St John Southworth RC Primary School

Welcome to Sycamore Class

Our Year 4 learning team includes Mr Mason, Mrs Broughton and Miss Semple.

Welcome to our class page which includes some of the learning that we are busy exploring plus lots of links to help extend our knowledge further. 

Class Information

PE Day

P.E  in our class will be on a Thursday and Friday afternoon for summer 1. Our themes for this half term will be athletics and striking/fielding games. Our Thursday athletics session will be delivered by coaches from ProSport. Please send your child to school with their full P.E kit in a bag on a Monday morning and then it is ready in school for the week. This will then be returned home on a Friday. Thank you. 

Reading Books

Reading Books will go home each evening and need to come back to school every morning. Please read with your child for 10 minutes at home each evening, then sign their reading journal. 

Children who read phonics book will get a new book every Monday. 

Children who are reading accelerated reader books will get a new book after they have completed a quiz at school. 

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting their children at home. Your support at home is very beneficial to the children's learning overall. Please ask if you have any questions about this.

Here are some ideas to help you with reading at home:

Follow your child’s natural interest and look up information on the internet. They won’t notice that they are practising their reading. They will also be practising vital retrieval and research skills

Some children just prefer non-fiction. Reading non-fiction is a great way to improve vocabulary, learn how to tackle new words, improve knowledge and develop a love for reading. Joke books, fact books, top ten books are all just as good for learning to read as reading fiction

Many children love graphic novels or comics. These are great for developing imagination. Children also learn how stories are presented in different ways and understand how pictures and text work together. There’s also quite a bit of reading between the lines needed here

Read signs and information boards as you are out and about. These often contain new vocabulary to discuss. Recipes or instructions for craft projects are also great for this and also encourage us to read with accuracy

Try to encourage your child to tackle a longer fiction story. Reading a longer story for pleasure has many benefits. It develops imagination and empathy; it builds reading stamina and introduces new vocabulary and sentence styles

Although they don’t practise phonics, listening to audiobooks does practise comprehension skills and might even encourage your child to read other books for themselves. Listening to books develops imagination, teaches new vocabulary, and allows your child to experience books above their reading age.

Times Tables

Times tables are a big focus for us in Year 4. The children are currently exploring a different times table fact every day when they come into school between 8.45-9.00am,

Your child we bring home a different times table to learn at home each week.

Your child should be using TT rockstars at home to practice. We have been setting up different competitive 'battles' to allow the children to challenge others and improve their understanding. They have a username and password in the front of their home school reading books.

You can access TT Rockstars here: https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student/24057 

We have been using some chanting and repetition to practise our times tables when we have had some spare time, here are some useful links that you can use to help.

2 x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zrrx92p

3 x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/z6sw382

4x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zmsw382

5x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zhbm47h

6x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zrq3xyc

7x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zjp8y9q

8x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/z4mrhbk

9x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zr2gt39

10x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/zm32cqt 

11x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/z464nrd

12x https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/articles/z7v7rj6 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaSZ7kwwxKqVrNgLP2s3sQbRXaTHr9LFI 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaSZ7kwwxKqXpdLA0hIA9fa8RVmRC32pv