1. Autumn Term 2011 Newsletter Year 4 Autumn Term 2011 Newsletter Year 4 Welcome to Year 4, which promises to be an exciting and enjoyable one! I have briefly outlined the subject areas we will be covering over the coming weeks. As you can see, there will be many opportunities for you to support your child in a range of curriculum areas. Literacy: Each terms work is focused on a range of reading and writing genres. This term we will be looking at: historical stories and short novels; playscripts; poems based on common themes; poems based on imagined experience; narrative writing; reports in newspapers and magazines; instructions. Please note – those pupils who work in a Read,Write,inc. group for literacy will be following a separate programme. Maths: Pupils will be working on: place value, ordering, rounding; mental strategies and written methods for addition and subtraction; multiplication and division facts; area and perimeter; standard metric units of measure; 2D and 3D shapes; time – analogue and digital; fractions and mixed numbers and equivalence of simple fractions; frequency and tally charts and constructing pictograms. Context for Learning: The daily lives of people living in the Tudor period. Writers Workshop: The children will: produce a fact file on Henry VIII; write a Tudor inventory; undertake diary writing on the subject of Tudor life at sea; write a newspaper report on a key event in the Tudor period; design an advertisement for Tudor fashion; write a report on Tudor diet and food. Creative Corner: Our creative talents will be developed by: painting Tudor portraits; making still life drawings of food; creating a collage of Tudor fashions and accessories; listening to and appraising Tudor music and composing simple tunes. Research and Information: We will be: locating the Tudor period on a timeline of British history; researching and ordering key events and placing them on a Tudor timeline; comparing the lives of the rich and poor through the use of inventories; researching Tudor leisure and entertainment – comparing rich and poor and contrasting with the present day; researching recipes. Data Den: Mathematical understanding will be developed by: calculating the length of each Tudor monarchs reign and plotting on a bar chart; investigating the value of inventories; estimating and weighing different food objects in preparation for taking on a sea journey; investigating the distance sound from a musical instrument will travel and recording on a graph. Engineering and construction: After investigating Tudor houses, the children will design and plan their own model house. They will find out about Tudor musical instruments and design and make their own versions. Investigation and Exploration: Children will: investigate the different materials used for building houses and identify their properties; investigate the best materials used for ship building; investigate materials used in clothing – the best thermal insulator; investigate what plants need to grow well and what changes need to be made to an area to enable us to grow crops? ICT: We will be developing techniques for publishing work – altering font size, using effects; copy and paste tools; find and replace tools; amend and improve text using spell check and thesaurus functions; prepare images for use by cropping, resizing and editing. Welsh: The children will: develop language patterns and vocabulary essential for giving information about themselves and talking with peers. R.E.: Well be explore organisations that need support in caring for others; focus faith – Islam. P.E.: Outdoor Games will be on Mondays with coach Dale Llewellyn Indoor on Fridays- Gymnastics/Dance NB: Please could you provide a note if your child is unable to do P.E. Also, as the weather gets colder, they will need a tracksuit/jogging bottoms and sweatshirt for outdoor games.

2. Points to note Reading: The children will be given many opportunities to read in the classroom, in Guided Reading sessions and in a shared context with the teacher and/other adults. They will of course, be expected to read at home and it is essential that you continue to support and monitor your childs progress to maintain enthusiasm. Pupils will continue reading and progressing with the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme and they will change their books weekly (more often if they need to!). Independent readers may choose freely from the library collection, monitored by myself and the library team, to ensure appropriate books have been chosen! All the children will be in Guided Reading groups this year, where they will develop their reading skills in a shared context with other pupils matched to their ability. They will be told their reading day and it would be most helpful if they could have their home/school reading books in school on that day to be checked/changed. Learning Logs/Homework: Will be sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Wednesday. Please encourage the children to present their written work neatly, with dates and titles underlined. Topic Work Resources: In order to produce our Tudor portraits, showing Tudor fashions, we will need a range of collage materials, e.g. fabric - velvet, fake fur, brocade and other richly patterned fabrics, lace, gold trimmings and beads. If you have any of the above, donations would be greatly appreciated! And finally, should you have any concerns, then please do not hesitate to contact me in writing or by appointment. I look forward to your support. Lesley Price-Smith Year 4 teacher. Example of Tudor portrait we will be recreating using collage materials.