Year 4 look at the different sizes and shapes of leaves

After our wonderful visit to Kew Gardens last week, the children have been very busy this week concentrating on ‘leaves’. They were encouraged to look out for different shapes and sizes whilst walking through the gardens and they certainly came up trumps!

This week in English, we are looking at information texts and how information is presented. Having visited the Palm House, they have been able to write explanatory and carefully presented texts answering the question, ‘How have leaves adapted to help plants survive in the rainforest?’

In science, the children have also been able to consider questions about the leaves so they can arrange them into a classification key and so enable identification.

Lastly, Mrs Helliwell’s maths group looked at a selection of leaves and had to work out ‘Which is the largest leaf?’ They enjoyed measuring the length and width of their leaf and seeing if this gave them any clues; they then considered the areas of each leaf by drawing around them and counting the squares within the edges. Rafe’s and Charlie’s leaves gave them plenty to think about as they were both large but completely different shapes! Although Charlie’s leaf was very long it was also very thin and this made all the difference – Rafe had the largest leaf!

Next week it would be interesting to find out together which products from the rainforest you have in your kitchen cupboards.

Year 4 also had a senior assembly this week which talked about ‘Change’

‘Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.’ George Bernard Shaw

‘Change’ was the focus for the senior assembly this week. The weekend had brought a dramatic change to the weather. No matter how much we yearn for the sun and warmth, autumn has arrived and we have to accept it! Many of us, not just the children, find it difficult to adapt to new situations or to change our minds and our attitudes. We are not always ready to listen to others or to see the positives that change can bring. We may be fearful of the unknown. Learning to accept advice from people who really care about us helps us to acknowledge that it is through change that we can all move forward and make progress.

The children listened to the poem, ‘You’re Right,’ said Grandad by Joan Poulson which describes how a grandad is cajoled by his grandson into accepting that his life will be much better when he moves out of his second floor flat into a bungalow. The children gave answers showing great insight and empathy to his feelings. They thought that they would have tried to persuade him that change would be good for him if they had been the grandchild. They thought about changes that they have been asked to make by their teachers and like the grandad in the poem they are going to try and ‘laugh’ and say ‘you’re right!’

Mrs La Farge explained the changes to the registration procedure whilst Mr Bridges gave the ‘Walk to School’ statistics which showed that more than 50 per cent of children across the school had taken part. He asked the children to continue this change and walk to school every morning as it would be beneficial to their health, their learning and the environment.