Welcome back to a new term.  Christmas already seems like a long time ago!

Over the past two weeks in English, we have been reading our new text, Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths, and working towards writing a character description. We have looked at grammar to help us and lots of good examples of character descriptions. We are really enjoying the book, which is quite funny and looking forward to learning more about China for our next piece of writing.

In Maths, we are coming to the end of our Multiplication and Division topic, which has been quite challenging, and will soon be moving on to graphs and tables.

Our new Science topic is States of Matter. We have been investigating the properties of solids, liquids and gases and making some predictions before testing them. Everyone enjoyed inflating the latex glove by creating carbon dioxide and we were very glad that it didn't make a mess in the classroom.

Our Art topic this term is Still Life, which we have started exploring through traditional and contemporary artists working in this genre. We will be drawing, painting and photographing our own still life compositions later this half term.

Our History this half term focuses on how hard it was to invade and/or settle in Britain. This covers mainly Anglo-Saxons but touches on Vikings also.  See below for our topic homework.

Just a reminder that swimming for Year 4 starts next Wednesday (22nd January) and children can come to school in PE kits on this day. They also need to bring a towel, swimming hat and - if they want to wear them - some goggles.

Year 4 will be again be taking part in the statutory Multiplication Tables Check in the summer term. This is done in all Year 4 classes in the country. All children are expected to know their tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of year 4, as this will support their Maths going forward. We use TT Rockstars to help us to practice for this, as well as other printed and online games etc and the children have all been asked to practice daily using the Soundcheck on TTRS as this is almost identical to the actual MTC. The children have also been shown how to find their 'heatmap' on TTRS which shows them the tables they need to work on. Once they have done 2 or more Soundchecks a day (which take only a few minutes) they can then focus on the times tables they need to work on.

Please support your child to become as fluent as possible in their times tables as this will increase their confidence across every area of Maths. 

Thank you for your continuing support with homework and with reading for pleasure. Our Reading Cafe last half term was a huge success and we can't wait for the next one, coming up in February.

Reminder: Our Homework in Year 4 consists of weekly Maths assignments on Century plus a Topic homework each half term.  Spellings are also set each week and posted on Google Classroom on Mondays. Children do practise these in school but we ask that they also practise at home to consolidate this. 

The children can access Century via their LEO Homepage on their chrome books. This will be uploaded weekly.  Unless we have had a message from parents with a reason, any children who have not completed the Century homework by the due date will be asked to complete this during their lunch time. If you or your children have any problems with homework, please let me know as soon as possible and I will help. 

Our topic homework, due just after February half term on Tuesday 25th February, is to research Anglo-Saxon justice systems and create a presentation or booklet which highlights the different aspects of this. This can be completed as Google Slides, a video or a paper based presentation. An assignment has been created on GC and includes some links to useful resources.