Year 4 Blog Friday 20th January 2023

Date: 20th Jan 2023 @ 3:46pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 20^th January 2023

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here is a summary of our learning this week:

In English, we continued reading our class novel, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips. We used ideas and vocabulary from the story to write our own diary account.  In addition, we learnt more about verbs and adverbs and how choosing words carefully can really enhance our writing.

In Maths, we learnt more about time. We read time on both an analogue and a digital clock to the nearest minute.  We also learnt how to tell the time on a 24- hour clock, as well as converting between analogue, digital, and 12 and 24 hour clocks.  As highlighted last week, time is a tricky concept and needs lots of practice.  Why not ask someone at home to help you tell the time – you might find this resource helpful if you want to practise at home.

In RE, we learnt about the local parish and church.  We discussed the name of the parish and activities in the church which spread the Good News. We also considered how the school and parish link up and why the local parish community is important. 

In Science, we began a new topic about States of Matter by looking at the properties of solids, liquids and gases. We then classified a range of items using a Venn diagram, explaining why we knew, for example, that shampoo was a liquid. There was a lot of really good discussion using the new vocabulary. 

In PE, we continued with our swimming lessons. We are becoming more confident in the water, and much faster at getting changed and remembering to organise our clothes in our lockers!

In History, we started our new topic about the Anglo-Saxons.  To begin with, we learnt who the Anglo-Saxons were, where they came from and why they came to England.

To celebrate Chinese New Year which falls on Sunday 22^nd January, we had a visitor who came in to tell us about life in China. Our visitor (James) taught us a few words in Cantonese and how to count to 10. He also answered lots of questions about his time living in China. 

In PSHE we discussed our rights and responsibilities. Rights are the basic things that we are all entitled to – such as freedom, equality and the right to be treated fairly.  However, for each right, there is a responsibility placed on us.  For example, although we have the right to education, we also have a responsibility to work hard and do our best in school.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening.  Focus on fluency and understanding. If you find any new words, make sure you find out what they mean – write them in your reading diary and try and use them in your own writing.  

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 2’s and 20’s.  

For example, start at 184 and count up to 210 and back again

184   186   188  etc                   210   208   206   etc

Now have a go at counting in 20’s

Start at 240 and count up to 360 and back again

240   260   280 et                     360   340   320  etc

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (25^th January 2023). 

Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

Spellings

This week’s spellings are all homophones.

scene           seen            mail             male             bawl

ball              waist           waste          guest           guessed

new              knew            to                two              too    

These spellings will be tested next Friday (27^th January 2023).

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times tables challenge based on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables
• A time challenge – estimating time and reading analogue and digital clocks

Please make sure you log on and have a go!  Little and often is the key to success!

Please keep practising your times tables as much as you can.  Knowing your tables off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.

Using Hit the Button can also help you practise your number bonds.  Please have a go at brushing up your number bond skills, so that you can recall them quickly and accurately.

Have a relaxing weekend

The Year 4 Team