Year 4 Crime and Punishment ‘WOW’ Day
Today Year 4 arrived in school to find out that a terrible crime had been committed, somebody had stolen books from the library!
The children worked on lots of different activities to learn about solving crimes. This included looking at CCTV footage and doing a walk-through, looking closely at witness statements, taking fingerprints, drawing mugshots and learning about the role of different people that are involved in investigating crimes
Year 4 Key information
First of all, we would like to welcome you and your child to Year 4. We hope that all of the children have enjoyed their first few days back at school. We have been very impressed at how positive and enthusiastic are and look forward to an exciting year ahead. Please find below some key information;
PE
Your child will participate in two PE sessions each week. These will take place as follows;
4KP – Swimming on Monday and PE on Wednesday
4PP – Double PE session on a Wednesday
4GW – Double PE session on a Wednesday
Please ensure that your child comes to school in their PE kit (black joggers/leggings, red school logoed hoodie, red school logoed t-shirt and trainers/pumps). Can we ask that hair is tied back and that earrings are removed or small studs are worn.
For swimming your child will need to bring their swimming kit and towel with them. Children must not wear earrings and we advise that they are taken out at home on the day of swimming. If you child has recently had their ears pierced please speak to the class teacher.
Homework
Each week, homework will be handed out on a Thursday or Friday, in an A4 red book. This will include a piece of maths and a piece of English each week. However, at times this may change and include another subject or a small project. For Maths, there will be a focus on number facts and times tables each week. This will include a sheet and Times Tables Rockstars. All homework is to be completed and handed in on or before the following Wednesday, unless otherwise stated. Each piece of homework should not take your child more than about 15/20 minutes. It is important that children complete their homework each week, but it is not a problem if they are occasionally unable to complete it. Please just sign their homework book to let us know.
Reading
In Year 4, your child will be on a coloured reading stage or be a free reader. We would like your child to read their reading book but please encourage them to read a range of texts e.g. newspapers magazines, poetry, non-fiction. The aim should be for your child to read every night, even if it is only a few pages. Whilst reading, we recommend you ask your child key questions about the text to develop comprehension. Please sign their reading diary to show when they have read and how far they have got. As long as it is signed to say they have finished it, they will be able to change their book when they are ready. Please note that your child will be responsible for changing their reading book and we will not be changing it for them. Therefore, we would appreciate your support in reminding them to do this. Please ensure reading books and diaries are in school everyday. We will check reading diaries each week.
Spellings
Your child will be given new spellings on Fridays to practise ready for a test the following Friday. Their spellings will be a combination of words following a spelling rule, the expected word list and topic words. Please ensure they have their spelling books in school on test day.
Times Tables
Rapid recall of times tables will be a key focus for Year 4 this year, as all the children will be sitting the National Multiplication Test Check in July. This involves 25 questions from any of the times tables up to 12 x 12 and your child will have 6 seconds to answer each one. It is essential that your child continues to practise their times tables up to 12 x12, as well as the associated division facts. Please encourage your child to use Times Tables Rockstars and the Soundcheck game. They are both a similar style to the test they will take in July. Furthermore, the following website is another great way to practise and to give you an idea of the test expectations. https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Water bottles
Your child is allowed a water bottle in school which will be kept in a designated area in the classroom. Please ensure that the bottle only contains water, has a sports cap or similar anti-spillage lid and is clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Pencil Cases
Your child may wish to bring a basic pencil case into school which contains a pencil, ruler, rubber, glue stick and colouring pencils. If your child has a pen license, they can also include a blue Biro pen in their pencil case. In providing these, it will help to support your child’s independence and their preparation for their new school year. Where families are unable to purchase equipment, class teachers will ensure that children have the required items.
Thank you,
The Year 4 Team
Activity – ch to create a poster or leaflet about how to look after your teeth.
Useful websites:
https://www.dentalhealth.org/pages/category/all-oral-health-information
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/taking-care-of-childrens-teeth/
https://www.mydentist.co.uk/dental-health/dental-treatments/kids-club
Or just search ‘Dental health’!
During this week, your child has participated in maths activities related to Coventry, including its history.
As part of this, we are running a maths photo competition ‘Looking at Coventry Through Maths Eyes’. The aim of this is to help everyone realise that maths is all around us and our local environment is mathematically rich. Using the things around us is a superb way to engage your child in talking about maths.
Over half term, we would like you and your child to take a photo/snapshot of familiar things that capture some aspect of real-life mathematics in and around Coventry. We would like you to send your photo into us with a mathematical question (see examples below). There are prizes up for grabs!
Please send your ‘Looking at Coventry Through Maths Eyes’ photos/questions to Mrs Walton by Wednesday 1st March to [email protected] Please state clearly your child’s name and class.
I looking forward to seeing all your photos,
Mrs Walton
Maths Standards Leader
As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, Year 4 played some games to help us connect to each other.
For homework in Year 4, the children were asked to read part of a story and send in a video as part of National Story Telling Week. These are now available on the Year 4 Teams page.
This week is National Story Telling week. Duing our session today we completed some activities linked to this. First, we created our own story sticks by going on a walk around the school grounds and collected things to attach to our story stick. Next we listened to the sounds around us and created our own sound story maps using symbols to represent the noises we heard.
This week, we used the forest school to get in touch with out senses. First, we used a senses hands to find items that felt tickly, rough etc. Then we sat quietly and listened to all the sounds around us. Next, we created our own badger scents by collecting different items around us and mixing them up. Again, great fun!
