Yr 4 Looking Back and Forth - Friday 3rd March
Friday 3rd March– Looking Back & Forth in Year 4
Looking back:
This week, the children came back full of interesting tales of their half terms. It was sad to see that some of them had been unwell, but they seem in fine fettle now. On the first week of a term, we do tend to have the excitement of a new book in English. Well, the new book interweaves nicely with our new topic too. The Vikings! Needless to say, we now know that we have some real Viking experts/fans/enthusiasts in the class! It has been great listening to them share their knowledge. But exciting too, because they want to learn more! In maths, we worked on division, using two methods. The tradition ‘bus stop method’ the one I remember from school (millions of years ago! When the dinosaurs roamed the Earth!) and a chunking method. It was important to show the children both methods, that way they had their preferred method and a ‘checking method’. What is really very noticeable is, the more confident a Year 4 is with their timestables, the more confident they’re in class manipulating the numbers. Please could you encourage your child to be dipping their TTRockstars toes in at least 3 times a week. 10 mins a session will make a lot of difference to their confidence, and ability to handle the other processes they have to handle as well, when working on long division and multiplication.
The children also have two story books, the book ‘The Last Bear’ by Hannah Gold, which the class instantly engaged with. (I mean it has polar bears and the Arctic – what is not to love!) The other book, is ‘The Butterfly Lion’ by Michael Morpurgo. (This man weaves wonderful expanded nouns phrases!)
The children have begun lots of new topics in their afternoon work. They have begun their topic on ‘Teeth and Eating’ in science. The class also worked with some Sixth Form students for Holmes Chapel this week on their coding skills. This project is going to continue for the whole of this term, and we are certain the children are going to feel inspired about Coding. There is a definite smell of vinegar in the classroom! Ask your child why? (Mrs Beardsworth keeps on opening the windows!)
We had a wonderful World Book Day. The children brought in a fine collection of books. It was good to see some non-fiction books. We had ones about survival skills and a beautiful one about the sky above our heads (both of these books were stunningly illustrated). We had some great fiction books and it was good to see people looking at their friends’ books, with a view to reading the book themselves.
Questions to ask at home -
Challenge – If you can write the answers to these questions and hand them into your teachers by the end of the day Tuesday – you will receive 5 housepoints!
- What do you know about Vikings already?
- What is a carnivore?
- What is a herbivore?
- What is an omnivore?
- Where are your incisors?
- Where are your canines?
- Where are your molars?
Children’s highlights of the week
- TTrockstars time and the lunchtime club
- Drawing club at lunch time
- Looking at teeth types in science
- Working on Scratch with the students from Holmes Chapel
- The Egg experiment!
- Clay brooches – painting them!
- E. with Mr Biggs
Looking forward:
Well, we need to mention it of course! This is Delamere week! We are really looking forward to taking the class away for our woodland adventures. It looks like it is going to be cold and crisp, which will make the forest so atmospheric. I would strongly recommend that your child has plenty of warm layers. Some of the activities may need to be adapted if it is very cold, but we will keep well within the Centre guidelines.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Homework in Year 4
Maths– 3 / 2 digit by 1 digit division sheet – to keep skills sharp
English – Villains Mugshot!
Reading – daily at least 15 mins – remember to take the Accelerated Reader Quizzes
Rockstars – as much as possible 10 mins daily is ideal – at least once a week for 20 mins
Spellings – Mrs Riddell – Please learn them for the test on Wednesday. It is better to look at them for 5 minutes each day than try to learn them all in one night. The children remember them better learnt over the week.
Could the children please complete their homework in pencil or blue/black pen not felt tip.
Timestables – for Thursday - the children will be getting new timestables this week - (these were given out on Friday with how many columns the children need to learn.)
(This can be handed it at anytime before Friday, the children know where the basket is)
Letters and Reminders
- Make sure your log in on Monday to book your parents’ evening appointment. I have tried to add lots of slots over different days, so you should be able to find a time that suits you better.
- PE is on a Friday afternoon this term. The children need to wear their P.E. kits on Friday and their normal red jumpers. They do not need to wear sports jumpers or hoodies. The school jumper is warm and flexible enough.
- Please check the newsletter for up-and-coming events and dates for your diaries.
Reminders for this week – Please check the weekly Newsletter for more detail
Nightly reading recorded in reading record – make sure it comes to school on Friday
Reading challenge has started – 20 reads in the reading record =10 housepoints
Please encourage your child to record their reading in their reading records.