Year 4 Blog Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 8:55am

Welcome to this week’s blog.

Year 4 Notices

Reconciliation - If your child is following the Reconciliation program at church, they will have come home with a leaflet, ‘Celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation at home’. Please discuss and share this information with your child.

Year 4 Reconciliation Day – Monday 4^th December. Parents are invited to attend the service in church at 2.15pm.

Class Hamper – each class has a colour theme to make up Rainbow Hampers for the PTFA Grand Christmas Raffle. Please donate what you can over the next 3 weeks. Year 4’s colour is blue – please donate anything blue that you an eat, drink, blue luxury items etc.

Please also read the weekly newsletter which has lots of information about upcoming events before Christmas. 

Year 4 Learning

In English, we discussed the 4 different types of sentences - statements, questions, commands and exclamations. We then wrote questions about a chapter of the novel. We tried our best to ensure that the questions were punctuated properly (using capital letters where appropriate and question marks) and required more than a ‘yes or no’ answer. In addition, we planned  a book review of the novel Kensuke’s Kingdom.  We will be writing this next week.

In Maths, we revised multiplying by 10 and 100. We then used this knowledge to multiply using related facts.

Eg 3 x 40        3 x 4 = 12       So 3 x 40 = 120 as it is 10 times larger

6 x 900           6 x 9 = 54      So 6 x 900 = 5400 as it is 100 times larger

When a number is multiplied by 10, all the digits move one place to the left

When a number is multiplied by 100, all the digits move two places to the left.

In addition, we learnt how to multiply using compensating (eg using 20 x 6 to help calculate 19 x 6).

In RE, we explored how we are all unique and different.  We understood that we should treat each other as we would like to be treated and designed a poster to explain this. We also wrote our own set of Golden Rules to live by, and chose a reading from the Bible which we felt celebrated the uniqueness of each of us.

In Science, we started the lesson by identifying some electrical appliances and what they use electricity for: heating/cooling, light, movement or sound. We then constructed a simple circuit and named the parts. We discovered that to make a simple circuit work, the components needed to be in a loop. We also drew a diagram of this in our books.

In P.S.H.E., we continued with our Relationships unit of 'Play the Right Way and Inclusion'. This session was about the right to privacy. We started the lesson by discussing what we thought this meant and checking our ideas against the given definition. We then discussed some situations where a confidence or secret should be kept and where it should not be kept. Finally, we discussed when it is the right thing to tell a trusted adult.  

The right to privacy means - the right not to have one’s personal matters disclosed or publicised / to be left alone / for certain things not to be disclosed

In P.E., we started our rotation of Rugby and Dance. We used our previously taught Invasion Games skills and tactics to play some games of tag rugby. We also explored movement and communicating a character to portray a superhero. We focused on facial expressions and gestures to communicate emotions.

Year 4 Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home. Many of you are still not doing this and reading really is the key to unlocking learning.

Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

English

Next week, you will be writing your own book review of Kensuke's Kingdom. We have already planned this in class. However, over the weekend please jot down some interesting describing words you would like to use in your writing.  This will make your review more interesting to read and showcase some vocabulary of your own.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 6’s.

For example, start at 0 and count up to 72 and back again 

0   6   12   18     etc                             72   66   60   etc

Please also count in 3’s

For example, start at 30 and count upto 60 and back again

30   33   39 etc                                  60   57   54   etc

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

You can practise your tables on Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

Please also practise your number facts. It has become evident that many of you are finding this tricky when you have been completing your written addition and subtraction.

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.

Spellings

Your spellings next week are from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory list

busy            business      exercise      imagine        opposite

regular        calendar       experience   important    ordinary

remember    caught         circle           forward       library

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times tables challenge based on the 3 and 6 times tables
• A challenge based on multiplying by 10 and 100, as well as using known facts to work out other multiplications (eg 30 x 6, use 3 x 6 = 18, then multiply by 10)

Please make sure you log on and have a go!  Little and often is the key to success!

The Year 4 Team