Y4 Mount Merapi | Joseph Locke Primary School

Welcome to Year 4 - Mount Merapi

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Welcome to Year 4 - Mount Merapi. Here you will find all of the relevant information about your child's experience in Year 4.

Welcome to year 4. We hope that you find the all the information you need about our class! Our class is Mount Merapi, inspired by a setting in the novel ‘A firework Maker’s daughter’ by Philip Pullman. ‘All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them’ This year your teacher is Mrs Varley and you are very lucky to have the wonderful Mrs McCormick to support you in class. Year 4 is a time for you to really establish yourself in Key Stage 2!

This year will be filled with exciting challenges and chances to push yourself and learn new things. In Mount Merapi, we care about each other and encourage each other to be the best that we can be! We love to read and explore new worlds in fiction stories and gain a greater understanding of our world in non-fiction books.

We have many opportunities to enjoy the year 4 recommended reads too! Days in year 4 pass quickly as we enjoy daily reading, maths, literacy sessions. In the afternoon, your child will explore a variety of exciting history, geography, science, ICT, art and DT lessons. We take every opportunity to celebrate success.

Y4 Mount Merapi Information

Weekly spellings are handed out on a Monday and then tested on the Friday - remember to practise your spellings to get 7 or more out of 10! ·

Our class library sessions are on a Friday afternoon - remember to bring your library books back so you can swap them!

Our swimming lessons, with Mr Sidebottom will be on a Thursday afternoon. After February half term, we return to PE lessons in school on a Monday.

Remember to read every day at home and bring your reading record in every day. Each day you read will reward you with a stamp in your reading record. Prize draws are announced throughout the year to encourage children to reach certain destinations by a set date.

Keep rocking on Times Table Rock stars to be the ultimate Rock star legend ready for our test at the end of the year! Times Table Rock stars can be accessed through the TTRS app on your iPhone or tablet.

We begin our days with a reading session and focus on a range of texts throughout the year. We also have twice-weekly fluency sessions, where we practise reading and learning vocabulary with our partners.

In Maths, the children will be learning about place value, rounding as well as the four operations. We will be working on multiplication facts on a daily basis too. A key feature of Y4 is to know all our Times Tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of the year!

In Literacy, all lessons are book-based, following the Literacy Tree scheme at Joseph Locke. This year, we will explore a range of fantastic stories, building up to writing for a wide variety of audiences and purposes throughout the school year.

Our first history topic is an investigation into how children’s lives have changed over time. We explore the Tudor and Victorian periods, drawing on similarities and differences and considering the themes of continuity and change in comparison to modern-day life. We then move onto the invasion of the Anglo -Saxons, ending with the ancient Maya people and their impact on society.

In science, we will be exploring the digestive system, describing the functions of key organs and different types of teeth. We will conduct lots of fun experiments! Further into the year, we also learn about electricity and its importance as well as investigating the states of matter and their properties.

In PSHE, we are focusing on family and friendships, particularly looking at personal boundaries and online safety.

In ICT, we are exploring what the internet is made of and how to create digital patterns! In addition, we will be exploring branching databases and getting up to speed with internet safety.

All this, and so much more! We ask that children spend at least 10 minutes per day. This reading will count towards their reading miles in their reading records. Children are also asked to spend time practising their times tables using the online app Times table Rockstars (TTRS) This will prepare them for the multiplication check at the end of the year. Maths and topic homework will be set weekly on seesaw.