Hello!

We hope you’re enjoying the weekend. Here’s a quick round up of what we have been learning this week in Year 4…

In Maths we have started a unit on multiplication and division. We’re relying heavily on our times tables knowledge, so thank you to all of you have been busy practicing in light of parents’ evening targets. We have been using our knowledge of commutative law to solve tricky multiplication problems such as 18 x 5 by writing 18 as a product of its factors, e.g. 2 x 9. We have been reordering the factors to find the easiest way to multiply mentally, e.g. 2 x 5 x 9.

In English we have been writing superb synopses of The Snowman using a variety of language such as fronted adverbials, subordinate clauses and ‘show – don’t tell’ sentences. Here is a snippet from Tilly’s work:

“Beaming through the thin glass, the sunlight wakes the boy. Remembering his frosty friend, he slides down the rickety banister for the second time. He slams the door open and runs outside. A cold tear drops down his face. His snowman is gone.”

In RE we have just finished our unit on Prayers,  Saints and Feasts and we look forward to beginning our work on Advent next week!

Spellings this week are any words ending in the suffix -ful, e.g. careful, beautiful, graceful, etc. Children will be tested on the rule.

See you on Monday 🙂

Team 4

Hello!

In English this week, we have been preparing to start writing a synopsis on ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs. We have created a ‘freeze frame’ tableau retelling the different sections of the story and have adapted past tense verbs into present tense verbs. The children have found this a little tricky, so if you can help your child with this at home, it would be a great advantage!

In Maths, we have continued looking at money, converting pounds into pence and vice versa. We have used our rounding skills to estimate the cost of buying multiple items for a fictional birthday party. Again, any practice you can give your child to use money and buy things will be a real help!

In RE, we have looked at the Luminous Mysteries, the miracles Jesus performed during His preaching years. As part of Anti-Bullying Week, we have showed how we value all of God’s creations and suggested ways to support people who are affected by bullying.

4HA have now finished their computing lessons (programming robots) at Oaklands and 4F look forward to starting theirs the week after next! Keep your eyes peeled for photographs at the end of the term from both classes’ experiences.

Finally, keep working hard on SumDog and times tables. These are the spellings for the week, all of which follow the double consonant rule (a short vowel sound leads to a double consonant, a long vowel sound leads to a single consonant):

Easier Spellings

puddle

poodle

bottle

beetle

smile

still

Trickier Spellings

occasion

suppose

grammar

different

accident

acorn

super

We look forward to seeing you all at parents’ evening next week. Don’t forget to book in if you haven’t already!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Year 4 Team

This week has ended on a high with  the ‘Two Steves’ (of ‘Action Dogs’ and ‘iHero’ fame) visiting our school. The children have been inspired by the authors’ visit, including an assembly and an opportunity to buy books and have them signed. A few children from our year had the opportunity to meet the guests and a couple even had the chance to have lunch with them!

In Maths, this week we have begun a module on money; looking at different ways to make a given amount and comparing the values of different collections of coins. We finished the week by rounding amounts to estimate the cost of items.

In English we have been focussing on how we can write varied and interesting sentences, including fronted adverbials (to tell the reader how, where and when something happens), show-not-tell (to show how a character is feeling through their actions) and short sentences for effect. We have also played around with using paired emotive words as sentences starters, e.g. ‘Afraid yet intrigued, the boy and the snowman flew into the air.’

In RE, we have looked at the work of Moina Michael, an American woman who started the tradition of poppy-wearing around Armistice day. We thought about the emotions connected with the poppy to identify its symbolism and then used some of those keywords to write thoughtful and thought-provoking messages for an offering at our school Remembrance service on  Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Team 4

What a great first week back! The children began the week with a science experiment making fake snow – they showed super collaboration to build their snowmen and it was a very exciting hook into our new topic – What’s the matter Mr. Snowman?

In English, we’ve begun looking at the truly beautiful picture book – The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. The children have used some of the images to infer character’s thoughts and feelings, predict what they think has already happened and to develop their understanding of fronted adverbials.

In maths, we have been learning about perimeter. The children have found missing lengths and carried out investigations where they have been working strategically and spotting patterns.

In RE this week, we have been understanding how Jesus prayed and communicated with God. We have written our own Guide to Prayer in role as Jesus to share with others. Here is an extract from Benita’s work:

You can pray whenever you can but there is a way that you should pray. Prayers should be said respectfully because you are talking to God. Every time you pray, you should pray for others around the world, for guidance and for happiness. You should pray with kindness and there are many things you shouldn’t do whilst praying like: messing around, sing a weird voice and asking for selfish things.

Finally, the children had an enjoyable History day today. In role as Historians and using artefacts, videos and their own research, they learnt all about The Gunpowder Plot – please ask them to tell you why we have bonfire night each year and why the story is an important part of Catholic history.

Wishing all a safe and enjoyable weekend,

The year Four team.