We’ve had a fantastic first term in Oak class. Our new year 4s have settled well, we have established our routines and good learning behaviours and thought about what is important to Team Oak.

Our term 1 topic has been ‘Extreme Earth’ so we have been learning all about what makes the earth angry, including earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados and hurricanes. We have learnt in our geography lessons all about the earth’s structure and tectonic plates. Did you know that most of the volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis in the world occur where tectonic plates meet? The most dangerous area of all is the ‘Ring of Fire’ in the Pacific Ocean.

In English, we started out our term with some fantastic ‘Magic Box’ poems, before moving on to setting descriptions, contrasting our language between a beautiful, calm, peaceful beach and a beach that has been hit by a tsunami. This links with our class novel, ‘Running Wild’ by Michael Morpurgo, which tells the story of a boy caught in the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia. We have then carried out our own research into natural disasters and worked in groups to create wonderful non-fiction reports.     

In maths, we have been working on our understanding of place value, partitioning, rounding and comparing numbers. We have learnt about Roman numerals, then moved on to addition and subtraction, thinking about the most efficient methods to use, perfecting our written calculations, and checking our answers using the inverse and estimation.     

Our science work has focused on our digestive system: we started out with our teeth, making some very realistic sets to show the difference between molars, incisors and canines. We also carried out an investigation into the best (and worst) drinks for our teeth. Unsurprisingly, water was the best, but we found out that acid is very harmful. Don’t worry – we used eggshells for our experiments, not real teeth! We then moved on to the rest of the digestive system and learnt what happens to our food when we eat it, from start to finish!

In RE, Oak have been having some big discussions about how religion helps people in difficult times. As well as looking at Christian beliefs, they also learnt about the Hindu belief in reincarnation. Following on from this, PSHE has been all about family relationships including thinking about how you can support someone if they have suffered a bereavement. Oak have come up with some very thoughtful responses to some tricky questions.

For PE this term, Oak have been enjoying attacking and defending in football, and most children in the class have been offered the opportunity to take part in a football tournament. We may not have won any trophies, but we are always proud of the teamwork and determination that our children show. We do a daily boost every day to keep us active and moving, including building up our stamina running the daily mile, and we’re enjoying our weekly swimming lessons in Melton.

 In art, Oak have been learning about how to express movement and emotions through line. They loved looking at the work of Charlie Mackesy, who wrote and illustrated the book, ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.’ In music they have been listening to and appraising songs with a happy theme and trying their hand at accompanying the song ‘Happy’ on the glockenspiel.

Wow – what a busy start to the year! Roll on term 2 and all the excitement that brings.