Welcome to 2022 – Happy New Year!
This term we will be learning how to write stories set in other cultures, newspapers, and play scripts and we will read a book called: Who Let the God’s Out? (Every child will be given a copy.) We will also be using film to inspire our story writing. We will continue to focus on improving handwriting and children will have the opportunity to work towards their pen license. Spelling will continue to be set using the spelling shed. Please make sure your child knows how to log in to this and that they learn their spellings each week. Tests will continue on a Tuesday morning.
In maths we will continue to focus on learning our times tables; please support your child at home to learn their set table each week. They will be tested every Friday and will move up when they achieve 57 or more out of 60 within 3 minutes. (This is quick but ensures they know each fact by heart and are not counting on it.) At the end of Year 4, it is expected that children know all of their times tables, so it is important that you also make sure your child knows their ‘TTRockstars’ password and how to log on to this, to help them practice at speed. The main maths units this term include fractions, time, decimals, area, and perimeter.
Our topics during this term are Italy and then Ancient Greece. During these topics, we will explore what life is like in these places both now and in the past, and will be making comparisons between then and now, but also between the UK and these places. We will be exploring the geographical features of these locations and finding out about regions, traditions, and cultures. We will also learn about Pompeii and write Newspaper articles about the great disaster of 79AD. Do you know what this was?
Our PE days will still be Wednesday and Friday and children should come to school dressed in their PE kit on these days. Please make sure this is the school PE uniform and that it is weather appropriate as we will do PE outside, even when it is cold and wet. Remember that hair must be tied up, and (where possible) earrings and jewellery should be left at home on PE days. Our units for this term are Gymnastics, Football, Tag Rugby, and Tennis.
Homework – 4 per week – spelling (SHED), reading, times tables (TTRockstars), math task.
Each week children will be given spellings to learn and these will be tested on a Tuesday morning. These can be practised on the papers given each week, but also on the spelling shed.
Children will also be expected to read every week at home and record this in their reading diaries. Children should aim to read 5 times a week and we require an adult to sign their reading diary to say they have been heard reading at least twice each week. This signature will be checked on a Thursday morning during ‘book check and change’ but children may change their books, in addition to this time, as and when they need to.
By the end of Year 4 children will need to know all of their times tables so this is a focus this year. Children should be practising on times tables rockstars multiple times every week, with the aim of improving their speed of recall. They will be tested on a Friday.
In addition to the above, children will be set a math task each week, either on learning with parents or google classroom. This will be at a level they can complete independently, but parental support with this is always welcomed. These tasks can be printed and returned by hand or preferably completed online and responses sent via the google classroom where they will be marked electronically.
PE days – Wednesday and Friday (Wear weather appropriate school PE kit.)
Spelling tests – Tuesday
Book check and change – Thursday (Sign your child’s reading diary twice a week.)
Times table tests – Friday
Make sure school organisers and reading books are in book bags every day, please.