Year 4 / 5

2022 - 2023

Roman Trip to Chester

Year 4/5 enjoyed an interesting and fun-filled, if a little soggy, trip to the Roman city of Chester. The children practised archaeology skills by looking at artefacts and making deductions about what they could be. They were able to be hands on with a range of replica artefacts including a Roman bath house, Roman roof tiles, Roman cooking equipment and a Roman soldiers kit bag. 

Following this, the children were dressed as Roman soldiers in armour and a shield and marched through the streets of Chester. Once at the amphitheatre, the children practised a variety of Roman army tactics for attack and defence. They had to guard their territory against some fierce barbarians (Mrs Murphy, Mrs Taylor and Louie's Mum!), holding their line or attacking on command. The class won the record for the quickest and most organised class that day, getting into position in 1.75 seconds! A fearsome battalion!

Finally, the children had some time to look around the Grosvenor Museum. They watched a video about a carving found in Chester and the story of the husband and wife that it told. The children were amazed to be able to see that carving in real life. 

The trip has really enhanced our Roman learning and we're all now well prepared for a barbarian attack!

Life Education Caravan

On 4th October, the children had a lesson from the Life Education Caravan. They learned about diversity, what humans need to survive and the health impact of smoking and alcohol. 

Financial workshop

Michelle Barron of Classroom Solutions came to school to deliver a workshop on financial education to year 4/5. The class learned about the average salary of a range of occupations and the necessary attributes for each job.

The children learned about wages and how people are paid. They learned about income tax and how it is used to pay for schools, the NHS and other public services. We learned about how lucky we are in the UK to have a free health service.

Michelle told the children about two different types of bank account - savings accounts and current accounts. Current accounts are where wages are paid and bills come out of. Savings accounts are where we save up money for bigger purchases.

The children had to categorise bills into essentials or luxuries. Some of them were difficult to classify for example thinking about whether we need WiFi to live our lives in the modern world.

The children completed a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ quiz to assess what they had learned which they really enjoyed.

This workshop contributed to our PSHE learning.

2021 - 2022

Summer Term

Year 4/5 have been working on sculpture this half term. They were inspired to create a sculpture quote which you can see below. 

This term, Y4/5 have been learning how to create a podcast. Our celebration assembly today is our finished podcast episode. We hope you enjoy it!

Year 4/5 had a great geography outreach session today from Miss Ollerenshaw from Byrchall high school. The children learned about the three Ps of earthquakes (predicting, preparing, protecting).

To predict, they used a map, cut along the earth’s tectonic plates to work out where in the world earthquakes happen. They then needed to predict where the earthquakes were most likely to happen.

In order to prepare for an earthquake, children were asked to think about ways in which they might stay safe from an earthquake. They were given (a virtual) £100 to spend on deciding what they wanted in their ‘grab bag’ justifying which items they would take over others. They also had to think about why it might be more difficult for low income countries (LICs) to prepare for earthquakes than high income countries (HICs).

They then learned that protection can begin with the buildings we are in, learning the key shapes which provide strength and building their own marshmallow ‘buildings’ to pass the shake test.

Year 4/5 visited Manchester Jewish Museum which is based on the site of the former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. The children had a wonderful day learning all about Jewish festivals and feasts. 

Wigan and Leigh Archives visit

Year 4/5 visited the Wigan and Leigh Archives at Leigh Town Hall. We explored the exhibitions and were treated to a behind the scenes look at where the archives are stored. As we explored, we used the exhibits to generate questions and answers. After that, we took part in a coding session led by Barclays Digital Eagles. We used the questions we had generated earlier in the day to create a multiple choice quiz on Scratch.

You can find more coding ideas from Barclays at https://barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/ 

Roman numerals

We revised our knowledge of Roman numerals today, playing a game of four-in-a-row. We had to match the numeral we rolled to the number on the sheet. 

Superhero day

The whole school dressed up as superheroes to raise funds for Year 6 to take with them to their Leavers’ service at Liverpool Cathedral. The School Council chose the theme of superheroes to help us to think about the power each of us has to care for our world, which God created. All funds raised were donated to the Christian Aid charity. 

School council

Year 4/5 voted for new school council members. Showing the British Value of Democracy, children put themselves forward to be elected and then wrote speeches to present to the class explaining why they thought they would make a good school councillor. Children then cast their votes for the candidates electing Thomas and Amelia to represent them at school council meetings. 

Local artist visit
Year 4/5 had a wonderful day today with a visit from a local artist in collaboration with Wigan STEAM. After exploring the Bickershaw Country Parkl, foraging for leaves and flowers, we came back to school and used these to create printed bags. We also worked with Natalie, the local artist, to create a printed moth for our class. 

Year 4/5 used Digimaps to learn about features of the local area. They compared modern maps to maps from the 1850s.

Play Ordnance Survey games at https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/games 

The children are making the most of the sunshine and learning about the properties of shapes while staying active. 

Learn more at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvmxsbk/articles/zt8q8hv

Year 4 Science class had a great lesson in our outdoor classroom constructing food chains. They learned about prey, predators, consumers, producers and the importance of green plants. 

Try the food chain challenge at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsphrwx to apply new knowledge! 

Summer Term Knowledge Organisers

Spring Term

Year 4/5 enjoyed learning about renewable energy in British Science Week. The children use Science, Design & Technology and Geography skills to design, make and test a wind powered turbine. Here are the children's successful tests. It is important to note that for some of these children, this was the result a number of tests and tweaks to their original design. The children showed great growth mindset in going back to the drawing board and learning from each other!

Year 4/5 celebrated World Book Day by reading Inside the Villain by Clotilde Perrin and then creating our own version. 

Year 4/5 marked Mental Health Week with mini meditations, mindful moments and learning about our emotions.

Knowledge organisers for Spring term can be found here.

As part of our English work on writing a holiday brochure, we tasted Italian food and wrote Marks and Spencers style adverts about them. 

We have been learning musical notation including crotchets, quavers, minims and semibreves. We used these to make up our own call and response rhythms. 

In PE, Year 4/5 are learning some new skills such as arabesque and shoulder stand. The children thought it would never take a whole lesson to master each skill but by the end, with aching muscles and tired bodies, the children realised how strong gymnasts have to be!

We enjoyed finding related facts in Maths using our fact family and place value knowledge. We especially enjoyed hunting for mistakes and correcting them. 

Year 4 took a walk around the school grounds to explore the different flora, fauna and funghi that could be found. Even though it was the middle of winter, the children still found some interesting things!

We enjoyed a visit from The Dog's Trust who taught us ways to stay safe around unfamiliar dogs. We learned that there is no such thing as a safe or dangerous breed of dog but that each dog is individual and should be treated carefully. 

Autumn Term

We've been learning about stop motion animation - see our erupting volcanoes on our PurpleMash notice board. 

We have enjoyed making and shopping at mini-enterprise!

In Science, we learned about how particles behave in different states of matter by acting out their actions. Can you spot solid, liquid and gas? 

We'e enjoyed visits from Life Education and Road Safety.

We've inspected our teeth as part of our Science topic - we can now identify incisors, molars and canines. Budding dentists!

We've been enjoying lots of time doing outdoor learning.

In English, we have been learning about oral story telling and using our historical knowledge to retell the myth of Romulus and Remus, the founding of Rome. We used green screen technology and puppets to retell the story. Here is the film. 

Summer Term

Below you can access this term's Knowledge Organisers which show you what we will be learning about.

Summer Term Celebration Assembly

Well it really has been a unique year. Year 4/5 have been an absolute pleasure this year and we have thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. We have achieved so much in the time we have had together and below you can see just a small snippet of what we have been learning in the last part of the summer term. We wish each of the children luck in the next steps on their journey and hope you all have a well-earned and deserved break over the summer.

From, 

Mrs Davies, Mrs Murphy and Mrs Taylor

Sports Day

The children in Year 4/5 enjoyed Sports Day showing skills of fairness and competitiveness as well as encouraging each other and cheering everyone on.

Forest School

The children in Year 4/5 enjoyed a day of Forest School with Mrs Davies where they played familiar and new games; prepared an Anglo-Saxon stew on the campfire and had to construct a shelter which was tested for how waterproof it was. They learned skills of teamwork, mutual respect and democracy.

Music

The children in Year 4/5 have been busy composing music. They were inspired by dance music to create these beats. 

Persuasive Letter Writing

We are beginning to look at persuasive letter writing and have been 'finding the shape' of an example letter.  Some of the features include 'hard hitting statistics' and 'growing evidence'. 

NSPCC Number Day 2021

For Number Day this year, we wore our own number themed clothes and took part in a range of number themed activities including tasks outdoors, looking for patterns and numbers in nature. All this was to raise money for the NSPCC and to help foster a love of numbers!

Spring Term

Multicultural Week

During multicultural week Year 4/5 learned all about Japan. Have a look at the video below to see what we learned and some of the activities we did. 

Wear you Scarf to School Day

We wore our scarves to school, or at home, during mental health week to celebrate our differences and individualities.

Please find below this term's Knowledge Organisers.

Celebration Assembly

Autumn 2

Celebration Assembly

Wow! What a brilliant return to school for the children in Year 4/5. The children have been exceptional in their behaviour and learning. They have tackled every new challenge with resilience and consideration. They have adapted to new school and class routines, working hard to keep one another safe in these challenging times. I could not be more proud.

Have a look at the video below which shows just some of the things we have done this term.

We have been lucky enough to have sessions in the first part of the Autumn term run by Premier Sports. We worked on our basic skills and played a closely fought game of cricket.

In Forest Schools this term we have built shelters, made frames using a range of knots and worked together on a range of tasks developing our listening and teamwork skills. 

This term our topic is The Romans. In English we will be writing recounts and historical narrative based on Jeremy Strong's Romans on the Rampage. We will be finding out about how the Roman Empire spread throughout Europe and will then investigate some of those European countries which were once Roman to see what they are like today. We will also find out about the Romans in Britain and Boudica's revolt.

As well as this, in Science, we will be learning about Earth and Space where we will find out about the planets, phases of the moon and discover why we have day and night. 

Any useful links can be found at www.wibki.com/MrsD.

Below you can find this term's knowledge organisers which show what the children will be learning about in each subject.

Year 4/5 Church Service

We are saddened we are unable to lead services in church at the moment. Despite this, the children have still been leading collective worship with the video below being shared across school with the other children and adults. This week the children in Year 4/5 have been thinking about leadership and what it takes to be a good leader. We thought about the life of Joshua from the bible and the skills he used to be a good leader.  

2019-2020

Useful Information

All websites used in school to support children's learning can be viewed at http://www.wibki.com/mrsm 

On there, there are also links to the main homework sites and websites that can support your child's learning at home. Please do make use of them! 

Spring Term

In History, English and Computing, we've worked on a class blog called Horrible Histories - Weird Wigan. You will be able to see our posts and comments below. The children can access the blog by logging into Purple Mash. They are encouraged to research a new article about the history of Wigan and add it to the blog!

In English, we're writing ghost stories set in Haigh Hall and incorporating the legend of Lady Mabel. We have been drawing story maps and making word banks to use in our finished ghost story.  We've been saving them on SeeSaw - you can use our QR codes to see our work!

We have been very busy learning about Wigan's local history. We've learned about the Roman settlement of Coccium and the discovery of a bathhouse when the Grand Arcade was being built. We've also learned about the King's Charter, the battle of Wigan Lane and we're currently researching the Industrial Revolution and it's impact on Wigan. Come back soon to see our PowerPoints based on our research! 

In Music, we are learning how to play the glockenspiel. So far, we can recognise the notes C, D, E and F and use these in a combination of crotchets, minims and quavers to play a short melody.