Today, Wednesday 11th November, was Remembrance Day. We learned all about the importance of Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day and why we should remember those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We observed a 2 minutes silence and used our collage skills we have been developing in art to create or very own poppies, just like the ones in Flanders Field. These were then made into a wreath which we laid at the Cenotaph in the school library.

Well done to all of year 4 for their fantastic reading at home this half term. The first children have achieved 25 reads already and were presented with their cards this week. Keep up the good work! 

Year 4 have also been working hard in PE. We have started to use hitting in a game with increasing control and accuracy, meanwhile learning to communicate with peers/team mates more effectively to contribute to a common goal. Children have quickly grasped lots of fundamental hockey skills and are applying this in game situations. 

This week we have had great fun exploring Roman roads and we even made our own! 
We used sugar and oats to represent the sand and rubble, then we laid a layer of small stones (lentils) on top. After this, we used gravel (rice) to create the camber of the road, before laying smooth paving slabs (pasta)  on top. When our roads were complete with a ditch at each side, we used digital cameras and iPads to photograph them. We then annotated our cross sectional diagrams with each feature and the reasons why Romans needed roads. 

This week we have found out about all of the different things the Romans brought to Britain and how they helped us. We discovered that clean water, language, coins, glass, stinging nettles, police, public parks and many more things were first introduced by the revolutionary Romans and we debated which of these we believe to have been the most important. 

In Year 4, our class text this half term is the Firework Maker's Daughter.

We are enjoying reading the story and we are learning lots of new vocabulary along the way.

At the moment Lila is on an adventure to retrieve the Royal Sulphur to become a real Firework Maker but she does not realise how dangerous this quest could turn out to be.

We have used the text in guided reading to develop our inference and summarising skills.

Our writing genre in Literacy is letter writing and we are busy writing informal letters from Lila to her father, explaining where she has disappeared to and her journey so far. Keep a look out for our finished work.

We can't wait to find out what happens when Lila meets Razvani and if she survives to tell the tale.

I think we need to look out for some more stories by Philip Pullman. Can you recommend any for us?

This week, we have been focusing on a text called 'After the Fall' by Dan Santat. This story is a sequel to the well-known nursery rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty'. It tells us what happened after he fell from the wall and how he had courage and determination to not give up on his dreams.

We have done lots of work around this story including writing a newspaper article based on the story events, reading other well-known nursery rhymes, conducting science experiments based on materials that could save an egg from breaking during a fall and also using different liquids to look at the effect it has on the shell (used to compare to tooth enamel) and lots of PSHE work around perseverance, courage and determination.  

Take a look at some of our work below:
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