Welcome to the Summer Term!

We hope you have all had a fantastic Easter break and that you are ready to start a new term of learning in year 4.

Our highlight for this term will be our science week which will be starting the week on 19th May 2025 and ending with a Science fair (after school) on Friday 23rd May 2025. In the second half of the summer term, we will also host our annual Sports Day (venue and date to be confirmed). We will continue to learn how to play a guitar with Mr Norman.

We are looking forward to a fun packed term and we look forward to all the opportunities we will be giving you to learn :)

Meet the Year 4 team

Miss. Le Masurier will teach 4KLM.

Mrs Minty and Mrs Primett will teach 4MP.

Mrs Minty will teach 4MP on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday afternoons. Mrs Primett will teach 4MP Wednesday morning, Thursday and Friday all day.

Mrs Minty or Mrs Primett will teach 4KLM every Wednesday morning until break.

Our teaching assistants are Mrs Baker and Mrs Marshall.

Underpinning all our learning and time together is our school values, they are also linked to our Dojo rewards. We will learn about and celebrate examples of each value daily.

Our value for this term is... unity

This can be shown by: being inclusive and kind, working together to achieve a goal and for being a good friend..

We will be discussing what it means to show unity, as well as these 2 key questions.

What can I do to make others feel that they belong?

What does unity mean to me? 

Reading

Reading is a priority at Salisbury Road, therefore we will be practising our reading skills 5x a week using VIPERS to help us. In the classroom, we will use a mixture of choral, echo and ping pong reading, this will enable us to become confident, fluent readers.

Please remember to read at home four times a week to an adult. It is also really important that you record your reading in your reading record so your teacher can see how much you are reading at home. If you have read four times in a week, you will earn a raffle ticket for the reading raffle and have the chance to win a brand new book!

English

This term, the children are going to be writing a cinquain poem and an information text about an animal from the tropical rainforest.  

We will look at many different examples of an information text and understand the writing tools required. This will lead onto writing our own information text.

After half-term, we will be studying stories that include a portal. The children will gather ideas and vocabulary to support their writing and then write their own portal story. 

Throughout these units, the children will focus on deepening their knowledge even further on a variety of grammatical components, e.g. word classes, fronted adverbials, prepositions, metaphors, subordinate clauses and expanded noun phrases. 

Maths

This term we will be looking at the place value of numbers up to 1,000, estimation of numbers, fractions, written methods for multiplication and division as well as area and time.

Please don't forget to keep practising your times tables - these are VERY important! If you get your sheet signed for going onto TTRS 4 times-a-week, you will earn a raffle ticket for a wonderful prize.

Challenge yourself to beat your classmates on TTRS.

Science

In summer 1, the children will learn about electricity. The children will create a simple circuit and will look at electrical appliances that have a purpose and require electricity to work. The children will also learn about the components in a circuit ( a wire, a lamp, a buzzer, a motor and a switch) and understand that a complete circuit will only work if the wires, components and cell is connected. 

In summer 2, the children will be looking at properties of materials. The children will look at the physical properties they can measure and observe as well as understand the difference between thermal conductors and thermal insulators.

Geography

This term we will be learning about Earthquakes and Settlements. This unit will build on their prior knowledge from year 3.

This unit will further the children's understanding of why earthquakes take place and what effects they had in Haiti and Japan. The reason for looking at these two case studies is that they provide a good contrast between a high income country and a low income country.

History

This term we will be studying local history in our community.

As Historians, we will be studying Plymouth in the 1600s and the journey, challenges and events of The Mayflower; our trip to The Box will be based on this.

Homework

Homework will be given to the children every Tuesday and will either consolidate their learning in school or extend their learning further. It will be expected back to school on the following Monday. 

Sometimes, the homework may need to be completed via teams and other times it may be on paper or be a project to complete. 

If you ever have any concerns about your child's homework, please speak to their class teacher. 

Year 4 Spelling

Children will receive weekly spellings with their test taking place on a Monday. 

Each week, they will have six spellings which follow the current rule they are learning and the other four words will comprise from the statutory list from the national curriculum. 

We will teach the children strategies which will help them to learn their spellings. 

** For the children having phonics sessions, they will be given a list of spellings by their phonics teacher each week**

PE

4KLM and 4MP will have PE on a Wednesday afternoon. However, this occasionally may change so please ensure they have their PE kit in school every day.