English
Our book for our writing lessons is called The Bluest of Blues. It’s a non-fiction book about Anna Atkins who was a botanist, illustrator and photographer of nature in the Victorian era. She was fascinated with drawing and learning about beetles so we’ve tried to become experts on them too. We’ve looked at lots of information books about them, watched short clips as well as studied closely real beetles encased in resin.
Maths
We’ve started learn about column addition and column subtraction. It’s been a bit tricky for some of us to understand what regrouping means when we’re adding and what exchanging means when we’re subtracting. Overall, we’re really proud of how much we’ve learnt about these new methods and we’re pleased that we can use them independently in the lessons.
Science
Our unit this term is all about living things and their habitats. To start if off, we spent the whole morning our surveying our school grounds. It was a very cold morning so we were worried that we wouldn’t see much, but we couldn’t believe how many different living things we found. Underneath the trees at the top of the field, we found 100s of worms hiding under the logs and leaves. Although there were spiders webs frozen on the walls and fences, we didn’t find any spiders. We came across larvae in the nature area as well as woodlouse, snails and slugs. In the bushes and hedges around the grounds, there were lots of different birds and beetles. One of our favourite sights was a family of squirrels playing chase across the trees in front of the school.
Geography
Our focus this term is looking at climate change and the impact on our world. We’ve set up weather stations to measure the weather over the next month so we have a bank of data to analyse. We’ve already had minus temperatures and rainfall. We’ve been surprised at some of the wind speed data; one day, the wind speed was 22mph! We have also looked at the changing temperatures of the planet from 1960-2020. Did you know that the average global temperature has continued to increase each decade and we are now experiencing the hottest weather since records began. We know that if this continues, our planet is at risk of being damaged beyond repair.
Art
We are learning about Jackie Morris who is an amazing artist and author.
She is well known for drawing so many different things from nature. She uses watercolours and inks to draw her pictures. For the last few weeks we’ve being having a go at trying to draw some of her pieces. We can’t believe that Jackie Morris can paint her images sometimes without having to draw them first. Some of the most common animals that feature in her works are otters, magpies, foxes and snakes. Her illustrations are amazing. We have also had a go at using inks to see if we can draw with them just like Jackie.
Class story
Miss Tonner is very happy with the class read this term because it’s one of her all time favourite books written for children: The Legend of Podkin One-Ear. We don’t want to give too much away so here’s a little sum up what the book is about. Podkin is a rabbit who has an older sister and younger brother. They live in Munberry Warren with their family. One night their settled home is disturbed by an enemy and Podkin’s family have to battle to survive. We’re 1/2 way through the book and we’re loving it.
Production
We’re excited that the spring term will end with the Y3/4 show of Forever Treasure Island. The Y4s are working hard to learn their lines and actions for the stage. All of the class are loving learning the songs and we already have our favourites! Look out for the costume and ticket letters coming out to parents soon.
