with

Miss Lillis (4 Craufurd)  Mrs Seker & Mrs Davis (4 Field)

supported by Miss Cooksey 

PE in the Autumn Term: Monday and Wednesday

Children are required to wear their PE kits (with trainers) to school on their 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. We have even invested in a pod machine to make it an extra special treat!  

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. Check Rising Stars online to see if there is a comprehension to complete for home reading books. (Not every book has one linked online, but many of them do, so please check each one)

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

6. 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! 

7. 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. 

8. 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. 

Spelling - weekly spelling lists will be set on Spelling Shed. Please try to complete the assigned games each week as this consolidates the spelling pattern we are covering in school. The more games you play, the better chance we have of winning the school competition for the class with the most points. It would be great to see Year 4 on the winner's board! 

Maths - Children each have their own Mathletics account with the same log in as last year. The tasks will compliment class work, and are usually set on a weekly basis. If you  have a mobile device, there is a free app to download. It is also available through most web browsers. Your child will have opportunities to practice on school equipment if you are having technical problems.

This year we will be concentrating on counting and tables facts. In Year 4, children are expected to be able to recall all the facts up to 12 x 12. We will be learning these regularly in preparation for the statutory Year 4 Multiplication Check. For a challenge, you can even learn the division facts to match! You might like to use Mathletics or Hit the Button to help you learn your tables as well as Supermovers times tables

Update: Try this fab new app! My team of tables novices have been trying this out, and the verdict- it is great! It's called Ten Minutes a day Time Tables from DK- here's a link. You can download it on android link and Ios (link).

This section of our webpage will be updated every term. Please check back to find out what we will be learning as well as suggestions for enriching learning at home including projects  and competitions!

During the second part of the Autumn term, we will be learning about our rich, local heritage when we study our new topic:

Our BIG QUESTION is:

What is the legacy of the

   glass industry in Stourbridge?

We will be learning why Stourbridge was chosen as a site for glass making and why it's still so celebrated today. We will study artisans through history such as Josiah Wedgewood and Thomas Webb, right up to modern day celebrities such as Elliott Walker. Our trip along the Crystal Mile will give us the opportunity to find evidence of the industry from the past. We will spend time at the Glass Cone and Glass Museum, watching glass blowing workshops and seeing some key historical glass pieces. We will even try our hand at being glass artists as we make a Christmas decoration. 

Our class reader (which was a firm favourite of last year's cohort) is called The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan.

Everyone remembers their secret imaginary world…but what if you discovered that yours was real? 

When Arthur and Rose were little, they were the heroes of Roar, a magical world they invented where the wildest creations of their imaginations roamed. Now that they’re eleven, Roar is just a distant memory. But it hasn’t forgotten them. When their grandfather is spirited away into Roar by the villain who still haunts their nightmares, Arthur and Rose must go back to the world they’d almost left behind. And when they get there, they discover that Grandad isn’t the only one who needs their help.

This enchanting, action-packed novel is perfect for readers who’ve always dreamed of exploring Narnia and Neverland.

Why not get your own copy of the book so you can read along in class? There are two other exciting adventures in the same series too: Return to Roar and The Battle for Roar.

In English, we will continue to practise fluent, joined writing with our pens. We have done really well so far, but practise makes perfect! 

Dragons will be the inspiration for our next writing unit as we take on a quest set by Princess Pele to save her and the people of Dragon Island. We will be working on varying our sentence structure and choosing adventurous words to hook the reader into our engaging quests. In Art & DT, we will then make clay dragon-eyes as part of our design to make our very own books, binding our quest stories into a published product, just like real-life authors!

This half 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 learning outcomes:

• Partition numbers up to 10,000
• Find 1, 10, 100 and 1000 more and less that a given number up to 10,000
• Comparing and ordering numbers
• Rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and thousand
• Roman numerals

Here are some examples of the types of the questions that your child will be accessing:

Addition and Subtraction outcomes:

• Adding two 4-digit numbers
• Subtracting from a 4-digit number
• Add and subtract where exchanges are needed
• Build on methods already known such as partitioning and using number lines to the formal written method 

The second half term will focus on the units of are and multiplication and division and area.

The children will be completing the government required times table check in June.  We will be helping the children work on this from the beginning of Year 4.  This first half term, we will recap on times tables learnt in Year 3:  x2, x5, x10, x3, x4, x8.  We will introduce the rest of the tables up to 12 x 12 during the second half term.    Here are some links to some useful websites that the children can access at home:

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

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

https://www.mathsisfun.com/timestable.html

In Science this term, we will be looking at the human body with the main focus on the digestive system.  This links in with our topic of food. The children will investigate each of the food groups and find out how much sugar is in some of our favourite foods.  We think they will be surprised!

We will be taking part in some drama as we find out what happens to food after we swallow.

In RE this half term we will be investigating why food is an important part of faith. We will be exploring a variety of world religions including Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Judaism. How many religious stories do you know that involve food? 

Do you want to enrich your learning this term, earn extra dojos and see your work celebrated on Class Dojo? Then why not try one of these activities below:

*Create some dragon art;

*Write a dragon poem;

*Draw a map of an imaginary land;

*Go on a journey around Stourbridge, photographing evidence of the legacy of the glass industry. Make it into a poster or powerpoint;

*Create a times tables poster of the facts you know and the ones you need to learn

*

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