English

We have had a fantastic week learning to describe settings from our stories. We have practiced using verbs and adverbs (the birds flew gracefully), expanded noun phrases (the majestic, snowy mountains) and fronted adverbials (Behind the house, there was a garden). We use these skills to really set the scene and paint a picture for our reader. Year 4 have astounded us by incorporating other writing skills they have learnt without being prompted (e.g. similes and personification), which shows just how far they are developing as writers!

We would encourage you to help find interesting adjectives for things they’re describing. For instance, instead of saying ‘there was a big tree’ they could say ‘there was a huge/enormous/towering tree’.

 

Maths

We have spent this week practicing two-step word problems. These are problems where children need to identify two calculations they need to complete to answer the question.

For example:

Will and Kate are walking down the street. Will finds £20 on the floor and Kate finds £12.

They decide to share the money equally. How much do they get each?

The children have been so resilient and worked so hard this week with these problems as they have had to draw on lots of maths skills. We are so proud of them all!

We ended the week learning about prime and square numbers. Prime numbers are numbers whose only factors are 1 and themselves (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19).  Square numbers are numbers that are the result of a number being multiplied by itself (6 x 6 = 36, therefore 36 is a square number). We also looked at why they were called square numbers by going back to drawing arrays.

 

Thematic

This week we have been learning all about the water cycle and the ways in which water can change from one state of matter to another. For instance, when you heat water it evaporates as it changes from a liquid to a gas. When water vapour is cooled, it is called condensation, and it will turn from a gas, back into a liquid.

We have also planned and conducted an experiment to see if the rate of evaporation is affected by change in temperature. We have drawn lines on plastic cups and ensured that each cup is filled with the same amount of water. We have then placed one cup in the classroom (a warm temperature), one cup on top of our lockers (a hot temperature) and one cup in the fridge (I think you can guess the temperature there). Next week we will collect the cups and see whether the water evaporates at different rates.

Home learning

Home learning this week is to make your own arrays of square numbers using anything you can think of. You might choose to draw 16 little Pokeballs in a 4x4 square, or you might take a picture of 9 balls in your garden laid out in a 3x3 square. What’s the biggest square number you can make this way?

If you choose to take photos and don’t have a printer, feel free to email them over to your class teacher so we can see your fantastic work!

 

Reading Challenge

Well done to those of you who have already completed the reading challenge. As a reminder, this is due to be completed by next Friday.

We have set a reading challenge for the rest of the term. Please log onto https://www.myon.co.uk/login/ - they can log in with their AR log ins, read the books that have been set on our topic and then take the quiz! They will have until 17th May to complete this.

 

Spelling

We had great fun playing games to challenge our spelling abilities this week! In this game, we had all our words laid out and our partner had to remove one while our eyes were closed. Then, when we opened our eyes, we had to guess which word was missing and write it down (spelling it correctly, of course!)

 

This week we are practicing spelling homophones, words that sound the same but have different spellings.

This week our spelling words are:

accept, except, affect, effect, aloud, allowed, weather, whether, whose, who’s

 

 

Dates to remember  

 

21st May - Year 3 and 4 Viking Games at Upton Junior School

 

23rd May - Year 4 trip to Marlowe Theatre

 

24th May - Dress to Express day and Be here, be you, belong parade at 2.15 on school field

 

24th May - Last day of term

 

 We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

The Year 4 Team 😊