I can't believe it is halfway through the Summer Term already! We have been extremely busy this past few weeks - from the residential to harvesting plants for our Grow Cook Enjoy meal, to another very successful Reading Cafe this week (see pictures below) - with lots of lessons in between.

This week in English, we have been exploring instructional writing through a recipe. However, as our recipe is inspired by our text, The Explorer, you may NOT want to try it at home (Grub Pancakes anyone?) The children have really enjoyed learning all about imperative (or 'bossy') verbs and how to give clear, specific instructions. 

In Maths, we have moved on to Geometry, specifically looking at angles, triangles and properties of quadrilateral shapes.  There are a lot of facts to learn in this topic so any consolidation you can do at home when you come across a shape (e.g. 'What type of triangle/quadrilateral is that? How do you know? etc) would be brilliant. Please ensure that the Century homework is completed as this supports the learning we have done in class.

In Science, we have completed half of our topic on Animals and their Habitats (which continues after half term) and had great fun creating classification keys for sweets, mini beasts and leaves.

In History, our topic on the Ancient Maya civilisation has proven extremely popular. We have learned about the amazing inventions that the Maya created, many of which we still use in some form today, as well as Maya gods and goddesses and city planning.  The children have all designed and drawn their own Maya city plan, including the main features we have discussed.  

In Art, we have been enjoying our pathway on 3 Dimensions/sculpture. We have experimented with different drawing and painting techniques and tools to create expressive nest pictures and have now moved on to creating structures for our 3D nest sculptures.

I hope that you all have a fantastic half term and come back ready for the final push towards summer.  Just a reminder that we have a day trip to the Living Rainforest on Friday 13th June.

Year 4 will be again be taking part in the statutory Multiplication Tables Check in the summer term (this will be in the first half of June). 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. 

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. 

Thank you homework on Rivers - all children have been given feedback on GC, even if they handed in a physical piece of work.  

Our new topic homework is a shorter one based on the Maya civilisation. Children can choose between a soap carving or a Maya mask. Details are on GC.