Friday 8th July 2022

We are completely shocked that we have reached the end of the last full week of the year. We know that the children are all excited for their summer holidays and to have a break, but we will miss seeing these faces every day.

We have had a super busy week. On Monday morning we were treated to a viewing of the Year 6 show, in one of their final dress rehearsals. They did such a great job and we all really enjoyed it. Thank you Year 6, and well done!

In maths we began the week taking part in the First Primary Mathematics Challenge, an online challenge giving all pupils the opportunity to take part and grapple with fun mathematical challenges. The children persisted through some tricky problems and we went over the solutions together afterwards, which gave them the opportunity to see different ways of tackling them. We then continued with our position and direction unit, with drawing on a grid according to coordinates.

In art we spent some time drawing as part of an art assessment. The same picture is drawn every year by the children, so that progress can be seen year on year. The children enjoyed this activity and looked really carefully before drawing, making careful marks on the page and using pencil colours to add and blend the colours. They really did a brilliant job!

In science the children carried out an investigation to test different materials in a circuit to determine if they were conductors or insulators. We concluded that all the conductors were metal.

In guided reading, the class read and discussed two poems, Dentist Dan by Shel Silverstein and The Toothless Wonder by Phil Bolsta. These are very different poems, based around the theme of teeth and dentists. The children discussed the ways in which the poems were similar and different, and wrote about the reasons they preferred one over the other.

On Friday morning was Yom Talmid, a special Kerem tradition in which Year 6 pupils plan and teach some lessons to the other classes. Our class was taught a JS, history and PE lesson by Ari, Jonah and Daniel. We had a wonderful time!

We also spent plenty of time working on our end of year show, we are looking forward to seeing many of you in the audience on Tuesday afternoon. Next week we will be starting to give out pieces of work from displays, as well as some books. If your child’s bag is full with the items they need each day, please send an extra re-usable bag. 

Shabbat Shalom, see you next week,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 8th July - 9th Tammuz

Year 4 have had a Chumash-filled week this week, continuing our exploration of chapter 25 of Bereishit.  We have learnt about Esav and his 'new' name, Edom which means 'red', and we looked at all the connections that we could make between Esav and the colour red - we found 14 different links!  We also began looking at the bechorah - birthright, and what this entailed.  This led to conversations about taking responsibility, an important middah that we learn through Yaakov and Esav.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a lovely weekend.

Jewish Studies 1st July - 2nd Tammuz

This week we have been focussing on our Chumash skills and continuing our study of Parashat Toledot. We have compared Yaakov and Esav, choosing words from the Torah text to describe each brother.  We also questioned why the Torah chose to tell us that Yaakov was making stew, and that Esav was tired.  We understood that the Torah does not usually share this kind of information, so we figured there was something important being hinted at by both of these points.  We also reviewed our prefixes and questioned if there had been such a thing as keeping kosher in the time of Yaakov and Esav.

In our parashah lesson, we learnt from Korach that jealousy is bad and that we should be grateful and appreciate all that we have in life.  We created a word-cloud out of all the things that we are grateful for in life (see below).

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and a lovely weekend.

Friday 29th June 2022

The end of the year is speeding towards us and we are starting to get a little sad that our time with this fabulous class is coming to an end. 

There is still a lot going on at school, especially for our end-of-year show. Please let us know if your child will not be with us until the last day of term, and what their last day will be. Many thanks.

In maths this week, we did a little more work on quadrilaterals, with a large focus on the characteristics of these shapes and the similarities and differences between them. We then moved on to lines of symmetry, using vocabulary such as horizontal, diagonal, vertical, mirror line, and reflection. 

In guided reading, we read and discussed chapter 1 of The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy. The children who didn’t go to the netball rally also read an extract of How to be a Viking by Cressida Cowell. We also had an art lesson about watercolour paints, where we explored how to use water to blend complementary colours. Some gorgeous pieces were produced. Well done to the children who played in the rally, you did a fantastic job.

In science, the children learnt all about the components of an electrical circuit. They made their own circuits using wires, switches, batteries, bulbs and even buzzers! This was challenging but the children persisted until their circuits worked. Well done year 4! 

What can we say about sports day? It was such a fun morning and the children really made us proud. They were supportive, inclusive and competitive, showed good sportsmanship and resilience and it was a pleasure to cheer them on. We hope that they enjoyed it and feel proud of themselves for all the effort they put in.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Friday 24th June 2022

This week the class enjoyed some really productive maths lessons and we moved on to learning about shape. The week began with one final lesson on line graphs, where the children worked on questions that ask them to find the difference between values. Next was a lesson recapping the names of 2D shapes, especially pentagons, hexagons and octagons. We defined the term ‘polygon’- a shape with 3 or more straight sides and 3 angles, and reviewed the terms ‘regular’, when a polygon’s sides are all equal lengths, and ‘irregular’, when they are not all equal lengths. The children then learned about different types of triangles and their properties- equilateral, scalene and isosceles, and the week ended with a lesson about different quadrilaterals (4-sided shapes) including rhombus, parallelogram, trapezium. 

In English the children have really enjoyed exploring their ideas for our end of year show, refining them, and working together to make the script. They have been extremely creative and have practised the characteristics of collaboration, risk-taking and initiative through this work.

In Science we discussed electrical hazards. We identified what makes something a hazard and how we could improve/fix it so it becomes safer. We also began to make posters about the dangers of electricity and how to remain safe. 

In recent PE lessons, the children have been practising the different events and races that will take place on sports day, so that they are prepared and know what to expect. An email was sent this week with all the details, we’d love to see lots of parents there!

This week we also started to prepare the children for the upcoming changes they will experience as they transition into Year 5. We all enjoyed a thorough discussion of all that the children have achieved this year, both within and outside of school, before reflecting on how anticipating or experiencing change can make us feel. The week ended with a session with the classes new teacher, in their new classroom, which they really enjoyed.

We are looking forward to another busy and exciting week next week!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 17th June - 18th Sivan

This week our focus has been on polishing up our general Jewish knowledge.  We have looked at the months of the year and the dates of Chagim and completing our Festival Wheels.  Some of us even managed to write a song to help us learn and remember our dates. We also revised all our prefixes and learnt a couple of new ones too (Aleph = I will; Tav = you/she).  

In Parasha we learnt that the flames on either side of the Menorah faced inwards, and the children made some wonderful suggestions as to what this may represent - from Moshe standing on Har Sinai with Bnei Yisrael looking up to him, to Bnei Yisrael looking up to HaShem.  We also discussed the shortest Tefillah in the Torah, said by Moshe asking HaShem to heal Miriam from her tsaraat.  The children each composed their own beautiful tefillot, asking HaShem to bring a refuah shelemah to all who are sick - Amen!

Shabbat Shalom and enjoy the sunshine,

Mrs Hill

Friday 17th June 2022

It has been an extremely busy and exciting week in Year 4!

On Monday, STEAM week was launched after whole-school tefillah, which included the children from EYU. We had a brilliant interactive session with The Science Boffins, and the children were shown lots of examples of science using everyday materials, to arouse their curiosity, eg. When a bucket with water inside is swung at speed in a circular motion, how come the water doesn’t fall out, even when it is upside down? How come a water balloon won’t pop when held over a lit candle? Other activities throughout the week included a lesson about coding with HTML, designing and making a glider and then having a competition with Year 3 to see whose glider travelled the furthest!  The children worked hard to design and create their own hoop glider. They were only allowed to use one straw, sticky tape, and some card/paper. They made adaptations to their first designs and we discussed what worked best. The children enjoyed measuring how far their gliders travelled and working out if their adaptations made any difference!

In maths, the class were formally introduced to line graphs. As well as being able to read and interpret the data in a line graph, the aim of this was to consider when a bar chart is more appropriate to present certain pieces of data and when a line graph is more appropriate, and why. We revisited our English lesson a few weeks ago when we made a line graph to plot the feelings of Johnny Trott. We then discussed why a line graph was a more effective way of presenting this data than a bar chart. 

In English we read the chapters ‘Stowaway’ and  ‘We’ve only gone and hit a flaming iceberg!’ The children were introduced to the concept of modal verbs (a type of verb that indicates likelihood, possibility or necessity, eg. must, shall, will, should, would, can, could, may, and might) and passive voice (When the subject of the sentence has something done to it by someone or something eg. The mouse was being chased by the cat, as opposed to a sentence written in active voice when the subject of the sentence is performing the action- The cat was chasing the mouse. Use of passive voice in writing gives it a more formal tone, and technical descriptions tend to be in passive voice.

We had a quick history/ reading/ comprehension lesson as well, where we learned about The Battle of Bosworth. The children in the class are showing so much curiosity about this topic! 

This leads us to discuss our wonderful day on Wednesday at Hampton Court Palace. Upon arriving we went straight into our workshop, Investigating Henry, which was an amazing, informative, and interactive session about King Henry VIII. The children looked at a range of artefacts and sources and then had to put together everything they learned from these sources of evidence about Henry and what he was like as a ruler. We had a beautiful picnic near the rose garden in the shade. After that, it was time to explore the palace. The children were in awe at the architecture, tapestries and portraits, and learned a little about Hans Holbein, the famous painter. We had a brilliant time- even though there wasn’t time for the maze.

Homework

The homework schedule this week is a little different because of our outing on Wednesday. The children have been set a writing task, plus times tables practice, on Thursday instead of our usual English and Maths homework on Wednesday and Friday. Please see Google Classroom for the details.

Have a wonderful weekend, Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Collins and Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Friday 11th June 2022

Next week is STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) week and there are so many exciting and enriching activities planned, from Lego Workshops, a visit from the Science Boffins, a whole-school glider competition, Engineering workshops by Boeing and a tallest plant competition.  We will also be selecting 5 KS2 children to represent the school in the RAF Glider Challenge 2022 at the end of June. Look out for the details and photos in next week’s blog. 

On Wednesday we also have our outing to Hampton Court Palace. Here are some reminders of the details, a separate email will not be sent, so please do pass this information on to anyone who  might not check the blog.

• Children should arrive at school at the slightly earlier time of 8.20am so that we can leave promptly at 8.30.
• Please provide your child with a mezonot, nut-free packed lunch for this outing. This should be brought in a bag that can easily be carried on your child’s shoulders for the day. Please make sure that snacks and drinks are included, in particular a bottle of water (one which won’t leak in their bag) for drinking throughout the day.
• The weather currently looks like it will be fine, but please keep checking and ensure that your child is dressed for the weather, eg. with a rain coat, or apply sun cream if it is sunny as we may spend time outside.
• Children must wear school uniform, and boys must wear a school cap.
• We are aiming to be back at school in time for the end of the school day. If this is looking unlikely, updates will be sent via email.

We are so looking forward to taking the children on this exciting experience!

This week in maths we started out statistics unit. The children showed that they are adepts at reading and interpreting tables, pictograms and bar charts. They worked on some problems involving comparison of the data, sum (adding together) and difference. We spent some time considering the difference between tables and tally charts, used to hold the data while it is bring collected, and presenting data in a pictogram or bar chart, which is more visual. Important terms discussed include axis/ axes, scale, key, title and label.

In English the children used their plans, made before half term, to create leaflets about the Titanic. This was from the perspective of advertising the ship, before disaster struck, selling its luxurious features, using persuasive writing and superlatives such as largest, fastest, newest, safest etc. The children really did an incredible job! Some photos of the finished leaflets can be seen below. In guided reading, we read and discussed the start of The Witches, by Roald Dahl.

This week we began learning about the Tudors and King Henry VIII. In art, the children learned about tudor portraits and did some sketching of their own in their sketchbooks. In history they learned about the Plantagenets, and the War of the Roses. They made a simple storyboard,  showing the events that led up to the Battle of Bosworth. 

In science, we began our new topic - electricity! The children sorted electrical items using a venn diagram and we discussed the difference between mains electricity and battery powered appliances.

We also watched the Year 6 debate! We listened carefully to their arguments, took notes and then voted for who we thought should win. They were debating which Jewish leader or personality should be the name of our sports house teams. 

We are looking forward to our busy week ahead, wishing you all a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 10th June - 11th Sivan

Welcome back to the final half term of the year! 

Year 4 have been reviewing their gematria skills this week.  We have calculated the number value of our Hebrew names, and managed to line ourselves up in gematria order. We began creating a calendar wheel to ensure we know our Jewish months and dates of Chagim.  We hope to continue with these next week. In Parasha we learnt that Birkat Kohanim - the Priestly Blessing appears in this week's portion of Naso.  We learnt what it means, and that parents give this same brachah to their children on Friday nights.  We made Birkat HaBanim cards to share our learning and our hope for a special bracha on Shabbat.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Hill

Friday 27th May 2022

In maths this week, the children learned how to estimate the sum of different amounts of money and why this is a useful, real-life skill. To do this, they rounded amounts to the nearest whole pound and then added these together. After that, they recapped the concepts of adding amounts of money using strategies such as partitioning, adding pounds and pence separately and using a number line. They were discouraged from using the column method for this, as it is not an efficient strategy to use for all calculations, and using other methods, such as a number line, strengthen mental calculation skills and understanding. Next they worked on solving different problems involving money and the 4 operations. An important part of this is working through these in an organised way, identifying how many steps will be necessary to solve the problem, writing down all calculations, and representing the problem visually, perhaps using a bar model.

The children are thoroughly enjoying reading what happens next in Kaspar Prince of Cats in our English lessons. This week, we read the chapter ‘Running Wild’. The children explored what we, as the readers, can deduce about characters based on their behaviour, then wrote sentences using the subordinating conjunction ‘when’ to explain this, such as When Skullface stormed down the corridor, It was clear that she was bad-tempered or When Mary told Skullface that she didn’t know where Johnny was, it was clear that she is very loyal. At the end of the chapter, we learn that Lizziebeth and her parents are to travel home to New York the following week, on a brand new ship called the Titanic. The children were given the task to design a leaflet about the Titanic, promoting its luxury, superior construction and safety features (!), using superlatives such as fastest, safest, largest and greatest, and strong adjectives such as opulent, luxury, quality, high-class, and comfort. 

In science the children learnt about the water cycle. They created their own water cycle posters in which they drew and labelled the different stages. We introduced some new vocabulary such as evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

In creative writing the children wrote wonderful pieces using personification. They wrote from the perspective of their chosen object or animal. We had some very original and creative ideas, some were quite amusing too! The title of their work was ‘A Day in the Life of…’

The children had a lot of fun with some extended art lessons this week, giving them the chance to finish our project and also do some work in celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee. Their animal collages and silhouettes look absolutely amazing, have a look at them in the photos below. 

We are looking forward to seeing the children back at school after Shavuot and wish you all a wonderful half term. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Friday 20th May 2022

The class has had a wonderful time celebrating ‘It’s Great to be British!’ week at school, centred around the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. They learned about the Queen’s reign and what it means that she is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this year. They were given the challenge of researching one decade of her reign, 1972-1982, and important events that took place over that period. Other classes researched the other decades. They also learned about the Queen’s official residences, focusing on Balmoral Castle. Ask what your child can tell you about it! On Tuesday morning, Year 4 walked to the EYU for a joint activity with Reception, making paper chains together in red, white and blue. We were filled with pride to see how mature and sweet the Year 4 children were with the reception children during our time there. On Wednesday afternoon, the children celebrated with a whole-school street party! The paper chains created at the EYU were used as part of the decorations. The children watched a short video clip of the coronation, had some delicious snacks, sang a special jubilee song as well as the national anthem. On Thursday the class had a Scottish dancing workshop and went to a jubilee fair run by Year 6.

In Science the children carried out a  chocolate melting investigation. We were investigating if milk, white or dark chocolate would melt the fastest. The children wrote up their investigation using all the appropriate headings and learning what belongs in each section. We found out that dark chocolate melts the quickest because it is the purest and has the most cocoa beans! 

In maths the children learned about money. They compared and ordered amounts of money, sometimes needing to convert one of the amounts to pounds/pence before doing this. They reviewed the meanings of the terms ascending (from smallest amount to largest) and descending (from the largest amount to the smallest).

In English the class worked on chapter 3 and 4 of Kaspar Prince of Cats and produced some excellent written work. They learned about the suffix -cious and worked in pairs to look up the meanings of words they were given, such as vicious, luscious, malicious, precious, precocious, vivacious and many more, and write a sentence with them. The children then wrote a description of Kaspar and what we know about his story so far, using a range of these words. They also wrote a letter from Johnny Trott to Lizziebeth, reminding her to keep their secret about Kaspar and the potential consequences if they are found out, making sure to include some examples of present perfect tense.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Friday 13th May 2022

It has been a great week in Year 4!

In English this week we wrote a description using a picture prompt. In doing this the children described who the person was in the picture and what had brought them there. We wrote a list of all the skills we have learned and might want to include, such as similes and expanded noun phrases to describe, figurative language, paragraphs, speech marks for rhetorical speech or thought, different sentence openers including fronted adverbials, conjunctions, and many more. They all worked hard and did a brilliant job. We also read chapter 2 of Kaspar Prince of Cats and discussed how Johnny Trott’s emotions went from contentment at the start of the chapter, to elation when he was watching the countess at the opera, to devastation when he learned of her death. The children worked together to come up with an amazing bank of words to describe emotions, and after deciding where each word would go on the scale between ‘elated’ and 'devastated’, they made a graph in their English books plotting the emotions at different times through the chapter.

In maths the children continued working on calculating fractions of amounts and quantities, extending their understanding through more challenging problems. It was then time to bid fractions goodbye, and we began our next unit- money. The children were introduced to the decimal notation for money, ie. £6.32p rather than previously £6 and 32 pence. They learned how to partition amounts of money and convert between different units of money.

In history, the children learned about Tutankhamun and the discovery of his ancient tomb by the archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 (one hundred years ago!). They looked at different historical sources to build a picture of events.

In science, the children carried out an exciting investigation about gases using fizzy drinks. They had to work out which drink was the fizziest by weighing it and then removing the bubbles (Carbon Dioxide) and weighing it again. Check out the photos below! We also discussed how to make it a fair investigation, which things need to stay the same, and which things can change. 

On Tuesday the children participated in a mini first aid course, which taught them some basic CPR and things that they could do to help in an emergency, such as if someone is choking. Photos below.

We have reinstated our weekly times tables tests, and each pupil knows which tables they are working on. We have built-in practice time during our week at school, please encourage them to practice at home for 10-15 minutes a day as well. They can use Doodle Tables or a similar app if you prefer.

Well done to all our pupils who went to represent our school at the Maccabi football tournament! You all showed the Kerem spirit as well as good Middot, persistence, collaboration, and resilience. 

Next week will be super busy as we celebrate ‘It’s Great to be British’ week…keep an eye on the blog next week for details and photos!

This weekend is Shabbat UK, we hope that you managed to spot some Kerem faces in the Dror Yikra video (link below!) and that you can take part in some special activities with your community.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 6th May - 5th Iyar

This may have only been a short week, but what a week it’s been! We picked up on our Chumash learning, reviewing all that we have previously learned about Yitzhak and Rivkah before continuing our insight into the lives of Yaakov and Esav.  

On Wednesday, we opened up a time capsule that I had ‘mysteriously’ discovered on my trip to Israel.  Inside we found a map of Ancient Canaan, a passuk from the Torah in which HaShem promised the Land of Israel to Avraham, and a number of smaller items including a brass dreidel, bells (from the Kohen Gadol’s coat), a mini bottle of olive oil, a hamsa and a tiny Book of Tehillim.  The children were mesmerised by all the items, and, having taken photos of them, they each wrote a few lines describing how each item connects us back to the Land of Israel of old.

And then it was Yom Haatzmaut - wow, did we celebrate Israel’s birthday in style!  We painted stunning pictures, made beautiful hamsa keyrings, and sang and danced the day away - Happy 74th Birthday to our wonderful country of Israel!

Shabbat Shalom

Friday 6th May 2022

The highlights of our week have undoubtedly been commemorating Yom Hazikaron with a special Tekes (ceremony) and tefilah, and celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut on Thursday. Year 4 took part in many activities ranging from Israeli dancing to producing beautiful Chagall inspired artworks. See the photos below! 

In guided reading this week the class read an extract from the Barnardo’s website and learned all about Dr Barnardo and his work with underprivileged children, which started in 1867. They were very interested to learn that there is a charity continuing his good work to this very day.

In history the children had a gory lesson about the mummification process used by the ancient Egyptians. They learned that internal organs were removed from the body (except from the heart). The liver, lungs, intestines and stomach were put in canopic jars and left to dry. The jars were carved into the shape of the four sons of Horus – one of the ancient Egyptian gods. Each one protected a different organ.

In Maths, all prior knowledge about fractions was used to calculate fractions of a quantity. The children learned that to find a unit fraction (where the numerator, or top number in a fraction, is one, for example ⅕, ¼, ⅓, ⅛ )of a number, amount or quantity, they need to divide this by the denominator in the fraction. For example, to find ⅓ of 30, 3 needs to be divided by 3. To find ⅕ of 25, they need to divide 25 by 5. This knowledge can then be used to find non unit fractions (where the numerator is a number other than one, for example, ¾ , ⅔ , ⅘ ) multiplying by the number by the numerator. 

If ⅕ of 25 = 5

Then ⅗ of 25 is 5 x 3 = 15

In RSE we discussed how the human body changes at different stages in our lives, and the human life cycle. We played Body Part Bingo and called all body parts by their anatomically correct names, discussing which parts are male, female or both. The children were introduced to puberty as the stage of life where children’s bodies begin to look more like adults, and had a talk about some of the changes that occur during that time.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 29th April - 28th Nissan

Welcome back to the summer term.  I hope you all had a really lovely Pesach and enjoyed the activities that the children had made in preparation.

This week we have learnt about the special brachah which we say in the month of Nissan when seeing blossom growing on fruit trees.  How fortunate for us that the trees on Norrice Lea, right outside of the school, were still in full bloom so that we could make this beautiful brachah! We continued by recognising how wonderful the world is that HaShem created for us, and we learnt the passuk “mah rabu ma’asecha HaShem” - “How wonderful are Your creations, HaShem”.  We each created a piece of artwork showing what it is in HaShem’s world that makes us go “Wow!”.

We explored this week’s parashah, asking ourselves what HaShem means when He tells us to live according to His ways, and not those of anybody else.  The children came up with some really profound and heart-warming suggestions and ideas - what a great start to the new term.  Well done, Year 4.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov, and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.

Mrs Hill

Friday 29th April 2022

It has been wonderful seeing the children back at school this week, and hearing about their holidays, we hope that you all had an enjoyable Pesach.

This week in science, the children investigated different solids and liquids for our new topic called States of Matter. They had a lot of fun debating their thoughts and ideas. We discussed and explored many items such as honey, rice, lemon juice, shaving gel, and jelly. The children moved around the room, pouring and mixing liquids into different shaped containers whilst completing an investigation table and explaining their findings. Take a look at our photos to see what went on during our lesson!

In English we began working on our new class text, Kaspar Prince of Cats, by Michael Morpurgo. The end of chapter 1, we are told ‘I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams how the arrival of the Countess and the coming of Kaspar would change my life forever.’ The children made predictions about how the main character’s life changes later in the book. Some pupils have been given this task for homework. They also learned about present perfect tense, and used this to write a letter about Johnny Trott’s life to his absent mother. Present perfect tense is used when talking about experiences from the past, a change or a situation that has happened in the past but is still continuing today, e.g. I have had a wonderful time, we have realised how fortunate we are, he has always tried his best. The children then looked for noun phrases in chapter 1, noting how these were used to include descriptions of characters, atmospheres and settings, which were woven in throughout the chapter.

In maths the children continued learning about fractions. This learning included a recap of equivalent fractions and adding fractions with the same denominator, before moving on to adding fractions where the total is more than one whole. This was followed by learning how to subtract fractions from other fractions as well as whole numbers. We are having a bit of a push in times tables this term, the children know which tables they need to work on, please support them and encourage them to practise as often as possible.

In history the children explored what life was like in Ancient Egypt, and the importance of the river Nile. They looked at pictures (drawings) of everyday activities, and considered the following questions: What is happening? Why do you think that? They then took turns to  introduce their picture to the rest of the group and explain what they thought was happening and why. The other children asked them questions about Egyptian life, relevant to the picture.

In Art the class continued with their animal texture collages, and we are hoping to finish these in the next couple of weeks.

The timetable above has been edited to reflect the changes in our timetable this term, so don't forget to have a look.

Wishing you all a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend,

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Wednesday 6th April 2022

Although we were a little depleted in number this week, we had a fabulous final week of the spring term. 

In maths we continued to learn about division, this time of 3 digit numbers. We used a place value chart and counters to share, and part-whole models to partition the calculation into more manageable chunks. We made sure that the dividend (number being divided) in at least one of the calculations was a multiple of the divisor (the number dividing by), so that only one calculation had a remainder. See the example part-whole model below, as well as one of the challenges that we didn’t have the chance to complete.

We then worked on correspondence problems, see the examples below. As well as being able to work methodically in order to find all the possibilities, we created a formula to find how many possibilities or combinations there are.

In English we used our story plans to write our own fairy tale based on Cinderella, with Ancient Egypt as the setting. As we are working hard on ensuring a clear story structure, we wrote these one section at a time.

In robotics the children could choose the model they wanted to make! They had an extended amount of time to build them and had a great time.

The highlight of our week was undoubtedly our model Seder. Thank you so much to Mrs Hill, who thought of every detail, prepared the children so well, and made sure that all the important parts were highlighted and explained. Thank you also to Mr Fingerhut for our musical accompaniments.

We wish you all a Chag Kasher V'sameach, see you in the summer term!

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies - 1st April 2022 - 29th Adar II

Year 4 have worked so incredibly hard this week on making their Seder activities! We have made quizzes and matching games, and lots of other exciting activities too. We have learned about each of the 15 stages of the Seder and can now sing our way through each of the stages. 

Our model Seder will be on Tuesday - we are all really looking forward to dipping our karpas in salt water and eating our maror!

Reminder - on Wednesday evening, 7th April will be the 1- hour session (including refreshments), by Rabbi Herman, "Bring Seder Alive for your Family" from 7-8 pm. This is a session not to be missed, well worth giving up an hour of your day for!

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom, and keep warm!

Mrs Hill

Friday 1st April 2022

There is no such thing as a quiet week at school, and this week was no exception. The children have enjoyed having different teachers coming to teach them this week and last week. Mrs Collins is thrilled to be back at school with the class.

This week in maths lessons the children learned how to use the column method to multiply 3 digit by one digit numbers. We explored this initially using place value grids and counters. This helped the children understand how and why ‘exchanges’ take place in this method, which might have been referred to in the past as ‘carrying’, however please use the term ‘exchanging’ (as 10 ones are 'exchanged' for one ten, for example) to support their understanding and avoid confusion. We then moved on to dividing 2 and 3 digit numbers by a 1 digit number, again using place value counters to aid understanding and calculations. Please note that the ‘bus stop’ method of division is taught in Year 5, so that thorough understanding using practical and mental methods can be embedded prior to this.

In English, the children made a visual story plan for their own story based on The Egyptian Cinderella. They answered questions such as: How does my character become a slave in Egypt? Who is unkind to him/her? Which animals does my character befriend? What special item of clothing did they have? Is there an animal that helps them? What royal event takes place? What will happen in the action section of the story, with the royal character searching for the main character? We made sure that we noted down ideas for strong words describing emotions, verbs for the action section of the story, and comparative sentences (using but /while /whereas /although). The children will begin to write their story, section by section, next week.

In History, the children learned about the pyramids, how and why they were built, and their significance in Ancient Egypt. They then wrote a diary entry of an enslaved individual who helped to build the pyramids. To support the pupils’ understanding even further, we linked this to the story of Pesach, when the Jewish people were forced to be slaves in Egypt.

The children did a fabulous job with their endangered animals posters! It was great to hear their presentations and we look forward to hearing the rest next week.

Sadly the children did not have a robotics lesson this week, but we hope that they will have one next week.

We can hardly believe how quickly the spring term has passed. We look ahead with excitement to our model Seder next week, look out for photos on the blog.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

25th March - 22nd Adar

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Pesach….!  Year 4 have had a really good week, working hard to prepare for Pesach. We decided to make a Pesach Seder Activity Box in place of a Haggadah this year, and we are making lots of games and activities that we can use at our own Pesach Sedarim next month.  We have also (mostly) learnt the names of all the 15 stages of the Seder by heart in Hebrew.

We learnt that the laws of kashrut appear in this week’s parashah of Shemini, in which we are told by HaShem the features needed for an animal, fish and bird to be kosher.  We were just a little grossed out at the thought of eating locust on toast for breakfast, as apparently their are, in fact, four types of kosher species of locust…. I’ll stick to beans on toast thanks!!

Shabbat Shalom.

Friday 25th March 2022

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with parents at our consultations on Tuesday afternoon. We are looking forward to the rest of our meetings next week.

In English we continued our work on The Egyptian Cinderella. We re-read the middle to the end of the story and made a list of all the bad things and all the good things that had happened to Rhodopis in the story. Moving to the ending of the story, the children were asked if this was a happy ending for Rhodopis, or not? We debated all the different arguments to support each side. Then, we began brainstorming ideas for our own ‘Egyptian Cinderella’ style story. The children worked in groups of 3 to discuss alternative events at each part of the story. Next week, we will write a plan and begin to write the story, pulling together all of the skills we have learned through the unit. In creative writing, the children retold the story of The Egyptian Cinderella, but with an alternative ending. Rewriting a story they are familiar with gives the children the opportunity to work on consistently applying and incorporating the expected objectives, such as descriptive language (similes and expanded noun phrases), figurative language, paragraphs showing story structure, a range of conjunctions, adverbials and fronted adverbials followed by a comma, a range of punctuation, proofreading and editing, including spellings, a range of conjunctions used (both coordinating and subordinating used correctly), and handwriting. 

In maths, the children worked hard to explore informal written methods of multiplication, and how these can help us multiply 2 digit numbers by one digit numbers, then moving on to the formal written column method. It is important to emphasise when this method is most efficient, as opposed to a mental method (for example to calculate 33 x 3, when a formal written method is not necessary when one is able to used their mathematical agility to calculate 3x3=9 and so 30x3=90, so 33 x 3 = 99), or an informal written method instead. You can see examples of these below.

In robotics, the children built an IR (Infra Red) train! This has a special infrared sensor, which uses heat to determine where it’s going.

In history, the children completed their timelines of significant events in Ancient Egypt.

In science, we learned about endangered and extinct animals. Each child researched an animal of their choice and they will use these facts to create a poster for homework over the next week. 

Enjoy your weekend, Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the year 4 team

Friday 18th March 2022

In maths this week the children learned about factors and factor pairs. A factor is a whole number that multiplies by another number to make a product factor x factor = product

e.g. 3 × 5 = 15

3 and 5 are both factors of 15, in fact they are factor pairs.

We looked at various numbers and found the factors of those numbers. 

We then moved on to learning about some informal written methods of multiplication, and when these would be used as opposed to mental calculation methods. We partitioned numbers in order to make them easier to calculate, used our knowledge of multiplying 3 numbers from last week, used number lines and base 10.

In English we were happy to return to our work on The Egyptian Cinderella. We re-read the text and inferred how the characters feel, using specific emotions to describe this. We explored the wording in the story to find examples of the ‘show not tell’ technique. Although the story does not tell us all of Rhodopis’s (The Egyptian Cinderella) feelings, we can infer how she feels from other clues in the story, such as the detail about her ‘crying salty tears’ into the river. We used this to write a diary entry, detailing how Rhodopis felt when the eagle snatched her rose-red shoe. We also identified how verbs can create an action section of a story. 

In history we recapped the term ‘chronology’ and explored important events during the Ancient Egyptian period. We looked at significant periods in other areas of the world happening at that time, e.g the Stone Age and Bronze Age in Britain, ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, as well as significant events within Ancient Egypt, putting them in chronological order.

In guided reading, we read an extract from the book Agent Zaiba And The Missing Diamonds, by Annabelle Sami.

In art, we continued to explore animal textures and how these are represented through art and different media, especially collage. For this project we will need some magazines. It seems that someone mistook our previous collection for recycling, so please send in some more if you are able (we will find a different place to keep them safe!).

This week in robotics the children built bumper cars! Super challenging but also rewarding.

We didn’t have a science lesson this week as it was Purim, but what a day we had! From Zumba to Mishloach Manot making, listening to the megillah together with parents and the whole school to the fancy dress parade, it really was such a special day and the atmosphere was incredible. Not to mention the Kerem Purim fair! Our photo booth was a great success, many thanks to those who sent props.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

18th March - 15th Adar II - Jewish Studies

It's been a lively week this week! We reviewed the story of the Megillah (dingbat style) and completed our sequencing of the story, in words and pictures.  We also made our mem booklets - so called because the four Mitzvot of Purim all begin with a letter mem.  We now know so much about Purim and we were sooo excited for Purim Day itself!

We had THE BEST time on Purim - we listened beautifully to the reading of the Megillah and we Zumba'd away in order to raise tsedakah for Jewish Care (for those who have not yet sent in their donations, please could you do so on Monday).  We had so much fun at the Purim Fair, and enjoyed parading in our stunning Purim costumes! How we wish we could jump on a plane, fly to Jerusalem and do it all again today!

In our Parasha lesson, we compared the daily burnt offering with the sin offering, and noted that they were the same.  This was HaShem's way of making sure that nobody that needed to bring a sin offering would be embarrassed to do so.  We learnt from this that we should never embarrass anybody else.

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend!

8th Adar II - 11th March

This week in Jewish Studies, Year 4 have continued to focus predominantly on Purim.  We have learnt lots of details about each of the four Mitzvot of Purim as well as exploring some of the background information to the Megillah.  We explored the difference between a mitzvah and a minhag (custom), particularly those pertaining to Purim.  We also learnt that the Purim took place just 70 years after the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash, and that Achashveirosh wore the clothing of the Kohen Gadol at his 6-month feast. We also looked at a map of the Persian Empire from the time of the Megillah, compared it to a modern-day map, and figured out that the Purim story happened 2,538 years ago!

In our Parashah lesson, we learnt that the letter aleph at the end of the word ‘vayikra’ is written smaller than all the other letters, from which we learn about Moshe’s modesty.  We created our own scenarios, looking at how to communicate something we are proud of, but without being boastful.   

Shabbat Shalom!

Friday 11th March 2022

This book was book week and we had such a fantastic time exploring books to celebrate reading. We read an extract from a different book from the library and our class bookshelf every day. Please help us continue the momentum, by encouraging your child to read on a regular basis, using their reading journal to make note of their reading. These should be at school every Monday for me to check.

On Monday we had an exciting and engaging session with the author Gareth P Jones. What fun we had! He told us about his brand new series of books called ‘Solve your own Mystery’, which are cleverly written so that the reader can decide which chapter comes next. We were entertained by Gareth and his ukulele, and we sang along to the catchy songs he made about his stories. Gareth told us a lot about being an author, and one of the many things we learned from him is that ‘your first effort is never your best effort’ and the importance of editing.

In art we designed and made wooden spoons of a villain from a book we have read, the children were so creative, see the photos below! We then made a wanted poster for the villain, with the aim being to write a detailed description of them and their crimes or wrongdoing. 

On Friday we took part in a book quiz that Ms Simon kindly made for us. Thank you Ms Simon! We worked in teams with children from Year 5 and 6 and it was a lot of fun.

In maths we learned some important checking strategies to ensure our calculations are accurate. We discussed why checking is important and how we could check. We went back to explore the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, recapping fact families, such as:

2980 + 485= 3465 

485 + 2980 = 3465

3465 - 485 = 2980

3465 - 2980 = 485

This can help us to calculate missing numbers and check the accuracy of calculations without risking making the same mistake.

We moved on using rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 in order to estimate answers. After this, it was time to move back to multiplication and division. The children explored what happens when you multiply 3 numbers, such as 4 x 3 x 5. We noticed that we all came to the same solution, no matter which order the numbers were multiplied in, and explained that this is because of the commutative nature of multiplication. We also considered the easiest way to calculate, which was to multiply the 2 larger factors first, then multiplying the product of them by the smallest factor (or perhaps the most well-known- most of us find multiplying by 5 easier than multiplying by 4). On Friday we worked in groups of 3 on a maths-based Book Week activity! The children had to solve the clues and crack the code for the combination to unlock the library.

In robotics the children made an orbit roller coaster this week. They have been asked to think about a season ticket or pass they could create for their theme park- what could they offer for season ticket holders? Free parking, unlimited entry on evenings and weekends? They should come to next week’s lesson with their ideas.

In science, the children finished their adaptation posters! They worked so hard on these and shared new facts they’d learned about their chosen animals. The posters look fantastic displayed in our classroom.

Well done to Daniel, Adele and the other members of the Kerem General Knowledge Quiz Club. Our 3 teams came first, second and third in this heat, so are going through to the next round! We’re all rooting for you! 

Next week is Purim and there are many plans in the making. As part of the celebrations, there will be a Purim Fair with many fun games and activities. Each child is asked to bring £5 on Thursday, and in return they will receive tokens to ‘spend’ at the fair. All of the money will go to Tzedaka, thank you to the Kerem Cares Tzedaka committee for thinking of all the ideas for the Purim Fair. Each class has been tasked with preparing the items needed for each stall, and ours is a Purim photo booth! It would be amazing if we could collect some props for this, such as a large cardboard or inflatable frame, wigs, hats, sunglasses, inflatable items, masks etc. Please send these into school (named so that we can get them back to you) before Thursday, thank you!

It will certainly be an exciting week next week!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Ps. Mrs Collins says please come to our maths session on Friday 25th March, and RSVP using the link from the emails sent out.

4th March - 1 Adar 2

In Jewish Studies this week we continued our learning of Parashat Toledot.  We learnt that when Yakov was born, he was grabbing on to the heel of his twin brother Esav, in an attempt to be born first.

We have been learning about Purim, which is just around the corner.  We learnt about the four mitzvot of Purim, that all begin with the letter ‘mem’, and we made reMEMber bookmarks of the names of these 4 mitzvot.  We have also started to create a mem booklet, which includes lots of information about each mitzvah.  

Besides this, we practised, practised, practised our singing of Dror Yikra, and we had the best time singing it with the Chief Rabbi.  What an absolute honour to have had him visit us - it made our week so special!

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend!

Friday 4th March 2022

We had such a brilliant time at London Zoo on Monday. Please enjoy the photos of the day below, hopefully the children told you all about it when they got home. Our workshops were thorough and informative, pulling together our learning on animals and their habitats as well as the rainforest. 

In English lessons we wrote a recount of our day at the zoo, ensuring that this was sequenced correctly, included lots of detail, and made use of our learning about adverbials and fronted adverbials.

In robotics, the children made a Spinning Fling! They had a brief introduction to thinking about safety features, which they will do in more detail next week.

It was extremely special to be able to welcome the Chief Rabbi to our school on Wednesday afternoon. The children sang the ‘Cups’ version of Dror Yikra and were filmed while doing this for a special video being made for ShabbatUK. Everyone was so impressed with the energy and atmosphere brought by the children, and how well they knew the words and tune. Their hard work with Mrs Hill and Mr Fingerhut really paid off- Kol Hakavod!

In maths the children recapped the skills of addition and subtraction with up to four digits using the column method, including when more than one exchange takes place in the calculation. They then moved on to considering and selecting the most efficient subtraction strategies to use for different calculations, a very thorough concept which continued over a second lesson. 

This week an email was sent regarding our upcoming parent maths workshops. We are hoping to see as many parents there as possible, so please RSVP using the Google Form attached to the email, which can also be found below. The deadline for this is today.

In Science the children selected an animal of their choice and researched their adaptations. They worked hard to change the information they found into key bullet points. We learnt so many new facts and look forward to making our adaptation posters to display around the school next week.

Looking forward to another busy and productive week next week!

Shabbat Shalom, we wish you a lovely weekend.

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 25th Feb - 24th Adar I

In Jewish Studies this week we continued our study of Parashat Toledot.  We acted out the pessukim in which Rivka went to get advice on her difficult pregnancy, and was told that she was carrying twins who would grow up to be very different from each other.  We also learned that when Esav was born, he was red and hairy, looking like a ‘ready-made’ adult, which is why he was called Esav.  

We have been practising the words and melody for Dror Yikra, ready for when the Chief Rabbi comes to join us next week.  We even tried to learn the ‘cup’ actions - some of us mastered it, and some of us just couldn’t manage it!

Also this week (it’s been a busy one!), we began learning about Purim.  We heard the Purim story and started examining some of the themes within the Megillah, such as the idea of hidden-ness.  Did you know that HaShem’s name does not appear in the Megillah although it is clear that He was guiding all of the events in the story.  Also, the name “Esther” means hidden (her real name was Hadassah) and she kept hidden that she was a Jew.  More Megillah insights next week!

I wish you all Shabbat Shalom and a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hill

Friday 25th February 2022

This week in robotics the children made roller coasters! This task was super challenging and the children had to exercise all of their Kerem Characteristics in order to be successful.

In English we started a new text that we will be working on for the rest of the term.The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo. On Monday, before this text was introduced or read, we recapped the structure of the classic Cinderella story, and how there are many versions of this fairy tale, including cartoons and movies. The children were asked to predict what an Egyptian themed version would be like, considering elements such as magical objects, animals, main character, love interest etc. We then read ‘The Egyptian Cinderella’ and compared our ideas to this version. On Tuesday we learned about comparative conjunctions, such as through the text. Later in the week, the children used their creative writing skills to write their own retell of the classic version of Cinderella. They were encouraged to use all of their skills, such as using conjunctions as well as comparative conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, other adverbs of time, frequency and manner, strong verbs, and dialogue. Set time was built in to proofread and make edits to writing. 

In maths we completed our learning of decimals with lessons on rounding to the nearest whole number, and learning about how halves and quarters, including 3 quarters, are represented in decimals. 

The children also had a quick visit to Year 6’s ‘Shuk HaKerem’, where they were given shekalim to spend at the stalls. Here they were given the opportunity to practise the Ivrit they have learned. Thank you Year 6!

In science the children learnt about different habitats. They used their iPads to research different animals and which habitats they live in. We also made ‘Who am I’ riddles and enjoyed guessing them!

Sadly forest school was cancelled this week due to strong wind and rain. We are looking forward to starting next week, hopefully.

Reminders:

• If for any reason your child is not able to go swimming one week, they are expected to come to school wearing school uniform and an email must be sent to us.
• Our outing to London Zoo will take place on Monday, please arrive at school by 8.30am.
• Very few children have been giving in their reading journals on Mondays. Please encourage your child to read, either to themselves or to an adult, and write about their reading in the journal, bringing this in each Monday for us to see. We would like to encourage the children to incorporate reading as part of their day, both for enjoyment and to ensure that their imaginations and reading skills remain strong. Many thanks for your support with this.
• English homework is due on Mondays. We will be going up to the classroom on Monday morning before our outing, so they can still bring this and their reading journal on Monday.
• We have a very exciting afternoon on Wednesday, as we will be recording Dror Yikra for Shabbat UK (see separate email from Mrs Hill). Children should come to school in full school uniform, rather than PE uniform that day.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Mrs Kanzen and the Year 4 team

11th Feb - 10th Adar I

This week we have continued to focus on the topic of Shabbat, finishing our Shabbat candle art and learning about each of the items on the Shabbat table, and what they represent, creating a Guide to the Shabbat Table.  

We revised our reading rule of the week and practised our Hebrew reading, which is improving all the time, bH! In our parashah lesson, we learnt about the Kohen Gadol, who features in this week’s parashah, and the special clothes that he and the Kohanim had to wear when working in the Beit HaMikdash or Mishkan.  We designed an advert for the Kohen-Mart, featuring the special items worn by the Kohen Gadol.

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely half term break.

Friday 11th February 2022

Well done to all the children who represented our school in sporting events this week, whatever the results, we are all so proud of your efforts.

This week was Children’s Mental Health Week. The week began with a special assembly after tefillah on Monday, introducing the theme of Growing together (how we grow through our experiences). In addition, each child received a plain white t-shirt  to decorate the t-shirt with things that make us feel happy and calm, having first designed these on a paper template. Fabric pens were used to create these designs. The children wore their t-shirts at school today over their ‘Bluish Jewish’ clothes, and will bring them home. N/B Please iron the t-shirts before they go into the wash, in order to stop the colours from running. We also watched some videos of celebrities who told their Growth Stories and how they got to where they are now, the challenges they faced and the tools they used to overcome them. We used ‘Mighty Cards’, which gave us some movement exercises, to show how movement such as dancing, yoga or exercise can change your state of mind.

In English this week, the children learned about fronted adverbials. We have learned about using adverbs and adverbials. These are words or phrases that give us more information about where, how, when and how often a verb is performed. A fronted adverbial is one that starts off the sentence, and it must be followed by a comma before completing the rest of the sentence. Examples include: Above the clouds, By the sea, Nervously, In the distance, Every week, Fighting back tears, et cetera. Helpful word banks, such as one with a range of fronted adverbials, can be found on Google Classroom and used by the children to enhance their writing. Later in the week we had creative writing, and the children wrote a story entitled ‘Through the Doorway’, based on a photo prompt of a door.

This week in robotics the children made a ring toss game. Different blocks were used and the children had to consider how to ensure that their game stood properly. The children could then improve upon the design and make a different one. Mr Dixit has asked the children to continue to think of other ways to promote their theme park, e.g. sponsorship by well-known companies. When reflecting on their robotics lessons, the children told me that robotics is adventurous, fun, challenging, collaborative, allows them to explore and encourages them to reflect on mistakes and persist to try again.

In maths the children continued to develop their understanding of decimals, how these relate to fractions and to the ‘whole’. First, we calculated how many tenths and hundredths would be needed to make a whole number, for example, 0.32 (3 tenths and 2 hundredths) + ? = 1

Or ? + 0.89 = 2. We then moved on to writing decimals, ensuring that the understanding of the whole number being on the left hand side of the decimal point, and amounts less than 1 (not numbers less than zero, as these are negative numbers), tenths and hundredths, are on the right hand side, was embedded. We then compared decimals and ordered them according to their size, in ascending or descending order.

In science the children learnt about classification keys, a tool which uses questions to identify different animals. After the half term break they will be learning about how animals adapt to their environment and about endangered animals. 

Wishing you all an enjoyable half term week, we are looking forward to seeing the children next week.

This is Ms Simon’s last week in Year 4 and whilst she will of course be a regular visitor to the class, she is going to miss teaching the class each week. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins and Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies – 4^th Feb – 3^rd Adar I

In Jewish Studies, we continued learning Parashat Toledot, turning a spotlight onto Rivka.  We analysed her character based on the pessukim at the start of the parashah, and worked in pairs to create an interview script with her.  We also looked at the midrash of Yaakov and Esav struggling when still inside Rivka’s womb. 

We spend a little time viewing each other’s parashah work from the past couple of weeks and were really excited to be able to try out the games that we had created for our homework (see pics below) – they were so much fun and mostly worked really well! 

In our Parashah lesson, we learnt about the building of the Mishkan and the items inside of it.  We discussed why the Aron was lined both inside and out with gold, and said that we too should be as beautiful on the inside as we are on the outside. We then correctly  'placed' all the items into the Mishkan using coordinates to help us.

Shabbat Shalom!

Friday 4th February 2022

Only one more week until half term, where has the time gone?

This week in English we used our arguments from our class debate on deforestation to write a formal letter to the Prime Minister, asking him to support the fight against deforestation and outlining its devastating effects. After making a plan for the introductory and concluding sentences and what they would like to write in each paragraph, we learned about using techniques such as exaggeration, emotive language and rhetorical questions to persuade the recipient to get involved with the cause.

In maths, we worked on the concept of hundredths. We used place value grids to understand how to write hundredths as decimals as well as fractions, which reminds us that hundredths mean that a whole number has been divided into 100 equal parts. We asked and answered questions such as what is larger, one tenth or one hundredth, and how do you know? We also partitioned decimals using a place value grid, which put the children through their paces to show their understanding of tenths and hundredths, and the fact that 1 tenth= 10 hundredths.

In robotics, the children made bumper cars this week. Mr Dixit was very impressed with the children’s adverts that they made for homework. This week he has encouraged them to think about other ways to promote their theme park, such as finding golden tickets, winning tickets through competitions, celebrity endorsements etc.

We had a brilliant time in our art lesson on Wednesday when we finally began making the rainforest dioramas that we designed and planned. The children used all of their knowledge about rainforest climate, layers, plants, shrubs and trees, flowers and wildlife to create their 3d models. They used the resources very creatively, helped each other and learned from their mistakes, creating wonderful depictions of the rainforest. They continued this during Thursday’s science lesson and I am sure you will agree that the finished products are just fantastic.

Reminders: Next Friday is Bluish Jewish Day, an annual initiative of Jewish Child's Day to raise much-needed funds for Jewish children world over who are in need. Children are invited to wear blue and white instead of school uniform. Please bring in a minimum of £1 to support this worthwhile charity. Many thanks!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 28th January – 26th Shevat

In Jewish Studies this week we have continued our study of Parashat Toledot, looking in depth at the meaning of the pessukim and figuring out a cast list and selection of scenes for these verses. 

As part of our Shabbat topic, we each shared our knowledge about Shabbat candles, including that we light them 18 minutes before sunset and that the first person who lit Shabbat candles was Sarah, wife of Avraham.  We began a piece of artwork on Shabbat candles and will finish it in the coming week.  In Parashah, we explored the mitzvah of returning lost property and asked ourselves to what extent we are responsible for returning lost items, and how far we should go to ensure that they are returned to the correct owner.  Parashah homework is in Google Classroom, as is this week's Hebrew reading sheet.

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Hill

Friday 28th January 2022

In science the children learnt about the 5 groups of vertebrates - mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds. They split into small groups and researched one of the groups before presenting the information that they had found to the class.

In robotics the children who made a map for their theme park showed their ideas to Mr Dixit. This week they were encouraged to think about how they would advertise their theme park, discussing different tag lines and where they might advertise. They have been asked to come with some advertising ideas for next week, so this has been set on Google Classroom as their homework. In the lesson they built a Go cart, complete with a motor to make it move.

In maths we returned to the place value unit, learning about negative numbers for the first time, working on scales with different intervals. They are becoming more aware of the correct mathematical terminology for negative numbers, ie. -7 is ‘negative 7‘, rather than ‘minus 7’. We moved on to rounding to the nearest 1000 and then hundredths, which will be continued next week. When focusing on time we looked at the calendar and talked about why it is important that we know the months of the year and the number of days in each month. If your child does not know them then please help them to learn them. A good tool for remembering is seen below with the knuckles being months with 31 and the dips being 30 or 28/29.

Our English and geography lessons were combined this week as we started to learn about deforestation and its causes and effects. We looked at the positive outcomes of deforestation, such as producing foods and materials that we rely on, to explain why deforestation began to happen. We then looked at the negative outcomes, such as the destruction of habitats for hundreds of species of animals and insects, leading to the death of many, local tribes losing their cultural identity, huge areas of the rainforest being cleared using bulldozers and fires, making it impossible for the plants and trees that used to thrive there impossible to re-grow, climate change due to fewer trees to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and so on. We prepared for a class debate on deforestation, with each group of 3 taking the role of for example a pharmaceutical company, loggers, local tribespeople, conservationists. They prepared a brief statement explaining their view on deforestation and used their learning to support their view. Outside of this, we took time to redraft the rainforest poems we wrote, so that they can be put on display.

In guided reading we read the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling, and Unusual Adaptations to Habitats.

In Art we designed rainforest dioramas by making labeled diagrams in the art sketchbooks and made lists of the materials that would be needed. The children cannot wait to get started on these!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 21^st January – 19^th Shevat

At the start of the week, we celebrated Tu B’Shevat with a fruit party (thank you for sending in the fruit!) and we made our Grass Heads – I really hope they grow! We continued to learn about caring for HaShem’s world and made our ‘protect planet earth’ globes.

In Parashah we learnt that the Ten Commandments appear twice in the Torah, with a couple of differences between the two versions, one which says ‘keep’ Shabbat and the other says ‘remember’ Shabbat.  We discussed what each of these Mitzvot might entail. Levi came up with an excellent idea that each of the Ten Commandments teach us to be the complete opposite from Pharaoh – he murdered – we must not murder; he was jealous (of HaShem) – we must not be jealous; he lied (that he would let the Israelites leave Egypt) – we must not lie, etc.   Wow – what profound and hugely impressive ideas!

We reviewed the Hebrew reading rule of the week – the new rule is now on Google Classroom along with this week’s Parashah Choice Board.  Please ensure the children are practising their Hebrew reading on an almost-daily basis.

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend.

Friday 21st January 2022

This week's theme in Robotics was theme parks. The class learned about inertia and momentum and had to design their own theme park filled with rides based on a theme, and they were encouraged to make the connection with our Jewish faith and customs. Together with their partner, the children built a ferris wheel.

In maths lessons we continued to use our understanding of perimeter, and learned about area too. This is the measurement of the surface of a 2 dimensional shape, or the amount of space that it takes up. We compared the area of shapes to their perimeter, and explored concepts such as ‘if the area is larger, will the perimeter always, sometimes or never be larger?’ We also compared and ordered the areas of different shapes.

In English this week we learned about free verse poetry- poems written with no set rules or structure, usually without rhyme. However, other features of poetry are usually included, such as rhythm and language patterns, similes, alliteration, some stanzas (or just one) and repetition. We focussed on figurative language and wrote a glossary at the back of the English exercise books for alliteration, similes, personification and onomatopoeia, so that the children can refer back to this if they forget what each term means. We wrote a class poem about the rainforest, using this learning and ideas from our descriptive work last week, and then the children began to write their own. We also had a formal comprehension lesson.

In geography we completed our rainforest plants fact files, and then learned about the tribes that live in the rainforests.

In science we started our unit of work on habitats. The children began by grouping living things according to criteria that they decided. It was quite amazing to see how many different ways of grouping they found. 

In guided reading we read a section of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. The children enjoyed listening to the text and it is a book that some might choose to read the rest of. In our other sessions we read an extract from The Great Chocoplot by Chris Callaghan. The children enjoyed delving a little deeper into this amusing and humorous story. 

Please continue to send in magazines for our art lessons, in which we are beginning to design how the children will make a rainforest diorama and part of this will be listing the materials they will need. 

Please ensure that any water bottles brought to school on Wednesdays are named and non-leaking ones, so that the children can carry them in their swimming bags and not risk them making their towel wet or getting lost. Many thanks.

Homework reminder:

English homework is set on Wednesdays and due in on Mondays

Maths homework is set on Fridays and due in on Wednesdays

Please make sure that your child reads all the instructions for their homework carefully.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 14^th January – 12^th Shevat

Our focus this week has been Tu B’Shevat and our responsibility to look after HaShem’s world.  We examined Bereishit, chapter 2, verse 15 of the Torah in which HaShem instructs man to ‘work and guard the land’.  Imagine that – He had only just finished creating the world and already was telling Adam to take good care of it – if only we had all listened!

We discussed all the many different things that trees provide for us within the world, creating a word cloud from all our ideas.  We also thought about all the times that trees make an appearance in the Torah and the vital role they play in our Mitzvot.

Please complete your leaf pledges over the weekend and send them back to school on Monday.  Parashah homework is on Google Classroom as usual.

Thank you in advance for sending in a piece of fruit for Monday’s fruit party.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Hill

Friday 14th January 2022

The children enjoyed their first robotics session on Tuesday. They were introduced to their facilitator Mr Dixit, and he and the class had a discussion about what robots are, how they are useful and different types of robots. The children then explored the lego-like (but not really) pieces and followed visual instructions to help them build their first model- a scorpion or a lizard. 

The children did exceptionally well at our first swimming lesson on Wednesday. Outside of the lesson itself, there is a lot to contend with: timetable changes, a coach ride, being in a new environment, changing into swimwear and back again, dealing with wet clothes and organising themselves, and the children were fantastic and maintained good manners throughout. Next week we will end the JS lesson early so that there is time for a break and snack before we leave school. Some reminders for next week: Please use a proper bag for their swimming things, not a plastic carrier bag, please ensure that the children bring as few belongings as possible to the pool, keep a spare hair tie or two in the swimming bag, all items named, please provide a water bottle that will not leak and can be put into swimming bags, ensuring that nothing gets lost. 

In English this week we began reading the text The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. This is a beautifully illustrated book about a tree in the rainforest, in which hundreds of different species live. A man comes and wants to chop down the tree, and after some swipes of his axe, he is lulled to sleep by the sounds of the rainforest. While he sleeps, different animals come and whisper in his ear, pleading with him not to cut down the tree and explaining why the tree is so important. In groups we brainstormed the sensory experience of being in the rainforest, and then used our ideas to write a detailed description of what it would be like. 

In maths we recapped converting units of measure, millimetres and centimetres, centimetres and metres, then metres and kilometres. This tied in with our prior place value learning about decimals and the relationship between the place value columns. We began exploring the perimeter of rectangles and rectilinear shapes (insert picture of examples). On Thursday we continued to work on time. It is wonderful to see that every pupil has made progress from where they were when we first assessed them. Please continue to ask them lots of time-related questions at home. 

In science, we finished the investigation and made our conclusions about the impact of sugar on our teeth. As well as focusing on the element of the sugar, we focused on how to write up an investigation. In Guided Reading on Thursday, we made a tenuous link with sugar and all of our questions were based around the lyrics of the song “Just a Spoonful of Sugar”. For children who were familiar with the song, it was hard not to sing along with the clip of Mary Poppins. Next week we will be starting a new topic on Habitats.

In spelling we focused on the prefix ‘super’ with a particular focus on the words superficial, superfine, superhero, superhuman, supervise, supersede, superpower, superimpose, supernova.

What with all the excitement about swimming our Art lesson was a little squeezed this week, however, we had time to introduce our next art project, which the children were very excited about- we will be designing and making rainforest dioramas. A diorama is a 3-dimensional model. We now have lots of shoeboxes but not enough for each child in the class, so please keep sending these. The children were getting very excited about sending in materials to use, but we have asked them to wait until we have designed and planned the dioramas and we have had a look at the materials we have at school.

In geography, we learned about the plants that can be found in the rainforest and researched the unique features of the rainforest that create the perfect conditions for so many species of plants to grow. The children used their iPads and books to find information and made decisions about how to present their work and what they found out.

Looking forward to next week, have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies – 7^th January 2022 – 5^th Shevat 5782

Welcome back to the Spring Term – before we know it, Pesach will be upon us!

This week, we have taken the opportunity to catch up on the story of the Parashah from the past couple of weeks, as we have missed many major storylines.  We have also learned about this week’s Parashah, being Parashat Bo. 

We learnt that Pharaoh’s daughter, Batya, risked her own life by saving Moshe from the river.  We show our gratitude to her by referring to Moshe by the name that she gave to him (ie, Moshe), rather than the name given to him by his mother, being Yekutiel.

We further looked at the concept of gratitude, as learnt through the first three of the ten plagues - blood, frogs and lice.  Each of these plagues were brought by Aharon rather than Moshe, as Moshe’s life had been saved by the river  - when he was a baby - and by the sand - when he buried the Egyptian taskmaster.  Even though the river and sand are both inanimate objects, Moshe still showed them gratitude.  How much more so should we show gratitude to those who we care about!

Friday 7th January 2022

A very warm welcome back to all our families, Happy new year, we hope you all had a wonderful, restful break. We are thrilled to welcome Josie to our class and her family to Kerem School.

We were very pleased to see all the children on Thursday and Friday. They began learning about time with Ms Simon in 5 different groups, giving each child the opportunity to work on the areas of time that they do not yet know and not waste any time on concepts that they are secure in. You should have received an email giving more details about this, please look out for it.

In Science the class set up an investigation to find out the impact of sugar on teeth. Ask your child what it is we did and how we are going to reach a conclusion.

On Friday we had a very productive morning finishing off our newspaper articles about Charlie finding the golden ticket and redrafting them to put up on display. We also finished our information ‘double-page spread’ about the animals that can be found in the different layers of the rainforest.

We have some exciting art projects coming up that we will need some resources for. Please send in any shoe boxes or magazines you have at home and no longer need. 

Here is a copy of our timetable for the spring term. Please note this does often change, and will change again after half term but I hope it's useful for you to have. 

Swimming lessons begin on Wednesday, PE uniform days are Monday and Wednesday.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Tuesday 14th December 2021

Here are some photos from our outing and our last day of term. Other than the traffic on the way home, the day went without a hitch, we were able to go to all the different parts of the museum and had an amazing time. The children loved everything that related to what we learned about the rainforest and advertising, and also learned a lot of new things about chocolate and Mayan civilisation. 
 

this morning we had a great time in whole school tefillah, our end of term party and finishing our Henri Rousseau artwork.

Jewish Studies 6^th Tevet – 10^th December

In Year 4 this week we completed our learning of Chanukah (sadly) and have been reviewing our Jewish general knowledge – months, aleph bet, tribes, parshiot etc.

We have also been practising to find our way around our Chumash, exploring a page to find the name of the Sefer, Parashah, Perek and Passuk.  We also used JITap to reinforce our learning.  We are really looking forward to start learning Parashat Toledot in detail after the holidays.  Today, having learnt the story of this week’s Parashah, we wrote a post card to Yaakov, as one of his sons, telling him that we had found Yoseph.  Parashah homework is on Google Classroom, and is due for Tuesday, please.

Enjoy the winter holidays, and keep safe and healthy!

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Hill

Friday 10th December 2021

We have had a very busy final full week of the term, and we are all looking forward to our outing on Monday. A quick reminder that children should wear their school uniform, rather than PE uniform, many thanks!

In science the children learned how to maintain healthy teeth. Next term they will conduct an investigation about whether teeth will remain healthy when left in milk, Coca Cola, water and apple juice.

In maths we recapped the names of common 2d shapes, moving from pentagon (5 sides) and hexagons (6 sides), to trapezium and rhombus. We discussed that a ‘regular’ shape is where all (interior) angles and sides measure the same. We reminded ourselves about horizontal and vertical lines, and then looked at lines of symmetry in shapes and made symmetric patterns.

In English we planned and wrote newspaper articles about when Charlie found the last Golden Ticket. Our focus was on including the features of newspaper reports that we spotted last week, how the style of language is different to other text types and why, and changing paragraphs each time a setting, event, topic or time changed when recounting what had happened. All the children did a great job!

On Friday we were so pleased to welcome Josie, who will be starting at Kerem in January, for a few hours in class. We made some artwork in the style of Henri Rousseau, tying in with our learning about rainforests. 

As a school, we had an official opening of our new school library, which the Kerem Cares Kehillah members were invited to attend. A special dedication took place in memory of Hannah’s grandma, and we thank Hannah’s mum and family for their support in making the library an incredible space to read and enjoy books. 

Looking ahead to next week, of course we have our trip on Monday. Please be aware that responding to emails will not be possible on that day, for anything urgent please contact the office. A mezonot lunch means that we will not have to wash and say Bircat Hamazon, and please send enough water and snacks for the day in a bag that the children will find easy to carry around. 

On Tuesday we will be having an end of term party to celebrate the children’s achievements in the maths morning. We will have snacks carefully budgeted for by Years 2 and 3, decorations made by Year 1, and party games prepared and facilitated by Year 5. We can’t wait!

This week we also looked through books in all subjects and spent some time reflecting on work the children feel proud of. As parent consultations were once again held online and means that parents were not able to have a look at the children’s books, the children took photos of their work and have put these on Google Classroom. Please ask them to show you.

No homework was set this week, so enjoy your ‘free’ weekend! I would like to encourage the children to keep up with Doodle Maths, English and Tables over the holidays. If possible, a little a day would really help. In addition, after the winter break the children will be learning about time. Please spend the holidays incorporating the concept and relevance of time day to day, looking at analogue clocks and asking questions such as what is the time now? If we leave in 45 minutes, what time will it be then? If the show finishes at 3.30, how long is it? If you do not have analogue clocks or watches at home, these can be found online.

A quick reminder that the term begins on Thursday 6th January, and our first swimming lesson will take place on Wednesday 12th January.

Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the year 4 team

Jewish Studies 29^th Kislev – 3^rd December

It’s finally Chanukah!!  We’ve had a really busy Chanukah week here, with each day beginning with full-school Tefillah and Hallel, and each day ending with Chanukah candle lighting and a sing-a-long.  The main sing-a-long on Tuesday afternoon was really excellent – a huge well done to all of Year 4 for their amazing contribution, and a massive thank you to Mr Fingerhut and the Ivrit team for preparing the children so incredibly well!  You will be receiving the video of the event really soon.

We have been learning about the different laws connected with candle lighting, as well as the brachot we say and the tunes we sing when kindling the Chanukah lights.  Chanukah would not have been complete without a game of Sevivon, which we did with a difference, with thanks to Seed’s amazing Sevivon Game (see pics below).  Hopefully the children have brought this home and you can play over Shabbat!

I wish you all Shabbat Shalom, Chanukah Same’ah and Chodesh Tov!

Mrs Hill

Friday 3rd December 2021

Chanukah Sameach!

We would like to wish all our pupils and their parents a bright Chanukah, we hope that you are having a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. Thank you so much for the gorgeous cards that you gave us. We are touched by the time the children and you took creating them and the messages are lovely - particularly the one with the instruction to spend the holiday eating sweets!

We have had so many exciting activities this week, including our Maths Morning, Chanukah singalong in the hall with the rest of the school, and our e-safety session. The Maths Morning was centred around everyday maths, and the theme was making a Chanukah party. Our class explored making biscuits, which was a lot of (messy) fun. We first looked at scaling the recipe - if this recipe makes 26 biscuits but we only need 13, what do we need to do with the recipe? How about if we want 52 biscuits or around 40 biscuits? How much flour, margarine and sugar would we need then? The children then got busy weighing out all the ingredients and mixing them up to make the dough. They were then challenged to make a chanukah- themed biscuit, which hopefully made it home and into the oven.

That afternoon, we joined the rest of the school in the hall for a special Chanukah singalong. Each class had prepared between 1 and 3 songs, and after their performance, Mr Fingerhut played the song again, and everyone else joined in. It truly was a very special Kerem experience. In addition to this, we have had whole-school tefillah in the mornings and candle lighting in the afternoons every day, so the Chanukah spirit is certainly in the air.

This week in English we looked at an example of a newspaper report and identified all the features of this text type, including the headline, introductory paragraph, paragraphs outlining the main events, quotes, key quotes, pictures and captions. We started a plan for our own newspaper report based on Chapter 11: The Miracle. We will continue these next week.

In maths, we continued embedding our understanding of tenths as decimals. We recapped what happens on a place value grid, when numbers are multiplied or divided by 10, each digit moves one column to the left (x) or right (÷). We then applied this to dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 10, seeing that, for example, 4 ÷ 10 = 0.4, or 25 ÷ 10 = 2.5. Below you can find some examples of the tricky maths we tried, involving balancing equations.

In geography, we learned about the animals that live in the rainforest, what they eat and which layer they live in. In guided reading, we read about Mary, Queen of Scots, her life and her death.

In science, the children researched the structure of the tooth and the functions of the different parts of it. It is quite amazing how much happens in these little white teeth! We also talked about how to look after teeth and the importance of keeping them healthy.

This week we also had our E-safety session with Heather. It was lovely to see so many of you there to join in with the session. The children discussed keeping their personal information safe online, being kind towards others and talked about whether or not we really know who is behind the avatar. The answer of course being, “we just don’t know!”

Homework- Please help us to nurture the children’s independence when it comes to homework. All the instructions are on the Google Classroom assignment/ material post, and these need to be read carefully by the children, who should be at least making a start on their own and seeking help if they need it, rather than being helped from the start. All homework should be completed in the maths or English homework books provided, and we have the same expectations for presentation for homework as we do for classwork. English homework and Reading Journals should be at school on Mondays, and Maths on Tuesdays. It is still really beneficial for children to read aloud, so please listen to them read at least once a week, and the children can then add this to their reading journals, which are checked every Monday. As always, many thanks for your support.

We are looking forward to another fabulous week next week!

Shabbat Shalom and chanukah Sameach,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 29^th Kislev – 3^rd December

It’s finally Chanukah!!  We’ve had a really busy Chanukah week here, with each day beginning with full-school Tefillah and Hallel, and each day ending with Chanukah candle lighting and a sing-a-long.  The main sing-a-long on Tuesday afternoon was really excellent – a huge well done to all of Year 4 for their amazing contribution, and a massive thank you to Mr Fingerhut and the Ivrit team for preparing the children so incredibly well!  You will be receiving the video of the event really soon.

We have been learning about the different laws connected with candle lighting, as well as the brachot we say and the tunes we sing when kindling the Chanukah lights.  Chanukah would not have been complete without a game of Sevivon, which we did with a difference, with thanks to Seed’s amazing Sevivon Game (see pics below).  Hopefully the children have brought this home and you can play over Shabbat!

I wish you all Shabbat Shalom, Chanukah Same’ah and Chodesh Tov!

Mrs Hill

Jewish Studies 22nd Kislev - 26th November

Chanukah is now just 2 days away!  This week we have looked in more detail at the Maccabees (and the Maccabeats!).  We learnt that the name Maccabee comes from the Hebrew word for a hammer, and can also be used as an acronym for the Maccabee's battle-cry - Mi Kamocha ba-Eilim HaShem (who is like you, HaShem), and also an acronym for Matityahu (head of the Maccabees) - Matityahu Kohen ben Yochanan.  

We have also continued to work through accurate pronunciation of Birkat HaMazon, have had our second wordlist test - next week will be the first 9 words of column 1, have learnt about Yoseph and his not-so-multi-coloured coat (Andrew Lloyd Webber has much to answer for!) and lots more too.

Parashah homework and reading homework can be found on Google Classroom - thank you for your support!

I wish you all Shabbat Shalom, and a Chag Chanukah Same'ach!

Mrs Hill

Friday 26th November 2021

In English, we started the week with a creative writing lesson based on story beginnings. We discussed why the beginning of a story is important, and the children were reminded that, as writers, they should always be thinking about the reader while they are writing, as it is the questions that they have in their heads as they read that will make them want to keep reading. 

We moved on to make adverts for the new chocolate bars we designed in class. The children had to develop their ideas and collaborate closely with their group.

In Maths, we learned about decimals, first recapping our knowledge of tenths and then introducing tenths as a ‘new’ column on a place value grid, with a decimal point after the ones. We learned that all the columns we are already familiar with on the left-hand side of the decimal point, the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands, represent whole numbers, the column/s on the right-hand side of the decimal point represent parts of numbers, e.g 2.5 represents 2 wholes and 5 tenths, which is the same as one half (we know this from our work on equivalent fractions). This is a very important first step to having a thorough understanding of decimals, and how these relate to fractions.

In Geography, we learned about the layers of the rainforest, and the different animals and plants found in each layer. Each layer is different because of the amount of light and water it gets. The emergent layer is the top/ highest layer, the canopy layer forms a roof over the plants below, the understory layer is next, and then the forest floor, where there is almost no sunlight, and very few plants grow.

In Art, we continued our project based on the work of the artist Henri Rousseau. We looked at examples of his artwork in more depth, identifying shapes and patterns, and noticed that the settings for his paintings were often in the ‘jungle’ or rainforest. We learned that Rousseau made his paintings in 3 sections- the foreground, the middle ground, and the background, which relates to our learning about rainforest layers.

In guided reading, we read Pocahontas’s biography and discussed aspects of her life and how her family might have felt when she decided to marry John Rolfe and move to England. We were fascinated to learn about Pocahontas’s Native American tribe and childhood in her tribe, the Powhatan. We made connections between what we read about the English settlers who came and established the settlement of Jamestown on an island at the edge of the Powhatan lands, and what we learned last year about the Celts in Britain when the Romans came.

In science, the children continued to learn about teeth - we even got to see some human and crocodile teeth that children had brought into school. The children learnt about the structure of the tooth using their iPads as a research tool. They were quite amazed at how much is hidden under the white that they can see. 

On Tuesday we are very excited to be having a Maths Morning. Each class will work on an aspect of planning for a party, and in Year 4 we will be using a recipe to focus on scaling (when you need to halve, double or make three times a recipe), weighing and measuring. There will be photos of our activities on the blog next week. 

On Wednesday we have our very important e-safety day. An email was sent last week about our session, for which parents have been invited to come into school and sit alongside the children and learn about how to stay safe online. Please notify the school as soon as possible if you are able to attend.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Friday 19th November 2021

This week was Anti-Bullying Week and we launched the week with our ‘odd socks day’ and an assembly after the whole-school tefillah on Monday. Mrs Sharman introduced the mantra ‘One Kind Word’ as a way to live our lives, not just for this week, as the words of others can really affect how people feel about themselves. We also talked about how being different makes us special, and we should be proud of ourselves and those around us for being who they are, rather than making people feel bad for being different. Throughout the week we had daily short activities and discussions.

In English, we wrote a story based on a time a character was persuaded to do something but then regretted it. The focusses were to write consistently in the first person and use time adverbials to sequence events. We also worked on story structure, discussing what each paragraph would be about, reinforcing the change of paragraph each time there is a new character, event, change in place or time in the story.

In maths, we started our fractions unit, which we will revisit later in the year. We recapped important vocabulary, including whole, fraction, numerator, denominator, unit fraction and non-unit fraction. We investigated equivalent fractions using visuals such as a fractions wall, and concrete resources such as Cuisenaire rods.

The children had an art lesson with Miss Weiner on Wednesday and started an exciting new project on Henri Rousseau. Ask your child if they can tell you facts about his life and what his artwork is like.

In geography, we learned about rainforest climates and the difference between ‘climate’ and ‘weather’. There are no seasons in the rainforests and the weather is the same all year round. There is a lot of rainfall, in fact, it usually rains every day, temperatures are hot all year round and it is very humid.

In science, we began our topic on teeth. The children had a look inside their mouths to identify the different shaped teeth they have. After that, they matched definitions to actual pictures of the teeth and learnt the names of the different teeth humans have. In Guided Reading we read the book Tooth by Tooth, comparing chompers, Tusks and Fangs by Sara Levine. The children enjoyed this lighthearted text about what humans would look like with the teeth of different mammals. The book has been uploaded to Google Classroom in case they wish to read it again. 

In spelling, we looked at words that need to double the consonant before adding the suffix ed, er or ing. These included forgetting, forgotten, beginning, beginner, preferred, preferring, occurred, occurring, forbidden and committed.

Thank you to Louis for the brilliant birthday books donation to our class library. Lots of members of the class are very excited to read the rest of the stories, as we have read extracts of them in guided reading.

We are extremely excited to be welcoming some additional members to our class- some plants! The children are very enthusiastic about looking after them and we are very pleased to have some of the outdoors inside with us while we learn. We are in need of some plant pots for them without holes in the bottom, so if any families have one or two going spare at home we would make good use of them.

Shabbat shalom!

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 15th Kislev/19th November

Chanukah is most definitely in the air in Year 4 - you can almost smell the latkes frying (assuming you still have a sense of smell, that is!).  

We launched into Chanukah by watching a video that helped jog our memories about all things Chanukah, but especially the reason why we celebrate Chanukah.  We went online and created our own Chanukah headline and mini report and then set to work writing and filming our own 'eye-witness' reports about the Chanukah battle and the discovery of the oil.  

The Year 4 Parashah homework (Choice board) is on Google classroom, and is due in, as always, for Tuesday.

Our wordlist words for next week are the next three words in column one.  There are also links to lots of games to help learn the words.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and a lovely weekend,

Mrs Hill

Jewish Studies - week ending 12th Nov - 8th Kislev

Following on from our learning about Sigd last week, we spent much of the week learning the history of the Beta Israel community.  We learnt the details of Operation Moses and the Arous diving school and hotel that was set up by the Mossad as a front for smuggling Ethiopian Jews out of the Sudan and into Israel.  The children created excellent posters, half which featured an advert for the hotel, and half of which showed what was happening there under the cover of darkness.

We have practised our Hebrew reading - please remember, the children should be practising their reading at home for around 5 mins per day, 5 days per week, and we looked in detail at the story of this week's Parashah.  We wrote an account of the parashah and figured out for ourselves what lessons we could learn from Yaakov and Lavan.  Some of us played 'angels and ladders' - our version of snakes and ladders, which represented Yaakov's dream of angels on a ladder from this week's Parashah.  Parashah homework (Choice-board) is on the JS Google Classroom and is due in for Tuesday.

Shavuah tov - have a lovely week ahead!

Friday 12th November 2021

On Monday we were so excited to have all of year 4 as well as year 5 back at school. It was also an exciting morning because we began our first weekly whole school tefillah and assembly in the Max Weinbaum hall. It was so nice to be together as a school again and share a meaningful tefillah. In addition, we watched a presentation by the Tikkun Olam committee, who told us a bit about climate change and the COP26 conference. They told us about what it means that the climate is changing and its effects on our planet and its inhabitants, including humans. They gave us some suggestions about how we can help, for example, walking more and taking the car less, using a reusable water bottle and less single-use plastics, and protecting our green spaces. It was such a brilliant start to our week.

In English we conducted a ‘long write’, the children had to independently write a story with the opening sentence ‘This afternoon, the most interesting thing happened’. This is a writing task that the children will do every year, allowing us to see their progression on an annual basis.

We then worked on making an advertising campaign for the chocolate bars we designed last week, focussing on descriptive and persuasive language. We looked at examples of poster adverts featuring chocolate bars as well as other products, and the children worked in small groups to produce one of their own, featuring a catchy slogan. See some of their work in the photographs section.

In maths we continued to extend our learning on multiplication and division. Early in the week, we explored what happens when a number is multiplied by 0 or 1, and what happens when a number is divided by 1 or by itself, eg. 5 divided by 5. The children then wrote rules to describe what they noticed, for example, ‘A number divided by itself will always be equal to 1.’ This might sound like a simple concept, but it is often one that children become confused by. We moved on to working on the 6 and 9 times tables, and used this opportunity to work on skills such as using the 3 times tables to help, and using what you know to help with what you don't know, for example, how can the number fact 9 x 5 help you calculate 9 x 6? Which number facts could help you to calculate 30 x 6?

On Thursday the children attended another whole school tefillah in the hall, followed by a short assembly about Remembrance Day. A big thank you to all of those who brought in £1 on Friday, allowing us to support AJEX in the important work that they do. 

In science, we finished our work on the digestive system with the children having the opportunity to ask any final questions they had about digestion. As well as providing lots of conversation about digestion and of course, poo, it also gave us an opportunity to talk about how to use the internet to search for information. Many children were not looking beyond the answers that come up on the search engine, not even opening the web pages that they were suggesting. I showed them how it was important to open the page or even pages suggested and read the information given before selecting what information they could take from it. It would be great if you could reinforce this at home when they are doing web searches. Next week we will be moving onto learning about teeth. If any of you have any of your children’s teeth at home (that the tooth fairy forgot to take) that you don’t want, we will be doing an investigation into the impact of drinks on teeth and it would be wonderful to have some real ones to use. If you don’t want your child to know that you have their teeth then feel free to send them in an envelope addressed to us. 

In spelling we focused on adding the suffixes  ed, er and ing when you do not need to change anything in the root word eg. gardner, gardening, gardened.

In Guided Reading we looked at a text about Armistice Day. The discussion part of the lesson ended with a discussion about whether it should be compulsory to wear a poppy. 

Please see the poster below for details about ‘odd socks day as part of Anti-Bullying Week Next Week!

Please remind your child to bring in their Reading Journal on Monday for us to look at and sign, even if there are limited entries so far. We will continue to collect these every Monday.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins and Ms Simon and the year 4 team

  Welcome to the Year 4 Class Blog  

Friday 5th November 2021 

This first week back wasn’t quite what we were hoping for, with the children learning remotely. We know that this presented many challenges and we are really pleased that all of our class will be well and out of their quarantine in time for the start of next week. We can’t wait to have them back at school with us.

The children did a wonderful job in their English and art lessons this week, describing their favourite chocolate bar and then designing their own new chocolate product. In maths they made great progress in using their knowledge of place value to multiply and divide by 10 and 100, and their science experiment about digestion was a real highlight! Thank you for helping the children to prepare the resources and for enabling this work to happen in your homes. 

We have had our last session of forest school for now but don’t worry, there will be more in the spring term. On Thursdays the children will have their second weekly PE lesson so should still come to school in their PE kit.

Homework will be set next week, English on Wednesday and Maths on Friday.

Please encourage your child to keep reading both to themselves and to an adult at home and write in their reading journal. We will be collecting these every Monday to monitor how much reading they are doing and award house points. Please send these in on this Monday coming.

Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 4 team

22nd October - 17th Cheshvan 5782

This week in Jewish Studies was a fair bit calmer than last week, for some reason!  Seriously, though, the children really were absolutely fantastic on the Shabbaton.  They took their boundless energy and channeled it into creating the most incredible ruach to ensure that they had a Shabbaton to remember.

This week, besides reflecting upon the Shabbaton, we have practised our Hebrew reading and our script writing.  We have also started to focus on our Chumash learning for this term by exploring the importance of Torah learning as well as reviewing the Avot and Imahot.

In our Parashah lesson we considered the huge amount of Emunah that Avraham shows in HaShem, as well as the other lessons that the children figured out we can learn from this parashah of Vayeira.

I wish you all a beautiful Shabbat and a healthy and enjoyable half term week.

Mrs Hill

Friday 22nd October 2021

A whole week has passed since we embarked on the adventure that was our Shabbaton. It was the most lovely Shabbat, the children were amazing, so enthusiastic about everything we did and they had a fantastic time. And we all had at least a few hours of sleep!

When we got to the start of the week it was back to work. 

We looked at diary entries in English, the children looked at a ‘WAGOLL’ (What A Good One Looks Like) and used different colours to highlight the features they found, such as past tense, chatty informal language, written in first person, adverbials of time (such as afterwards, a little while later, yesterday, when), and the author’s thoughts and feelings.

In maths we continued working on adding and subtracting numbers with up to 4 digits, including lots of decision making about which strategies were best to use for different calculations, and why.

In Art we continued to work on our chocolate project. The children each received a photo of half their chosen chocolate bar and drew the rest of it, using the sketches made in our previous lesson. They are looking really good and we will continue in our next art lesson, after half term. 

In Science the children finished their digestive system aprons which they have now brought home. 

It was our last session at Forest School this week and the teachers commented on the improvement that they have seen in the children’s listening skills over the 6 weeks. The children have really enjoyed the experiences that they have had and it is always so lovely watching them enjoy the outdoors. The children will get to go again in February. 

On Friday we finished our fact files about the life and achievements of Yona Bogale and made speech bubbles for a whole school display about what we learned.

A message from Mrs Sharman:

As part of anti-bullying week, the BBC are asking children to design an anti-bullying poster. The theme this year is 'ONE KIND WORD'. Please can your child use the sheet below for their design. Posters should be handed in to Mrs Sharman directly after half term (closing date Tuesday 2nd November).

All entries will be displayed in school and be sent to the BBC. The BBC will select some posters to be shown on their website.

Anti-bullying week this year is 15th-19th November 2021- more information to follow.

Wishing you all a wonderful half term.

Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 4 team

Friday 15th October 2021

Thank you to those who have covered the homework books in order to protect them. Others are beginning to get damaged in the children’s bags, so please consider protecting them in some way. I noticed some children have more environmentally friendly reusable plastic covers, which are also a good option.

In English the children wrote a description of either Charlie or Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They then acted out Chapter 7, Charlie’s birthday, in groups, to help the children understand and remember the sequence of events of the chapter, ready for our writing next week.

In maths we continued with our work on adding 4 digit numbers with no exchanges between place value columns, with one exchange and with more than one exchange. We did quite a lot of work on this last year, though many of the children seem to have forgotten both the process and the understanding behind it. Please see the example below which shows how to use place value counters alongside the column method to add numbers with up to four digits.

As the children will not be receiving maths homework this week due to the Shabbaton over the weekend, please encourage your child to have a go at these calculations, using the above methods. Please feel free to check your child’s work and support them if they need it, but let them have a go independently first. 

1. 3,364 + 1,655
2. 3,535 + 2,634
3. 5,356 + 2,473
4. 3,275 + 6156

In art we began working on a cross curricular project on chocolate. As well as our work in art and English on this topic we will also be learning about rainforests in geography after half term. In this week’s art lesson, the children chose a well-known chocolate bar and made a sketch of its wrapper, writing notes about the colours and shapes used in their art sketchbooks. See the photos below of them working or proudly sharing their work.

In science the children began to create their own digestive system apron. As well as thinking about the layout of the different organs, the children developed the skills of drawing around templates as persistence when something is challenging. 

In Forest School the children created some natural coding which they turned into musical codes. These can be seen below. After that they were able to choose the activities that they did. Some chose tree climbing, others den making and others crafting using conkers and drills. They all had a great time. Unfortunately, next week is our last week for our current block. Yesterday, lots of the children did not have a change of shoes and the grass was quite wet. Please make sure that they have spare trainers or boots next week. Please may we also ask that forest school clothes are sent in a small rucksack or drawstring bag. The reason for this is twofold, one being that plastic bags are breaking on the walk to the site and single use plastic bags don’t support our aim to be more environmentally friendly. Thank you for your support with this.

On Friday we continued learning about Yona Bogale’s work in encouraging Ethiopian Jews to make aliyah, where they could live their lives and practise their Judaism safely. This week we made fact files about his work and his life, using our skills from making biographies. We also made Shabbat posters for the Shabbaton! Be sure to check the blog next week as we will try to take photos in the non-shabbat hours.

Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 8th October – 2nd Cheshvan

What a full and busy week we’ve had in Jewish Studies, especially with preparing for the Shabbaton.  The children have all been given their topics for their Dvar Torah, which should please be emailed to me by Tuesday.

We have reviewed our Chumash prefixes with help from Jewish Interactive and have spent time reading through and understanding parts of Birkat HaMazon which we commonly get wrong. 

In our Parashah lesson, Shachar, Adele, Sam and Yonat modelled for us how difficult it must have been for the people at the time of the Tower of Bavel to understand each other!  We also discussed how they received a lighter punishment for their wrongdoings against HaShem than the people in the time of the flood, as they were at least working together and displaying unity.

Next Friday, the girls should come to school wearing skirts, though they can wear tracksuits etc on Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night).  Regarding ‘treats’, the children can bring a couple of small (parev/nut free/kosher) items for themselves for Shabbat afternoon, but please send them in a named bag/container to make it easier for us to hand them out.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and a relaxing weekend – and looking forward already to next Shabbat!

Mrs Hill

Friday 8th October 2021

What a busy week we have had in Year 4, it has been amazing to finally have a full week and we have done so many exciting things.

In English we finished our biographies and then started doing some work on Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We spent some time recapping what similes are and how they enhance descriptions, as well as nouns and noun phrases. We also discussed homework and continued Guided Reading on Alex Sparrow and the Really Big Stink. We talked about whether it is ever ok to tell lies and what happens when best intentions go wrong.

In maths we enjoyed starting our new unit on addition and subtraction. We looked at what happens when you add or subtract thousands, hundreds, tens and ones using our knowledge of place value. We looked at different calculations and considered whether they were tricky or not and why, and which strategies and maths knowledge would be best used to solve them, such as rounding, number bonds, number line, place value counters, estimating, adding 10/100/1000 and adjusting, and why. We also practised our times tables, below are some online games that can be used as well as Doodle Tables for consistent practice at home. 

October is Black History Month, and although we try to include this area into our learning throughout the year, as a school we will be having a special session every week this month where we will study the life and achievements of a suggested key person. We therefore spent a fascinating lesson learning about Yona Bogale, an Ethiopian Jewish educator and activist who campaigned around the world to enable thousands of Ethiopian members of the Beta Israel community to emigrate to Israel in order to escape persecution, drought and war. We will continue our learning on this next week.

On Wednesday we also had our first library session, and although the software we need to check out books isn’t up and running yet, the children loved spending time in the library and looking at the incredible array of books they can choose from.

Last year a new initiative was started where the children would have art progression folders. In addition to their regular art lessons, the children are completing two pieces of art over the year which are added to these folders. This week they completed their first piece. An observational drawing of themselves, based on a photo of half of their face. Photos of these can be seen below. 

Thank you to those who attended Meet the Teacher on Monday evening, it was great to have you all in our classroom. The slides used were sent in an email earlier in the week. Parents I know who weren't at the meeting have received the video of the session, please let me know if you weren’t able to attend and would like the video emailed to you.

Homework has now been set on Google Classroom. We spent some lesson time going through the instructions and expectations in the hope that many of the children will be able to work fairly independently, though please do support them if they need it. Here is a summary of when the homework is set and due in.

Please wrap the homework books in sticky back plastic to keep them looking neat. Books should be brought to school on Mondays (English) or Fridays (Maths) for marking.

We are so excited for the Year 4 Shabbaton next weekend! Please complete and return the consent form at your earliest convenience. Many thanks!

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins and Ms Simon

Friday 1st October - 25th Tishrei 5782

Apparently we are already in the month of October, though I have no idea what happened to September!

This week we have turned our attention to learning about Parashat Bereishit, examining the seven days of creation and making a mini flip-book of the seven days.

We discussed the personalities of Adam and Chava and explored the first sin ever committed.  We also asked ourselves what would Adam and Chava think of our world if they were to return today.

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Hill

Friday 1st October 2021

We can’t believe that it is already October! We are so looking forward to a full week at school next week, as well as seeing you at the ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening on Monday.

In English this week we began writing up our own biographies. The children took notes about their chosen individual and put them into a mind map, so that when they begin writing up the biography, the information can be organised and added to with key dates.

In science the children finished the reading comprehension that they had started last week about digestion. Going over this each week is really helping the children to consolidate their knowledge. 

In Forest School the children learnt another knot in order to make dens. We talked about which of the Kerem Characteristics they would need to successfully build a den. We decided that collaboration, initiative, curiosity and persistence were definitely on the list. They then started building them. Listening to the conversation was interesting and one of the things that came up was about comparison. Some of the groups were happy with their progress until they saw the work of other groups. This led to us discussing the phrases “comparison is the thief of joy” and “don’t wait until you reach your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take.” Taking in one last characteristic, the children reflected on how they did and what they might do differently next time. Next week the children are going to have the opportunity to try again and see how they get on. 

In spelling this week we looked over the two sets of words that we have already learnt. This was in order to give time to consolidate them as they have missed some of the mid-week spelling sessions. 

In Guided Reading we looked at an extract from The Demon HeadMaster by Gillian Cross, and also Alex Sparrow and the Really Big Stink by Jennifer Killick. One of the huge benefits to our Guided Reading lessons is that the children are given a taste of a huge range of books and genres, and they have been showing particular enthusiasm for some of these and mentioned that they would like to read them. We will continue to include the names and authors of these in the class blog so that you can ask your child about them and find a copy if they would like to continue reading the book.

Because of the way that Chaggim have fallen this year, we haven’t had any art lessons yet, so on Friday we spent the day working on a piece of artwork on our whole-school focus story, What We’ll Build. We looked at the page with the sentence ‘we’ll build a tunnel to anywhere’ and discussed the shapes, media and techniques used to create the illustration. We made our own copy of this and then, on the other half of the page, drew where we would like our tunnel might lead. We enjoyed being creative with our ideas!

Shabbat Shalom!

Mrs Collins, Ms Simon and the Year 4 team

Friday 24th September 2021

We have been having so much fun celebrating Succot in school, with special tefillah every morning to include Hallel and eating lunch in the Max Weinbaum Succah together with other classes in the upper school. On Monday we will have the opportunity to eat in the outdoor Succah.

In English, we began making notes on an inspirational individual who has had to fight against adversity to achieve their dreams. Together, we looked at David Attenborough, making a mind map to gather information about him. We then shared what we had found out, giving each of us the opportunity to add any information we might have missed to our mind maps. I then modelled how to use the information to fill in a special biography template, which helped us with the structure of the writing. Some children chose to complete their biography without the aid of the template, focussing on paragraphs and subheadings to organise the information.

In Maths we continued our work on the number line to 10,000. The children worked on a range of activities involving estimating where numbers should be on the numberline and working out unmarked values by looking at the marked values and working out the intervals. We also recapped the work on partitioning from the remote learning day, with everyone feeling more confident after this lesson. We used counters, bead strings and other manipulatives to partition various numbers in different ways.

In guided reading, we revisited the lyrics to Under the Sea from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, this time writing a response to Sebastian the crab’s assertions that life on land was not a good choice for Ariel.

In science this week the children continued to learn about the digestive system. They used a non-fiction text to combine their science and one of their guided reading lessons. During this work, they are focusing on the role of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and the large intestine. Great progress was made in the lesson and the children were able to hear the word poo without giggling!

Our spelling rule for the next week is words with the ending ‘sure’ and the words we looked at were treasure, measure, pleasure, closure, exposure, enclosure, leisure, pressure and composure.

At Forest School, the children played a game that helped to remind them about the importance of respecting the environment that we are in and foraging for resources eg branches that are on the ground rather than taking them off trees. They then learned a new knot ready to use to make dens next week.  

Like last week, school finishes at 2pm on Monday, therefore the children do not need to come to school in their PE uniform as PE takes place later in the afternoon, but should come in their regular school uniform.

‘Moadim Lesimcha’ and Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 4 team

Jewish Studies 24th September ~ 18th Tishrei 5782

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderfully warm Sukkot!

This week, Year 4 have been learning about the different parts of the body that are represented by the Arba'ah Minim (Etrog = heart, Lulav = spine, Hadasim = eyes, Aravot = lips) as well as the different types of Jew that they represent.

We have shaken the Lulav in the Sukkah and learnt the Bracha (brachot on the first occasion) that we say when shaking it, as well as learning the Brachah for eating in the Sukkah - which did, of course need to be accompanied by the eating of biscuits whilst in the Sukkah!

Today, we were joined by Sarah Silkin, our Seed educator, who ran a Sukkot-themed activity with us (pics below), and we linked working together to the Arbah Minim being held together to show that we are one people.

I wish you all Shabbat Shalom and Chag Same'ah!

Mrs Hill

Jewish Studies 17th September - 11th Tishrei 5782

I hope you all had a meaningful Yom Kippur and an easy fast.

It's been quite a week this week, with preparing for Yom Kippur, remote teaching and starting to learn about Sukkot!

We looked at the 5 things that we can't do on Yom Kippur and learnt the story of Yonah and the Big Fish, highlighting the fact that Yonah did Teshuvah when inside the fish and the people of Nineveh also did Teshuvah so were forgiven by HaShem.  The children are finishing off their comic strips of the story and I look forward to reading them all next week.

Today we began discussing Sukkot - the children remembered very little about Sukkot, though we weren't in school for it last year, so it is not surprising!  We reviewed the basics - ie what is a Sukkah and the names of the Arbah Minim.  Next week we will learn lots more about this beautiful, happy chag!

Shabbat Shalom to you all.

Mrs Hill

Friday 17th September 

We can’t believe that it’s Friday again already (it feels like Monday), we hope that all our families had a meaningful Yom Kippur and fasted well for those who did.

In guided reading this week we had great fun looking at the lyrics to Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.We identified examples of non-standard English, found the names of different fish and discussed the message behind the song and especially the phrase ‘the seaweed is always greener, in somebody else’s lake…’

In English we continued to make our way through the story of What We’ll Build. We focussed on the page with the text ‘We’ll build a house, to be our home’ and spent time considering the difference between ‘house’ and ‘home’. We brainstormed ideas about places we feel at home, and why, and then the children wrote a detailed description of their chosen place, using expanded noun phrases such as ‘my warm, cozy room with the pink, heart-shaped rug’. Later in the week we learned about what a biography is, and began researching information about well-known figures in recent history who have had to overcome adversity in order to achieve their dreams. We will spend the next few lessons writing short biographies about them.

In Maths the children developed their understanding of rounding to the nearest ten, and extended this to rounding to the nearest hundred. We then continued to explore thousands and the value of this column compared with hundreds, tens and ones. 

As things are so disrupted with Yom Tov, English and maths homework will begin after Succot. In the meantime, children can complete work from the remote learning days, practise reading aloud in English and Hebrew to an adult, and the children can also use Doodle Maths and Doodle Tables. 

Shabbat Shalom,

The Year 4 team

Friday 10th September 2021

We hope you all had a meaningful Rosh Hashanah and that you enjoyed the glorious weather. Shana Tova to you all.

We hope that the children managed with their remote learning on Monday, we will be going over some of the concepts in class in case anyone found the concepts challenging. 

In science this week we started our topic on the digestive system. The children began by eating a biscuit and were then asked if they knew what happened to that biscuit. They then looked at the main organs that support our digestion and found out what their role was. They will continue to look at this next week. 

The children were very excited to be returning to Forest School. During the session, they re-familiarised themselves with the area that we use for Forest School and the plants and wildlife in the area. The children then were able to choose activities. Some chose to make a swing, others a den, others did some willow weaving.  

In spelling, the children started the new spelling program that they are going to be working on this year. From Thursday until the next spelling lesson they will be focusing on the spelling rule of adding the suffix ‘ous’ at the end of a word. The words they looked at were serious, famous, obvious, curious, dangerous, enormous, jealous, poisonous, various, and nervous.

Guided reading this week focused on the text Paddington. 

We began our Verbal Reasoning sessions on Friday, which the children enjoyed learning about and exploring these new skills. We also continued our work on the story What We’ll Build by Oliver Jeffers, going over and refining or adding detail to the work set for remote learning. The discussion moved on to how things are physically built in the world and the importance of design and planning stages before any tools are touched. The children were very surprised to learn about how James Dyson spent 5 years making over 5000 prototypes of the bagless vacuum cleaner he created. We used this to understand the concepts of resilience and persistence in a deeper way, showing how much can be achieved if we keep trying.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Year 4 Team

Jewish Studies 10th September - 4th Tishrei 5782

Shanah Tovah to you all 🍎🍯!

Year 4 have made an excellent start to the new year in Jewish Studies, displaying so much enthusiasm and excitement for JS.  Our focus this week has been on Tashlich and the power of Teshuvah.  We each wrote down one or two things that we regret having done this past year, and witnessed the effects of Teshuvah as we dropped our papers into a jug of water and watched them simply dissolve away.  We also went out to the stream that runs down the side of the playground and together we recited the Tashlich prayer (see pics below).  We took time to consider how we can become even better people in the year ahead.

Wishing you all a peaceful and relaxing Shabbat!

Mrs Hill

Friday 3rd September 2021

Welcome back to the new year at Kerem and welcome to Year 4! It has been marvelous seeing the children this week and helping them get used to our new classroom and new routines. On this note, our morning break is now a little later, so please try to make sure that the children eat a good breakfast before school to help them manage.

On Thursday we had an amazing whole-school assembly for the first time in such a long time! It was fantastic doing tefillah all together, and Ms Simon read the story ‘What We’ll Build’ by Oliver Jeffers, which we will be doing some work on over the next few weeks. We also discussed and created our new class rules, written in the form of a charter, where we agreed on our responsibilities to our class and the things that we will do to help ourselves and one another succeed, rather than what we must not do. We also spent some time catching up about our holidays.

On Friday we learned about rounding 2 and 3 digit numbers to the nearest 10 in maths. The children were very lucky to have an extra JS lesson, where they played games to get them in the mood for Rosh Hashanah. We reread the story What We'll Build and considered the meaning behind some of the illustrations and parts of the text.

The iPads will be brought home by the children today so that they can use them for the remote learning day on Monday. Please as always encourage the children to work independently and try their best, rather than feel that you need to be by their side or ‘teach’ them for the day, we understand that it is Erev Rosh Hashanah and families have other pressures. Instructions for tasks, a timetable for the day, and links for ‘live’ sessions can be found on the new Year 4 Google Classroom.

This term the children should come to school in their PE kits on Mondays and Thursdays. Forest School begins on 9th September and we will have 6 sessions, ending at half term.

Details about homework will follow in due course.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova!

The Year 4 Team

We've had a really lovely first couple of days back at school in Jewish Studies.  We have been learning all about Rosh HaShanah, with an emphasis on the Shofar and what it represents.  We looked at different videos of royalty and how they are greeted with trumpet fanfares, and compared this to the Shofar sounding to announce HaShem's presence and in fact the New Year itself.

I wish you all a relaxing and restful Shabbat and a healthy, happy and sweet new year ahead!

Mrs Hill