Contact us on our class email: queen@summerswood.herts.sch.uk 

                                                 thunberg@summerswood.herts.sch.uk

Welcome to Year 4 2023-24

As you are aware, we are communicating our class's news via Twitter:

4 Queen class: Mrs Shields (@MrsShieldsSPS)

4 Thunberg class: Mr Schumann (@MrSchumannSPS)

Welcome to Year 4 2023-2024

For updates about the children's learning, please visit our google classroom page.  

You will need to log in to google.co.uk with your child's login details (NameA@summerswoodpupils.org.uk) and their password - please ask your child's teacher for them if necessary.

***Google Classroom App***

Google classroom is available on both iOS and Android so that you can see announcements on you phone/tablet and can set up notifications of when messages are given.  

If you need to get in contact with the class teachers, please contact via email on the class email addresses at the top of this page.

Monday 2nd - Friday 6th October 2023

(Autumn 1, Week 5)

Maths          

This week in Maths we have been working on adding and subtracting with regrouping. Students have been working on numbers up to four digits long to review this concept. They have also been using tools such as dienes and bead strings to support their learning. 

English

In English we have been working on unit around "Arthur and the Golden Rope". Students have learned how to use things such as conjuctions and descriptive verbs in their own work, using "Arthur and the Golden Rope" as a model. At the end of the week, students started brainstorming and writing their own stories, using a map from the story to guide them.

Topic

In our History topic: ‘Conquest' students have been learning about the Norman Saxon invasion and the impact of it on Modern day England. Throughout the last few weeks, students have looked at how the Norman Saxons lived, what kinds of laws they had and how they conquered England. 

We have also been working on a weaving DT project, related to our "Conquest" history topic. Students have learned how traditional weaving works and started creating thier own pieces as well. 

Mental Health Week

This week we will be talking a lot about mental health, what it looks like, what it doesn't look like and how can you promote your own wellbeing as well as others. On Tuesday 10th October we have "What Makes You Glimmer Day". This is a non-uniform day and students are encouraged to bring in a pack of biscuits and wear what makes them glimmer. 

Times Table Rock Stars

    This year we are launching a Battle of the Bands! How this works is each year group is competing against each other to see who is the best Rockstars! This is being introduced as a fun way to encourage students to practice their times tables as this is an essential part of their Maths learning and knowledge. Please allow your child to access Times Table Rockstars website (on a phone, tablet, Laptop or PC) to spend a minimum of 3 minutes a day practicing their time table skills.

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading 

Every child has a reading book and a reading record that they have been given to bring home. These will be changed weekly. Their reading records need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read. Since this is year 4, the focus for most children is on comprehension. Most children can read fluently but struggle with understanding what it is that they have read. Please focus on not only listening to your child but also asking your child about what they have read to ensure that they are thinking about it as well. 
Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

🔔Reminders: 🔔

• Home time: 3.20pm for Years 3 and 4.  The gates get closed at 3.30pm
• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week  and record in reading record 
• TTRS homework  - children to access TTRS every day for a minimum of 3 minutes
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 17th - Friday 21st May 2021

(Summer 1, Week 6)

Maths          

This week in maths we have consolidated finding equivalent fractions by multiplying or

the numerator and denominator by the same amount to get equivalences.  The children worked hard to draw accurately drawn diagrams to show equivalent fractions.  They then looked at reducing fractions by dividing non-unit fractions by the same amount. 

See the link here to learn more about fractions: Fractions 

Next week we will be moving on to look at coordinates, translation of shapes, position and direction and plotting points of a shape.

English

The children worked hard on reading and editing their work. They did peer reviews and subsequently made corrections and changes to their drafts.  The children worked on punctuating direct speech correctly, including using a comma to introduce the direct speech.  They wrote up their final drafts in best.  Next week we will be looking at some grammar skills such as the possessive apostrophe for singular and plural nouns and using organisational devices in non-fiction texts.

Topic

In our topic: ‘Burps, Bottoms and Bile’ the children have set up an investigation into which liquid damages our teeth.  They used egg shells in water, milk, diet fizzy drink, Coca-Cola, tea and apple juice.  They have carried out observations each day to observe the changes. 

We wanted to know which teeth were involved in eating certain foods and what their function was.  The children tasted lettuce, marshmallow, grapes, bread, yogurt and apple; they recorded which teeth they used (incisors, molars or canines) and what the function was (cut, grid or tear) and recorded this in a table. 

Walk to School Week Monday 17th May – Friday 21st May 

The children have embraced ‘Walk to School Week’ as many chose to walk, park and stride or scoot/cycle to school.  A noticeable decrease in the number of children coming by car was seen, so thank you, parents, for enabling this.

Don’t forget to try to walk where possible as much as you can.

Times Table Rock Stars

Some children still are not accessing Times Tables Rockstars at home - this is an essential part of their learning and will put them in good stead for their future learning.  Please allow your child to access TTRS website (on a phone, tablet, Laptop or PC) to spend a minimum of 3 minutes a day practicing their time table skills.

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading 

Some children are still not accessing their reading books online - please ensure that you read the selected book(s) and record in their reading records.  You are still welcome to supplement your child’s reading with physical books you have at home - please remember to also record this in the reading record.

We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

🔔Reminders: 🔔

• Home time: 3.20pm for Years 3 and 4.  The gates get closed at 3.30pm
• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week  and record in reading record 
• TTRS homework  - children to access TTRS every day for a minimum of 3 minutes
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 10th - Friday 14th May 2021

(Summer 1, Week 5)

Maths          

This week in maths we have moved our fraction work on further.  We recapped on unit and non-unit fractions and the children looked at finding equivalent fractions eg 3/6 = ½ and how to find further equivalences by multiplying the numerator and denominator by the same number.  The children looked at comparing fractions of amounts eg ½ verses 1/12 and which one is the larger fraction.

See the link here to learn more about fractions: Fractions 

English

In English this week we have continued our unit on ‘Leon and the Place Between’.  We have used conjunctions to help make a persuasive point.  The children have collected examples of descriptive phrases that the author has used to create a magical mood which the children then turned into a free form poem.  We looked at prepositional phrases used such as ‘at a whispered word’, ‘in the perfumed air’ and the children wrote a setting description using prepositional phrases.  They have planned a narrative based on the text, read for writing it next week and publishing their work.

Topic

Our topic is ‘Burps, Bottoms and Bile’ and the children have been learning about how to keep healthy and keep their teeth from becoming decayed.  The children have learnt about and designed a healthy packed lunch.

Walk to School Week Monday 17^th May – Friday 21^st May 

We are excited to be taking part in Walk to School week this May. We all know the health benefits of walking, so please help us next week to reduce congestion by supporting children in being more active, and help reduce lower carbon emissions during this Walk to School Week.  We would like to encourage all our pupils to walk, cycle or scoot to school during this week.

If it is not possible to walk all the way, then it would be great if you could park 10 minutes away from school and walk or scoot the last part of your journey. We will be doing the ‘Golden Padlock’ again, where one child’s bike or scooter will be “padlocked” during the day. The lucky child whose bike or scooter has the padlock on it will get to choose a prize when they come to the Office for the padlock key at the end of the day. Remember, you have to be in it to win it! Good Luck! 

Times Table Rock Stars

Some children still are not accessing Times Tables Rockstars at home - this is an essential part of their learning and will put them in good stead for their future learning.  Please allow your child to access TTRS website (on a phone, tablet, Laptop or PC) to spend 3 minutes a day practicing their time table skills.

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading

Some children are still not accessing their reading books online - please ensure that you read the selected book(s) and record in their reading records.  You are still welcome to supplement your child’s reading with physical books you have at home - please remember to also record this in the reading record.

We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

🔔Reminders: 🔔

• Monday 17^th  May – children will be tasting food – please see text sent
• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week  and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Tuesday 4th May - Friday 7th May 2021

(Summer 1, Week 4)

Maths

This week in maths we have continued working with fractions and have been finding fractions of both discrete (countable) and continuous (measurable) objects.  The children recapped what unit and non -unit fractions were from their year 3 learning.  They were able to use bar models to help work out the fraction of a given quantity as well as solving simple and multi-step problems.

See the link here to learn more about fractions: Fractions 

English

In English this week we have started our new unit of work based on the book "Leon and the Place Between" by Angela McAllister.  The children have worked to use adjectives to describe the atmosphere of a circus; they used a thesaurus to find and use synonyms for 'amazing' to describe the different acts eg phenomenal trapeze artists, remarkable ringmaster.  They have used their persuasive skills learnt to create posters to engage the reader to want to visit their circus.  The children used conjunctions in a persuasive speech to persuade a character to step into the magic box or persuade him to not go inside.

Times Table Rock Stars

Some children still are not accessing Times Tables Rockstars at home - this is an essential part of their learning and will put them in good stead for their future learning.  Please allow your child to access TTRS website (on a phone, tablet, Laptop or PC) to spend 3 minutes a day practicing their time table skills.

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading

Some children are still not accessing their reading books online - please ensure that you read the selected book(s) and record in their reading records.  You are still welcome to supplement your child’s reading with physical books you have at home - please remember to also record this in the reading record.

We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 26th April  - Friday 30th April 2021

(Summer 1, Week 3)

Maths

This week we have looked at adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator.  We have used bar models to find complements of a whole number and have moved on to adding and subtracting fractions using regrouping representations such as cherry method and bar models.

English

The children have begun to write their persuasive texts about visiting London Zoo. They have looked at the determiners we can use to persuade and the children wrote some counter arguments as well as turing their notes in their plans into paragraphs. They have taken their main points and expanded on them, before writing their summary paragraph.  The children have then had the opportunity to use their writing to perform a speech to persuade the children in the class to visit London Zoo.

Times Table Rock Stars

Some children still are not accessing Times Tables Rockstars at home - this is an essential part of their learning and will put them in good stead for their future learning.  Please allow your child to access TTRS website (on a phone, tablet, Laptop or PC) to spend 3 minutes a day practicing their time table skills.

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading

Some children are still not accessing their reading books online - please ensure that you read the selected book(s) and record in their reading records.  You are still welcome to supplement your child’s reading with physical books you have at home - please remember to also record this in the reading record.

We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 19th April  - Friday 23rd April 2021

(Summer 1, Week 2)

Maths

This week the children have continued to look at data and statistics.  In particular they have looked at understanding and interrogating different types of data (discrete and continuous) and interpreting increases and decreases in line graphs.  They have looked at variables on time and distance graphs (e.g. distance travelled by a bike rider over time or the height of a bounced ball).  They have been able to ‘tell the story’ of the line graphs e.g. when there is a straight line - this means that the person was not travelling.

Next week we will be moving on to fractions.  It would be great if you could discuss fractions within the home eg pizza slices, chocolate bar pieces etc.

English

The children have continued their unit on persuasion.  We looked at conjunctions that would be effective in helping construct sentences that persuaded the reader.  They looked at a story called “The Pirate Cruncher”, they performed a drama activity called conscience alley where they were tasked with persuading a pirate to either embark on a journey to find treasure or not.  They used sentences they had constructed to create a postcard to said pirate to either persuade or dissuade them from their quest for treasure.  

We looked at the different ways that the National Portrait Gallery was referred to in a persuasive article and discussed how this helps to avoid repetition and aid with cohesion across a text.  The children worked in teams to come up with different ways to refer to London Zoo and created an advertisement poster.  

We looked at the structure of a persuasive text and planned how we would persuade another child to visit London Zoo.

Next week we will move on to writing our persuasive texts.

British Values Week

This week the children have learnt about the 5 British values, looking at one each day.  They enjoyed coming to school on Wednesday in the colours of their country and a British menu.  We have discussed what it means to be British and what values are considered to be British.

Times Table Rock Stars

Please support your child in learning their multiplication facts so that they can say them without hesitation by encouraging your child to look into their Times Table Rock Star accounts for a minimum of 3 minutes every day. Repetition of the facts will enable them to recall their multiplication and division facts with greater ease.  

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading

We continue to encourage the children daily reading however all home reading will now be online and no books will be going home. We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 12th April  - Friday 16th April 2021

(Summer 1, Week 1)

Maths

This week we looked at some data presented in different ways: pictograms, bar charts and line graphs.  The children were able to interpret the information given to answer questions.  They moved on to creating their own bar charts  after collecting some data about the number rolled on a 1-6 dice 50 times.  They plotted the data on to their own graphs, generating their own questions to ask others about what their chart was showing.  We remembered to give the chart a title, to label the X and Y axes and read the scales carefully.

We then moved on to line graphs where the children drew their own line graph, plotted the data and answered questions on what the data showed.

English

We started our new unit which is about persuasion by reading a book called “The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish”.  We looked at the persuasive devices that are used when trying to get someone to do what you want.   The children tried to persuade their teachers for an extra 5 minutes of break - they need to employ some more convincing reasons 😆.

The children used a model to give reasons for wanting to swap their teacher for a day, for something they really wanted.  The children were able to look at real-life examples of where companies/venues try to persuade people to visit them; we looked to see which types of persuasive devices they had used; we evaluated their effectiveness at persuading us to visit.  

We chose London Zoo as our destination to persuade people to visit and thought about reasons why people might not want to visit and wrote some counter arguments in a poster format.

Watch out parents - your children may become better at persuading you over the next couple of weeks 😁

Times Table Rock Stars

Please support your child in learning their multiplication facts so that they can say them without hesitation by encouraging your child to look into their Times Table Rock Star accounts for a minimum of 3 minutes every day. Repetition of the facts will enable them to recall their multiplication and division facts with greater ease.  

Please get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need their login information.

Reading

We continue to encourage the children daily reading however all home reading will now be online and no books will be going home. We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day. 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 15th March- Thursday 18th March 2021

(Week 4 Spr 2)

British Science Week

This week we have celebrated British Science week and each year group had a different project they were working on; year 4’s was to work in groups to set up a farm shop business and design, make and market a new lunchtime food product using dairy products.  The children first learnt about the human digestive system – the parts and functions.  They then made a model of the digestive system to demonstrate the different processes that happen when you eat food

• Step 1: Add a cracker and a piece of banana to a sandwich bag and break up (teeth)
• Step 2: Add water to aid in digestion (saliva)
• Step 3: Add orange juice to help further the digestion (stomach/stomach acid)
• Step4: Transfer the contents from the sandwich bag to a pair of tights over a tray – the liquid will run off and this represents how the body (small intestine) absorbs the liquid nutrients
• Step 5: Transfer the solids from the tights into a cup with a hole in the bottom (large intestine) and push the solids through with another cup (anus).

The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity, although the smell was unpleasant to say the least.

Next, we looked at the teeth and used mirrors to check which teeth we had and mapped them on a mouth.  We discussed the need to look after our teeth and what happens when we do not take care of our teeth.

We moved on to states of matter and we talked about reversible and irreversible reactions. To help the children understand the way particles are made up in solids, liquids and gasses and how they behave, we used a parachute and some plastic balls to demonstrate.

We set up an investigation to find out which ice cream product melted the fastest and set up a fair test before making predictions.  We measured the temperature and volume of ice cream that had changed state from a solid to a liquid over time.  We then turned our results into a line graph and wrote a conclusion.

A healthy, balanced diet was discussed and we went through the foods in each of the groups and looked at the ‘eat well’ plate to help us to think about how much of each food group we should be aiming to eat.  Moving on from this, we started to design a healthy, nutritious breakfast drink and carried out market research to find which product would be the most popular.  Next week we will move on to learning about dairy, making a dairy product and also making our breakfast drinks, in addition to calculating profit and marketing/advertising the product.

We have used our skills in English and Maths throughout the week and the children have enjoyed the activities

Chicks

The children had the opportunity to visit the new-born chicks and have a gentle hold of them – they are so cute!  4V gave one of them the nickname ‘Loud-y’ – can’t think why!  There were 5 on Thursday and we hope to see the remaining chicks on Monday when they have hopefully hatched.  Thank you to Mrs Norman for feeding and looking after the chicks.

Times Table Rock Stars

Please support your child in learning their multiplication facts so that they can say them without hesitation by encouraging your child to look into their Times Table Rock Star accounts for a minimum of 3 minutes every day. Repetition of the facts will enable them to recall their multiplication and division facts with greater ease.

Reading

We continue to encourage the children daily reading however all home reading will now be online and no books will be going home. We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  We suggest that in Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day.

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes 5-10 minutes on it every day
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

____________________________________________________________________________________

Monday 8th March- Friday 12th March 2021

(Week 3 Spr 2)

Welcome Back Everyone!

It has been so nice to see everyone back at school this week. We really want to thank you all for your hard work and support during this recent lockdown and hope that the children will now remain in school until the end of the year.

 English

This week we have revisited basic skills with the children based on an e-book called ‘A Place for Plastic’. The children have worked hard on some of the Year 4 writing skills such as full stops, capital letters, inverted commas, fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases. They have practiced writing these in full sentences as well as creating their own short conversations where they used direct speech and the punctuation rules that were needed.

Maths

This week the focus has been on developing our recall of multiplication facts.  We have revisited and rehearsed multiplication facts from the 2, 5 and 10 times tables before moving onto the 6, 7, 9, 25 and 1000s facts. We have also drawn arrays for multiplication and have been playing Multiplication Connect 4.

As we are now using Times Table Rock Stars, we have been completing practice sessions where the children either answer multiplication or division of a chosen times tables.  To make it fun we have been listening to some great rock music and challenging ourselves whist we try to beat previous score during these sessions. 

To support those children who have been unable to access their accounts or misplaced their logins, we have sent home today a keyring with this information on(as well as their e-book logins) which you can hang up or keep on the fridge.

Please support your child in learning their multiplication facts so that they can say them without hesitation by encouraging your child to look into their Times Table Rock Star accounts for a minimum of 3 minutes every day. Repetition of the facts will enable them to recall their multiplication and division facts with greater ease.

Virtual Parents Meetings

We are looking forward to speaking with you online next week about how your child has settled back into school after the long break and for you to share information about your child from lockdown.  *You only need to make an appointment if you have a concern or want to speak to your child's teacher.*  If you are unable to get online or make an appointment, please speak with us at the end of the day or email us to arrange a telephone appointment (email addresses are at the top of this page).

4V – Monday 15^th March 2021 1.30pm -3.30pm

4D – Thursday 18^th March 2021 1.30pm -3.30pm

Reading

We continue to encourage the children daily reading however all home reading will now be online and no books will be going home. We will send their reading record books home and will need to be signed each day when you have heard your child read.  We suggest that in Year 4 children are to read independently or to an adult for about 10 – 15 minutes every day.

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Science Week 15^th March – 18^th March 2021

Next week is British Science Week and we will be taking part in a number of lessons to celebrate Science in our school. Children will be working in groups to set up a farm shop business and design, make and market a new lunchtime food product using dairy products.

We hope that it will be an enjoyable, fun learning experience for all!

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Times Table Rock Stars and spend a minimum of 3 minutes 5-10 minutes on it everyday,(logins have been sent home with all children today on a keyring.)
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

____________________________________________________________________________________

Monday 16th November- Friday 20th November 2020

(Week 3 Aut 2)

 English

The children have worked hard this week on planning their own stories where Biscuit Bear goes on a different adventure.  They ensured that they wrote notes and key phrases in their plans of the key information (this is a skill in itself – to not write in full sentences as we are so used to doing so).  We then moved on to looking at the conventions for direct speech and the punctuation rules that are needed (please see the PowerPoint, poster and activities below for more detail).

We looked at paragraphs and why they are needed (for a change of time, place (setting), character or topic) and some children are beginning to use paragraphing in their work. 

We have been working hard on including description and developing the mood of a character through what they say and how they are described.  We thought about the exciting parts of our story and tried to make this sound exciting to the reader.

We completed our stories and next week we will be editing our stories before publishing them (writing up in best) before starting our new whole school unit based on a book called ‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin.

Maths

The focus this week has been on developing our recall of multiplication facts.  We have looked at and drawn arrays for multiplication and division and how these can help with our facts.  We have regrouped them as another way to help us remember/learn our facts e.g. 7x5 = 5x5 (25) + 2x5 (10) = 35. This is known as the distributive law of multiplication; a multiplication can be spilt up in any way and the answer will still be the same.  We have been practicing our facts by creating flash cards so we can test ourselves and others.

Please support your child in learning their multiplication facts so that they can say them without hesitation

 Anti-bullying week

This week was Anti-bullying week.  We discussed the different types of bullying and watched a video assembly by NSPPC about ‘Speak Out, Stay Safe’.  We talked to the children about what they can do if they are being bullied or aren’t sure who they can turn to.  We listed who trusted adults could be for us at school and at home.

Next week we will be taking part in Road Safety Week

Virtual Parents Meetings

We enjoyed being able to speak with you online about how your child has settled back into school after the long break.  If you didn’t manage to get online or make an appointment, please speak with us at the end of the day or email us to arrange a telephone appointment (email addresses are at the top of this page)

Reading

This is an area that is extremely important and will help your child immensely.  JK Rowling says: 

"I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I’m in good company there.

Read.

Read.

Read.

The more you read, the bigger your arsenal of words will be. The more you read, the better your grasp of metaphor, poetry, beauty, passion, and empathy will be. The more you read, the greater you will be as a writer.

It’s like learning more dance moves or impressively difficult notes on an instrument. The more you learn, the better you’ll be."

Source: https://thewritepractice.com/rowling-rules-of-writing/ 

Please support us in reading with your child 4 times a week, as a minimum and ensure that the reading record is signed.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• 4D - Boys return books and record on Tuesdays, Girls return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 2nd November- Friday 6th November 2020 (Week 1 Aut 2)

 English

The children completed and performed speeches about banning the dark based on the book, ‘The King Who Was Banned the Dark’. They got to choose whether to argue their case either supporting the King’s decision to ban the dark or as the Dark. Himself.  They gave some excellent reasons for and against and were able to introduce use subordinating and coordinating conjunctions as well as prepositions.

We have now started a new text, ‘Biscuit Bear’ by Mini Grey.  The book aimed at younger audiences and we will creating an audio version for younger members of the school as well as writing stories for aa younger audience.

Maths

The focus this week has been on developing mental strategies for subtraction (decomposition) and the children have been able to transfer strategies they have learned for addition to help work out calculations.  They have also shown how they can regroup the minuend (the number being subtracted from) and have drawn models to help them begin to set out their written calculations.

  School Parliament

Class 4V were able to hold their elections and have successfully nominated Joshua and Lacey as their representatives.

Class 4D will be holding their elections on Monday so a quick reminder to all that they will need to have their speeches ready for Monday 9^th November.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have all windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• 4D - Boys return books and record on Tuesdays, Girls return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 5th October- Friday 9th October 2020 (week 6)

 English

The children completed their short narratives and spent time editing with their partners before publishing their work.  They used an editing station sheet that guided them to look at punctuation – capitals, full stops, as well as getting them to look at their use of fronted adverbials and other figurative language such as similes, metaphors and alliteration. Children were encouraged to use exciting vocabulary and to follow the structure of the text.

We are starting our new book called ‘The King Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ next week.

Maths

The focus this week has been on understanding, comparing and estimating decimals to 1 decimal place. We have focused on place value of decimals and broken it down to understand the value of each digits.  We then went on to regrouped decimals so that 1 ten could be regrouped into 10 ones or 1 could be regrouped into 10 tenths.  The children found this difficult at first but now have a better understanding of it.

We also focused on comparing two decimals with 1 decimal place and used bead strings to visualise which was greater or less and recorded these using the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols. 

Next week we will be continuing to look at the addition and subtraction of numbers mentally and formal writing.

PE

Year 4 have been working very hard in their PE lessons with Coach Dan and have been working on invasion games for their second lesson with their class teacher.  As the weather is becoming more autumnal, we will need to do PE indoors from time to time.  This means that the children will have to remove their shoes and socks to take part however it has come to our attention that some children have been unable to do so as they have a verruca.  We just want to remind you that if your child has a verruca then they will need to wear either a verruca sock or plimsolls for their lessons.

 Science

In Science, we have been investigating the question ‘Did the Romans use toilet paper?’ over the last few weeks and the children had an exciting lesson on Thursday testing the wipe ability of different materials.  Please make sure you ask your child about their work and the reaction  Ms Kneller who came especially to look at their work!

 World Mental Health Day

In honour of World Mental Health Day, Saturday 10^th October, the children have been asked to come to school on Monday wearing something that makes them feel good. This could be their favourite colour or football kit – just as long as they feel good. 

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have all windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• 4D - Boys return books and record on Tuesdays, Girls return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 28th September- Friday 2nd October 2020 (week 5)

English

The children continued to work on developing their detailed descriptions of creatures to include as part of their short story. Using vocabulary sheets for reference, we wrote a short paragraph about our creature. We thought about how we could describe actions through verb choice and wrote about how our main character would move through the different parts of our map.

We then planned the beginning, middle and end of our short story which we will then edit and publish our adventure story next week.

Maths

This week we have been working on estimating and finding the approximate value of a number. We looked at what values we needed to write on a number line to help us guess a mystery number. When recording our guess we used the symbol for approximate(≈).  We used this to help us round numbers to the nearest 10 by using a number line. By working out what two tens the number were either side of the number, we could decide which ten it was closet to. We also looked at rounding numbers to the nearest 100 and 1000. 

We continued our learning of place value and that ten times smaller than 1 is a tenth. We drew number bars to show that when one whole is divided into ten equal parts then one part is a tenth and recorded the values as 1/10.  We then went on to record 1/10 as a decimal 0.1.

Next week is Walk to school week - please try to walk, scooter, cycle or park and stride (parking further away).  Not only is walking so good for our health, it will help to reduce the cars/vehicles and pollution on our roads.  Please see the website link below for more details

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/products-and-services/projects/walk-to-school-week

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have all windows open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• 4D - Boys return books and record on Tuesdays, Girls return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  

Monday 21st- Friday 25th September 2020 (week 4)

English

The children wrote the next part of the adventure and used their sentence checkers to check that they had used:

• Capital letters at the start
• Included a verb
• They had a subject of the sentence (about someone/something)
• A complete idea (makes sense)
• End punctuation

The children then published their work on special paper, in best.  We have now begun our unit of work based on the book “Arthur and the Golden Rope” by Joe Todd-Stanton.  We made predictions based on the front cover and maps and asked questions to our peers.  We thought about our most treasured possession and wrote clauses which we then joined with some coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or).  We have begun to think about the creatures we will write into our own stories based on the book – one creature who will have a special power and help the main character and one who is threatening.  Next week we will be writing detailed descriptions of these creatures and their actions; moving on to planning and writing our own adventure stories.

Maths

We have continued our work on place value and number, compared, and ordered 4-digit numbers.  We remembered that we have to look at the greatest value (Thousands/Th) first to compare and then move on to the Hundreds etc if the digits are the same.  The children used the symbols for less than, greater than and equal too; see if they can write a number sentence with these in correctly e.g. 4367 > 4357.  We have played games to consolidate this.  We have continued to practice the times tables facts and number bonds to 20.

Well done to 4Victoria class for having 100% attendance for last week!  It means that on Monday you can come to school in NON-UNIFORM JJ We hope to see 4D achieving their 100% attendance soon.

Please do call the office if you are unsure whether to send your child into school due to them feeling unwell – they can give you their advice based on what we have been told by the government.

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have all windows and doors open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  
• Please ensure that your contact details that we hold are correct - some email addresses are bouncing emails back as 'undeliverable' and it is important that you are receiving information from school and the class teachers.

Monday 14th - Friday 18th September 2020 (week 3)

We had another busy but great week in year 4!

English

This week the children in school have been continuing their English work on the book Journey by Aaron Becker.  The children made lanterns as pictured in the book by following instructions, which showed us that we need to read instructions carefully before rushing ahead.  The lanterns look great and are hanging in our classroom. The children thought about their hopes for year 4 and wrote these on a 'flame' that was secured inside the lanterns; we then evaluated the instructions.  The children used expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and figurative language (similes/metaphors/personification) to describe a scene from the book. Next we worked in our pairs and rows to create a group poem describing the amazing journey the girl had when she travelled on a magic carpet.  Finally, we discussed what the next part of the adventure for the boy and girl could be and wrote the next part of the story.

Next week we will be working on editing our work and publishing our writing.  We will then be moving on to our next book.

Maths

We have continued our work on place value and number. We have looked at patterns and rules that the times tables follow e.g. that the multiples for the 2s, 4s and 8s always end in 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8.  The children worked on their fluency (being able to quickly remember/recall facts/answers) and we revisited time.  We are remembering how we read time on an analogue clock and reading how many minutes to the next hour it is e.g. 4.35 = 25 minutes to 5.  

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Water bottles - please ensure your child has a labelled water bottle in school every day
• Layering - please ensure that your child comes to school with a jumper/cardigan and coat/jacket to put on when they are feeling cold as we have all windows and doors open to aid in ventilation.  Children are permitted to wear their coat in the classroom (after asking the teacher)
• Items from home - please do not allow your child to bring in items from home except from their lunch bag (if applicable), coat and water bottle.
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record 
• 4V - Girls return books and record on Tuesdays, Boys return books and records on Thursdays 
• Please remember to sign the reading record.  Your child can complete the date, book title and pages read column, leaving you to complete the comment/sign column.  
• Please ensure that your contact details that we hold are correct - some email addresses are bouncing emails back as 'undeliverable' and it is important that you are receiving information from school and the class teachers.

Monday 7th - Friday 11th September 2020 (week 2)

Well, we made it – a full week back at school after such a long time away.  We are so pleased with how your children have returned with enthusiasm, smiling and happy to be back at school.  We are so glad to be back in the classroom together!  The children have made a fantastic return to school and a brilliant start to year 4! 

Well done to the children in year 4 for being super at coming back to school and following all of our new routines!

English

This week the children in school have been doing their learning through a book called Journey, which is a wordless book.  They have used conjunctions to write sentences about the character’s feelings and thoughts.  They acted scenes out and freeze-framed; giving suggestions for what the character would have said.  We have recapped and sequenced the main events in the story and written poems about colours using our senses.  We have been remembering to add capital letters and punctuation at the end of a sentence and have recapped how we record how someone is speaking (inverted commas for direct speech).

We will be continuing to complete work based on the text next week. Ask your child to tell you what happens?  What would they draw if they had a magic crayon?

Maths

We have worked on reigniting our learning of place value through making three-digit numbers, ordering them, writing them in words and numerals.  We have played games that involved regrouping when there was more than 9 in a column e.g. 6 + 7 = 13, we can only have up to 9 ones in the Ones column, so we have to regroup/exchange 10 ones for 1 Ten.  Similarly, we can only have up to 9 tens (90) in the Tens column.  Ask your child to explain by drawing the dienes out.  We have been remembering our number bonds to 20 also with quick recall of these facts.  At home, you could play ‘ping pong’ with the number bonds: person A says 7, person B says what is needed to make 20 e.g. 13, repeat and swap over – can the parent be as quick as the child?

Topic – I am Warrior!

We started off our new topic by having a Roman vs Celts invasion on the field, which the children thoroughly enjoyed and want a re-match. 😊

Our topic focus is History and our science is also linked to it – Did the Romans use toilet paper? The children will be completing investigations into the absorbency, durability, softness and wipe-ability of different materials (not on themselves!)

What a great start to the school year! 

Well done and thank you to all pupils and parents!

Thank you for your continued support!

The year 4 team 😊

Reminders:

• PE on Fridays - come to school with PE kit on
• Children to log in to Maths Whizz and spend a minimum of 45-60 minutes in the tutor a week, making 4 progressions (please speak to your child's teacher if you need their logins for www.whizz.com )
• Reading homework - read with your child a minimum of 4 times a week and record in reading record (these will be sent home this week - please ask your child's teacher which day they will be required to be brought back in).  Until you have the reading record - please record on paper, ready to transfer to the reading record.
• Check the Meet the Teacher powerpoint below for further information about year 4 as well as watching our welcome videos 

Welcome back to the new Year 4 children we are so excited to see you!  We hope you have had a nice, relaxing summer break and are looking forward to the new year ahead.

We have a fantastic and adventurous new topic this half term:  I Am Warrior!

What do you think this might be about?

We would like to just remind you that when you arrive on Thursday morning you will be going straight to your old classrooms in Year 3 but we will get to spend some time together on Thursday afternoon before we start our new Year together on Friday in your new classrooms.

We have a great activity planned for Friday so we would like you to bring in a small photograph of yourself or a small drawing which you will need for your transition activity.  It only needs to show your head and shoulders.

Please remember to only bring in your water bottles and a packed lunch from home, if this is your lunch option, as all writing equipment will be provided for you and will remain in school.  As the classrooms will need to be ventilated at all times, please make sure that you wear your jumpers or cardigans to keep warm.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday 3rd September at 8.50 am. 

Have a good week, everybody!

Week Beginning 11th May

Please find Maths, English and topic learning (Ancient Egyptians) for the week.

Work through the powerpoint on the Pyramids and answer the questions it asks.

For more information, visit the link to the British Museum site below:

Week Beginning 4th May 2020

Hello again, and a big Thank You to all of you who have sent in your work. We have seen some really excellent quality of learning in all areas: maths, English, science, art and topic work, as well as the challenges that you have completed. It's been good to see photos of other activities that you have been up to as well, from baking and cooking to sports and examples of good neighbourliness.

Please do continue to make the best of your time while staying safe and looking after your families. We all miss you all and look forward to the time when we see you all in school again.

Below are maths and English activities as well  as topic work for the week, but remember that you can also find lots of good learning opportunities online, for example at BBC Bitesize, and remember to keep up the good work on Maths Whizz.

*The sheets do not need to be printed off, you are welcome to write the answers on paper to then email to us*

Week Beginning Monday April 27th

Dear Year 4,
As we are still not back in school, in order to know how you are doing, we are going to ask you to email us on the class e-mail by Thursday each week to let us know what you have been up to during the week. If we haven’t heard from you then we are planning to give your family a quick ring on the Friday to say hi and see if there is anything you need us to help you with.
So if, by next Thursday, you can send us an email with a quick update on how you are and what you have been doing that would be great. Also tell us if you’d still like a call anyway, and we can ring on the Friday to say hi and catch up.

All the best from Miss Parker and Mr. McKeever

Watch this space for more weekly and daily activities.

Tadeo Jones

Watch a second time, then map out the different settings in the story.

When do you start to notice something unexpected?

Write the story as a diary entry, with you as the protagonist (main character).

Study the pictures carefully and draw them. They show the front and back of the same object.

What questions do you have about object and the images on it? Write down your questions, then answer these questions:

a) What do you think this object tells us about Ancient Egypt?

b) Why do you think it is important for historians to study all sorts of sources of information?

Week Beginning 20th April 2020

Hello again, everybody. We hope you are all keeping well. As Miss Kneller says in her newsletter, please do send in any pictures, photos or other examples of activities you have been doing of any kind. We will be happy to look at them all and offer our feedback. Please also feel free to use either of the year 4 class emails in case there is any problem getting through to one of us. The school admin address is also an option.

We are also more than happy to take your feedback about the kind of learning we are setting. There are different kinds of maths challenge each week, but 'Fluency in Five' is a five-day series of challenges that build up in complexity as you go on. The English challenges will always include spelling to practise, as well as grammar work, reading comprehensions or writing. Again though, please feel free to send in any work that you would like us to look at.

This week we also focus on British Values: Democracy, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Different Faiths and Beliefs, Individual Liberty and Respect for the rule of Law. Below is a grid of activities that we would like children to choose from.

Stay safe and well; more next week.

Tuesday 14th April

Hello, and a belated Happy Easter to you all.

Obviously, we are still in the Easter holidays. We hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the break as best you can. However, with the current uncertainty about when schools will be opening again, here are some activities for you children to keep your hand in with your learning.

It is good to see that many of you are making good progress on Maths Whizz, although other year groups have caught up and overtaken us, so keep on Maths whizzing!

Maths and English work for the coming week are included here.

The topic for this Summer term is 'Walk Like an Egyptian', looking at Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians, so here are some introductory activities.

Home Learning for the Week Beginning 6th April 2020

Hello again, we hope you are all still well and finding ways to keep busy but also happy and safe. It is good to see that some of you have been working hard on the challenges set so far. Thank you to everybody who has sent in work. What we have seen has often been of a very high standard. There has been a lot of movement on Maths Whizz, too. Well done all.

Below is maths, English and science work for this coming week. Please note, too, the link to BBC Bitesize, which is always another good place to visit in order to reinforce learning.

A message from Mr. McKeever and Miss Parker:

We hope you are all keeping happy and safe. As you can see, there are plenty of activities postred here and a link to free resources to help with your learning. Please do continue to practise your maths and English skills a little every day, as well as looking out for interesting Science and topic learning. Also, keep practising on Maths Whizz. We do check and some of you are making really great progress. Again, little and often is the best way.

Obviously this is a strange new situation and it can get stressful being cooped up at home for a long time. We do miss you all and look forward to welcoming you back to school as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please remember to look after yourselves and your families, be kind, be safe and be involved!

English Work:

Read the story of Little Pele (files above) carefully. Use the KTW grids to write what you know, what you think and what questions you have (wonder) about Little Pele and Drenga.

Write your own short version of the story from the point of view of either Drenga or Gabriella. Remember to write in paragraphs, in the first person - you are the central character of the story.

Learning Week Beginning March 16th 2020

As you will all be only too aware, this week has been marked by the developments nationally of the Coronavirus outbreak, Covid 19. We began the week with near full classes and ended it on Thursday with just 22 children in the two Year 4 classes.

This of course has had a significant impact on the learning deliverable, with only two days of formal maths and English lessons. Please find above a range of activities for children to pursue either independently or with adult help. We hope to add to this content over the coming weeks.

Please note that our planned residential trip to PGL Marchant's Hill has been postponed indefinitely. We will update our information as and when we have it. Please accept our apologies for the current situation.

Learning Week Beginning March 9th 2020

In English this week we have been researching, planning and writing a non-chronological report on our topic area: Brazil. We will be writing up the final version of these reports on Monday.

Our dedicated topic lesson this week looked at migration patterns in Brazil and the factors that induce people to move from more rural parts of the country to the big urban centres such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo or Porto Alegre.

Maths this week has linked our previous work on decimals to calculating with money, adding and subtracting amounts of money and problem solving around the cost of meals.

In Science, the children have been learning about the different kinds of teeth and their functions.

Learning Week Beginning 2nd March 2020

This week of course co-incided with World Book Day, which we celebrated with a detailed look at the book "Dreams of Freedom" by Amnesty International. The children looked at pages dedicated to a range of campaigners for different aspects of freedom and human rights, including quotes from people such as Anne Frank, Harriet Tubman, Chief Standing Bear, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. In particular, we looked at the story of Malala Yousafzai and her fight for education, particularly education for girls.

The children were given the choice of writing a letter or poem in response to Malala's story and some of the things she has had to say on the themes of education and freedom. These, they then edited and wrote up in best for display.

Also, as a celebration of books and reading, Year 4 paired up with Year 1 and Nursery to do 'buddy reading' together. Photos will appear here shortly!

In maths this week, we have continued work on decimals, looking at ordering, rounding and calculating with numbers of up to 2 decimal places.

Our topic work on Brazil has focused on the physical and human features of the country as well as looking at climate data for cities in different parts of the country. The children practised drawing climate graphs for the different locations using the data and revising their data handling skills at the same time.

We also had an introduction to Samba rhythms and the kind of instruments used to create the Samba sound.

Learning Week Beginning 24th February 2020

Although the new half-term got off to a soggy start, the children were still animated enough to take part in our Carnival Parade, complete with face-masks, whistles and percussion instruments. Many thanks to those of you who made a special effort to dress the children up for the occasion.

Our topic learning began with an introduction to Brazil, with the children mind-mapping what they already know and what they would like to find out.

In English this week, we have looked at the features of non-fiction, non-chronological reports, including looking at several examples of the genre with reading comprehensions and note-taking activities. We will apply this learning to researching and writing reports about Brazil.

Our Maths learning has focused on working with decimals, decimal place-value and linking decimal numbers to tenths and hundredths.

Learning Week Beginning 10th February 2020

The final week of the first Spring half term saw a lot of finishing off work on our topic and science units about plant and animal habitats, classification keys and different biomes.

In maths, we completed the unit on shapes, looking at reflective symmetry in a range of 2D shapes, while also focusing on the properties of quadrilaterals and what makes a shape regular or irregular.

Our work in English looked at the use of persuasive language.

Learning Week Beginning 3rd February 2020

In Maths this week, we have been investigating the properties of 2D shapes, paricularly relating to quadrilaterals and parallel and perpendicular lines. The children have done a lot of work sorting, recognising, making and drawing shapes.

The focus in English has been for the children to plan, write, edit and improve their own version of "The Wolves in the Walls".

Our topic work has involved looking at how much we are still dependent on plants for so many of the things we use in everyday life, and where all these plant-based products come from.

Learning Week Beginning 27th January 2020

In English this week we have been reading and analysing the well-known fantasy graphic novel The Wolves in the Walls. The children have enjoyed reading and acting out parts of the story and have written some good responses to it.

Maths has focused on investigating perimeters of rectilinear shapes and how to work out the perimeter of a rectangle, even if we only know the length of one or two sides. As this was the last unit corresponding to the Autumn scheme of work, we have also been testing the children on their learning in maths this academic year - very generally very encouraging results!

Our topic learning has focused on where our food comes from and considering which foodstuffs we are self-sufficient in as a country and which we need to import and from where. It may be interesting for families to have this kind of conversation at home and raise children's awareness of where their food comes from by looking at food labeling at home and in the supermarket.

Learning Week Beginning 20th January 2020

This week in Maths we have been looking at data handling, interpreting data in pictograms, bar charts and line graphs, as well as collecting data and presenting it in the most appropriate ways. We have also revisited what perimeter is and how to calculate the perimeter of rectangles.

In English, the children have planned, drafted, re-drafted, edited and then written up their own versions of a survival story for publication in a class book. They have worked hard on this, taking the re-drafting and publication stages very seriously.

Science has again focused on classification keys for animals and plants, but this time linking to different habitats and looking in more detail at the characteristics of different creatures. Alongside this, the children have researched in books and on the internet and written about extreme desesrt environments, hot and cold, and the life forms that exist there.

Learning Week Beginning January 13th 2020

Everybody has worked very hard this week to live up to expectations and move forward with our learning.

In topic and science work, we have looked at the different biomes that make up our world, including researching examples of the plants and animals that may be found in a particular biome in our computing time. We have also learned how all living things may be classified according to their characteristics and how to use questions to classify animals in clasification keys.

In Maths, we have concentrated on time and ways of adding and subtracting hours and minutes, as well as problem-solving duration using different methods of calculation.

English has focused again on real-life survival stories, this week looking at one man's experience on the slopes of Mount Everest. After picking out the vocabulary and language features of the story, the children have planned, then written their own version of the story of Lincoln Hall using a recounting format.

Learning Week Beginning 6th January 2020

Firstly, may we wish a belated Happy New Year to all? This week we have got quickly into our stride, although a little creakily at times after the Christmas break!

In maths, we have been comparing, measuring and estimating using different units of measurement, including time. The children have responded well and part of their homework is to look at measures around the home.

Our topic this half term is habitats, looking at the conditions in which plants and animals grow and thrive. This week in science, we have looked at the processes that all living things share and the children have enjoyed sorting animals according to different criteria.

The children have also been finding out about plant life around the world, including some weird and wonderful species and where they grow, as part of our geography focus.

In English, too, we have been following our topical theme as we have been reading and producing writing about real-life survival stories set in different challenging environments - the Amazon rainforest, and the Sahara desert.

Learning Week Beginning 9th December 2019

Firstly, please accept our apologies for failing to update this page last week! What follows is a resume of the last two weeks in Year 4.

In maths this week, we have been looking at the effect on numbers of multiplying and dividing by 10 or 100. As well as appreciating the size of the change when numbers are multiplied or divided by powers of ten, the children have been learning how the numbers are written down - how the digits of a number move a place or two places to the left when multiplying, and to the right when dividing. This means that the children have also learned about decimals and tenths and hundredths as well as how these are written.

These are important steps and the children have applied themselves well to the learning.

The previous week, we looked at solving word problems of increasing complexity using bar modelling and solving problems using all four operations.

Our focus in English over the past two weeks has been on free-verse poetry and what makes this different from rhyming and more rigourously structured poetry. We have looked at "Words are Ours", by Michael Rosen, and contrasted this with the free-verse of "The Magic Box", by Kit Wright.

The children have enjoyed this work, particularly the opportunity to write their own free-verse poems.

At this time of year, as Christmas approaches, some lessons necessarily have to give way for other activities, and on Monday the children were treated to a pantomime performance of Cinderella.

However, we have continued with science and the children have been experimenting with electrical circuits to find out which materials are conductors of electricity and which act as insulators.

Learning Week Beginning 25th November 2019

Another busy week has drawn to a close, so busy that some of the children did not receive their weekly spellings this week! Please accept our apologies; the spelling lists are included below.

In Maths this week, we have been working on solving word problems involving all four operations using bar modelling to help understand the problems. The children have worked well, demonstrating good learning skills, but again we should stress the importance of them learning and memorising times tables facts.

English has involved pulling together the learning about Greek and Roman myths as the children have planned and written myths of their own.

We have continued to compare our local area with that of Sheffield in topic learning. This week we have looked at land use in the two areas with the help of Google maps and satellite imagery. The children have been learning about how land is used for agriculture, industry, retail, housing, sport and services.

Our topic in science is electricity and this week we have begun looking at electrical circuits and how these work.

Learning Week Beginning 18th November 2019

The children have worked hard again this week, including follow-up work on our St. Albans trip looking at how the physical features of our local area compare with another UK locality, Sheffield.

This week was also Road Safety Week and Year 4 were visited by the HGV Road Safety Programme sponsored by Gist. Both classes were given a very informative presentation focusing on safety around HGVs, but also on staying safe on and near the road in general. This included the chance to sit in the driver's seat of the cab of an articulated lorry and appreciate both the size of the vehicle and how high up the driver sits and the limits to his or her range of vision.

English this week has focused on grammatical features of texts such as the use of expanded noun phrases and how to punctuate direct speech, all in the context of the topic focus of understanding Greek and Roman myths.

In Maths, we have continued to work on multiplication and division facts, including finding the factors of numbers and how to work out scaling and correspondence problems.

Miss Summers also held a meeting this week to inform parents about the times tables testing that all Year 4 children will be expected to take next June. Unfortunately, the meeting was not well attended, but we should emphasise the importance of children practising and learning their times tables facts in preparation for the test.

Learning Week Beginning 11th November 2019

This week was Anti-Bullying Week and the children were introduced to a company called Shogun Karate, who came in to help the children understand what bullying is, the different types of bullying and how to cope with and confront bullying through the concept of " change starts with us".

In Maths, we have continued to work on gaining confidence with multiplication facts and the patterns they produce, again through working with arrays, but also understanding how division is the inverse of multiplication.

We have also looked at the rules of divisibility and how to work out what numbers a number is divisible by.

Our learning in English has again focused on Roman mythology, continuing the story of Venus and how she became enamoured of a mortal, Anchises of Troy and how their son, Aeneas went on to found Rome.

In our topic work, the children have located Sheffield, St. Alban's and Borehamwood on the map of Britain before looking in more detail at some of the features of Sheffield and St. Alban's on local maps. This of course, we followed up with our visit to St. Alban's Cathedral on Friday, which was a great success, with the children learning the story of Alban, Britain's first Christian martyr and taking part in a mosaics workshop.

Learning Week Beginning 4th November 2019

A short week due to Friday's INSET day, but it has been a busy start to the new half-term nontheless.

In English, we have begun a new unit looking at myths, linking back to our Romans topic. In particular, the children were introduced to the story of Venus - how she was formed out of sea-spray, appearing fully formed as an adult and the effect she caused on the other gods of the pantheon. The children wrote notes on their initial impressions before completing diary entries from the point of view of the goddess herself.

The focus in Maths has been on understanding multiplication and learning times tables facts through constructing arrays. This is a particularly important aspect of the children's learning this year, especially since they are expected to have a good command of all times tables facts up to and including the 12 times table by the end of the year. We encourage regular practice of times tables at home and welcome parents' help in encouraging and supporting the children.

Our new topic centres on Saint Alban's in the context of comparing and contrasting localities in the UK. We will also be looking at Sheffield as part of this topic.

Science learning is focusing on electricity and this week we have explored children's initial ideas about what electricity is, the devices that use it and how it is generated.

Learning Week Beginning 21st October 2019

This week we have been rounding off our topic work on the Romans, researching Roman Gods and Goddesses, making mosaics and parading the magnificent shields that children made for homework. A big thank you goes out to mums and dads for their help in configuring and getting homework sent in.

English this week has focused mainly on grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as focusing on effective strategies for finding information in reading.

Our maths focus has begun to look at multiplication, understanding that this is repeated addition, counting in 6s, 7s, 9s and 25s and looking at the patterns these sequences produce. We have also looked at arrays and how more difficult multiplications can be re-grouped using the distributive law.

Overall, this has been a long half term in which the children have worked hard to become acclimatised to the expectations and challenges in year 4. There have been a lot of successes and we hope that the children have also enjoyed their learning.

A reminder that parents' consultations are on the Wednesday and Thursday (November 6th and 7th) of our first week back after the half-term holiday.

Learning Week Beginning 14th October 2019

Maths this week has focused on formal column subtraction of up to 4-digit numbers, a tricky concept which the children have nevertheless handled well and gained confidence in. They have also continued to practise and improve their skills of estimating and then checking their results.

In English, we have continued our learning on newspaper recounts, looking at newspaper articles in guided reading, going over the features of journalistic recounts and planning newspaper stories related to the children's experiences.

Our topic work has looked at Roman roads, mapping out the important roads in Roman Britain, the routes of which continue to be important highways to this day. We have also begun to design the patterns for our own Roman mosaics.

In science this week, we have looked at the processes of evaporation and condensation.

Finally, please note that there will be a meeting in 4 Dahl classroom at 3:30 on Tuesday 22nd October to introduce and explain our Year 4 residential trip to the PGL centre at Marchants Hill, Surrey, which will take place over 3 days in the last week of the Spring Term (30th March to Ist April).

Learning Week Beginning 7th October 2019

The centrepiece of a busy week was when children carrying shields and dressed as Romans became acquainted with the fearsome Celtic Queen Boudica. She proceeded to drill the children into an effective fighting machine, before teaching them about the pantheon of Roman Gods as well as the kind of things they would find on a Celtic and a Roman menu. We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and the children learned a lot about their topic.

In English we have begun a unit on newspaper reporting and the children's experiences in the workshop on Wednesday provided the stimulus for some very good pieces of report writing.

Maths this week has focused on formal written column addition with 3- and 4-digit numbers. Many of the children have shown that they are comfortable using this method, although we still have work to do on estimating answers before beginning the calculations.

This week, too, following their planning for a fair test last week in Science, the children got to test which of a number of materials including bubble-wrap and foil would be the best at keeping an ice cube intact. The results were interesting, although not necessarily conclusive!

As part of World Mental Health Day, we also read and talked about the book A Huge Bag of Worries, by Virginia Ironside. The children were invited to write down their worries on a post-it and place these on our own Bag of Worries. We then looked at these and sorted them into categories so that children could see how there are strategies for managing our worries, and we spoke about what we have in place as a school to help address individual children's worries.

Learning Week Beginning 30th September 2019

This week in English the children finished writing their stories set in Roman times and again practised proof-reading, editing and peer-marking their work.

In maths, we have continued to focus on mental strategies of addition and subtraction in preparation for more formal, written methods.

The focus in science has been to design a fair test to find out which method is the best to keep an ice cube from melting as long as possible -"Save the Ice Cube!" More on this next week.

Finally, a reminder that next Wednesday afternoon the children have their Roman workshop and are encouraged to bring in something withwhich to dress up as a Roman.

Learning Week Beginning 23rd September 2019

Our focus in PSHE (Physical, Social and Health Education) this week has been on friendships and the games we play on the playground. We have also spoken about the class Worry Monsters and how it is OK to feel upset or frustrated but it is important to talk about our feelings and there are always people in school who we can talk to. Also, in assembly, we spoke about random acts of kindness, linking with our school rules - Be Kind, Be safe, Be involved.

We have continued our work on historical fiction in English, with the children acting out, planning and beginning to write their own stories set in Roman times.

Our learning in maths has focused on mental calculation strategies and skills, including rounding and estimating and the strategies of "think 100" and "think 1000", which involve re-grouping two, three and four digit numbers to make calculations easier to deal with.

In Science, we have been investigating the presence of gases around us, while our topic work has involved designing Roman shields in readiness for our forthcoming Roman workshop.

Learning Week Beginning 16th September 2019

It has been another busy week in Year 4!

In maths we have been estimating the position of numbers on different number lines. Later in the week we learned about rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 where we have used our previous learning of ordering numbers and place value to support us.

In English we have continued looking at the book ‘Gladiator Boy’ and have focused on using our senses to describe a setting. We watched a video to help us get into the role of the character and imagined how we would feel.

In 4V we started to create our door display for our classroom. As our class is named after Queen Victoria we have sketched pictures of her. However, we were only given half of the picture each and so had to work carefully to make sure ours would match our partners half.

Exciting visitor!

This week in assembly, Anthony Ogogo came to visit us and spoke about why it is important to work hard and stay motivated.

Summerswood is also participating in the Aldi scheme: if a family spends £30 or more in Aldi they will get a sticker to put on our school poster.  If we fill the poster we could win £20,000 worth of PE kit.

Learning Week Beginning 9th September 2019

Hello, and welcome to this year's Year 4 page.

After a week of "Getting to know you" activities, including our Art Project looking at Leonardo Da Vinci, the children have begun the year's learning in earnest. All have settled in well and we have begun by introducing this half-term's topic of The Romans. Linked to this, in English we have begun reading and doing work on the historical fiction story "Gladiator Boy", looking initially at how characters in fiction are presented.

Maths has focused on place value in 4-digit numbers, how to compare and re-order 4-digit numbers, and what happens when adding or subtracting with numbers including crossing the barrier between hundreds and thousands.

We have also begun work on the changing states of materials in Science as well as other areas of the curriculum such as computing, French, PE and RE.

Please be aware that PE lessons are now on Tuesdays and Thursdays. PE kits should be kept in school throughout the half-term so that children always have their PE kit ready.

Reminder 

Please ensure your child has their PE kit in school every Monday, so it is ready for whenever it is needed as our timetable changes weekly. 

Please also ensure that your child brings their yellow spelling book into school each Friday, ready for the new spellings to be given. 

Thank you. 

Reminder about PE kit:

Plain white T-shirt

Tracksuit top

Tracksuit bottoms

Shorts

Trainers

Please make sure you have everything in your child's PE kit.