This week has been full of bright sparks and brilliant thinking! In Science, we launched our new topic on electricity, with the children exploring the difference between battery‑powered and socket‑powered appliances. They have been spotting electricity all around them, so you might enjoy having a look together at home and safely investigating how everyday electrical items work – a great conversation starter! In Maths, we wrapped up our work on place value, and the children have done a fantastic job comparing and ordering numbers up to 10,000, as well as rounding confidently to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000. A huge well done to everyone for their focus and effort this week – we are very proud of them.

In English, we have been enjoying the very funny book Until I Met Dudley. The children loved the imaginative ideas about how appliances might work – from dragons inside toasters to cats licking plates clean inside dishwashers! This creative thinking has inspired us to invent our own explanations, which we will be writing over the next couple of weeks.

In Geography, we were fascinated by studying Ordnance Survey maps and learning how to read grid references. This exciting learning will help prepare us for our upcoming trip to Brownsea Island, where we will continue to build on these skills.

In Art this week we created prototypes of our Iron Man wire sculptures. We used pipe cleaners and foil which we found were very malleable. Next week we will be making our actual sculptures and will be able to show you these during our project showing afternoon on Thursday.

In Geography, we have continued with identifying how Poole and Cherbourg have changed over time. We also checked on how our Human Geography fieldwork study is going. We discussed the benefits and limitations of sending out our survey on social media. The survey is still 'live' and we would really appreciate some more responses please so that we can evaluate the data effectively.

In English this week, Year 4 have been re‑enacting dramatic moments from The Iron Man. The children discovered that the Iron Man had been buried deep beneath the ground until one sunny afternoon, a family experienced what seemed like an earthquake as he rose from the earth beneath their picnic blanket! The children used thoughtful movement and expression with drama to capture the tension and excitement of the scene. They then explored how to bring their own writing to life, experimenting with onomatopoeia, rhetorical questions and varied sentence structures. They confidently used these techniques to build atmosphere and detail and showed great enthusiasm throughout. The children are now feeling inspired and ready to write their own dramatic narratives describing the picnic scene. I wonder where the sausage rolls will end up?

We’ve had a great week in Maths, finishing our decimals unit by learning how to round decimals to whole numbers. We have now moved on to shape, beginning with a recap of turns and angles. Iron Man even joined us in our first lesson to help us explore clockwise and anticlockwise movements, as well as quarter, half and three‑quarter turns! In Science, we began discussing deforestation and its impact on the Earth. The children created persuasive posters to encourage people to stop deforesting and explained the negative effects it can have on our environment.

Forest school has also been lots of fun. We have been exploring the school grounds using 4 figure grid references. We used an aerial view map of the school and even managed to suggest more features which could be added to it. We also had a wonderful time on the nature trail this week! The children were fully engaged as we linked our art topic to the outdoors by creating beautiful leaf art. They loved exploring the area to gather natural resources, and they all produced some fantastic and imaginative pieces of artwork. It was lovely to see their creativity shine in such a natural setting.

Science Week brought a real buzz to Year 4 as we spent time exploring, questioning and investigating together. Our week began with a close look at different types of fruit, where the children used their scientific skills to observe carefully and think about the features that could help them classify and group each one. The ‘feel bags’ activity was another favourite, as pupils used only their sense of touch to work out what was inside and discuss the different ways each object might be sorted.

We also investigated friction using balloons, with the children making thoughtful predictions before testing how various surfaces affected movement. This led to lots of lively discussion and plenty of happy faces, as they compared results.

We loved the live lesson on paper strength! Using paper cylinders of different sizes, the children explored how height and thickness can influence how much weight a structure can hold. They quickly noticed that thicker cylinders were able to support more mass, while thinner ones tended to bend or collapse. With some cylinders tall and others short, it was fascinating to see the variety of outcomes.

Overall, it was a fantastic week filled with curiosity, problem‑solving and hands‑on science. Year 4 approached every task with enthusiasm and a real desire to discover more!

Wow! What an amazing Fairtrade Sale!

We were absolutely blown away by your generosity and support. Thanks to our wonderful Year 4 families, we raised an incredible £303, allowing us to donate to the Fairtrade Foundation and now we can celebrate the children’s success with a well‑deserved movie afternoon, with snacks of course! Through this project, Year 4 have developed a clearer understanding of Fairtrade and its links to climate change, recycling and protecting the environment.

Thank you for helping us make such a meaningful difference. 🌍💚

Thank you to all the parents who came to watch the Lulworth Class Assembly this morning. The children have been working hard and really appreciated having an audience to watch them read their words and listen to them sing.

Heavy Metal

Our new topic, Heavy Metal, is now well under way and we have begun reading our class text 'The Iron Man'. We launched the topic with an exciting hook: the children watched a dramatic video of stormy seas and thunder crashing against rocky cliffs. With the lights off, the teachers scattered nuts, bolts, and other metallic objects across the tables to recreate the moment the Iron Man steps off the cliff and crashes onto the beach below. The children were completely absorbed in the atmosphere and loved the drama of the scene!

In English, they were then introduced to the character Hogarth in the book, a small boy who had been fishing by a stream. He went to the wooded valley and up on the cliff, he saw the Iron Man for the first time! Imagining they were Hogarth, the children wrote letters to warn the villagers about the mysterious figure on the cliff. They produced fantastic work, using similes, powerful vocabulary and effective descriptions.

Geography

In geography this week, the children have been looking at pictures of Poole High Street and Poole Park. The photographs showed the areas as they are now, and as they were 50 and 100 years ago. They focused on the physical and human geographical features. They found many changes, especially in the different uses of shop buildings. They also noticed that there were children playing in Poole High Street 100 years ago! They were surprised by this, as well as by the fact that there was once a zoo in Poole Park.

Art

In Art we have discussed Alexander Calder and explored some of his work. He was one of the first people to make decorative mobiles. He took inspiration for his wire sculptures by watching acrobats in the circus and watching how they move. The children then explored drawing stick people in various different states of movement.

Maths

Over the past few weeks, the children have been working hard to build their confidence with fractions. They have been practising how to add fractions and mixed numbers, as well as learning how to subtract fractions that include mixed numbers. We are incredibly proud of their progress and determination. Our next step in maths will be moving on to explore decimals, where the children will begin to make connections between fractions and decimal values.

Science

This week in science, we explored the process of evaporation and how heat affects the speed at which water evaporates. The children carried out an investigation using petri dishes filled with water, placing them in different locations: near sunlight, in the fridge, and in a cupboard. They observed how the amount of heat in each environment influenced how quickly the water disappeared, helping them understand that warmer temperatures speed up evaporation while cooler places slow it down.

 

Welcome to another week in Year 4!

Please do come along and support the children by buying their Fairtrade products on Friday 13^th February at 3:00pm. They have been so excited and committed to this project. We will be selling Fairtrade crispy cakes in addition to the items the children have made. A donation will go to the Fairtrade Foundation and the children will have a fun, movie afternoon with snacks to celebrate their success. Thanks for your support.

In English we have enjoyed learning about the inspirational story of Isatou Ceesay. She is a lady who lives in the Gambia and was so upset by the amount of plastic bags she found lying around that she put them to good use. She began rolling and weaving them into purses.  Her story is told in the book 'One Plastic Bag.' We had discussions around the ethical use of plastic bags, recycling and caring for our environment.

 

All classes have been making products to sell at our Fairtrade Sale next Friday. Lulworth enjoyed making coasters out of clay tiles and offcuts of fabric. This was our own example of recycling products for a purpose. Kimmeridge Class worked hard to create bracelets and bag charms. They also creatively decorated some eco door hangers with positive, uplifting messages and the Fairtrade logo. Swanage enjoyed some sewing as the children made their own money pouches for the Fairtrade Sale. They absolutely loved trying something new and showed great perseverance with their stitching. The finished pouches look fantastic, and the children are very proud of their creations! 

This week in maths, the children have continued their work on multiplication and division. They have been using a range of resources to represent arrays, helping them multiply three numbers with confidence. We also explored what happens to place values when we multiply and divide by 100, deepening their understanding of number and place value.

In science this week, we carried out an experiment to investigate how quickly ice melts in hot and cold water. The children carefully observed and timed the melting process, discovering that the ice melted in just 2 minutes and 48 seconds in hot water, compared to 10 minutes and 53 seconds in cold water. This helped us learn more about how temperature affects the rate at which materials change state.

 

Welcome to the end of another great week!      

We’ve had a wonderfully busy and engaging week packed with hands‑on learning, discussion, and curiosity across our subjects. In maths, we concluded our addition and subtraction unit by focusing on estimating answers and using a range of checking strategies. The children especially enjoyed applying their mathematical thinking to our Fairtrade topic, estimating how much it might cost for bananas to travel all the way from Colombia to the UK. This real‑life link helped them see how reasoning and number sense are used beyond the classroom.

We have now launched into our new multiplication and division unit. To begin, the class explored division using concrete resources, such as counters, to model the process clearly. This practical approach helped the children identify and discuss common misconceptions while building confidence in explaining their ideas. It has been fantastic to see them approach new concepts with such enthusiasm and resilience.

In science, we investigated temperature and what happens to warm water over time. The children observed that warm water cooled after 15 minutes rather than getting hotter, leading to thoughtful discussions about heat transfer and how energy moves between objects and the surrounding air. A real highlight was using thermometers to take accurate measurements—the children absolutely loved the practical experience and showed great care and curiosity throughout the investigation.

 

We have some exciting news!

Each year we have been fortunate enough to be gifted a fully funded trip to Brownsea Island, and this year is no exception! This wonderful experience will take place during the first half of the summer term. We will be in touch with further details and arrangements at a later date, but I can tell you it is certainly a trip to look forward to! Before we go, we’ll spend time getting to know the local area, discovering the island’s human and physical features and learning about its fascinating history.

Our thanks go out to Starling Bank and The National Trust for offering our children this wonderful opportunity.

Our new topic, Food and Fairtrade, is well underway and the children are thoroughly engaged. We began the topic by exploring a curiosity cube. Who knew that cotton, rubber gloves and notebooks made from elephant poo could be Fairtrade?! The children are particularly excited about the opportunity to make and sell Fairtrade goods using recycled Fairtrade materials. These include coffee bean sacks, fabric and wood, all kindly salvaged from the Dorset Scrapstore. We will also be learning about the Sustainability Development Goals which aim to improve life for people everywhere and to protect the planet.

The provisional date for this event is the last day of term, Friday 13th February — watch this space!

The Year 4 Team