Parent notice:
PE lessons are Mondays and Thursdays from the week commencing 29th April, 2024.
Thank you for your support with the ongoing swimming lessons last term and this term. The children have found it enormously confidence-building and their physical strength and flexibility has really developed. I would encourage you to take your child swimming, or give them a series of swimming lessons - the local leisure centre offers lessons after school and at the weekends.
This term, your support in helping your child to learn their times-tables is really essential in helping them to know them off-by-heart. Reciting them over and over, and singing them at home really does help them to memorise the tables. The National Multiplication Test is in June. The children need to learn all 12 tables off-by-heart to get the full marks we are aiming to achieve!
Homework is set on Google Classroom, EdShed and Times Tables Rock Stars. The children have their login usernames and passwords in the cover of their reading journals.
Daily homework:
- Reading to an adult. The children have their books and Reading Journal in their bags which go to and from school every day. Reading for 10-15 minutes should be recorded by the parent or carer in the Journal.
Monday & Tuesday: Maths Shed, Read to an adult, practise new spellings
Wednesday: Maths Shed, read to an adult,
Thursday & Friday: Times Tables Rock Stars, read to an adult, learn the spellings for Monday's test
- Weekend tasks: Learning spellings for Tuesday's test in their homework book, practise their times-tables if they still don't know them off by heart, and read to an adult for 10-15 minutes a day discussing what they have read.
Guidance for accessing and using the homework websites:
It is vitally important that children continue to learn and practise their times tables all the way up to 12x12.
Children who can instantly recall their tables facts find multiplication, division and fractions much easier when compared to those who cannot, so it is an important skill to learn and have under their belts in Year 4. The curriculum in Year 5 and above assumes that children know their times tables, so those who have not put in the time and effort to learn them will find their work more challenging. We feel that parental support is essential in helping the children to learn them off by heart - so thank you for putting your time in to helping your child accomplish learning their times tables off by heart.
Times Table Rock Stars is a great tool to help, but the real test is to get children to take the Multiplication Tables Check on Mathsframe (see link below). If children truly know their tables then they will get 25 out of 25 correct (without changing any of the settings to make it easier)! This is also great preparation for the Year 4 Government Multiplication Tables Check which all children will undertake in June 2023!
Helpful links:
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
White Rose Maths have excellent home learning resources for parents wishing to give their children a little extra help: https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/
English
Reading: We are reading Dragons at Crumbling Castle by Terry Pratchett.
We will be looking at the author's craft, carrying out comprehension exercises and exploring the vocabulary. We will be developing our reading comprehension skills including: retrieval, inference, prediction and understanding the author's choices of words and phrases.
Writing: We are working on writing a 'warning story' and developing our instruction writing skills.
Spelling: We practice the Year 3&4 word list and spelling rules set by the National Curriculum. We will be practising our ability to listen to and write out sentences dictated by the teacher. Spelling Shed is set for homework, which reflects the weekly spelling rule.
Handwriting: We continue working on the Pen Pals scheme of work, developing our ability to form joins and develop our smooth and swift writing style.
Science
We are looking at the topic of The Water Cycle.
See BBC Bitesize:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z4gfp4j#zpfjjsg
Computing
We are learning about computational thinking.
Art
We will be learning about sculpture and pieces by Alexander Calder.
Experiences
In the Autumn term we visited Verulamium Museum in St Albans to learn about Roman Britain. We walk to a local pizza parlour to make freshly baked pizzas for Design Technology.
In the Autumn and Spring terms for PE, each Year 4 class has been swimming at the local leisure centre each week, and we have been learning to enjoy being in the pool and develop our swimming techniques.
In the Summer term we visited St Mary's and St George's Church and the Shri Meenatchi Amman temple to develop our understanding of Christian and Hindu places of Worship in Religious Education lessons.