I hope you all had a lovely break and have come back feeling refreshed for the new year.
Please see below for an overview of the topics we are covering this half term.
Maths:
The units of work for this half term are;
-shape
-symmetry
-decimals and fractions
-money
Literacy:
We will be studying the text 'Stig of the dump' as well as completing a unit of work on different story settings.
Investigating solids, liquids and gases.
Spanish:
We are learning different vocabulary for restaurant settings in Spanish.
Art & DT
Half of the class will be completing pottery art work at Stormont school each week, while the rest of the class will be doing a unit of work on photography and water colours at school. The groups will be swapped around after half term so everybody has the chance to do both units of work.
PSHCE:
Hopes and dreams.
RE:
The children will be looking at belonging, commitment and different types of worship.
History:
Researching early civilisations.
Highlights of the week:
We have had a fantastic start to the new year in Year 4. I certainly had an exciting start to the week when I found out that the children who had entered the Young Writers poetry challenge right at the start of the year have been chosen for their work to published! Over 20,000 entries were sent in and I am so proud of all of your hard work which has certainly paid off!
The children have come back to school really engaged and eager to learn. As always, we have been very practical this week! The children performed drama scripts based on an ice cube baby in a hospital that was melting. They really showed their understanding of the different properties of solids, liquids and gases through their physical drama. The children also created some songs and raps to do with their RE learning on belonging. These were performed and shared with the class and the children worked really hard on making a catchy song to showcase their learning. We have also begun a new text 'Stig of the dump' in English. The children recorded their predictions based on the front cover and blurb of the book, and we read the first chapter as a class today and met the mysterious character Stig. The children really developed their predicting and retrieval skills by unpicking information from the text to form views and record facts about Stig. I have also been really impressed with how well the children worked together on their maths detective challenge. They had to find out different clues by answering maths problems to discover the culprit who stole the chocolate from the chocolate factory.
Next week:
Maths:
We are looking at different properties of shapes.
Timestables:
Before the end of term, I gave each child an A3 sheet with all of the times tables on it. This is the order that the children should be learning the times tables in. They are split into 3 chunks.
- 2 times table.
- 5 times table
- 10 times table
- 11 times table
- 3 times table
- 6 times table (double 3 times table)
- 4 times table ( double 2 times table)
- 8 times table ( double 4 times table)
- 9 times table ( hand trick)
- 7 times table
- 12 times table
I have shown the children the importance of learning them in this way to make it easier. Today I taught the class the 9 times table trick on their hands. This is a fast and simple way of knowing the 9 times table. Please ask your children to show you this over the weekend. Here is a video clip to refresh your memory.
9 times table video clip
Next week we will be starting our times table challenges. The children will chose which chunk they are focusing on and will be tested on these times tables. Remember you can use your fingers or count on in your head to help you! Those children who are confidence with their tables up to 12 x 12 will be given an extension multiplication challenge.
English:
Continuing our work on 'Stig of the dump' focusing on the effect of the language choices made by the author.
Spellings:
The spelling focus for this week is 'gu' spelled words with the sound 'g'. ( not 'spelt'! There was a typo on the sheet that went out at the end of the day, sorry!)
-guardian
-guest
-guess
-guide
-guitar
-guarantee
-guard
-baguette
-disguise
-Portuguese
We will be doing spelling activities, including dictionary and thesaurus skills around these words every morning from 8:40-9:00, so please make sure you arrive promptly for school to ensure you get the most out of these sessions. If the children get all of these words correct in the pre-test on Monday, they have the extension challenge of finding more words that follow the same rule in the dictionary.
Science:
Investigating gases in a fizzy drink experiment.
PE:
Our PE timetable has changed as swimming has now finished.
The children will still have PE on Monday, where they will need trainers. They will now have football on Tuesday afternoon and normal PE kit on Thursday morning. Last term there were a lot of children regularly forgetting kit or trainers. Please ensure that you have your kit on the correct days so that you can get the most out of your PE lessons.
Please make sure you are reading, completing mathletics and practising your times tables at home. I look forward to a full week of learning next week.
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Miss Bradford
