Welcome to Ash Class!

Meet the team:
The teacher in Year 4 is Miss Doroftei

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Jarman (Mon-Wed) and Mrs Ellis (Thu-Fri) as well as Mr. Van der Leeuw (afternoons only Tu-Thu).

Important Information:

P.E Tuesday and Friday

Please ensure your child comes to school in P.E kit on these days.

Forest School and Music - alternate Wednesdays (see rota below)

For Forest School please ensure you have waterproofs to cover your clothes and wellies.

Topic - What did the Romans do for us?

This term, Year 4 are exploring the history topic of the Romans. We will be taking an enquiry-based approach and answer key questions such as: Who were the Romans?  Why did the Romans leave sunny Italy to invade this cold island? Why did they invade Britain and why were they so successful? Why did Boudica stand up to the Romans? What did the Romans do for us? What is their legacy? 

Children will develop their knowledge to consider the invasion of the Romans to Britain and why they were so successful and learn about life in the army. They will also learn about the Celts and their response to the Romans (exploring reasons for their response) with a local history link to the Boudican rebellion. They will learn about Roman settlements and culture. They will learn about how much life changed under Roman rule and what evidence there still is of Roman rule in modern Britain. They will question historical sources of information and learn about key historians and archaeologists who are in this field.

We will be planning in a themed costumed day full of in school activities on Thursday 29th June themed ‘Life in Roman Britain Day’. The children will be engaged in history through a cross-curricular approach that will use practical activities, drama and role-play. The workshop stations will include activities such as scribes, charm makers, metal workers, lamp workers, fresco painters and many more.

English - Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit

We will be learning about myths and legends including the story of Romulus and Remus  - the legendary founders of Rome. We will then delve in the world of Pompeii by reading Escape from Pompeii, a tale of two children who live in the city of Pompeii who were happily going about their usual business when Mount Vesuvius erupts! We will be using freeze-frame techniques to show parts of the story and the 'Conscience Alley' technique to help 'Livia' and 'Tranio' decide what to do...should they stay with their families or try to escape?

Reading is such an important skill; it really unlocks all areas of the curriculum. We would ask parents to hear their child read at least three times a week (but ideally daily), 5-10 minutes an evening is all that is needed. As well as supporting your child read, it is also useful to ask questions and check your child’s understanding of the text. In class, will be practising a variety of comprehension (VIPERS) skills including: inferencing, predicting, explaining and retrieving.

Science 

The main focus of science teaching in Year 4 is to enable pupils to broaden their scientific view of the world around them.

This half term we will be learning about habitats including recognizing that living things can be grouped in various ways, exploring and using classification keys to identify and name living things, and understanding that habitats can change and impact living things. Children will also learn to identify how different habitats provide for the basic needs of plants and animals, and how they depend on each other.

Next half term we will explore animals, including humans - in this unit of learning children will investigate animals including humans. They will be introduced to the main body parts associated with the digestive system and how they have special functions. This will include: digestive system – mouth, tongue, teeth, oesophagus, stomach and intestine and understand how the digestive system digests the food eaten and (with oxygen) gives the body energy process of digestion. Children will explore different types of teeth including milk and permanent teeth; incisors, canines and molars. Children will find out about food groups and healthy balanced diets and compare diets of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. As part of an experiment, they will also investigate teeth and what causes decay and look closely at food chains/webs.

Maths

We will finish off the fractions unit then move on to decimals and consider how they are linked. We will also learn how to tell the time and work with money. Furthermore, we will cover a Measurement unit focusing on length, perimeter and area.

Weekly sessions, whereby the children will practise and develop their mental arithmetic skills and times tables are taught.

Please continue to support your children’s learning by regularly asking questions or allowing them to play TT Rock Stars to improve their instant recall of the multiplication and division facts of all times tables (up to 12 times tables by the end of the year).

R.E. Festivals and Celebration

Building on previous knowledge, when we learnt about different celebrations from Christianity and Judaism, this half-term we are going to explore why festivals are important to religious communities. 

This unit enables pupils to learn from different religious and spiritual ways of life as shown through festival and celebration. We have chosen to focus on Holi, Diwali, Eid, Ramadan and fasting.

Pupils will explore attitudes of:

▪ Self-awareness by becoming increasingly aware of the ways celebration can make us happy;

▪ Respect for all by developing a willingness to learn from the celebrations and special days of others;

▪ Open mindedness by engaging with the lives of others and expanding their knowledge and understanding of the world;

▪ Appreciation and wonder by developing their capacity to respond to special events in the life of their family, and others, using some simple skills in creative development.

P.E

This term we will focus on tag rugby and athletics in the first half term and swimming and rounders in the second half-term. We will have P.E. every Tuesday and Friday. Please remember on the days children have P.E. they will come to school in their PE kit. They will need to wear shorts under jogging bottoms or bring in shorts with them as we need them to be dressed appropriately for the sport they are doing.

Forest School and Music:

Forest School and Music will alternate each week on Wednesday morning (see the class timetable below). Please see the rota below and remember to wear your Forest School clothes and Wellies on Forest School days.  

Home Learning: in Year 4, doing homework from the grid is optional (see document below which is also stuck in the children's homework books). Should the children wish to do a piece of homework, it should be completed and handed in on Wednesdays. 

The children are asked to complete the following:

1. Read daily 10-15 minutes and document in their Reading Record at least three times a week.

2. Practise their Times Tables on Times Tables Rock Stars each day for 5 minutes.

3. Practise their weekly spellings using the Activity Menu (please see attached and also glued in the children's Learning Logs)

4. On Fridays choose and complete a task from the grid and hand in by Wednesday.

Timetables: