Welcome to Kestrel Class

Spring Term 2

07/03/2025- Another great week! It was fantastic to see so many amazing costumes and adjectives on World Book Day and it has been great to see such an enthusiasm for books and reading. This week we have done:

English- We started looking at our new book 'Escape from Pompeii' and have used this as our stimulus for writing sentences with subordinate clauses and direct speech.

Maths- Fractions work. We have looked at improper fractions and mixed numbers. As we continue our work on this, we will look at converting these between one another.

Science- We have set up an investigation about evaporation. Next week, we will carry out the investigation looking at the rate of evaporation in different locations which are all different temperatures.

French- Children wrote some great sentences this week naming parts of the face. They created some of their own aliens with 'deux yeux' and 'neuf oreilles' etc.

RE- We have finished out 'gospel' topic where we have looked at a range of parables and how these link to the Christian belief of 'agape'. We will be moving on to our Christianity 'Salvation' topic next week. 

28/02/2025- It has been so nice to welcome children back to school this week! Kestrels have done a wonderful job of getting straight back into routine, as well as taking a great attitude towards their assesments this week. They have really taken these in their stride and have done such a wonderful job. 

Due to assessments this week, English and Maths learning in the mornings has been minimal, however our afternoons have remained the same. 

We leapt straight back into Geography and our learning about the Mediterranean. This week we discussed why certain produce grows in Mediterranean countries and how interdependence is developed between Mediterranean countries and other countries for this produce.

We also learnt about the water cycle in Science, using vocabulary such as: evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

In French, we have developed our reading skills and were able to comprehend a number of sentences about parts of the face from which we were able to draw an alien based on the description.

In RE, we have been looking at parables told by Jesus and his disciples and how these demonstrate the Christian belief of agape (unconditional love). This week, we looked at a parable called the Widow's gift and had discussions about how agape is represented in this parable.

Term 1

18/10/2025

Year 4s are doing so well considering we are in Week 7 of the term, still with a week to go! We have finished off our Addition and Subtraction topic in Maths, looking at estimating and using checking strategies by using the inverse. We have now moved on to our Measurement topic, focusing specifically on areas of shape. In Year 4, we measure this by counting squares inside a given shape.

We are building up to writing a persusasive letter in English and this week we have generated sentences using subordinate clauses, rhetorical questions, expanded noun phrases and facts and opinions that could be embedded within our letter. We are continuing to work hard on our handwriting, really trying to join using cursive joins and making sure that the presentations of our work is something we are proud of. 

We have come to the end of our 'electricity' topic in Science now. Please discuss with your children what a conductor and insulator is and how to build a simple circuit. This has been a topic that children have really enjoyed as it has been very practical and hands on.

11/10/2025

This week we have spent a lot of time working on our column subtraction when having to do an exchange. This can be quite a tricky concept and the Year 4s have tried so hard and been so patient with getting it right! We enjoyed drawing on the tables and using our place value counters to physically exchange tens for ones, hundreds for tens or thousands for hundreds.

Alongside this, children had a go at writing a newspaper report based on the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus before moving on to our next piece of writing which will be based on the myth of Perseus and Medusa. 

We are nearing the end of our Ancient Greeks topics and will be learning about the legacy they left behind in the coming weeks. We looked at conflict in Ancient Greece this week, specifically the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta. We have been doing some really good computing work as well, focusing on the internet and the difference between web pages and websites. 

We also had fun in Science this week, making our own switches and incorporating them into our electrical circuits!

04/10/2025

We are at the end of Week 5- wow! This term is just flying by and I am loving working with Kestrels class. We have had a great week of Maths, using column addition. In English, we have explored a range of grammatical features and I was impressed to see children work so hard at using relative clauses. We found time this week to do our cauliflower cards (Christmas cards) which have been sent home with children. Should you wish to buy them, please return the form to school. We have been enjoying learning about the Ancient Greeks in History and learnt about Alexander the Great this week. We also had fun on Wednesday learning about conductors and insulators. Children used the circuit building equipment to identify which materials were conductors or insulators and were able to come up with a conclusion based on their findings.

27/09/2024

The weeks are just flying by! I can't believe we are now half way througn Term 1. Kestrels completed some really lovely character descriptions which I am endeavouring to display in the classroom. I hope parents/carers have chance to see these when they are next in school. This week, we have focused on the Greek Myth; Daedalus and Icarus. Using this story about how Icarus got too close to the sun and fell, we are going to be writing a newspaper report. So far, children have focused on accurately punctuating direct speech and how fronted adverbials would help our writing flow better.

In Maths, we have come to the end of our 'Place Value' topic by spending the week focusing on rounding. This can be quite a difficult skill and children have showed real resilience and perseverance with this. Next week, we will be moving onto our 'addition and subtraction' topic.

Children got to experiment with the circuits again in Science, creating circuits with faults in them for their peers to correct. I am also impressed by how children have got in with our Netball topic in PE. We managed to play some mini games of Netball this week and children showed real care over the skills we have practised. Many thanks to all who are continuing to read with their children and encourage them to do their homework. We do have a homework club on a Thursday lunchtime if children are finding it hard to do this at home. 

20/09/2024

I am continuously impressed by the way Year 4 are working so hard and getting on so well with their learning! The jump between Year 3 and 4 can feel quite daunting sometimes, but Kestrels class are handling it so well! We have achieved some fantastic pieces of writing for our first big write of the year about our own mythical creatures. These have been based on the Minotaur as we study Greek Myths in English. Children have also add to their established skills of comparing and order numbers, this time with numbers up to 10,000.

We had a fun, one-off, science lesson this week where we focused on what it means to 'Work scientifically'. We worked as scientists with a range of equipment and different groups changed different variables- either bicarbonate of soda or acid- to see how this affected the height of the foam it created. Alongside this, we also had the wonderful opportunity to partake in Quad Kids on Friday afternoon, experiencing a range of different atheltic activities. A busy but fun week! Thank you Year 4s for your continuous hard work. 

13/09/2024

Another busy week! I cannot express enough how proud and amazed I am by how well Kestrels class have settled into school and got on with some fantastic work! As we are building up to a character description, we have been reading Greek myths which link to our History topic of Ancient Greece. As we have read Theseus and the Minotaur, we are using the Minotaur as the basis for our own mythical character that we are going to create next week. We have been looking at adjectival and prepositional noun phrases and building on these to add description to our character. I have been so impressed Year 4's knowledge surrounding grammar and how they have applied this.

In Maths we continue to build on our knowledge of place value and have been building up our knowledge of 4 digit numbers by placing them on number lines, partitioning them and flexibly partitioning them. Next week, as we continue to build on this, please encourage your children to complete their Doodle maths homework assignment as it will set them up for the upcoming lessons. 

In our foundation subjects, we have practiced a range of passes we may use in Netball during our PE lessons, looked at differences between Athens and Sparta in Ancient Greece and read the origin story for the Hindu festival of Diwali. Kestrels are also enjoying building circuits in Science and working as scientists to get the lightbulb to light up. 

06/09/2024

What a flying start to the year we've had! Children have settled back into school and routine so well. I have been so impressed. 

We have quite quickly got back into the flow of learning and have begun focusing on place value in Maths. We have been representing and partitioning numbers up to 1000. Children have had the opportunity to use Base 10 to do this and physically build the numbers, really thinking about how many hundreds, tens and ones are in the number. As well as this, all children now have a TTRS login! Times tables are so important and we really focus on them in Year 4. Please do try and encourage your children to practice on TTRS when they're at home, even if just for 5 minutes.

We have started reading our whole class novel- The Great Chocoplot, which we are all really enjoying. All children also now have a school reading book. Many thanks to everyone who has already started reading with their children at home. Children have been keen to showing me that they have got their reading records signed! I tend to check these every Friday.