We have had a great start to Summer Term in Year 4 so far. It has been wonderful to spend so much continuous time in school and we have really seen the progress in the children's learning. We are thrilled with the children's attitudes, hard work and kindness - we have thoroughly enjoyed teaching them lots of different aspects of the curriculum over the last 6 weeks.
We started summer term with our new topic, Romans Britain. We began by exploring some Roman dance and army formations where the children got to experience what it would be like to part of the Roman army. We have been investigating ‘How the Romans kept control of Britain’ in history, learning about physical, economic, informal and institutional power. Children have been given the opportunity to debate and use their new knowledge to express their opinions on the question. We have thoroughly enjoyed teaching this topic due to the children's enthusiasm and interest for learning about the Romans.
Linking to our Roman topic, Year 4 have enjoyed reading their two new class books ‘Escape from Pompeii’ and ‘The Queen of Darkness’. The classes have been able to use their new knowledge of Romans to understand the historical reference in the books and to ask inquisitive questions. One of our favourite subjects this half term has been writing where all our units have been based on the book ‘Escape to Pompeii.’ First, we wrote diary entries from one of the characters perspectives ‘Livia’. These diary entries were telling the events of Mount Vesuvius erupting and Traino and Livia's escape. The work the children produced was excellent and they used a range of sentence opener s. We then looked at shape poems where children began to think about how different language techniques can be used to create effect. The children created some excellent similes about Mount Vesuvius and published their work in a volcano shape poem, which they published as a ‘fiery’ collage.
As always, Year 4 reading has been excellent this term. We have explored a range of different texts including a non-fiction text about Boudicca, a shape poem ‘The Twister’ and a myth about Jupiter and the Bee where we unpicked the myth of how bees got their stingers. In addition, we explored different skills used to understand the text including a ‘dictogloss’ where children had to use their memory to remember and re-write key facts in the text.
In maths, children have amazed us in our new unit on decimals. They have learnt new concepts such as tenths and hundredths and have been able to apply their knowledge to different concepts including dividing by 10 and 100 and representing decimals in place value grids and on number lines.
In music, Year 4 have been learning a range of different skills. Liam, from Sheffield Music Hub has been teaching Glockenspiels which the children have thoroughly enjoyed. There has also been the opportunity for a small group who have enjoyed weekly drumming lessons. All the classes have also been leaning a new song to sing for the Sheffield Music virtual concert at the end of the year which we are excited to perform. Their spectacular music learning has been aided by out science topic this half term. We have been exploring the science behind sound; investigating volume and pitch and we have learnt about how sound travels using vibrations.
A highlight of this summer half term has been creating our ‘Starry Night’ painting based on the famous Vincent Van Gogh. We explored mixing colours to create light and dark and looked at textures and lines in painting to create effect. We then began to paint our piec