Starting with simple subtraction (no exchanging).

• Progressing to single exchanges.

• Mastering complex calculations involving multiple exchanges.

The children worked hard on their arithmetic fluency and demonstrated brilliant resilience when applying their skills to multi-step reasoning and problem-solving questions.

History & Reading

Ancient Greece has truly captured Year 4’s imagination!

We investigated the famous Battle of Marathon. We explored why the Athenians were the clear underdogs against the Persians and discovered how the clever phalanx formation led them to victory. The children then debated which factor was most crucial to the Athenian success, sharing their opinions with great confidence.

In reading we delved into the legendary myth of Pandora’s Box. We have been blown away by how much background knowledge the children already possess about Ancient Greece! We also enjoyed our quiet visit to the school library to exchange books and relax with a good read on the comfy bean bags.

Science

In Science, we continued exploring states of matter by investigating melting points. The children learned that different solids melt when heated to specific temperatures. To put this into practice, we conducted an investigation melting butter and chocolate - discovering firsthand that different materials require different amounts of heat to change state!

PE

We enjoyed two energetic PE sessions this week:

• Leeds Rhinos Visit -  Our visiting coaches helped us put a half-term’s worth of football skills into action as we moved into playing mini-games. It was brilliant to see the children's footwork, control and sportsmanship shine on the pitch!

• Fundamental Skills - In our second lesson, we focused on speed, agility, and teamwork through high-tempo relay races (collecting and returning equipment) and an agility tag game where teams had to work together to grab bibs.