Welcome to Year 4!

The Teacher in Year 4 is Mrs Gilbert Scott (Mrs GS)

Learning Support Assistants:

Mrs Jarman, Mrs Basu and Mr Beckett

Important Information:

New Timetable

The school now runs on a two week timetable (see attached).  Friday 5th September falls in Week 1.  

P.E

Monday and Tuesday every single week - i.e. in both Week 1 and Week 2   

Forest School and Music

Both on Wednesday of Week 2.  The first FS and Music sessions will be on Wednesday 10th September.

Residential Trip to the Frontier Centre in Northamptonshire

The Year 4 Residential Trip will take place overnight on Thursday 9th October, leaving on the morning of Thursday 9th October and returning at the end of school on Friday 10th October (details to follow).

Curriculum Information

Maths

We will be starting Autumn 1 with a topic on Place Value in White Rose Maths; looking specifically at how to represent numbers to 1,000 using Dienes (Base 10) blocks.  We will also partition numbers and use number lines to order and compare.  Some of this will be revision of Year 3 work, but there will be lots of opportunity to extend using reasoning and problem solving skills.  Once the children have settled in, we will be introducing a new daily Mastering Number session which aims specifically to improve and develop the children's knowledge and understanding of their times tables.  In June, the school is required to test Year 4's times table knowledge and we are aiming high!

English

Our learning in English consists of Reading, SPAG (Spelling and Grammar) and Writing.  Our Guided Reading session will be every Tuesday.  This half term, the text we will be reading as a class is 'The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest' by Lynne Cherry.  We have enough copies to share, but if your child would like to bring in their own copy, that would be very helpful.  It is available from Amazon - click on this link: The Great Kapok Tree.  Our Spelling and Handwriting session is each week on a Thursday.  We will be following the Rising Stars spelling programme for Year 4 which includes the Statutory Spellings for Year 3 and Year 4 (see attached).  We use Letter Join to aid with handwriting.  Grammar units vary widely over the year: our first main focus will be the use of the possessive apostrophe.  Every Friday, the children will write for an extended period of time - Big Write - starting with writing a diary about their holiday.  As daunting as it may sound, the children actually love this opportunity to let their creativity / writing skills flow independently.  

Humanities

Our topic this half term is The Maya.  The Ancient Mayans developed the science of astronomy, calendar systems, and hieroglyphic writing. They were also known for creating elaborate ceremonial architecture, such as pyramids, temples, palaces, and observatories. These structures were all built without metal tools. The Maya were skilled weavers and potters.  The Maya first developed their civilisation in around 2000 BC (the Pre-classic period).  It is a really interesting topic which I am very much looking forward to exploring with the children.  I am currently in touch with the archaeologist Dr Diane Davies, who specialises in the Maya and hope that she will be able to offer the class a presentation about her work and discoveries, as well as a live Q and A.  
 

Science

Science this half term begins with a Biology unit exploring how to classify plants and animals into groups using specialised scientific knowledge and understanding, for example vertebrates and invertebrates in the case of animals, or flowering and non-flowering in the case of plants.  This contains some practical observational work in the school grounds.  Later in the half term, we will move on to look at States of Matter, (Solids, Liquids and Gases), and explore how both melting and evaporation rates are affected by temperature.    

PE

PE this half term will focus on Gymnastics (Rolling, Jumping Actions, Travel Movements and Balances etc) and Basketball on Mondays.  We will also be developing core skills in various team games and activities including Circuits and Benchball on Tuesdays. 

Homework

The most important element of homework is reading: please listen to your child read at least two or three times each week.  We will not be recording reading in a diary if your child is a Free Reader.  In addition to reading, please continue to use Times Tables Rockstars, or any other method to improve your child's speedy recall of Times Tables (see links below).  You may also do a task from the homework grid attached below - to be handed in on Wednesdays.  If you have time, please practise the Statutory Spellings for Year 3 and 4 attached below.