Dear parents/carers,

Welcome back, we hope you have all had a lovely Christmas! We must say ‘a big thank you’ for our extremely generous Christmas gifts.

Outlined below are the curriculum areas to be covered, as well as ways you can help to support your child’s learning in Year 4.

English

As usual, we will be studying a variety of text types to help develop your child’s writing skills. We have started the term studying a range of Roman myths and legends, many which are based on Roman mythology and gods. After half term, we will be studying syllabic poetry and creating our own Haiku poems about volcanoes.

Grammar includes using and understanding grammatical terminology, using and punctuating direct speech, expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions, e.g. when, so, before, after, while, because, using commas to mark clauses and to mark off fronted adverbials, using apostrophes to mark singular and plural possession, using paragraphs, using short sentence to move events on quickly and developing complex sentences with subordinate clauses.

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 continue to work on recalling multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12. We will also use place value and known and derived facts to multiply and divide mentally. We will then move onto multiplying two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number using a formal written layout. We will then move onto fractions and decimals which will include recognising equivalent fractions, counting in hundredths, adding, and subtracting fractions with the same denominators, recognise and write decimal equivalents, multiplying and dividing numbers by 10 and 100, comparing decimals and rounding them to the nearest whole numbers and then solving problems involving fractions, decimals, measure and money.

Science

We will be exploring states of matter in science which will include: comparing and grouping materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases, observing that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C) and identifying the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Topic- (History/Geography)

In History we will be studying the Romans which will include using maps to understand how far the Roman Empire spread, research the different Roman soldiers and the types of clothing they wore, compare the lives in Roman and Celtic Britain, understand the role of Boudicca in British history and reflect upon what the Romans did for us. In Geography we will be studying Earthquakes and Volcanoes which will include using maps, atlases, globes and digital mapping to locate countries and describe features, describe key aspects of physical geography including rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and the water cycle.

French

We will be learning about the weather and transport. Children will learn to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing using developing knowledge of vocabulary and understanding of grammatical structures.

Computing

In computing we will be using Garage Band to create a piece of music and we will also be sharing experiences and opinions through blogging.

Art and DT

In art, the children will be focusing on exploring complementary colours by studying Andy Warhol’s famous volcano piece of art and comparing this with Katsushika Hokusai’s water coloured Mount Fuji. In DT, we will be exploring levers and linkages and using these to create Roman structures.

RE

This term, we will continue to follow our new RE scheme 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, Hinduism, and Islam.

PSHE

We will be focused on wellbeing mindfulness whilst also learning about belonging to a community, challenging gender stereotypes, compassion towards each other, digital wellbeing and exploring basic banking and budgeting.

Music

Mr Malam will be coming to school weekly to teach the children brass.

PE

For the first half term children will be taking part in Dance and football sessions. After half term, we will be taking part in hockey and orienteering. Please make sure that your child brings their full school PE kit into school every day, as there are sometimes opportunities for extra PE sessions.

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 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 task, please let me know 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. Please remember that at the end of this year the children will be sitting a multiplication check. We are trying ‘normalise’ this system so will be practising ‘timed’ and ‘online’ timestables tests regularly at school. Children should not feel pressured with this however, we want to give them the best chance possible so please prioritise this at home. Timestable Rockstars and www.timestables.co.uk are the recommended practise sites.

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).

Uniform

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. Please also remember there is a ‘golden coat hanger’ award given out to the smartest class weekly so we must ensure uniform is always correct and smart.

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