Otter Class (Year 4) 2023 - 2024

Welcome to the class page for Otter Class.

Here you will find all of the exciting and wonderful things that your child will be learning during their time in Year 4. If you have any questions, please use Class Dojo or speak to a member of our team at drop off/ pick up.

Thank you

Autumn 1 

In English this half term, we will be looking at the book Counting on Katherine by Helaine Becker. This is the inspirational true story of Katherine Johnson, one of the mathematicians who worked to launch the Apollo 13 rocket into space! 

In our writing lessons, we will be building up to writing a factfile all about Katherine Johnson and her amazing achievements. We will be focusing on building different sentence structures, using fronted adverbials to start our sentences and introducing commas to more complex sentences. 

In reading this half term, we are looking at Rise Up - Ordinary Kids with Extraordinary Stories by Amanda Li. This book tells the stories of girls and boys from around the world and the challenges they have faced and overcome. 

We will be using our different VIPERS skills: Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise to improve our understanding of what we read.

Reading plays a significant role in children's development and we encourage it as much as possible! It comes with many benefits including:

Inspires imagination and creativity.

Enrinches cultural awareness and understanding. 

Increases empathy and improves relationships with others.

Lifts well-being levels and improves mood.

Improves progress in vocabulary, spelllings and even maths.

Encourages children to take a screen break.

You can support your child at home by reading with them daily and recording it in their reading diaries to help them add stamps onto their Book Worm. 

You could ask your child about what they think might happen next in the story, how do they think the character is feeling, who is the author and what do they do. 

In maths this half term, we will be focusing on the place value of numbers up to 10,000 before moving onto addition and subtraction, including using column method for both operations.

In June, all Year 4 pupils take part in the Multiplication Tables Check where they are given 25 questions on any multiplication facts up to 12x12. To ensure that our children are ready for this, we will be practising our times tables daily. As part of our practice, each child has their own login for Times Table Rockstars which they can access both at school and at home. Just a few minutes of practice each day can really help children to improve their knowledge and speed! 

This half term in science we are going to be diving into the digestive system! We will learn about where our food goes once we have eaten it, as well as the different teeth we have which help us to break food down. We will also be learning about the diets of different animals and how to classify them as predators or prey. 

In French, we will be learning how to use adjectives to describe ourselves and others. We will be practising our French writing by describing portraits that we create too!

In History this half term, we are learning all about the Ancient Romans! We will be finding out what made them such a powerful empire and what was the lasting effect of their invasion of Britain. We will also be investigating what life was like for the average Roman in Britain and designing our own Roman shields! 

This half term in music we will be exploring the rhythm of poetry and creating our own poems to perform aloud. 

Your child will have 2 PE lessons each week. Their days this half term are Monday and Wednesday. Please ensure they come into school in their PE kit on these days. This half term we will be learning how to play netball and developing our teamwork skills. 

 Mondays- Each Monday, your child will be given 10 spellings to learn over the course of the week which are tested on Friday. They will have opportunities to learn their spellings each morning in class, however, extra practice at home is essential.

Thursdays- Each Thursday, your child will be given either maths or English homework (alternating weeks) which is posted online on our class Dojo page. Homework is expected to be in the following Tuesday. If you need a paper copy of the homework, please ask! . 

Other useful links:

Oxford Owl - Linked to our phonics Read, Write Inc programme https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/   

Story Nory - A range of stories by classic authors as well as poems musicals and fairytales. https://www.storynory.com/archives/classic-authors 

Story Berries- Read along with audio clips. https://www.storyberries.com

Monkey Pen-  Free downloadable children’s books in PDF format. https://monkeypen.com/pages/free-childrens-books

Free Children’s Stories-  https://www.freechildrenstories.com

Keeping Safe Online-  www.esafety.gov.au/kids 

Topmarks- A great way for children to practise many of their maths skills https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=3

Newsround is a very good outlet for your child to watch each day to gain a wider understanding of what is happening not only in our country, but the rest of the world. We will be watching newsround every afternoon in class.