4JW

We would like to first say a big ‘welcome back’ after the summer holidays. The Year 4 staff include: Miss Ogunyemi, Mr Warner, Mrs Salik, Miss Bobowicz and Mr Zbiri and we are very excited to be teaching your child over the next academic year.

This Autumn term our History topic is Ancient Egypt. We will be learning about the famous Pharaoh: Tutankhamun, Egyptian gods and how they prepare for the afterlife (mummification). This term, we will also be visiting Manchester Museum to explore and identify exciting Ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Our Geography topic is Mountains. We will be learning the names and locations of UK and world mountains, the 5 different types of mountains, plus how mountains are formed and why tourism is important in mountainous areas.

In English, we will be writing an autobiography and a newspaper report about Tutankhamun. We will be focusing on different sentence openings, headings and organising our work into paragraphs. Our fiction text is a traditional tale based on our history topic: The Egyptian Cinderella. Within the fairytale, we will be focusing on descriptive settings.

In Maths we will focus on place value; to understand the value of digits and partition numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. We will then move onto addition and subtraction of 4-digit numbers, before moving on to multiplication and division. In year 4, all children will take an official times table test so we will practise our times tables every day in class, and it would be a great help if you could do this at home too. There is a useful website that can be accessed at home called ttrockstars.com.  Your children should know their password, but we will provide each child with their login again, in case it has been forgotten.

In our Guided Reading lessons, we will be reading a variety of text types, learning new vocabulary and developing skills of retrieval and inference. To support your child’s reading at home, they should be reading for at least 10 minutes every day. It would help if parents could ask questions to improve comprehension of the book. Your child will have their banded/level reading books changed weekly and are encouraged to take an additional book home to read for pleasure. Please sign their reading records to acknowledge they have read at home.

In Science, our topic is Electricity. We’ll be learning about the uses of electricity, how to make and understand simple circuits and switches, as well as looking at different materials that work as conductors and insulators. This will be followed by ‘Sound’. Children will learn how sounds are made, sound vibrations and understanding pitch and volume.

Our weekly PE sessions, are Monday afternoon for 4JW and Thursday afternoon for 4FO. Additionally, swimming lessons will take place on a Wednesday afternoon for 4FO and a Thursday morning for 4JW (this will change to Wednesday afternoon after February half-term).

Our school PE kit is: A white t-shirt, black shorts or tracksuit bottoms and black trainers or pumps. Black trainers can be worn as part of your child’s school uniform. No jewellery should be worn for swimming and PE.

Swimming kit: Girls: a swimming costume, a swimming cap (which can be purchased from the office for £3) and a towel.  Boys: tight-fitting swim trunks (not shorts), a swimming cap and a towel.

Homework: In Year 4 we will send your child home with a list of spellings each Friday, for them to learn for a small test the following Friday. They will also get a piece of homework which will have a Maths or English focus. This will need to be completed and returned by the following Friday. Please use ttrockstars.com to practise times tables whenever you can as well.

If you’d like to talk to any of the Year 4 team, please look out for us in the playground after school. We are always happy to speak to you about any concerns you may have. We aim to keep you updated about the general learning taking place on Class dojo. If your child is ill, please contact the office to let them know.

We’re looking forward to a fantastic year with your children.

Thank you all for your support.

Year 4 team: Miss Ogunyemi, Mr Warner, Mrs Salik, Miss Bobowicz and Mr Zbiri