Welcome to Class 4

Class teacher: Miss Murphy.
Teaching partner: Mrs Landers.

This page has useful information about the day to day running of Class 4 and all about what we get up to in our busy, exciting classroom.

Summer term

Welcome to the final term of Year 4, here’s what we are getting up to this summer term!

We will be kick-starting summer term with our Year 4/ 5 residential trip to Willersley Castle in the Peak District. This is an exciting opportunity for children to enhance their teamwork skills and enjoy many outdoor pursuits on site – not to mention staying in dormitories within the castle grounds!

Following this, during Summer term we will be covering two topics for history and geography. We will start with our geography topic where children will be investigating the formation and features of rivers. We will look at both local rivers and those worldwide – drawing upon prior knowledge of the Amazon River. Following this, our History topic this summer term will be exploring the question, ‘Were the Vikings raiders or settlers?’ Children will explore how the Vikings travelled, debate whether they were raiders or settlers and discuss the struggles in Britain during this time period. We will be drawing on our prior learning from our Year 3 trip to York to support our History this term.

In science, our first unit will be ‘Classification and Changing Habitats. In this, we will cover how to classify plants and animals based on their diets, features and their habitats. We will investigate the change in habitats over different seasons, as well as the impact humans have on different animal habitats. Children will be using skills such as data collection, understanding classification keys and research within this summer’s science topic.

We have lots of exciting opportunities this term for the children to enhance their fantastic writing skills and we will begin this through our first book unit, ‘Ocean meets sky’. Children will be using expanded noun phrases, similes and metaphors to create character and setting descriptions. They will also be expanding on their writing skills from spring term by using show not tell to write a narrative paragraph.

We have all of this and so much more to look forward to this upcoming term and I look forward to seeing all the wonderful work that Class 4 will be producing!

Please see below for some useful information about Class 4:

PE: PE is on Wednesday afternoons. We request that children attend school in their PE kits ready for an afternoon of PE. Please ensure that this includes some warmer clothing as we will be outdoors as much as possible. Earrings and other jewellery should be removed on this day and hair should be tied back where possible. Please ensure that all items of clothing are named.   

Spellings: Ten spellings will be tested every Tuesday and the new spellings for the next week will then be taught after the test. They will be uploaded to Spelling Frame each week; however, children can practise these in whichever way they feel most comfortable.  

Reading: Miss Murphy’s reading challenge challenges children in Year 4 to read 3 times or more to an adult outside of school each week. If children have read 3 times, they will be able to add a sticker to their reading bookmark at the end of the week. Children who add 6 or more stickers to their bookmark will receive a treat at the end of the half term. Reading records will be collected in every Friday. 

Creative Homework: Creative homework will not be compulsory, however it is highly encouraged. I will send out suggestions for homework each term but children can create whatever they please, so long as it relates to one of our topics. This will be celebrated at the end of each term. 

Times Tables: these will be tested every Friday. Children can use https://www.timestables.co.uk to practise their speed of recall of times tables facts up to 12x12. This will support their learning in preparation for the National Multiplication Tables Check where they will need to score 25/25. Children will be given personal log in details to timestables.co.uk to practise at home.

Children will also be given a booklet to record their practise of tables at home. They will need to practise at least 4x per week to receive a treat and any extra practises will result in an extra reward. These will be collected in every Friday along with their reading records.  

If you have/would like to share any information or expertise on any of the above, please feel free to let Miss Murphy know!

Please follow us on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @AslocktonSchool and/or Instagram @archbishopcranmerabca to see all the exciting things we have been getting up to!