WELCOME TO YEAR 4 KESTRELS
Kestrels are enterprising and creative, and they approach all their endeavours with focus, commitment and enthusiasm, so they can soar above the land. As the older members of the year 3/4 team, the Kestrels use all these skills to be positive role models to the whole White Rock team.
P.E AND DANCE DAYS
P.E. and Dance are on Tuesdays.
Please ensure that your child has the correct kit in school all week. We will ensure that they are sent home at the end of every half term.
HOME LEARNING DAYS
Home Learning will be set every Friday and expected to be returned by the following Wednesday.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kestrels Swimming Lessons:
Monday 19th April
Monday 26th April
Monday 10th May
Monday 17th May
Monday 24th May
Kestrels Reach Outdoors Sessions:
Thursday 29th April
Thursday 6th May
For Reach Outdoors sessions, please ensure your child has swimwear to be worn under a wetsuit and a towel for drying afterwards.
Parents Evening:
Monday 17th May and Thursday 20th May
#Explore More Science Fair:
Wednesday 7th July
Sports Day:
Wednesday 21st July
SUMMER TERM
2.7.21 - Home Learning
For home learning this week, please use the words in your home learning books and the music that can be found using these links to learn the songs ready for our trip next Friday.
https://www.devonyouthorchestras.org/devon-day
Calling all Year 4 Scientists - Home Learning 11.6.21
As we continue our theme of #ExploreMore, we’d like you to be scientists for home learning this week!
Look at the picture below – It’s a picture of sprinkles on top of a piece of cling film which has been stretched across the top of a bowl.
Predict
What do you think will happen when someone hums right next to it? Write down your prediction.
Observe
Watch this video of the experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoeDI-YkzI0 (This link can be found on your class page on the school website)
Explain
Write or draw what you saw. Can you explain it using scientific language that we’ve been thinking about this week?
If you'd like an extra challenge of doing a similar experiment, have a look at this:
Friday 21st May 2021 - Writing
This week, we have immersed ourselves in poetry. We can now write both a Tanka and a Didactic Cinquain poem. We all had a go at performing our poems to each other too! Did you know Tanka poems are a Japanese style of poetry and must be 31 syllables? Check out some of Kestrels' children reading their Tanka or Didactic Cinquain poems aloud.
IMG_4891.MOV
IMG_4889.MOV
IMG_4896.MOV
IMG_4888.MOV
Friday 7th May - Art
In our Art journey this term, we will be studying Claude Monet and his influence within Art. We have begun are learning by studying the style, techniques, inspiration, composition and use of colour. We then evaluated some of Claude Monet's most famous pieces by commenting feelings towards it and critiquing the artistic choices within paintings. Have a look at our sketchbooks which feature some of our learning from our artist study session.
Friday 30th April 2021 - Paddle boarding with Reach Outdoors
On Thursday, we had a very fun morning at Goodrington sands. We pulled on our wetsuits, slid on our buoyancy vests and buckled up our safety helmets as we plunged into the sea for a fantastic morning of paddle boarding and surfing back to shore on the waves. Check out our photographs below:
Friday 23rd April 2021
This week, we have started our new learning journey based on Ted Hughes' Iron Man. We created our own Iron Man-inspired character. Next, we had a go at writing the opening in the style of Hughes using descriptive devices to describe our character to the reader. Then, we up-levelled our writing by using fronted adverbials, embedded clauses, up-levelled adjectives and varied sentences. Check out some of our Writing below:
SPRING TERM
Home Learning 19.3.21
This week, we have started to look at electricity. We has so much fun trying to make circuits. We created light by lighting up the light bulb and movement by rotating the motor! Well done Kestrels.
Friday 12th March - Maths
We are back! We are so excited to be back in the classroom, It has been amazing seeing all your happy faces :) . This week, we have started our new Math's topic - Fractions. You've all engaged so well with your learning, identifying a unit and non-unit fraction and you can all represent these in multiple ways. Well done Kestrels, I'm so proud of you all and very excited about this Term's learning! Check out our Math's learning below:
AUTUMN TERM
This term, we will celebrate our dreams and aspirations by ultimately creating a picture book that captures what ‘free to be me’ means to us. We will recognise that life isn’t plain-sailing and we may need to overcome barriers but that no characteristic (including race, religion and gender) within us should limit us.
Friday 4th December- Hinduism
This week, we have had an RE focus and have started to learn about Hinduism; building upon our knowledge from Year 3 when we learnt about Diwali. We now know that Hindus believe in a god called Brahman and that he is part of The Trimurti alongside Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. We also learnt about 'atman'. Hindu's believe that everyone has a spark of Brahman (god) within them and atman is similar to our soul. We made our own models of a living thing using play dough and embedded a jewel inside it to represent atman. Check out our learning below!
Friday 27th November - Science
In Year 4, we have started looking at different states of matter. The children have successfully classified solids and liquids and described their properties. Yesterday we investigated gases and enjoyed listing the gases that we are aware of! The class carried out a couple of investigations to explain how we know gases are there even when we can't see them. One of those was trying to squash a bottle with the lids tightly on - it turns out the bottles weren't empty after all!!
Friday 20th November- Reach Outdoors
Wow, Kestrels had so much fun! As always, you have shown great resilience and have adapted well to the changes both inside and outside of school during this National Lockdown period.
This week, we got on our warm clothing and wellies and ventured out to the school field to learn archery with the brilliant Reach Outdoors team.
Thursday 5th November - Music
In music this week, we have listened to the timeless pop song by Abba - Mamma Mia! We found out that that song name is derived from Italian where it is used in situation of surprise and how it translates in English to 'My Mother', We then focused on on rhythm patterns that begin after a rest, in the same way that the first three lines of the chorus from Mamma Mia do. We had lots of fun creating our own music!
Friday 16th October 2020- Maths
This week in Maths, we have been learning about the columnar method for subtraction. Kites worked amazingly with their learning partners to understand what happens when exchanging. We took it in turns to represent using place value counters and the columnar method.
Furthermore, Kestrels were incredible at their Spanish this week. Check out the Spanish page on our school website to see some of Kestrels' writing and speaking in Spanish!
This week, we have immersed ourselves in our new Year 4 text 'Sulwe'. We created a story map to help retell the story and learn the structure of the text. Check out the learning below.
Friday 25th September - Learning Journey and Maths
This week, we've continued with our second writing journey of the year based around the text 'Bill's New Frock'. The book highlights how differently girls and boys can be treated through the main character, Bill. We decided to explore how gender might affect the way we experience life. We considered the statement "Girls shouldn't be allowed to play on the field at break and lunch times." We shared our opinions as we responded to the statement and discussed how it made us feel. We then wrote a discursive text to highlight views from both sides of the argument. We have also consolidated our place value knowledge through mathematical games by ordering and comparing 4-digit numbers. Take a look at the photos below. Well done Kestrels!
18.09.20 - Science
Another great week getting stuck into our Year 4 learning. This week, we have refreshed our minds of some of our Year 2 Science, remembering the seven characteristics of living things. We went outside to find some living things and write about how we knew it was living. We also began our second writing journey of the year as we considered the statement "Girls shouldn't be allowed to play on the field at break and lunch times." There was some passionate debate and we started to look at how to present this in a discursive text.
11.09.20 - Welcome back Kestrels
It's been so great to have everyone back to school this week! In Kestrels, we've got off to a great start. The class have done brilliantly at consolidating on their place value knowledge and taking on rounding for the first time. Leading up to Roald Dahl day on Sunday (13th), we've been reading The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me and thinking about why they work so well as a team. We've started to think about the the amazing talents, skills and personalities we each have and how we can help our learning partner by working as a team. Finally, we discussed how important READING is - Take a look at some of our learning!
