Welcome to Year 4!
Y4 Curriculum Information: January 2025
Welcome back to Spring term. We have lots of fun learning planned. The termly forecast below gives you more detail about the learning which will take place within our topic which this term is based around Japan, this topic will support our learning in English which is based around Kensuke's Kingdom.
A few practical matters for you to be aware of.
PE is on a Wednesday – Children can come into school in their PE kits. Appropriate school PE kit must be worn and labelled. As winter draws near, the weather will begin to turn cold and wet, so please ensure your child has jogging bottoms, jumpers, gloves and light waterproof jackets, as learning will take place outside as much as possible.
From January, Year 4 will also be having weekly swimming lessons on a Thursday morning.
Children will need the following items:
- Swimming hat
- Swimming costume/shorts
- Towel
- Underwear to change into after swimming
We kindly ask that children come to school with their swimming attire worn beneath their school uniform to allow for a quicker transition into the pool area.
Homework
Multiplication Facts
Year 4 children will sit a compulsory multiplication test in the summer term, and so there is a big emphasis on learning both multiplication and division facts. We will be sending home a times table worksheet each Monday and expect all children to bring these in on the Friday where we will mark them as a class. The children also have ‘Times Table Rockstar’ logins in their home books. This website is a great way to practise and embed their table facts, so please set aside a few minutes each day to practise. If a screen is not your ideal way, please use cards, worksheets, booklets or games to support them. These key facts will help your child become more efficient and fluent within the lessons and as they progress through key stage 2.
Here are some other websites to support embedding these facts:
https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Reading
The children are constantly reading throughout our curriculum and in our daily whole class reading sessions. However, to really help them progress and to support their enjoyment of reading, they should be reading at home most nights. The children have chosen a book from our school library although please feel free to choose books from home or the local library. We ask that you try and read with your child as much as possible. We know it is hard to fit everything in, but reading offers valuable models for sentence structure, fuels their imagination, improves their knowledge of the world and also offers them some much needed calm time. We recommended that, despite their fluency, children should read with an adult regularly to check their understanding of the text. Please make a small note or initial in the child's home book, once you have read with your child.
Spellings
Spellings will be stuck in their home books each week from Monday 23rd September once we have finished our assessments. We will be learning these in class, including using them to support our handwriting practise. There will be no formal test, but it is vital that your child takes times to look at and learn these, so they become embedded into their work. Be creative with learning – writing out in chalk, repeating in the car, using pens in the baths – any way to engage them. Always check your child understands the meaning of their spellings as this will help to broaden their vocabulary.
So far, we have had a super start to the year and we are excited for the learning planned. We want all the children to be happy in school, so if you have any worries or concerns, please contact us on dojo.
Many thanks,
Mrs Ward & Mrs Barber
Current class reading book:
Home learning
These are optional worksheets if your child would like any extra learning to consolidate their classwork.
SPAG
MATHS
Spelling:
National Curriculum Word List Years 1 and 2
National Curriculum Word List Years 3 and 4
National Curriculum Word List Years 5 and 6
Extra Information:
Reading at home questions booklet
Learning about fractions guide
Useful Links:
BBC Bitesize
Lots of interesting video clips and learning tools for a range of subjects
Classroom Secrets
Fun, interactive and practical home learning resources that are designed to be used by children. These include interactive games, video tutorials and downloadable home learning packs
Maths Chase
A fun website for learning times tables
NRICH
Great maths investigations
Oxford Owl
Entirely free website with lots of fun games and activities for you and your child - there is also a useful 'At School' section explaining the techniques used to teach reading within school