• Home Learning

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

Welcome to the Autumn Term in Year 4! I hope you all had a restful break and the children are excited for the new school year. It was lovely to see the children come back with such energy and enthusiasm. We have a fantastic term ahead filled with exciting learning opportunities.

English:

We started the term by exploring ‘The Invisibles’ by Tom Percival, which ties into our theme, "Who Am I?" This has sparked discussions about identity and belonging. From the second week, we will dive into ‘Tar Beach’ by Faith Ringgold, where the children will study the features of narrative writing and diary entries. They will use these skills to write their own stories and diary entries. In guided reading, we will be reading ‘Zombierella’ by Joseph Coelho, which will help the children develop their inferencing, predicting, and retrieving skills.

Maths:

We began the term with a baseline assessment to review the children’s understanding of place value. This term, we will focus on ordering, partitioning, and representing numbers, along with rounding to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000. As the term progresses, we will move on to addition and subtraction, followed by multiplication and division. Times tables practice will continue to be an important part of our early morning work.

Science:

In Science, we are learning about the digestive system. The children have already enjoyed making model teeth out of dough, and we’ve started discussing the different types of teeth. We will continue working through the digestive system, learning how each part functions and what role it plays in breaking down food.

Humanities:

Our history topic this term is invasions. We are focusing on the Romans, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons and how these invaders shaped the Britain we live in today. We will explore our local area and connect our findings to these three key periods in history.

Computing:

For every term, we will ensure e-safety is a key focus during our lessons. The children will also learn how to solve simple computer problems. For our main topic they will learn to combine animation and simulation techniques to create their own digital toys.

Art & DT

In Art & DT, the children will be designing their own fabric pieces, inspired by Tar Beach. These will be combined with the work of their classmates to create a collaborative class quilt, which ties in with our English work and the theme of belonging.

Zones of regulations:

We will use the Zones of Regulation to help children understand and manage their emotions. Each of the four zones is represented by a colour, helping children link their feelings to physical sensations and thoughts. With adult support, they will learn strategies to manage emotions, with the key message that all feelings are valid, and making good choices is essential for self-regulation.

Key Reminders:

• PE will be on Wednesday and Fridays, children must come to school in their PE kits. Earrings should be removed at home, no taping of earrings is permitted. 
• Homework will be set on Fridays and collected on Wednesdays
• Encourage the children to read with you for 15-20 minutes every day ensuring that you write comments in their reading record books, these will be checked on a daily basis. Reading every day will really improve writing skills too.
• As part of the curriculum, Year 4’s will be tested online on their times tables knowledge. So, please encourage them to practice every day!
• Spelling tests will be on Thursdays, so please practice the relevant spellings at home with the children to prepare for this
• A healthy snack (piece of fruit) is encouraged for break time
• Please label all school uniform so it is easy to identify and return if lost
• On days with poor weather, please send the children with their coats!

We are looking forward to a term filled with learning, creativity, and fun! Thank you for your continuous support.

Any questions, please feel free to contact me at: VPeri@pippins.slough.sch.uk

Mrs Peri