Year 4
Spring Term 2019
Happy new year to you all and welcome to the Spring term!
English
The focus in English lessons this term is on stories involving issues and dilemmas. We will be reading a variety of stories on these themes and using them as a model for the children’s own writing.
As well as this, with a performance on the horizon, we will be focusing on speaking and listening, and play scripts to support dialogue writing. We will continue to develop and apply new and previously taught spelling and grammar rules.
Maths
In maths, we will continue to work on recalling multiplication and division facts for tables up to 12 x 12. To support this please encourage your child to practise his/her tables. It is really important that when your child has learnt a times table and moved on to learn the next one that you keep practising all the previous ones they have learnt too. Their aim is to learn all times tables up to the 12x table ‘by heart’ by the end of Year 4. If they know all their tables to 12 x 12, practising division skills using tables is the next step.
We are also working on improving methods for adding and subtracting up to 4-digit numbers, using column methods, number lines and bar modelling.
Topic
Our topic this half term is ‘Animals including humans’, focusing particularly on the human digestive system, teeth and dental hygiene, bone and muscles and the food needed to keep healthy. In RE, we will be looking at the Christian theme of ‘Mission’. French will be taught by Mrs Woodhouse on a Tuesday afternoon. In PSHE, we are focusing on mental health, with a unit of work called ‘Think Positive’. In Computing, the children will be learning basic programming skills.
PE
Our normal PE lessons will be on Mondays and Fridays. Please could you ensure that your child has their PE kit in school at the start of the week. An outdoor PE kit is essential as we will being doing hockey outside.
Indoor PE Kit: School PE t-shirt, black shorts and plimsolls. Girls who wear tights are advised to keep a short pair of socks in their PE bag to change into. Pupils with long hair should have a hair-tie in school so that they can tie their hair back whenever necessary.
Outdoor PE Kit: Tracksuit or plain long-sleeved top and trousers to be worn with school t-shirt. If the children are not warm they will not enjoy their lesson. Suitable trainers are also needed, as plimsolls are not suitable for use on the field in wet conditions. A carrier bag to put their muddy trainers in is also essential.
Pupil Planner
Please write notes in the planner when you have heard your child read. Please listen to your child read aloud as often as possible to develop their confidence and fluency. It is also important to ask about what they have read to develop their comprehension skills.
Homework
Weekly homework tasks consist of reading, spellings and times tables. Work will continue to be set via Mathletics. Mathletics can be accessed via the website www.mathletics.co.uk from a modern browser, or via the free downloadable Mathletics app on Android or Apple devices.
Please let me know as soon as possible if your child does not have internet access at home and we can make provision for them to take part during school time. Children choosing not to do Mathletics homework at home will be expected to stay in at playtimes and lunchtimes to complete tasks.
Finally…
If there is anything you would like clarified, or anything which worries you about your child’s education, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Miss Jo Squirrell