Dolphin class really enjoyed the strike it out maths lesson this half term. They were putting their mental maths to the test in a number line game called strike it out. Everyone had to work hard to add and subtract quickly to try and catch their partner out. It was lots of fun and really helped improve all of their mental maths skills.
We are fast approaching half term and hope you will enjoy your break. We are not setting any particular homework, other than practising your spellings from this week. However, if you want to keep working on your skills for school, you should carry on practising your times tables and read, read, read!
This week’s spellings were words that sound similar and are often mixed up and spelt incorrectly. They are: were, where, are and our.
After half term, we will be creating “shoe box habitats”. The children have been learning this week about animals that live locally in Croydon and what their habitats are like. They will be using this knowledge to create 3D art, designing and building their own miniature habitats.
We would be incredibly grateful for donations of cardboard shoe boxes that you no longer need at home. These can be brought in to any Year 4 class.
Many thanks!
The Year 4 team
Next week in Maths we will be blasting times tables! We have four new times tables to look at in depth – 7, 9, 11 and 12. We will be playing games, jumping in multiples, answering multiplication and division questions and solving problems. All of this practice and exploration will help to learn the tables and to understand why they are so important in maths. We will, of course, be continuing to focus on these new times tables throughout the year.
For homework this week, we would like you to pick two of these new times tables to focus on. Do something in your homework book to help you learn the tables. You could write them in different colours and styles, come up with a rhyme or trick to help remember them, create a game to help practise them – the choice is yours.
You should also be practising how to spell there, their and they’re – see my earlier blog post this week to help with remembering which spelling to use in a sentence.
In spelling this week we practised using the homophones there, their and they’re. Homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings and different meanings.
To know which spelling to use, you need to know what the words mean:
There – is for making a statement or talking about location, e.g.
There is a spider on the ceiling.
It’s over there!
Their – is used to indicate possession or belonging, e.g.
I’m going for tea at their house.
Their dog is barking like crazy.
They’re – is a contraction of they are, e.g.
They’re going to be late if they don’t hurry up.
When I get home, they’re going to the cinema.
In Seal Class we listened to two songs to help us learn and remember the rules for when to use each spelling. The children were keen for me to blog links to the songs so they could practise at home! Here they are.
Here are the spellings we learned this week that you should be practising. We are using the prefixes dis- and mis-.
Disagree, dislike, disobey, disconnect, disappear, mishear, misbehave, misspell, misuse and mistype.
This week we have been looking at how animals use camouflage to hide from predators or to sneak up on prey. For homework this week we would like you to design your own animal which uses camouflage. You can decide where in the world your animal will live. Think about its environment so you know what type of camouflage it needs. Is your animal using camouflage to protect itself or to make it an effective hunter? Draw your animal and label any special features. Explain what camouflage your animal has and how this will help it to survive.
