Determination Class

Miss McLean

☀️ 📚 🌷

Key Dates:

30.04.24- Year 4 assembly- refreshments available from 8:35, 9am start

06.05.24- Bank holiday

10.05.24- Determination Outdoor Learning

20.05.24- Class photos

22.05.24- Year 3,4,5 and 6 Sports morning (9:30 - 11:30)

24.05.24- Last day before May half term

03.06.24- Return to school 

08.07.24- Open evening

10.07.24- Lego Workshop www.juniorstem.co.uk 

19.07.24- Last day of the school year

PE is on a Tuesday and Thursday (swimming).

There is no swimming on Thursday 25th April- The children will need to come in their normal PE kit for a PE lesson in school.

Please dress in the appropriate PE kit and remove earrings. 

Our weekly spelling test will be on a Friday and new spellings will be given out. 

We are sending the children home with times tables packs. These are additional practise for the children to improve their fluency of their times tables. We would like these to be handed in the following Friday, so that we can see how the children are improving. 

WB 18.03.24

The children in Year 4 have had a great week. They enjoyed an Urban Strides workshop on Monday and learnt some great street dance moves! On Friday, they attended a Boomwhackers workshop and made a class orchestra- it sounded amazing and it was lovely to see the smiles on their faces! 

In English, the children pretended to be Boudicca and wrote great persuasive speeches for people to join their army to fight back the Roman's. The used a range of rhetorical questions, exclamation, paragraphs and imperative verbs. I loved hearing and reading these. In maths, the children have started learning about decimals and will be continuing this next week and after Easter. 

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!  

08.03.24

The children in Year 4 have had an extremely busy week and have been amazing!

On Tuesday, they had a great time at Colchester Castle. They enjoyed looking around the castle's museum, having a story tour and walking down the vaults and building a Celtic round house and a Roman villa. They learnt lots and demonstrated wonderful behaviour! All of the adults were very proud of Year 4.

On Wednesday, the class enjoyed outdoor learning. They walked in a Roman formation, built a natural Roman road to different points on the playground and also enjoyed a selection of activities, including: bug hunting, using natural clay, giant jenga and more!

Thursday was World Book Day- some children brought in great props! The children made up stories in groups, based on a given genre and then enjoyed performing it to the class. They completed a competition to design a book voucher and loved taking photos at the Eastwood photo booth! 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! :)

WB 15.01.24

Year 4 have worked incredibly hard this week. In maths, they have been multiplying numbers using the informal and formal written method. In English, they have continued learning the skills to write their diary entry next week, including their inner thoughts and feelings, rhetorical questions and time adverbials. Their diary is about them going to watch a gladiator fight in the Roman times.

The class loved walking around the school and identifying appliances which are battery powered and mains powered. They drew a table and recorded this on their walk. In history, they heard about Boudicca and did a hot seating activity.

Well done to the Year 4 children who attended the football tournament today! ⚽ 

Next week, the children have Rock Kidz on Tuesday and can dress up as a rock star for the day!! 🤘🎸👨🏻‍🎤Due to this, there will be no PE on Tuesday.

WB 08.01.24

The children had a great first full week back at school for 2024! In history, they have explored lots of Roman artefacts. For English, they researched what life was like for a Roman slave. They have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 in maths- they were great at this! The class enjoyed learning about an electrical circuit in science and loved making their own one as a class. They know that an electrical circuit needs 3 things- a power supply, a continuous pathway and a component (e.g, a light bulb).

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break and make lots of special memories. 

After the Christmas break, PE days are changing to a Tuesday and Friday.

See you back at school on Thursday 4th January! 

WB 01.12.23

On Monday, the children enjoyed their Ancient Greek day! Lots of children dressed up and they looked fantastic!! They made wonderful mosaic coasters, which we are hoping to display in school and they will eventually bring these home for you to see! In the afternoon, the children had a Greek banquet and tasted lots of different Greek foods. They thought carefully about how the food tasted and whether they liked it or not- Feta cheese was a big hit, olives not so much!!

The children have completed their maths topic of perimeter and can find the perimeter of regular and irregular polygons. In English, the class were focussing on dialogue and the skills when writing it. They focussed on a section of Pandora's box and wrote dialogue for it.

Reminder: Friday 15th December, the children have a cosy film afternoon and can bring comfortable clothes to change into- pyjamas, onesies, tracksuits etc are welcome! They can also bring in 1 small snack.

WB 27.11.23

The children in Determination class have had an exciting week. On Wednesday, they enjoyed a science day! They continued their learning about states of matter and investigated 'How does the temperature affect the rate of melting?' 'How does the weather affect evaporation rates of melting?' and completed a climate change report. They learnt about the water cycle and were great at explaining this to each other, using the key words: evaporate, condense, precipitation and run-off. 

Today, the children spent most of the day completing their design and technology (DT) unit of work. They researched Ancient Greek food and have designed their own Greek menu. On Monday, they will be having their Ancient Greek day, where they will try some of the foods and make their menu.

Reminders- Monday is our Ancient Greek Day- The children are invited to come dressed up in Ancient Greek clothes if they want to, otherwise they can wear their own clothes. Please wear suitable/ comfortable clothes.

WB 20.11.23

Determination class have worked hard this week. They started to learn about Area in maths and found the area of their own rectilinear shapes. Today, they started looking at perimeter and enjoyed measuring the perimeter of the school playground- we will continue this next week!

In English, they wrote a great non-chronological report about the Minotaur. The children focussed on expanded noun phrases and conjunctions in their writing. I have really enjoyed reading these! 

This week, the class have started our block of science, focusing on states of matter- Solids, liquids and gases. They have enjoyed investigating materials and finding out the properties of solid, liquid and gases.

A letter has gone out today about Year 4's Ancient Greek Day on Monday 4th December. Children are invited to dress as an Ancient Greek (optional).

Have a fabulous weekend!

WB 13.11.23

Another week has whizzed past in Determination class! The children had great fun during outdoor learning on Monday. They made pieces of art using nature, inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Team banana and Team Apple both used great team work and competed well to create their best piece of art! After lunch, the class enjoyed some free time which included pond dipping, lighting a fire and bug hunting.

In English, the children have written great non-chronological reports about their own mythical creature. They have been using conjunctions to extend their writing, as well as paragraphs and subheadings to organise their writing.

The children have enjoyed using Audacity on the computer, learning about the features of a podcast. They have planned their own podcast and will be recording and evaluating these next week.

On Thursday, the children were super excited to meet Jordan Catchpole MBE. They watched a video of him winning his medals, listened to him speak about himself and even saw one of his gold medals!! They then enjoyed doing circuits with him.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! 

WB 06.11.23

The children have worked very hard throughout Assessment Week this week and earnt themselves some well deserved green time- they really enjoyed playing a range of board games today! In computing, they learnt more about networks and who owns different webpages. They made their own content online, using Chrome Music Lab. We spoke about that fact that not everything you read online is true.

On Monday, Determination Class have outdoor learning- please dress appropriately and bring a spare pair of shoes. 

Have a great weekend! 

Week 8- WB 30.10.23 

This week, the children have enjoyed starting their computing lessons, focussing on computer systems and networks. They thought about how networks connect through a switch and routers and also spent time looking at features they find on a website. The class also started French this week, recapping how to greet someone and how to say their name.  

In maths, the children continued with multiplication and division, looking at factor pairs and using these to help them multiply numbers. In English, they have been learning about subordinating conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions and paragraphs, so that they can use this when writing a non-chronological report about their Ancient Greek mythical creature. 

I hope you all have a well deserved weekend!  

Week 7

WB 16.10.23

The children in Year 4 have had a great week. They enjoyed writing their myths in English and spent time editing their writing to make it even better! In maths, they have been doing multiplication and division and we will continue this after half term. The class have really enjoyed their art lessons this week, focussing on silhouette art, inspired by Lotte Reiniger. They spent time researching her, practising drawing bodies focussing on proportion and space. Today, they drew their final silhouette of a Greek God and painted it.

I hope you all have a very well deserved half term break!

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday 30th October.

Week 6

WB 09.10.23

Another week has flown by in Year 4! The children have been working on their 6 and 12 times tables in maths. They have used their knowledge of the times table to help them with multiplying and dividing, using base10 and place value counters to support them. In English, the children have enjoyed creating their own mythical creature and writing descriptions, thinking about the appearance and any special features it has. They also thought about lots of similies to describe the Labyrinth. The class were excited to make a plan for their own myth (inspired by Theseus and the Minotaur) next week.

In Year 4, we have now finished Geography and Music. The class performed Mumma Mia and used the glockenspiels to compose their own music. Next week, we will be doing lots of art! 

Reminders: Determination class have outdoor learning on Monday- please dress appropriately. Bring outdoor shoes and also a clean pair to change in to.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week 5

WB 02.10.23

In class this week, the children enjoyed taking part in some drama to act out Theseus and the Minotaur. They thought about how the characters would feel and came up with some great vocabulary to describe the myth. In maths, we spent a week on money and the class were adding, ordering and comparing money. During music lessons, the class are enjoying singing to Mamma Mia and playing the glockenspiels. In Geography, they were able to find out about some physical and human features of Greece.

Week 4

WB 25.09.23

The children have had another wonderful week in Year 4. They continued with adding and subtracting numbers and were using estimating to help them work out calculations. In English, they enjoyed learning about riddles and wrote their own 'What am I?' poems about a Greek mythical creature. Year 4's had lots of fun at the campfire on Thursday and enjoyed singing songs and making smores! 

Reminders:

Thursday 5th October is a themed lunch and non uniform day!! 

Friday 6th October is an INSET day

Stars of the Week! 

Photos to come...

Week 3

WB 18.09.23

The children have continued to learn about the Ancient Greeks this week and discussed lots about democracy and the changes that came from it, comparing it to modern day. In PSHE, the class discusses scenarios and spoke about what makes good team work- they made great posters to show this! The children enjoyed attending a workshop from the Dogs Trust and learnt some good tips to be safe around dogs.

In maths, we started our unit of addition and practised adding numbers with one and two exchanges. Next week, we will be subtracting. I was amazing in English with some of the descriptions that the children wrote about Medusa, Minotaur or the Cyclops. They explored new ambitious vocabulary and used these in their writing. They were incredible!

I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Week 2

WB 11.09.23

In class, the children have been learning lots about the Ancient Greeks. They read three myths- Odysseus and the Cyclops, Theseus and the Minotaur and The Quest of Medusa's Head. They have thought about lots of adjectives and phrases to describe the three villains and will be writing descriptions next week. In maths, they have now finished the Place Value topic (for now!) They have been representing, partitioning, ordering, comparing numbers to 10,000 and placing them on a number line.

To remind you, the book fair is on every day after school next week!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Week 1

WB 04.09.23

The children in Determination class have had a great first week of Year 4. They showed determination to complete a challenge on day 1- They were very excited and had very sticky fingers! The class started to learn about the Greeks and have completed lots of reading activities and learnt some interesting facts. In history, they enjoyed exploring Greek artefacts and discussed what they thought the artefacts were used for. In maths, the children have been learning about place value. They can represent and partition numbers to 10,000- we will continue this next week.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!