Year 4

 Welcome to the Year 4 Class Page!

Here you can find information about what we are learning about and general information about your class.

If you need to contact your class teacher about anything please email them - 

Miss Sabor - r.sabor@st-clares.manchester.sch.uk

Miss Howard-  r.howard@st-clares.manchester.sch.uk

Welcome to Year 4 information:

Welcome to 4S PowerPoint

4H Welcome

PE days: 

4S -  Tuesday and Thursday.

4H - Gymnastics with Dream Big on Tuesdays 

We ask that your child has a plain white t-shirt, black shorts (jogging bottoms in the colder weather) and suitable footwear. Children are to come to school wearing their PE kits on their PE day. On swimming days children can come into school in their uniform and bring their swimming costume, a towel and a swimming cap in their bags.

Reading Books:

Reading is vital for your child’s development, so we naturally want to promote a love of reading here at St Clare’s. Your child will have opportunities to read in school, but we need your support too and we ask that your child reads daily at home for at least 20 minutes. Your child will be able to change their shared reading books daily, providing their reading record is signed. 

Homework: 

Literacy and Maths homework is sent home every Friday and should be brought back no later than the following Friday. We do understand that there may be occasions where this may be late, please just let us know in advance. Spellings based on the national Curriculum will also be sent home each Friday for your child to practise at home for the Spelling Test on the following Friday. Here is an overview of the spellings they will learn in Spring 1:

Y4 Sp1 Spelling Overview

Times Tables:

During the summer term, Year 4 will sit a Times Table assessment, this will test their knowledge of the 1- 12 times tables. We practice times tables in class daily, but we do ask that children also practice at home. To help prepare for the test children have a TTRockstar login, which is a great tool to help them practice. Below is a PowerPoint with more information about the assessment:

MTC 2023

 There is more information about the multiplication tables check on:: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multiplication-tables-check

Below are our curriculum overviews for each half term, starting with our current one, Spring 1:

Year 4 Spring 1

year 4 sum 1 overview

year 4 spring 2

Year 4 Spring 1

Year 4 Autumn 1 overview

Y4 overview

Check out our videos on the four operations

Addition

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

Here are the spellings that pupils will be learning this half term:

Y4 Sp2 Spellings

Autumn Term In Year 4

Our pupils are happy and excited to be back at school! This Autumn, we are learning a lot of exciting things!

Science

Our Science topic is the Digestive System, and pupils have enjoyed learning all about how our bodies work, and most recently our focus has been on the important role of the teeth in the digestive system. To show their understanding, they made clay models of our teeth, and spoke about the functions of our incisors, canines and molars!

Alongside leaning about the teeth and human digestive system in science, we have been looking closely at an owl's digestive system. We were fortunate enough to be able to dissect some owl pellets and find all the skulls and bones of the animals they have eaten inside! We had lots of fun identifying the different skulls, and comparing what a rodent skull looks like to  a bird skull. Some parents came in to join us in this lesson, and we had a lovely time!

The second topic we focussed on in science is sound. We have been doing lots of experiments to find out about how sound travels through vibrations, what materials are good at insulating noise and how sound changes depending on distance and height.

DT

In DT, we have been learning about healthy, balanced meals, and looking at the food groups. To celebrate the end of this topic, we were lucky enough to make a pasta dish in school. We used a dash of oil for our oils and saturates food group, our carbohydrate was pasta, we had ham for our protein and cucumber and tomato for fruit/vegetables. The only food group we didn't have was dairy- we all agreed we would put cheese in next time! Pupils also learnt all about food safety (how to boil pasta safely, and cut vegetables) and really enjoyed eating the pasta afterwards!

Art

In art we have been looking at the landscape artist Peter Hill. We are going to create our own art inspired by his painting and have been practicing different techniques using oil pastels, we tried blending, layering, using long and short strokes and pointillism. We really enjoyed practicing the skills. Here are some pictures we created after practicing the techniques:

History

In History we have started learning about the Anglo Saxons, looking into all the reasons why they left countries like Denmark and Sweden, and decided to settle in England.

Geography

In Geography, we have really enjoyed learning about the countries of the world. We began the topic by learning about the seven continents and then we looked in detail at the countries inside each continent and what kind of features to expect.

RE

In RE, our first topic was all about Family. We have talked about our own families, and now we are studying Jesus' family tree. Pupils have found this so interesting so far! 

Our second topic was all about Baptism and being Called by God, we learnt about how god calls in different ways. We looked at how Jesus called his apostles and how we will soon be called for confirmation and what we can expect during the sacrament. We spoke about how we can 'live in the light' and looked at examples of people who were guided by the Holy Spirit during their lives. Below is an example of some art work we created all about the Holy Spirit:

To celebrate the start of Advent, pupils have been thinking about Special Promises they can make throughout the month of December. Pupils have written promises such as "every day in Advent i vow to follow instructions at school," and "every day of Advent I promise to help people who are upset," and "every day in Advent I promise to always be kind" and "every Sunday in Advent I will attend Church." It was a lovely lesson, and pupils really enjoyed thinking of their promises!

4H Advent Promise

Maths

We have been working really hard so far this year in Maths, and we have been lucky enough to have a times table workshop. Pupils in Year 4 absolutely love the competitive games they played to help work out their times tables quicker!

Pupils enjoyed being creative with their multiplication skills, and did some problem solving with times tables. Their job was to plan a party for a class of 30, with a budget of £1600. They had a list of items and they had to work creatively and methodically to see how much of each item they could afford to buy!

4H Multiplicaion Party Planning

Spring Term In Year 4

Our Year 4 pupils are happy to be back in school, ready for some new learning, after a lovely long break for Christmas.

in 4H we have been revising some vocabulary, and pupils enjoyed doing a Kagan technique called 'stand up, hand up, pair up' to practice their adverbial phrases! 

4H SUHUPU

Y4 Visit from Father

Our RE topic this half term is Community, and a big part of this is learning all about our local Church Community. We were really lucky to welcome Father Jeremiah into school, so that he could talk to us about what the role of a Priest is. We learnt so much about him, such as what he spends his days doing, how and when he was 'called' by God, his favourite hymns and prayers, and what the knots on his belt represent! We had prepared ourselves with lots of questions to ask him after his talk, and he answered them all. It was really interesting and we were really lucky to have this opportunity. 

Some quotes from our pupils about this:

"My favourite part of Father Jeremiah's visit was when he told us who inspired him to be a priest." (Elsie)

"I liked it when he told me what a 'Day in the Life' of a priest is like." (Dolcie)

"The part where he told us where he came from, and what parts of the world he has lived in, was really interesting!" (Jovi)

"My favourite bit was when he told us about when he first came to St Clare's." (Shae)

This half term, in Science, we have been learning about States of Matter.

We now know that the particles in a liquid have lots of energy which allows the liquid to move around freely, but particles in solids have less energy, and are close together and still. 

We all acted this process out, each of us pretending to be a particle! Doing this physically really helped us understand the process. 

4H States of Matter

In English, we have been doing lots of writing this half term, including some brilliant, creative stories about Vikings. We are currently enjoying a week of Poetry, where pupils are learning all about the art of writing Japanese Haikus. Our chosen theme is nature, to fit in with the joyful Spring time! To start the writing unit, pupils in 4H enjoyed going on a 'Nature Walk' where they observed many different parts of nature in the Prayer Garden. They made notes of things they had seen, and then wrote expanded noun phrases to describe them- these will eventually go into their completed Nature Haikus!

4H Nature Haiku

Year 4 pupils have been lucky enough to spend time learning the violin this half term. 

4H Violin

4H Class Assemnly: Palm Sunday

We are preparing for a very important time in our religious candar: Easter. 4H chose to do their class assembly on Palm Sunday, and they enjoyed telling the story of what happened to Jesus on this pivotal day. They performed their drama for the whole of KS2, and many of their parents. It was a huge sucess!

4H Class Assembly

4H Creation Walk

In the run up to lent, we took part in a Creation Walk. The aim of this was t take a deeper look at the wonderful  gift of te World, a precious gift to us from God. We talked about how God mafe the Earth for us, including the animals, fish, stars, trees and flowers. We took moments to think about the beautiful things in the world, and stopped to listen and look around. We held discussion about people who don't have what we have, and read the story of the Good Samaritan, stopping to think about how we can help others. We finally thought about the problems the world is facing, and how we might be able to help the planet. Pope Francis reminds us that we have a very important job to do: to care for the environmen and care for each other.

4H Creation Walk

Blackpool Zoo: Exploring Habitats!

To celebrate our Habitat topic in science, we went on a fun filled trip to Blackpool Zoo. The children had an amazing time, enjoying every second! We got to see lions and tigers, elephants, red pandas, penguins and seals…and so much more! As well as excitedly looking at the animals, we took a closer look at their habitat, discussing their surroundings, what they needed to stay alive, and what they ate. It was a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals, and see with our very own eyes how they live, and to notice how each animal had a habitat suited to their individual needs. A great day was had by all- in fact some pupils even said it was the best trip they’ve ever been on!

Rivers!

In geography Year 4 have been learning all about rivers. We have bee looking the uses of rivers, the features of a river, how to prevent flooding, what the largest rivers are and where they are located. Some children in 4S even created some amazing projects and models at home! 

In DT, Year 4 have been designing and making Pavilions. We learnt all about what they are and looked at some examples from the 2015 EXPO in Milan. We practiced how to build a solid structure using marshmallows and toothpicks and then designed and built our very own pavilion with our own purpose using clay, lollypop sticks and straws. In 4S we were so proud of our designs, so we invited our parents in to look at them!