Lostock Gralam C of E Primary School
Goldfinches: Blog items
Goldfinches WB 28.2.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 17th Feb 2022 @ 6:37pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Another wonderful week! We have loved seeing the children use their knowledge and imagination to immerse themselves into the characters of Pompeii in AD79!
Friday Superstar: Harriet
Top Table: Tilly and Erica
This week:
Worship: We have listened to the story of the Good Samaritan and reflected on how we can look after all of our neighbours.
After Half Term:
TRIP DAY- Tuesday 1st March is our trip to Chester Grosvenor Museum. As part of the day will be outside, please ensure your child wears warm, comfortable footwear and warm tracksuit bottoms with their school uniform polo shirt and jumper. I would recommend a warm, waterproof coat, hat and gloves. Please send a snack and water bottle as well as either a packed lunch, or a pre-ordered school packed lunch.
World Book Day- Wednesday 2nd March. Your child can choose to dress up as a character from a book or wear their own clothes.
Writing: We have completed our wonderful Escape from Pompeii recounts this week. We will focus on poetry and will enjoy celebrating world book day.
Reading: We will enjoy poetry and will complete our reading about volcanoes.
Reading homework- There are more and more of my lovely flock of Goldfinches who are working hard to meet my challenge. I’m so proud of the reading you are doing regularly at home. Keep up the great work!
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings are words with the sound k spelt que:
Spellings: unique, cheque, antique, grotesque, boutique, picturesque, plaque, arabesque, mosque, opaque
Maths: Monday with Mrs Judge will be focusing on perimeter and Maths with Mrs Evans will continue with our new focus of multiplication.
Times Tables Homework:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples have another go playing coconut multiples 7x tables this week.
Use MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise 9x and 7x times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: We will begin our focus on Salvation in Christianity.
History/Geography: Our trip to Chester will immerse us into the world of Romans and we will reflect on our learning in our lesson later in the week.
PE: Monday and Friday- Mr Ault Hockey, Gymnastics and agility. Thursday- Swimming will continue until Easter.
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele.
German: We will learn some classroom commands.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child.
Have a lovely, restful and safe half term,
Mrs Evans and Mrs Judge
Goldfinches WB 14.2.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 10th Feb 2022 @ 4:38pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Another wonderful week and every Goldfinch impressed us with their enthusiasm in swimming!
Friday Superstar: Thomas
Top Table: Jessica and Violet
This week:
Worship: We have spent time learning about the importance of good Mental Health and staying safe online as part of e-safety day.
Next Week:
Writing: We are enjoying learning about Mount Vesuvius and the events in Pompeii. We will continue to use this for inspiration for our writing next week.
Reading: We are really becoming experts on volcanoes and will continue to enjoy building up a bank of vocabulary and knowledge next week.
Reading homework- There are more and more of my lovely flock of Goldfinches who are working hard to meet my challenge. I’m so proud of the reading you are doing regularly at home. Keep up the great work!
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings are from the Y3/4 statutory word list:
Spellings: guard, guide, heard, heart, height, history, imagine, increase, important.
Maths: Monday with Mrs Judge will be recapping perimeter and Maths with Mrs Evans will continue with our new focus of multiplication. We will solve addition and multiplication problems by investigating and exploring arrays.
Times Tables Homework:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples have another go playing coconut multiples 7x tables this week.
Use MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise 9x and 7x times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: We will discuss why it is important to belong to a community.
Science: We will learn about the components needed to make a simple working circuit and how to record this as a scientific diagram.
History: Our inquiry based lesson will use drama to explore the dilemma of people caught up in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the impact it had on the city of Pompeii.
Geography: We will continue to map the route the Romans took as their empire grew to include Britain. We will locate places of importance to the Romans- Kent, London, Chester, York and Bath.
PSHCE: Too Much Selfie isn’t Healthy is our Heart Smart focus.
PE: Monday and Friday- Mr Ault Team-building and Dodgeball. Thursday- Swimming
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele.
German: We will recap our learning from this half term and write ‘all about me’
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans and Mrs Judge
Goldfinches WB 3.2.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 3rd Feb 2022 @ 8:19pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Gorgeous focus and concentration this week!
Friday Superstar: Destinee
Top Table: James and Jake
This week:
Worship: We have celebrated Chinese New Year and had the chance to reflect by making our own lanterns. We shared and compared a bible story and modern story about forgiveness.
Next Week:
Writing: we will build up our understanding of the present perfect tense, expanded noun phrases and the use of paragraphs to write a recount of the events in Pompeii in AD79.
Reading: We will answer retrieval questions, choose a section of the Volcanoes book to read and make up our own questions for.
Reading homework- Well done to all of the children who are working hard to meet my challenge. I’m so proud of the reading you are doing regularly at home.
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings are a revision of words with double consonants in the middle. Have a go at playing the double consonants game!
This week’s words: shattered, giggly, collector, wettest, fitter, travelled, fizzing, stopped, planning, terrify
Maths: Monday with Mrs Judge will be learning about fractions of Kilometres and Maths with Mrs Evans will continue with our new focus of multiplication. We will recap multiplying by 1 and 0 and move on to multiplying by 10 and 100.
Times Tables Homework:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples use coconut multiples to have a go at 7x tables this week.
Use MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise 9x and 7x times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: We will learn about how belonging to a community is important to Muslims.
Science/DT: We will tinker with and explore what components are needed to make a simple working circuit.
Computing: In our e-safety lesson we will learn how to keep our data private and learn how to choose sensible passwords. Tuesday is National Online Safety day where we will have a visit from PCSO Phil.
History: We will place the stages of the Roman Empire on a timeline.
PE: Monday and Friday- Mr Ault Team-building and Dodgeball. Thursday- Swimming
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele.
German: We will learn the seasons of the year.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans and Mrs Judge
Goldfinches WB 31.1.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 27th Jan 2022 @ 6:25pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
What wonderful enthusiasm you have shown in your learning this week!
Friday Superstar: Gabriel
Top Table: Connor and Yara
This week:
Worship: We have shared and discussed our school mission statement and the talked about the beautiful new bible quotes which are around school. Ethos group have also asked the class for ideas for our new school prayer.
Next Week:
Writing: We will learn how to use and punctuate direct speech, organise ideas in to paragraphs and write a diary entry from the point of view of Tranio (the main character)
Reading: We will read and record information from our non-fiction text: Volcanoes.
Reading homework- I have set Goldfinches a little challenge to try and fill up more of their diary pages with little and often reading at home. Please support your child to get into a routine of reading regularly at home and recording this in their diary.
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings are words with the prefixes il, un, in, im and dis
This week’s words: illegal, illogical, illiterate, unkind, unclear, incomplete, incorrect, impolite, disagree, dislike
Maths: Monday with Mrs Judge will be learning about Kilometres and Maths with Mrs Evans will move onto our new focus of multiplication. We will recap multiplying by 1 and 0 and move on to multiplying by 10 and 100.
Times Tables Homework:
Have a go at using MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise 9x and 7x times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: we will find out about how a mosque is an important part of the community.
Science: We will learn about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet and what each type of food is important for within our bodies.
Computing: In our e-safety lesson we will learn how to keep our data private and learn how to choose sensible passwords.
History and Geography: We will use atlas and mapping skills to identify the countries and capital cities the Romans would have travelled through in order to conquer Britain.
PE: Monday and Friday- Mr Ault Team-building and Dodgeball. Thursday- Swimming
PSHCE: Our Heartsmart focus is ‘Too much selfie isn’t healthy’
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele.
German: We will learn the months of the year.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans and Mrs Judge
Goldfinches WB 24.1.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 19th Jan 2022 @ 9:25pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Goldfinches have worked very hard this week.
Well done my lovely flock of superstars.
Friday Superstar: Tilly
Top Table: Gracie and Hannah
This week:
Worship: We have learned about Agents of Hope and the kindness people have shown- particularly during times of Lockdown and isolation. We have discussed how we can all be Agents of Hope. We have also shared ideas with Ethos group to help them write a new school prayer
Writing: We will learn about the present perfect tense and how to use it in our writing within the theme of Escape from Pompeii and recap the use of commas in a list of adjectives.
Reading: We will look at how different features of non-fiction texts help us to understand what we are reading: words in bold, labels, diagrams, captions, colour, headings and subheadings.
Reading homework- I have been so impressed with so many more Goldfinches recording their reading and sharing lovely little snippets of their reading with me. Keep up the great work.
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings are from the Y3/4 statutory word list
This week’s words: experiment, extreme, famous, favourite, February, forwards, fruit, grammar, group
Maths: We will continue to apply our knowledge of addition and subtraction to word problems. Mrs Judge will continue our work on coordinates.
Times Tables Homework:
Have a go at using MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise 9x and 7x times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: we will learn about what happens in a mosque.
Science: We will learn about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet and what each type of food is important for within our bodies.
History and Geography: We will use atlas and mapping skills to identify the countries and capital cities the Romans would have travelled through in order to conquer Britain.
PE: Monday and Friday- Mr Ault Team-building and Dodgeball. Thursday- Swimming
PSHCE: We will discuss marriage through reading our No Outsiders book ‘King and King’.
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele.
German: We will learn the days of the week.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans and Mrs Judge
Goldfinches WB 17.1.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 13th Jan 2022 @ 5:16pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Goldfinches have had another wonderful week.
Well done my lovely flock of superstars.
Friday Superstar: Willow
Top Table: Samuel and Harriet
This week: Don’t forget your swimming kit on Thursday.
Worship: In worship we enjoyed a visit from Imran who helped us learn all about the 5 Pillars of Islam. In class worship we have listened to the story of Zacchaeus and reflected on our new Christian Value: Forgiveness.
Writing: We will continue to explore our new English text ‘Escape from Pompeii’ which has captured so many of our interests. We will continue to use a rich and varied vocabulary in our writing and practice using a range of prepositions and adverbs to tell our readers when and where something happened in our diary entries from the point of view of Tranio.
Reading: We will find out all about what volcanoes are and how they erupt. We will continue to build our vocabulary and use dictionaries to help this.
Reading homework- I have been so impressed with so many more Goldfinches recording their reading and sharing lovely little snippets of their reading with me. Keep up the great work.
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings all use the suffix ‘sion’
This week’s words: explosion, television, collision, division, invasion, decision, erosion, confusion, revision, illusion
Maths: We will apply our knowledge of addition and subtraction to word problems. Mrs Judge will continue our work on coordinates.
Times Tables Homework:
Have a go at using MATHSFRAME to begin to get used to the way the multiplication tables check will be carried out later in the year.
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Try times tables memory to practise x4 and x8 times tables
https://www.timestables.co.uk/times-tables-memory.html
RE: Now we have learned about beautiful Islamic art (and how mathematical the patterns are) will begin our new topic learning all about Islam and build on the knowledge Imran shared with us in worship last week.
Science: We will learn about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet.
DT: We will taste test the ingredients for Greek Salad and design our own Greek inspired salad. We will learn to cut and slice ingredients safely and will assemble and taste our salads. Yummy!
History and Geography: We will learn where and when the Roman Empire began and the countries that were part of it.
PE: Swimming will begin on Thursday 20th for Y4. Please remove earrings at home (unless recently pierced) and come to school with long hair securely tied back. PE with Mr Ault is on Mondays and Fridays until further notice. As the outside area can get quite wet, please send in a spare pair of shoes and socks for your child to change into should they need to. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart lesson is about recognising our feelings.
Music: We will continue to learn Ukulele on Thursdays.
German: We will learn to say how many brothers and sisters we have.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans
Goldfinches WB 10.1.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 7th Jan 2022 @ 7:42am
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a happy and relaxed holiday.
Goldfinches have returned to school with such enthusiasm and have worked so well this week.
Please book a slot for parent teacher phone calls on Friday 14th January
Worship: This week in worship we have learned about the importance of Epiphany and have found out how it is celebrated in different countries.
Writing: We will continue to explore our new English text ‘Escape from Pompeii’ and focus on using a rich and varied vocabulary in our writing.
Reading: Our new Reading text is a non-fiction book on Volcanoes which we are enjoying and are learning some very technical new vocabulary from.
Reading homework- please keep up the great work with our mission to read for 15 minutes daily at home. This helps so much with our reading, imagination, punctuation and sentence structure… but, more importantly, is so much fun!
Spelling homework: This week’s spellings all use sc in the sound s.
This week’s words: scissors, ascend, descend, science, scientist, scene, muscle, fascinate, crescent, scent
Maths: We are continuing to learn subtraction using the formal column method and applying this to word problems. Mrs Judge will focus on developing the coordinates work we began learning about before Christmas.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Tommy’s Trek to practise x6, x9 with division facts, or challenge yourself to mixed tables. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/318/Tommys-Trek-Times-Tables
RE: We will begin our new topic learning all about Islam.
Science: We will learn about the function of each part of the digestive system and the importance of fibre to keep our digestive system healthy.
History: We will re-cap what life was like before the Romans arrived in Britain in the Iron Age.
Computing: We will learn to programme in our lesson this week.
PE: PE with Mr Ault will now be on Mondays and Fridays until further notice. As the outside area can get quite wet, please send in a spare pair of shoes and socks for your child to change into should they need to. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart lesson focused on listening to our positive inner voice and choosing to ignore the negative to keep our hearts happy.
Music: We had a wonderful first Ukulele lesson and look forward to our next lesson on Thursday.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans
Goldfinches WB 3.1.22, by Mrs Evans
Date: 4th Jan 2022 @ 8:20pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a happy and relaxed holiday.
It was lovely to see all of your smiling faces today and hear some of your holiday news.
This week:
Worship: This week in worship we are learning about the importance of Epiphany and finding out how it is celebrated in different countries.
Writing: We will make predictions about our new English book and recap noun phrases and expanded noun phrases.
Reading: Our new Reading text is a non-fiction book on Volcanoes.
Reading homework- please keep up the great work with our mission to read for 15 minutes daily at home. This helps so much with our reading, imagination, punctuation and sentence structure… but, more importantly, is so much fun!
Spelling homework: The spellings are from the Y3/4 Statutory word list.
This week’s words: century, circle, certain, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult
Maths: We are learning to subtract using the formal column method.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Tommy’s Trek to practise x6, x9 with division facts, or challenge yourself to mixed tables. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/318/Tommys-Trek-Times-Tables
Science: We will learn about the function of each part of the digestive system.
History: We will learn about the legacies left by the Ancient Greeks- Olympics, Alphabet, Architecture, Democracy, and Famous Greek people.
PE: PE will be on Wednesday and Friday this week. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days. As the outside area can get quite wet, please send in a spare pair of shoes and socks for your child to change into should they need to.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart lesson focused on listening to our positive inner voice and choosing to ignore the negative to keep our hearts happy.
Music: We will begin our Ukulele lessons this week.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child.
Mrs Evans
Goldfinches WB 13.12.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 9th Dec 2021 @ 7:57pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
What a fantastic week- with everybody back together again!
You have all made me so proud with the way you have put so much focus and effort into the assessments and our final piece of Leon writing.
Friday Super star: Erica
Top Table: Destinee
If your child would like to send a Christmas card- this is absolutely fine, but please just send to the children in Goldfinches as we will not be delivering cards to different classrooms.
Worship: This week in worship we have listened to the Christmas story and discussed the Good News it shares.
Next Week:
Monday: Every child will make a Christingle and we will enjoy an online Christingle service.
Tuesday: We will watch the Pantomime virtually from our classroom.
Wednesday: Christmas jumper day, Christmas lunch and Christmas fair.
Thursday: Christmas Carol service.
Friday: Christmas party day – wear own clothes and have a party lunch. (The children will have a shorter PE lesson with Mr Ault so please send in trainers and a warm hoodie) School closes at 1pm.
Next Week:
Writing: We will edit our diary entries.
Reading: We will continue to read ‘The Train to Impossible Places’ and find out where Suzy ends up next!
Reading homework- please keep up the great work with our mission to read for 15 minutes daily at home. This helps so much with our reading, imagination, punctuation and sentence structure… but, more importantly, is so much fun!
Spelling homework: As we did our assessments last week, we have rolled over the spellings from last week and will test them in this final week. The spellings are from the Y3/4 Statutory word list.
This week’s words: century, circle, certain, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult
Maths: We have learned to add using the formal column method and next week we will learn about coordinates with a christmas theme .
Times Tables Homework:
Try Tommy’s Trek to practise x6, x9 with division facts, or challenge yourself to mixed tables. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/318/Tommys-Trek-Times-Tables
RE: This week RE will focus on Christingle.
Science: We will continue to learn about the function of each part of the digestive system.
History: We will present our learning about Alexander the Great and answer the question: ‘How Great was Alexander the Great?’
PE: PE will be on Wednesday and Friday this week. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days. As the outside area can get quite wet, please send in a spare pair of shoes and socks for your child to change into should they need to.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart lesson focused on finding visible and invisible similarities and differences between us. We listened to and discussed the story of The Invisible Boy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNHc2XCultQ
Music: We enjoyed playing the Glockenspiels to recap the notes DEF and added the note C. We learned what ‘improvisation’ was and had a go!!!!
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans
Goldfinches WB 6.12.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 2nd Dec 2021 @ 10:00pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Well done to EVERYBODY this week- whether you have been at home or at school or a bit of both, you have all been amazing. We can't wait to all be back together as a full class again.
If your child would like to send a Christmas card- this is absolutely fine, but please just send to the children in Goldfinches as we will not be delivering cards to different classrooms. Thank you.
Worship: This week in worship we have explored the idea that God’s love cannot be measured and that a little bit of love goes a long way. We also had a an Awe and Wonder moment when we played in the snow on Monday. What beautiful grounds we have!
Next Week:
Mrs Judge will be teaching in Year 1 so Mrs Evans will be in class again on Monday.
Reading and Writing: This week we have been writing from a different point of view after sharing pros and cons in a conscience alley about whether our character Leon should enter the magic box. Next week we will use noun phrases to help make rich and varied language choices in our writing.
Reading homework- please keep up the great work with our mission to read for 15 minutes daily at home. This helps so much with our reading, imagination, punctuation and sentence structure… but, more importantly, is so much fun!
Spelling homework: This week our spellings are from the Y3/4 Statutory word list
This week’s words: century, circle, certain, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult
Maths: This week we have investigated the symmetry of quadrilaterals. We have learned to reason about addition and subtraction problems, add 1, 10, 100 and 1000 to 4-digit numbers and looked at the formal method of addition for numbers that don’t cross the 10, 100 or 1000 boundary. Next week we will continue with column addition and subtraction.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test which lots of children are now working on. The next times tables will be 9x tables.
Have a go at Coconut multiples this week to help you practise https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples
Science: We saw the rather shocking results of our own investigation into the effects of different drinks on our teeth. We chose to leave boiled eggs in coke, Lucozade, fresh orange juice, dilute cordial and sugar free lemonade. We made some important decisions about the health of our teeth based on our results. We began exploring the different parts of the digestive system and will continue this next week.
History: We learned about Alexander the Great by researching the question: ‘How Great was Alexander the Great?’
Art: We have continued to practise sketching a human figure in proportion and extended this to figures who are moving. We created our own Greek pots to tell our own Legacy. We explored adding tint and shade to colour and applied this to help us make beautiful Christmas cards.
PE: PE will be on Wednesday and Friday this week. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our No Outsiders lesson was based on Marmaduke the very different dragon which is a beautiful book that encourages us to celebrate our differences. We designed a pair of our very own special and unique wings. .
Music: We enjoyed our first lesson in Y4 using the Glockenspiels and learning the notes DEF.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans and Mr Beswick.
Goldfinches WB 29.11.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 25th Nov 2021 @ 8:57pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Well done to all our hard workers this week.
Friday Super Star goes to: Connor
Top Table award goes to: Beth
Reminders:
Please note PE days this week are Tuesday and Friday
Worship: This week in worship we have focused on the story of Moses and the Burning Bush and what we can learn today from it.
Next Week:
Mrs Judge will be teaching in Year 5 so Mrs Evans will be in class on Monday.
Reading and Writing: This week we have been including a wider range of conjunctions (as, while, when, although, because) in our descriptive writing. Next week we will recap noun phrases and use them to help make rich and varied language choices.
Reading homework- Keep diving into these lovely books from school! We have so many wonderful choices. We are encouraging the children to read for 15 minutes every day at home
Spelling homework: This week our spelling rule is adding the ‘ious’ suffix
This week’s words: vicious, suspicious, curious, serious, obvious, anxious, tedious, furious, devious, oblivious
Maths: This week we have continued our investigation into Roman Numerals and have used our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to add and subtract 3-digit numbers. We have added and subtract near multiples of 10 and 100 by adjusting. Next week we will explore adding 1, 10, 100 and 1000 to 4 digit numbers and will begin to recap the column methods of addition.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test which lots of children are now working on. The next times tables will be 9x tables.
Have a go at Coconut multiples this week to help you practise https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples
Science: We have discovered what happens to a tooth left in acid and recorded the results. Following this we planned our own investigation into the effects of different drinks on our teeth. We chose to leave boiled eggs in coke, Lucozade, fresh orange juice, dilute cordial and sugar free lemonade. We will find out the results next week as well as exploring the different parts of the digestive system and their functions.
Geography: We will continue to map where the Ancient Greek Empire spread to in Europe.
History: We will learn about Alexander the Great by researching the question: ‘How Great was Alexander the Great?’
Art: We have continued to practise sketching a human figure in proportion and extended this to figures who are moving. We created our own Greek pots to tell our own Legacy. We have also enjoyed making wreathes for our Christmas crafts.
PE: Mr Ault will teach Netball on Wednesday and Friday this week. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart focus is: Don’t forget to let love in.
Music: We are enjoying learning the words to the songs for Hoodwinked.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mr Beswick.
Goldfinches WB 22.11.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 18th Nov 2021 @ 7:06pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Fabulous focus this week.
Friday Super Star goes to: Jake
Top Table award goes to: Alexa
Reminders:
Individual photographs are on Monday
Worship: This week in worship we have focused on the anti-bullying week message of ‘One Kind Word’ and have enjoyed putting this in to practise by making personalised stickers for chosen people.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week we have continued to focus on writing accurate simple and compound sentences based on our book Leon and the Place Between. Next week we will use our skills to help us write with a wider range of conjunctions (as, while, when, although, because) in our descriptive writing..
Reading homework- Keep diving into these lovely books from school! We have so many wonderful choices. We are encouraging the children to read for 15 minutes every day at home
Spelling homework: This week our spelling rule is adding the ‘ous’ suffix
This week’s words: famous, joyous, fabulous, tremendous, jealous, enormous, glamorous, disastrous, adventurous, nervous
Maths: This week we have continued our unit on addition and subtraction and have been developing our reasoning skills to explain the mistakes in calculations. We enjoyed a thought-provoking investigation into Roman Numerals.
Next week we will begin to recap the column methods of addition.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test which lots of children are now working on. The next times tables will be 9x tables.
Have another go at Maths Fishing this week to help you practise https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/306/Maths-Fishing-Multiplication
Science: We have predicted what happens to a tooth left in acid and will record the results in our next lesson. We will plan our own investigation into the effects of different drinks on our teeth.
Art: We have learned to sketch a human figure in proportion and are experimenting with the primary colours red and yellow to make different hues of colour. We will use the Greek pots as inspiration for our own designs to tell our own Legacy.
RE: Next week will continue to explore the theme of good news through The Nativity story.
German: Next week we will learn how to tell people where we live in German.
PE: Our Dance lessons on Wednesday afternoons will help us prepare for our Christmas play and Mr Ault will teach Netball on Fridays. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart focus is: Don’t forget to let love in.
Music: We are enjoying learning the words to the songs for Hoodwinked.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mr Beswick.
Goldfinches WB 15.11.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 11th Nov 2021 @ 8:27pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
We have had a wonderfully busy week and have enjoyed a wide range of activities and lessons.
Star of the week goes to: Violet
Top Table award goes to: Thomas
Reminders:
As the weather is turning colder and wetter now, please ensure your child has a coat in school every day.
It is lovely to hear that choir club is returning and that so many Goldfinches are keen to be involved. All rehearsals for the Christmas light switch on will be during school time for the next two weeks.
Worship: This week in worship we have focused on Remembrance and remembered those who gave their lives in the World Wars and who are still serving their countries today. We had a wonderful Remembrance service with Mrs Kendrick and Mr Cliff after planting our Poppy seeds into our new garden of Remembrance.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week we have focused on writing accurate simple and compound sentences based on our book Leon and the Place Between. Next week we will use our skills to help us write a diary entry.
Reading homework- I am continuing to encourage the children to choose from a range of books around the classroom. We have just had a delivery of 50 of the top 100 recommended books for Year 4 as well as a lovely gift of books from Mrs Esling and her grown up children. So many choices!
Spelling homework: This week our spelling rule continues with the ei, ey and eigh patterns. As lots of them are homophones, please support your child to understand the meanings.
This week’s words: drey, whey, convey, survey, eighth, eighteen, weight, neigh, neighbour, sleigh
Your child has brought a blank spelling doodle home as another way of practising.
Maths: This week we have begun our unit on addition and subtraction and have been exploring how the number bonds to 10 and 20, support us to find number bonds to 100 and 1000 e.g. 74 + 26 =100 so 740 + 260 = 1000
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test which lots of children are now working on. The next times tables will be 9x tables.
Have a go at Maths Fishing this week to help you practise https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/306/Maths-Fishing-Multiplication
Science: We have continued our new Teeth topic by learning about the parts of a tooth and the importance of enamel. Next week we will predict what happens to a tooth left in acid and record the results over a few days.
Geography: We have mapped the countries Ancient Greece used to be in on a map of Europe and have located some of the important city states: Athens, Sparta, Crete, Corinth and Olympia.
History/Art: We will look in detail at the artwork from ancient Greek pots and try to tell the story of the legacy they have left to learn about what life was like in Ancient Greek times. We will use the Greek pots as inspiration for our own designs and learn to sketch a human figure in proportion.
RE: Good News stories from the Bible.
German: Use our number knowledge and tell people our age.
PE: Our Dance lessons on Wednesday afternoons will help us prepare for our Christmas play and Mr Ault will teach Netball on Fridays. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: Our Heart Smart focus is: Don’t forget to let love in.
Music: We are enjoying learning the words to the songs for Hoodwinked.
Mrs Shimmin has been a wonderful part of Goldfinches class this term and we know she will continue her amazing work in the Nest. We welcome Mr Beswick to the Goldfinch team from next week and are looking forward to working with him.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 8.11.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 4th Nov 2021 @ 7:07pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
A wonderful start by everybody to our new half term. I am so proud of how well the children have settled back in to the classroom routines and of how hard they are working.
Star of the week goes to: Gracie
Top Table award goes to: Frazer
Reminders:
As the weather is turning colder now please ensure your child has a coat in school every day.
Please remember that as part of our Healthy school policy the children should have water in the bottles they drink from throughout the day.
Worship: This week in worship we have learned about the importance decisions being made at the COP26 conference and have celebrated our love for God’s world and the winning video we made to show this.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week we edited our Gorilla stories and then the classroom turned into a circus as we welcomed in our new book ‘Leon and the Place Between’. Next week we will continue to delve into the story whilst perfecting our use of simple sentences and expanded noun phrases
Reading homework- I am continuing to encourage the children to choose from a range of books around the classroom. We have just had a delivery of 50 of the top 100 recommended books for Year 4 as well as a lovely gift of books from Mrs Esling and her grown up children. So many choices!
Spelling homework: This week our new spelling rule is words with the ey, ei and eigh sounds:
This week’s words: grey, prey, obey, they, eight, eighty, freight, vein, veil, rein
Maths: This week we have learned about negative numbers and how to count on and back. We had great fun exploring perimeter on our maths day. Next week Mrs Judge will continue to explore shape and solving shape problems and Mrs Evans will continue to consolidate perimeter.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test which lots of children are now working on. The next times tables will be 9x tables.
Have a go at Tommy’s Trek to help practice your times tables. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/318/Tommys-Trek-Times-Tables
Science: We have begun our new Teeth topic by finding out which types of human teeth there are and having a tooth count of our own teeth. This week we will learn about the different types of teeth and their functions.
History and Geography: We will explore artefacts and discover what they can tell us about the Ancient Greek civilisation. We will discuss the difference between real and replica.
RE: we will be discussing the importance of Remembrance Day and why we have it.
German: we will learn how to introduce ourselves and take part in a mini-role play.
PE: Our Dance lessons on Wednesday afternoons will help us prepare for our Christmas play and Mr Ault will teach Netball on Fridays. Please remember to tie long hair back and remove earrings on PE days.
PSHCE: We will begin our new Heart Smart focus: Don’t forget to let love in.
Music: We are enjoying learning the words to the songs for Hoodwinked.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your child. Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 1.11.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 21st Oct 2021 @ 6:55pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
We are so proud of the stories and timeline work Goldfinches have produced this week.
Star of the week goes to: Jessica
Top Table award goes to: Yara
Please remember Friday 22nd and Monday 1st November are INSET days.
Worship: This week in worship we have continued to explore our Christian Value of friendship and have reflected by thinking of a peaceful place where we can be calm and speak to God.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week the children have impressed me so much with their stories based on Gorilla. I have really enjoyed watching them read their plans and ideas to each other and give positive feedback. After half term we will begin to explore our new text. (No spoilers yet though!)
Reading homework- I am encouraging the children to choose from a range of books around the classroom. We currently have a lovely collection of Anthony Browne’s picture books, a range of Greek non-fiction books, and myths, Science sound books as well as the wide range of story books which the children are all welcome to borrow and read at home.
Spelling homework: No new words over half term but if you want to continue to practice, we will be testing the set of Y3/4 statutory words on Friday 5th November:
breathe, build, busy, business, calendar, caught, centre, certain, accidentally, answer, bicycle
We have loved making posters to help us practice our tricky words this week.
Maths: Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on counting in 25’s and negative numbers.
On our Maths day (Thursday 4th November) we will explore perimeter in lots of different practical ways.
Times Tables Homework:
Try Hit the Button and choose the division 6x table facts to help prepare for our Gold x6 tables test.
Have a go at Tommy’s Trek to help practice your times tables. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/318/Tommys-Trek-Times-Tables
Science: We will begin our new Teeth topic
History and Geography: We will explore artefacts and discover what they can tell us about the Ancient Greek civilisation. We will discuss the difference between real and replica.
PE: We will start Dance on Wednesday afternoons and Netball with Mr Ault on Fridays.
PSHCE: We will begin our new Heart Smart focus: Don’t forget to let love in.
Music: We will begin to learn the words to the songs for Hoodwinked.
We hope you have a restful week off and look forward to seeing you back on Tuesday 2nd November.
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 18.10.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 14th Oct 2021 @ 8:05pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
What a wonderfully busy week! We had so much fun and learned so much new knowledge during our Greek day.
Star of the week goes to: Beth
Top Table award goes to: Hetty
Please remember school finishes for half term on Thursday 21st October as Friday 22nd is an INSET day.
Please ensure your child has a water bottle in school and is bringing water and not juice to dring throughout the day.
Worship: This week in worship we have continued to explore our Christian Value of friendship by making friendship paper chains and discussing the artwork of Mary and Martha by the artist He Qi. We have reflected by thinking of a peaceful place where we can be calm and speak to God.
Forest Schools: We had a wonderful time in our outdoor learning last Friday when we made God’s Eyes. I saw so much perseverance and enjoyment.
School Council: We had our first class council meeting lead by our newly elected councillors (Beth and Taylor) to share ideas about what is working well and ideas of what could be even better.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week we have written our speech sandwich using the correct speech punctuation and have enjoyed writing a setting description for the café Hannah and Gorilla visit. We have started to plan our own story based on Gorilla.
Reading homework- I am encouraging the children to choose from a range of books around the classroom. We currently have a lovely collection of Anthony Browne’s picture books, a range of Greek non-fiction books, and myths, Science sound books as well as the wide range of story books which the children are all welcome to borrow and read at home.
Spelling homework: This week’s words are Y3/4 Statutory words:
breathe, build, busy, business, calendar, caught, centre, certain, accidentally, answer, bicycle
(Some of the trickier spellings have been repeated from earlier in the term)
Maths: Monday maths with Mrs Judge will continue to explore 2D shapes and their properties. Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on rounding to the nearest 1000, solving rounding problems, counting in 25’s and we will make a link with the BC part of the timeline with negative numbers.
Times Tables Homework:
For mixed Times table practise use TTRock Stars or Maths Frame Multiplication Table Check https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
How did you get on with the new game: birds vs robots? Here is the link again:
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/573/Birds-v-Robots-Maths-Battle
RE: We will prepare and perform our Harvest Poems.
Science: This week we will be continuing to explore pitch.
History and Geography: We will reflect on the learning from our knowledge-packed Greek day and will place the Ancient Greek civilisation on the timeline to identify where it fits in with the other civilisations.
PE: Our final cricket session will be on Wednesday afternoon.
PSHCE: We are learning to ‘Get Heart Smart’ where we consider the importance of our feelings, the effect of kindness and being kind to ourselves.
Music: We will continue to focus on rhythm and pace in our warm up games and appraise a new Abba song.
German: We will be learning how to introduce ourselves in German and ask someone their name.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child.
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 11.4.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 7th Oct 2021 @ 9:41pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
What a wonderfully busy week! I am so proud of the diary entry writing from Goldfinches and how much effort they are putting into understanding the place value of 4-digit numbers.
Star of the week goes to: Lily
Top Table award goes to: Josh
Worship: This week in worship we have watched the anti-bullying live lesson which focused on thinking about the Trusted 5 people we could share our worries with. We had a lovely worship listening to the story of friends and friendship and reflected on this by making a paper chain which links us all together in friendship.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: This week we have learned to write a diary entry using fronted adverbials of time and manner. Next week we will focus on using a speech sandwich to help us to use and punctuate direct speech. Our shared reading text will help support us to learn to draw inferences about a character and find the evidence in the text.
Reading homework- I’m so impressed by how many children are reading regularly at home. Please continue to support your child to read for 10-20 minutes daily and to sign their diary.
Spelling homework: This week’s words are words with the suffix ‘ly’
Happily, cosily, sleepily, cheekily, angrily, breezily, heavily, frantically, basically, magically
Maths: Monday maths with Mrs Judge will continue to explore 2D shapes and their properties. Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on comparing 4-digit numbers and rounding to the nearest 1000.
Times Tables Homework:
For mixed Times table practise use TTRock Stars or Maths Frame Multiplication Table Check https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
You might like to try a new game: birds vs robots
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/573/Birds-v-Robots-Maths-Battle
RE: We will be interpreting Rublev’s Icon and connecting the art work to our learning about The Trinity.
Science: This week we will be presenting data in a bar chart.
History and Geography: We have our wonderful Makers of History Greek workshop on Wednesday. I can’t wait for my Goldfinches to be immersed in all of the activities and learning experiences.
PE: More Gymnastics and team building games with Mr Ault on Friday.
PSHCE: Our focus to begin the year is ‘Get Heart Smart’ and we will continue reading our No Outsiders book Fabulous Frankie.
Music: We will continue our listening and appraisal of Abba songs and practise for Harvest.
German: We will be learning how to introduce ourselves in German and ask someone their name.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child.
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 4.10.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 30th Sep 2021 @ 8:32pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
We have had another fun and hardworking week with lots of great focus and concentration in lessons.
Star of the week goes to: Amy
Top Table award goes to: Taylor
Worship: This week in worship we have enjoyed a live lesson on Harvest which helped us to learn all about seasonal foods and where our food comes from. We thought about what we could learn from Adam and Eve during an Open The Book Assembly and we have discussed encouragement after being inspired by Hansle Parchment, the Jamaican athlete.
Next Week:
Friday 8th October- we will be celebrating World Mental Health Day by being our brightest green and what better way of doing this than having a Forest School Session. Your child will be in tracksuit and hoodie already as it is PE day but please also send in spare shoes and socks to change into and a coat in case of wet weather.
Reading and Writing: This week we have enjoyed making our own gorilla fact books. Next week we will take on the role of Hannah, the main character in our Gorilla story, and write a diary entry using fronted adverbials of time and manner. Our shared reading text will help support us to learn to draw inferences about a character and find the evidence in the text.
Reading homework- I’m so impressed by how many children are reading regularly at home. Please continue to support your child to read for 10-20 minutes daily and to sign their diary.
Spelling homework: This week’s words are words with the prefix ‘auto’
Autograph, autopilot, automobile, automatic, autocue, autobiography, automated, auto bus
Maths: Monday maths with Mrs Judge will continue to explore 2D shapes and their properties. Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on finding 1000 more and less, comparing and ordering 4-digit numbers. We will continue to work on arithmetic activities on some afternoons and will work on our times tables daily.
Times Tables Homework:
If you like a sing song try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7rYbk9PNuM
For mixed Times table practise use TTRock Stars or Maths Frame Multiplication Table Check https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Science: This week we will be investigating how sounds change as we move away from the source and will be measuring, recording and presenting the data we collect.
History: We will recap our knowledge of timelines and place the time periods we have already studied into the correct order as well as adding the new time period of Ancient Greece. We will use the terms BC, BCE, AD and CE.
PE: We will enjoy cricket on Wednesdays (until half term) and Gymnastics and team building games with Mr Ault on Fridays.
PSHCE: Our focus to begin the year is ‘Get Heart Smart’ and we will also be reading and exploring a range of No Outsiders books.
Music: We will continue our listening and appraisal of Abba songs.
German: This week we learnt lots of information about Germany and created a fact file.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child.
Have a lovely weekend everybody,
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 27.09.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 23rd Sep 2021 @ 9:03pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
We have had a hardworking week with lots of great focus and concentration in lessons.
Star of the week goes to: James
Top Table award goes to: Esmae
Worship: This week in worship we have continue to focus on our Christian Value of Friendship and have enjoyed discussion, practical and reflective activities based around this theme. We loved reading the No Outsiders book ‘Red’ which linked beautifully with the theme of friendship. It was wonderful to be back in the hall for Mrs Powell’s Monday worship as well as Open the Book.
Tuesday 28th I look forward to our parent-teacher appointment phone calls. Thank you to all who have booked phone calls. If you haven’t yet done so, please book a slot via the school office.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: We will take on the role of Hannah, the main character in our Gorilla story, and write a diary entry.
Reading homework- I’m so impressed by how many children are reading regularly at home. Please continue to support your child to read for 10-20 minutes daily and to sign their diary.
Spellings: This week’s words are taken from the Y3/4 Statutory spelling list (first column)
accident, accidental, accidentally, address, answer, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle, breath
Maths: Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on reading and placing numbers on a number line to 10,000 and learning Roman Numerals. We will continue to work on arithmetic activities on some afternoons and will work on our times tables daily.
Times Tables Homework: We have made 6x table flick flack fortune tellers this week which you can use at home to help practise.
If you like a sing song try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7rYbk9PNuM
The children have also all got their TTRockstars logins stuck in the front of their diaries. https://ttrockstars.com/
Computing: We will begin our new computing unit ‘My Very Own Game’ where we will be designing a prototype of a new game.
Science: This week we will be predicting which instrument makes the loudest sound and recording the results using a data-logger.
History: We will learn about the sources of evidence of story-telling and legend to find out about Ancient Greek and listen to the story of The Trojan Horse.
Geography: We will begin to work in groups to research the geographical features of modern Greece.
PE: We will enjoy cricket on Wednesdays (until half term) and Gymnastics and team building games with Mr Ault on Fridays.
PSHCE: Our focus to begin the year is ‘Get Heart Smart’ and we will also be reading and exploring a range of No Outsiders books.
Music: We loved our music lesson this week and had a great sing along to Abba. More to come next week.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 20.09.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 16th Sep 2021 @ 9:02pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Another busy week for our new Year 4s! The children are settling beautifully and have continued to make us so proud of their calmness, kindness and enthusiasm to get back into learning. We look forward to another week of learning next week.
Star of the week goes to: Alexa
Top Table award goes to: Kyan
This week in worship we have focused on our Christian Value of Friendship and have enjoyed discussion, practical and reflective activities based around this theme. There have been some lovely moments of kindness between the children throughout the week with children from the nest making flapjack for us to share and making friendship bracelets for each other.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: We will continue to explore more of our writing text ‘Gorilla’ by Anthony Browne and find out about real Gorillas. Our reading text ‘A world full of animal stories’ will help us to explore asking questions in order to find out more and delve deeper.
Reading homework- I’m so impressed by how many children are reading regularly at home. Please continue to support your child to read for 10-20 minutes daily. Across the week this can be a mixture of your child reading to themselves and talking about the book with you, your child reading aloud to you and you reading aloud to your child. Please sign in your child’s diary when s/he has read. The children will be supported to choose from a range of books available in the classroom. Reading can include articles from Children’s First News Papers and science or animal magazines (like National Geographic, Chester Zoo magazines) as well as Fact and research books on linked science and history topics.
Spellings: our spelling focus this week is: words containing 'sure' measure, pleasure, treasure, leisure, enclosure, measuring, measurement, measured, treasured, leisurely
Maths: Monday Maths will focus on angles and arithmetic.
Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on representing 4 digit numbers in different ways including on a number line. We will continue to work on arithmetic activities on some afternoons and will work on our times tables daily.
Times Tables Homework: Times tables are a big focus for Year 4 so each week I will be linking an online times table game or sending a paper game home with the children to support them to practise in a fun way.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples - try coconut multiples for the 6x table or…
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Use Hit the Button to recap the times tables for last year (3X, 4X, 8X) and have a go at the 6X. If you are a tables whizz, have a go at the mixed game.
The children have also all got their TTRockstars logins stuck in the front of their diaries. https://ttrockstars.com/
Science: Our science focus for this half term is Sound so we will enjoy exploring how sounds are heard this week.
History: Next week we will order the events we have learned about in history in chronological order and identify where the Ancient Greek civilisation fits in on the time line.
PE: We will enjoy cricket on Wednesdays (until half term) and Gymnastics and team building games with Mr Ault on Fridays
PSHCE: Our focus to begin the year is ‘Get Heart Smart’ and we will also be reading and exploring a range of No Outsiders books. This week we enjoyed getting Happy Snappy to reflect on the things we are grateful for.
Music: We loved our music lesson this week and being introduced to the song ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA. Lots of our Goldfinches recognised this famous song.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child.
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches WB 13.9.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 9th Sep 2021 @ 6:19pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
The first blog for our wonderful new flock of Goldfinches
Well what a wonderful start back to term as grown up Year 4s! The children have made us so proud of their calmness, kindness and enthusiasm to get back into learning and it has been lovely to start getting to know each other.
Star of the week goes to: Esmae and Yara
Top Table award goes to: Amy
This week:
We have been so good at getting to know the routines within school and the classroom. Our new Goldfinches are already showing us how Ready, Respectful and Safe they are in school and how much they value our 3 school rules.
This week in worship we have introduced our focus Christian Value: Friendship and have enjoyed discussion, practical and reflective activities based around this theme. There have been some lovely moments of kindness between the children throughout the week.
We have enjoyed starting our new writing and reading focus texts, begun our maths focus on place value and have created some beautiful Goldfinch birds in art to sit in the tree in our classroom. Our Goldfinch birds represent the way we are all unique whilst being together in one ‘flock’.
Next Week:
Reading and Writing: We will explore more of our writing text ‘Gorilla’ by Anthony Browne and find out about real Gorillas. Our reading text ‘A world full of animal stories’ will help us to explore asking questions in order to find out more and delve deeper.
Reading homework: Please support your child to read for 10-20 minutes daily. Across the week this can be a mixture of your child reading to themselves and talking about the book with you, your child reading aloud to you and you reading aloud to your child. Please sign in your child’s diary when s/he has read. The children will be supported to choose from a range of books available in the classroom. Reading can include articles from Children’s First News Papers and science or animal magazines (like National Geographic, Chester Zoo magazines) as well as Fact and research books on linked science and history topics.
Spelling Homework:
Our focus spelling pattern is adding the prefixes un, in, im, mis, dis, to a word to give it the opposite meaning.
Spellings will be stuck into diaries on Fridays and the children will be tested the following Friday. Please support your child to learn the following spellings:
disagree, diasble, mistreat, misunderstood, unfair, unlikely, inhuman, inactive, misspell, mistrust
Maths: Monday Maths with Mrs Judge will focus on angles and arithmetic.
Maths with Mrs Evans will focus on representing 4 digit numbers in different ways including on a number line. We will continue to work on arithmetic activities on some afternoons and will work on our times tables daily.
Times Tables Homework: Times tables are a big focus for Year 4 so each week I will be linking an online times table game or sending a paper game home with the children to support them to practise in a fun way.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Use Hit the Button to recap the times tables for last year (3X, 4X, 8X) and have a go at the 6X. If you are a tables whizz, have a go at the mixed game.
The children have also all got their TTRockstars logins stuck in the front of their diaries. https://ttrockstars.com/
Science: Our science focus for this half term is Sound so we will enjoy exploring how sounds are made and heard and learning some of the key vocabulary.
RE: On Mondays Goldfinches will be learning about the Holy Spirit with Mrs Judge.
German: The children loved their first ‘live lesson’ with Mrs Judge this week and showed superb listening and participation skills.
History: The theme in Year 4 for our topic focus is LEGACY. Fridays will be our Topic themed days. Next week we will explore the legacy left behind by the Ancient Shang dynasty.
PE: We will enjoy cricket on Wednesdays (until half term) and Gymnastics and team building games with Mr Ault on Fridays
PSHCE: Our focus to begin the year is ‘Get Heart Smart’ and we will also be reading and exploring a range of No Outsiders books. We loved reading ‘The Fogettery this week’ which was about treasured memories.
Music: While Mrs Evans is teaching the Year 5 class swimming, Miss Beattie will be enjoying a music lesson with Goldfinches each week following our Charanga programme and Abba theme this term.
We look forward to getting to know you over the coming weeks. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via the office if you would like to discuss anything about your child. Have a lovely weekend and see you next week.
Mrs Evans, Mrs Judge and Mrs Shimmin.
Goldfinches 2020-2021 final blog. WB 19th July, by Mrs Evans
Date: 16th Jul 2021 @ 5:46pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
My final blog for my wonderful class of 20-21
Goldfinches you have made me so proud. You have persevered, worked hard, shown endless enthusiasm and had fun throughout yet another strange and testing year and I couldn’t be any prouder of you all than I am now. I just hope you keep your promise to keep chatting to me next year even though you will be big, grown-up Skylarks!
Parents thank you for all of your kindness, support, patience and understanding during the year. I have enjoyed our phone calls and it has been lovely getting to know you all. I just hope that soon, we will be able to have an actual person to person conversation in the playground!
Star of the week goes to: William and Isabelle
Top Table award goes to: Georgia and Grace I
What another busy and productive week we have had!
This week in worship we thought about the Christian Value of courage and planned our own class worship around this theme. It took courage to perform and we were all very proud of our performance when we watched the video back.
DT- we showed enormous patience and perseverance during our torch making day and learned a lot from our successes, mistakes and failures. Mrs Evans was extremely proud of our teamwork and cooperation as we worked together and supported each other.
We then became super chefs on our Greek salad making day. We taste tested a range of ingredients and lots of us even tried olives, tzatziki and taramasalata! We learned to cut and slice safely using the bridge method and then finished the day enjoying our delicious and healthy salads. We should be able to help make them with an adult during the summer holidays now!
Geography- We wowed Mrs Evans with our ability to use a range of mapping skills using atlases and google maps to locate some of the countries in Europe the Romans would have travelled through, some capital cities and the rivers running through them and even some of the mountain ranges.
Geography /Science-We had fun learning about the water cycle with Mrs Evans’ propagator and created some beautiful water coloured pencil diagrams to explain it.
Maths- We have continued our work on Fractions and learned how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator. We were able to use improper fractions and mixed numbers to help us do this along a number line.
Spellings- your child will be bringing home a summary sheet of the words they have been working on this year. The highlighted/crossed out words are words they have spelt accurately this week and the un-highlighted/not crossed out words are words they still need more practice on so you may wish to work on with your child over the summer holidays. This information has been passed up to Miss Beattie for next year.
Friday Funday- What a fantastic day! We had fun games in PE with Mr Ault, followed by extra-long playtime and then bouncy castle time with our friends. After cooling off with an ice pop we had a picnic lunch outside under the shade of the trees, more playtime outside then a fun game of heads down thumbs up before our movie afternoon. Moana with cake and popcorn! Fabulous fun making memories together.
Next week please remember we finish at 1pm on Tuesday and I’m sure we will have time to squeeze in a few more fun activities before then.
Finally, I would like to wish you all a happy and fun-filled (hopefully sunny) summer holiday. Time to relax now and looking forward to seeing you all back in September. You have been amazing!
Best wishes
Mrs Evans xxx
Goldfinches week beginning 12th July, by Mrs Evans
Date: 12th Jul 2021 @ 8:38am
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Well here we are in our penultimate week...
Star of the week goes to: Gia and Grace D
Top Table award goes to: Abi and Toby
This week in worship we will look at the Christian Value of courage and plan a worship around this theme.
Friday fun day is coming up! We are looking forward to a day of fun on the 16th.
Friday 16th is also Mrs Shimmin’s last day with us so we will be wishing her well as she moves into her teaching career.
DT- Please send any final plastic bottles, tubs, pots into school by Tuesday when we will be making our torches during DT. We will also be making our own versions of Greek salads as a delicious way to finish our Greek learning.
Spellings- there is no list of spellings to learn, I have asked the children to look back through the spelling lists in their diaries to practise any words they got wrong or found tricky. This week we will go over the Y3/4 words in class.
Maths and Science- we will be creating our own charts and graphs to represent the data we collected in our ice melting experiment.
Geography and Science -We will learn all about the water cycle and consider the question ‘How old is the water in our taps?’
RE- we will complete our topic learning about Judaism.
History – we worked together to research and find out what life was like in Britain when the Romans had invaded. We will go on to compare this with the life of the Celts before the Roman invasion and the changes and inventions they brought to ‘Britannia’
Geography – we will track the route the Romans took across Europe on their way to Britain, labelling the countries and some capital cities and locating some of the key landscapes (mountains and rivers) on the way.
German- We will learn different body parts this week.
PE- More great teamwork in our PE lessons this week, with inter team competitions. Goldfinches have also been playing some wonderful team games during their break times.
I am always happy to talk to you if you have any questions about your child at school.
Have a lovely week,
Mrs Evans.
Week Beginning 5th July, by Mrs Evans
Date: 1st Jul 2021 @ 7:59pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
Once again, we have been so busy and worked so hard. Well done all of my lovely Goldfinches.
Star of the week goes to: Brooke and Savannah
Top Table award goes to: Finley
In worship this week we have been discussing Global Goal 14- life below water where we learned about a fisherman, his job and the problems of over fishing. We finished our sustainability project of turning old t-shirts into bags for life and we also had the pleasure of watching a worship with Mr Campion as he told us all about his journey in becoming an author.
In preparation for our DT project in the week beginning 12th July, please send in a clean, empty plastic milk or pop bottle, clear yoghurt pot or small tin-foil tray or any small thin cardboard boxes (e.g. cereal bar boxes) with your child so we can re-use and recycle into a (hopefully) working torch!
English- On Tuesday we had a totally tropical start to our new text ‘When the Giant Stirred’ when the classroom took on the theme of a Pacific island with decorations, music, fishing clues and our island display. We enjoyed using our sense of taste to try out the tropical fruits and have created expanded noun phrases and varied our uses of nouns and pronouns as well as being immersed in a wealth of tropical vocabulary. More to come next week
Spellings- words containing the k sound spelt que.
Our words this week are: unique, antique, cheque, grotesque, boutique, picturesque, plaque, arabesque, mosque, opaque
Please work with your child to ensure he or she understands the meanings of the words and can use them in a sentence as well as being able to spell them. There are different suggestions of activities to do each week to support practising the spellings.
Reading- We will continue to use our skills of retrieval and inference within our new shared reading story.
Maths- we have learned about equivalent fractions and have begun to solve problems with fractions and decimals. Next week we will look at addition and subtraction of fractions with the same denominator.
Please keep going with TTRockStars, Coconut Multiples and Hit the Button.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples
Science- we have enjoyed making observations of ice hands in our new ‘Changing State’ topic and will have a go at making our own fair tests next week to investigate the conditions that affect ice and make it melt quickest.
RE- We enjoyed working together to act out the story of The Parting of the Red Sea.
History – we worked together to research and find out what life was like in Britain when the Romans had invaded. We will go on to compare this with the life of the Celts before the Roman invasion and the changes and inventions they brought to ‘Britannia’
Geography – We spent an enjoyable morning learning about the 8 compass points and using them to locate human and physical geographical features in the school grounds. We will apply our compass skills to the world map to be able to locate the direction of different places from Britain.
Next week we will combine History and Geography to map the route the Roman army took as its empire spread through Europe.
German- Last week we learned how to ask each other our age and give and answer.
‘Wie alt bist du?’
‘Ich bin acht jahre alt.’ or ‘ Ich bin nein jahre alt.’
PE- More great teamwork in our PE lessons this week. Goldfinches have also been playing some wonderful team games during their break times.
Forest School- This week we used a forest school morning to investigate a question ‘Which shape makes the strongest structure?’ We enjoyed using the forest area to forage for sticks and twigs to make shelters for Lego people based on Ancient Round Houses, Egyptian Pyramids and our more modern square and rectangular houses.
Looking forward to another action-packed week!
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss your child.
Mrs Evans
Goldfinches WB 28.6.21, by Mrs Evans
Date: 23rd Jun 2021 @ 10:19pm
Welcome to Goldfinches’ Weekly Blog
What another wonderful week of learning.
Star of the week goes to: Lola and Anthony
Top Table award goes to: Isabella
The Makers of History company gave us full day of fun-packed learning on Wednesday where Goldfinches had chance to act in role, investigate, play games, become musicians, try out weapons, juggle with peacock feathers and armour, learn how and why the Roman Army was so successful with their organisation, marches and battle formations and make Roman or Celt art out of clay.
I am so proud of how respectful, polite and enthusiastic our lovely Goldfinches were to our Historians and I can’t quite believe just how much learning we packed into one day! I tried to tweet as much as I could!
I am also proud of how hard our Goldfinches have worked in their assessments this week.
In worship this week we have been discussing Rosie’s Dolls through the theme of No Outsiders.
English- We will begin our new story this week. It’s a lovely one!
Spellings- we will be focusing on words with double consonants.
Our words this week are: shattered, giggly, collector, wettest, fitter, travelled, , fizzing, stopped, planning, terrify
Please work with your child to ensure he or she understands the meanings of the words and can use them in a sentence as well as being able to spell them. There are different suggestions of activities to do each week to support practising the spellings.
Reading- We will begin our new reading text for shared reading as we begin our new writing text.
Maths- we have learned about equivalent fractions and have begun to simplify fractions. We will continue to work on fractions with addition and subtraction.
We completed our trial of the Multiplication Tables Check App this week but will continue to work on our times tables in preparation for moving into Year 5. Please keep going with TTRockStars, Coconut Multiples and Hit the Button.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples
Science- we have begun to compare the properties of solids, liquids and gases in our new ‘Changing State’ topic.
RE- We enjoyed working together to act out the story of The Parting of the Red Sea.
History - we began investigating the chronology of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Romans in Britain to create our own Roman timelines.
German- This week we learned how to ask each other our age and give and answer.
‘Wie alt bist du?’
‘Ich bin acht jahre alt.’ or ‘ Ich bin nein jahre alt.’
PE- We are looking forward to our Sport’s Day. We know this will be quite different to our usual events, however we are determined to make it the best we can, act as fantastic sports people and be wonderful spectators for each other.
You are always welcome to contact me with any questions you have about your child.
Mrs Evans