Year 4
Welcome to the Year 4 page! This class is taught by Mr Lucas and supported by Mrs Poulter and Mr Harness!
Home Learning Activities
07/05/2020 – Update
Hello everyone! As the Summer Term gets underway, I am updating the home learning tasks below to keep you going until half term. So you can differentiate between what is new and what came before I’ve added the new tasks in green! As before, there is no set amount you should be doing each day (or that you should be working everyday) so please do not put pressure on yourselves to “keep up”. The class emails are now up and running so if you have any specific issues please do not hesitate to contact me. We’re all missing you dearly and hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy in these bizarre and unprecedented times.
On Thursday 21st May, we have been challenged by year 3 to a Battle of the Classes on Times Table Rockstars. The battle is between 11 and 12. It would lovely to see as many of you as possible to join the battle and beat Year 3! Press the Times Table Rockstars logo above to join. It would great to see you there. Good luck year 4, you can do it!!
BBC Bitesize Home Learning Daily Lessons
To help support children with their learning, and to stop them from falling behind, the BBC has launched a set of daily lessons for all children aged from Reception right the way up to secondary school. There is a Maths and English lesson launched everyday as well as a History/Geography lesson too. Click on the link below to access the website!
Follow the link for a week’s worth of both MATHS and ENGLISH lessons – Home-Learning-Pack
Follow the link for a week’s worth of both MATHS and ENGLISH lessons – Guidance-and-Answers
WRITING
See below a selection of writing tasks for the children to do. Again, these are not compulsory and if they have a better idea, I am more than happy for them to express creative freedom. The tasks below are merely ideas. To see what is expected at curriculum level for this year group, see the Writing Expectations Mat. On it are things we would like to encourage children to use in their writing. Do not feel the need to include everything in one piece. I’d recommend just writing the first draft as the children want it, then use the mat to help edit and redraft.
Mr Lucas’s Epic Writing Challenge – Epic Writing Challenge
Year 4 – Writing Expectations Mat – Writing Expectations
Year 4 – Fiction Writing Ideas – Fiction-writing-ideas
Year 4 – Non-Fiction Writing Ideas – Non-fiction-writing-ideas
Year 4 – Handwriting Practice – Handwriting
Year 4 – Grammar and Punctuation – Punctuating-Direct-Speech
Year 4 – Grammar and Punctuation – Direct-Speech-or-Indirect-Speech
Year 4 – Adding suffixes to words – Adding-ation-sion-ssion-tion-or-cian
Authorfy – This is a fantastic website where the world’s best children’s authors offer masterclasses in writing. They will teach your children a wide range of writing tips, give exercises for them to practice their newfound skills, and even talk about how they wrote their own books. The quality is superb and here your child can pick an author they know (or who has visited the school). I cannot recommend this enough. It does require you to subscribe but, to help parents with Home Learning, it is all free. Take advantage while you can!
WRITING – Helping Children With Description
Children can, at times, struggle when it comes to description. They either don’t know what to describe or how much detail to include. I use a method in class that might help! Tell the children to imagine a blank piece of paper. This is what their reader can see. Nothing! Their job is to put as much detail into their writing so their readers begin to paint what they can see on the blank page. Don’t tell me there are trees, tell me that the trees are grouped together with snow on the caps, standing as tall as giants! A good way to do this is to pick a picture off the internet (www.Pobble365.com has lots of great pictures) and tell the children you want your reader to see that! Pick an object in the picture and ask them to describe it. Then draw what they described. Does it look the same? If not, what else could they say to make it look the same? This really helps children see what their description does to their readers and before they know it, their description is 100x better!
READING COMPREHENSION
Earth Day Differentiated Reading Comprehension Activity
Garden Birds Differentiated Reading Comprehension Activity
Spring Differentiated Reading Comprehension Activity
MATHS
Year 4 – General maths/reading/grammar activities – Year 4 Home Learning Pack
Times Tables Activities and Games – Times Tables
Multiplication and Division Booklet – Y4 Multiplication and Division
Multiplication and Division Booklet – Answers
Place Value Booklet – Place Value Booklet
Addition and Subtraction Booklet – Addition-and-Subtraction
Addition and Subtraction – Answers
Decimals – Decimals
Money – Money
Time – Time
This term we would have started exploring the relationships between fractions and decimals. Below I have included a PowerPoint and some activities based on this. See the activity sheet in Other Fun Tasks section called 50 Creative Ideas. Some of the websites there have games for this. There are also lots of tutorials on YouTube if you aren’t sure.
PowerPoint – Tenths and Hundredths
Tenths and Hundredths Activities
SPELLINGS
Below I have included the government picked Year 3 and 4 key words. These are all the words that children are expected to learn and be able to use by the end of Year 4. There are lots of ways of practising these, whether through games, applying them to sentences, or the good old fashioned spelling test. Because there are so many to learn, I recommend people choose no more than 10 a week to practise. If your child is struggling (spelling was never my strong point at school either!) then feel free to decrease the number you focus on. I have also linked a website with lots of interactive spelling games based on different spelling patterns.
Year 3 and 4 Key Spellings List
TOPIC
This term we would have explored the relationships and properties of solids, liquids and gases. Below I have attached a document filled with easy experiments that are great for home learning as well as all the things children needs to know. It is filled with prompts to ask the children and discussions you could have at each stage of the topic. Again, as with all other things on this website, there is no pressure to do this or even do it all. Feel free to dip in and out or miss it entirely if you do not feel confident.
Grouping Living Things Powerpoint – Activity Sheet Grouping Animals – Animal Picture Sheet
Classifying Vertebrates Powerpoint – Vertebrates Photo Sorting Cards – Key Questions
Classification Keys – Powerpoint – Classification Activity – Rainforest Habitat – Classification Activity – Ocean Habitat
Lesson Presentation Environmental Changes – Environmental Changes – Endangered Animals Report
OTHER FUN TASKS
Year 4 – Practical Ideas – Year 4 Practical Ideas
50 Fun and Creative Things to do at home! This resource is full of things for children to do based on all ares of the curriculum. There are Art tasks, Science, Geography, History, PE., and even Design and Technology – 50 Creative Ideas
READING! If nothing else, I firmly believe that one of the best things you can do with your time is to read. Try a new author you’ve never heard of before! Read to your mum and dad, grandma or granddad! Or, better yet, get them to sit and read to you! Lose yourself in another world. Reading is the best exercise your brain can do, and even reduces stress levels! I’m looking forward to hearing about the new authors you discovered!
Year 4 Routines
Reading – Guided reading takes place every day where children either read aloud to the class or to their peers! Research has repeatedly shown that children who read for pleasure are not only happier, but perform better academically than children who don’t (https://readingagency.org.uk/about/impact/002-reading-facts-1/). Therefore we encourage the children to read for 20 minutes each night at least four nights a week. Once they have read, children should tick their reading diaries and write a comment ready for handing in on Friday. If parents could co-sign the diaries too that would be a great help.
Homework / Spellings – Spellings will be sent home on Tuesday and tested the following Tuesday. Homework is sent out on Fridays and should be returned the following Wednesday. If the children are stuck they are encouraged to pop in and see Mr Lucas or Mrs Poulter! There is also a homework club on Thursday lunch times for those who need some extra time/support.
PE – PE is on a Tuesday and a Wednesday. The Tuesday’s session is led by a GTFC coach and could be outside or inside. Children will need a white t-shirt, dark shorts and plimsolls. They could also have dark jogging bottoms and a dark long sleeved top, socks and trainers for outside PE sessions. The Wednesday session is DANCE an led by a qualified instructor!
Staffing – Mr Lucas teaches the class all week and is assisted by Mrs Poulter.
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Autumn 1 |
Viking Britain |
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Autumn 2 |
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Spring 1 |
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Spring 2 |
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Summer 1 |
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Summer 2 |
Class Books!!!
This term we’re not just working on one book in class. Oh no! This term we’re working on TWO! During English lessons we’ll be exploring a book on World Myths as part of our new Power of Reading scheme! Mr Lucas values reading time and thinks all children deserve to be read. So at the end of each day, he will be reading The Legend fo Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood:
Jorvik Viking Center!
A part of our eipc Viking topic last term, everyone in Year 4 ventured to the grand city of York! Here we delved into the wonderful world of Jorvik, where the children got to ride through a replica Viking town. We listened to the locals’ stories, marveled at their houses, and held our noses! It stank! But then, in a world without deodorant, what did we expect? After that we walked across the city to DIG, where we learnt all about the Viking’s brutal battle tactics. We even got to have a go!
