Year 4 2021 - 2022

Welcome to Year 4!

Teacher - Mrs Jones

Teaching Assistants - Mrs Woods and Mrs Morris

Buckle up, sunglasses on. We’re going on a road trip across the good old US of A. Flying from London Gatwick, and landing at JFK airport New York, it’s time to explore the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Use your map skills to navigate your way around some of its most famous landmarks and send a postcard home to ask the question ‘Do you wish you were here?’ Learn how to send an email to book a day trip or reserve a room. Make sure you ask the important questions ‘Does your hotel have a pool? Is there 24-hour room service?’ Meet the Iroquois tribe; Native Americans with amazing customs and traditions. Then plan a bespoke road trip for Mr Smith and his family of four. They want to spend three weeks in the sunshine. It’s going to be a long ride. Put the roof down and let the wind blow through your hair. We’re off.

Literacy

In Literacy we follow the Pathways to Write units, our current text is Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit.

Our final outcome will be writing about the day Mount Vesuvius erupted, from the point of view of a child that was there.

We will be mastering

• Write a sequence of events to follow the structure of the model story
• Write an opening paragraph and further paragraphs for each stage
• Create dialogue between characters that shows their relationship with each other
• Use 3rd or 1st person consistently
• Use tenses appropriately
• Add historical detail to characters, settings and events.

Our first text this Year is The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers. It is linked to the environmental art work that the children will be completing at the beginning of term.

Our second text is Gorilla by Anthony Browne.

We will be covering these objectives throughout the unit.

Writing composition 
• Plan writing by discussing the structure, vocab and grammar of similar writing
• Discuss and record ideas
• Compose and rehearse sentences orally
• Proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
• Build an increasing range of sentence structures
• In narratives, create settings, characters and plot
• Assess the effectiveness of own and others’ writing

Our Spring 1 text is Leon and the Place Between by Angela McAllister.

In this unit our writing outcome is to write Leon's secret diary about what is really happening in 'the place between', including conversations between Leon and the boy.

We will be masterring

• Extending the range of sentences with more than one clause. Using when, if, because,although.
• Recognise the difference between plural and possessive 's'
• Use small details to describe characters, time, mood and place.
• Use first person consistentlyand write in consistent past tense.
• Write in chronological order with an opening and closing paragraph.

Reading

Reading Plus is an adaptive literacy solution that improves fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, stamina, and motivation. 

Most children will be enrolled onto the reading plus scheme this year. Your child will have login details in their reading record if they are going to be using it. We will be completing a daily lesson in class but they will need to also complete lessons at home in order to move up the levels. 

Y2-Y6 will be following the Pathways to Read units. It is a programme designed to equip pupils from Year 2 onwards with key skills to move them through the reading process towards becoming competent and fluent readers.

Pathways to Read follows a mastery approach to learning with three categories of skills developed each half term:

• Ongoing skills - linked to text choices and achieved through selection of teaching activities
• Core skills - prediction, vocabulary development and retrieval
• Mastery skills - 2-3 objectives are focused on for pupils to master over the course of the half-term

We highly recommend reading with your child every day, even if it is just for five minutes. It is the perfect opportunity to share your children’s learning  and encourage reading for pleasure.

There are no right or wrong ways to enjoy a story together, however if you would like any further guidance you can find some useful tips here:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/

Maths

Across the Autumn term, in Maths we will be covering:

Place Value

Recognise place value of each digit of a 4 digit number

Order and compare numbers beyond 100

Round any number to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000

Addition and subtraction

Find 1000 more or less than a given number

Add and subtract numbers usinf the formal written method

Estimate and use inverse operations to check answers

Measure

Convert between different units of measure

Measure and calculate perimeters

During the Spring Term we will be covering

Multiplication and Division

Multiply and divide mentally

Recall timestables facts up to 12 x 12 

Factor pairs

Written methods 

Efficient multiplication

Measurement

Area

Fractions

Equivalent fractions

Fractions greater than 1

Add and subtract fractions

Subtract from whole amounts

Decimals

Recognise tenths and hundredths

Tenths/Hundredths as decimals/on a place value grid/on a number line

Divide 1 and 2 digits by 10

At the end of Y4, children are required to take the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC). A good way to prepare is start early and build a daily routine practising the times tables. With regular practise children will learn all the questions and gain confidence. Research suggests that practising for 10 to 15 minutes a day will provide optimal results.

This a link to current government guidance 

Information for parents: 2022 multiplication tables check (publishing.service.gov.uk)

We will be doing lots of practice in school, however, if you would like your child to have extra practice at home they will have their ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ username and password readily available to use on - https://play.ttrockstars.com/

The Mathsframe timestables check is set up in a very similar way to the MTC and can be found by clicking on the link below.

Multiplication Tables Check - Mathsframe

Homework

Homework will be set online on a Friday and will need to be completed by Wednesday.

Children have also got access to spellings via

https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb

Project homework and knowledge organisers will be available to view every term on this webpage