YEAR 4

Welcome to Year 4!

We are so excited to get to know you all and start our year together. We hope you've had a good Summer break.  

Below is information about Year 4 to guide you. If you have any queries you are welcome to arrange an appointment, in person or over the phone. To do this please speak to a teacher at pick up time, or email the school office.

We will regularly update this webpage with the latest news on what we have been learning, any notices and links to Year Four homework.

HOMEWORK

Your child was given a copy of the newsletter on Friday containing the spellings they should be learning for this week. 

There are two lists: Group 1 and 4RGZ. Group 1 follows the Year 4 Sounds Write scheme we use in spelling sessions. Some children will be learning the 4RGZ list this term, which will focus on children mastering the Phase 3 and 5 phonic sounds.

Here is an outline of a typical day in Year 4!

8:45-8:55 We will open the doors  to welcome children in and begin handwashing and settling into morning activities. Please make sure your child is ready to start the day at that time with everything they need! Zebras children can enter through the garden gate, Giraffes through the main doors and Rhinos through their external class door.

Early Morning Activities

VIPERS - whole class guided reading

English

Handwriting 

BREAK 10:25 - 10:40

Maths

Times Table Rockstars

LUNCH 12:20-1:20

Topic – Science, Geography, History, DT, RE, Art, Computing, Music, French, PSHE, PE, The Mile

Please ensure your child has their trainers in school every day so they can run the The Mile – we will be encouraging Year 4 to see how many laps they can run in the time they are given.

PE 

Thursday is outdoor for all classes. Indoor PE is Wednesday. Please send your children to school on these days wearing their PE kit - please see school website for new PE uniform guidelines.

END OF DAY 3:15

Homework

Homework will be handed out on Fridays, due in the following Thursday. Please support your child in getting into the routine of completing homework on time. In Year 4 we would expect some work to be done independently and some will need  support and guidance.

Reading

We love reading in Year 4 and want to see your child enjoy reading as much as we as staff do! Please ensure your child is reading at least 3 times per week at home. Reading diaries will be checked on a Friday. Each time a child reads three times, they will add a tick to our Read to Succeed chart; once we reach 200 ticks, the class will receive a class reward. Which Year 4 class will get their reward first?!

Please follow the link below for guidance on books to read by the end of Year 4.

Each class has a book corner, and we can visit our amazing school library at least once a fortnight.

Thame library - this is a really great way to access many new books!
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-4-pupils-ks2-age-8-9/ 

https://www.booksfortopics.com/year-4

Best Books for Year 4 | Ages 8-9 | The Reader Teacher

Spellings

In Year 4 we offer a mastery approach to spelling. The majority of children receive the same 7 spellings each week (following Sounds Write which is the spelling programme we use in school) which will be handed out on a Friday, the rule taught on Monday and then tested on the following Friday, giving children a week to learn these spellings and the rule. If your child is finding the spellings less challenging, please encourage them to think of spellings which follow this rule and others that don’t. What’s the longest word they can find, using that spelling rule? And so on! 

Equipment in school

• A named water bottle
• A named lunch box (unless your child is having school dinner)
• A small pencil case (that can fit in a drawer!) containing:

Writing pencils x 3

A pencil sharpener

A rubber

Colouring pencils 

A small ruler that will fit inside their pencil case

1 or 2 glue sticks

Safety scissors

To help your child at home...

If you wish to support your child with some of the key aspects of learning in Year 4, we recommend trying these activities and lessons. This does not need to be handed to your child's teacher for marking, but you may wish to discuss with them how this home learning went.

Oak Academy - online lessons

English

To explore word class (thenational.academy)

To explore expanded noun phrases (thenational.academy)

To explore pronouns (thenational.academy)

Reading - A Christmas Carol

To explore the text's context (thenational.academy)

To analyse a character (thenational.academy)

To engage with the story (thenational.academy)

To infer using text and pictures (thenational.academy)

To analyse a theme (thenational.academy)

Maths

Recognising the place value of each digit in a 4-digit number (thenational.academy)

Ordering and comparing numbers beyond 1000 (thenational.academy)

Ordering and comparing a set of numbers beyond 1000 (thenational.academy)

Finding 10, 100 or 1000 more than a given number (thenational.academy)

Finding 10, 100 or 1000 less than a given number (thenational.academy)

Rounding numbers to the nearest 1000 (thenational.academy)

Finding the odd one out (thenational.academy)

Applying and consolidating: Reasoning with 4-digit numbers (thenational.academy)

Deriving new facts from multiplication facts (thenational.academy)

Recalling the 3 times table (thenational.academy)

Recalling the 4 times table (thenational.academy)

Using arrays to represent the 3 and 4 times tables (thenational.academy)

Understanding multiplication can be completed in any order (thenational.academy)

Handwriting and Spelling