Week Beginning 9th October
This week…
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you are all well. I can’t believe Year 4 are now approaching the last couple of weeks of our first half term. The time is flying by. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all parents who have either attended the parent information sessions over the past two Fridays or they came to the reading session on Wednesday.
In English, the children have been making great progress in writing a persuasive leaflet with conjunctive adverbs. As we are reading Roald Dahl’s The Witches, we have been writing a leaflet to try and persuade young witches to sign up for the Grand High Witch’s Academy.
In Maths, the children have been making excellent progress in their CLIC sessions and the main part of the lessons have been focussing on column addition and subtraction. The children have shown some good resilience especially when faced with the prospect of making exchanges. Homework this week is based around this. The 2d-2d work is non-negotiable but I have also included a bonus homework sheet of 3d-2d questions if the children want to complete extra work. The children are also really getting into Times Table Rockstars and we are already seeing some real improvement in their heatmaps.
In Science we have started to look at grouping plants. We looked at the differences between flowering and non-flowering plants. We discussed the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees and then found examples of these along with ferns and conifers in our school grounds.
In French the children have been learning to read and say sentences about the different seasons.
In History we have been studying why Lord Shaftsbury was such a significant individual in helping to improve the lives and working conditions that children had to experience in the Victorian Era.
Finally, in Computing, the children have been practicing their basic skills including playing typing games to help improve how easily they can use a QWERTY keyboard.
I hope you are all well. It has been, as usual, a very busy couple of weeks in Year 4. The
children have continued to make a fantastic first impression on myself and Mrs Mallaburn. I
wanted to start by talking about the visit we had from Pearl of Africa Choir. The choir came to
school to teach the children some traditional African songs and how to play a drum. It was
amazing to see how quickly our class started to sing these songs and play some very catchy
beats.
In English, we have now written, edited and published our first big write of the year. The
children wrote a very pleasing recount of The Present and they looked at how they could
incorporate rhetorical questions and sentences that show, not tell the reader how they are
feeling.
In Maths, we have been continuing with our Big Maths CLIC sessions to start each lesson. We
have also been completing work on place value including finding numbers to 10,000 on a
numberline and finding 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 more and less of a given number.
In Science we have looked at using classification keys to sort animals. Children had to come
up with closed questions to separate a variety of different animals. This year our Science
work has been informed by White Rose Science materials to help support the planning and
delivery of Science across school. After only a few weeks, we are really seeing the benefit of
this in class.
In History we have been looking into how childhoods have changed over time. We have looked
at the concepts of continuity and change and looked what had changed and what had stayed
the same in schooling in Ancient Rome and the Victorian times. In our last lesson, we looked
at what it was like to be a child in Tudor times. We learnt why Tudor children would take on
apprenticeships and some of the different types of apprenticeships available to Tudor children
including glovers, fletchers and blacksmiths.
Finally, in PSHE we looked at how we can show good manners. The children worked in teams
to read through different scenarios and write down a list of tips on how they could show good
manners in each situation. The children then presented this to the class.
Year 4 News
This week beginning...11th September 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
As this is the first newsletter of the academic year, I would just like to say Welcome to Year 4! It has been a brilliant start to the Autumn Term. We have been very busy getting to grips with our learning. The children’s behaviour so far has been impeccable and I am incredibly excited for all the learning opportunities the children have coming their way this year. As always, any questions or problems, don’t hesitate to catch me at the start or end of a day or send me a message on Class Dojo.
In English, to get back into the swing of writing, we have started to work towards writing a diary entry based on the short animation The Present by Jacob Fray. The children have explored the story by making predictions and summations. They have also used drama activities to get into the mind of the character and think about their thoughts and feelings.
In Maths, we have introduced Big Maths to the children which is our new scheme of work. The children are currently learning about place value of thousands including where to find these numbers on a number line.
In Science we have looked at what makes vertebrates including why mammals are different from birds and fish etc. We have also looked at invertebrates and the differences between insects, spiders and soft bodied invertebrates.
In PE the children had an excellent first swimming lesson as well completing a Commando Joe session based on the explorer Levison Wood. This session aims to build the children’s resilience and ability to work in a team (Ellington Champion Values). The children had to use pipes and other materials to transport water from one bucket to another.
A great start to the year. Well done, everyone!