Year 4 - Red Kite Class

Welcome to Red Kite Class

Class Teacher: Mr Cheatham

Teaching Assistant: Miss Potts and Miss Yates

Here you will find out about each of the term's learning enquiries, special dates for your diary, PE days and Forest School days.

Term 3

Reading

Our reading book this term is ‘Charlotte’s Web’, by E.M. White.  This is the story of a little girl named Fern, who loves a little pig named Wilbur – and of Wilbur's friend, Charlotte, a beautiful, large grey spider. When Fern's uncle insists that Wilbur must become bacon, Fern, Charlotte, Templeton the rat and all Wilbur's farmyard friends come up with an ingenious plan to fool the humans and save their very special pig.  ‘Charlotte's Web’ is a story about the power of friendship, and celebrating what makes everyone special. 

The children will continue to develop their inference skills throughout the term.  They will begin with simple inferences about the emotions of the characters, moving on to more complex inferences about the motives and goals of the characters.

Writing

We are entering a new world of writing through our chosen texts. We will start things off with a story called “The Tear Thief." Each night, in the hours between supper and bedtime, the Tear Thief carries her waterproof, silvery sack as she steals the tears of every child who cries. But what does she do with all those tears? This warm, poignant and beautifully illustrated story offers a thought-provoking message and a starting point for sharing children's emotional responses. With this, we will be creating some diary entries and creating our own version of the story using a narrative text.

With a focus of ours being rainforests, we have chosen to learn about “The Great Kapok Tree." The story begins with a lumberjack who enters the Amazon rainforest with the intention of cutting down a great Kapok tree. Exhausted from his work, he falls asleep at the base of the tree. While he sleeps, the animals that inhabit the tree and the surrounding forest come to him, whispering their pleas for him to spare their home. Each animal, from a jaguar to a tree frog, shares its unique connection to the tree and the vital role it plays in their lives. They emphasise the interconnectedness of all living things and the importance of preserving their environment.

When the man awakens, he reflects on the messages he has received from the animals. Ultimately, he decides to abandon his plan to cut down the tree, leaving his axe behind and walking out of the forest, transformed by the experience. With this, we will be creating some persuasive texts about global warming and deforestation.

Maths

This term, Year 4 will continue to develop their multiplication and division skills.  They will use their times tables knowledge in order to help them solve more complicated multiplications and divisions, such as multiplying a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number.  It continues to be very important that the children practise their times tables to support their learning.  We recommend that this is done through the use of the TTRockstars program.

Towards the end of the term, the children will begin to look at fractions and decimals.  They will be exploring the place values of different decimals numbers and be able to identify them on a number line.

Geography

This term, our Geography enquiry is: ‘Why are rainforests important to us?’.  Children will explore the fascinating world of tropical rainforests and discover why they matter on both a local and global scale. Pupils will learn what a biome is and identify the Amazon rainforest, locating it on a map and describing its key features. They will name and describe the four layers of the rainforest and understand how plants and animals adapt to survive there. Children will also learn the meaning of indigenous, exploring how indigenous peoples use the Amazon’s resources, and examine ways in which the rainforest is changing.

Science

Through our Science topic, we will be focusing on Living Things. Our focus will be based on classification, where we will learn about taxonomy and Charles Darwin. We will also be looking into how animals’ habitats are changing and how animals are adapting to these changes. We will delve deeper into how humans are affecting habitats and how natural disasters are making a difference.

Forest School ​​ ​​

Our Forest School day is now Friday. This term the class will be split into two groups. The first group will go to Forest School for the first three weeks of term, the second group will go the next three weeks. Those children not attending forest school will be in class completing some targeted learning.

The groups will be notified during the first week of term.

On forest school days - Please send your child into school wearing their school uniform with a Forest School kit in a bag. Please ensure the Forest School clothes are appropriate for the weather that day.

Please send in wellies that can be kept in school to utilise the outdoor learning spaces every day, not just for Forest School.

PE

Our PE lessons will be on a Wednesday afternoons. This term, we will be learning Badminton in the Sports Hall. Please send the children in to school wearing their PE kits. Please ensure the PE kits are suitable for indoor PE.

Teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo if you have any questions or queries regarding home learning. 

Home Learning and Reading

All children have got access to their TTRockstars accounts. We have Twinkl Learner, which children can access in school and at home. This is full of learning games, challenges and opportunities for them to practice their weekly spellings and timetables.

Please support us and make sure they are accessing this at home to support their learning. If you are unsure of any logins or access to the Twinkl account, please let me know and I will be happy to help.

 

The Term 2 vocabulary sheets below will help you to know more about what your child will be learning this term. 

Please click here to access extra phonics, reading and spelling resources.

Please click here to access links to other useful home learning resources published online.

If you are unsure of any log-in details, please contact the teacher through Class Dojo or email office@pilgrims-way.kent.sch.uk