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)

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 PE clothes and wellies.

Magnificent Monarchs

This term we will be travelling back in time, beginning with Charles III, and going right back to 871 to King Alfred the Great. We will learn about significant monarchs including:  Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, Charles II, Elizabeth I, King Edward I, Henry VIII, William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great.

We will be using a timeline to track the number of years we will travel, looking at the lives of the monarchs and the children will be encouraged to explore the connection between significant events and people and how they have influenced the modern world.  Not only we are going to develop our knowledge of historical events, dates and people in the past, but also our knowledge of historical concepts such as ‘empire’, ‘monarchy’ and 'constitution'. We will talk about Buckingham Palace, the King's Guards and Windsor Castle and explore important associated symbols, such as the throne and the sceptre and orb, used in the coronation of a new monarch. Finally, our topic will be filled with history and artwork to bring our discoveries to life.

English 

In Year 4 this term we will be focusing on the book ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ by Kate DiCamillo. We will be taken on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of a child to the bustling streets of Memphis. 

Writing objectives:

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 

This term we will be learning about sound. 

Pupils will be taught to:

· Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating

· Recognise that vibrations from a sound travel through a medium to the ear.

· Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it

· Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it.

· Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases

Electricity: Building on their work in year 4, pupils should construct simple series circuits, to help them to answer questions about what happens when they try different components, for example, switches, bulbs, buzzers and motors. They should learn how to represent a simple circuit in a diagram using recognised symbols.

Maths

Throughout this term, we will be continuing with multiplication and division then we will study fractions and decimals. We will also 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 also  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.

This term we will discuss why sacred texts and holy books are important. We will explore the difference between religious and non-religious beliefs and develop an ability to reflect on personal experiences.

P.E

We will have P.E. every Tuesday and Friday. Please remember on the day children have P.E. they will come to school wearing 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:

Trips:

We are very excited about our upcoming residential trip to the Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire on the 15th-16th October. Information pack will be sent in due course. More in-person information will also be provided during the 'Meet the teacher' session  (date tbc).