March 2014 Dear Parents, Carers and Children, Welcome back to school after the half term break. We hope you feel rejuvenated and ready to learn. We are already half way through the school, it is flying by. We hope you are all looking forward to out next half term together. Kind Regards, The Year 4 Team Year 4 Swimming will continue this half term. Due to cancellation the schedule we handed out is now wrong so please check in with the class teacher to check which week your child will be swimming. Please ensure your child has the right swimming attire so that they can attend. We stress the importance of swimming caps for girls as we will not be able to dry hair and with the cold weather this could be very uncomfortable. HOMEWORK Please make sure your homework is completed to a high standard. This is an opportunity to practice what we have been doing in class. School Trip We will be visiting the Royal Albert Hall to watch The Classical Spectacular Show on Friday 21 st March. Please look out for a letter and return the permission slip and the contribution towards the cost of the trip by 7 th March. Test Week starts on 17 th March. Make sure you go to bed early and eat a big breakfast to fill your tum!

What will we will be learning about this half term? Religious Education In RE your child will be learning about the Christian festival of Easter. The children will be reading the Easter story and learning about the importance of Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Science – Solids, Liquids and Gases. This term we will be learning about Solids, liquids and gases. We will be learning about how these are made up of different particles. We will be looking at the viscosity of liquids and designing an investigation involving liquids. Our Topic is Water We will looking at different ways that Artists depict water in their work. We will be experimenting with materials and techniques to develop our own style. In music lessons the children will be exploring how music can impact upon feelings. The children will listen to different style of music and use vocabulary to describe how its makes them feel. In ICT we will be using the computer to input data into different types of graphs. We will be linking This work to our science Investigations. Maths In maths we have started Setting Groups. Your child is now being taught in ability groups. This helps support children who require extra support and extend children who are excelling in mathematics. Children will be revisiting number to consolidate their number skills and knowledge. Our Power of Reading Text is Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick! Please try to buy a copy from Amazon – copies are only 1p each! We are reading this fantastic adventure story set in the future. The book is very tricky so we will be reading each chapter slowly, unpicking the fantastic vocabulary and stealing these new words to use in our own writing. The children will be role-playing, writing diary entries, newspaper reports, descriptions Geography – We are learning about water, floods, drought, the water cycle and the importance of the river. We will be going on a local visit to look at the River Thames this term. Gym We are learning how to make shapes with our body, balance, roll and sequence movements.