Skylark 

Class teacher: Ilka Najam

AUTUMN 2019

Skylark class have settled in wonderfully and have made a superb start to year 4.  We have explored some fascinating topics. We started with ‘Let’s get physical’ where we explored the positive impact of exercise on our bodies as well as the history of the USA. We explored a number of different sources to learn about slavery and were amazed to hear about the struggles of American figures such as Jessie Owens that had a positive impact on the opportunities available for men and women around the world.

Following this, we investigated the topic of food and the journey it makes before ending up on our plate. We learned about the Mayans who first used the Cacoa bean to make an energy drink, how the chocolate we eat is made and where it comes form. We were very interested to learn about unfair trade and about the importance of fair trade. We are determined to support fair trade and the environment by encouraging each other to buy fair trade products.

Reading and writing about the Firework Maker’s daughter has been great fun!  We began by writing an emotional and personal diary entry from Lila to her dad, who had left her heartbroken when he told her she couldn’t follow her dreams of being a firework maker because she is a girl. We empathised with Lila’s character and used strong descriptive and emotive language to communicate our feelings. We also wrote about Lila’s harrowing journey to mount Merapi, where she meets the terrifying Fire Fiend, Razvani. We used a range of descriptive writing tools to make our writing exciting for our readers.

In Maths, we focused on place value at the start of the year. We revisited column addition and subtraction as well as borrowing and exchanging. Using manipulatives allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of mathematical rules. We also explored measure by walking around Stoneydown park with a trundle stick and understanding shorter measures such as millimetres and centimetres as well as longer measures such as kilometres. Currently, we have been focusing on multiplication and division facts. We have been working very hard to learn all our times tables. Learning the rolling numbers chants for the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times table has not only been fun but has helped us learn these timetables.

Well done for all your hard work so far Skylarks!