Welcome to Year 4 Kingfishers

Kingfishers are resourceful, hardworking and as the oldest children in the Year 3 and 4 team, we also bring vibrancy and imagination to our daily learning.

THIS TERMS THEME

'Be Curious...'

 Please scroll down to see our curriculum map to find out all about this terms learning.

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 handed out on a Friday and collected in on a Wednesday. This will give you the opportunity to explore aspects of your child's learning if you wish.

Residential Presentation

Please find attached the presentation from Reach Outdoors regarding our upcoming residential in June 2022.

PaddleBoat Theatre Company – Year 4 Residency

What is it?

PaddleBoat Theatre will come in weekly to provide theatre workshops- teaching our Year 4 children drama, collaboration and storytelling skills. Year 4 will spend the Spring Term exploring drama with PaddleBoat and then create a performance as a class. At the end of the Term, Year 4 will go to a professional theatre to share their work with other schools. If COVID-19 prevents this, we will create a film of their work so they can share with their families.

What is the theme?

We will be looking at an original story called ‘The Kid who Cuts the Clouds’. Our children will explore the story and create their own version and/or add to the tale. We will be exploring non-verbal storytelling – teaching Year 4 children how to share a story without words. This may involve learning about body language, how to use masks and puppets, moving to musical scoring and ensemble chorus work.

What is the story?

Have you ever spent a warm summer’s afternoon lying in the grass and staring at the sky, trying to spot shapes in the clouds passing by? My Grandad is the one who makes them look like that! And I am his assistant. I have a very important task. It’s my job to hold his ladder really steady so that he can climb up.

‘The Kid who Cuts the Clouds’ tells the story of what happens when Grandad falls from his ladder and his grandchild has to take up his mantle or risk the sky becoming darker and stormier for the whole village. It explores themes of loss, resilience, bravery and community.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 25th April- First Day of Summer 1

Thursday 19th May and Thursday 26th May- Reach Outdoors- Paddleboarding

Friday 27th May- Last Day of Summer 1

Monday 6th June- Non Pupil Day

Tuesday 7th June- First Day of Summer 2

Wednesday 15th June- Friday 17th June- Kingfishers Residential

Monday 25th July- Last Day of Summer Term

MEET THE TEAM

If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see your class teacher (Mrs Darby) or alternatively please contact our Year lead (Miss Drohan or Mrs Foster).

ljohnson@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

ldrohan@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

lfoster@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021/2022

SUMMER TERM

Summer Term Curriculum Map

Friday 22nd July 2022 - Engineers and Inventors Week

Across the school last week, each year group took part in an 'Engineers and Inventors Week' where we put our Design and Technology skills to the test to design and make an exciting game or toy.  In Year 4, we designed and made our very own race cars.  We started by researching the aerodynamics of a race car and implemented that into our designs.  Using excellent collaborative work, we cut the wood and used a glue gun to make our frame and added axles supports to strengthen it.  We used PurpleMash to design and make the body of the car. When we were finished, we had amazing fun building our ramps and tested them out! Take a look at the pictures!

Thursday 14th July- Sports Day 2022

What a fantastic sports day we've had today! We were so excited coming into school dressed in our house colours. This morning, we went outside and completed our field events, including: turbo javelin, speed bounce, chest pass and triple jump. As you can see we had so much fun completing these alongside Year 5! After this, we took part in our sprint races and came together to cheer each other on. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch with our friends and families. Well done to each house for winning a trophy in the different events! We worked so hard as a team and showed great sportsmanship! Well done Year 4!

Thursday 7th July 2022 - Transition Day

On Thursday, we spent the day in our new Year 5 classroom, Macaws, with our new Year 5 teacher, Miss Noble. We completed activities such as an 'All about me' booklet so that Miss Noble can get to know us as individuals. We also got creative and sketched our self-portraits that were displayed in Macaws' classroom. At the end of the school day, our adults were invited into school to meet our new teacher and see our new classroom. We had a great day and are looking forward to being in Year 5 with Miss Noble in September. Check out photos from our transition day below:

Tuesday 28th June 2022 - Dance

In Year 4 we have been looking at how people stereotype different dance styles. Over the past few weeks we have looked at male and female ballet dancers and had a go at some ballet ourselves.

Tuesday 21st June 2022 - Lego WeDo

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to explore our new Lego WeDo kits. In small teams, we followed the instructions to build and programme a robot that is able to change colour, vibrate and pick up small items. We loved using the Lego WeDo sets and are already asking to use them again ! Check out our learning below:

Friday 17th June- Final Day of Residential

On our final morning in camp, we packed up all of our tents, had a very delicious sausage sandwich for breakfast and said goodbye to camp. We made our way to sunny Goodrington. In the morning, we got straight out into the water and did some kayaking. We then had our picnic lunch before heading out on the water again in the afternoon! We have had an amazing residential and the children have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Well done Kingfishers!
More pictures to follow...

More Photos from Day Three!

We had our lunch on Goodrington Green, where we took part in a biscuit debate! Bourbons vs custard creams! After lunch, we took the giant paddleboards out and played lots of games and jumped in the sea. We then had to run as fast as we could and to slide across the boards. At the end of the day, we had a splash around and got ready to go back to school! We had a fantastic day!

More photos from Day One and Two

Thursday 16th June - Day Two of Residential

What a brilliant day! We woke up early and saw the sunrise! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast and then got ready for our day on Dartmoor. We split into two groups and went climbing and weaselling. Each group worked well as a team and enjoyed climbing the rocks and seeing all the animals that live on Dartmoor! Check out our photos below:

Wednesday 15th June- Day One of Residential

Kingfishers have had a fantastic day so far on our residential! We've enjoyed our scenic walk to camp. Along the way we saw lots of horses! When we got to camp, we had our lunch, sorted our tents out and enjoyed working as a team and playing games. Take a look at photos from day one...

Tuesday 7th June 2022 - The Water Cycle

In Science, we have been learning all about The Water Cycle! Did you know there is the exact same amount of water on Earth today as there was when dinosaurs were alive? That's because water follows a continuous cycle. Water can also come in 3 different states of matter - solid, liquid and a gas. 

In Year 4, we wanted to investigate this and created our own experiment to see all of the different stages of The Water Cycle. These are precipitation, accumulation, evaporation and condensation. Have a look at our incredible experiments below!

Friday 27th May 2022- The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations!

What an amazing day we have had at White Rock! We have spent a whole day celebrating the 70 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. We began the morning by making crowns and bunting to wear and display during our street party lunch. During our whole school assembly, Year 4 created a timeline of the Queen's life with key events from her birth, to her wedding to Prince Philip and her Platinum Jubilee. We then had an amazing street party on the playground with the whole school and to finish the day, we all got together and performed our whole school dance of songs throughout each decade of the Queen's reign! What a fantastic day we've had!

Monday 23rd May 2022- History Visitor

We were lucky to have the chairman of the Torbay Civic Society, to come in and talk to us about our significant historical figure 'Isaac Merritt Singer.' We learnt that he was born in America in 1811 and died in Paignton 1875. Singer is famous for inventing and developing a special part on the sewing machine called the 'shuttle'. The sewing machine was very popular and lots of people all over the world had one in their homes. Singer purchased Fernham Estate, now known as Oldway Mansion, and with the help of George Bridgman, designed Oldway Mansion as a home for his family. We have learnt a lot about our local history today!

Thursday 19th May - Reach Outdoors- Paddleboarding

Kingfishers have had an amazing time down at Goodrington, learning how to Paddleboard! Every single member of Kingfishers gave 100% and worked well as a team learning a new skill during their session with Reach Outdoors. Check out our photographs below.  We can't wait to go again next week!

Monday 16th May 2022 - Maths

This morning, we have set up a class shop with items labelled with individual price tags. Half the class went 'shopping' and purchased two items. We used our knowledge of columnar method to add the amounts together. Our learning partners then played 'shop-keeper' and had to work out how much change to give us as we paid we values of £1, £, 2, £3 and £4. We used various methods such as using a number line to find the difference, as well as, using columnar method for subtraction. Check out the photographs of our learning below:

Friday 13th May 2022 - Science

This week, we have been continuing our Science learning about the three states of matter: Solids, liquids and gases. We have been curious about the speed at which a solid can melt into a liquid so we carried out an experiment to see what would melt ice quicker, sugar or salt? We concluded that ice melts ice quicker than sugar. Check out pictures of our experiment below:

Friday 6th May 2022- Solids, Liquids and Gases!

Our new Science learning is all about states of matter and materials! In Science, we have learnt that each state of matter is made up of different particles. The particles in a solid have strong bongs and have a tight pattern. The particles in a liquid can squeeze and flow past each other but still stay close together. Whereas the particles in a liquid have an irregular pattern and are free to move more independently. We used this knowledge in our Dance lesson with Mrs Tyson and created a dance to music, demonstrating the different states of matter. Can you guess what state of matter each photo is?

Tuesday 26th April 2022- Performance Poetry

What a brilliant start to our new half term! Our new writing journey is all about poetry. We had a discussion about how to perform poetry and agreed we needed to have loud, clear voices for our audience to hear us, actions to help tell the story of the poem and use expression! We got into groups and had a go at memorising and adding actions to poems. As a class, we then shared our performances and reflected upon what we might do differently next time. Well done Kingfishers!

SPRING TERM

Spring Term Curriculum Map

Monday 28th March 2022 - Design and Technology

On Monday, Year 4 designed and made our Viking inspired robots. The brief was to use our History, Science and Design and Technology knowledge to create a robot that portrayed the Viking invasion on Britain in AD793. 

First, we created our base using reinforced recyclable material. Then, we measured and cut wooden dowelling for the axle so our robots could move. We used cotton reels for the wheel with an elastic band attached that would later be hooked on to an electrical motor. 

Later on, we then reinforced a paper net to form the shell of our Viking robots. We decorated them using collage and colour. Finally, we used our prior knowledge of electrical circuits to try and make our robots move. Although not all robots moved, we used excellent problem solving skills and resilience to try our best. We are so proud of you Year 4!

Friday 25th March 2022 - Cooking

On Friday, we had an exciting morning of food preparation. We learnt how to use knife skills and basic food hygiene such as ensuring our hands and equipment are clean before we prepared any food. 

We then split into three groups: Kites' classroom was the 'red onion and mushroom' tomato sauce preparation room, Kingfishers' classroom was the 'pepper and carrot' tomato sauce preparation room and Kestrels' classroom was the 'carrot and courgette' tomato sauce preparation room. All of Year 4 were incredible and thoroughly enjoyed their morning. Have a look at all three class pages for your child's learning.

Thursday 24th March 2022- Paddleboat Theatre Company

We were so lucky today to have the Paddleboat Theatre Company come in to share their performance of 'Margo and Mr Whatsit. It was about a girl called Sophia who has an imaginary friend called Mr Whatsit. No matter where Sophia finds herself living, he's always there with a new joke to tell and a new game to play! We listened really well and had so much fun watching this. Thank you Paddleboat!

Friday 18th March 2022- Red Nose Day!

Today is Red Nose Day! We came into school dressed as superheros or in red! To start the day, we had a whole school assembly about Red Nose Day and Comic Relief. Throughout the day, Year 6 children organised some fun activities for us to do, including red nose and spoon races, guess the number of red noses in the jar, pin the nose and a red nose day coin fill! We have also been drawing our own red noses ready for the competition! Check us out fundraising and raising money for Comic Relief!

Tuesday 8th March 2022- Spinning Eggs

This week, we have started our new Writing journey, 'Marvin and Milo, Adventures in Science'. This is a non-fiction explanatory text and has 45 different Science experiments in! After looking at the text and instructions, we had a go at 'Spinning Eggs'. We found out that if we spin a hard boiled egg and then stop it, it will immediately stop, but when we spin a raw egg, because the yolk isn't attached to the shell, it will continue to spin even though we have stopped it! We had so much fun with this experiment!

Thursday 3rd March 2022- World Book Day

Today is 25th anniversary of World Book Day! We had so much fun coming into school dressed as our favourite book characters...we had lots of Harry Potter's, Mary Poppins, Matilda's, Little Red Riding Hood and Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters! Throughout the day, we put on our author hats and wrote up our very own adventure story! We also had the pleasure of reading with some of the children in Bramblings and we really enjoyed sharing our stories with them. 

Friday 18th February 2022- Music

In Music this half term, we have been listening to a song from the musical 'Matilda' When I Grow Up. We have focussed on the layering of the voices and have also listened to a variety of other songs for comparison and what effect it has. We have listened to the instruments used and have learnt about the different families of an orchestra. While listening to the song we have thought about how the music can portray emotion and can make us feel. As a class, we then performed 'When I Grow Up.' We have enjoyed listening and singing this song. Below are the lyrics if you would like to have a sing along at home!

Thursday 10th February 2022- Reach Outdoors Archery

Today we were really lucky to have Reach Outdoors come into school to teach us the skills of archery. We learnt how to hold a bow and arrow safely and then we tried to hit the targets. During archery, we played games to see where we would go on holiday, who we would go with and how we would travel there, by hitting a certain target. We had so much fun! Check us out in action...

Friday 4th February 2022- PE

Kingfishers were so excited to have PE with Mr Leaman this week. In PE this week our focus was on healthy minds and healthy bodies. We started off by completing a number of activities including jumping over cones. During these activities, we were focussing on how our body changes during exercise. We found out that our heart beats faster, our body heats up, our muscles start to ache and we became slower and our breathing starts to become heavier. We had so much fun.

Friday 28th January 2022- Writing

This week, Year 4 have written non-chronological reports. At the beginning of the week, we practised our writing skills during our shared write and together we wrote a non-chronological report on Mount Everest. On Friday, we showcased what we have learnt throughout our Writing journey and wrote our very own non-chronological report about Dartmoor. Check out our Writing below:

Friday 21st January 2022- Making Circuits in Science!

In Science this week, we have continued our learning all about electricity. At the beginning of our lesson, we were tasked with making a circuit using wires, a cell and a light bulb. As a team we made our circuits, which made our light bulbs turn on! We found out this happens because the cell pushes the electricity along the wires from the positive terminal, through the wires, through the bulb and back to the negative terminal. We had lots of fun making our circuits, check us out in actions.

Friday 14th January 2022- Paddleboat Theatre Company

We were so lucky this morning to start our 12 week residency with Paddleboat Theatre company. We started off by going around the room and saying our names and saying something we like to do with an action, e.g. My names Mason and I like football. Then we learnt a brand new game called Zip, Zap, Bong! During this game, we learnt the importance of taking it in turns and team work. To finish off today's session, we imagined we had a suitcase and had to mine an item we pulled out of it. We had so much fun and can't wait until next week!

Friday 7th January 2022

Happy New Year Kingfishers! 

We have had a fantastic start to the Spring Term immersing ourselves in our Y4 learning. In ICT, we have learnt how to programme a 'Knock Knock' joke on Scratch software. In Dance, we were practising our Rio 2 inspired dances ready for our performance in next week's lesson. In Spanish, we recapped how to say different breakfast foods in Spanish. We also learnt that most Spanish families have hot chocolate with their breakfast! In Music, we made posters about different families in an Orchestra such as woodwind and strings. Check out some photographs of this week's learning below:  

AUTUMN TERM

Autumn Term Curriculum Map

Friday 17th December 2021- Christmas Week

For our last week of term, we've had lots of fun getting ready for the Christmas holidays. We have created a class Christmas tree by decorating baubles and writing kindness messages to our friends. In music, we have used the boomwhackers to learn different Christmas songs. We had so much learning these songs. On Thursday, we enjoyed our Christmas dinner in the hall. We listened Christmas songs and had a sing along. We enjoyed all of our food especially our pigs in blankets! 

Friday 10th December- 9 Times Tables!

Kingfishers have worked so hard this week to recall new times tables facts, including the 9s! We watched a video that taught us how to use our hands to help us quickly recall 9 times tables multiplications. Mrs Darby gave us calculations to solve using our newly learnt skill. We did such a great job at this and now we know our 9 times tables!

Friday 3rd December 2021 - Art

In our Art learning this week, we have been exploring malleable materials. We had great fun exploring plasticine. Independently, we all followed a set of instructions about how to create an Anglo-Saxon pot. Then, we added extra details such as carving pattern or adding a lid or a handle. Check out our amazing pottery below:

Thursday 25th November- Spanish

In Spanish, we have learnt about Guatemala, which is a country in South America that speak Spanish. We found out that it takes some children in Guatemala 2 and a half hours to get to school each day and when children are worried their adults give them a worry doll to help take away the worries. After looking at some worry dolls, we made our very own with our learning partners. 

Friday 19th November 2021- Science

In Science this week, we've been learning about different habitats and animals that live in these habitats. We learnt that these animals have special characteristics to help them survive, for example, a giraffe has a long neck to help it eat the leaves from the trees. With our learning partner, we then chose an animal and decided which habitat they live in and wrote about their characteristics. Check out our learning below.

Friday 12th November 2021 - PE

This half term, we have started to learn the rules and skills required to play table tennis. We have already started to notice improvement in our hand and eye co-ordination. Check out our learning below:

Friday 5th November 2021- Outdoor Learning Day

Today is Outdoor Learning Day. As part of our new Science learning 'Living things and their habitats', we started by discussing what makes something living and non-living. We used the acronym 'MRS NERG' to help us classify the objects we discussed. We then went outside and explored in the woodland any living and non-living things. We decided that the metal railings and a dead leaf were non-living as they don't move and respire, however the goats and the trees are living because they move and grow.

Friday 22nd October 2021- Art

This half term, in Art, we have learned all about our focus artist Frida Kahlo. We have learned how to draw self-portraits and looked at drawing our facial features in proportion to the rest. After this, we then created colourful frames using images and materials of our favourite things! Check out our amazing learning below...we had a lot of fun in these lessons!

Tuesday 12th October 2021 - Dance

In Dance this week, we have been beginning to create dances that show the characteristics of Viking Gods and Goddesses. We are having to include these 5 basic actions - jump, turn, travel, stillness and gesture.

Friday 8th October 2021 - Geography

This week, we have continued our Geography learning about South America. We have learnt how to use a 4-figure grid reference to locate Brazilian cities on a map. Check out Kingfishers developing their map reading skills below:

Friday 1st October 2021 - Science

For our Science learning this week, we have investigated the digestive system. We have built upon our previous learning about the function of teeth and started to think about what happens to our food once we swallow it. During our investigation, we found out that we have stomach acid to help break down our food before it is moves along to the intestines. Inside the intestines (which we replicated with tights), we learnt that nutrients (tropical juice) gets absorbed from the food we have eaten (bread) and that we are left with a waste product. Finally, we investigated the final stages of digestion with the waste product exiting our body (plastic cups). Have a look at our investigation below.

Friday 24th September 2021- Art

This week in Art, we had a go at drawing self-portraits of ourselves ready for our learning all about Frida Kahlo. We used a photograph of ourselves to draw from and we focused on the small details of our faces. Look at us in action!

Friday 17th September 2021- Spanish

We were so excited to have our first Spanish lesson in Year 4! We played lots of different games to help us learn different Spanish greetings such as Hasta La Vista and Hasta luego, Hasta pronto and adios!  We also recapped counting to 10 and beyond. Have a look at our amazing Spanish learning below!

Friday 10th September 2021 - PSHE

A huge welcome to Year 4 - we have quickly settled in to our new classroom and have already started getting to know each other. In PSHE, we have learnt about our rights as human beings and together, we have created our class charter. Kingfishers have shown fantastic teamwork throughout this week, well done Kingfishers!