Basquiat Year 4
Welcome to Team Basquiat 2023-2024!
Welcome to Team Basquiat. We are super excited to learn and grow together as a team. We strive to do our best and offer these words of encouragement to each other...
Important information:
PE day for Years 4 in Basquiat Class for Autumn Term 1 is Monday and Tuesday.
Mondays is swimming. Children should come to school in their school uniform and bring their swimming kit (see below for more information regarding this).
Tuesday is PE. Please ensure that you send your child into school wearing their kit (named) for next week.
The children are settling back into school.
Please read through the Parent Meet the Teacher ppt
Here is some key information for you:
Key Information:
- Children are expected to bring in their reading books and Reading Records every day.
- Children are expected to read for at least 15-20 minutes every day at home. They should record every time they read with a comment and date. Parents, please comment and sign the Reading Record once a week.
- Reading books can be changed once children have read them.
- It is the expectation at Longlands that children complete a reading quiz on Accelerated Reader every time they finish a book: AR Quizzes: https://ukhosted57.renlearn.co.uk/6708488/default.aspx
- Swimming for Year 4s is on Mondays. Children need to come to school dressed in their uniform along with a swimming costume, goggles (if required) and a towel.
- Homework (English, Maths, Spellings, Times Table) will go out on a Friday. English and Maths is due back on the following Wednesday . Homework will be uploaded onto Google Classroom and should be completed in the Homework Books.
- Spelling and times tables test will be on Fridays.
- Spelling practise- spellings are on Ed Shed (logins provided) https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb/
- Times Tables Rock Stars (https://play.ttrockstars.com/) should be used to practise for Times Tables tests. Children in Year 4 are expected to learn Times Tables up to x12, and they will be tested randomly on all Tables each week.
- PE day will change each term.
RE-Christianity. Children tasted bread to give thanks to special people in their lives whilst learning about how Christians celebrate Holy Commonion.
The Great Kapok Tree
In English, we have explored rainforests, talking about the different layers of the forest, and the animals and plants that are likely to be found there. The children have thought carefully about descriptive language, and using their knowledge of rainforests, they created wonderful information leaflets about the rainforest. They have also explored the language used by poet Grace Nicols in her poem For Forest, which focuses on the problem of deforestation and they went on to create their own descriptive poetry.
Our History this term has been focused around the Ancient Maya, a civilization of people from over two thousand years ago. The children have been very excited as they have learnt about their lives, how they lived and their customs and rituals. As part of our learning, we had a Maya workshop this week, where the children had a wonderful time learning more about what they looked like, how they hunted, how they worshipped their gods and more about their customs and rituals.
We have linked our PE (dance) with the Maya by learning different dance moves and putting them together into a sequence, and also learning a song in Music, which tells the story of the Maya.
We further linked music and dance together. The children sang, played instruments and dance to their song 'The Maya.' They has such fun doing this.
The children have also been working hard, thinking about layering fabrics, patterns and shapes to create their own rainforest in a box.
Ancient Maya Workshop
Kahlo, Basquiat and Thomas class took part in a fabulous Maya workshop last week!
The children looked the part in their colourful headdresses and outfits!
They played different games, which linked to Maya living and routines. Alongside this, the children were able to use their prior knowledge when asked about the traditional rituals for the Gods!
Science
We have been having lots of fun in our science lessons! Check it out! We are learning about solids, liquids and gases and called this topic 'Oh what a state!' As part of our lesson we had fun investigating different items to find out which category the belong to...you could say we got a little bit messy! 
It was super fun to explore and we made some great discoveries...take a look
English
We are having so much fun! Pugs of the Frozen North is fantastic! We have been getting to know the character Shen and how much he cares for his 66 pugs! Yes 66 pugs!
Have a look at some of our drama lessons, we created tableuxs to show our understanding of the events in the book.
Andy Goldsworthy Inspired Land Art
As part of our work on this half term's Power of Reading book 'Mouse Bird Snake Wolf', we have been exploring the work of British sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy. The children had the chance to walk around a 'gallery' of his work, observing his themes and techniques, before designing and creating their very own land art at Forrest School. Take a look at our nature-inspired sculptures!
World Book Day!
