Weekly News! 8.12.23
English
In English this week we have been continuing to look at poetry and our focus this week has been on form and structure. We have looked at the different rhyming patterns in different types of poems and as well as the rhythm. More specifically, we have explored limericks, acrostic poems and using alliteration in poetry. The children have written some wonderful poetry in each of these styles. They were very skilful at this, well done Year 4!
Next week, we will be continuing to learn about poetry such as shape poems and haikus.
Maths
This week we have been looking at converting measurements of distance, mass and volume. We have looked at a mixture of problems and learnt to decide which unit of measure is most appropriate in specific situations. For example, we might measure a pencil in centimetres but measure our journey from home to the beach in kilometres.
When converting measurements, it has been useful to remember that 1,000ml = 1l is just like 1,000mm = 1m.
Next week in maths we are looking at our problem-solving skill this term, which is trial and improvement, as well as applying our maths from this term to some Christmasy problems.
Thematic curriculum
This week we have been learning about food chains and classifying animals. In food chains, we learnt that a producer is always at the beginning of a food chain as it creates food but doesn’t consume it. We also learnt that a predator that is not hunted by any other animal is called an apex predator. Most importantly, we learnt that the arrows in a food chain are not showing what eats what, but more specifically, which direction the energy travels between organisms.
When learning about classifying animals, we learnt how to use a classification key to determine whether an animal was a vertebrate or an invertebrate. Vertebrates have a backbone and invertebrates do not.
Love to Learn
This week’s Love to Learn task is a thematic one. We would like you to make a food chain of a local habitat, perhaps the local sea life or in a local forest or pond. Think about what the producer is in that habitat (the organism that produces food but doesn’t consume it) and what the apex predator is.
Challenge – Can your food chain branch off to show that different animals have more than one predator or prey? This is called a food web.
