Welcome to Year 4
This year, our class has 30 kind, enthusiastic and curious pupils!
Our Learning
We will be covering a vast array of topics in our learning this year in Year 4 such as ‘Why does Italy shake and roar?’, ‘Why did the Romans march through County Durham?’ and ‘How will we change and grow?’. Please look at our curriculum map to find out more:
Times Tables
We will be putting in a lot of hard work to ensure we know our times tables this year as in July we have the MTC – Multiplication Tables Check. This is where the children are given 25 questions on their times tables, up to 12 x 12, and they have 6 seconds to answer each question. Children will be accessing Times Table Rockstars daily in school and should be accessing this at home for 10 minutes daily as well.
Reading
Our children are given a reading book appropriate to their current reading level and this needs to be read daily at home and be signed by an adult. Children should bring this book into school every day so they can be heard reading in school. While some children are more confident readers than others, all children could be practising the key reading skills they are taught during whole class reading at home to improve their understanding of the text they are reading. These skills are: prediction, clarify and read, questioning and summarising.
All children also have the opportunity to choose a ‘reading for pleasure book’ from an in class selection. These books can be swapped for others when they have been finished.
Furthermore, the children have access to a program called ‘Reading Plus’ and this encourages our year four children to practice scaffolded silent reading. Children have their own usernames and passwords. To access this at home visit https://student.readingplus.com/seereader/api/sec/login
The children also have the opportunity to access Fiction Express which is an innovative book platform that connects students with professional authors. This encourages reading for pleasure through fun co-creation of stories. To access this at home visit https://en.fictionexpress.com/account/login/
Reading for Pleasure
At Ropery Walk Primary School, we are passionate about reading and creating an environment that promotes reading. We believe that high-quality literature is key to motivating children to read and instilling in children a love of literature. All classrooms have a book area where books and information about books are displayed attractively and where browsing, choosing and reading can take place as a visible way of establishing and promoting a positive ethos for reading for pleasure. We carefully consider the range of texts made accessible to children to cover a breadth and variety of genres and formats; ensuring children can experience a full and rich range of reading. At the end of each day, children have the opportunity to enjoy listening to a story read by their class teacher.
The books we have already enjoyed during story time are:
PE
Our PE days are Monday and Wednesday. On these days, children will be expected to attend school in their school PE kit and trainers. A reminder that the PE kit includes joggers or leggings for when the weather is cooler.
Homework
Similar to Year 3, spellings will be sent home every Friday and tested on the following Friday as will weekly times tables. Both spelling and times tables will be set with the aim of recalling previous learning as well as recapping the current curriculum being taught in class. As the year progresses, some children will be given additional problem solving questions to offer further, appropriate challenge to ensure their learning continues to progress.
Adobe Reader
You may need a product like Adobe Reader (free download) to view our PDF documents on our website.
