St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolYear 4 Blog Friday 24th April 2026
Date: 24th Apr 2026 @ 12:18pm
Welcome to the first blog of the Summer Term
Home practice
Reading
Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.
Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.
See if you can spot any expanded noun phrases when you are reading.
Expanded noun phrases will include the determiner, any adjectives and a noun.
Spellings
These are your spellings for next week:
consider continue decide describe different
difficult disappear early earth eight
eighth enough exercise experience experiment
extreme forward forwards
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 10’s bridging 100’s
For example, start at 86 and count to 236 and back again
86 96 106 etc 236 226 216 etc
Now try from 321 to 571 and back again
321 331 341 etc 571 561 551 etc
Times tables and Number facts
Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week.
You can practise your tables on TTRockstars, Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
You can practise a similar Multiplication Tables Check on timestables.co.uk
If you practise for 5 minutes every night, you will see a big improvement in your tables fluency.
Please also practise your number facts.
You can practise your number facts on Hit the Button
It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts and your number facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.
TTRockstars challenge
A ‘garage’ session
Sumdog challenges
A spelling challenge based on the words above
An adding and subtracting fractions challenge
Our Learning this Week
In English, we learnt what an expanded noun phrase is and practised building our own phrases.
We also used a dictionary to find out the meaning of new words.
Following this, we wrote a powerful description of the grotto of the fire fiend using expanded noun phrases and some of the new vocabulary we had investigated.
In Maths, we learnt how to add and subtract using a number line.
First, we used a number line to help us bridge though a multiple of 10 efficiently.
Then, we used a mental compensating strategy when the number we were adding or subtracting had a 9 in the ones place.
In addition, we found fractions of amount using counters and pictorial representations.
In RE, we started our new topic – To the ends of the Earth – during which we will learn about the spread of the Gospel and the mission of the Church.
We began the topic by listening to John 20:1-10 and considered how Peter felt when he entered the tomb and saw it was empty.
In PSHE, we discussed how to use digital devices safely and explored the benefits of the internet and how to balance screen time.
In addition, we discussed how to protect our personal information.
In Science, we started our new topic, teeth and the digestive system.
We started an investigation into which drink causes the most tooth decay.
We left 5 eggs in different liquids and will see what affect the liquids have on the eggs next week.
Have a look at the photos in our gallery.
In Geography, we finished our rainforests topic by creating a double page spread in our books.
You can see some examples of our work in our gallery.
In addition, we made a creative image of the 4 layers of the rainforest using natural materials.
You can see some examples in the gallery.
In our gymnastics session, we practised our balancing by completing a one foot balance challenge for 2 or 3 minutes.
We also demonstrated some travelling actions on our feet, and our hands and feet (the caterpillar, frog, bunny hop and monkey).
You can see some pictures in our gallery.
Golden Assembly
Star of the week: Rowan
Super Learner: Jessica
Superstar Writer: Bella
Bookworm: Lottie
Marvellous Mathematician: Albie
Special Mentions: Oscar and Bobby for fabulous double page fact files about rainforests
George, Hunter, Heidi and Albert for superb responses when being hotseated in RE
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 4 team