Welcome to Year 4’s class page!
Hello, I am Mrs Gibson and I am the Year 4 teacher. I have taught Lower Key Stage 2 for many years and I am really looking forward to teaching Year 4 this year. We have 16 children in our class and we are lucky to have Miss Cowan as a our teaching assistant to help and support us.
The children have a determined attitude to learning and there are high expectations across all areas of the curriculum.
We have a very busy classroom and a full-packed timetable for the week. Our mornings comprise of core lessons every morning. I have attached a curriculum letter and overview below to outline what the children will be learning in all the subjects this term.
English
English lessons are taught daily and are broken down into reading, SPaG, writing and spelling. Each week, the children are taught reading comprehension skills using higher-level texts and these are linked to the genre of writing too. They are taught stand alone SPaG lessons each week, as well as given a SPaG checker weekly too to help them remember the terms and vocabulary for each part of the curriculum. Each week, the children work on their composition skills in writing. They are taught how to plan their writing and are then given time to apply both the organisational and language features of different texts in their own pieces of work. They are given 3 lessons for writing to develop and imporve their sentence structure and to write at length.
Reading is an essential life skill and we aim for all children to read accurately and with a good understanding of what they have read. We also encourage all children to read for pleasure. It is important for all children to have time to read daily, whether that is independently or with and adult, but it is essential they are given time to read out loud to an adult and have the opportunity to discuss what they are reading or to find out the meaning of new or unfamiliar vocabulary.
Understanding what they have read is equally as important as reading the words mechanically, so here are a list of questions you can ask while reading with your child:
Comprehension and Inference
- What has happened in the story so far?
- Who is the main character? Describe them using evidence from the text.
- What is the setting of the book?
- Find an adjective the author uses to describe a character or place.
- What do you think a particular word or phrase means?
- What is the genre of this story? How do you know?
Predictions
- What do you think will happen next? How do you know?
- What would you do if you were one of the characters?
- How do you think the author wants you to feel about a certain character?
- If you could change one thing in the story, what would it be and why?
- Can you rewrite the ending using what you know about the characters?
- Would you recommend this book to a friend? Who would you recommend it to, and why?
Personal Responses
- What is your favourite part of the story? Why?
- Which part is your least favourite? Why?
- If you could meet a character, what would you say to them?
- Does this book remind you of anything else you’ve read or experienced?
- What is the most interesting situation in the story?
- What did you learn from this story?
Below is a list of the statutory words for Year 3 and 4 that the children need to be able to read and spell by the end of Year 4.
Maths
The maths curriculum in Year 4 focuses on the children being secure with basic calculations for all four operations and to be able to use standard written methods securely when working with numbers up to and beyond 1000.
By the end of Year 4, the children need to be secure in reciting the multiplication facts for all the tables up to 12×12. They will complete a multiplication check at the end of the year where they will be asked 25 questions and will only have 6 seconds to answer each question. It is important that the children regularly practise their tables and can quickly recite all the facts.
The following website is useful:
Please find attached below this term’s curriculum letter and overview.