North Town Primary School

A guide to the curriculum for Parents/Carers of children in Year 4

Second half of Spring Term 2017

/ Science Term
Our topic for this half term will be a science focus, and we will be developing our knowledge of electricity. Through experiments and investigations, we will be learning about circuits and conductors. We will be developing our scientific knowledge and understanding of Electricity. We will be investigating different electrical circuits and elements to control these.

English / Writing – In writing we will be focusing on a number of different genres. These include report writing, poetry and more narrative writing.
Reading - Children will continue to have daily guided reading sessions working on developing their reading and comprehension skills while exploring a variety of texts. Please continue to encourage your child to use Bug Club and read at home, including recording any reading experience in their reading records please.
Spelling - Daily spelling, punctuation and grammar lessons continue to equip children with the skills needed to progress in writing, as well as supporting them with their Spelling Log homework.
Library – Library sessions will continue on Fridays for both classes.

Mathematics / The children will take part in daily mental maths sessions; these will focus on number facts, logical thinking and times tables.
Maths will focus on these areas: number (including negative numbers), describing position using coordinates, solving calculation problems and understanding units of measure.
Times table Challenge
The children will take home their Times Table Challenge every week and will benefit from practicing regularly at home. When your child is able to complete the challenge successfully within the time limit they will move on to the next stage. When your child completes challenge 22 they will move onto word problem mental maths tests to develop their problem solving skills.
Times Table Challenge - Children will continue to be tested weekly on their progression within the times table challenge.

Science / The term’s focus with a project on Electricity. Details above.

Spanish / We will continue looking at our targets for the year including nouns, masculine and feminine and adjectives with agreements We will be looking at food- la comida en español https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5gm6LgCzo and continuing to work on
our adjectives to describe it. This website http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/adj1.htm explains adjectives en español and has games to test you too. Using the Languagenut resource online or the free app, find section 13 Healthy Eating. If you need to be reminded of your logon access or password for this do not hesitate to contact me or the class teacher.

Physical Education / PE – This half term the focus in Physical Education sessions will be physical skills and cognitive skills. The children will have the opportunity to apply their skills through cooperative and competitive games and gymnastics. The theme for the half term will be ‘Ball, hand apparatus sequences’. The skills focus for the half term will be ‘rotation sequences with a ball’. The children will be working on further developing creative skills such as selecting and linking movements together and making up their own rules and versions of activities.
Swimming - Swimming on Fridays at Taunton School Pools continues this half term. Any Parents who DBS cleared and able to assist walking over would be greatly appreciated.

PSHE&C / In PSHE&C we will be focusing on a topic called Healthy Me. This topic will include drugs and alcohol education, self-esteem and confidence as well as guidance in healthy lifestyle choices

Computing / This half term we will be continuing to look at coding using Espresso coding and Scratch.

RE / This half term we will be continuing to develop our understanding of Judaism. We will be looking at key Jewish beliefs and festivals.

Children’s Rights / This half term the children will be learning about the following rights through our topic sessions:
Article 28 – Every child has the right to an education. Wealthier countries must help poorer countries achieve this.
Article 29 - Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.
Article 31- Every child has the right to relax, play and join in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Homework / Topic & maths homework - The children will continue to receive homework with a topic and maths focus. Details are given to the children if tasks are set on MyMaths. Details to follow about a topic themed projects.
Spelling Log - Please continue to support your child with their spelling log that they bring home weekly, they will continue to receive support in school with this in their daily SPaG lessons.
Events / Dates for your diaries…
·  Yr4 Spring Term 2 Parent Share Thurs 30th March 2:55 – 3:15
·  NT Book Day 30th March
·  Science Fortnight – 6th March – 17th March
·  Parent’s Evenings – Thursday 9th March 4:30 – 7pm / Wednesday 15th March 3:30 – 6pm
·  House Treat afternoon – 29th March
·  Red Nose Day – 24th March
·  Mufti Day – 6th March – chocolate donations please
/ You can keep up to date with all our learning by following us on Twitter @NorthTown4MP and @NorthTown4HL

We look forward to continuing our productive partnership and thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions please pop in to see us.

Many thanks,

Mrs Heywood and Mrs Lawrence & Mrs Monk and Mrs Purchase (Class teachers)

together with Mrs Tidmarsh, Mrs Marr, Mrs Linegar, Mrs Duke and Mrs Waterton

(Teaching Assistants)