Home Learning 29th April

 

This week's home learning activities allow children to further practise the maths we studied in class and to prepare for next week's learning. 

1) In the children's home learning books they will have an area worksheet. If for some reason it hasn't come home you can access it here.   

2) Collect examples of persuasive writing. Over the next few weeks we will be doing some persuasive writing. With your help, please can you help your child to notice and collect adverts, slogans or examples of when someone tried to persuade them to do or buy something. They might like to make a note of it if this is something they saw on television or other media. They may want to cut out advertising materials or perhaps collect advertising brochures or leaflets. 

3) Please encourage your child to learn their spellings. We will have a spelling test on Tuesday. They should have come home with a paper copy of their spellings or you can click here. They can also practise their spellings on spellingshed, which gives them this week's spellings and the common spellings to learn by the end of this year.   

4) Times tables practise needs to be daily wherever possible please. Year 4 will have a times table check in June and getting regular practice will help them prepare for this. 

Times Tables rockstars is a great program to help children to learn their times tables but there are other approaches you may want to consider in addition. You may want to display times tables or ask your child times tables questions verbally. Please also ask if you would like a paper copy of a times tables booklet or a multiplication square. 

Next week, the children will have a mock multiplication test. We will be using Multiplication Tables Check which replicates the conditions of the actual test in June. This to give the children a sense of what to expect during the actual test and it using this website may be something that families would like to start adding to their child's daily multiplication practise to help prepare (you may want to have a multiplication square if your child is particularly anxious without. 

We will send home the results of these mock tests to parents and carers and will also send home a Times tables Rockstars Heat map. The heat maps help you to identify those times tables that your child need to learn and practise recall of.

The heat map below shows lots of green tables which indicates that the child has learnt this times table fact and can recall it with speed. The dark red the rectangle the slower the child's recall of the times table fact. The map below shows that the child in question needs to learn 8 x 6.  

The heat mat below shows a mixture of colours. The grey rectangles show that this child hasn't recently answered that times tables fact recently on Times Tables Rockstars. It may be that they are choosing games which avoid tables that they are unfamiliar with. The red and orange rectangles show that this child would benefit practising these times tables facts more to increase their recall speed.   
   

I will talk about the times tables check and other dates and events coming up this term during year 4s parent information session on Monday 9th May  but for now the most important thing is to not worry!

Hope you have a wonderful long weekend.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne and the Year 4 team. xx
      

Welcome back to the Summer term 1

 

Welcome back to the summer term everyone,

It has been wonderful welcoming your children back into school for the summer term. They are such a lovely class and a pleasure to work with. 

We have started our new unit of work 'Wonderful World' which has links with science, geography, art and literacy and aims to inspire children to be passionate advocates of our beautiful planet. 

In maths we have been looking at area and in science we are completing our learning on food chains, before starting our topic looking at living things and their habitats. 

As you are hopefully aware, I have gone to a 0.8 contract and so Mrs Johnson (from Reception) will come up to teach Year 4 on Wednesdays. Mrs Johnson is an experienced year 4 teacher and I know she is excited to work with the class as it is the only one in school that she hasn't taught (and I've told her what a great class they are!). Mrs Scott will join Mrs Johnson on Wednesdays. Mrs Scott is also very experienced with this age group and has got to know the class over the spring term. 

Wednesday with Mrs Johnson will have a poetry focus in guided reading and literacy and I'm confident the children are going to love their mid week poetry days.   

In guided reading we are continuing to read The Boy at the Back Of The Class. This book is about a refugee child that joins a British school and the children that welcome him. We read a chapter today that explained the fictional boy's experiences of escaping his war torn country and fleeing to England. We discussed the boy's feelings and emotions and how his schoolmates supported him.   

I then shared the news with the class that in May we'll be welcoming a refugee from Ukraine to join us in year 4. The children's reactions were beautiful and very moving. The class had lots of ideas as to how we could welcome them into our school and community. I am so incredibly proud of what a kind and caring group of children year 4 are and I know that they will welcome our new member of the class. 

Here are a few upcoming dates for your diary:

This Friday 29th April - Dorset knob throwing at the Prince of Wales school (after school)

Monday 2nd May - Early Bank Holiday Monday

Monday 9th May - 9am Year 4 Parent Information Session.

As ever, if you have any questions, comments or concerns please contact me or a member of the team.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the year 4 team 

  

Home learning and spellings