Year 4 Information

Chalk Pit Visit

We visited Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits as part of our Changes topic. Millions of years ago, the sea covered the local area, and the shells of sea creatures were deposited on the sea bed, taking 1000 years to create one centimetre depth of chalk. After the sea had retreated, Iron Age and Roman people lived in the local area, leaving behind evidence such as flint tools, animal bones and pottery. More recently, stone was quarried until the 1980s. It was used for buildings such as Cambridge colleges. In 2009, the chalk pit was converted to a nature reserve and is home to many plants, birds and other animals. While we were there, we also had the chance to practise our perspective drawing.

Middle Years Assembly

This week one of the Year 4 children gave a short talk to Years 3 and 4 about environmental pollution, including some of the causes and what we can do about it. If children have a topic they think is important or interesting, and would like to present it to the rest of Middle Years, they can speak to Mr Blower to arrange it.

Science – Gases

In Year 4, we are learning about solids, liquids and gases. We thought about whether gases really weigh anything. Some people thought not because they are invisible or lighter than air. We did an experiment with fizzy water to find out.

First we weighed some fizzy water in a cup, then we stirred it to make the gas come out and weighed it again. The second time, it weighed less, showing that the gas that had escaped really weighed something (about 0.4 grams). We also used some even more sensitive scales and we could watch the weight going down as the bubbles escaped by themselves.

4.1 Mission Statement

In 4.1, as part of Habit 2 (Begin with the end in mind) we have been thinking about why we come to school, how we best work together and how we would like others to view us. We gathered our ideas into a mission statement, and also made posters to show our thoughts.

Class Mission Statement We are in 4.1 to learn, so we do our best in our work; we listen carefully without interrupting and we share our ideas.

We also want to make friends and have fun, so we support each other in learning and playing, and we agree or disagree kindly.

We hope others will see that we are well-behaved, hard-working, we try our best and we are friendly and kind.

Leader in Me

For the first 8 days of the Autumn term we have been introducing all the children to the 7 habits and our new whole school project: The Leader in Me.

Please see the link to our daily newsletters which introduced parents to each habit and our celebration day on Friday.

We are seeking to teach children that they are the leader of themselves and with the 7 habits they can become leaders of others.

Year 4 Roman Projects

In the second half of the Spring Term, the Year 4 children were set the challenge of creating a project based on our Roman topic. Some people researched and presented information; some created an Roman artefact, model or piece of art. On the last day of term, we showed one another our finished projects.

World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 7^th March, all pupils at Queen Edith dressed up as animals! Look below at some of our lovely photos.

We all linked our English work to the book Welcome by Barroux. Reception children made their own islands inspired by those in the book. Year 1 designed a welcoming place for the monkeys from the story to stay in. Year 4 wrote inner monologues imagining that they were in that situation. Later Years pupils looked at Welcome and also Leaf, The Day War Came, The Island and The Arrival and found out about refugees around the world before writing diary entries, imagining that they were in that situation.

Years 3 and 4 Treasure Chest Cuboids

Children from Year 3 and Year 4 have combined learning maths with our pirate-themed production to produce treasure chests. The 3D shape of a treasure chest is a cuboid, so we cut out a net, then folded and glued the flaps carefully. We decorated our cuboids to look like treasure chests.

Internal Monologues

For World Book Week, the whole school is reading “Welcome” by Barroux. It is about three polar bears who are separated from their home, and are refused entry onto other animals’ islands. In Year 4, we wrote about what the polar bears were thinking after being rejected for the third time. The children were challenged to write it as an internal monologue, rather than narrating the story. The children excelled at giving an insight into the bears’ emotions. In order to bring their monologues to life, we recorded each child reading their writing. You can find the audio file with your child’s voice on it stored under their table group name.