Year 4
Welcome to Term 4!
This term, we will be studying the Ancient Greeks. All relevant home learning documents are to the right of this text in the red box.
At Parents' Evening, a few parents asked me for book recommendations and ideas to get their children into reading. Check out this link https://www.booksfortopics.com/booklists/recommended-reads/year-4/ for recommended book reads for Year 4.
Our lovely school librarians have also given us a list of their personal favourites for this age group:
- Katherine Rundell Roof-Toppers and the Explorer
- Helen Rutter The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh
- Stephan Pastis Timmy Failure (series)
- Peter Brown Wild Robot (series)
- Iona Rangeley Einstein the Penguin (series)
- Tom Fletcher Danger Gang and Space Band
Amy Williams also suggested the following adventure series https://www.axelbooks.com/products/adventure-gamebooks-series-4-books-collection-set-shadow-chaser-curse-breaker-the-goblins-revenge-league-of-thieves
Friday 7th March 2025
What a lovely, sunny week we have had!
Firstly, a huge thank you to Steph Van De Pette and Sarah Sundberg for coming in and talking to our class about their jobs for careers week. The children had many questions for you both and we certainly learnt a lot about your careers!
We had great fun dressing up as a whole range of characters on World Book Day yesterday! Our activities for the day involved:
- Creating a ‘top trump’ card for our character
- Using our oracy skills to battle our characters and decide who was the ultimate character – well done to Henry who was our winner!
- Drawing in the style of Dav Pilkey, author of the Dog Man books
- Creating our own bookmarks
Check out the class gallery for pictures of our day.
It has been a real pleasure to teach Badgers Class from September up to now. I am going to miss them all so much and I am so proud of how far they have come over the last six months. Thank you so much for all of the kind messages and wishes – I will be sure to pop in and bring baby to meet everyone once they have safely arrived!
Love,
Miss Harman x
Friday 28th February 2025
Welcome back everyone. What a busy first week we have had!
On Tuesday, we went to the Thame Leisure Centre for our final swimming lesson. We learnt how to keep ourselves safe if we ever fell into any water with our clothes on. We practised helping others, shouting for help and swimming in clothes! It was a great way to end our swimming lessons.
On Wednesday, we went with the whole of KS2 to Neasden Temple in London. What a fantastic experience this was! We saw all the different deities and even participated in a Hindu prayer service. All the temple volunteers and the general public were so kind and welcoming towards our school. Badgers Class represented Watlington perfectly - well done, everyone.
In English, we have started looking at information texts. We have written our own 'cold' information texts about our favourite hobbies, started to learn a new information text all about Ancient Greece and discussed the key features of this text type. We had a go at organising the features into a diamond nine formation based on what we think are the most and least important features. Have a look at our examples in the class gallery.
In Maths, we begun a new unit on fractions. We know that fractions are a part of a whole. The top part of a fraction is called the numerator and the bottom part of the fraction is called the denominator. We have been counting beyond 1 in fractions and looking at mixed number fractions.
In Topic, we had a geography lesson looking at where Greece is on a map. Badgers had to use the atlases to list the physical features of Greece, such as the surrounding seas and the continent that Greece is on. We also discussed what the weather is like in Greece and thought about why it has the climate that it does.
Friday 14th February 2025
We’ve had a great final week of term! We went and visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to learn all about the Ancient Greeks ahead of our new topic next term. Both the museum staff and the coach driver commented on how well behaved the class was. Well done Badgers!
We also had some fun with Year 5! They came and taught us all about long multiplication. It was quite tricky but the Year 5s were super teachers.
A reminder of a few dates for next term:
- Tuesday 25th February
Final swimming session – please bring a tshirt to wear in the pool for our water safety lesson - Wednesday 26th February
Visit to Neasden Temple - Thursday 6th March
World Book Day
Have a wonderful week off everyone!
Friday 7th February 2025
Welcome to our new website and class page! I hope that all relevant documents are accessible and easy to view. Please do let me know if anything is missing.
Thank you to all of the parents for attending Parents’ Evening this week. It was great to catch up and share your child’s progress with you.
Our weekly highlights:
English: This week, we have written our ‘hot’ discussion texts. Some of the questions that we chose to discuss included:
- Should children have to wear school uniform?
- Should school football rotas be banned?
- Do footballers get paid too much?
- Should NASA send children into space?
- Should we keep birds as pets?
- Should TikTok be banned?
- And many more!
Maths: For the last two weeks, we have been learning about length and perimeter. We know that the perimeter is the measurement around a closed shape. We have used our new knowledge to help us solve problems regarding finding missing lengths and working out the perimeter of regular polygons.
PSHE: This week was Children’s Mental Health Week. We enjoyed coming into school wearing our own clothes and expressing ourselves! We designed our own Kindness Superheroes and discussed the physical impact that being kind has on the human body. Did you know that being kind releases the hormone oxytocin?
Swimming: We all got to have some fun jumping in the pool this week! As we missed swimming last week due to an issue at the pool, we have been offered an extra session for the first week back after half term (Tuesday 25th February). Please make sure you come to school with your swimming things on this day for the final session.
Friday 24th January 2025
English: We have been delving deeper into discussion texts. We have looked at phrases of comparison and are working hard on creating balanced arguments. We had an interesting conversation on the topic, "Should children have to wear school uniform?".
Maths: This week, we learnt about formal methods of division. We now know how to use the bus stop method to help us solve calculations involving larger numbers. We applied these skills to solve 'real life' word problems.
Science: We experimented with wires, bulbs, buzzers and cells to prove if different diagrams showed a working circuit. We then had a go at drawing and labelling a simple, working circuit. Our key words to include were:
- wire
- crocodile clip
- cell
- battery holder
- bulb
- bulb holder
- buzzer
Friday 17th January 2025
Badgers Class have had a brilliant first two weeks back at school. Have a look at our highlights below.
English: This term, we are looking at Discussion Texts. Our model text links to our Oxford topic as the author, Lewis Carroll, lived in Oxford for most of his life. Our text is based on the story Alice in Wonderland and discusses the question, 'Should flamingos and hedgehogs be used to play croquet?'. We have learnt the new story map and begun to look at the key vocabulary in further detail, thinking about why the author chose to use certain words and phrases and the impact that they have on the reader.
Maths: We have learnt a formal written method of multiplication. This is called expanded multiplication. At first, a lot of us found it quite tricky but we all showed resilience and continued trying our best! Now, we feel confident multiplying a 2, 3 or even 4 digit number using this method. Next week, we will start working on a formal written method of division.
Science: Our new unit this term is Electricity. We have discussed mains and battery powered electricity and learnt about why we need to be safe when handling anything electronic. We are looking forward to creating our own electrical circuits soon.
Topic: Our topic this term is a local history/geography study of Oxford. We have looked at different maps of Oxford and learnt why people settled there in the first place. We have spotted the different human and physical features of the city that make it an attractive place to live. One of the popular human features is the Ashmolean Museum - we are all excited to go and visit at the end of this term!
WELCOME TO TERM 3!
Happy New Year!
Home learning reminders:
Home learning will be set on a Friday. The children will be set:
- ATOM Learning tasks
- Spelling Shed activities
- Times table rockstars
- Daily reading - please make sure the blue journals are being filled in at least once a week
- An optional home learning grid with a range of activities
PE for Term 3 - Tuesdays:
Every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks, we will take the children to Thame for their swimming lesson. Please ensure your child comes to school wearing their swimming clothes underneath their PE kit and they have a bag with a towel, spare clothes for after swimming and a named swimming cap. This will replace our Friday PE session for this term.
The children will continue to have their Tuesday afternoon PE lesson - this term, they will be doing gymnastics.
Thursday 19th December 2024
Wow, what a fantastic term it has been. We have had a super final week filled with festive joy 🎄 Badgers Class all performed brilliantly in the church on Tuesday evening and made Mrs Heycock and I feel very proud. For the whole of December, we have had a special (and rather cheeky) visitor in the classroom! Tinsel the Elf has been keeping an eye on the class as well as surprising us with naughty tricks every day! Today, he wrote us his final letter. We sure will miss him!
Finally, we want to say a huge thank you for all the very kind and generous Christmas gifts we have received. It is so thoughtful of you all - thank you.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! ⭐️
Miss Harman and Mrs Heycock x
Friday 13th December 2024
We are nearly at the end of what has been a very busy term. Check out our weekly highlights below 😊
English: As we have now finished our newspaper reports, we have spent some time doing some writing based on our class book, A Boy Called Christmas. We have all really enjoyed this story - some children have even gone to the library and taken out other books in this series.
Maths: We have been exploring related facts. For example, if we know that 3 x 7 = 21, we also know that 3 x 70 = 210 and 3 x 700 = 2100.
Science: We investigated how sound vibrations can travel through string cups. We had great fun experimenting with tight string, slack string, moving around corners, being at different heights and even creating our own telephone networks!
On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to watch a live orchestra perform The Snowman. We all sang along to Walking In the Air which we have been practising with Mrs Sterjo. It was a truly magical experience!
Finally, a huge well done to Cherry who won the Acer Trust Christmas card competition. All children in all of the schools in the Trust (over 6000 children in total!) designed a card for the competition and it was our Cherry who won! Well done Cherry, we are so proud of you 🎄
Friday 6th December 2024
WELL DONE TO OUR BRILLIANT BADGERS FOR THEIR CLASS ASSEMBLY! You all worked so hard and put on a fantastic show. We are so proud of you all. 
Friday 29th November 2024
A huge well done to our Brilliant Badgers for completing all of their assessments this week. Everyone was incredibly resilient and hard working and took the opportunity to show off all they have learnt so far in Year 4. Great job!
RE: We have continued our work on special places and this week we looked at Mosques. We discussed the key features of a mosque and had a go at drawing and labelling our own.
Art: We have been getting into the Christmas spirit by creating some tree decorations for Watlington Primary School's Christmas tree in the church. The theme of the tree is Fairy Tales. We read Hansel and Gretel and created our own sweet-themed tree decorations. Please do go down to the church and look at our tree if you get the chance!
We have also created a class advent calendar ready for December next week. Each child decorated a snowman which opens up, revealing a Christmas wish for the world on the inside. The children thought really carefully about their wishes and came up with some lovely ideas, such as, "I wish everyone has a delicious Christmas dinner on Christmas Day." We are really looking forward to opening each number in December!
On Friday afternoon, we were lucky to have a visit from the Pantomime! We watched a production of Peter Pan and all had a fantastic time 
Friday 22nd November 2024
Our Weekly Highlights!
English: This week, we have looked at using brackets in our writing. Brackets are used to include extra information and are commonly used in non-fiction pieces. We have also focussed on introduction writing, thinking carefully about including the 5 Ws - Who, What, Where, When and Why the event being reported on occurred.
Maths: We have continued our work on multiplication and division. We had a fun lesson involving a Tarsia puzzle where we had to work in pairs to match the correct calculation with the correct answer. The idea was to create a big triangle! We found this quite challenging! We have also looked at factors. Factor pairs are two numbers that can be multiplied together to make another number. Different numbers have different amounts of factor pairs. For example, the factors of 24 are:
1 and 24
2 and 12
3 and 8
4 and 6
Music: We have been working hard learning a song that includes sign language. We will be performing this song in our class assembly on Friday 6th December... We hope to see you all there!
Topic: We researched different forms of Roman entertainment. Check out Shivani’s poster!
PE: We have been enjoying improving our fitness in circuit training in PE 😃
Friday 15th November 2024
English: We have looked at balancing nouns and pronouns in our writing this week. We have also been researching the definitions of some tricky words from our model text and experimenting with putting these words into our own sentences, for example, 'debris'.
Maths: We have been exploring the relationship between the 3, 6 and 9 times table. We worked out that every second multiple of 3 is a multiple of 6 and every third multiple of 3 is a multiple of 9. We have also explored the 11 and 12 times tables in further detail, using our number facts knowledge to help us solve trickier calculations such as 120 x 12, 880 ÷ 11 = etc.
Science: This week, we started our new unit on sound. We kicked off the unit with a ‘bang’ and experimented with different instruments, exploring how they make sound. We looked at percussion, string and wind instruments. We discovered that different parts of the instruments vibrate when they are hit, plucked or blown into and this is what creates the sound. It was certainly a very noisy hour but Badgers had a great time! 🎶
Art: We created some Remembrance Day artwork inspired by Jacqueline Hurley.
Welcome to Term 2!
Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a relaxing half term. A few reminders for this term:
- PE days will remain on a Tuesday and a Friday - please ensure your child comes to school in full PE kit on these days
- Blue reading journals - please ensure these are filled in by your child regularly (at least once per week). This can include book reviews and general comments about what they are reading
- Spelling shed and ATOM Learning tasks set weekly
- Regular TTRockstars practise
English: This term, we are looking at newspaper reports. Our new model text is a newspaper report reporting on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This week, we composed our own ‘cold’ newspaper reports and have begun to learn our new text. Have a look at our freeze frames below!
Maths: We are looking at multiplication and division. This week, we have focused on the 3, 6 and 9 times table. We will explore the relationship between these times tables in further detail next week.
Computing: We took part in the UK BEBRAS computing challenge! This is a challenge all about computational thinking. Each child had 45 minutes to tackle a series of interactive tasks, designed to encourage logical thinking and problem solving skills. We will find out our results in two weeks!
Topic: We are continuing our work on the Romans. This week, we looked at Hadrian’s Wall. It took the Romans over 6 years to build and much of it is still standing today. We worked out that it would take just over 24 hours of non-stop walking to walk across the whole wall!
Well done on completing your first term of Year 4 everyone! Have a fantastic break 🍂 🎃
Art Morning - Tuesday 22nd October
We studied Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She liked to paint using polka dots and repeated patterns. She used complimentary colours when painting - these are colours that lie directly across from each other on a colour wheel. They are opposite hues, containing one warm colour and one cool colour. When she was growing up, Yayoi's family grew pumpkins at home. As a child, she drew pumpkins and continued this when she was an adult. We had a go at creating our own pumpkin artwork inspired by Yayoi.
Friday 18th October 2024
Week 7 has flown by here in Badgers Class. Take a look at our highlights below. 
English: We have loved our unit on limericks. We all wrote our own limericks and performed them to the class. Here is our whole class limerick - what do you think?!
One day Tibby walked down the lane,
To meet Cainan in his private jet plane,
They flew to New York,
Barbecued some pork,
Until it sadly started to rain!
Maths: We have finished our work on addition and subtraction and started a new unit on area. We had a go at some problem solving and enjoyed working in groups.
Computing: We have been learning about websites and how easy it is to upload information onto the internet. Have a look at what we edited on our class page below!
Welcome to Badgers!
We are looking at editing websites in computing. The time is 13:25pm and the day is Wednesday 16th October. We are editing this page RIGHT NOW!!!
We think we are the best class in the school... do you agree?
Art: On Tuesday, we enjoyed our autumn themed art morning. We have another exciting art morning planned for next week, stay tuned for pictures!
Friday 11th October 2024
English: This week, we began a short unit on limericks. Each line has to have the correct number of syllables to create a rhythm. The first and second lines should both have 8 syllables (one more or one less is fine), the third and fourth lines should have 5 syllables and the final line goes back to 8 syllables. The rhyming pattern also follows a similar structure with the first two lines rhyming (a rhyme), the second two lines rhyming (b rhyme) and the final line rhyming with the first two again (a rhyme).
Maths: In maths, we have continued our work on formal methods of addition and subtraction, focusing on applying our skills to solve word problems later on in the week.
Topic: In topic this week, we studied Boudicca's rebellion. We tracked her rebellion on a map of Great Britain - she led her army to London, St Albans, Colchester and Shropshire. We learnt all about the battle tactics of the Celts and the Romans and discussed which we thought were most effective and why.
Science: We have continued our work on States of Matter. This week, we looked at 'changing states'. Some materials can change from a solid to a liquid, for example, ice to water. The temperature at which this happens is called the melting point. We conducted an experiment with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and butter and investigated their melting points. We then got to make rice krispie cakes with the melted materials! We were all VERY happy about this!
Friday 4th October 2024
It really has been a busy week here in Badgers Class. All of the children have taken everything in their stride this week and I could not be more proud of them. They have represented our school wonderfully!
Take a look at the video below of our music lesson yesterday. Mrs Andrews let us loose with the percussion instruments and we had a great time! 
In music this week, we had a go at playing percussion instruments!
Friday 27th September 2024
I know there has been a little confusion on home learning this week. Just to clarify, our expectations from the children are:
- Fill in reading journal whenever they read, either alone or to an adult
- Add book reviews to reading journals when they finish a book - positive and negative reviews welcome!
- TTRockstars
- Spelling Shed activities
Optional maths activities are available on ATOM Learning. The home learning grid linked to the Romans is also available if children wanted to complete any additional tasks at home. There is no expectation to bring this work into school.
Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
English: In English this week, we innovated our model text. As a class, we came up with a new character and storyline. We changed our main character from Tranio to Livia and changed our storyline from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius to an animal escaping from the Colosseum. We are looking forward to writing our own versions next week!
Maths: We have looked at rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. This can be quite tricky! We use stem sentences to help us remember how to round numbers. For example:
When rounding to the nearest 10, we need to look at the 1s column.
When rounding to the nearest 100, we need to look at the 10s column.
When rounding to the nearest 1000, we need to look at the 100s column.
Topic: In Topic, we studied the Roman invasions of Britain. We looked at why Julius Caesar and Emperor Claudius invaded Britain - they wanted Britain to be part of the Roman Empire and to show how powerful they were. Britain had plenty of raw materials like wood and metals such as lead, iron, gold and silver. The Romans wanted these things to make items such coins and jewellery or pipes from lead. They could use the wood to build ships and houses.
Science: We conducted a science investigation on whether or not gas has a weight. First of all, we weighed a bottle of fizzy drink. We then shook the bottle to 'wake up' the carbon dioxide and get it all fizzing up to the top of the bottle. We then slowly let out the carbon dioxide, being careful not to spill any liquid. We then weighed the bottle one more time once we had let out all of the gas. The bottle had slightly decreased in weight! This proves that some gases do have weight.
Languages Morning: On Wednesday, we celebrated European Day of Languages. As a school, we chose to focus on languages from around the world to include some of the languages that are spoken here at WPS. The children had a great morning moving around the school and learning about 4 different languages; Shona, Tagalog, Japanese and Ukrainian. For more photos of this day, please click here.
Friday 20th September 2024
English: This week, we have focused on using expanded noun phrases. We have described our story setting, a harbour in Naples, and our main character, Tranio. We have to remember to use a comma to separate two adjectives and to also include one after a prepositional phrase. For example:
In the early hours of the morning, Tranio liked to sneak down to the calm, peaceful harbour to watch the colossal ships float out to sea.
Maths: This week, we have continued our work on place value. We have looked at ordering and comparing numbers. One of the stem sentences to support us with this is:
If the number has the same amount of thousands, you need to look at the hundreds column.
Science: We started our new unit called States of Matter. We learnt about the particle formation of solids, liquids and gases. We also sorted materials according to whether they are a solid, liquid or gas.
Music & Dance: This week with Mrs Andrews, we learnt about songs written in 4 beat time. We practised clapping songs and really enjoyed the Among Us video we got to clap along to! Our understanding of rhythm has already improved since last week. We are able to use this knowledge to help us with our dance lessons as our song for dance is also written in 4 beat time. Knowing how to count correctly to the music helps us with knowing when to change to a different dance move.
Visiting the new pond!
Friday 13th September 2024
That’s our first full week in Badgers Class done! The children have all come back to school full of enthusiasm which is great to see.
Blue reading journals have been sent home today - please see previous class page update and the class newsletter for more information.
English: We have started our work on the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’. The children all had a go at writing a ‘cold’ adventure story about escaping from either an earthquake or volcanic eruption. They were full of exciting ideas and I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce later on in the unit when we have learnt the key grammatical features in more detail.
Maths: We have started Year 4 by looking at place value. We have started investigating 5 digit numbers and also been introduced to Gattegno Charts. We represented different numbers on these charts - take a look at our examples below.
RE: Our unit this term is ‘Worship’. We discussed what worship means and how it is different for all people and religious believers. We thought about all of the things and people in our lives who we respect and show loyalty to. We created worship spinners showing the most important things in our lives.
RE worship spinners
Music: We are so lucky that this year we will be having music lessons with Mrs Andrews! We had our first lesson on Thursday and focussed on clapping songs and following a rhythm. By the end of Year 4, we will all know how to play some basic tunes on the ukulele!
Welcome to Badgers Class!
Here you will find important information about our learning and updates as to what we have been doing in class.
Please ensure children are reading regularly at home and filling in their blue reading journal. Spelling Shed tasks will be set weekly. Children should also be practising times tables on TT Rockstars. The Home Learning Grid (see below) and online ATOM maths questions are optional additional activities.
Feel free to contact me via the class email address badgers@watlington.oxon.sch.uk if you have any queries or questions.
PE days this term are Tuesday and Friday.