Year 4
Updated April 2023
Welcome to Year 4!
Year 4P are taught by Miss Payne and 4S by Mr Stallard . They are supported by Katrina and Yvonne.
They can be contacted via email year4@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk
Welcome back, we can’t believe that we are already in the Summer term! What a year it has been so far, we’re excited to be back and get cracking with our brand new topics!
In English, we will be beginning the term by finishing off A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is the classic Shakespearean comedy that depicts the carnage that ensues when Oberon, the king of the Fairies, messes with love. The children are thoroughly enjoying it so far and are looking forward to finishing it! Following this, we will begin Varjak Paw, the tale of a pampered pet cat who knows there's more to life. His family teases him and don't understand his adventurous spirit. He is soon forced to venture beyond the garden wall to save his family from the mysterious and dangerous 'gentleman' and his two evil hench-cats. All the children will have access to Doodle English which has lots of short, fun activities to help test their spelling and grammar. The children’s logins remain the same as last year. Frequent practise of their spellings will also help your child greatly so please make sure you remind them. Please contact your child’s class teacher if you need these again.
As you know, at the end of Year 4 the children are expected to know all their times tables up to 12x12, recalling them at speed. Our Multiplication Table Check will take place in June, which is fast-approaching, and will consist of 25 time table questions. During the check they will have 6 seconds to complete each question. The children have now had all of the times tables assigned to them through homework, so it is vital that they are practising regularly to ensure they are in their long-term memories. Your child can practise their times tables using Times Tables Rockstars. The ‘Jamming’ section is great to target tables which they are less confident in, while the ‘Studio’ is brilliant for practise in jumping between different tables. There is also the ‘Soundcheck’ which mimics the official times table check. Children can start to use this to get them used to the timed element of the check. All other Maths learning can be consolidated using DoodleMaths. This is an intuitive programme that will set the tasks for your child based on their abilities. The children’s logins remain the same. Please contact your child’s class teacher if you need these again.
For our topic this term, we will be focussing on Fairtrade. We are learning about where our delicious food comes from and how it can be sourced sustainably. We will be looking at the journey our food takes to reach our supermarkets and the history of Fairtrade. This is a geography focussed topic, therefore we will also be exploring the seasonality of growing food and how harming the environment can make it more difficult for farmers to grow the food we eat. To enhance our learning of this topic, we will have a chocolate workshop visiting the school. In the workshop we will learn about the journey of a cocoa bean and may have a chance to sample some chocolate!
Our Science learning will focus states of matter for the whole of the Summer Term. As always our science lessons will be full of experiments, investigations and creativity. Using Chatterpix, we will animate atoms to demonstrate our learning of different states of matter. A key focus will be on reversible and irreversible changes with lots of hands on learning to test our predictions.
We will be continuing with our Brass lessons this term. We have been so impressed with how much the children have progressed already and we are looking forward to being able to show off our musicians in the summer term. Please support your child in practising at home to develop their skills and love of music. We will not be continuing with swimming lessons this term. We are so impressed with how far everyone has come in these lessons and we are very proud of their progress. We will be reverting back to our old schedule of P.E. on a Monday and Thursday, so make sure your child is wearing their P.E kit on these days!
Thank you for your continued support! As always, please do come to us with any questions and we are happy to help. Have a great Summer Term!
Year 4 Team
Key Learning
You can find out about our approach to all our subjects through the curriculum page but the headlines for the year group are below.
Reading
Children can maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding by:
- I can listen to and discuss a wide range of texts including fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction, reference and textbooks
- I can read books that are structured in different ways and read for a range of purposes
- I can use dictionaries to check the meanings of words I have read
- I can read a wide range of books and re-tell some of these orally
- I can identify themes and conventions in a wide range of books
- I can recognise different forms of poetry e.g. free verse, narrative poetry
- I can prepare poems and play scripts to read aloud and perform
Children can understand what they read in books they can read independently by:
- I can check that the text makes sense and discuss my understanding (and explaining the meaning ) of words in context
- I can ask questions to improve my understanding of a text with increasing complexity
- I can draw inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence clearly taken from the text
- I can predict what might happen from details stated and implied
- I can identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise these
- I can identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning including paragraphs, use of pronouns for cohesion, inverted commas for speech, apostrophes to mark possession and fronted adverbials
- I can retrieve and record information from non-fiction over a range of subjects
- I can participate in discussions about both books that are read to me and those that I can read for myself, taking turns and listening to what others say
Writing
Writing
- I can create more detailed settings, characters and plot in narrative pieces to engage the reader
- I can write narratives with a clear beginning, middle and end and a coherent plot
- I can write non-fiction pieces using appropriate structures
- I can organise paragraphs around a theme.
- I can proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
- I can use standard English forms
- I can use the correct tense consistently
- I can use expanded noun phrases (modifying adjectives, nouns and prepositional phrases) E.g. The strict teacher with curly hair
- I can use fronted adverbials E.g. As quick as a flash, Last weekend: usually demarcated with a comma
- I can use appropriate pronouns or nouns within and across sentences to aid cohesion and to avoid repetition
- I can use conjunctions, adverbs or prepositions to indicate time, place or cause
- I can extend the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions E.g when, if, because, although
- I can use inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate speech
- I can use apostrophes for singular and plural possession
- I can use correct punctuation to demarcate sentences : capital letters and full stops , question marks and exclamation marks
Spelling
- I can spell most of the year 3 and 4 spelling words correctly
- I can spell all words with prefixes and suffixes correctly
- I can spell homophones correctly
Handwriting
- I can produce legible, joined handwriting
Greater depth (working above the national expected standard)
- I can write well-paced and well-structured narratives
- I can proofread consistently and amend my own writing, correcting errors
- I can use commas after the reporting clause and all end punctuation within inverted commas
- I can expand noun phrases with the addition of ambitious modifying adjectives and prepositional phrases E.g the heroic soldier with an unbreakable spirit
Statutory spellings
| Autumn 1 | Autumn2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
|
accident believe strange reign interest various possible grammar |
woman women promise therefore opposite ordinary although pressure |
particular calendar popular position possess possession complete potatoes |
straight favourite strength suppose surprise bicycle business medicine natural naughty |
straight favourite strength suppose surprise bicycle business medicine natural naughty |
peculiar occasion occasionally probably knowledge experiment experience question disappear important |
Maths
In Maths we follow the White Rose Hub. You can find out more about White Rose through our dedicated maths page
Science
Living things and their habitat
Topics
Did life in Britain regress under Anglo Saxon Rule?
Did the Vikings deserve their violent reputation?
What is happening to our rainforests?
Homework
We set homework in Key Stage 2 in the following ways:
- Spellings - bring handbook to school as usual
- Guided Reading - bring handbook to school as usual
- Literacy and Topic - Google Classroom
- Talking Homework - Google Classroom
- Maths - TTRS (Times Tables Rock Stars) and Mathletics
Students without digital access will get paper copies (need to return book)
You can access our guide to google classrooms or if you have any technical or password issues please email techsupport@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk
Days to remember
| Day | Activity |
| Monday |
Spelling test New spellings sent home PE - wear PE kit to school Daily doodle Maths and English as well as Times Tables Rockstar |
| Tuesday |
Homework turned in on Google Classroom Brass - bring instrument to school Guided Reading handed in Daily Doodle Maths and English as well as Times Table Rockstar |
| Wednesday |
Daily Doodle Maths and English as well as Times Table Rockstar |
| Thursday |
Guided Reading book sent home Homework set in Google Classroom Daily Doodle Maths and English as well as Times Table Rockstar |
| Friday |
Handbooks in school for weekly reflection Times Table Quiz Daily Doodle Maths and English as well as Times Table Rockstars |
| As frequently as possible but at least x times per week | Reading, Times Tables Rockstars and Doodle |
Other things you need to know
| School Uniform | Packed Lunches & Snacks | Contact Us |
