Happy Snow Day Year 4!

We are really sad that we won't be seeing you today, but are sure you are going to have lots of fun in the snow! For your home learning today we would like you make sure that you have completed all of your Doodle assignments (Maths, English, Spellings and Times Tables) and ensure that you are green across all areas.

We would also like you to snuggle down in the warm with a good book (hot chocolate optional!)

After you have done this, enjoy some time in the snow. We would love it if you could try to build a snow pyramid or sphinx! Send us your pictures at advice@mapledeneschool.com. House Points will be awarded for the best ones.

Have a lovely day. We look forward to seeing all of your smiley faces on Monday.

Take care,

Love Miss F, Miss S and Mrs L

Useful web addresses

Times Tables

https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/

Scratch

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted

Coding

 https://studio.code.org/sections/STLVFH

Extension

 https://studio.code.org/sections/QTZJHN

As a finale to our extreme Earth topic, we designed and made pizzas from scratch. Kneading dough to make our bases, we added toppings to represent the theme of Earth wind and fire. Miss Smith and Mr Mac fired the products in the oven and after lunch we sampled our finished pizzas. They were delicious and everyone managed to make a scrumptious delight show our school values of cooperation and resilience. Maybe the mums and dads will get treated to some home made pizzas now that we are all experts.

To begin Science Week, we went on a plant hunt in Sheldon Country Park and found... very few plants! Surprisingly, the buttercups, dandelions and daisies have all seemingly decided that it is too early to come out...yet. However, we did come up with some very interesting scientific observations including: 'Different plants grow in different places', 'Clover grows everywhere', 'Green plants grow more easily than flowers' and 'It's tiring walking to Sheldon Country Park'.

To find out how the Egyptians mummified their pharaohs, we carried out our own mummifications...but using tomatoes instead of people. The last tomatoes in the blue bowl were the ones we didn't mummify and as you can see, they are not very well preserved. The children have learnt how natron salt dried out the body and helped to preserve it ready for the afterlife.. although it didn't look exactly the same as it did before the process began. I think we decided that we would rather not be mummified!

Have you ever wondered how we digest our food? Well ask year 4 because they have investigated how to eat a banana, a biscuit and some orange juice by creating their own digestive systems. The results were quite disgusting but the children all had a thoroughly yucky time.

Friday 16th July 2021

Good morning, Year 4. Today is our final day of home learning. On Monday, we can return to school for our last few days together. Remember to bring your PE kit on Monday, as we will be doing our Year 4 Sports Day.

Well done to the children that have made it into the green zone on Doodle. Children in the green zone will be receiving merits when we are back at school!

Here’s our timetable for today:

Maths

Our final challenge in maths this week is to complete the decimal pyramids (PDF below). You may or may not have seen one of these before. The way these pyramids work is that the two bricks below must add together to equal the brick on the top. Here's a practise to help you understand:

So, if you look at the pyramid on the left, you will see that the very bottom row has the numbers 5, 2, 6 and 3. Now the 5 and the 2 are sitting below the 7. The block on top of them equals 7 because that is the total of the two bricks below it (5 + 2). Can you work out what the next block would be? It is sitting on top of the 2 and the 6... so it would be 8. And so on.

We don't just need to use addition to solve these pyramids. Sometimes we need to use subtraction, as that is the inverse. We use this when we know the total (the number in the top brick) and we know one of the parts (underneath it) but not the other. In fact, we could work out the final missing block on the second row of the pyramid in two different ways.

1 - we could add the two bottom bricks (6 + 3) to make 9.

2 - we could take the total (which is 17) and subtract 8 (one of the bricks below it) to also find the answer 9.

To get the hang of it, finish solving the two practise pyramids above, and then when you are confident, have a go at solving the decimal pyramids, using both addition and subtraction. There are 3 levels of questions, from 1 star to 3. Complete the level that you feel most comfortable at.

English

In English today, we are going to be writing up our adverts! You should, by now, have a first draft of your villa/domus advertisement and it should have been edited and improved. Today, you can present the information beautifully, however you like.

Below you can find several leaflet templates or a blank writing frame, which you could print off and use. Alternatively, design your own advert or leaflet onto paper. Remember to be creative and add pictures and colour to attract your reader's attention and illustrate the house you are selling. I've seen some very good drafts so far this week, and I am excited now to see your finished pieces of writing. Good luck!

PE

Again, today for PE I would like you to choose a form of exercise to keep you busy and to keep your body fit and healthy. If you are struggling for ideas, why not try this speed bounce challenge and see how many you can do?

Library

Last week, we chose our final library books for Year 4. During this time today, please sit and enjoy your library book (or another one if you have something else you are reading at home). When you are finished, go and put the book straight into your bookbag/backpack. I will be collecting library books in from Monday and you must bring this back before the summer holidays. You will be able to choose a new one next year.

Art

Finally, I'd like you to create some Roman-themed artwork as a nice finish to a week of homeschooling - and our last art lesson of Year 4! Depending on what resources you have available at home, you can choose to make or build something, draw a picture of something Roman, design and create your own mosaic using coloured squares of paper, or even do some painting. Share your fantastic creations with me at advice@mapledeneschool.com. 

You can also watch the Celebration Assembly (on Mapledene's YouTube) with your family.

Well done on getting through a tricky week! Hope that you and your families all have a super weekend. See you on Monday!

Thursday 15th July 2021

Good morning, Year 4, and happy Thursday! Remember, there will be merits awarded on Friday for children that are in the green, so keep Doodling!

Here’s our timetable for today:

Maths

You've done an excellent job of the maths so far this week, and I can see from the work that has been sent in and completed on Doodle that you are becoming very confident with using decimals.

We're going to use our addition and subtraction skills today, working with decimal numbers. This is a really helpful skill, particularly for when you go shopping! For example, you might need to buy two items that cost £3.42 and £6.81. You'd need to calculate the total cost by adding each place value column, including those that come after the decimal point.

Here is a link to a video and some questions to help you get started with adding decimal numbers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z3xx8hv

You may also want to draw out a place value chart like this:

When you feel confident enough to get started, try answering some of the questions below.

On each PDF, you will find 3 sets of questions. You only need to complete two sets of questions: Addition A, B or C and Subtraction A, B or C. You do not have to do every single one, unless you want to! Each set is more challenging than the one before it - so C is the most tricky of them all.

Need an extra challenge?

Can you challenge yourself to estimate the answer before you calculate it. You can do this by using your rounding skills, just like we have practised in class.

For example:

Sum: 4.86 + 2.6 

Estimate: This could round to 5 and 3. The total will be just under 8.

Answer: 4.86 + 2.6 = 7.46.

How close to the correct answer can you get when you estimate?

There is a new 'Added Extra' on your DoodleMaths for you to complete too.

Guided Reading

In Guided Reading today, we are going to do a 60-second read about the colosseum! Use your reading skills to read through the text a couple of times and then answer the questions on the right hand side of the page. This does not need to be printed out, and you can answer straight onto a piece of paper if that is easier.

English

Over the past two days, you should have started your first draft of an advertisement for a Roman villa or domus. Today, we are going to be editing these, so that they are the best that they can be before we write them up. The ones that have been sent to me so far are looking great - keep up your hard work!

Start by watching this video about how to edit your work:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmp84xs

After watching the video and completing the activities on the BBC Bitesize website, try editing your opening paragraph and the 3-4 features you wrote about yesterday. When editing, remember to look out for the following things:

• does each sentence make sense?
• does each sentence start with a capital letter and finish with a full stop?
• have I included expanded noun phrases? (e.g. the spacious courtyard with magnificent views)
• have I included fronted adverbials? (e.g. Inside the villa..., On the walls..., In addition...,)
• ​​​​​​​have I made it sound amazing by using superlatives and amazing adjectives?

Tomorrow we will write this up in best, and merits will definitely be awarded for excellent work, so please make sure you do a good job of editing your writing today.

PE

Next, it's time for PE. We would normally do cricket in this lesson. Don't worry if this is something you were really looking forward to doing - we will have a cricket match at some point next week before we break up for the summer holidays! Today, you can do any type of exercise you like to keep your mind and body active. You could try a workout on YouTube, do some dancing in your room, or get outside and kick a football around if you have a back garden.

Above all, prepare yourself for an awesome cricket match when we are all back together in school! And, if you need a bit of cheering up, enjoy this picture of a cricket playing cricket!

ICT

And last up, it's time for some ICT. We have been working really hard this half term on our animations. If you wish, you can download the Stop Motion Studio app (I know some of you have already done this) and you can make an animation of your own. If you do not have access to this app, or can't download it, then I'd like you to make an animation on Scratch. Follow this link to get straight onto the Scratch website:

https://scratch.mit.edu/ideas

Well done for successfully completing another day of home learning. We only have one day to go and then will be back together in school on Monday! Please email me at advice@mapledeneschool.com to share some of your fantastic work - you may even earn a merit or two!

Wednesday 14th July 2021

Good morning, Year 4. Two days of homeschooling down, three to go! A great big well done to all of the children that have already been busy learning at home, and to the parents too for helping them. I've loved seeing some of your work on advice@mapledeneschool.com, and it's great to see that lots of children are already in the 'green zones' on Doodle this week too. There will be merits awarded on Friday for children that are in the green, so keep Doodling!

Here’s our timetable for today:

Maths

Time for some maths first! Start by practising your times tables, just like we do at school. You do not need to print this off - just write your answers down. I bet you can impress your family with how speedy you are.

And now it's time for some more decimal work. Today you are going to need to use the 'greater than' and 'less than' signs. They look like this:

You're going to use these today to help you compare different decimals.

So, for example if you were to compare 5.6 and 5.8, you need to use your knowledge of place value to work out which symbol to use.

We know that 5.6 would be the same as 5 ones and 6/10. On the other hand, 5.8 is 5 ones and 8/10. Even though both numbers have '5' in the ones column, 5.8 is 2/10 bigger than 5.6. So, we would write that as: 5.6 < 5.8.

Some of the questions are trickier and involve comparing numbers that have both tenths and hundredths, so I would use a place value chart to help you, like this one:

Alternatively, you could draw out and use a number line to help you.

​​​​​​​Please choose either 1, 2 or 3 stars.

Guided Reading

Yesterday, you should have read the text 'Romulus and Remus', which is a Roman myth. If you missed it, scroll down to Tuesday's work and make sure you catch up.

Today, we will be using the text to answer the following questions. As always, you can write your answers onto paper and there is no expectation for you to print this out.

English

Yesterday, we started looking at persuasive writing. You should have drafted an introductory paragraph to sell your chosen villa or domus.

Today, I'd like you to move on to writing the bulk of your advert. This should include several paragraphs about the key rooms or features that your Roman house has. We did some work in preparation for this last week (although unfortunately the sheets are in school at the moment). You might remember, we stuck a picture in the centre of an A3 page and filled it with expanded noun phrases to describe each part of the house. Choose 3-4 parts of the house and write a glowing paragraph about each part.

I will be looking for:

• fronted adverbials
• expanded noun phrases
• superlatives (e.g. the best, the most incredible, the tallest etc.)
• imperative (bossy) verbs (e.g. enjoy, watch, marvel at)
• key facts about the room/part of the house

For example:

The grand entrance

Upon entering this magnificent villa, you will find yourself in the grand entrance. This room is both stylish and elegant, filled with expensive artwork and the very best Roman architecture that money can buy. Take in the outstanding views as you walk across the mosaic tiles. Enjoy the underfloor heating, pumped through the villa by none other than your very own central heating system.

Science

Today we are going to be looking at what makes a healthy diet. Then we are going to look at how the Romans ate too, and compare our diets.

Begin by looking through this PowerPoint and discussing (if possible) all of the different types of foods within the food pyramid with somebody in your house. This pyramid gives us a rough idea about how much (or how little) of each type of food we should be consuming.

Once you have been through the information, here is your next task:

Look at the PDF below to find out what kinds of food the Romans ate. Then design a 3-course meal fit for a Roman banquet. You can write this up onto the template below, or design your own onto plain paper.

Following the activity, here are some things to think about:

• how is the Roman diet similar to yours?
• how is it different?
• who do you think has a healthier diet?
• did all Romans eat the same kinds of foods?

Well done for another day of home learning! Please send your work to advice@mapledeneschool.com.

Tuesday 13th July 2021

Good morning, Year 4. Hope you are all feeling okay this morning and are feeling ready for a day of home learning. Here’s our timetable for today:

Maths

This week, we will recap our recent learning on fractions and decimals. Over the past few maths lessons, you should remember hearing this word a lot:

equivalent

This word means that two things have the same value. They are equal.

We know that two fractions might look different but have the same value. We understand that eating 1/2 of a pizza is the same as eating 2/4 of a pizza or even 4/8 of a pizza (except maybe a little more difficult and messy, because a eating half of a pizza would be one HUGE slice).

Towards the end of last week, we started looking at how fractions and decimals can also show the same amount. When we played rounders, we scored 7 and a half rounders. That is the same as saying we scored 7.5 rounders. Today we are going to practise converting between fractions and decimals.

You will need to use your knowledge of the two place value columns to the right of the decimal point:

Start today by watching this BBC Bitesize video about tenths and hundredths:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zsjqtfr/articles/zsbd7p3

Once you have watched the video, please scroll down and complete the online activities on the BBC website to check your understanding of place value in the tenths and hundredths columns.

Then, your task today is to work through the following questions, converting between the fraction and decimals on the following PDF. There are three sets of questions, from 1 star all the way up to 3 stars. I would like you to do either:

• both the 1 and 2 star sheets (tenths and hundredths)

or

• the 3 star sheet (ones, tenths and hundredths - if you are feeling super confident)

Be careful that you select the correct pages if you decide to print these out. You do not have to print these off, and can simply write your answers onto paper if that is easier.

To help you, I have also uploaded the sheet that we have been using in school to represent a fraction or a decimal in different ways. I recommend you use this sheet to help you draw out each fraction or decimal, find it on the number line, and put the values into the correct place value column.

If you have not already done so, please go onto Doodle and complete your Added Extras for extra practise in converting between fractions and decimals.

Guided Reading

Next up, it’s Guided Reading. We will start, as we always do, by learning 6 new words to expand our vocabulary and that will help us to understand the text a little better. As I am not there to guide you as I would do in school, I would like you to do the following:

First, think about what each word could mean. Check if there is a root word that you recognise that might help you to understand what it means.

Then, read the word in context. Does the sentence below it help you to make sense of the word?

Last, look up the real meaning of the word using Google, a dictionary or by asking somebody at home to help you. Well done if you had guessed correctly.

New words

1) protected

We protected him from his enemy.

2) shepherd

The shepherd sat next to his flock of sheep.

3) recognise

She said that we had met before but I did not recognise her.

4) disagreed

The class disagreed on whether Mr Mac had scored a rounder or not.

5) vultures

Vultures have wide, strong wings.

6) taunted

Unkind children always taunted the young boy in the playground.

Now that you are familiar with these new words, please read through the text below. Use a lollypop stick, a pencil or your finger to make sure you don’t miss out any words (or add any little words that aren’t really there at all)!

The text is based on a Roman myth about twin boys named Romulus and Remus, who built the city of Rome. Tomorrow we will answer questions based on this text.

English

As you may remember, we are going to become estate agents in English this week. Last week, we started learning about Roman houses, particularly those for rich and wealthy citizens.

We learned about the Roman villas:

And the Roman domus:

Here is a PowerPoint to refresh your memory if you cannot remember much about these types of houses.

You should also take a look at the following website to find out more about houses in Roman Britain:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqtf34j/articles/ztqg4wx

Now, this week we are going to be thinking about each of the features that these houses have, and planning out a first draft of an advert to sell them. We call this kind of writing persuasive writing. When we write persuasively, we are trying to convince the reader to agree with us or do something that we would like them to do. In this case, to buy a house! For more information about the features of persuasive writing, please watch the video on the BBC Bitesize website and read the information below it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsvjkty

Now I’d like you to create a cracking opening paragraph to hook your reader’s attention and try and get them to read on - and potentially buy your property!

For example,

Are you looking for a grand and opulent home in the tranquil, idyllic countryside? Does a quiet and secluded villa that has been decorated to the highest standards with magnificent mosaics and spectacular sculptures sound like what you are after? Then look no further. This fantastic, one-of-a-kind villa has been designed and built especially for you.

Don't worry about getting any further than this today - we will continue with our advertising tomorrow. One good paragraph is enough.

History

Last up, it’s time for some history. We know that the Romans changed Britain after their successful invasion in 43AD. Can you remember some of the ways in which life changed?

You could have thought about:

• towns and roads
• toilets and baths
• language
• number
• food

But they also changed religion in Britain at the time too. Before the Romans came, many of the Celtic tribes were pagans. They believed in lots of different gods and spirits. The Romans were pagans too, but they didn't believe in the same gods as the Celts. They let them worship their own gods, as long as they were respectful of the Roman ones too.

You might have spotted some similarities between the Romans and the Ancient Egyptians, who we learned about during our last lot of home learning.

Here is a PowerPoint with more information about the Romans’ beliefs. Once you have finished looking through the PowerPoint, please choose one of the following activities:

1. Make a fact file about each of the Roman gods and goddesses.
2. Choose one god or goddess to research in more detail and create a poster or PowerPoint of your own to share what you have learnt.
3. Look at the second PDF document and then try to match up the statements with the correct god or goddess.

I hope that you have had a successful day of home learning. Please send any questions, concerns or completed work to me via advice@mapledeneschool.com. I can't wait to see what you've been up to.

Monday 12th July 2021

Hello Year 4!

If you're looking for this week's home learning, you're in the right place! This page will be updated for you tomorrow morning, and you will have a whole day of learning planned and set out for you. In the meantime, please log onto Doodle and complete your Daily Stars and Added Extras. I will be checking to see who has made it into the Green Zone in all four Doodle apps later today.

You can also check out 4S and 4M's Romanimation videos, which are linked just below.

Alongside your Doodling, please make sure that you spend some time today doing something to help you relax. It has been a very unusual Monday morning! Try to do some stretches or exercising, or spend some time this afternoon doing something calm and quiet, like reading or drawing. You'll feel much better afterwards! I'm very proud of every one in our class, and I am really looking forward to being back together next week.

Extreme Earth Pizzas

As a finale to our topic we designed made (and most importantly ate) some Earth inspired pizzas. The children made the dough, designed the toppings and measured all their ingredients. They were brilliant at the making, but much better at the eating, with many of the children deciding it was the best pizza ever. Food always tastes better when you’ve made it yourself from scratch. Below are some of the photos we took of the day. 
if you want to try making it yourself, we used:

200g of flour

150 ml of water (add slowly)

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of yeast

1tsp olive oil

Passata (tomato sauce)

Cheddar cheese. 
Toppings as required.