I have had the pleasure of teaching Year 4 while Miss Whitehead has been away with the Year 6’s on their residential. I must begin by saying how impressed I have been with the behaviour of the class and the work they have produced. We have had a busy week too….times table checks, science investigations, open air masses and more!! They have certainly done Miss Whitehead proud in her absence and I have no doubt you parents would be so proud of them too. Here’s some more detail of our week…
In Maths we started the week focusing heavily on our times tables, in preparation for the times table check. Naturally, a few of the class were nervous about these tests but they all managed to hold their heads high before and after the test, knowing they tried their very hardest….what more can we ask for?! The second part of the week we focused on finding fractions of amounts and adding fractions with the same denominator, including calculations that were great than 1. The class did really well with this, some using visual aids to help them to understand.
In English we’ve been getting descriptive and using our imaginations to create a wonderful narrative. We used a video called ‘Bubbles’ to inspire us to plan and write our own fantasy story, which all started with a stroll along the beach and a bottle of bubbles…. I was really impressed with some of the vocabulary the class were using to really paint images in their readers mind. We had a big focus on expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials too. On Monday they will get a chance to read over their draft and edit.
In RE we have been looking at the life and work of St. Paul. We were shocked to learn that St. Paul (formerly named Saul) was actually a Jewish Pharisee, who after Jesus’ death, was on a mission to eradicate Christianity and imprison and Christians! So how did he go on to become a Saint??? Well something very special happened to Paul on the road to Damascus which would change his life forever…Jesus spoke to him and chose him to help His mission to spread the Good News! This then made us think about how powerful God’s mercy is. The class did a wonderful job of describing Paul’s life and work in their own words!
In Science we recapped the three states of matters (solid, liquid & gas) and talk about their characteristics. We then planned an investigation to see whether our chosen solids would change state when heat was applied and if so, at what rate did this change happen. We chose to use chocolate, rubber, wax, butter, ice and blue tack and placed them in some hot water. We then started a timer to see how long if took them to change states, if this did happen at all. We recorded all of our results and observations and had some interesting things to discuss by the end. Here are some pictures…..
This week we also attended the open-air mass at St. Mary’s Catholic College. This was such a lovely celebration and a chance for other Blackpool Catholic schools to come together in shared worship. I was so proud of how the class conducted themselves…they did Our Lady’s proud!
This week’s Golden Award went to Lilly T for the kindness she has shown others this week. She has definitely demonstrated how much she cares about others.
The Writing Award was given to James for his wonderful use of descriptive language.
The Maths Award was given to Emilia for her great work adding fractions.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend and manage to make the most of this amazing weather we have been having. Thank you again to Year 4 for making my first full week of teaching, since returning from maternity, such a pleasurable one!
Mrs Murphy
