Year 4

Mrs V Ling, Mr D Coe, Mrs J Baines, Mrs M Chalmers, Mrs F Ali, Mrs N Ali.

Our half termly information sheets give parents a guide as to what we are working on each half term.  This will enable you to help at home by discussing the different topics with your child or perhaps extending their learning by incorporating a particular subject into your families weekend activities.

HT4 Bug Hotels

As part of British Science Week 2020 we have been doing our science learning outside. After a Science Scavenger Hunt we built Bug Hotels near the allotment to attract more minibeasts into our grounds.

HT4 - World Book Day 2020

On March 5th we celebrated World Book Day with a variety of exciting activities. These included designing our own book jackets, drawing our families in the style of Jeff Kinney and going on an outdoor Wally hunt. Lots of us dressed up as our favourite book characters.

Moana HT3

As an introduction to our new Moana unit in Literacy we had a go at design our own Maori-style facial tattoos. How do we look?

HT3 Changing States

In science we have been learning how materials change state through processes such as evaporation and condensation. In one science lesson we performed a drama to act out The Water Cycle.

Anglo Saxons HT2

We learned about the pagan gods and festivals of the Anglo Saxons and then how their religious calendar was changed by the introduction of Christianity. We found out that many of the beliefs were merged with the new religion.

On Tuesday 19th November, Mrs Wilkinson came into school to speak yo Year 4 and Year 5 about Road Safety. She explained about the Green Cross Code and the importance of choosing a safe place to cross the read, even if we are in a rush! The children listened really well and could answer her quiz questions.

As part of Anti-Bullying week we came to school in our odd socks. This was to show that being different is a good thing; it means that everyone is unique and is special in their own way. We then created our own sock to show our favourite things, who is special to us and describe how we should treat others. All of our socks are very different and unique; just like us!

We also created a positive page for everyone in the class, telling them about all the good traits they hold and what we like about them. This activity made everyone feel good about themselves and smile! 🙂

On Friday 25th October, our school took part in our Annual Big Arts Day. This year the focus was 'The Dot' which is a book by Peter Reynolds. We first drew some pictures which began with a dot and were inspired by different types of music. Then, we re-created Elspeth McLean's dot painting using paint. We had a very creative, messy day!

On Tuesday 17 September the NSPCC came in to talk to us about staying safe. We talked about possible worries and how we might overcome these. We were advised to talk to a trusted adult if anything is worrying us and were given the number for Childline if any further advice was needed. The number is: 0800 1111 and all children were encouraged to 'Speak Out and Stay Safe.'

In Literacy we have begun a unit based on the film Shrek. On Wednesday 4th Sep we had a go at making our very own gingerbread men (and women). We had to eat them fast before they ran away!

HT1

We have begun learning about the Egyptians and are considering the question: 'Would you like to have been an Egyptian pharaoh?' We had a go at making our very own mummies!

Examples of Work

In order to support our children in Year 4 to become confident language users and to assist with their organisation in school, we have introduced some simple but effective strategies within the classroom.

Visual Timetable

In Year 4 we have introduced our visual timeline to help organise our day. We have set it up as a daily timeline so the children can focus on the day ahead and be prepared in advance. During registration we love putting the correct cards on for the day and especially get excited when it states 'Trip Out' or 'Special Activity!'

Here is our timetable:

Word Wise Whizz

To support our spelling work we have a Word Wise Whizz board. This has our weekly spellings on and spellings sentences that we have created as part of our homework.

We have a weekly test on our spellings before adding our new focus words to the board.

Here is our Word Wise Whizz board:

Your child has been given a school reading book along with a reading record.  Please listen to them read whenever you can, at least once a week, and record this in the booklet.  Please also encourage your child to read to themselves - this can also be recorded in the booklet.

In Year 4 it is important that children are able to use inference and deduction ("reading between the lines") as well as just reading words aloud.  Talk about who the characters are, why they are acting as they do, what might happen next... and make sure you take time to enjoy reading.

In our Whole Class Reading Sessions, we use V.I.P.E.R.S to help us. 

Question Openers

VIPERS can be used on any text that a child is reading, as well as on pictures, picture books and films! When any adult is listening to a child read, all they have to do is think of questions about the book/picture/film that cover all of the VIPERS, and there are great examples below of how you can create your own questions using the following question openers.

Spelling homework will be given out every Friday and your child will have one week to learn them for a test the following Friday.

It will consist of ten spelling words/patterns taken from the new National Curriculum.

Children are expected to learn the spellings/patterns and write each spelling in a sentence to show that they understand the meaning of the word.

These words will be tested on Friday of the following week.

The children are also required to know all of the Year 3/4 statutory spellings.

Will will be re-visiting these words over the year, so do keep practicing them all.