Dear parents/carers, 

Welcome to Year 4! I hope you had a lovely summer break. I am really looking forward to working with you and your children again this year.  

I must start with a big ‘thank you’ for my extremely generous gifts at the end of last year! Thank you!  

English 

Throughout the year, we will be studying a variety of text types to help develop your child’s writing skills. We have started by looking at the text and animated film “The Lost Thing” we will use these to create information texts as well as a short story. We will also be writing explanation texts centred around the book “Until I Met Dudley” by Roger McGough. There will be a unit based around ‘Winter’s Child’ by Angela McAllister & Grahame Baker where we will be writing our own narrative sequels. We will also be creating our own poems based on the poem “Night Mail” by W.H Auden which was inspired by the 1936 British documentary film. 

Grammar includes punctuating speech, conjunctions for time and cause, fronted adverbials, conjunctions, adverbs to express time and cause, prepositions to express time, place and cause, expanded noun phrases and the present form of verbs in contrast to the past tense.  

Listening to your child read continues to be very important, as does discussing their understanding of the texts they are reading. There will be daily classroom time for reading, handwriting, grammar and spelling activities.  Children must bring their reading records and books to class every day. 

Maths 

This term we will be building on knowledge of place value of 3- and 4-digit numbers including partitioning, rounding, ordering, and comparing. We will then be moving on to addition and subtraction including written method with exchanges. We will begin using strategies to check our answers. We will learn about area and perimeter and units of measure for length before moving onto multiplication and division by 10 and 100. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we will be focusing on the 6, 7, and 9 times tables. It would therefore be very beneficial to learn and consolidate the 2, 5, 10, 3, 4, and 8 times tables in the first half of this term and the weeks leading up to this. 

At home it would be helpful if you practised telling the time on both analogue and digital clocks and continued practising times tables and related division facts. This will also help to prepare children for the times tables test later in the year. 

Science 

For the first half term we are studying electricity including learning about conductors and insulators, creating circuits and electrical safety. We will then learn about sound.  

Topic- Victorians(History/Geography) 

We will explore the life of Queen Victoria as well as which famous inventions originated in the Victorian era and how they changed people’s lives at the time. We will find out what the Industrial Revolution was and how Victorian Britain was changed by it, and how the introduction of the railways changed travel and trade. We will explore what life was like for Victorian working children and why Lord Shaftesbury was an important figure including how rules about who could go to school changed. We will use historical sources to make observations about Victorian clothing and toys comparing these to today. We will also be learning about what life was like for families in the workhouses. 

French 

We will begin learning about food in a topic entitled Le Café where we will learn to order food in a café. We will also begin to learn vocabulary for animals and talk about the pets we own as well as basic vocabulary, phrases and numbers. 

Computing 

In computing we will begin the year by thinking about online safety, we will then be looking at and creating our own blogs!  

Art and DT 

In art the children will be focusing on William Morris where we will be printing patterns and Marriane North where we will be looking at flowers observational detail. 

RE 

This year, we will be continuing to follow our RE scheme of learning which centres around three areas: Theology, Philosophy and Human and Social Sciences with each lesson starting with an enquiry question. We will be learning about a range of religions including Christianity, Sikhism and Hinduism. 

PSHE  

We will be focused on wellbeing and mindfulness whilst also learning about safe relationships – personal boundaries, safely responding to others and the impact of hurtful behaviour. Respecting Ourselves and Others – recognising respectful behaviour, the importance of self-respect and courtesy & being polite. 

Music 

This term we are fortunate enough to have music lessons through the ‘Charanga’ scheme provided by Essex music services. We will be listening to and appraising songs of different genres as well as composing our own music in the same style. We will continue to learn to play the recorder.  

PE 

This term’s allocated PE slots are Mondays and Tuesdays. However, children will need to have their PE kits in school at all times as these may change unexpectedly/ we may be fortunate enough to have additional PE time.  

Homework 

It is greatly beneficial to your child’s learning for you to hear them read whenever possible, please make a note/initial in the front of their orange reading journals when you hear them read. When children finish a book, they must complete a reading challenge in the back of their journal (from the list on the cover) about the book they have just finished. This year they must complete each challenge once. When the list is complete, they will receive their certificate and be given the next list.  

Along with listening to your child read, the children will be set spellings to learn each week. Six sets of spellings will be issued for the half term and tests will continue to take place every Monday; please assist them to learn these words. If they are difficult, break the words down to 2/3 words per day. If they are more confident with the given words, practise writing them in a dictated sentence.  

Maths, English, Science or Topic homework will be set on Fridays for return the following Thursday. Tasks are set in order to support and consolidate the learning taking place in class.  Please support your child to ensure that they understand what has been asked of them and to make sure that their work is clearly and neatly completed but allow them to complete the work as independently as possible. If there is ever any confusion, or your child is having trouble with the homework, please let me know (preferably before Thursday) so I can help them.  

Times Tables- It is SO important all children are practicing their times tables. This should be done a minimum of 5 times a week. They should be valued in the same way as all homework activities. If Timetables Rockstars does not suit your learning style, please learn them in an alternative way- do ask if you need help with this.  

Books 

I would strongly advise covering all books that go between school and home in plastic as well as wrapping to make them more durable. 

Water/Snacks 

Children must bring in a bottle of water, and a snack for break time each day. It is often a long time between breakfast and lunch and a snack is important to keep us all going. We ask that these are healthy, in line with our Healthy Schools ethos (fruit or vegetables only). Please could you ensure that if your child brings the ‘Air Up’ bottle to school they are able to refill this independently (can open and close it) also that they do not remove/ swap pods in the classroom.  

Other 

Please remind your children that football cards are banned from the classroom, this is a whole school policy.  

Please ensure all items of clothing are labelled. It is so much easier to ensure children take home the correct uniform when it is named.  

If you have any questions or concerns at any time, please email me via the office and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  

Kind Regards, 

Miss Hagger