Saturday 23 January 2016

Another busy week

We have had a great week in year four and are thoroughly enjoying learning about the Romans. We have learnt about the Empire, how and why they made roads and lots more. The children produced some great homework last week when they retold their favourite activities from our Big Bang day, we hope you liked the photos.

In English we have just started a new unit called 'Historical settings' and we are linking this to our Roman topic. The children were gripped this week when we started a new book called Gladiator boy. We did some extended writing on Friday where the children wrote a character sketch about Decimus Rex, the main character. Why not ask your child what they thought of Decimus and his friend Gladius? Can they predict where the plot of the story will go?

In Maths in Mrs Gaines and Mrs Mercer's set we have been looking at number. We have been rounding decimal numbers to one and two decimal places, identifying number sequences and calculating different intervals on number lines. In Mrs Doran's set we have been looking partitioning numbers which is a method used to help addition and later on in the week we applied our skills to word problems.

During our computing lessons we have been creating story boards showing our ideas of a maths game. We will be transferring our story boards into a real maths game using the software called Scratch. The game is made by using blocks (which are coded) and putting them in an order to make things happen. The majority of the children used it in three year so we are developing those ideas.

In Science we have started our unit of 'Brilliant bubbles' and this week the children made their own bubble mixture using water, fairy liquid and glycerin in different ratios and we had a competition to create 'the best bubble'! The jury is still out on whether the best bubble is the biggest bubble or the bubble that lasted the longest!!

The home work this week is to write a book review, thinking about character and how to write an effective blurb, plural spellings, number patterns and partitioning in Maths. In addition to the homework, please can you ensure that the children continue to write in their reading records about four times a week. they can record either just the pages numbers of what they read, new words they have learnt, characters they like and why or information about the plot.

We would like to take this opportunity to say well done to Amy K in Ash and Matilda M in Birch for being chosen as Eco club members to represent year 4.

Thank you for your continued support with all aspects of school life. Please do not hesitate to come in and see us if there is anything we can help with.

The year four team

Saturday 9 January 2016

Harmonious homework!



As parents and carers, we would like you to support your children by providing the best learning environment possible at home that suits them.  Every child is different, but here are some of our suggestions for harmonious homework…


  •  Sit quietly at a desk, kitchen table, a flat surface to be able to easily write, neatly and with ease.
  •  Few distractions, preferably none, background music can be really distracting.
  • Some children benefit from reading the task aloud as it will help them to internalise it when hearing it as well as seeing it.
  • Encourage your child to write in sentences. Some children may like to rehearse the sentence aloud first before writing it. (We do this in class)
  • Encourage your child to sound out challenging words; please do not just tell them. Can they work out the word for themselves?
  • If you child is unfamiliar with a word/ concept as they read the task, please do not tell them the answer or meaning.  Can they work the answer out for themselves?
  •  Lastly, we are only asking the children to work for 30 minutes on each task set – Maths, English and spelling. If they have not completed the task in the time suggested, please just send it in and we will go over it in class. As we progress into the term, the children’s confidence will develop and their pace of work will get quicker.
We really appreciate your support with homework. Please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if you have any problems with the homework or anything within the classroom.

Year Four team