Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back and we hope you 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

In English, we will continue using our new scheme of work called “The Literacy Tree” which is a book led approach to English. The first text we will be studying is called FArTHER by Grahame Baker Smith. As we read the book, the children will make predictions, write recounts in the form of postcards, describe settings and write instructions and letters. We will then be moving onto “Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush” by Patrice Lawrence. In this unit, children will write informal letters, factual statements, diary entries and write about their future aspirations with a speech.

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 handwriting, grammar and spelling activities.

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, 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 progress 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.  We will then progress to solving problems involving fractions, decimals, measure and money.

Science

We will be exploring Living Things and their Habitats. Forest School sessions will be arranged to compliment this topic. We will then move on to sustainability and understand what energy is, considering how we can reduce our energy waste.

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 and understand the role of Boudicca in British history, reflecting upon what the Romans did for us.

In Geography we will be studying Earthquakes and Volcanoes.  We will include maps, atlases, globes and digital mapping to locate countries.  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.

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 and 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

Children will continue to listen and appraise pieces of music from a range of genres and engage in different musical activities including learning to play the Glockenspiel and Recorder.

PE

For the first half term, children will be taking part in gymnastics and hockey sessions. After half term, we will be taking part in dance 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. Along with listening to your child read, the children will be set spellings to learn each week. Spellings will be issued weekly via Teams and our spelling tests will now take place on a Thursday. 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 to “normalise” this system so will be practising “timed” and “online” timestable 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 and 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,

Mrs Bond