St Mark Year 4
Welcome to Year 4 St. Mark
Our Lady guides us as we have fun learning together,
aiming to be the best that we can be!
Did you miss our assembly about the Olympics?
Click the image below to watch it!
Some pictures from our assembly
Welcome back from Easter break!
We are now in our third and final term. Our first two terms seemed to have passed us by in the blink of an eye, but that is because it is true what they say, 'time flies when you are having fun' and that is what we work towards, our learning being FUN!
Expectations continue to be extremely high as children are now approaching their final weeks of Year 4 in preparation for Year 5.
This term I will really be encouraging and supporting those children who are still struggling with their times tables to 12 and I ask that you please assist them at home as well.
We have also introduced a new handwriting scheme called Letter Join. Children should be using this form of joined handwriting in ALL writing tasks both at school and home.
Thank you for your continued support, together we are the team that assists your child in doing their very best learning.
My name is Miss. Belmonte and I am the Year 4 teacher. This is my third academic year at Our Lady of Lourdes. Working alongside me is our Teaching Assistant, Ms. Marin and Mrs. Husbands, who provides one-to-one support. As a team we are all focused on, and dedicated to your child's academic progression and success!
As our school mission statement says, we work to the best of our ability and our learning should be fun. That is the plan for this year so please check back regularly for updates on classroom events, successes, activities, website links and pictures.
Our Lady of Lourdes Feast Day Assembly
Click on the link below to watch our assembly to mark the feast day of our school.
https://videocentralhd.lgfl.org.uk/Play.aspx?id=SKTC22nMCh8aH0
Summer Term Curriculum Overview
Spring Term Curriculum Overview
Autumn Term Curriculum Overviews
SCIENCE: Year 4 has been investigating sound all over the school ... have a look and then ask us about some of our findings!
MATHS: When working with metres and centimetres, we used ourselves as examples ... ask us all about it, we can teach you a few things!
LITERACY: Working with HOMOPHONES can be confusing, but working together we have them figured out!
MATHS: Working together we have been leaning our Roman Numerals - once learnt, we had the opportunity to play snakes and ladders with them - as us about it!
SCIENCE INVESTIGATION: What are the effects of everyday liquids on our teeth?
WALK TO SCHOOL WEEK: these children started the week off on the right two feet :) ... If you normally take the bus, get off 2 stops early and walk, if you normally drive, park and walk part of the way, if you normally scoot or cycle, stop halfway and walk the rest, lets earn those points - it's competition time!!!
PE: Today we had the opportunity to work on our Cricket skills, ask us how we did!
RE: We have been exploring the gospel of Luke. Ask us what stories we are familiar with, what lessons we have learnt, messages we have received and comparisons we have made!
SCIENCE: without a doubt there was A LOT of fun and learning occurring this afternoon during our Science lesson. Children had the opportunity to witness the process of the human digestion system right before their eyes! As you click through the pictures, ask them to explain the process to you!
OUR IPADS: we now have 16 iPads that are designated for Year 4's use - YAY!!! We put these to use during numeracy this morning while working towards mastering our multiplication tables. Children must know their times tables to 12 before leaving Year 4 - practice, practice, practice!!!
LITERACY: we have been annotating pieces of text while learning about and then applying our knowledge of inverted commas.
NUMERACY: after a week of subtracting using decomposition, children worked with their peers to decide on the most appropriate method (expanded column, compact column or FROG) for a variety of questions.
LITERACY: Children had to opportunity to HOT SEAT the main character from our Michael Morpurgo book in order to get their ideas flowing before they wrote a detailed interview focusing on specific events within the novel.
IPC ENTRY POINT: Treasure
Year 4 Curriculum Map and Classroom Timetable
PLATINUM TIME: it isn't just about fun, we involved life skills as well and boy are these children ever good in the kitchen! Have a look at our pancakes, mixed with blueberries, bananas and chocolate chips topped with real Canadian Maple Syrup, YUM!
Irish Dancing with Year 4
Year 4 Science Mysteries!
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING WEEK: IN order to celebrate this special week we had the opportunity to participate in a Forensic Science workshop ... have a look and be sure to ask your children questions about all the interesting things they learnt!
BRENT CIVIC CENTRE LIBRARY TRIP: Year 4 and 5 ventured out together to a live author event hosted by Marcus Alexander. What an informative, fun and engaging session ... have a look ...
NUMERACY: after reviewing our assessments from last week we turned some of the challenging questions into group effort games ... have a look at how much fun was had while learning!
Irish Dance Festival at Capital City Academy: We were invited to showcase our newly developed Irish Dancing skills at a special even this morning. Here are some pictures, the video will be posted shortly.
IPC: As part of our IPC topic this term the ART focus has been a paper mache project ... have a look at the beginning stages ...
This week the PTA visited our classroom and lead us in making some beautiful Easter baskets ... have a look!
SCIENCE: our learning is ELECTRIFYING!!! ... here is a sneak peak at some of our circuit fun - to find out more, ASK US!!! We can't wait to tell you all about it!
World Book Day BUDDY READING with Year 1
Our WORLD BOOK DAY Costumes
SPANISH: we have been learning all about the currency used in Spain - EUROS
KidZania: Oh WOW! Did we ever have an AMAZING day! We learnt about and participated in so many real life jobs and then took responsibility for earning, spending and saving money ... this trip truly defined making learning FUN!
IPC: Here are the wonderful designs your children created in their Exit Point project for our unit on FASHION
NUMERACY: children worked together to learn the concept of CHUNKING DIVISION ... their multiplication tables play a major role in all of their Mathematics, please continue to review these at home.
YEAR 3 and 4 LIBRARY VISIT with JARED LOUCHE
P.E. Gymnastics - your children are already well on their way to becoming Gymnastic Olympians ... have a look at some the skills they have been working on: balance beams, level and inclined, balanced poses, a variety of different jumping techniques, how to land a jump and the tuck and roll!
ART: Children have been exposed to the skill of WATER COLOUR PAINTING, have a look at their master pieces and ask if they can share any artist tips with you :)
LITERACY: this past Friday, children had the opportunity to consolidate all of the learning they have be participating in with Roman Britain and put it into letter format. It was quite the intense writing session as all children had PLENTY to say! Be sure to ask your child about their letter, and about what they have learnt!
The British Museum: Eating and drinking in Roman Britain ... what a fun filled, lesson learning, awe-struck day for everyone!!! Ask your child about all of the wonderful things they saw and learnt at the museum, I am sure they will have PLENTY to tell you!
IPC: Entry Point Fashion Show !!!
NUMERACY: we used iPad games for Numeracy learning ... ask us how!!!
LITERACY: we have been learning all about the Romans and Celts, the Roman Invasion and Boudicca's Rebellion ... we even acted like, discussed and answered different questions in role of our character from back in 60 A.D.!!! Ask your child what character they were and what they discussed!
NUMERACY: today we looked for different patterns in counting. We counted both forwards and backwards in 10, 25, 50 100 and 1000. Can you spot some patterns?
Autumn 2015 Curriculum Letter
PLATINUM TIME: Children put their skill of reading instructions to the test in making Rice Krispy Snowmen ... it was quite the STICKY task!!!
RE: Children worked in partners to explore two of the Nativity stories within the Bible. They then discussed and recorded the similarities and differences between the two.
SCIENCE: exploring how temperature has an effect on changing states of matter. Children visited 3 different investigations: melting ice challenge, crystallized salt experiment and the condensation experiment ... ask your child to tell you what they observed and learnt
GUIDED READING: a favourite time within our classroom. Guided reading includes activities such as: reading with the teacher, reading individually, spelling tasks, gammar tasks and a creative writing task called 'What's in the Box?'
IPC ART: children were given a wide range of materials and the task to create an image that represents their given season ... the final products are BEAUTIFUL, there are definitely some upcoming artists within this classroom!
CHRISTMAS has arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes ... we are working hard to prepare for the Christmas Fayre on 11th December. Come and see the beautiful picture frame ornaments we have painted and then have a taste of our delicious baking!
NUMERACY and READING: children put their number and reading skills to use in learning how to collect data, create a frequency chart and then present their findings in bar charts.
SCIENCE: investigating and exploring solids, liquids and gases within the classroom and our everyday life
PE: our new DANCE unit
NUMERACY: exploring and understanding mass (grams and kilograms)
NUMERACY: creating our own fraction walls to understand equivalent fractions
NUMERACY: working with our coaching partners to add 4-digit numbers
IPC EXIT POINT: "When I'm 64 Party"
ART: our finished product clay faces
ART: as part of our IPC unit children worked with clay in order to sculpt an image of what they think they may look like when they are older ... they have done quite well and are looking forward to painting them next week!
NUMERACY: Children took their measuring skills from the last lesson and extended them into measuring with metre sticks. We also ventured outside of the classroom to investigate the length and width of some playground equipment. Be sure to ask your child how accurate their estimates were to their actual measurements!
SPANISH: your children are becoming very multi-lingual these days ... ask them all about their Spanish learning, I bet they could teach you a thing or two!
NUMERACY: to begin our unit on measurement, children put their rulers and conversion skills to work around the classroom
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Thursday 8th October 2015 from 3:45pm-6:00pm
Over the past few days Year 4 has been working on becoming 'International Entrepreneurs' in preparation for OLOL's International Festival evening. We have received a £10 loan from the school and accepted the challenge to make a product to sell on Thursday evening that will allow us to repay our £10 loan and also raise funds through profit for the PTA. We have been working very hard to prepare for this event and hope to see you there!
International Entrepreneurs hard at work ...
Literacy: as part of our unit on Biographies, children had the chance to interview their coaching partner in order to find out a little more about them and to work on creating a catchy opening line.
RE and MUSIC: as part of a cross-curricular lesson the children learned the words to Eagle's Wings and then worked in groups to put actions to it and perform in front of the class.
LITERACY: this week we have been focusing on the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Children have completed a reading comprehension all about Rugby and it's tournaments, they have explored the different cities in England that are hosting venues for this years World Cup and they have also used the iPads to research a selection of countries participating in the tournament. Be sure to ask your child about some of the interesting things they have learnt this week!
SCIENCE: Children began working with Classification Keys, not only did they use a classification key to identify themselves within a group of children, but we also worked as a group to create an identification key for basic shapes and then expanded our knowledge onto different species ... ask your child what sort of questions their group was asking in order to classify living things.
ART: in their second lesson with our specialized art teacher children worked in their sketch books; we have some true artists in the making!
SCIENCE: while learning how to group living things, children played a game where they could only ask 'YES' or 'NO' classification questions in order to determine which living thing they had taped to their backs. It was an afternoon full of fun and learning!
MUSIC: This week the children had the challenging, yet exciting task of performing a rap ... videos to come as we move through the unit!
IPC ENTRY POINT: Our Guess The Baby game was a huge success. The children had a great time trying to figure out who the baby in each picture was. A special THANK YOU to all the parents for sharing your photographs with us!
MATHS: In Big Maths today we added a twist to the classic game snakes and ladders and were faced with challenged where we would have to add or subtract either 9 or 10. The children had so much fun they couldn't believe they were in a Maths lesson!
