My name is Mrs Campion and I am the year 4 teacher. I have been teaching at Dame Dorothy since 2012. I really enjoy linking our lessons to our termly topic; hopefully, the children will enjoy this too.

SPAG

The teaching of spelling, grammar and punctuation (SPAG) forms an important element of the teaching of reading and writing in primary school.

The SPaG element this term will involve using coordinating conjunctions, similes as front adverbials, and inverted commas for direct speech. Children will revise present, past tense and move onto progressive and perfect tense verbs.

Literacy

This term we will be reading How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, basing a lot of our literacy work around it. We will look at many aspects of reading comprehension, with our main focus being vocabulary and using it within the correct context to help our descriptive writing.

We will be linking our topic of Vikings to a short animation, where the children will write a narrative version. We will also be writing an explanation text, exploring the features required whilst practising our SPaG targets.

Topic

This term, our topic is Ancient Roman.

This topic is history and geography based with a focus on how the past affects us today.

We will be learning how the Romans influenced our life of today, including city names, English words and our way of life.

Opportunities for reading and writing will also be linked to the topic, with the new book starting in February – A Roman Journey – Leila Rasheed.

Year 4 will be visiting Arbeia in South Shields in March to help bring their topic to life.

Maths

Dame Dorothy Primary School boasts excellent mathematic skills. Each morning, the children have mental maths to complete. It is important that the children get to school promptly at 8:45am so they don’t miss out on their mental maths. I would also encourage the children to practise quick recall of all times tables up to 12×12, and related division facts at home.

We will be starting the term on revising multiplication and division, moving onto formal written methods for these, up to three digits by one. Year 4 will also work on fractions, adding, subtracting and finding their equivalents. Once this is secure, our next step will be decimals to 1dp.

Spellings

We will be working on the following throughout the year:

• homophones
• root words, prefixes and suffixes.
• application of spelling rules
• we are also focusing on the Year 3/4 curriculum spelling list of high frequency words

Spellings are a lesson focus 2-3 times per week with home learning for spelling test on Friday.

Music 

Y4 have bi- weekly music lessons. They are taught musical language including, pulse, tempo, pitch, rhythm. Their recorder tuition continues, and they continue to develop their knowledge of standard notation. They regularly use the recorders and glockenspiels to play short melodies and compose and improvise spooky sounds. They take part in weekly singing lessons and are working towards singing a partner song.

Art

Mrs Booth will be teaching the children the alternative Wednesday afternoon to focus on art skills. This term they will be drawing and lines.

PE

PE lessons are on a Tuesday (all year). Please make sure your child has the correct kit, no football kits please, and can remove any earrings they may be wearing. We will be taking part in Tennis this term with expert teaching from our PE coaches. Please note, it is essential that your children have suitable footwear for PE sessions. We are outside as much as possible so school PE hoodies and tracksuit bottoms are recommended. Trainers must be worn. The children need to have water bottles in school to keep hydrated during their PE lessons.

Please note Year 4 will also be taking part in swimming lessons every Monday until the Easter Holidays. Leaving school at 1.30pm and returning 3.20pm.

A few reminders

This term in year 4, children will be given weekly spellings on a Monday, these will need to be practised to gain a good knowledge of the spellings ready for our spelling tests on Friday. The children will also work on the spelling rules and vocabulary during the week to help them. Every weekday, the children will be given a 5-10 minute mental maths homework sheet to complete for the next day. There will be open homework given out each half term linked to our topic, this term it will be linked to Ancient Rome. It is essential that home/school communication is effective. This partnership will ensure that the children receive the very best from school.

Please email me at teacher@damedorothy.org.uk if you have any queries or concerns: I’m happy to help!

All children need to have their own water bottle. These will be sent home each Friday to get washed and should be returned to school the following Monday.

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