Malala Class - Year 4

Welcome back to Year 4

To start this new year (2025), we have many of interesting things to explore, discover and enjoy.  Our priority will continue to focus on regular reading as well as developing the children’s quick recall of the times tables facts to 12 x 12 in preparation for the national multiplication check in June.

Class work:  We will provide you with pencils, rulers, rubbers, colouring pencils and handwriting pens for those with a licence.  We ask that pencil cases are left at home as there is nowhere to store them safely in class.

Home learning:

Reading – 10 minutes reading daily. We ask that an adult signs the reading diary and it is handed in at least once per week. This is a whole school focus this year!

Spellings: There will be weekly tests.

Times Tables:  TT Rock Stars  5 minutes  each day either at home or during break time.

Games and PE:

Children will need their PE kit in school all week as they will have both an indoor and outdoor session.  Children MUST have P.E. kit to take part for health and safety reasons.  Children with long hair, must have it tied back for PE lessons and stud earrings must be covered with tape that is brought to school or they will need to be removed.

Kit:        Trainers, white shirt, blue/black shorts, football/trainer socks.

In colder weather, a plain tracksuit may be worn outdoors for games.

Please ensure that all items of clothing are named. A small named bag containing your PE kit is all that is necessary as cloakroom space is limited.  Please keep your PE kit in school and we will ensure that it is sent home each half term for washing.

Ms Price, Miss Pooley and Miss Matthews

Spring Term 2024

English

This term we will be looking at many different writing types including quests, discussion texts, and poetry. We will continue to focus on learning Year 3/ 4 high frequency words as well as different spelling patterns which include homophones and suffixes. Throughout this term we will continue to use a wide range of conjunctions, expanded noun phrases that are modified with prepositions, fronted adverbials and other ways to make our writing more exciting and engaging for the reader. We will continue to improve our writing by checking and editing. Presentation will be a focus to and we will regularly practising consistent, legible and joined handwriting.

Each day, we have a whole class reading activity. The texts are both topic based and from our Reading Spine for Year 3/ 4. These include fiction, non-fiction , poetry and plays and these sessions will further develop fluency, inference, retrieval, prediction, sequencing and summarising skills.

All children will have a home reading book suited to their reading level and this will be assessed regularly throughout the term.

Maths

This term we will continue to focus on multiplication and division with numbers up to 3-digits. We will then be learning more about finding, adding and subtracting fractions. Good knowledge of times tables will be needed to solve these challenges. We will also be learning more about finding areas of a shape.

Each week , we will continue to spend time practising the times tables using many resources including TT Rockstars. This knowledge will be a huge benefit to understanding many aspects of Maths in the future and will also be assessed in a national multiplication test in the summer.

Science

This term we will be undertaking a number of investigations and further developing our working scientifically skills. We will be learning about States of Matter – solids, liquids and gases, during the first half-term. After half-term, we will be learning about sound, how it is made, travels and received by us.

Art

Using watercolour to create Tropical Rainforest inspired pieces. Exploring use of watercolours to create a collaged response to the work of artists studied including : Abel Rodriguez ,Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse

Computing

We will be covering Kapow computing units this term and they will include  e-safety topics, what steps to take to keep safe on line and our responsibilities. We will also look at HTML and learning more about website design.

Design and technology

Pulleys, Linkages and Cams

Using pulleys, linkages and cams to create a video that shares a message.

French

We will follow the iLanguages programme and we will be broadening our French vocabulary as we learn how to describe ourselves and others as well as learning numbers to 5.  We will also learn traditional French stories and how the French celebrate April Fool’s day.

Geography

 This term we will be understanding the key features of a rainforest ecosystem, the contributions they make to the world and the threats they face  focusing on the Amazon Rainforest.

History

Throughout the Spring term, we will be learning about early Islamic civilisation and further develop our understanding of the past by making links to our prior learning about the Maya and Ancient Greeks.

Music

As well as singing and performing this term, we will follow on from the children’s successful mastery of the recorder and we will continue guitar tuition using the school's guitars.

PE

The first half of term we will focus on  dance following the Darcey Bussell programme and further developing our invasion games skills through basketball.

After half term, we will be working on balance, rolls and sequences in our indoor sessions and learning the net game volleyball.

PSHE

Following the Jigsaw programme, we will be looking at Dreams and Goals and Keeping ourselves healthy through a variety of discussion tasks and activities.

Religion and Worldviews

This term we continue to focus on learning more about how people think about poverty, justice and self-sacrifice and also how people can contribute to society.

Throughout this term, we will be reading about the adventures of Maya as she builds a new life in Manaus on the banks of the River Sea ( Amazon) by sharing the story Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

 E-Safety

As so many of us are spending more and more time online, it is important that the children have a secure knowledge of how to be safe.  We will discuss various issues regarding this each week.  If you or your child  have any questions linked to their online world, then please do not hesitate to get in touch or have a look at some of the links below.

Additional Useful Information

• Please read the information by clicking on the link on the national multiplication check that your child will take in June.   Information concerning the times table multiplication test in June 2025 will be added when it becomes available.