Otter Class (Year 4) 2024 - 2025

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

Miss Walker, Miss Ingham and Mrs Sumner

Spring 1

In our writing lessons we will be reading Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd-Stanton

"Buried among the treasures in Professor Brownstone's vault lie a humble collection of books. Filled with imaginary stories from his ancestors, they tell of fearless fighters and unlikely heroes. Join Arthur as we journey to the land of the Vikings in this exciting adventure from Brownstone's Mythical Collection."

Writing outcomes:

Narrative: To write a myth narrative.

Non- Narrative: To write an informative flip book.

We will be continuing to practise fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and speech punctuation. 

In reading this half term, we are looking at  A Myth-Hunter's Travel Guide by Tom Button.

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 Multiplication and Division using our White Rose Maths booklets.

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 learning all about States of Matter. We will be learning all about the different states of matter and changes of states such as evaporation and condensation. 

Our humanties focus for this half term is History. We will be learning all about the Maya settlements in the rainforest and how they impact our lives today..

This half term in music we will be learning all about Developing singing techniques through Viking Songs. We will be learning how to sing in time with each other, use simple rhythmic notation as well as composing and performing a battle song.

Your child will have 2 PE lessons each week. Please also check the timetable for the class PE days. Please ensure they come into school in their PE kit on these days. This half term we will be learning all about hockey and football.

 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. As well as this pupils will be given a maths callenge to complete in their scrap books with a family member at home!

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.