Class 8 Newsletter Autumn Term Dear parents/guardians, Welcome to Year 4! For those of you who I haven’t met, or are new to school, my name is Mr Haigh. Miss Watson - who will be teaching topic, science and art - is the other teacher that will be working with us in class 8. We are both incredibly optimistic and excited to be teaching your children this year. What will we be covering this term? Our literacy work this term will mainly be based around the work of Roald Dahl, especially Matilda as this is our class book. As well as having the opportunity to read a range of Roald’s other books, we will also be looking at non-chronological reports (such as leaflets and magazine articles), instructions, biographies and image poems. As always, SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) and word work will be a big feature of our morning warm ups. This term in particular, we will be working on speech, word classes and types, identifying independent clauses and basic punctuation. In Maths, the focus will be on work securing the children’s knowledge of place value and calculation. This will include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division strategies. Furthermore, we will be furthering our understanding of time and data. Our topic is Anglo-Saxons. Reading Your child has a brand new Reading Journal. This year, they have also been given a Magpie Journal in order to record an extensive list of interesting vocabulary and interesting openers. This will enable the children to become more conscious readers as well as stealing ideas for their own writing. If you could listen to your child read every night, this would be incredibly helpful as it will support the reading we’re also doing in class. Twenty minutes, a couple of times a week could make all the difference. Talking with your child about their reading is very useful as it helps them understand what they have been reading. Obviously, expectations in Year 4 are high. Therefore, it would be desirable if your child could read for either 20 minutes or read 20 pages every night. P.E and swimming Our P.E lessons will be on a Monday. When possible, we will be using the M.U.G.A so trainers/pumps are essential. In addition, a long sleeve top would be ideal for the colder months ahead. In addition, we have swimming lessons every Wednesday. On this day, we will be leaving school at promptly 8:50am, so it is essential for the children to arrive on time in order to get to the swimming pool on time. Homework Children will receive spellings every Tuesday, and they will have until Friday to learn them. Learning these spellings will not only help them to learn the spelling rules, but will also help broaden their vocabulary which will therefore improve their writing. The children are also encouraged to use ‘Spellodrome’ which is an online resource and is accessible at home. In addition to this, the children will receive a reading comprehension homework on a Friday. This needs to be returned on the following Monday as we will be marking it as a class. Finally, please can you ensure that your child is still revising their times tables from 1 x 1  12 x 12, as they are crucial in ALL areas of mathematics. They are also encouraged to access ‘Mathletics’ from home, which helps to reinforce essential mental strategies. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Mr Haigh, Miss Watson