Summer Term 2023-24

Welcome back to Term 3 - we hope you had a wonderful Easter! Please find some information regarding the Summer Term in Year 4 below.

In English this half term, we will be reading ‘The Whale’ by Ethan and Vita Murrow. Year 4 will use this text to work towards writing a setting narrative and a newspaper report. The children will mainly be focusing on developing language and using expanded noun phrases, as well as using inverted commas to show direct speech and fronted adverbials to show time, place and manner. As a class story, we will be reading Michael Morpurgo's 'Beowulf' to link in with our Anglo-Saxon History Topic.

During Maths lessons in Summer Term, we will be focusing on decimals, money, time, statistics and shape. 

The children will be taking the Multiplication Tables Check within the first two weeks of June. This determines whether the children can recall their times tables fluently. Knowing their tables is an incredibly important skill that will assist the children in many areas of Maths and will be an incredibly beneficial skill to take with them into upper KS2. Therefore, the children will be completing times tables activities most days as well as completing a Mastering Number session. This focusses on times tables patterns and two focus times tables each week. The focus time tables got towards our 'Going For Gold' Wall! Once we have completed the wall, the children will have practised and should have a good grasp on each times table.

In Geography, we will be learning about rivers and the water cycle. We will study the processes within the water cycle and the impact that rivers have on settlements. We will also look at the impact of climate change on the water cycle and problems this may create. 

In Science, we are learning about teeth and digestion in our 'Animals Including Humans' topic. We will investigate the importance of each part of the digestive system and even have a go at making some poo! We will also be classifying animals and learning about food chains in our 'Living Things' topic. 

PE

Year 4 will have their swimming lessons at the Sands Centre this term. The children will have this lesson every week on Wednesdays as well as a PE session on a Fridays. In summer 1, the children will be practising Tennis skills and in Summer 2 they will be navigating dance skills. PE kits can be left in school during the half term to ensure the children have their kits on these days. This term, we will be focusing on hockey, gymnastics and dance. As a reminder, school P.E. kit includes a coloured T-shirt which represents the house your child belongs to, black or navy shorts (or tracksuit / jogging bottoms in colder weather) and trainers. No jewellery should be worn for safety reasons.

Homework

Homework will be set in the form of spellings, times tables and short Maths and English tasks. This will be set on Mondays to be returned on Fridays. We will have a times table test on Fridays and a spelling test on Mondays. There will be a different times table focus for each week which we really encourage the children to work on. These can be practised using TT Rock Stars and spellings can be accessed on Spelling Shed. Links to both of these can be found at the bottom of the page and the children’s logins can be found in their reading diaries.

The school also strongly encourages children to read with an adult nightly as part of their homework as well as discuss their books to develop comprehension skills. A record of this should be kept in their reading diaries. Developing confidence in reading will truly benefit the children in all areas of school life.

Please help your child plan when they will complete their homework, so they have time to ask any questions they may have in school before it’s due.

Reminders

• Children should arrive at 08:45am with the doors closing at 8.50.
• All children should bring their water bottle and reading book into school every day.
• Having a coat in school each day is useful for our very changeable and unpredictable weather!
• Have PE kit in school every Friday and Swimming kit every Wednesday.

Useful Dates to remember

• Tuesday 16th April                        Term starts
• Wednesday 24th April                  Weekly swimming lessons begin
• Monday 27th  – 31st May            HALF TERM
• Monday 3rd June                           Return to school
• Thursday 6th June                         Strike and Field Festival at William Howard
• Tuesday 18th June                         Sports Day            
• Friday 19th July                              Break up for the Summer

Please look out for updates on Class Dojo. Feel free to contact us on there with any questions you might have. I look forward to all the exciting things that Spring Term has in hold for Year 4!

Best Wishes,

Miss Moss, Mrs Jackson and Miss Friel

Useful Links for Learning 

• Times Tables Rockstars Times tables practice

• Spelling Shed Spelling practice

• Hit The Button! Quick fire maths practise

• Dance Mat Typing Learn to type the fun way!

• Newsround Keep up to date with the latest news.