Welcome to Year 4
Year 4 Essential Information
Year 4 Curriculum Map
Year 4 Essential Information
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and have come back to school feeling refreshed and ready for the new term. We have lots of exciting learning ahead, including learning about Anglo Saxons in history, electricity in science and making mindfulness timers in DT. Please read our weekly updates on our Year 4 blog to find out more about what we have been doing each week.
If you have any questions, please contact us both on
lucy.ventress@adel-st-john.leeds.sch.uk and chloe.dakin@adel-st-john.leeds.sch.uk and one of us will reply as soon as we can.
Thank you for your continued support.
Miss Dakin and Mrs Ventress
Reading: Reading helps children’s learning in a huge number of ways, including improving their vocabulary, developing the quality of their writing and building their comprehension skills. We expect children to read at home at least three times per week. We ask a parent or carer sign it off in the reading record. In Year 4, it is still extremely beneficial for your child to carry out some of their home reading with an adult, either reading aloud, being read to, or a combination of the two. This allows for you to discuss the book with your child too which will help boost their comprehension skills.
Spellings: A new spelling list will be sent home each Friday and should be practised regularly, in short bursts throughout the week. The children will bring home a paper spelling homework sheet each week to complete and return the following Friday. Additional practice may take the form of recalling spellings (perhaps on the way to or from school), looking up and recording their meanings in a dictionary/online, or short dictations with an older sibling or parent e.g. if the word is ‘daughter’, a parent could ask the child to write down, ‘My daughter is called Jenny.’ Always check the punctuation as well as all spellings. The children will also have some opportunities in class to practise. In the Friday test, 7 of the words will be tested as standalone words, and 3 will be tested through a dictated sentence.
Mathletics: This is to be completed every week – there will be 3 new tasks set each week with trickier tasks (those scoring less than 50%) being re-set. Please check if your child needs support with any re-set tasks.
Times Tables Rock Stars: Towards the end of the academic year, Year 4 children are set a national ‘Times Tables Check’. The test will be completed online and will involve answering 25 questions up to 12x12, each within 6 seconds. There is no pass/fail judgement and results are not published publicly. However, it is important that your child does their best and thus, regular Times Tables Rock Stars practice at home is encouraged. We will also use TTRS twice per week in class.
PE: Our PE days will be Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. Appropriate kit (trainers, black trousers/shorts with a white t-shirt and plain black jacket/jumper) must be worn on these days. Some children will be swimming on Wednesday mornings (you will have been sent a letter to inform you if this is your child). Children who are swimming: PE kit needs to be worn to school that day with swimming costume for girls and swimming trunks for boys (worn underneath). Children will also need a bag with a towel and underwear. This bag needs to be big enough to fit all their clothes including a coat and shoes – this is because lockers will not be in use and belongings will be kept poolside.
Things to remember:
- All children should bring a named flask or bottle of water to school. This should be taken home and washed every day.
- Named pumps must be worn in school. Children should be able to tie laces quickly if they have lace-up pumps/outdoor shoes and pumps should be checked by a parent every half term to ensure they are in good condition to prevent trip hazards.
- Named, appropriate clothing for the weather should be brought every day – please ensure your child has a coat if rain is forecast or looks likely, especially as we are now in winter.
- School Policy is that, other than for religious reasons, children should not wear jewellery in school apart from a watch (smart watches are not allowed). These need to be removed for PE lessons.
Year 4 Class Blog
Good News!
Peter Dalrymple (PDalrymple) on: Year 4 Class Blog
Year 3 and 4 did a wonderful job this week when they performed their Easter production. It was the culmination of weeks of hard work and we were all very proud of them.
Royal Armouries Visit
Peter Dalrymple (PDalrymple) on: Year 4 Class Blog
Year 4 had a brilliant day on Wednesday visiting the Royal Armouries in Leeds. We took part in two workshops linked to our learning about Anglo Saxons, learning about the legend of Beowulf and having a go at being archaeologists. We also explored the relevant section of the museum galleries. A big thank you goes to Mrs. Hallett and Mrs. Harrison who kindly volunteered to accompany us on the visit.
Prototypes
Peter Dalrymple (PDalrymple) on: Year 4 Class Blog
In DT today we have been designing packaging for our mindfulness timers and we began making a prototype of our design. We had to think about branding, including thinking of a brand name and logo. It was quite tricky to make and fold our nets accurately but Year 4 persevered and did a great job.
World Book Day
Peter Dalrymple (PDalrymple) on: Year 4 Class Blog
Year 4 have had a great day today celebrating World Book Day. Their costumes looked fantastic! One of the highlights of the day was getting together with Year 1 to share some lovely books together.
Modelling the Digestive System
Peter Dalrymple (PDalrymple) on: Year 4 Class Blog
We have been learning about the functions of parts of the human digestive system and today we modelled some of the digestive process using bananas, biscuits, orange juice, food bags, tights and kitchen roll. We had a lot of fun and Year 4 were able to clearly describe how our model represented the real body parts.
