Fox Class (Y4)

Welcome to Fox Class! 

Class Teacher: Miss Bennett

I will be leading science for our school, where I will be working hard to make sure that lots of practical and engaging science lessons are happening!

PPA day: Tuesday afternoon. The children will PE coach Mike during some of this time.

PE days: Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Please send your children into school with their kits on ready. 

Friday 10th September - week 1:

We have had a good first week back at school! It has been great to see our friends again, play football on the field, visit the school library and start Year 4 as 'The Fabulous Foxes!'. 

In maths, we have been recapping our Year 3 place value to get us ready for our Year 4 maths next week! We have been recognising and writing hundreds numbers and comparing 3 digit numbers.

In English, we read our new English book 'The Man Who Walked Between the Towers'. This is the book that we are going to be basing lots of our writing on this term. Fox Class have started to learn about expanded noun phrases, which we will be using to write a setting description next week!

In topic, we recapped the countries that make up the UK and have learned the 7 continents and 5 oceans of the world! Next week, we will begin exploring France and Normandy! In PSHE, Jigsaw Jack (David) joined us for our lesson and we had the challenge of passing him around the class without using our hands!!

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend! 

Week 5 - Friday 9th July 2021:

This week began with us starting to plan our own narrative based on our class story 'Viking Boy'. We also spent the afternoons building our Viking Longboats, where we added dragon heads for the prow of the boat and included masts and sails! This afternoon, we explored what shadows are and how they are formed. We then went outside for a shadow hunt and to investigate how we could change the shape or size of our shadows and see what different shadow shapes we could make! 

If you are watching the football on Sunday, then fingers crossed that it's coming home!!

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week 4 - Friday 2nd July 2021:

This week we have thoroughly enjoyed our amazing Sports Day, which was full of really fun activities! We all gave it 100% and were very encouraging of our team mates. We used our football skills to score goals, persevered in the obstacle course, kept our eggs steady on our spoons and jumped as fast as we could in the sack race! Once we had worn ourselves out, we enjoyed a delicious ice lolly in the sun!

We also started building our Viking Longboats, which we will finish off next week and we spent time on the computers using a programming app called Scratch. We followed Miss Bennett's instructions very carefully to create an interactive quiz! 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

Week 3 - Friday 25th June 2021:

This week, we used our 'Try it' skills in English to write setting descriptions about Valhalla. We used similes, expanded noun phrases and prepositional phrases to write creatively and Miss Bennett has really enjoyed reading our work! In topic, we worked together to carry out a science experiment to help us understand that dark is the absence of light. We also created warning posters to warn Anglo-Saxon villagers of Viking raiders! They included: drawings of Viking Longboats and weapons to watch out for along with advice to ring a bell to alert your villagers and run to the hills!

We look forward to more learning next week, where we will be having a go at building our own Vikings Longboats!

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week 2: Friday 18th June 2021:

This week we have enjoyed reading more of our class book 'Viking Boy' - there has been a bit of gore and lots of shocking moments! These moments have inspired our writing this week, where we have been pretending that we are Gunnar and have written letters to our father in Valhalla!

In our topic lessons, we have explored the 7 Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms and can explain why the Saxons settled in Britain - please test our knowledge at home! Yesterday, we designed our own Saxon inspired tapestry and today had a go at practising our sewing skills! We had lots of fun in our PE session on Thursday, where we started training up for Sports Day. There was lots of cheering, encouragement and some giggles too (especially when it was the sack race!).

Week 1 - Friday 11th February 2021:

It has been brilliant to see everyone so cheery and positive during this first week back to Term 6! We kicked off our new Vikings topic, with a character description about a young Viking boy named Gunnar. We used similes, expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials within our writing and got very creative with our ideas! In the afternoons, we created a comic strip timeline of the Viking invasions and today started our own portrait of a Viking warrior.

This afternoon was particularly fun as we had CSET sports people in to do lacrosse and archery with us. In lacrosse we practised different ways to throw the ball including a 'pancake throw' and learnt how to pick up the ball using the 'step, squat, scoop' technique! In archery, we had some great focus and determination and some of us were able to hit the target! Miss Bennett's arrow bounced off the board... but it's the taking part that counts!

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe in the sun! 

Week 5 - Friday 21st May 2021:

Despite the wet and windy weather, we have had a great week full of fantastic learning!

We have finished our Roman topic and this week learnt about Boudicca and how she was a fierce female warrior and we created an information leaflet about Ancient Rome's physical geography. We found out why it was advantageous that Rome was built on seven hills, along the Tiber River and between the Alps and Apennine Mountains. In maths, we learnt about tenths as decimals and hundredths, ready to learn about hundredths as decimals next week! Test us on our tenths as decimals knowledge at home! In English, we applied our skill of using inverted commas to writing conversations between Tranio and Liv during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius!

Have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday! 

Week 4 - Friday 14th May 2021

Another brilliant week of learning!

In English, we recapped our 'complex sentences' skills to write an introduction to a newspaper report based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius - this will be used in our final piece later in the term! Please ask us at home to explain what is needed to form a complex sentence! We also enjoyed singing along to a subordinating conjunctions song - there were some funky dance moves too! In maths, we completed our fractions learning by finding fractions of amounts, which we were all brilliant at!! We have now moved on to learning about decimals and look forward to covering this more in the next few weeks. In topic, we looked at the Roman calendar (courtesy of Julius Caesar) and had a go at translating the names of the month to their English equivalent. We also explored a Roman map of the UK and identified Roman towns/cities and the roads that they built! Today, we had a go at transforming numbers and dates into Roman Numerals!

Fox Class wishes you a lovely weekend and fingers crossed for some sun!! 

Week 3 - Friday 7th May

The weeks are flying by in Fox Class, but we all know that time flies when you're having fun!

We have continued our learning on fractions and can now add and subtract fractions - including subtracting fractions from whole amounts! In English, we have been applying our skills of the 'past and present progressive' to diary entries linked to our book 'Escape from Pompeii'. We have been writing as Tranio (a main character) and wrote entries from before and after the eruption! In topic, we have been learning about Julius Caesar, as well as the homes of rich and poor Romans. Fox Class were amazing at the sponsored walk/run on Wednesday and our highest number of laps came in at an impressive 20!!

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend! 

Week 2 - Friday 30th April

We have been doing some amazing work in Fox Class this week!

In maths, we have continued looking at fractions and using our skills to add fractions and solve problems! In English, we have been using amazing vocabulary to write a contrasting setting description of Mount Vesuvius erupting over Pompeii - please ask us at home to tell you about our writing as it is truly fabulous! Today, we started work on our new target 'Past progressive tense' and sang a song to help us remember what to do - ask us at home to sing it to you! In topic, we have continued our learning on the Romans by looking at Celtic shields and the roles of Celtic villagers within their settlement and then the Roman army, including the uniform of a soldier!

Have a lovely, restful long weekend and see you all Tuesday! 

Week 1 - Friday 23rd April

Fox Class have had a brilliant first week back! We have all jumped straight back into our learning with great determination and curiosity! Our new topic this term is 'The Romans', where we will be learning about how Britain has been impacted by the Romans. Please take a look at the knowledge organiser for this topic to find out more!

In English, we started off the week by watching an animation of Pompeii experiencing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, as our new book is 'Escape from Pompeii'. This got our imagination and creativity flowing and we have written some great setting descriptions pre-volcanic eruption! On Monday, we will be writing a contrasting setting description! In maths, we have been continuing our learning about fractions and have been exploring equivalent fractions. In topic, we listened to the story of Romulus and Remus and went onto our school field to act out the story in groups, we looked at how the Roman Empire grew over time and the countries that were invaded and conquered and we have started looking at Britain before the Romans invaded!

Week 6 - Thursday 1st April

Happy Easter everybody! 

We have had a great last week of term! We have started our new science topic 'Living things and their habitats'. We started the week learning about the 7 life processes and using 'MRS NERG' to help us remember them all! Please ask us at home what each letter stands for. We went on our own 'living things' hunt in our wonderful outside area and created a table to note down what we found, where we found it and what it looked like! As well as this, we worked together to decide which group of living things a dolphin belongs to and then categorised some insects using a classification key!

Today, we finished writing our non-chronological reports all about why the rainforest is important and the reasons why deforestation is happening. Please ask us at home to explain our new learning to you!

Have a lovely, restful break and I am looking forward to seeing you all next term! 

(Photos to follow!!)

Miss Bennett 

Week 5 - Friday 26th March

Fox Class have enjoyed a great week full of brilliant learning!

In maths, we have been learning about fractions. We can name the top and bottom number of a fraction with its proper mathematical name and know the difference between unit and non-unit fractions - please ask us about this at home! In English, we have been applying our 'fronted adverbial' skills to writing setting descriptions about the rainforest. One description was about the rainforest when it is beautiful and healthy but the other was about how the rainforest looks after deforestation. In topic, we finished making our models of South America and today we added flags to label and name the different countries within the 4th biggest continent in the world! We also found out that The Amazon River is the largest river in South America!

Week 4 - Friday 19th March

This week, we have jumped back into our brilliant English, maths and topic learning! We have all worked really hard to remember the skills we learnt over lockdown and before Christmas.

In maths, we have been looking at area and measuring the area of different shapes! We learnt new words such as systematically and rectilinear! Please ask us at home to explain what 'area' means. We have then being using our maths knowledge to help us answer problem solving questions! In English, we have been exploring our new book 'The Great Kapok Tree' and have made some great predictions, explored what onomatopoeia is and then today, wrote similes to describe a picture of the rainforest - ask us at home to share with you our onomatopoeia words and similes! Finally, in topic we watched a video of the rainforest and created a 'senses map' listing what we could see and hear and then what we might taste, smell and feel if we were there! We also looked at where in the world the rainforests are located, focused on the Amazon Rainforest and began creating the continent of South America with mod-roc. Next week, we will paint our continents and add detail!

Week 3 - Friday 12th March

ARTS WEEK!

We have had a brilliant week back together again at school and have loved all of the creative projects that have been happening during Arts Week. We have developed our drawing skills, making sure to look closely at the details of leaves, plants and animals inspired by artist Henri Rousseau. We built our own rainforest homes from junk modelling materials and learnt a song from Brazil about building houses, which we played some instruments to as well! For our collaborative piece of art, we worked together to create four 3D paper mache animal heads - they are looking great and just need some time to dry!

Week 2 - Friday 5th March

We have made it to the end of our lockdown learning whether we are in school or at home! Everyone has persevered and been amazing throughout this period of school - you should all be very proud of yourselves!

This week, we have been focusing on fairy tales as this was our theme for Book Week. Fox and Badger class listened to the traditional tale of The Three Little Pigs and then The True Story of The Three Little Pigs, which tells the story from the wolf's point of view! We had a go at creating story maps and then either writing, drawing or speaking our fractured fairy tales, where we changed characters or told the story from another perspective! At the end of the week, we wrote a character description about the wolf! We even made the three houses from the story and tested which ones would stand strong against the huffing and puffing from Mr Wolf!

Lots of us dressed up for World Book Day and we looked fabulous! We were even part of a live video with an author! To celebrate World Book Day, we completed a range of activities from reading to our pets, to making book marks, to completing a World Book Day quiz!

We are all looking forward to being back together on Monday 8th March for our amazing Arts Week!

Week 1 - Friday 26th February 

The school is buzzing with the excitement of hearing everyone will be returning on the 8th March!  We can't wait to have everyone back with us 

Even with this exciting news, we have all managed to concentrate and learn some new and wonderful things! 

This week we looked at the recent trip to Mars! We watched the video of the rover driving on Mars' surface and thought about whether there would be life somewhere else in the universe! 

We were also amazed to have replies from our link school in Nepal! Last term we wrote letters and the children there replied! Have a look at the pictures to see what they said.....

Week 6 - Friday 12th February

What another brilliant week of learning we have had both in school and at home! We have reached the last day of the term and everyone has worked so, so hard over the last few weeks! We are super proud of you all!

In English this week, we have been pulling all of our skills together to write instructions on how to build a den and a treehouse! Some of our treehouse designs are amazing! In maths, we have been doing lots of measuring both in class and at home. We have learnt about cm, mm and m and today we had a go at comparing lengths! Topic learning this week has been very exciting, we created sediment jars to see how the layers of the earth form. Today, we learnt about and celebrated Chinese New Year by making some lanterns!

We wish you all the lovely half term break that you deserve!

Week 5 - Friday 5th February 

Miss Bennett and I have been amazed with all the creativity that has taken place this week! As part of Children's Mental Health Week we have seen dancing, art work, models, fantastic outfits, baking and more! I hope everyone managed to take a moment to chill and have a moment of calm this week amongst all the busyness. I know lots of you enjoyed our zen den and yoga activities. 

As part of our topic we set the challenge of creating a volcano! Attached are some pictures from school and home. They are amazing! Well done everyone :) 

Week 4 - Friday 29th January

We have had yet another week of brilliant learning both in school and at home! Miss Bennett and Miss Russell are so proud of everyone for all of their hard work! 

In English, we have been writing setting descriptions to describe a picture of the wilderness. In topic, we did some outdoor learning where we collected sticks, pine cones and leaves to play noughts and crosses, make a stick man and build a twig tower. Our tallest tower was 178cm! We also made bird feeders to feed all of the lovely birds that come to visit our school grounds! In maths, we have been using our money and times table knowledge to answer lots of problem solving questions!

Week 3 - Friday 22nd January 

What a busy week learning at home for all of us! We've been practising our skills using money in Maths sessions and planning to write the ending to our story 'The Firework-Maker's Daughter'. Over the weekend we have been set a rock cake baking challenge as we are learning about rocks and soils in Science! I am looking forward to seeing your creations and I'm sure you'll have a great time eating them! 

Have a look through some of the fantastic work completed in home learning books this week. 

Well done for all of your resilience and concentration this week. Be kind to yourselves and enjoy your weekend everyone! 

Week 2 - Friday 15th January 

Everyone has been working so hard at home and in school. We are all so proud of you. We have started our new topic 'Natural Disasters' and learnt about earthquakes and tornados. This week we designed and built structures to withstand an earthquake! We also used our sketching skills to create tornado art. Have a look at some brilliant examples from school and from home. Well done everyone! 

Week 7 - Friday 18th December

Our last website update of 2020! 

We have had an absolutely brilliant, festive last week of school! We completed our holiday brochures about Christmas in Normandy so please look at the pictures below to have a read!

Today was full of lots of festive fun! We enjoyed a Christmas quiz in teams where we all got to show off our excellent Christmas general knowledge, had a dance and Miss Bennett taught us the Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide and we finished the day watching a pantomime with some delicious pop corn!

Fox Class wish you all an amazing Christmas!

Week 6 - Friday 11th December

What a festive week we have had! 

This week in Fox Class, we have had lots of Christmas fun. We decorated our Christmas tree, which now has lovely baubles on (thank you parents), some lovely golden tinsel and twinkly fairy lights! Also this week, we made Christmas hats to wear for our Christmas dinner day and our nativity performance next week - they are looking very sparkly! In our English and topic lessons, we have been learning about Christmas in Normandy and gathering lots of information ready to write a holiday brochure next week! We found out that nativity scenes are a very important decoration in France so we had a go at making our own, which we shall finish next week too! We learnt some French words for 'Father Christmas' and 'Christmas dinner' so please ask us about them at home!

Week 5 - Friday 4th December

Hello to all the parents! We have had a wonderful week! 

In English, we have been working towards writing a non-chronological report about magnets! Today we completed our reports and they are very informative! We are able to share lots of interesting facts about magnets so please ask us about them at home!

In maths, we have been learning lots of times tables. We found out that we can use our 3 times table to help with our 6's and we learnt a catchy song to help us with our 9 times table!

In the afternoons this week, we have continued our experiments with magnets and we made predictions about the strength of different magnets. Fox Class have been working really hard on our Christmas performance song - We Three Kings. Some of us have solos and some of us will be narrating!

We are looking forward to week 6! 

Week 4 - Friday 27th November

In maths, we have been learning to multiply and divide by 3. We have listened to a 3 times table song to help us remember how to count in 3's. In English, we learnt how to correctly use 'a' and 'an' in sentences, please ask us at home to explain how to use 'a/an'. We also did some brilliant paired editing, where we worked together to improve each other's writing. This week, we started learning about our new topic 'Forces and Magnets' and found out how a newton meter got its name. We also carried out an experiment on how different materials can affect the distance travelled by a car when moving down a ramp. In RE, we learnt about the Hindu festival Diwali, which is the festival of light and they celebrate with lots of lights, candles and fireworks!

Fox Class are looking forward to week 5!

Week 3 - Friday 20th November

This week in maths, we have been learning to divide by sharing and grouping. We have also been learning to divide numbers by themselves. Again, we have worked really hard to apply our knowledge to lots of problem solving. In English, we finished writing our stories based on The Lion and The Unicorn and Miss Bennett is very proud of us all! In topic, we continued learning about evacuation and looked at the different areas in the UK that were either 'Evacuation areas' or 'Reception areas'. Please ask us about these at home! We finished the week with some artwork based on Gustav Klimt - look at the pictures below to see our interpretations.

Week 2 - Friday 13th November

This week has been awesome and we have done some amazing work.

In maths, we have been learning to divide by 10 and 100 and answering even more problem solving questions! Ask us at home about our dividing by 10 and 100 rule!

In English, we have been learning about Lenny being evacuated. We all wrote a character description of Lenny and used some really creative vocabulary in our writing.

Our afternoons have been very creative! On Monday, we found out why children needed to wear gas masks during WW2. They wore them in case poisonous, toxic gas entered their classrooms. To understand how it felt to wear a gas mask, we had a go at making our own out of milk bottles! We really persevered with our creations and by the end of the week, we took a great class photo of us wearing them! One of our brilliant Fox Class members made their own air raid shelter!

Week 1 - Friday 6th November

Good afternoon parents and adults at home! We have had a fabulous first week of Term 2!

We have done some wonderful maths work, where we have been learning to multiply by 10 and 100. Please ask us at home to explain the multiplying rules to you. In our maths lesson this morning, we all worked really hard to answer lots of different problem solving questions! We are sure that our brains have grown stronger!

In English, we started our brand new story book called, 'The Lion and The Unicorn', which is about a boy called Lenny being evacuated to the countryside. 

In topic, some of us made mountains for our Term 1 display and we started painting our fabulous poppy rocks for Remembrance Day. We have also started learning about our new topic, 'Children at war', where we have been finding out about why the war started and the reason children were evacuated.

Week 7 - Friday 23rd October

What a fabulous last week of term it has been!

We have done some really amazing work this week and we hope that you enjoy seeing how we have ended our Term 1 learning.

In geography, we looked at the longitude and latitude of Normandy and used oranges to help our understanding of this! We sang a song to remind us of the longitude and latitude of Normandy so please ask us to sing it to you at home!

We have experimented with line, tone and texture, used a stick figure and 'sausage' shapes to help us draw figures both standing still and showing movement and began to experiment with drawing facial expressions.

In English, we wrote our TV news reports about Philippe's daring tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. We worked really hard this week and Miss Bennett was really proud with the writing that we produced! Our handwriting is getting more beautiful as the weeks go on and we worked hard to include the different skills in our final piece.

Have a really lovely half term everyone!!

Week 6 - Friday 16th October

This week has involved even more fabulous learning!

We have worked really hard in maths, where we were learning to subtract 3 and 4 digit numbers but with an exchange! We worked in small groups, with a huge place value chart and used the counters to help us with our calculations - this really helped us picture our subtraction in our minds!

In English, we moved on to writing our eyewitness accounts. We all really enjoyed watching the video clips of Philippe Petit tightrope walking and we were amazed at just how high up he was! All of us were able to gather some great vocabulary to use in our writing.

In topic, we have been learning about the biome of Normandy, which is a deciduous forest. At the start of the week, we sorted information into 'trees', 'plants' and 'animals' and then wrote up our research into our books!

We are looking forward to more great learning next week!

Week 5 - Friday 9th October

We have had yet another brilliant week of learning!

On Monday, we completed our diary entries and have all included lots of different skills throughout our writing. We are now preparing for our next piece of writing, which will be a TV news report about Philippe's daring tightrope walk! We really enjoyed watching a video of what it would be like if news reporters had no news to share! 

In maths, we have focused on addition and have used lots of drawings and counters to help us understand addition with an exchange! Lots of us have been able to strengthen our brains by moving onto problem solving questions!

Our topic lessons have involved taking a deeper look at Normandy's climate and understanding what 'Temperate' means. 
 

To celebrate World Mental Health Day, we enjoyed spending time talking and connecting with one another sat outside! 
 

Have a great weekend!

Week 4 - Friday 2nd October

We have had a fabulous week in Fox Class! 

We have all worked very hard in our maths lessons, where we were learning to round to the nearest 10 and 100 before moving onto adding/subtracting 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s! 

Throughout the week, we have been planning for our diary entry, which we started today and will be finishing on Monday! The writing we have done so far is sounding brilliant! 

In our geography lessons, we have sorted pictures of the physical and human characteristics of Normandy and were introduced to the world's climate zones! 

On Wednesday afternoon, we were really lucky and got to spend some time with Oreo, Fudge and Caramel. Everyone was really quiet, calm and careful with our new friends.

Fox Class wish you all a lovely weekend! 

Week 3 - Friday 25th September

Fox Class have done more amazing learning this week! 

In English, we used all of the skills and brilliant vocabulary that we have gathered over the last couple of weeks to write a setting description. The setting we described was the part of our story when Philippe tightrope walks between the Twin Towers in rainy New York! Some of our writing can be seen in the pictures below!

In maths, we rounded numbers to the nearest 10 and sang a special rhyme to remind us of our rounding rule.

'5 or more let it soar, 4 or less let it rest!'

In our geography lessons, we began looking at the landscape of Normandy and where in France this region can be found! Fox Class agreed that Normandy looks like a magical and peaceful place. We ended the week by walking around our school field and reminding ourselves of features that are natural or man-made! 

Fox Class are all looking forward to next week!

Week 2 - Friday 18th September

Hello everyone,

We have had a wonderful week and have enjoyed all of our learning!

In English, we have been learning about adverbs and fronted adverbials and have written lots of sentences preparing us for our diary writing next week! All of us have worked so hard and our handwriting is getting better and better each day!

In maths, we have now moved onto Year 4 place value, where we are working with 4 digit numbers. We have been counting in 1000s and solving problems using our strong brains!

In our topic lessons, we worked as a team to label the countries with their names! We thought we had lost Bulgaria and Luxembourg at one point, but luckily we found them a little further down on our map!

We have enjoyed learning how to correctly catch and pass a ball in our PE lessons!

Fox Class are looking forward to another great week on Monday!

Have a lovely weekend, 

Fox Class!

Week 1 - Friday 11th September

Hello everyone,

We have had a brilliant first week in Fox Class! We have enjoyed spending time with our friends, working together and playing with one another at break times.

We have started with place value for maths, where we have been answering a range of questions and really pushing our understanding with some problem solving! In English, we made predictions about our new book and then acted out some scenes from the story to gather some great vocabulary! 

In our topic lessons, we used Google Earth to help us explore the countries of Europe and then we worked together as a class to complete a jigsaw of Europe in our brand new floor book!

We really hope that you enjoy seeing what he have done!