Welcome to Year 4 – Sapphire Class!
Our Class Teacher is Mrs Hael (Monday – Wednesday) and Mrs Tasch (Thursday & Friday). Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Tasch (Tuesday and Wednesday) and Mrs Keedwell (Monday).
Learning
Spelling and Grammar (SPaG)
There will be daily SPaG and handwriting activities in Year 4 set as morning work, focused on the week’s spellings and also progressing through the prescribed grammar for Year 4. This will also include revision of Year 3 grammar concepts.
Spellings homework will be set on Fridays and is to be handed in on Wednesday’s to allow for marking before the weekly test on Friday.
Reading
Children will continue with the home reading scheme in Year 4. We encourage children to read for 10-15 minutes daily, reading to an adult as often as possible. We appreciate this is not always necessary for extended periods with more able readers but children should be heard to help increase fluency, expression and also discussion of new vocabulary.
There will be 3 whole class guided reading sessions a week in Year 4, and several of the children also read aloud to a member of staff at least once a week.
Writing
There are lots of creative writing opportunities in Year 4, including: historical setting narratives, adventure stories, poetry, character description, non-chronological reports, persuasive writing, newspaper reports and explanations. We have lots of fun with our writing and link it into our topics wherever possible.
Maths
This year, we have adopted the Ready To Progress Curriculum through the NCETM. Initially, this is designed as a Covid recovery curriculum but will become a long term curriculum focused on the key, and most important, learning outcomes in the Year 4 curriculum. At Weare, we fully embrace the ‘Mastery Approach’ and will continue to follow the White Rose Maths Hub scheme of learning where appropriate, which focuses on establishing mathematical understanding progressing through concrete, pictorial and abstract learning. This helps the children to develop a deeper understanding of the maths they are doing in order to more fluently manipulate numbers and be confident in reasoning and solving problems.
We are very keen to develop numeracy skills and so spend lots of time on times tables. Throughout the week, we have an additional 20 minute Mental Maths session which focusses on timestable practice and fast recall of basic number facts.
Maths Homework is given out on Friday and should be handed in on Wednesday.
Topic
Year 4 Topics include: The Romans, Christmas Around the World, Rainforests, Our European Neighbours, The Stone Age and a Transition project with our Middle Schools.
A topic homework project will be given to the children based around the term’s topic. They will have several week’s to complete the tasks, they can choose which activities they would like to do based on a point system.
French
French is taught on Thursday mornings by Mr. Sage.
P.E.
P.E is on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings – sessions are led by Mrs Hael and Mr Coggins. Full P.E. kit must be in worn into school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they can be worn all day.
Useful Information
Homework
Spellings and Maths homework will be given out on Friday and should be handed in on Wednesday. Spelling tests will be on Friday morning. The children need to be regularly reading at home, ideally aloud, and practising their focus timestables for a test on Wednesday.
In addition, the children will be given a termly homework project based on their topic.
PE
PE is on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning and full PE kit should be worn in to school on both of those days.