Archive - Year 4 2025/6
July 2026
Year 4 have been exploring sculpture in Art through an exciting project inspired by natural objects. The children began by carefully observing and drawing a range of natural forms from real life and photographs, developing their observational drawing skills. They then used their ideas to design a unique 3D sculpture before creating a maquette (a small practice model) using Play-Doh to test and refine their designs. Finally, the children explored and experimented with a variety of clay techniques, including shaping, joining, and adding texture, before using these new skills to create their finished clay sculptures. We are very proud of their creativity, perseverance, and the beautiful artwork they produced.
May 2026
This half term in Year 4, we have been learning about how to pray the Rosary, especially focusing on the Glorious Mysteries. We explored the meaning of each mystery: the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Coronation of Our Lady.
As part of our learning, we looked at both classical and modern artwork that represented these special events. Inspired by what we had seen, we created our own pieces of art to show our understanding of the mysteries.
We also enjoyed making our own rosaries using beads. We carefully arranged the beads into decades for the Hail Mary prayers and selected single beads for the Glory Be and Our Father prayers. This helped us understand the structure and importance of the Rosary in a creative and meaningful way.
In Science, we have been learning about Electricity. We explored different electrical appliances and discussed the importance of electrical safety. We followed diagrams to build working circuits and then used our knowledge to draw our own circuit diagrams using the correct scientific symbols. We enjoyed investigating how circuits work and developing our understanding through practical activities.
March 2026
Year 4 recently took part in a Viking workshop, where they spent the day exploring what life was like during the Viking era. The children learned about village life and how people lived day to day, gaining a better understanding of homes, jobs, and routines.
They had the chance to try on Viking clothing, which helped bring the experience to life, and also worked hard grinding flour to make bread, just as Vikings would have done. The workshop included handling and examining real artefacts, which gave the children a more hands-on connection to history.
One of the more interesting parts of the day was learning about a Viking burial and what it tells us about beliefs and traditions at the time.
The children clearly enjoyed themselves, particularly when they were introduced to some Viking weapon techniques and had the opportunity to re-enact a battle! It was an engaging and memorable day that helped deepen their understanding of the topic.
February 2026
This half term in Year 4, we have been immersing ourselves in the world of Still Life in Art. The children have explored the work of both contemporary and classic artists, carefully observing and discussing the differences in colour, style, form, tone and expression. It has been wonderful to see them developing their artistic vocabulary and confidence when talking about art.
Using these artists as inspiration, the children created their own close observational drawings of natural objects. They then moved on to composing a full still life arrangement featuring pots, vases, flowers, plants and fruit. During these sessions, we placed a strong focus on careful observation, paying particular attention to shade and tone using sketching pencils to create depth and form.
In the following lesson, the children selected a section of their still life drawing to ‘zoom in’ on. This allowed them to concentrate on finer details and composition, using oil pastels to produce a bold and focused final piece. The vibrant results beautifully captured texture, colour and contrast.
We have also explored mark-making using charcoal sticks, experimenting with different techniques and surfaces to create a range of effects. The children thoroughly enjoyed discovering how charcoal can be smudged, layered and blended to enhance light and shadow.
In our final session of this unit, we will bring together all of these techniques to create strong and expressive still life images using charcoal. We are impressed by the creativity, focus and artistic growth the children have shown throughout this topic.
During Children's Mental Health week we have also used art for wellbeing and mindfulness; we created a piece of collaborative art entitled 'My Happy Place' after making collage maps and writing about places, people and objects that make us feel happy.
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December 2025
Year 4 had a fantastic trip to the Museum of Power this half term, linking perfectly our science and geography learning on the Water Cycle. The children explored water through exciting hands-on experiments, including making and testing their own water filters and creating water wheels, which they loved testing with water guns! They discovered important facts about how we use water and ways we can save it, before heading into the impressive engine hall to activate and observe the original pistons that once supplied Maldon with water. A visit to the magical Fairy Garden, 'Astaria' was a real highlight, then we enjoyed clever magic tricks, science experiments and investigations into energy, even seeing a 3D printer in action, with the resident magician. It was a brilliant day – the children were super engaged, their behaviour was commendable, and we all learned a lot!
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October 2025
R.E. Exploring Creation Through Art
This term in RE, one of our focuses has been the story of Creation as described in the Book of Genesis. We read the Bible story where God created the world in seven days, and we spent time reflecting on the beauty and wonder of the natural world.
To help bring the story to life, we explored the work of both classical and contemporary artists. We looked closely at Creation artwork by Michelangelo, Bill Bell, and Australian indigenous paintings and compared their styles.
On St Francis feast day we read ‘The Canticle of the Creatures’, a prayer written by St Francis worshipping God for all the wonders of his creation.
Inspired by these artists and St Francis’ prayer, we created our own watercolour paintings to show what the story of Creation means to us. Everyone chose different parts of the Creation story to represent — from the separation of light and dark, to the creation of animals, plants, and people. The children’s thoughtful and expressive pieces show both creativity and understanding.
Well done to all for their hard work and thoughtful reflections. We are proud of the way they have engaged with this topic both spiritually and artistically.
Anglo-Saxons
As part of our history topic this half term, we’ve been learning all about the Anglo-Saxons — who they were, how they lived, and what their culture was like.
We looked at real examples of Anglo-Saxon coins discovered by archaeologists, especially those found at Sutton Hoo, the famous Anglo-Saxon burial site in Suffolk.
The children were amazed by the detail and craftsmanship of the ancient artefacts. Inspired by what we saw, we designed our own Anglo-Saxon-style coins. First, the children carefully sketched their designs, thinking about the symbols, faces, and patterns that might have appeared on coins long ago. Then, using string relief technique, they created a raised design before covering their coins with silver foil or bronze craft paper to give them a realistic metallic
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The results were brilliant! Here are some photos of our work in progress and the finished artefacts - we think you’ll agree they look like real treasures!