Welcome to Squirrel Class
Across a morning, we work as a Year 4 class with 21 children (aged 8-9 years) with 21 children. Our teacher is Mrs Wheatley and she is supported by our teaching assistant, Mrs Thompson. We are taught this way on a morning and then we merge with Owl 
Class (Year 3) on an afternoon so we also work with Miss Robertson.
To find out what we will be doing this year look at the Our Curriculum section of our website. To help us with our spelling and reading look at the phonics and reading section of our website. As we get older, we access the internet more and school wants us to stay safe online. To find out how you can support us in staying safe online, checkout the E-Safety section of our website.
Spring 2
We are looking forward to return after the relaxing half term. This term we will be studying the countries of Europe in Geography, landscape collages in Art, rocks and soils in Science, animals in French and emails in ICT. In PE we will continue to work hard with our dance rehearsals in preparation for our performance . We are looking forward to our rearranged visit to Hamsterley Forest and a visit from the mini medic team. On top of that, we will continue to visit the library and go swimming.
French
On our last day together, for a little while, year 3 and 4 enjoyed learning about French food. We learned some new vocabulary and even tasted numerous different foods which are traditionally from France.
Hamster key Forest
Yesterday, we visited Hamsterley Forest. We had a fantastic time! We developed our orienteering and map skills. We also got to explore the nature. We even saw rivers, waterfalls and streams which linked to our Geography topic in Spring Term 1. We even took photos of landscapes which we will use to inspire our artwork. Look at our photos below.
Science
Spring 1
Hello, Squirrel Class wish you a very happy new year. This term we are going to use our Geography lessons to help us answer the question: ‘Is the UK the same everywhere?’ We will focus on physical geography including hills, coasts and rivers. We will be also studying the following exciting topics: Light and Shadows (Science), Dance (PE), Printing (Art) and we will be developing our map skills during Fantastic Friday lessons. In Maths we are continuing to look at Multiplication and Division. In English we are using David Longs book ‘Heroes’ to inspire our reading, writing and speaking and listening skills. On top of that, we will continue to visit the library and go swimming.
NSPCC
Geography
Autumn 2
This term we continue to study The Anglo-Saxons in History and Geography. We are exploring magnets,gymnastics and data handling.
Visit
Our whole school visit was to the Discovery Museum this year. We had lots of fun exploring. We looked at a range of exhibits and took part in a Lights and Electricity workshop. This links to our new science topic in the spring term. We managed to make a light bulb glow by creating a circuit! Have a look at our photos below.
In Science, we are looking at magnets and forces. Today we practiced writing like scientists by producing an informative report showing what we have found out about magnets. We hope you learn something from some of our reports below.
We continue to enjoy our visits to the library. Here are some of our book choices.
Autumn 1
This term we are studying the following exciting topics: Anglo-Saxons (History & Geography), The Human Body (Science), Coding (ICT), Orienteering (PE) and Ma Famille (French). On top of that we we will continue to visit the library and go swimming.
Chemistry Stay and Play
Year 4 enjoyed taking part in our Chemistry Stay and Play. They were fascinated to see the changes taking place and were interested in the science behind the activities. Thank you to the adults who came to join in the fun.
Mathematics
Year 4 have started this year by exploring four digit numbers using partitioning, we also explored partitioning in a range of different ways using exchange.
Educational Visit Jarrow Hall Museum
What a fantastic experience! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Jarrow Hall Museum. We had first hand experience of an Anglo-Saxon farm and settlement. We heard about crime and punishment and even threw rotten food at our poor teacher! We visited the walled gardens and discovered how different plants could be eaten and used as cures for illnesses.
See below for academic year 2018-19
Summer Term 2
This half term we have performed our rehearsed routine at the Dance Festival alongside other schools in the area. We have continued to learn about World War Two and have been enjoying reading the novel ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Morpurgo in our English lessons. Our homework grid for this term continues with our WW2 theme and also has some exciting summer activities to complete! As a reward for all of our hard work across the school year, we visited Wallington Hall with the rest of the school. We walked the grounds and visited the house- the weather was glorious!
We have been practising our African drumming skills all term ahead of our performance to parents. We can’t wait!
Wallington Hall
We all enjoyed our whole school visit to Wallington Hall. We completed the riverside walk, where we identified lots of different types of trees and plants. We spent time with some archeological students who explained what they were doing. In the afternoon we played rounders and had a ooh around Wallington House.
Summer Term 1
This term, we are going to start a term-long topic looking at what the World War 2 homefront was like. In science, we will be exploring sound and continuing to develop our drumming skills through Samba Drumming. We will also be learning and rehearsing a dance routine to perform at The Empire Theatre later this term. Here is our homework grid for this term.
Year 3 and 4 children participated in a rounders tournament. They showed great sportsmanship, resilience and teamwork. We came second out of many other schools in the local area.
Spring 2
This half term Year 3 and 4 spent a whole day exploring and developing pulleys, levers and bridges. As part of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) day we focused on themes such as; research, design, trial, create, evaluate and share.
To begin with we explored a range of construction kits. We looked at different ways to use our knowledge of strengthening our structures. We were then given the challenge to see which bridge could hold the most pencils.
We followed a set of instructions to create a pulley system. Creating and evaluating our pulley system gave us a good opportunity to practise skills we would need in our final product.
Finally, We made and evaluated a drawbridge with a pulley system. We found this difficult, however, we wrote some well thought out evaluations with some interesting improvements for next time.
Spring 1
This term we will be learning about The Rainforest, States of matter, Christian symbols and beliefs, the use of watercolours and samba drumming in music.
Please see below for our creative homework grid:
We held a Rainforest Day in school and spent the whole day in our forest completing various activities. Take a look below!
Autumn 2
This term, we will be continuing to develop our swimming skills and beginning a new topic of Dance. We will be learning about human nutrition and continuing with the Romans through our topic work.
This term year 3 and 4 attended an athletics tournament against other local schools. The children enjoyed taking part in a range of activities such as javelin, chest pass test, long jump and races. Our school came third in the tournament. Well done.
In Design Technology this term we have been working on a Roman Weaponary Project. We have researched, designed, created and evaluated different pieces of Roman weaponary. We looked at joining and attaching techniques and made prototypes.
Autumn 1
This Term we will be learning about The Romans. The Romans are well known for their army and their huge empire which covered most of Europe, what is now Turkey and parts of north Africa, however the Romans were much more than great fighters. According to Roman legend the city of Rome was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus in about 750 BC, however the Roman Legend isn’t very well known for being factually correct. In fact when they invade an area they will steal some of their gods and add them to their own religion. We will also be studying Electricity in Science; how important it is, how to conduct electricity and how it can be generated.
For our homework grid for this term please see below:
Our Year 3/4 class have been enjoying their electricity topic. We have discussed mains electricity and battery powered electricity. We have researched how electricity is generated through the use of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. This week we have been exploring wires, batteries and bulbs. We were are able to identify a complete and an incomplete circuit.
See below for academic year 2017-18
Summer Term 2: Aspirations Week!
In school this term, we were lucky to have a whole week where lots of different people visited us to tell us about their jobs. We met a veterinary nurse, a hairdresser, a football referee, a flight attendant, the Army, radiographers, scientists, Kev, Craig and Erin from the Foundation of Light, A Navy officer, PCSOs and police dogs, a midwife, and workers from Northumbrian Water! We had a fantastic week learning about the world of work, and it has inspired us to think about what we want to be when we grow up, and what we need to do to achieve that.
Summer Term 1: What have we been up to?
This half term, we have continued our studies into Ancient Greece! We used the iPads to research Greek recipes for dips! We chose the three most common Greek dips to make. We gathered equiptment, and worked in groups to create the dips. We enjoyed a Greek feast as we ate them with pitta bread, olives and sun dried tomatoes, while listening to traditional Greek music. It was delicious! We used this exciting activity as a stimulus for writing an instructions text in English. We were able to write instructions for making the dips, so others could enjoy them too!
In Science, we have been exploring parts of plants. We couldn’t believe all of the different parts of plants we eat! We can eat the roots, stems, leaves, and even the flowers! Did you know that broccoli is a flower? We didn’t either!
Spring Term 2: What have we been up to?
In mathematics, we have been looking at fractions! We have been looking at dividing shapes into equal parts and describing each part as a fraction. We understand the vocabulary “numerator” and “denominator”.
In English, we have been exploring the layout and features of a newspaper report. We worked together to organise the features of a newspaper into the correct format, giving reasons for our choices.
Spring Term 2:
New Topics:
Our new topics include, “How do plants grow well?” in science, “What do Christians remember on Psalm Sunday?” in RE, “Map Skills, Mountains, Rivers and Coasts” in topic and “En famille” in French.
Here is a new homework grid which will take us up to Easter- Click the link.
Spring 1: What have we been doing so far?
Art
Here are a few photographs showing our artistic skills and talent.They were each given a small part of one of Monets paintings from his ‘River Thames’ series. The children worked hard to mix the correct shades using a palette of water colours and a range of brushes.
At the start of this term, Year 3&4 were excited to join the UK’s biggest classroom for a live interactive shared learning experience. BBC Learning’s Live Lessons bring the curriculum to life with leading experts and access to the BBC’s biggest brands and talent. This literacy lesson gave us top tips for writing great stories and gave us some great ideas! We had lots of ideas for a story within our class, including mermaids, an alien president and a zombie invasion of our school!
The idea behind this live lesson was to inspire children to participate in Chris Evans’ 500 Words competition, which is one of the most successful story writing competitions for kids in the world and is open to every 5-13 year old in the UK. Its mission is to get children excited about reading and writing, regardless of their ability.
If you would like to enter or to find out more, head over to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4h26FXFQ4KfMV7VVSbJxY3g/500-words-2018
Spring 1
This term we will be studying the topic ‘What makes the Earth angry?’ This topic is a creative and interactive topic spread across six blocks. In Science we will examine different types of rocks, soils and fossils. We will research where they are found and why. In Geography we will study the journey of the river from the source to the sea, the water cycle, industry on the river, mountains and volcanoes. In ICT we will be learning how to use both hands to type and how to send an email. In French we are studying Unit 2 Je Presente. Our Homework grid for this term can be found below:
Spring Term 2018 Homework Grid
Autumn 2
This term we will continue to learn about The Anglo-Saxons. We will also be learning about light and dark, Christianity (charities), Unit 1 French and coding in ICT.
To find out about our homework for the second half of the autumn term see our picture below
Our Work This Term
Autumn 1
This Term we will be learning about The Anglo Saxons.
This topic is a creative and interactive topic spread across six blocks. It will develop children’s knowledge of the Anglo-Saxons and help them understand how this important group fits into the chronology of Britain.
We will contextualise the Anglo-Saxon period with a timeline of Britain. Through discussion, children will understand the terms ‘invaders’ and ‘settlers’ and discuss motivations for emigration. They will gain historical insight into the lives of Anglo-Saxon and British people.
To find out about our homework for the first half of the autumn term click on the link:
Our Work This Term
In maths this half term, we have been thinking about place value. We have been able to identify what each digit represents in a 4-digit number. We have recently moved on to addition and subtraction within 4-digit numbers and we have started to think about ‘exchanging’. We used place value counters to help us to understand that 10 one counters are equal to 1 ten counter, and that 10 ten counters are equal to 1 hundred counter etc
Here we are using some of the place value equipment:
In English we are reading an adaption of The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Do dinosaurs really still exist in a far away land?
We have focused on our Year 4 objectives and completed a wide variety of written pieces of work.
Here we are using drama to develop our vocabulary in preparation of a writing task.
