Year 4

Please find below a range of activities that you can choose to carry out with your child that link to the learning of Year 4.

If you would like to share any work that the children are completing at home or have any enquiries, you can reach your child’s class teacher through the email addresses below. Your child’s class teacher will try their best to respond as quickly as possible and within school hours. If children are creating great work we may wish to share it on the website – please let us know in the email if you do not want work shared!

class4@shakespeare-jun.hants.sch.uk

class5@shakespeare-jun.hants.sch.uk

class6@shakespeare-jun.hants.sch.uk

Spelling

The government expects that by the end of year 4 children should be able to spell the list below. Children can practise words from the list in any way they like. Below are some activities that we carry out in school that the children are familiar with (and should be able to explain to you):

• Pyramid Writing
• Speed Writing
• Rainbow Writing
• Vowels and Constants in different colours
• Draw the word to look like its meaning
• Using the word in a sentence (to check understanding of meaning)
• Mnemonics
• Look, cover, write, check
• Create a graffiti wall of all your words (using paper and pencils)

Reading

Read as regularly as you can with your children. When reading discuss unfamiliar vocabulary and share the meaning. Children should use phonic knowledge to sound out words they do not know. Reading regularly and exploring the vocabulary used by the author can improve their writing and provide more words for them to express themselves. Also discuss what they are reading, question the children about characters, interesting vocabulary, authors intent and any grammatical features that are present (subheadings, conjunctions, fronted adverbials). Children could write a review of the book or be inspired to write their own story or non-fiction texts! Below are some generic activities you could carry out with any book!

Times Tables

Times tables are important for many aspects of Maths including fractions. Continue to practise the times tables up to 12x. There are many ideas and games online to help you with ideas. Don’t forget the children have personal logins for ‘Times Table Rock Stars’ (ttrockstars.com).

Maths

Please find below some of the objectives that we were set to teach over the coming weeks. If you’re feeling confident you might like to set your child questions based on these objectives or find materials online to help support. For each point a sample question has been included.

Addition and Subtraction:

• Compare and order numbers beyond 1000

(E.g. give children a list of numbers and ask them to order them from smallest to largest.)

• Add and subtract numbers with up to four digits using formal written methods

(E.g. 2536+1734 =  ,   7689-1253=)

• Solve number and practical problems that involve an understanding of place value and with increasingly large positive numbers.

(E.g. give your child a number problem in a real life context – Tim buys 1236g of flour and uses 987g. How much does he have remaining?)

Statistics:

• Solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in bar charts, pictograms and other graphs, e.g. bar charts for discrete data and time graphs for continuous data

(E.g. create a tally together of traffic passing, foot traffic, types of foods in the cupboard etc. Use the data to draw a bar chart. Ask the children questions such as: which was most popular? What is the difference between the least and most? Why do you think the data shows that?)

Topic – Vikings

During the summer term Year 4 study the Vikings. Below are some activity ideas you may wish to carry out with your child.

• Research the Vikings and create an information poster or book
• Research Viking runes and learn how to write your name
• Explore Viking long ships (why were they important and how were they built?) and create your own model
• Research Viking life and draw or create your own Viking home
• Discover where the Vikings came from and show on a map
• Find out the types of jobs a Viking would do and create a job advert
• Design and make your own Viking shield
• Explore the names of the Viking gods and compare to modern day representations
• Explore Viking Jewellery and design your own

During this topic we also explore the book ‘How to Train your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell. You may wish to read this with your child and have fun designing your own dragons!

Useful websites:

BBC bitesize (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/ztyr9j6)

The School Run (https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/vikings)

Primary Homework Help (http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/vikings.html)

Other activities to try!

Build a den (inside or out).

Create your own volcano (linking to Planet Earth topic from Autumn) using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. You could do this in a cup, or even build your own volcano to try this in!

Create your own art gallery on the patio using chalks.

Go on a minibeast hunt - can you spot different minibeasts in your garden? Mrs Morris has spotted lots in hers (ladybirds, butterflies, ants, spiders, woodlice and millipedes).

Go on a scavenger hunt - how many different items can you find outside?

Create a nature bracelet - stick nature to a bracelet as you go for your daily walk (don't pick flowers from other gardens!).

Play 'sky spy' - make shapes out of the clouds in the sky. Can you tell a story using the things you can spot?

Make nature rubbings (place paper over the top of different textures outside and rub over them with a wax crayon).

We'd love to see some photographs of you doing these things as well as the learning from home you have been doing!