The weather is finally looking up as spring fast approaches. We have had a fantastic week and an incredible World Book Day so let’s see what we have been learning this week.

English

In English this week we have been writing diary entries. Our book, ‘The Boy at the back of the Class’, is written as one long diary entry, so it’s the perfect time to explore this style of writing. We have learnt about the difference between formal and informal language, practised our complex sentences and learnt a lot of new emotive language that we can use to show how we are feeling and to make our writing even more fantastic and interesting.

We also celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. Year 4 looked absolutely fantastic and we enjoyed some fantastic activities all about books. Our focus was on books without words and we ‘read’ the story ‘Flashlight’ by Lizi Boyd. The children then tried to write out their interpretation of the story, which was a fantastic opportunity to show their creativity and writing style. We then shared our favourite books with our friends and the whole class before being visited by Mr Abel and Miss Davey. In the afternoon, we created some brilliant artwork based on the flashlight story. The whole day was a huge success and a great opportunity to enjoy reading and share the books we love.

Next week in English we will be looking at persuasive writing and formal letters, which will be a great contrast to the diary entries.

Maths

In Maths this week we have revisited our learning on statistics, wherein we have looked at tables, line graphs and bar graphs to interpret the information they are presenting to us. We looked at how we can tell what each axis is representing and how to write out detailed answers instead of just giving a number.

Next week in maths, we will be looking at money and the types of calculations we may encounter regarding money.

Thematic

This week we have begun this term's topic, ‘Innovation Station’. We have learnt about the Golden Age of Islam, a time when the Islamic Empire was thriving despite Britain being stuck in the dark ages. During this time, Baghdad was the centre of trade, commerce and innovation and at the centre of this circular city was the House of Wisdom. This is where scholars would gather to collect and share knowledge and ideas, leading to the invention of hospitals, flushing toilets, early flying machines and the understanding of optics that would ultimately lead to the cameras in our phones and tablets.

We looked at how the camera obscura was made by Ibn Al-Haytham and had a go at creating rudimentary versions of it ourselves.

 

Next week we will be looking at other inventors of the time, such as Abbas Ibn Fernas and comparing the Islamic Empire with other civilisations of the same time period.

Spelling

Mr Oxley and Miss Stephens’ spelling groups:

invention, injection, completion, operation, location, eruption, rotation, island, knowledge, learn

Challenge words: occupation, collection

Mrs Cousins’ spelling group:

far    star   part    march   dark   chart    start     park   card   hard  cold   told  every

Challenge words: alarm, apart, market

 

Love to Learn

Since we are learning about noteworthy inventors during the Golden Age of Islam. Could you find out and then write about another interesting inventor of your choice? Tell us about the inventor, what they invented and why their invention(s) were so important.

You could challenge yourself by finding inventions from the same time period we have been studying (750CE – 1258CE).

Messages:

Book Fayre 

The Chilton Book Fayre will arrive on Monday 10th March and run until Friday 14th March outside the Year 5 classrooms. Children will come home with a World Book Day book voucher.  These can be spent at the Book Fayre. Cash and online payments are also available, and a percentage of the monies raised will go towards funding more books for Chilton children.  

Dates to remember

10th – 14th March – Book fair

14th March 9 – 11am – Managing children’s behaviour workshop in the studio

14th March at 2pm– The Speaker 2025 Chilton final (parents of children speaking will be invited along to watch)

21st March – Red nose day/Rock your socks day for Downs Syndrome awareness. This year Red Nose Day is celebrating its 40th anniversary, originating in 1985. We would like to invite children to come into school in 1980s dress up. Children are invited to wear odd socks as part of their outfit to show support for Rock your socks Downs Syndrome awareness day.

21st March – Parents invited into school from 3.15 to look at their child’s learning prior to parent teacher consultations

24th March – Parent teacher consultation week

28th March – The Viking Speaker Final; 4 winners from Chilton to attend

3rd April – Easter Egg Hunts in school

3rd April – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time.

 

Many thanks

We hope you have a lovely weekend

Mrs Cousins and Mr Oxley