Due to the support of sports specialists and swimming throughout the year, the days that we do PE will vary from term to term.  Also, the weather or other events can alter our set days. Therefore, please ensure that every Monday morning your child brings in their fully-labelled indoor and outdoor PE kits to place in their lockers, especially as Autumn is approaching. PE kit will come home on a Friday to be washed. This term we will plan to do PE on Thursday and Monday but it is also my intention to complete the mile a day on the other days as well.

We have a lost property box in our class cupboard, but let’s hope that we keep our belongings safe!  All children have their own lockers in the corridor where they can store all personal items other than books (which will be kept in the children’s class trays) and their water bottles.

Reading

As last year, the children will be given plenty of opportunities to read within school. We are placing a strong emphasis on group guided reading activities, which will take place 3 or 4 times a week.  This will ensure that all children in the class will be listened to by the teacher and another adult throughout the week.  Here, the focus is on exploring a variety of texts at a deeper level in order to develop inference and deduction skills for reading comprehension.  Also, there is daily reading of text within Active English sessions as well as engagement with class books.

Parents/carers still have a huge part to play in their children’s reading development, so all the help you can continue to give at home is greatly appreciated. Children will have a chance to renew 'home' books every Monday and it is requested that any returns be made on Fridays in order for books to be reissued after the weekend. If you need to keep a book for a few weeks, that is absolutely fine.  We give your child a book in the first couple of days back, but will be reviewing reading challenges over the next couple of weeks.

Homework

Homework is set by the class teacher each week in accordance with whole school homework policy. It will be sent home on a Thursday and is to be returned no later than the Tuesday of the following week, so it can be marked. In Year 4, and throughout Key stage 2, we have a strong focus on learning times tables as there is a government test on these in Term 5 and so we ask that children practise these at home as well.  Each week, I will post an online multiplication link or a worksheet to complete. Last year, all children in the school became used to our system of spaced learning for spellings.  Their personalised spelling list (taken from their Y3 assessment) shows you the spellings that they will focus on each week until the end of week 6 when they will be assessed again.  Lastly, the children will have a short ‘topic’ based task that should not take more than 20-30 minutes.   The only exception to this homework routine is when the children are asked to do ‘homework projects’ which are part of school policy for KS2 children too.  These occur later in the autumn term and in the summer.  Plenty of time and explanation will be given in advance.  With any of the homework given, if there is any confusion or concerns, please pop in to see me or email.

Website Page:

This is regularly updated and contains termly overviews of learning, homework and weekly updates on our learning and progress. It also contains useful links which will support your child’s learning.

Important Date: MacMillan Coffee Day will be Friday 3rd October

 

USEFUL DOCUMENTS FOR REFERENCE TO OUR LEARNING

Our Autumn term topic is entitled ‘Victoriana.’ Here we share the life of children in our country 150 years ago and look into how the changes came about in order to appreciate what is provided for us all today. It includes a class visit to a coal mine to experience working life for families during the era. A case study of Queen Victoria is undertaken and children question, investigate and formulate opinions, based on research, about this monarch that led the British country and empire towards significant changes.  We also consider our current rights and responsibilities at school and at home.  Linked also with the great inventions of the 19th century, Class 4 will carry out investigations into changing sounds, particularly in relation to wind and string instruments. There will also be philosophical thought underpinning our work and many more exciting threads to our challenge question!!!

Spring Term

Our Spring Term has certainly seen our classroom transformed once more with vibrant burst of colour as we compare and contrast life in Navenby to a village in India, Chembakoli.  Whilst tackling location and climate, we will also be unpicking the processes at work in the water cycle, creating explanatory text to show our understanding. This learning will be enhance by further investigation into the nature of solids, liquids and gases!  Our India topic is also centred round respecting and celebrating differences as we investigate the beliefs and practises of the Hindu Faith, decorating our own classroom shrine with images of Hindu Gods and artefacts.  The walls will also be adorned with the steps towards successfully designing Indian Block Print Cushions and the creation of Indian Music Samples as we explore Rag, Tala and Drone!!  We looked forward to visit from a range of people in our community to support our learning such as Sunita Patel returning with the Indian Experience, a Dental Practitioner advising us on tooth care and Reverend Stuart performing a wedding.  Plenty to look forward to!

 

Welcome to the Summer Term Year 4!

Dear All of Year 4 Children and Parents,

I hope you have had a restful and enjoyable Easter.  You have worked incredibly hard work and continued to show great commitment towards your learning so we are going to continue to build on this during the summer term! We have many fun activities to look forward to such as our Enterprise, Graffiti art, Viking Day, athletics and plenty of other outdoor learning opportunities related to science (habitats, food chains, changing environments, classifications), maths and literacy. We will continue to share pictures of all our learning with you.

Please remember to have your PE kit in school everyday from Monday through to Friday.

Homework continues to be due in every week on a Tuesday.

Take Care,

Mrs. Harrison