Term 4 

Mathematics:

We have covered the following topics in Mathematics:

• Identifying multiples and factors including finding all factor pairs of a number and common factors of two numbers.
• Solving problems involving multiplication and division, including using a knowledge of factors and multiples, squares and cubes.
• Solving problems involving multiplication and division, including scaling by simple fractions and problems involving simple rates.
• Comparing and ordering fractions whose denominators are all multiples of the same number.

Geography

Indian Tigers were fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Glebe Lane Allotment. This gave us a practical insight into our current topic: Land use across the UK (Sow, Grow and Farm).

The children asked very intelligent questions and also shared with the allotment-users some of the things they had learnt in the classroom. We learnt about how to apply to rent an allotment and the waiting list process. 

English:

In English, the children pretended to be farmers and wrote diaries about how they would cope with a situation in which their herd of milking cows got caught up in a national heatwave.  The children paid particular attention to past and present tenses (as well as the expression of personal emotion).

Guided Reading:

We continued reading our class book: The Secret Garden and we discussed various aspects of the text.  For instance, we explored how the main character’s previous life in India differed from the life she was living in England and how the people around her treated her differently in each setting.  We also looked at how her personality started to change and develop as she began enjoying the freedoms and independence that her new life had pushed upon her.

Since we have had the new school Library, we have been visiting on Wednesdays to read and take books home.

Science:

We learnt about humans, animals and ageing. This learning journey has involved examining and understanding the processes and stages of the human life cycle and comparing them to those of other mammals.  We also had the body changes talk, where the children learnt about how their bodies are changing as they mature.  The children have shown an active interest in the subject area and have responded to the information in a mature and thoughtful way.

Art:

Our art lessons have involved looking at Land Art and how easy it is to access and create artwork using nature as a resource.  The children brought in sticks and twigs from home before getting into two groups to create art installations.  Using simple shapes and a loose ‘weaving’ technique to build their pieces, the groups made some very visually interesting constructs.

Swimming/PE:

Most of the children in Indian Tigers have done really well with their swimming this term and have made very good progress.

The children enjoyed playing basketball. The competitiveness amongst the houses whenever they played was great to witness.

Neurodiversity Day

During Neurodiversity day, the children learnt about how our brains function differently, which makes us different. They learnt about other people with different ways of thinking and how these people become very successful despite some of the “limitations” they encountered growing up.The children created brains using pay doh.

Term 3 

In Indian Tigers, we started our fascinating topic called ‘Sow, Grow and Farm’ this term. We are looking at a different areas of land use across the United Kingdom, Food Chains and the Animal Life Cycle.

Maths

In Maths, we have applied our knowledge of times tables to successfully complete our fraction tasks such as equivalent fraction- unit fractions, non-unit fractions, families of equivalent fractions, improper fractions to mixed numbers, mixed numbers to improper fractions, compare fractions less than 1, order fractions less than 1, compare and order fractions, greater than 1, subtracting and adding fraction with problem solving activities. 

English

In English, we have used our iPads to the research various aspects of allotments and how beneficial allotments are to the people who use them across the country. From our research, we were able to write a non-chronological report on allotments.

Computing

In computing, we continued to learn about systems by using the iPads to research  how search results are ranked and how searches are influenced.

We have also started to learn about how to create our own videos by using methods such as close up, mid-range, long shot, moving subject, side by side, high angle, low angle and normal angle.

Music

In Music, we became familiar with playing the glockenspiel by keeping in time with counting of 1, 2, 3 and 4 in both an ascending and descending manner. We also used the various notes to make music.

Term 2

As a class, Indian Tigers have worked with diligence and excellence this term. We have shown more interest in our learning and made good progress across the curriculum. We explored learning beyond the classroom by visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This served as a great opportunity for us to engage with the history of the world we live in now.

English

We continued to look at the various aspects of the Shang Dynasty in Ancient China and the people who lived there during that period.  We looked at the various features of a biography and autobiography. We focused on a formidable woman called Fu Hao. As a class, we were fascinated with the life she lived as a powerful woman during her time as a queen and a high priest. We enjoyed researching her life and her great influence during her life time as the first woman military general. Our writing skills improved this term because of our commitment to the content and presentation of our writing pieces as we included some fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, modal verbs, passive and active sentences.  Practising our spelling frequently made a contribution to how well we wrote this term.

Maths

With our maths lessons, we explored how to round and estimate numbers before working out more detailed calculations as we looked at how to use inverse calculations to check our calculations.  We used various method such manipulatives, number lines, part-whole models and bar models to support our progression.

We also covered other areas including multiples, factors, prime numbers, square numbers and cube numbers.  Our understanding and knowledge of our multiplication facts became very useful to the success of our learning this term. 

Music

We studied and played the glockenspiel- by using the beaters to make music. The children have been fascinated with playing the glockenspiel.

Topic

We continued to focus on the Shang Dynasty as we read about how the Chinese people were influenced by religion and how this was reflected in their everyday life.  We also looked at the craftsmen and how they used Silk and Jade creatively. Visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum was an important part of our learning about the Shang Dynasty. We had the real and visual experience of seeing some objects made out of silk and jade.

P.E

In our PE lessons, we learnt and practised the various skills and tactics that can be used when both attacking and defending in football. We also looked at how effective we can communicate as team members to create opportunities to score. The children had a great term playing football.

Term 1 

Maths:

Maths this term has been reflective, practical and engaging.

In Place Value, we continued from where we left off from year 4 and have built on our knowledge of place of numbers. We focused on place value of numbers up to 5-digits (looking at the value of a digit within a number, rounding to nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000) addition and subtraction of numbers up to 5 digits. We also learnt the Roman numerals up to 1,000.

English:

We linked our writing to our topic theme- ‘Dynamic Dynasties’.  We have focused on narrative poetry and we are reading a Chinese Folktale and then also looking at a poem that had been adapted from that tale. We were able to change a Chinese folktale into our own poem by including figurative language (alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphors and similes) to reflect our skill of creativity and imagination. We also wrote our own time-travel story.

We are reading our class text ‘Bronzes and Sunflower’ by Cao Wenxuan. It has been a pleasure listening to the children read out loud to the class with such level of expression and enthusiasm.

Science:

Science this term was about Forces and Mechanism. We learnt about forces and the people who discovered gravity.

We did some experiments to determine gravity and also the effect of mass on gravity.

PE:

This term we have been practising tag-rugby and learning how to pass to one another and evade members of the opposing team.

Our goal this term for our PE lessons was to show Trust, Self-Motivation, Resilience, Cooperation, Problem Solving. 

We also created our own group sequence formation and performed it to the class. PE was really fun-we had some great times doing PE this term.

Thank you, Mr Smith.

Big Teach

Big Teaches this term have been informative and fun. We learnt about some interesting topics including:  Onam: ‘The Festival of Unity and Prosperity’ and ‘All we need to know about China’.

In Jubilee University this term, we learnt how to crochet a blanket for a Vulnerable child and also being grateful for the thing and the experience we have.

Our theme /challenge was Caring for Others. The values we needed to incorporate were: Compassion, Creativity, Co-operation, Independence, Perseverance, Respect, Excellence, Enjoyment

 The children really enjoyed creating a piece of a crochet item.

Miss Erskine brought some of her own crochet pieces to show the class.

Term 6 - 2023/24

Year 4 have continued our studies on Ancient Civilisations by focusing on the history of Ancient Egypt. Now that we have studied two ancient civilisations, we have noticed their similarities and differences. We have been reading, ‘The Ancient Egypt Sleepover’ which is set in the British Museum. Now that we have been, we can really visualise the story!

English:

Our main piece of writing this term was to produce a story set in another culture. We looked at a model text of a story set in Ancient Sumer. We made observations about the features used so that we could try and replicate these in our own stories. Each child chose to write a story in Ancient Sumer or Ancient Egypt. In our Grammar lessons, we revised the rules of writing direct speech. As a class, we have now written a creative set of historical stories. The children managed to include direct speech, expanded noun phrases, setting descriptions, character descriptions and a range of punctuation. The children also cleverly used their historical knowledge to enhance their writing.

Maths:

We began term 6 with our long-awaited multiplication check. The class have worked hard all year on learning their times tables and I am very proud of their effort. The majority of the class scored highly with some even getting full marks. This hard work will really pay off in their understanding of Year 5 Maths.

More recently in Maths, we have studied time. The children practised reading times on analogue, 12-hour and 24-hour clocks. Analogue proved to be the most challenging! We are now looking at co-ordinates and using them to find locations on grids.

Other news

In PE, the class practised their athletic skills in preparation for Sports Day. They had a really fun day and showed good teamwork. We are now enjoying playing some friendly rounders games alongside Year 5. The class have been practising their swimming every week and have really improved since we started in September. By the end of primary school, we aim for every child to swim 25m. Many in the class have reached this target already. Some have managed to swim 200m, while one child swam 600m!

Year 4 had a fantastic trip to London. We explored the National Gallery and got to see paintings by artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Seurat. We had a lovely lunch in the park, before going to see Frozen in the theatre. The children really enjoyed the performance and were blown away by the special effects! The ice creams at the interval were also very popular. We hope to go on more theatre trips in the future!