Love one another as I have loved you.

John 13:34-35

 Welcome to the Year 4

2018-2019

Sir and Mrs Sutton would like to welcome you to the Year 4 page.  We look forward to showing you all the wide variety of things that happen in our class throughout the year.

General Information: Spring Term

The school day starts at 8.55 am. 

Children need to bring their book bag containing their reading book and homework diary to school each day. 

Toast is available to buy on Mondays and Wednesdays at a cost of 10p. 

​Brass band will continue on a Monday afternoon and during this term they will have the opportunity to bring their instruments home to practise provided the appropriate paper work has been completed. During these sessions the children will be taught to play either a trumpet, a trombone or a baritone. So if your child brings their instrument home, it must be brought into school for Monday's lesson.

Over the course of the year there will be several more sacramental meetings for parents. These will usually take place on a Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the school hall. As soon as dates are confirmed with Fr Barry, we will let you know.

For the next three half terms the children will have swimming lessons on a Thursday afternoon at Bootle Leisure Centre. For these sessions we have to follow the rules set down by the Bootle baths which means all children must have a swimming cap and no jewellery can be worn.

Homework:

Reading: Children are expected to read every night with an adult and have their reading records signed. It is important to discuss the text with your child to help develop skills of comprehension.

Spellings: spellings are given on a Monday and need to be practised each night before the test on Friday. The books will be sent home so that you can see how your child is doing but it is important that they are returned to school the next day.

Times Tables: tables practice sheets will be given daily. The children will work on a particular table for two weeks and need to be able to instantly recall not only the multiplication facts but also the related division facts. At the end of every two week block there will be a test to check that the tables have been learnt.

Maths & English: maths homework will be given over the weekend and when appropriate.

there will also be a piece of grammar/punctuation homework set during the week usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Dates for Your Diary:

1st Half term

2nd Half Term

English: Macbeth

We began by discussing what the story could be about by looking at some picture clues. There were plenty of wonderings. We can't wait to find out what it's all about.

Computing: Coding

Mr Melia worked with us today and we used Book Creator on the iPads to produce a guide to coding. We wrote a short algorithm in Scratch Jnr and explained how it worked before doing the same with an app called Lightbot.

Maths: Negative Numbers

We started the term by counting backward through zero and exploring negative numbers.We used Numicon to build positive and negative number lines.

General Information: Autumn Term

The school day begins with registration at 8.55 am and we really appreciate prompt time-keeping to get the children off to a good start. 

Reading books should be brought in daily as the children may be asked to read throughout the week. It is important that the children read to an adult each night and their diaries should be signed and a comment written to inform of their progress. We will collect reading records in as often as we can and attempt to sign them regularly. 

Spellings will be given out every day so the children can practise each night and hand them in the following day. They will then be tested on the weekly word list on a Friday.

Times tables will also be given out on a daily basis with the children expected to practise each night and hand the sheet in the next day. There will also be a weekly Friday test on these. Extra sheets are available so that you can get involved and practise with the children.

Maths and English homework will be given out during the week to reinforce work completed in class. 

P.E.

PE takes place each Thursday and it is important that the children have their full kit in school for the lesson. 

Brass Band

This year the children will have the opportunity to learn to play a brass instrument. If they take their instrument home to practise, it must be brought into school for the lesson on a Monday.

Dates for Your Diary:

2nd Half Term

Democracy in Action 

Well done to everyone who took part in the school council elections and put themselves forward to be a school councillor. The standard was very high this year and it was a very difficult job for the children to decide who to vote for. After listening to each candidates' manifestos all of the class went to the polling station to cast their votes. it was a close run thing. Congratulations to our two new year 4 councillors! 

Anglo Saxons in Mere Tun

Year 4 recently visited the Anglo Saxon settlement of Mere Tun as part of this term's history topic. They entered fully into village life. They learnt how to defend the village using swords and shields; they went foraging in the nearby woodland; learnt how to weave  with willow to make pig pens and also how to thatch a roof. A great day was had by all despite the poor weather. 

Exploring Multiples of 5

We used Numicon in maths recently to explore the different patterns that are found in the five times table.

How Does Digestion Work?

Our science topic this term is related to the human digestive system. We began by getting our initial thoughts onto paper.

Finding Mystery Numbers

We recently finished our place value topic by attempting to find mystery numbers. We used place value charts, digit cards and our knowledge of place value to solve the riddles.

Why don't you try some of them below?

Children in Need

Today, in support of Children in Need we came to school in our pyjamas. All the money we raised will go to support Isaac's House; the charity we are supporting this year.

Anti-Bullying Week

As our part of the anti-bullying week assembly, we presented two videos we had made in class. Check them out on the following link.

Trashion Show

Today saw the first ever St Robert Bellarmine 'Trashion' show. We have been thinking about how the huge amount of rubbish is effecting the world we live in and and damaging the environment. We discovered that 75% of the rubbish we throw away could actually be recylced and we were set a challenge to take an old t.shirt and recycle it into a brand new product. The children design wonderful new t.shirts, re-made some into new items of clothing, capes and even bags. We then showed off our fabulous designs at the 'Trashion Show' where we took to the catwalk. 

Well done everybody!!! 

First Reconciliation

Congratulations to all of Year 4, who made their First Reconciliation earlier this week. The service you delivered was beautiful. Well done.

Missing Digits

We've been solving some addition reasoning problems. This involved us being given the answer to the calculation and a list of the digits we could use. While it was challenging it was great fun.

Science Detectives: Animal Skulls

We attempted to sort and classify skulls of different animals as herbivores, carnivores or omnivores just by looking at the arrangement of their teeth. The challenge was then to see could we identify each of the animals.