Welcome back after another busy week in Year 4.  Would you like to know just how busy? Well, let us tell you.

In English this week, we have been enjoying Voices in the Park, a book by Anthony Browne. He has written a lot of children's picture books that uses gorillas as characters.  This particular book is basically a story of a lonely, bored young boy and a friendly, confident girl who meet in the park and become friends.  There are 4 characters in all in this story and we have focused on 2 of the 4 characters this week (the other 2 characters we will find out about next week). We met Charles first and looked for clues on each page for information about him that were inferred. We then created a character profile from what we had discovered. We then went on to meet Smudge and create a character profile of her.  Then we got really clever and compared both characters to find similarities and differences. We even compared ourselves to them and decided whether we were most like Charles or Smudge.

All the characters tell the same story, of their visit to the park but from their own viewpoint.  

Take a look below at Charles and Smudge's accounts of that day at the park.

Despite there not being a huge amount of writing on each page we still manage to learn a lot about these 2 characters.

Now take a look at these `Catchphrase' images, can you remember what reading skill were developing?

 We were `inferring' which is  `reading between the lines' or looking for clues to give us more information about what we had read.  It took a bit more thinking about as we were using what is suggested, rather than what is actually said in the text.  So we decided that Smudge is a really friendly and confident person whilst Charles is posh, shy, lonely and doesn't have many friends. But as you will find out in the book, he did have a skill. He was really good at...climbing trees! He was so good in fact that he showed Smudge how to do it. Go Charles!

In Maths this week, we have been looking at angles, and triangles.  We have been identifying the 3 different types of angles. Do you know what they are?

There are Acute angles (no they are not small and fluffy and make you go 'Aww') It is in fact an angle that measures less than 90 degrees, a right angle - which is an angle of exactly 90 degrees, and an Obtuse angle - which is an angle that measures more than 90 degrees.  Our teachers also told us  (shhhhhh)....ready?...an angle over 180 degrees (over two right angles is called a reflex, but this isn't in the Year 4 curriculum -so, shhhh, keep it under your hat!)

We also made our own 'right angle testers' to help us to recognise right angles all around us.  

We followed this up by looking at the different types of triangles.  Did you know there are 3 types?  The first one is an Equilateral triangles - this is where all sides and angles measure the same. The second one is known as an Isosceles - this is where two sides and angles measure the same.  Finally, the third type of triangle is called a Scalene triangle where none of the sides or angles measure the same.  

Check out this really cool programme to see if you can tell your equilateral from your isosceles.

Other exciting news we just have to share!

Some of the children from Year 4 will be taking part in Wigan's Kermesse Celerations in a few weeks time.  This is a French celebration that Wigan celebrates due to our twinning with Angers.  For our part in the celebrations we will be singing to guitar...if Mr P doesn't moan too much about his sore hand...awwww...and if he can find the extra chord in the song which he says he can hear but can't find.  Is that just us or does that sound like an excuse??

Anyway, take a look, and be impressed by the song we are learning below.

Finally, have your say.  Each week you will have a chance to decide on which new song we will learn in next week's whole school assembly.  Click on the link below to take part in an online vote. (Note -this is carried from last week's choices.)