Year 4

Welcome to Year 4!

Mrs Brown

Summer is on its way – let’s hope that the sun has its hat on! We hope that the children have had a restful Easter break and are raring to go for their final term in Year 4.

I will try and cover as much as possible here, but if you still have any questions at all please do get in touch.

Summer Term Curriculum:

RE 

RE units for the Summer term will include Easter and Pentecost. The children will be introduced to accounts of the Resurrection appearances of Christ in the four Gospels. They will learn about the different reactions of people to the news that Christ was alive. In the Easter unit, the children will study the story of the Ascension and will learn about Christian belief in the presence of Christ in the world today.

We will also study some important stories about Moses and God’s relationship with the people of Israel. They will also learn about the life of King David. Children will be introduced to some images of God associated with these stories and also some important religious themes such as prayer and vocation which arise from this study.

We will also be taking part in liturgies and attending mass in church each week.

MATHS  In the summer term will continue our work on decimals, before moving on to money and time. Towards the end of the Summer Term, we will be having lots of fun with statistics and geometry (shapes, position and direction) . 

   We will continue to use different equipment and different representstions to strengthen and really deepen our understanding. 

We will also be having a focus on fluency and instant recall of our times tables and number bonds.  Throughout all of this we will be doing lots of talking about maths, learning and using mathematical vocabulary.

Please keep encouraging your child to practise times tables at home – if the children know their times tables securely it helps them with their wider maths learning.  Year 4 need to revise and secure all of their multiplication facts. The aim is for instant recall!  (Realistically, ‘instant’ means 6 seconds or less!!!)

Your child’s Times Table Rockstar login details have not changed.  The same login details can be used with the NumBots app too.   If you would like the tables available to your child adjusting, please just let me know. They can also access times tables on Purple Mash.

MINI MATHS We have introduced Mini Maths which is a daily maths practise. The children will be given five questions each day to complete. This will maintain their fluency and memory of previously taught units. If there are any questions about this, please ask.

ENGLISH We will be writing a narative applying our grammar skills; taking part in a debate where we will be discussing the morality of a key question and we will be writing a newspaper article about the beheading of Anne Boleyn.

READING RWI and one to one reading sessions will continue for those children who normally follow this programme.  The children have all made excellent progress with their reading skills but we will continue to develop our reading skills in Guided Reading sessions, increasing our fluency and developing our inference, prediction and summarising skills. 

SCIENCE will be exploring the wonderful world of sound. We will identify how sounds are made using vibrations. We will look at the pitch and frequency of different sounds.

In COMPUTING we will be exploring spreadsheets and branching databases. We will be inputting and calculating data.

We have been so impressed with the progress the class have made in FRENCH since September.  Our focus this term will be on revisiting and embedding the language we already know as well making sure that we have a sound understanding of the units that we have covered so far.

Our GEOGRAPHY for this term will be all about Rivers. We will learn all about the water cycle and identify different types of water bodies exploring if they are natural or man-made.

In HISTORY we are going to travel back in time to the Tudor period. We will develop our questioning and enquiry skills as we find out what life was like as a Tudor Royal. We will consolidate our knowledge of primary and secondary sources. We will identify the main religion of the 1500’s and explore why Henry Vlll divorced some of his wives. 

In ART we will be researching the art of Henry Moore and his fantastic sculptures. We will experiment with some of his techniques, look at some of the influences on his work and create our own clay model sculptures.

In DT we will be exploring electrical systems. We will investigate different types of levers and will use the circuit to make a torch to take on an expedition.

PE will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  This term; the children will be making the most of the summer weather and take part in games of rounders and then athletics.

PE kits must stay in school during term time, but will be sent home at half term to be washed. Please ensure girls have a pair of socks in their PE bags as they will not be allowed to wear tights during a PE lesson.

RHE  Relationship, health education work for this term will start with a unit of work on ‘Staying Safe’. Children will explore online safety, first aid and what to do in an emergency. Children will also look at the positive and negative impacts of drugs on the body.

Reminders:

• The school day starts at 8:40 a.m. and finishes at 3:30p.m.
• Reading should be logged in diaries each day when your child reads (30 minutes).  If it is a new book, please include the title of the book.  On each occasion, the pages read should be noted and signed by an adult.
• PE Kit

Indoor PE uniform: burgundy t-shirt with school badge, black shorts, white socks and black pumps.  Children must have black pumps for indoor PE as trainers may only be worn for outdoor PE.  If your child is wearing tights to school, please make sure they have socks to change into for PE.

Outdoor PE uniform: burgundy t-shirt with school badge, black shorts, white socks and trainers.  The burgundy hoodie and jogging bottoms are optional.

• Please ensure your child has the full, correct PE kit in school, even on days when we would not usually do PE, as occasionally timetables change.
• PE kits will stay in school during term time and will be sent home for washing at half term.
• ALL CLOTHING SHOULD BE CLEARLY LABELLED WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME.
• Children should bring water bottles each day; these should also be clearly labelled with your child’s name.  They will be sent home regularly to allow them to be washed.
• Please do not bring school bags in to school unless necessary.

Please do let us know if there is anything going on at home that will affect your child’s learning, or if you have any questions.  If you have any messages to pass on either catch us on the yard or pop a message onto Class Dojo.  Alternatively, you can telephone the school office who will pass a message on to us for you. 

Thank you for your continuing support. 

Mrs Brown