Year 4

Welcome to Year 4

Spring Term

Welcome to Year 4’s class page!

We hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and is feeling refreshed for the term ahead! The children are learning about many topics in history and science, such as The Vikings in history, exploring the lives and traditions of the Vikings, as well as States of Matter in science.

English

In English, we are reading the text, ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’, delving into a mythical Viking world. We will be following the adventures of an unassuming young boy who  holds the fate of his village in his hands. This book (as well as our guided reading texts for the half term), run parallel with our current History topic ‘Vikings’ in order to fully immerse the children in the topic. Continuing the genre of myths and legends, we will be delving into the diverse world of myths and legends of the Sea and focusing on features of non-fiction texts. This will provide the children with opportunities to develop their drama, speaking and listening and creative writing skills.

The children will be looking at using their reading skills to predict and deduct key information from the text whilst also creating their own versions and outcomes of events from the story.

Handwriting- Pupils will be following the Penpals Handwriting programme and focussing on joining letters in all written work. 

Comprehension- Pupils will be completing multiple comprehension tasks in order to improve their understanding and inference of texts. 

Editing and evaluating work- After ‘Big Writes’ pupils are now beginning to use a green pen to check and edit their work to improve accuracy and spelling. This also re-enforces children to edit their work prior to its completion.

Guided Reading – Reading skills will be explicitly taught to the children as well as developing inference of a carefully chosen text.

Maths

This term, we will be focusing on topics including Fractions, Money, Decimal Places, and also consolidating children’s knowledge in Division and Multiplication. We will also be developing the children’s understanding of Time, particularly converting between analogue and digital in addition to minutes and seconds. It will be beneficial if this topic is reinforced at home through daily activities, e.g. what time do we have dinner? etc.

We will be doing weekly timed arithmetic and timetables tests to improve upon existing knowledge and to prepare children for the times tables test that is a statutory requirement at the end of year 4.

Science

In science this  term we will be exploring ‘States of matter’. Throughout this topic, the children will be identifying various substances as solids, liquids and gases. As well as this, the children will be able to recognise whether changes are reversible or irreversible and then do a cross curricular piece of writing describing the water cyle.

Topic

The children are developing their knowledge of the Vikings. In this topic we will be exploring the lives and traditions of the Vikings through finding out more about:

-Who the Vikings were.

-Where the Vikings fit on the timeline of history.

-How the Vikings lived: Structure of society

-Daily routines and diets. 

-Archaeological evidence of Vikings

Homework:

Homework timetable below may vary based on learning.

There may also be additional topic homework sent home through the year to extend the children’s learning. 

Pen Licenses: If your child is awarded a pen license, the class teacher will provide your child with a pen and his/her pen license. Once this pen has run out, it is then the children’s responsibility to then bring in their own blue pen to use. Berol handwriting pens are very child friendly. 

Reminders:

• PE is on Thursday afternoon with Mr Bell. 

Expectations

We encourage all children to demonstrate a high standard of behaviour at all times in order to create a safe, respectful and happy learning environment.

Each class has participated in the process of making a set of ‘Golden Rules.’ The children have agreed to follow the rules as they understand that this will help their learning.

Respecting each other and all members of staff is expected and reflects the ethos of our school. 

The children are required to listen carefully and to develop their self-control and concentration in class and in the playground. 

Working together with parents and guardians plays a big part in establishing good relationships and standards of behaviour.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to the term ahead!