Miss Lillis - 4 Craufurd  and Mrs Smith - 4 Field

supported by Miss Rubery, Miss Connelly and Miss Rama

PE in the Autumn Term will take place on ???????  The units this half term cover OAA and Tag Rugby.

The children can take part in PE lessons in their Opal uniform.  If your child has opted for a skirt, please send them to school in black shorts/joggers on PE days.  

We strongly encourage children to complete set homework. This can really help them to embed and extend the learning that takes place in school.

Reading for fifteen minutes every day at home can make an impact on all areas of the curriculum. In Year 4, we have a "STARBOOKS"  reading incentive. Children are rewarded for reading five times a week and having their reading diaries signed. They will have their Starbooks loyalty card signed each week and after eight weeks, will get a reward! Each week, everyone who reaches cup five enters our prize draw and two lucky winners get to a enjoy a hot chocolate treat at the Starbooks bar. 

Please make sure your child has their reading diary and book in school everyday.  Home readers will be swapped on Fridays.  If they finish their home reader before Friday, they are free to choose a book from 'Starbooks', the library or a book from home.  

Tips for reading at home: 

1. Try to hear your child read aloud as much as possible. If this is not possible every day, then ask them to summarise for you, what they have read independently.

2. If your child comes across a tricky word which they can't read, try not to tell them the word straight away. Encourage them to sound it out or re-read the sentence to see if they can work out the meaning. 

3. Always check that your child understands what they have read by asking them questions about the book.

4. Aim to change home reading books every 1-2 weeks. Book change day is Friday in Year 4.

5. Read as widely as possible- not just your school book- read your library book, books from your shelf at home, swap books with friends, read on a kindle device, read magazines, newspapers- whatever you enjoy! 

6. Read to your children as much as possible. Hearing stories really helps them to develop attention and listening skills, imagination and vocabulary. It even impacts on writing skills. Plus, it's a lovely way to spend quality time together. 

7. Look out for the books we are reading in school and treat your child to their own copy at home. We often refer to them on Dojo. 

Children now have their Doodle Learning Username and Passwords.  They can access Doodle Learning from the internet or as downloaded apps on phones, i-pads/tablets or PC's.  

https://doodlelearning.com/

There are 4 areas/apps:

Spellings, Maths, Times Tables and English. 

Evidence shows that practising little and often enables learning to be transferred from the short term to the long term memory.  Therefore, we suggest 5 minutes a day. School homework policy expectations are that children access Doodle Maths, Doodle Times and Doodle Spell each week. Doodle English is there for any children who wish to use it but is only optional.  Children can receive Dojo Points weekly if they stay in the 'Green Zone'.

Our BIG QUESTION is:

Where does our food come from and do we all get a fair share? 

Our first class reader is, 'Madame Pamplemousse'. If your child has a copy at home, they are welcome to bring it in to read along.  

Madame Pamplemousse is the story of Madeleine, forced to work in her unpleasant uncle's horrible restaurant, The Squealing Pig. By chance she comes across the most marvellous shop, run by Madame Pamplemousse, which is quiet, discreet, yet full of delicious and otherworldly 'edibles' - Pterodactyl Bacon, Scorpion Tails in Smoked Garlic Oil, and Great Squid Tentacle in Jasmine-Scented Jelly. A quiet comradeship develops between Madeleine, Madame Pamplemousse, and Madame's cat, Camembert. And together they create some wonderful culinary magic. Exquisite, beautifully formed prose that has echoes of Angela Carter belies a narrative that is full of pace. A wonderful fairy tale that will appeal to both adults and children.

​​​​​​

Our second class reader is, 'The Great Food Bank Heist'. If your child has a copy at home, they are welcome to bring it in to read along.  

Written with great empathy and Rauf’s trademark humour, The Great (Food) Bank Heist is a moving story that gives a child’s-eye view of the increasing problem of food poverty.

On Thursdays, Nelson, Ashley and Mum head out to the bank. But not just any old bank – the food bank. With its shining tins and packets of food stacked from floor to ceiling, Nelson thinks it’s the best kind of bank there is. But there’s a thief in town, and the shelves of the food bank are getting emptier each day, leaving people hungrier than ever. For the sake of his family and everyone else’s, Nelson needs to make them stop. But can he and his friends really be the ones to catch the bank robber?

Geography

Take a trip with us around the world as we discover where our food comes from.  Along the way, we will be exploring the different continents with a specific focus on the Mediterranean, the tropics and the UK. We will identify why the UK needs to import food from different parts of the world and how climate impacts the choice of food grown.  We will delve deeper into the role the Northern and Southern hemisphere, the Equator and Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn play and discuss the importance of Fairtrade products.  

You may want to start collecting empty packets that you have in your home that have the Fairtrade symbol on and packets that state the country the food was produced in as we will be be researching and sorting food from around the world.  Keep an eye on Class Dojo for a date that we need these in.  

ART

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter. He is famous for creating amazing head portraits. These portraits were made entirely out of everyday objects. He used things like fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and even books!

During this unit, the children will learn about this artist and use a range of materials such as pencils, oil pastels and watercolours to recreate an 'Arcimboldo' style portrait. 

During October, we will be requesting that children bring in a pumpkin to sketch.  Keep an eye out on Class Dojo for more information. 

DT

We will be cooking up some tasty dishes that closely link to our Geography unit.  Imagine that you are in Italy, Spain or France sipping a cool mocktail and tucking into some Mediterranean vegetables.  Our next stop is the tropics where we will be baking Fairtrade banana bread and finally, a return trip home to the UK where we will be using locally grown ingredients to make fruity flapjacks.  

Science - The Digestive System

This unit will have the children learning and giggling at the same time as they role play the journey food takes through the digestive system.  Their tummies may churn as we carry out messy investigations involving crackers, orange juice, porridge and tights!  

Key Question- Why is food an important part of faith? 

We will explore and compare religious festivals from around the world and how food is used to celebrate and give thanks.   

Harvest Festival

Thanksgiving

Ramadan

Diwali

Easter

Christmas

Holi

Hanukkah

Passover

Our first unit is based on 'The Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar' where the children will review and embed their knowledge of basic skills.  They will sort words based on nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.  The focus will be on sentence writing, ensuring they are aware that a sentence must include a subject and verb, capital letter and full stop.  We will then apply our skills to a piece of non-fiction writing based on the digestive system. 

Handwriting

The children are very excited to be using a pen in Year 4.  Children can bring in their own pens if they wish to but these must be proper handwriting pens (See picture above).  Biros are not allowed.

Our handwriting scheme follows Kinetic Letters. We will practise our letter formation then move onto cursive handwriting.  

See below for letter formation:

 If you would like to support your child at home with their handwriting, please follow these video links on quick 'how to' guides. 

The Abracadabra Family

https://youtu.be/sFUMIZ0hs4c

The Jumper Family

https://youtu.be/k4i7NGKBVsU

The Window Cleaner Family

https://youtu.be/jpfbqTal660

The Slider Family

https://youtu.be/98n63jCwDBI

Phonics

We follow the scheme, 'Rocket Phonics'.  Please use the sound mats below to support your child with their writing at home. 

In June, children will sit a statutory Year 4 Multiplication Check.  Throughout the year we will consolidate times tables learned from previous year groups and teach the rest of the tables up to 12 x 12.  We suggest children practise their times tables at home.  This can be done through Doodle Learning or the following sites:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/

This term in Maths, the units will cover Place Value and Addition and Subtraction.  We will continue to develop our skills and knowledge through concrete (practical resources), pictorial and abstract methods.  Once confident through fluency, the children will be stretched through reasoning and problem solving.

Place Value

We will be working on the following with numbers in the thousands:

• Representing
• Partitioning
• Finding 1/10/100/1000 more and less than
• Comparing and ordering
• Rounding to the nearest 10/100/1000
• Roman numerals

Addition and Subtraction

• Adding and subtracting 1s/10s/100s/1000s
• Adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers with and without exchanges
• Efficient subtraction
• Estimating answers
• Checking strategies

Examples:

Class Dojo

Please keep a regular watch on Class Dojo where you will find messages, reminders, photos of the learning and fun activities that take place in our classrooms and the reward points that your child receives.  Be mindful that we can only check our Dojo messages at certain points in the school day.  Therefore, if you have an urgent message or want to let us know that someone else is collecting your child at the end of the day, please contact the school office who will pass this information on to us.  

 Please note- any links above will take you away from the Oldswinford CE Primary website- we urge you to check ahead for unsuitable adverts on YouTube