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Year 4 Please remember to bring your book bag to school every day with reading books inside. Please also bring a named water bottle and a healthy snack for breaktime. Please remember to come to school in your PE kits on PE days with appropriate footwear, hair tied back and earrings either removed or covered. Our PE days are Monday (4SC indoor and 4SL outdoor) and Thursday (4SL indoor and 4SC outdoor). If you have any questions, please ask one of us. Miss Lowe and Miss Cook |
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Topic Pathways |
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Homework Grid |
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TT Rockstars It is essential that children become secure with times tables (2x - 12x) and they should be practising these every day. TT Rockstars is a fantastic game-based app/website to support times table practice and it can be accessed via most devices. Please support children to log on at home and practice for at least 10 minutes every day. Log in details can be found in children's pink homework books. Please ask us if you have any questions or difficulties logging on.  Each week, children can compete in a 'rock battle' between the two year 4 classes. The more they play, the more points they earn for their class! |
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VE Day - 08.05.25 We had a fantastic day celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day! After learning about the significance of VE Day, and why it is celebrated, we created our own acrostic poems. Later in the day, we watched and discussed Winston Churchill’s famous speech to mark the German surrender and draw portraits of Churchill. We also took part in lots of traditional games on the field and had lots of fun. Finally, we created our own pieces of art to represent VE Day and its importance.
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History - 07.05.25 In our next History lesson, we explored the Dark Ages, learning when they took place, and why they were called this. In groups, we researched different aspects of the Dark Ages including food, education and soldiers so that we were able to compare them with Roman Britain. After sharing our information, we wrote a comparison of the Dark Ages and Roman Britain, using our new knowledge.
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History - 30.04.25 This week we began our final unit of work, ‘Invaders and Settlers’. To start with, we created our own definitions of ‘invade’ and ‘settle’. Then, we considered different periods in history that we have studied so far and discussed where invasion and settlement had happened. We created our own timeline to represent this theme across these historical periods.
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Global Goals - Art - 08.04.25 We had an art day today where we spent time working on our final piece to represent Global Goal 15: Life on Land. We worked really hard, considering our design and adapting our ideas along the way if needed. Here are some of our finished pieces! 
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Global Goals - Art - 02.04.25 As part of our Global Goals learning, and our whole school art project - Mark Your Mark: Dots! - we have focused on an artist called Yayoi Kusama. At the beginning of the week, we explored her artwork and stlye, before recreating one of her pieces of art. She creates pieces of work, including sculptures and infinity rooms, using dots and funky colours. We then tested out different materials to create our dots in our final piece, which will be our response to Global Goal 15: Life on Land. We considered which colours we might use to show the contrast between life on land and the destruction of human impact.
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PE - 27.03.25 We have been enjoying some sunny outdoor PE lessons as we enter spring time! Today, 4SC went onto the field (for the first time this academic year) to test out our cricket skills. We practised bowling, batting and fielding in some mini games in small groups. It was a great lesson and lots of fun!  |
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Oracy - 24.03.25 In our oracy sessions, we recapped the 17 Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals). We looked at the link between some of them and discovered that lots of the goals impact the other other goals. When we work towards one of them, we will actually affect multiple goals. We used string to connect the goals and show this by pulling the goals one at a time to see which other goals are affected.
 This week, we have also explored the UN Rights of the Child. In this activity, we sorted cards into 'Wants' and 'Needs'. We used our oracy skills to justify why we had placed the cards in each category and discussed which article it linked to.
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Art - 19.03.25 To conclude this unit of work, we created our very own 'Radiant Rainforests' on canvases using a range of mediums and materials. We begun by creating a backwash using watercolour paints and tape to create the trees. Then, we added texture to the trees using paint as well as using the printing blocks we made last week to add further layers to our artwork. We sketched a toucan to add to our piece and used different collage skills, such as overlapping, coiling and mosaic, to add more detail. The final pieces are fantastic and we enjoyed sharing them at our exhbition this week!
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Twycross Zoo Trip - 13.03.25 We had a fantastic trip to the zoo this week as part of our 'Radiant Rainforests' unit. Throughout the day, we strengthened the knowledge from our Geography and Science lessons during the spring term. We explored each of the four layers of the rainforest and the animals that are found there, immersing ourselves in a tropical rainforest habitat. We saw some amazing animals including tigers, gorillas and orangutans. Our favourites were the gibbons and the black spider monkeys! Seeing the animals moving within their habitats has enhanced our creative writing back at school where we've written some super narratives about the animal's that live in the rainforest. |
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World Book Day - 06.03.25 We had a fantastic day celebrating World Book Day in our pyjamas and cosy clothes! We enjoyed a fun-filled day of activities linked to the brilliant world of books and loved sharing our favourite books that we had brough in from home. In the morning, we were taught by the Year 5 and 6 teachers, focusing on the authors M. G. Leonard (Beetle Boy) and Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider series). We also made our own origami bookmarks! In the afternoon, we explored the Mr Penguin series by Alex T Smith and created our own adventure for Mr Penguin, designing a new front cover. We also enjoyed some cosy reading time with hot chocolate and biscuits, as well as sharing a story with some of the Year 1 children. What a great day! |
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Science - 28.02.25 This week in Science we explored electrical circuits and built our own simple series circuits using different components including batteries, wires, bulbs and buzzers.  |
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Art - 27.02.25 In today's lesson, we recapped our knowledge of primary and secondary colours before exploring tertiary colours. These are created by mixing a secondary colour with a primary colour. For example red (primary colour) + orange (secondary colour) = red-orange (tertiary colour). We created our own colour wheels, starting with the primary colours and mixing them with the secondary colours. We then mixed these to create the 6 tertiary colours.
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Maths Investigation - 25.02.25 Today we took part in a maths investigation, exploring how to arrange shapes to create the largest and smallest perimeter. We measured the length of each side and calculated the perimeter. We discovered that leaving gaps between the shapes would maximise the length of the perimeter.  |
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Poetry Workshop with Andy Tooze - 12.02.25 We absolutely loved our workshop with poet Andy Tooze! We enjoyed listening to Andy read aloud some of his poems in a fascinating and engaging way before having the chance to write our very own poems. Andy gave us the theme of body parts and shared with us lots of tips and tricks to write brilliant poetry. He encouraged us to have fun and not worry too much if we made mistakes - just have another go! At the end of the session, we spent some timing sharing our poems and reading them aloud. Andy was really impressed with our poetry skills! Our poems were all unique - some of our poems were funny and some of them were a bit gross! The next day, we spent a little bit of time finalising our poems before writing them up in neat. Here are just some of them for you to read and enjoy.
     It was such a valuable experience and has really inspired us for future poetry writing. |
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Art - 06.02.2025 Today we explored the foreground, middle ground and background of artwork and images. We learnt that the foreground appears closer to us and the items in the foreground may appear lighter or in more detail. The items in the background are darker, appear in less detail and seem further away. Artists use these techniques to create depth in the images which means things appear at different distances to us when we look at the picture. We recapped our knowledge of tints and shades from Year 3 to create the effect of foreground, middle ground and background in our own piece of art. Have a look at our gallery below!
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Geography - 28.01.2025 Today we explored the four layers of the rainforest - forest floor, understory, canopy and emergent. We looked at the differences between the four layers and discovered the animals that lived in each of them. We created some brilliant observational drawings of the layers of the rainforest, showing the different types of plants that grow in each one. We had to look at the images carefully and draw what we could see.
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Egyptian Exhibition - 22.01.2025 We really enjoyed showcasing our learning about Ancient Egypt during our exhbition afternoon in our own interactive Egyptian museum. We had a chance to show you our work, including our stunning Egpytian headdresses, and share some of our fantastic learning resources with you such as exploring the banks of the River Nile on the VR headsets. Thank you to everyone who came - it was wonderful to see the buzz of the classroom.  |
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History - 16.01.2025 Today, we explored how important the pyramids were to the Ancient Egyptians. We looked at the pyramids in the VR headsets and researched information about them. We created our own pyramids in groups to display this information.
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History - 15.01.2025 As part of our Egyptian unit of work, we have been learning about mummification and how the Egyptians embalmed bodies of Pharaohs in order to preserve them ready for the afterlife. This week, we replicated the process of mummification to embalm the body of a fish, following each of the steps in the correct order. This included, cleaning the body with special oils, removing the organs, drying out the fish and stuffing it with straw before wrapping it in fabric. It was great fun, albeit a little smelly! It was a super hands-on experience which will certainly help the knowledge to stick in our minds.  |
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PE (Dance) - 09.01.2025 In our dance unit, we have been working hard to learn and remember a street dance routine. Each week, we learnt new moves and added to our routine. We also learnt the difference between dancing in 'unison' (all at the same time) and in 'canon' (each group performing the move at different times). We have had lots of fun practising our dance and enjoyed coming together as a year group to finalise our performance. |
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Christmas Fair - 12.12.2024 We enjoyed sharing our DT creations at our Christmas Fair. Over the week, we worked really hard to plan, design and create a moving winter toy that used a gear system. We had to problem solve and change our design along the way if something didn't go to plan. We were able to utilise our creativity and practise resilience.  |
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Maths - 12.12.2024 Today we enjoyed taking part in a maths investigation to practise our knowledge of times tables and factors.  |
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Art - 10.12.24 This week we have created stunning Egyptian headdresses on calico fabric, selecting the different materials we wanted to use. We took inspiration from two artists, Alaa Awad and Fathi Hassan, as well as taking inspiration from images of headdresses worn by pharaohs in Ancient Egypt. Therefore, they needed to show wealth and power. We had great fun creating these and are really pleased with how unique they are. Scroll through the gallery below to see some of our fantastic artwork and some images from the creative process.
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Art - 06.12.24 Today we explored different styles of Egyptian headdresses and a variety of materials, in preparation for creating our own headdress. We learnt about what different headdresses symbolise and the different ornaments they might have. Then, we created a mood board in our books, practising our sketching skills and testing out materials such as fabric crayons, acrylic paints and gold leaf. We considered what we liked to help us decide what to use when we create our final piece.
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History - WB 25.11.24 This week we have dove deeper into the world of the Egyptians by exploring the social hierarchy within Ancient Egyptian civilisation. We learnt that certain people had much more power than others, such as the pharaohs, government officials and soldiers. We compared and contrasted this to our knowledge of leadership in today's society and in other time periods that we have previously studied such as the Victorians and the Romans. We then took a closer look at some of the most famous pharaohs including Tutankhamun and Cleopatra. In groups, we research one of the pharaohs and shared our findings with the rest of the class. We then presented this information in our books.
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Science - 19.11.24 As part of our current unit, Animals including Humans, we explored food chains within different eco systems. We identified the producer, predator and prey within a food chain and how energy is transferred between each organism. We created our own food chains using photographs of different animals and plants.  |
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History - 13.11.24 As Historians, we took part in a historical enquiry to answer the question, 'How important was the Nile to the life of Ancient Egyptians?' We used a range of sources to answer the question including books, websites and photographs. We learnt how to use view finders to focus on key parts of a photographic source and draw out information. We discovered different ways that the River Nile was used by the Ancient Egyptians including farming, food, materials and transport. We also used the VR headsets to explore the banks of the River Nile.  |
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History - 06.11.24 Today, we began our new unit of work, 'Walk Like an Egyptian'. To begin with, we considered where Ancient Egypt fits within a timeline. We recapped different periods of history that we have learnt about previous years and plotted these onto a timeline. We added key figures and events that we could remember, linked to each of the historical concepts (leadership, community and culture, invasions and conflict, exploration and inventions) and colour-coded these to show the links between different periods of History. We placed Ancient Egypt on our timelines and generated some questions that we would like to find out during our unit of work.
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Unicef Week - 28.10.24 As part of Unicef week, we focused on Global Goal 2: Zero Hunger and considered ways in which we could help the hunger crisis in different parts of the world. Over the week, we designed, created and evaluated our own flavoured bread recipes. First, we began by trying different types of bread and planning out our ideas in groups. We then created a final design, choosing which ingredients we wanted to include. We had to include low-cost vegetables and foods from each section of the eatwell plate to ensure our bread recipe was healthy and balanced. Before baking our bread, we practised cutting, grating and peeling and learnt how to cut safely using the claw technique. Our bread was really tasty and we enjoyed trying it and discussing what we liked and what we would improve.   |
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Science - 16.10.24 This week in Science, we have been learning about the digestive system and how food is processed and digested within the body. Today, we carried out a model experiment of the digestive system to mimic how food is broken down as it moves through the different organs that make up the digestive system. It got very messy but it was very fun and has definitely helped to embed our knowledge of the jobs of the different organs.  |
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Trip to Moorland Discovery Centre - 08.10.24 We had a great time in the Peak District for our first school trip in Year 4! Whilst we were there, we took part in activities to consolidate our learning about rivers as we come towards the end of our unit 'Rolling on a River'. We visted the Longshaw Stream and demonstrated our knowledge of the different parts of the river. Then, we were able to measure the depth, width and current of the river - even getting to go into the river to do this. Our favourite part was measuring the current where we dropped a dog biscuit into a section of the river and used a stopwatch to time how long it took to reach a different point of the river. We also went a fantastic walk around the area to spot different river sources. We walked up a large hill and then down some very steep steps. Whilst at the top of the hill, we tested our knowledge of the water cycle. Overall, it was a brilliant day and we had lots of fun!
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DT- 01.10.24 Today we had an exciting DT day where we planned, designed and made our own water turbine to be able to generate sustainable energy. We learnt all about hydropower which is a type of renewable energy. First, we researched existing products to help with our ideas and then worked together to plan out our designs in groups, thinking carefully about what materials we would need. Then we used our DT skills to make our water turbine, working together as a team and problem solving along the way to create our final product. We then evaluated our products against our success criteria.
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English - 23.09.24 To begin our unit on persuasive speech, we created information posters about freshwater. First, we carried out research to find out key information. We discovered what freshwater is, how it is used by humans and wildlife and what we can do to protect it. We created information posters to show people the importance of freshwater and encourage them to look after it. We made sure they were eye catching and easy to read.
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English - 11.09.24 This week in English we have been exploring the character of Issac from our class text 'The Rhythm of the Rain'. Using evidence from the text, we have discussed Issac's personality and emotions. We created a role on the wall for Issac based on what we had found out before hot seating the character of Issac. We generated interesting questions to ask Issac. When it was our turn to be Issac in the 'hot seat', we answered the questions that we were asked, from Issac's point of view.  |
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Geography - 10.09.24 In Geography this week, we learnt about the water cycle as part of our current unit of work Rolling on a River. Using the VR headsets, we explored each stage of the water cycle and used key vocabulary such as condensation, evaporation and precipitation. We learnt about what happens at each stage, linking this to our Science learning about states of matter. In pairs, we created our own water cycle in a bag, drawing a diagram and labelling each stage. |
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Science - 09.09.24 Today, we learnt about the melting point, which is when a solid changes state into a liquid. When melting occurs, the bonds between the particles get weaker and the particles gain more energy. We investigated the melting point of different foods, making a prediction before conducting an experiment. We melted different foods and measured the temperature using a thermometer to find out each melting point. We discussed how to ensure we carried out a fair test.  |
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Reading Regular reading is extremely important - this is a website that can help you to find books you might like. If you like the author Abi Elphinstone for instance, you will be able to find suggestions of other books similar to her style. https://www.thereaderteacher.com/bookmatch Happy browsing. |
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Year 3 and 4 Statutory Spellings Please click on the attachment below to find the list of statutory spellings that need to be known by the end of Year 4. |
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Alan Peat Sentences Please refer to the attachment below and use the different types of sentences to enhance your writing. |
Rendell Primary School
