Year 4

Year 5

Good morning Year 4! Just a quick hello from us to let you know we will be working with you in September! There is myself Mr Syers and a very familiar face in Mrs Breen! I am extremely excited to be working with you for the first time and Mrs Breen is delighted to be with you for another year! We are both looking forward to seeing you all!

Welcome to Year 4 2019 - 2020

Teacher email: ldavies@northern.lancs.sch.uk    

Although we are not all in school this week, a lot of good learning has been happening both in our homes and at school.  Well done to all children who have completed tasks set online this week.  We would like to keep our weekly awards up and running and so we will now have "Virtual Shooting Star" every Friday!

Our shooting star this week is Amelie for her amazing effort on Mathletics and PurpleMash, getting lots and lots of answers correct, perfect scores all week, and typing up her fantastic literacy work all about debate texts, looking at how they are set out and thinking about the debate of whether or not zoos are a good thing for animals. Well done Amelie, keep up this super remote learning!

Welcome to transition week! We're nearly finished with the year and it's time to look ahead to Year 5 - ordinarily we'd be doing transition activities in class, going down into Year 5, but we clearly can't do that right now so we'll be doing a transition activity every afternoon to get ourselves ready for September.

Please email me if you're interested in the family fun quiz on Zoom on Thursday 16th July at 11am, and the office will text you the details for the Zoom meeting closer to the time. It's for all the family and we'll aim for it to last about 40 minutes and we'll hopefully have time to chat afterwards too. 

Good afternoon Year 4! Before I let you go and enjoy the weekend just a quick update about the rest of our term. Your parents should have received a text message about our charity Zoom family fun quiz on July 16th at 11am; inspired by a suggestion of young Emily who's done some stellar work with our charity theme in RE we're setting up an optional ParentPay where if you're able you can donate any sum you wish which will be collated and donated to https://www.mercyships.org.uk/ which is an organisation which outfits hospital ships to visit undeveloped African nations and provide free healthcare to any who need it regardless of religion, colour or gender - another good fit with our PSHE topic of treating people equally and ending discrimination. 

Please email me if you can make the quiz session and the office will text you the Zoom meeting log in details. It's for all the family, so make sure an adult stays in the room!

If you're able to provide any donation ParentPay details will be sent out soon, you're of course still more than welcome to join us no matter what. I look forward to seeing many smiley quizzers!

We've made it to another Friday, which means it's time to put our maths brains in gear for an investigation. We've got a multiples investigation with an extra brainbox challenge - read the instructions carefully and see if you're up to the challenge! In Guided Reading, I've been looking through the ReadingEggspress library and found a book just perfect for our topic this half term, called On The Edge of Extinction. If you're interested in endangered animals, have a read and earn those eggs. In RE, we're going to be looking at how Christians put their beliefs into actions, to show that they are the Samaritan who helps and not the Priest and Levite who make a song and dance about being religious but bottle it when it comes to actually doing anything.

In literacy, it's time to man the dragonships, grip your oars and ready yourself for raiding as we take on the spirit of the Vikings and go to loot some helpless debate texts of their precious sentence openers and conjunctions!

Some fantastic learning today - we've had some excellent thoughts about whether King Alfred was 'the Great' or not! Have a look at the link below to see if you agree that he deserves the title as we've had some fantastic reasons for and against. As well as that, I had to share Finlay's literacy work today and I really encourage you to have a look as it's a super guide to what debate texts have in them, which will come in very handy for when we come to write them!

Wow, we've got a lot of healthy eating experts in Year 4! I think we could definitely open a few restaurants in the future with the menus you've thought up and your understanding of carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, protein and dairy foods that our body uses to stay healthy. Have a look below and let me know if you try any of these meals! Special mention today goes to Emily for not being happy with one day, she's planned out an entire week of healthy meals and snacks!

A fantastic day full of learning about nature, food chains and the pros and cons of zoos. We did a fantastic job reading through debate texts and picking out the points for and against - hopefully you noticed how the paragraphs were set out, a reason per paragraph is how we do it. Multiplying 3 numbers was no problem, might have to do 4, 5, even 6 numbers next time! Carrying on our nature theme, have a look at our fabulous food chains, a special mention to Kyla who though up a food chain with 10 links! 

A brand new week of learning lies ahead of us, Year 4 - I hope some of you managed to have a look at the Burnley Science and Technology festival whilst the weather outside was no good for outdoor activities! Today we're starting a new literacy topic - debates and discussion texts. It's one of my favourite text types and I hope you'll enjoy it too. In Guided Reading, we're reading more about the troubled Kingdom of Cornucopia as fists fly and tales get told! For maths, we're recapping on our good friend grid multiplication and multiplying a 3 digit number by a 1 digit number, and in PSHE I want you to think about your rights as stated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which you'll know already with Northern being a Rights Respecting School.

The end of another week, and although the weather has started to let us down, Year 4's learners certainly haven't - well done to Sienna for the hard work she's been sending in from school which was more than enough to earn her this week's shooting star, good job! Keep sending in your work and we'll see who could be shooting star next week! Have a look below at what's been sent in today about the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, a story Jesus told in the Bible to teach a lesson - we've retold it in a modern version to still get the same moral across! If you're a bit bored over the weekend and the weather isn't playing ball, why not have a look at Burnley Collage's Science and Technology Festival on the link below? Whether it's animals, the human body, space, the environment or even making your own slime, there's something for everyone. 

Another beautiful summer's day, and we've had some brilliant summery work with our bouquets of prefix flowers - check below to see how colourful we've made our linked words! We've also travelled back in time to compare and contrast the world of the Anglo-Saxons to Britain today, again our best examples are below. Well done to all of you who completed your Mathletics and sent me the rest of your folk tales - I can't wait to read the conclusions tomorrow!

Make sure you stay safe in the sun - click this link to find out how:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48609398

What a scorching day! Well done to all of you who kept cool and sent in more brilliant work, we had some amazing folk tale introductions (a lot set in the summer sun, can't think why!), people absolutely mastering arrays, looking at an Anglo-Saxon superhero and his monster slaying as well as some great classification work using keys to sort animals, have a look below at some of our PurpleMash work. Enjoy the sunshine and stay safe, we'll see you for another blazing hot June day tomorrow! 

It's the moment we've been waiting for since you first read the word 'Brer'! Time to begin our own folk stories in literacy. We're just after the introduction - not reams and reams of writing and the whole story finished. Check the literacy link to see what your introduction should look like. In guided reading, we're going back over a thousand years, to an Anglo-Saxon tale of a monster-slaying hero called Beowulf. For maths, we're lucking at how arrays can help us understand that multiplication and division are actually pretty close pals, while in science you need to be an expert animal question master to group different vertebrates into keys on PurpleMash - click the link above to see what to do.

A special mention today to Jacob, Lewis, Kyla, Myles, Emily, Mallie, Finlay, Sam and Ben for their amazing work on Mathletics with mental addition and subtraction strategies! Have a look below for our evidence about King Fred 'the Fearless' from The Ickabog - do you think he's a hero or villain? We had lots of great scripts for our smoothie designs, but two went above and beyond to film fantastic adverts! Click the purple swirl below for a masterclass on how to sell smoothies. 

It's Day 50 of our remote learning, can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday we started wondering why PurpleMash wasn't working and waiting for our website to finally load. They grow up so fast...

To mark the occasion, we've got an extra-fun set of activities for us - in literacy, you've actually got cartoons to watch. No, I'm not lying. In guided reading, it's up to you to decide whether King Fred the Fearless is hero or villain, should the people of Cornucopia get rid of their current ruler or is he doing a job fit for a king? For maths - another neat little trick to help you work sums out in your head, we call this one the 'bump'. Have a look and let me know if you prefer a bump or split. Lastly, for DT, have a look at some videos for inspiration - I'm hoping you'll be able to film your own advert to sell your smoothie! If not, I can't wait to read your playscript for it.

I've been incredibly impressed with the standard of work that's been sent in today about the life and times of Martin Luther King Jr., how he began his involvement with the struggle to end discrimination and how he is remembered today. Thank you also to all of you who emailed back your further thoughts to questions about why he is remembered and the themes of his most famous speech, "I have a dream," where he said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character," which is a lesson for us to think about today as it was for people to think about all those years ago. Well done, Year 4 - look at our work below to see the key events in Reverend King's Life:

That's it for another week Year 4 - I hope you all enjoyed hunting down the Anglo-Saxons, flipping the role to be the teacher fixing line graphs and writing diaries for folk tale characters - see some excellent examples below - and finding out about an unusual amphibian on ReadingEggspress! Enjoy your weekend and we'll see you back here on Monday to carry on that exciting journey we call...learning!

We've reached the end of another brilliant week of learning, but we've a bit more to cram into our massive brains before we can relax for the weekend. In literacy, we've got how one story can be looked at from different points of view...in maths, we're flipping the roles, today you get to be the teacher and spot the mistakes! For history, get your magnifying glasses out because the Anglo-Saxons have been leaving things around England for you to find...

Finally in reading, we've got an amphibian special for ReadingEggspress. If you can't get enough reading, have a look at this brand new Lancashire Library Summer Reading Challenge and join the Silly Squad for games, quizzes and downloadable activities on a whole host of specially chosen silly stories.

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

You've all been showing me how valuable it is to get in expert guests with your RE answers you've been sending me, lots of right answers meaning you've listened very carefully to our interview! If you haven't had chance yet, click on the RE link below where we speak with Reverend Pickett at St. James' Church about the parable of the Good Samaritan and lots more about Christian beliefs.

Have a look below for how we've text-mapped a folk tale of Brer Fox's escapes. Well done to all of you who sent in the graphs on Congo gorillas and their recovery, we did really well understanding that line graphs are there to show change over time. 

Our learning journey today will be taking us all over the map - in literacy, we're creating a text map for a folk tale story. Don't know what a text map is? Well you've come to the right place - have a look at our literacy star to see how to draw one. In maths, we're visiting the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Africa to look at some endangered gorillas and their population change over time. In guided reading we have some spellings you need to know back to front and upside down.

We like to invite special guests to Northern to advance our learning, so that's just what we've done in RE. I've spoken to an expert on the Christian faith and the Bible to answer any questions we might have about what parables mean to Christians and the story of the Good Samaritan. Click the RE link above to watch the exclusive interview with our guest.

Fortnight? Move over. Minecraft? Forget about it. The next gaming sensation to sweep the world is here thanks to Year 4 - Brer Rabbit: The Video Game. Have a look below for exclusive screenshots, I especially like Finlay's with Brer Rabbit's pond and Emily's amazing hand-drawn graphics. As well as making video games, we've been hard at work investigating the natural world of vertebrates, look below for how to tell reptiles from amphibians, birds from fish, and a bumper load of facts about animals of the sea, land and air! 

It's going to be a very nature themed day of learning today Year 4 - for science we're thinking about the last 4 types of vertebrate - birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians and what makes them different from each other (and our fellow mammals!). In guided reading, we've got some information all about the wildlife that can be found all around us, foxes, hedgehogs, pigeons, what you find out might surprise you! Test your wildlife knowledge with comprehension questions after. In maths, we're looking at how a line graph can track the growth of a sunflower. Saved the best for last - we're looking again at folk tales with Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit. Only you'll be making a video game about it. No, not joking. Yes, an actual, working video games with controls, baddies, levels. I imagine this is you about now...

Well, just click the literacy link above!

Another great day of learning about a whole range of topics - we've gone from describing folk tale characters on wanted posters, becoming news reporters for a dramatic turn of events in the Kingdom of Cornucopia, getting to grips with that tricky column subtraction and putting our creative design skills to the test by drawing and making our own smoothie bottle cartons and bottles. What a busy day! Have a look at the best examples of our work below, and if your own work is there be very proud of yourself for your efforts.

Some very impressive work sent in today - especially in maths where you did a brilliant job putting together menus and working out how much the ingredients would cost! Well done to our budding actors who used the power of expression, body language and props to portray a scene from Brer Fox Goes Hunting. Have a look and see if you can guess the scene! Last but by no means least we thought very carefully about how four students in a city in America decided enough was enough when it came to being treated like second class citizens, once again look below for more information about how the sit-ins helped in the struggle for equal treatment.

It's week ∞ of our remote learning and we're carrying on our folk tales by putting away the pencil and paper and trying our acting and drama skills to the test. We're forging ahead with a new chapter of The Ickabog for guided reading, as always make sure you read carefully as we'll have a task on it tomorrow. We've something a little different in maths, putting together a delicious menu, but how much will it cost you...? For PSHE we're looking at how four young men made a stand against racism - by sitting down. Click the link above to see how they did it.

After this week's amazing work it's finally time to put your feet up and enjoy the weekend, recharge those batteries and join us again next week for some more brilliant learning. We've gotten off to a brilliant start with folk tales, dived into the world of smoothie design, answered questions for a king and thought about Christian parables, all while showing how sharp our place value knowledge is with our decimals work in maths! Don't forget that there is no time limit to your tasks, you don't need to panic and rush if it takes you a bit longer, and you can always email me if you get stuck, lots of people have and there's absolutely nothing to be hesitant about if you need help.

Don't forget to keep hold of your KWL grids for RE, and if you haven't done one yet try and get it done before next week - it's not a big job, but you'll be missing out next week if you don't.

It's another Friday, and time to relax after a hard week's work. Yesterday especially I was blown away with the amount of writing and sums we did, so let's shift gears to go into the weekend. In literacy, we've got a comic strip for you to draw about how a certain crafty rabbit and his terrapin friend could trick his way out of hard work. In maths - get your scissors out as we've a triangle puzzle for you to figure out, called 'one big triangle' - a bit like a maths jigsaw. For guided reading, get earning those eggs with the lessons, quizzes and comprehension activities - you can even earn trophies.

In RE, we're carrying on our study of parables with a KWL grid on the tale of the Good Samaritan. You don't need to read, watch or research anything - all I need is what you already know and what you want to know. Enjoy today's learning!

Wow, what a day of hard work and learning! You've sent me fantastic folk tale dictionaries, shown that you are masters at maths with money, aced Anglo-Saxons and done superb spiral spellings! Take a look at the examples below to find out the meanings of words from folk tales. If you haven't managed to complete a task on the day it's set, it's no problem, a rest and fresh eyes can do wonders for learning.

Good morning and welcome to day quarante-et-un of our remote learning. We're going to be carrying on our look at folk tales by mixing in a bit of art while thinking about how to get inside the heads of folk tale characters. For guided reading, I've received a letter addressed to Year 4, you'll have to click the link about to see what's contained within. In maths, we've got a handy how-to guide for adding decimals. Just remember, ten tenths is a unit! That's why we call them tenths, it's all in the name. It's time to look into how different vertebrates are classified in science, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, what's the difference? Can you tell me what makes mammals stand out from other spine-owners? If you're a real scientist, we've a brainbox challenge to create a factfile about the strangest mammal on planet Earth, and surprisingly it isn't me. Click the science link above to find out about a mammal that lays eggs and has venomous spurs!

What a busy day we've had - as well as looking at folk tale characters, ordering decimals and making warning posters about the fearsome Ickabog, we've also thought really hard about the ingredients to include and some of you even made them and tried them (with some varied results!). Well done to all of you for sending in today's work, have a look below for our best examples of Ickabog posters and smoothie recipes.

It's another tasty day of learning today, as we think about which delicious ingredients we would want to put into our own smoothie design and what they'd add to the product. In maths, it's time for the >< alligator to take a chomp out of greater or lesser decimals, you know those jaws always point to the biggest number...speaking of scary beasts, you've got a mission to warn unwary travellers who might get lost in the northernmost dark misty marshlands where the Ickabog roams...Finally in literacy, we're interviewing two rather unique folk tale characters about their escapes. Good luck and if you haven't finished your work on Rosa Parks, you've got until Friday so I can enter it into the PictureNews competition!

Some very impressive work today on a woman known as 'the first lady of civil rights', someone who was tired of being treated unequally because of the colour of her skin and took a stand, even though it meant she was arrested and fined. Click on the link below to find out more about the life and times of Rosa Parks, and how she inspired people to challenge an injustice.

Welcome back for another week of learning, Year 4! In the morning, we're learning about how verb choice - those are action or doing words - and adverbs can liven up even the most dull of sentences, but what we're writing about certainly isn't dull - the top 5 craftiest animal moments from BBC Earth! In guided reading we're carrying on reading The Ickabog, chapter 2. We've got some missing number work on Mathletics. In PSHE, we're looking at the idea of equality, and one person whose actions in 1955 made a big impact in treating people with equality no matter what the colour of their skin. Below is a link for a special edition of PictureNews and a competition linked to our PSHE. What else can you find out about Rosa Parks?  Can you create a fact file to enter into the competion? If you look at our PSHE link about you'll find lots of information to help.

There once was a class called Year 4,

Their teacher's poems they can't take any more,

But now go and relax,

Eat some healthy snacks,

And see what new learning next week has in store!

The once was a class called Year 4,

Who couldn't wait for the learning in store,

The website they checked,

Their work was perfect,

And they always came back for more!

If you hadn't guessed, we're doing limericks today, one of the most fun types of poem to write. Make sure you check into ReadingEggpress for guided reading on polar bears. We're starting our new RE topic on the idea of stories which teach a lesson, which is an important idea in Christianity. In maths we've got some place value riddle work for you to solve, seeing as you sent me all those kenning riddles yesterday it seemed only fair.  

Speaking of yesterday, the Anglo-Saxon king Raedwald has sailed off into the mists of history, but he asked me to pass on his thanks to you all for your very interesting questions about his time. Check above to see what he said about your questions!

What a lot of questions were sent in! I sent a scroll to King Raedwald so hopefully he'll be answering shortly. If you didn't get time to send a question, email me and perhaps I can email his response back to you. 

Amazing haikus,

About a funny dance bird,

Just look underneath.

Great illustrations,

Showing King Fred the Fearless,

For The Ickabog

And last but not least,

We spotted spineless creatures,

Called invertebrates. 

Today's learning is,

Japanese style of poems,

They are called haikus.

In guided reading,

Illustrate The Ickabog,

Setting and people.

Place value is key,

In maths it matters greatly,

To order numbers.

Exciting science,

Embarking on a bug hunt,

Find invertebrates.

A delicious day of learning today as we got a taste of our new DT topic and evaluated smoothie designs and tastes - a wide variety of fruity products were sampled, have a look below at what we thought! We're also poets and don't we know it, some brilliant work using AABB and ABAB rhyme schemes to tell the tale of how one heroic iguana nearly met his maker, but some skillful dodging left the hunting snakes hungry. If you've not had a look on our maths yet, you're missing out, play the 

Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica game - select your character, scavenge your equipment and conquer the Place Value Palace!

I hope you've all enjoyed your week and a day off Year 4, and are back ready and refreshed for some more learning. We'll be carrying on with our online learning with a brand new topic - Hunter or Hunted? We'll be looking at animals and their habitats, the Anglo-Saxons, how nature and living creatures have been shown in art and designing a food product in DT. I can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Day 34 Remote Learning

That's it for another half term - well done to all those who got involved with the Joy of Moving Home School Festival, and if you didn't, what are you waiting for? If you did and still want some ideas to keep active over half term, have a look at the Lancashire School Games Activity timetable for loads of games, ways to move and challenges!

https://lancashireschoolgames.co.uk/year-3-6-spar-lancashire-school-games-activity-timetable/

We'll resume our remote learning on June 2nd, enjoy your break!

Good morning Year 4! We've a busy day ahead of us today - we've got a choice for your information text to have a think about, some spelling poetry to wrap our heads around, we're sorting our angels from our angles in maths and for RE in a very timely fashion we're looking at the upcoming festival of Eid al-Fitr which Muslims celebrate at the end of Ramadan. Just like yesterday, we'll be mixing in a bit of art - click on the star above to see how we can link symmetry and art with RE!

Oh, and it's only one day to go until...

Good morning Year 4! As we race towards our Joy of Moving Festival to finish off the week, and the half term, we've a bit more Joy of Learning to get done first. In literacy, we're carrying on with information texts, and information about a place we all know and love. For guided reading, you'll need to log into Reading Eggspress to journey beneath the waves...

Maths today is a little bit different in that we're combining it with art - I can't wait to see what you come up with! In science, we're modelling an idea - the idea of how particles behave in different states of matter. Sound complicated? Click the science star above and you'll see what we mean. Have fun!

Good morning Year 4, we're keeping up our learning momentum for the last week with our work on information texts focused on vocabulary - and it's a fun one, where you'll try and catch me and everyone else out, check the literacy link to see what to do. In Guided Reading, we're putting our knowledge of Ramadan to the test, quite literally because there's a test. We'll be carrying on our shape and space work in maths with areas of shapes. What are they and how do we work them out? There's only one way to find out - click the link above, or remember it from when we did it in school. So two ways, really.

Last but by no means least we've got something a bit different for geography, to finish our work on water this half term we've got something special - a BBC Blue Planet Live Lesson! Don't worry, you can access it at any time, the 'live' bit, is well, not true. Still, if you're interested in wildlife, the rivers, oceans and how humans impact them don't miss it!

It's the end of another week of brilliant learning from our Year 4s - have a look below for some of the best examples of edited stories I've been emailed (and email me yours, if you haven't already!). Special mention goes to Kyla for her thrilling story of the Tornado Tiger, you definitely want to have a read of that if you like some excitement in your stories! Another special mention has to go to Emily who for our work on the Night of Power, which is a special event for Muslims, actually interviewed (from a safe social distance!) her friend Sidra who is a Muslim and found out lots of information - again have a look below for our Night of Power work and what it means in Islam. Our top 5 Reading Eggspress winners so far are Lorcan, Kyla, Myles, Ben and Freya. If you haven't looked at Reading Eggspress yet or have lost your login details email me and have a look, it's a lot of fun and really doesn't feel like you're doing 'work', but you'll still be learning at the same time. I had 3 people who proved themselves super brainboxes with our maths challenge - could you be one of them? A big clue, the first fraction is 5/11...

Enjoy your weekend and we'll be back here at Remote Learning HQ on Monday for the last week of this half term!

Good morning all you arts and crafts masterminds, I still can't believe how colourful and decorative the sea creature designs you sent in yesterday were! Check our 'aquarium' below if you don't believe me. To carry on our water topic, log on to ReadingEggspress where you'll have even more activities to do on creatures who live under the sea...

In literacy, we may have finished our story, but there's finished and there's finished. Time to test your proofreading and editing skills to put the final polish on our stories. In maths, we've a very cheeky monkey that needs your help and a brainbox challenge if you manage to rush through. Read the instructions carefully - I've even started you off, so don't say I never do anything for you.

For RE, linked with our topic of Ramadan we're looking at a very important event in the Muslim faith, the Night of Power. Have Click on the link above to find out more, then you'll need to log into PurpleMash.

I look forward to seeing what amazing work you do today, Year 4!

What a fantastic day with our arts and crafts, as well as crafting brilliant endings to our stories! If you want to visit the seaside, or are missing a trip to an aquarium, we have you covered - check the link below for our amazing sea creature creations made out of ordinary househole recyclable items. We have jellyfish, crabs, sharks, fish, all hand made. I hope you all had fun with your fishy art today, Year 4!

Stay tuned for some exciting news about activities next Friday... 

The end of another day of learning, and once again it's been fantastic too see how busy you've been with all the activities. On Mathletics you've done brilliantly with adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator, which sounds hard but the trick is to leave the denominator alone and you've cracked it, in literacy I've had lots of images painted in my head by Year 4's brilliantly descriptive writers who know just how to introduce a story. In guided reading and geography we've really got to grips with the mind-blowing idea that the water you take a bath in could well be the same as the water a dinosaur splashed around in 65 million years ago, as water just keeps going around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and...

We've had some top notch planning of our Mousehole Cat stories, twisting the tale to include great snow seals, hurricane horses and even evil sea turtles! I can't wait to see how these stories develop in the next few days! We've got some aspiring comic book writers among us who've given the characters in their book all sorts of superpowers! On PurpleMash we've had some fantastic fraction work - I told you they weren't all bad once you get to know them. Last but not least, do you dare to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun? Check below for the intrepid explorers who've been finding out all about the boy king of Ancient Egypt...

We've ended a week of learning a little early because of the bank holiday being moved to Friday for the 75th anniversary of a certain world event you should be very familiar with by now, so enjoy the celebrations tomorrow and a well-earned bank holiday weekend rest! In the meantime have a look at our maths boardgames below, as well as our amazing water art work techniques and biographies of Captain Tom, the World War 2 veteran who has raised millions for the NHS. Speaking of the NHS, there's still plenty of time to put together your entry for the Thank You competition (click on the flag above for more information). You can also look at completing Rights Respecting School activities on our link here: https://www.northern.lancs.sch.uk/rights-respecting-school/

If you're doing any VE Day activities tomorrow stay safe, have fun and check back here tomorrow for a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire VE Day quiz! 

Good morning and welcome to the end of another weeks remote learning, thanks to the bank holiday being moved to tomorrow! Today we've got one last piece of VE Day work before the actual anniversary tomorrow based on the fundraiser and World War 2 veteran Captain Tom Moore. In Guided Reading, it's spelling practice finishing off those tricky homophones, and in maths we're going to be using the multiplication and division number facts we've looked at over the week to play a board game and create our own. Art today is a challenging one - we're looking at a few techniques to capture moving water. You might already know a few, some might be new, either way remember in art, as in any subject, do your best! Good luck and I look forward to seeing what you send me today.

We've had some really impressive science work emailed in today, some really interesting experiments and results to find out whether statements about states of matter were a matter of fact or not. One of my favourite ones is seeing whether cold or hot water will freeze quicker. The result with shock you!

Have a look also at our evacuee diaries below, some fantastic imagination going on of Year 4 putting themselves in the shoes of children 75 years ago who had to be taken out of the cities to protect them from bombing during the war.

We'll be carrying on our work on VE Day today by looking at the experience of children in the war, who were taken from their families away from cities which were being bombed and lived with new families in the countryside. These children were called evacuees and, as you can imagine, their experiences were quite varied. Coming back home after VE Day meant the danger had passed brought up lots of emotions for these children who had been away from their families for so long. In reading, we'll be using Reading Eggs to have a look at the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Log onto Mathletics for a division challenge in maths, then it's time to show me your scientific skills this afternoon. I'm after proof about whether statements are truth or twaddle.

Also, don't forget the NHS Thank You competition link on the flag above!  

Well done to everyone who emailed me in your work today, we've had some fantastic examples of maths songs and rhymes to help you learn your trickiest times tables (you have to have a look at Lorcan's macaroni song!), excellent work on what causes floods and the defences against them in today's geography. As well as that, we've done brilliant carrying on our work on VE Day with our reading and newspaper articles. What's impressed me is how we remembered that even victory in World War 2 came with a great cost, in lives, injuries, destruction of homes and people who were separated from their families for years and that VE Day was a time to remember and appreciate this sacrifice as well as celebrate that this sacrifice brought victory.

PSHE task for the week - have a look our Rights Respecting School activities, if you haven't already;

https://www.northern.lancs.sch.uk/rights-respecting-school/ 

Also, if you're feeling creative, click on the Union Jack at the top of the page for information about a competition for the NHS!

It's been a super creative day for Year 4 today, creating some very imaginative VE Day posters, wrapping our heads around written multiplication and creating our own Monopoly - sorry, Bookopoly - based on some of our favourite fiction books. You have to have a look below at Kyla's Mouseopoly based on The Mousehole Cat as she's put an amazing amount of effort fitting it in perfectly with the themes of the story. Myle's Bookopoly on Bad Dad is a must too! Have a game or design your own and send it in to add! 

I heard a song once that said you've gotta get down on Friday, and I can only assume that this was referring to getting down to some fantastic learning and pushing our knowledge forward, so that's how we'll spend our Friday! First up is a bit of a change, you're used to doing lots of reading comprehensions, but have you ever written one? Well now's your chance! Have a look at the literacy link to see how. In Guided Reading we'll be forging ahead into the future with on-line reading thanks to "Reading Eggs." Maths is a two-parter today, we've a few problems and a few Mathletics activities involving measuring. I know Year 4 loves a math challenge so get stuck in!

For Muslims, it's still the holy month of Ramadan and we're carrying on with our focus on it. Sawm, the requirement to fast during this month, is one of what is known as the Five Pillars of Islam, what Muslims commit to as part of their faith. You can use PurpleMash which will have some helpful hints on making a poster, or if you prefer you can do your own on paper and send it to me via email. 

Good morning Year 4! Here's your recipe for Day 18's Remote Learning.

Take a base of The Mousehole Cat by Nicola Bailey.

Marinate well in a story mountain.

Extract the opening, build-up, dilemma, resolution and ending.

Garnish with magpied vocabulary and a moral.

Your next course will require a fiction book.

Take a cup of a storyboard.

A dollop of imagination.

Combine these to make your idea for a sequel and serve.

For our maths course.

Stir your knowledge of place value in a bowl of mind juice.

Sprinkle with what we've learned about rounding.

Add some squeezed decimal points.

Bake to the nearest whole unit.

And for our scientific desert.

Turn on the PurpleMash oven.

Fire up the BBC Bitesize grill.

Blend to a fine paste of understanding.

Spread generously on a platter of solids, liquids and gases.

Bon appetit!

Interviewer: Mr Davies, how's your day been?

Mr Davies: Well Mr Interviewer, we've had lots of great work back from Year 4 which I'm always happy to see!

Interviewer: Which work has really stood out for you?

Mr Davies: We've had some brilliant work on rivers around the world by Oliver, Lorcan, Lewis, Ben, Emily, Mallie and Myles that you can look at on the link below, with lots of fascinating facts!

Interviewer: What about guided reading?

Mr Davies: I'm glad we're enjoying reading more about Ancient Egypt - we have Howard Carter's diary, the Rosetta Stone, all about cats and Cleopatra information to look through!

Interviewer: Speaking of cats, how's your class doing with The Mousehole Cat?

Mr Davies: We've had lots of great interviews sent back! Including interviews with a cat, and even a storm! Almost as crazy as interviewing yourself. Check them out below.

Interviewer: Is it true that talking to yourself is a sign of madness?
Mr Davies: This interview is over!

Are we going to see more fantastic learning today, Year 4? Absolutely, that was a rhetorical question, no need to email me your answers to that one. In literacy, we've got an extract of The Mousehole Cat to work with in interviewing some characters - have a look at the example to see what we're after. We've got some comprehension activities in Guided Reading but I'm going to leave it to you to pick 2 of the 4 options - all of them are about different parts of Ancient Egyptian history. In maths, we're going to be using BBC bitesize and Mathletics to shore up our rounding knowledge, then I'm hoping for some fascinating facts about the longest river on each continent in geography - you can log into PurpleMash, or complete with pencil and paper if you prefer. Good luck!

You may have heard that there is a minute's silence at 11am today for key NHS workers who have passed away because of the virus - find out more at Newsround: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52447147

Dear diary, 

Today Year 4 sent in some fantastic work! Not only did they write some fantastic diaries from the point of view of Old Tom, they also put themselves in the sandals of an Egyptian pyramid builder hauling and carving stones for their Pharaoh to build one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world! Not only that, their imaginations have been working on overdrive as they've spotted dilemmas in their reading books and thought carefully about how the author could have chosen a different solution, and what might have happened if they did. As if that wasn't enough, I though we might struggle a bit with decimals AND fractions together, but they did a fantastic job.

I've put their work on a link on the website so all those images of fantastic work can be seen but hopefully not make the website any slower. Can't wait to see what they come up with tomorrow!

Oh, and found out we'll be having a baby boy!

...and that's it for another week of remote learning! The amount and quality of the work you're sending me just keeps going up and up. We may be in lockdown, but you keep on unlocking your learning and pushing your understanding so that when we're back - and sooner or later, we'll be back - you can get back into your learning journey without letting the current situation set you back.

Some brilliant work today on poetry, creating new eye-catching blurbs for our books (including one quite familiar one!) and solving a very tricky maths investigation. How many tries did it take? Answer - doesn't matter if you get there in the end. Speaking of commitment, we've had some super thoughts about what it means to us and what can distract us from it. For now, enjoy your weekend Year 4, you've earned it! Hope you enjoyed SingUp's song - check the link at the top for more information.

Another great day of learning Year 4! I've had a few emails saying that the PurpleMash 2do is a bit wonky donkey today - no worries, have a look at the BBC Bitesize link in the literacy and make sure you do the highlighting and the quiz.

We've had some fantastic waterfalls - have a look at the variety and creativity that Year 4 have put in below! Bonus points for all of you who included a bit of geography with your art and labelled the different parts!

I hope you've all enjoyed your more active guided reading - as Myles and his sister demonstrate here, it's a good way of staying healthy and learning all of your spellings!

Thanks too to all the parents who sent in feedback - your time is very much appreciated in making our remote learning experience as enjoyable and engaging as possible.

Only had 4 right answers to the Saint George Mystery - I was expecting a lot more from you bunch of mega-geniuses! The challenge is still there if you're up to it...

Happy Saint George's Day to all you clever clogs, some amazing work yesterday - let's aim for even higher today! In literacy, we're going to revisit inverted commas so we know exactly how to punctuate speech when we write our own story like The Mousehole Cat.

In guided reading, we're doing spelling. You'll have to ditch the pencil and paper and get on your PE kit, because we're going to workout our spellings.

For maths, we're bringing our learning about place value and number sequences together. There's a red question if you want a challenge...

In art, it's a seamless blend of art and geography as we're making waterfalls. Models of waterfalls, that is. Send me lots of pictures!

In honour of Saint George's Day, we've got an extra maths riddle for all those brainboxes out there who wanted even more maths challenges - the Mystery of Saint George and the Knight's Table. Can you solve the clues?

While the children are busy with the mystery - one question for parents and carers. Now that we've been doing this for a few weeks, do you find that your child engages better with the online only resources like PurpleMash or the question sheets you can write in your home learning book? Please let me know any feedback you have so we can tailor our learning moving forward.

It's another shift over and I couldn't be prouder of all of you who have emailed me in your hard detective work, cracked the case and solved the mysteries of the day. First up, let's head to the forensics lab to see the results of our evaporation experiment;

Lewis:

Science work Lewis filled 3 cups with 100 ml of water placed one in the sun, shade and left one at room temp he’s taken a before and after picture. The one left in the sun has gone down, 2nd slight at room temp and the one in the shade not at all.

Myles:

Kyla:

Mallie:

We also did brilliant with our guided reading comprehensions, dusting the scene for facts and finding out all we could about rivers. Here's Emily's fantastic comprehension;

Well done to all our veterans who tackled the red questions for our maths - we had Freya, Ben, Emily, Lewis, Finlay, Lorcan, Kyla, Myles, Oliver and Mallie prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are brain boxes! We might have some harder challenges for you clever clogs in the future...

Welcome to Remote Learning HQ Agents of Year 4, where we have a number of situations needing your urgent attention. As you know, we have some of the best detectives in Lancashire here at Northern and it's those skills which will be put to the test today. 

Your first case to close involves investigating the scene of a sentence to work out the meaning of some very suspicious words which have been seen in the local area. Can you close the case, work out their meanings and solve the mystery? You'll have to use the clues in your detective file, click literacy for further details.

Your second case of the day involves the core of all investigations - getting at the truth. We've a fresh case of non-fiction, so pick up your magnifying glass and see if you can dust the scene for facts.

The third case on your desk is some downtime for our hard-worked investigators - you've some place values to send to lock up. If you want to test your investigative skills, a further case for your maths is marked RED for veteran police officers only.

Lastly, make sure you head to the labs because it's time to get your hands on some practical science. We'll need photographic evidence of your activities, so make sure you read the instructions carefully to determine the truth about evaporation. It's in your hands!

Lastly, a special commendation for Agent Mallie and a demerit for Constable Mr Davies who missed this piece of amazing work yesterday - can you pick out how well adverbs have been used to expertly describe the scene? 

Wow, just when I think you've tried your best along comes another day with a huge amount of amazing work! I've had to separate them all out below to fit it all in! It's great to see how passionate you all are about your reading books with your letters to the authors. We're carrying on our online working wall with some fantastic work on adverbs - see if you spot who has the most! 

Not to mention the amazing maths that we did, blasting through the temperature work. If you fancy an extra maths challenge, see if you can think like an Egyptian and solve the pyramid building puzzle - I've already had someone figure this one out! Clue - you'll need your times tables...1 x 1, 2 x 2....

We've also had some fantastic geography work on rivers, just take a look at the amazing work below for all the detail on those different features of a river! Good work Year 4, keep it up!

Good morning Year 4, today we're going to carry on looking at the Mousehole Cat and its award winning illustrations by making our own sentences using adverbs. In guided reading, we'll be writing a letter to the author of a book - check the above page for what to include! A bit of a chilly one for maths as we dive into freezing temperatures, so wrap up warm. Last but not least this afternoon take a journey down the longest river in the United Kingdom, the River Severn, as we look out for how rivers change as they flow. Once again I'm looking forward to seeing your work - good luck and don't hesitate to ask your mum or dad to email me if you get stuck! It's the remote learning equivalent of putting your hand up.

It's been brilliant to see you all hit the ground running with your learning after the Easter break! A huge well done to Lewis, Kyla, Myles, Mallie, Oliver, Samuel, Ben, Freya, Emily, Finlay, Lorcan and Jacob for working so hard on their PurpleMash number sequence work, figuring out the pattern and carrying on the sequence. Keep it up and you'll be earning these PurpleMash rewards - like this one to Oliver for top marks!

Well done also to all of you who emailed in your noun phrases - they're on our online working wall just below so we can use all these ideas later when we're putting together our story.

You've done some brilliant history work today finding out key facts about ancient civilisations - we'll be diving deeper into one of them (Ancient Egypt, spoiler alert) later on in the term. Have a look at the key facts, figures and places below!

Online Working Wall

All you wanted to know about noun phrases!

Kyla's examples;

Picture 1

The vast ,golden beach carefully curved around the multi-coloured houses

The bright and colourful surf boards are resting gently on the grey stone wall.

Picture 2

The bright blue and white boat is resting gently next to the wooden planked jetty.

The white, fluffy, candyfloss like clouds are scattered all over the bright, blue sky.

Picture 3

The parents on the boat are looking at the wonderful dark,  blue sea.

The grey stone houses look very small from the boat.

Picture 4 

The bright purple flowers are dotted along the tall, steep cliff.

The narrow dirt foot paths are following the line of the tall, steep cliffs.

 Picture 5

The multi coloured cars are neatly parked along the brown, stone harbour wall.

Finlay's examples:

1. The brightly coloured boats hit the soft wet sand
2. The large heavy yacht carried colourful interesting flags
3. The tiny crowded boat passed through the rushing blue see
4. The rocky grassy islands had colourful purple flowers
5. The colourful small boats rushed through the overcrowded city

Welcome back Year 4! I hope you've all had a fantastic Easter break and are rested and ready for some more remote learning. Like you, I was hoping we'd be back to normal and seeing all your beaming faces in for a new half term, but we'll have to carry on as we have been doing to keep everyone as safe as possible until we're through the current situation.

Fortunately for you, we've got some very interesting topics this half term, namely Ancient Egypt and the rivers of the world. A long time ago I visited Egypt and I still remember the shivers that ran down my spine when I saw the Pyramids of Giza looming through the morning mist of Cairo.

It's that same sense of wonder I want you to immerse yourself in, a land of myth and magic, a land so ancient that when these pyramids were built there were still woolly mammoths alive and walking on Earth. A history which spans over 30 centuries, from 3100 BCE to 30 BCE. If we go back the same amount of time, 3000 years, in the history of our own island, the English language didn't even exist! I hope you enjoy this fascinating land as much as I do. Speaking of English, we're going to start our new topic based on The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber, which is based on a traditional tale told down in Cornwall - I know some of you have visited the Cornish village of Mousehole where the book is set so I'm expecting some top notch learning! 

Well that's it for another half term! This one might have ended on a bit of a strange note that none of us expected at the start, but in the immortal words of Bear Grylls - improvise, adapt, overcome! You've all done brilliantly following this mantra for these troubled times and I've got to share your amazing practical science work with pitch, building your own instruments - just don't play them too much, your parents need a break too! As I said this morning if you haven't got round to any remote learning tasks they'll still be up there and you've got your Spice Points to do too. I'm always just an email away. Without further ado, who needs a 1964 Gibson ES-335 when you've got these:

Buona fortuna as they say over there, can't wait to see what we come up with!

Tuesday, Day 7.

Good morning Year 4, today in our remote learning we're getting on with those non-chronological reports to gear up and write our own, organising information under subheadings. For guided reading we're focusing on setting and atmosphere of our guided reading books. In maths we're doing a bit of revision and extending our learning adding 3 3 digit numbers. No, that wasn't a typo, I did type 3 twice. In ICT we're using 2Logo commands to do some pattern making; see if you can do better than my spiky monstrosity and we'll post them up to see! The key is to experiment with the number of commands you put in and the values you give to those commands.

Quite a few people have emailed me scratching their heads about where to start with the third maths challenge we did on Friday, and it is a toughie so I'll give you a sneaky hint to get you started, as long as you keep it between us - the E is 1.

The bell rings for the end of another school day and once again I'm amazed at all the fantastic work that's been emailed and submitted on PurpleMash. Year 4 have put in so much effort in thinking of your schedules, and though I won't embarrass anybody by uploading their full schedule I did want to share some of the activities that we thought of to keep us happy, healthy and helpful in these trying times, big thanks to Emily, Lewis, Ben, Mallie, Ciaran, Myles, Finlay and Jacob for all these thoughts;

To stay active; Doing PE with Joe Wicks on YouTube, trampolining in the garden, taking walks, doing press-ups, playing hopscotch, running on the spot, doing star jumps, doing sit-ups, skipping, doing Yoga on a mat.

To be creative; Making rainbow cards for neighbours and family, making pom-poms and butterflies, painting and drawing views, decorating pottery, baking, writing stories, doing science experiments, junk modelling making quizes. making a bird feeder, building with lego, making cookies.

To connect with others; Facetime family members, phoning friends, playing online games with friends from school, live Mathletics with friends from school, talking to neighbours with mum or dad over the fence, .

To help others; Cleaning your bedroom, washing pots and pans, helping gardening, setting the table at tea time, helping brothers and sisters with their learning, making breakfast for the family, loading the dishwasher, running a bath, hanging the washing out, helping clean pets out, being kind to younger brothers and sisters.

Well done to everyone who cracked the maths investigations today - and if you haven't, keep going! They're designed to be a challenge and you need to get it wrong before you crack it. We've also had some fantastic thoughts about non-chronological reports and their features which will definitely help us moving forward this week, take a look at some of these examples!

Day 6: Monday

I hope you've all had a fantastic weekend and are ready for some more remote learning! Today we're looking at evaluating reports, keeping our problem solving and addition skills sharp in some maths investigations, creating an advertising poster and completing a schedule to keep us healthy and happy in these unusual times. Best of luck, and remember your work could end up on our website!

Friday; and so ends our first week of remote learning, some fantastic examples of work! Enjoy your weekend Year 4, have a look at some of the zoo webcams, enjoy our art gallery and if you fancy a challenge have a go at these crossword examples - the answers are all wow words that we could magpie taken from our reading books!

Ben;

Jacob:

Mallie:

FInlay:

Happy Friday morning Year 4, we've reached the end of our first week of remote learning and although it's been a new experience for all of us, you've really impressed me with the work you've sent in and the messages you've written. An enormous thank you to all the parents and guardians for their correspondence and feedback, as well as dedicating your time to helping with this brand new process.

Today in literacy we'll be focusing on prefixes - parts of a word you can add on to a root word to change the meaning. Check the link above for more detail. In guided reading, we've got something a little different - making a crossword out of wow words from your reading book. Think carefully what your crossword clue could be! I'll put them up on the website here for the rest of Year 4 to have a crack at solving! As it's Friday, we'll be doing RE as usual and thinking about the meaning of Lent for Christians. Good luck, and once again your work could feature on our class page!

Thursday: Some super learning going today Year 4, special mentions go to Lewis, Kyla, Caylen, Lorcan, Sam, Ben and Jacob for their excellent English work spotting those fronted adverbials! Tip top work from Mallie on solving problems with graphs; a perfect score!

I hope it's a bright and sunny Thursday morning for you Year 4, and I hope we're ready to give it our best effort in learning today - you could earn a PurpleMash award (lots of people already have!) and, even better, have your work put up right here on the school website for the whole world to admire.

For today's literacy we're brushing up on adverbials, nouns and verbs - check the remote learning link above for further guidance. We're going to finish off our statistics work with a bit of problem solving on all the types of graph we've looked at in Year 4. In guided reading, it's about time we practice some spellings so we don't get too rusty when we come back to school - so grab your spelling activity booklet! I've been kind to you and only given you 8; don't say I never do anything for you. 

The big one I'm hoping to see lots of inspiration with is our art - we have a beautiful Tuscan landscape (you can look for another if you like) for you to use your landscape, layer and focus understanding on - remember, lots of detail at the front. If you can, add colour and don't forget to sign it at the bottom with your first name just like a real artist! 

Ask your adult to send a photo to my email and the best examples I'll hang in a digital art gallery for everyone to see - will yours be hanging there? It's up to you!

I hope you've all had a fantastic Wednesday Year 4, and if you've got a garden been able to enjoy some sunshine. I wanted to share some great quiz facts we've discovered - this time about the city of Siena, since non-chronological reports have paragraphs which focus on a particular topic. Can you answer these questions from Jacob, Sam and Myles?

I also wanted to say a big well done to Lorcan and Emily who showed that they were pictogram experts, in record time! They remembered to read the question carefully and checked what each picture on the graph showed as well as Ciaran who showed super effort looking at different types of graph.

I've also got to show Ben's amazing work comparing and contrasting Lancashire and Tuscany;

Fantastic or what? We'll see you tomorrow for some more brilliant learning!

Bon matin Year 4! Comment allez-vous? Je vais bien, merci. See if you can keep active and have a go at speaking a bit of French yourself with SuperMovers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1--ks2-mfl-french-greetings-with-ben-shires/zdpdvk7

À tout à l’heure!

Looking back at Year 4 2018 - 2019

Zdravstvuyte from Year 4, who spent European Languages Day looking at the Russian language and peoples, composing a diamond poem on Russian topics such as the wintery steppe, symbolic brown bear, towering onion domes of St Basil's Cathedral and graceful ballet dancers as well as performing Russian folk dances and performing waltzes to Russian composer Dmitri Shoshtakovich's music.

Like all classes at Northern Year 4 has their own class novel, ours at the moment is Just Call Me Spaghetti Hoop Boy by Lara Williamson. While we were reading we thought up questions we might like to ask the author then, on a wing and a prayer, sent them to the author and were incredibly grateful to receive answers to all of our questions. It's not every day you get to interview an award winning children's author!

Thank you so much for your lovely email and I’m thrilled your class have chosen Just Call Me Spaghetti-Hoop Boy as their class novel and they’re enjoying it so far. Yay! That’s great news! And thank you for the questions that they’d like to ask me. Here goes some answers:

Q: Which of your books that you've written is your favourite?

Lara: Ah, choosing my favourite book is like choosing between buns, cakes and sweets. I love them all. They’re all a bit different to each other but equally delightful. Although, between you and me, I do have a soft spot for my second book, The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair. I think it’s because I love the snail in the book.

Q: Who is your favourite character in Just Call Me Spaghetti Hoop boy and why?

Lara: Ooh, tricky question. I like different characters for different reasons. I like Tiny Eric a lot and Sausage Roll too. Who doesn’t love an invisible dog? Maybe Sausage Roll needs his own book.

Q: What made you think of calling your book Spaghetti Hoop Boy?

Lara: I’m a fan of spaghetti-hoops. And it felt like the right name for this story as Adam needed a superhero name that was also a little bit of fun.

Q: Why is there Boy in all of your book titles?

Lara: All three books feel like a set and so I’ve used the word ‘boy’ in all three to connect them. And I like to imagine that my characters might have passed each other in the street or have been friends.
Q: How did you think up Tiny Eric?

Lara: Sometimes characters just come to you and you have to write them as you imagine them. I knew Tiny Eric would be tall but called Tiny. And I knew he’d be a good friend to Adam.

Q: What made you interested in becoming an author?

Lara: I’ve always written little stories, even from a very young age. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t write so it felt natural to write a book. I didn’t know if I’d manage to get it published though and when it happened I was over-the-moon. It was a huge dream come true.

Q: What is your favourite part of Spaghetti Hoop Boy?

Lara: I don’t really have a favourite part of a book because I see the book more as a whole story. Sometimes I think being an author is like weaving little magical threads together to make something special at the end. If you do it right everything works perfectly but if you make mistakes little holes appear and you need to sort them out.

Q: What did you do before you became an author?

Lara: Before I was an author I worked for a teen magazine where I styled photo shoots with models and wrote about beauty products. It was an amazing job and I loved it.

Q: Were you good at writing stories when you were in primary school?

Lara: I think I was quite good at English in school and I was also good at Art. Unfortunately, I was not so good at Maths. I’m a creative person who loves to draw and make things and paint and design.

Q: When did you start to like writing?

Lara: I’ve always loved writing, even when I was younger. When I was about ten I’d meet up with my friends and we would split into two groups, write plays and then act them out in front of each other. Then we’d choose the winning group with the best story. Thinking back, it was good experience for writing a book.

Q: What's your next book going to be about?

Lara: Ah, much as I’d love to spill the beans I have to keep the beans firmly inside the tin. That’s what my editor says anyway. Joking aside, I wouldn’t want to spoil the story for you but keep your eyes peeled as it’ll be out in the spring. Yay!

Year 4 have been looking at the Winter Olympics in South Korea testing their reading comprehension skills on a story based on this years games, as well as looking at the individual events and interviews with athletes. We thought about the international spirit of the games and welcoming all backgrounds and countries. We also acted out in role as an athlete facing a challenge and a motivational coach inspiring them to overcome it, and posed in a scene from our favourite event - can you guess which ones we picked?

Safer internet day

For Safer internet day Year 4 looked at how technology should be used responsibly and in accordance with our agreed class charter on safe use of the computer. We composed acrostic poems based around key words about the importance of never sharing personal information, telling an adult straight away if someone wants to meet you and if you see something which makes you upset or uncomfortable.