Highcliffe Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS27 9LX

0113 323 0554

St Francis Catholic Primary School, Morley

Together in truth and faith we learn and grow as God's family.

Hello and welcome to Year 4! 

 

Our class teacher is Miss Learie and Mrs Briggs teaches our class on Wednesdays.  Our teaching assistants are Mrs Irwin (Mon - Thurs am) and Mrs Jennings (Mon - Thurs pm, all day Friday). 

 

As a group we work hard to be tolerant, patient, kind and loving to all. We believe that everyone is special and unique and strive to develop children’s talents to achieve their highest potential. We celebrate all of our successes through our weekly Praise Assembly time which encourages all children in our class to achieve their full potential. 

 

Together we learn about God's love for us through our daily collective worship. Each day we celebrate our Catholic faith by joining together to praise God and learn about Jesus' love for us. We receive a daily mission of how we can use the teachings of Jesus to help others. We start and end each day with prayers, as well as giving thanks to God before and after eating. Each week we have two different children as our prayer monitors. They help plan, prepare and lead our class worship. 

 

In year 4, we work hard to make learning enjoyable using as many different ways as possible to include all children and find the most effective way for them to learn. A typical day in Year 4 consists of English, Maths and Guided Reading in the morning and other subjects from the curriculum in the afternoon.

 

Classroom 

Bookbags - Bookbags need to be able to fit in school trays. No large backpacks (other than for swimming).

Water bottles - It is important that everyone brings in a full water bottle each day.

P.E - Our P.E days are currently Monday (Swimming) and Thursday. All children should come to school in their PE kits on this day.

Swimming - Children must bring their swimming costume and towel. Goggles are optional, however these are not provided by the leisure centre. Armbands are provided by the leisure centre.

Pumps - It is important that all children have a change of footwear. This is particularly important as we approach the winter months. Please ensure that your child's name is inside their pumps and shoes.

Jumpers - Please ensure that your child's name is written in their jumper or cardigan.  

Fruit - Only fruit is allowed as a snack at playtime.

 

Homework

Homework goes home on a Tuesday and should be returned by the following Monday. Children will receive English, Maths and time tables homework. 

Children need to use TT Rock stars for 20 minutes a week to practice their times tables.

Reading books are changed regularly. They will be sent out on each day that books are brought in. We also encourage children to read widely at home to develop their fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and it is important that you read with your child every day. 

 

 Autumn Term calendar of key dates

Y4 newsletter Spring 2024

Y4 Newsletter Autumn 2023.

 

Long Term Plan

Please read here to find out further details about the units of work, texts and key vocabulary which will be taught in year 4. 

 

 Supporting your learning in Year 4 

Here are a wide variety of resources, games and websites you can use to support you with your weekly homework activities.  

 

Remember to stay safe online and to STOP, BLOCK and TELL if you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable!

Spellings

Please practice these spellings alongside your weekly spelling list.

Here are the Y3/4 statutory spellings.

Here are the Year 1/2 statutory spellings

 

Explore a range of creative ways to practise your spellings using the ideas below:

Spelling Menu 

 

Use these websites to help: 

 

Paranoid' announced as the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year | Cambridge  Network

Synonyms and Antonyms of Words | Thesaurus.com

 

Grammar and Punctuation

BBC Bitesize has lots of useful clips, activities and videos to help you to embed previous learning or to become more confident with the new concepts you will be taught this year. 

 

Find out more about BBC Bitesize. - BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize: KS2 grammar

BBC Bitesize:KS2 punctuation 

Reading 

It is important that you read a variety of different texts regularly, ideally every day,  to develop your vocabulary and your general knowledge.  Understanding the texts you read is really important. You can use the resources below to help develop your understanding of the books you enjoy reading at home and your school reading books. 

 

Use these resources to help you to keep focused as you are reading:

Think along activity sheet

Discussion support book marks 

Discussion support mat 

 

Use this resource to help you to generate your own questions: 

Question matrix 

 

Use these resources to produce your own book reviews: 

book review template 

book review template

 

 Use this website for book recommendations and reading related activities. 

 Projects beyond Pearson | #DiversityInLit | Pearson UK

 

 

These resources provide specific comprehension questions for some of our school reading scheme books (Collins Big Cat) used in year 4: 

 

 Collins Connect | Digital resources for schools

 Ruby Level 

Sophie's Rules

Stowaway

Footballing Frog

Gargling Gorilla

Gathering Days

Oceans Alive

 

Lime

Think Again

Tig in the Dumps

 

Copper

Animals on the Move

How to be an Ancient Egyptian

Mind the Gap

Something's Drastic

Spider McDrew and the Egyptians

The Crazy Critters

The Gigantic Turnip Tug

 

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Weird Little Monsters

 

Topaz Level

Cave Wars

Flash Harriet and the Loch Ness Monster

Football spy

Molly Whuppie and the Giant

Spider's Big Match

The Olympic Games

The Three Princes

Tiger Dead

What Happened to the Dinosaurs

Cave wars

Emerald level 

Brother Aeldred's feet 

Caliban's Cave

Code Making, Code Breaking 

In the Rue Bel Tesoro

Matti's Miracle 

Olaudah Equiano- from slavery to freedom

On Safari

Pirate 

The Games Player of Zob 

 

 

 

 

Writing 

Use the FANTASTICS symbols to gather a range of ideas before you  start your writing. 

 The Fantastic Poster - A1: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products

Learning times tables and recalling them quickly is a very important skill that will help you in many areas of maths.  We are constantly practising in class but you also need to spend some time practising at home to improve your recall of these important facts.

Below are some websites with games and activities to help you: 

 

The Topmarks Blog

 

 

Times tables games - Learn them all here!

 

 

 Oxford Owls for Home | Abbotswell School

 

 Times Tables Rock Stars: Maths Competition - North Yorkshire Coast  Opportunity Area

 

Flash Maths logo

 

 

 

Here are some games you could download, print and play as a family to practice your multiplying and dividing skills:

3x table

4xtable

5xtable

6xtable

7xtable

8xtable

9xtable

10xtable

11xtable

12xtable

mixture of times tables 

 

Please use the link below see how your score and time improves each time you play.

Tommy's Trek - Times Tables - Mathsframe

 

 

Explore the range of activities in this booklet to practise both your multiplying and dividing skills.

Multiplication and division activity booklet 

 

To explore other areas of maths use these tutorials to help: 

White Rose Maths Video Tutorials

 

 

Additional sites

Science 

Science Kids

STEM Learning

Geography

Digimap

National Geographic for Kids

PE

Disney 10 Minute Shakeups

Super Movers

General knowledge/a range of subject areas: 

Oak National Academy: Online Classroom

BBC KS2 Bitesize

Primary Homework Help

Educational Quizzes

DK find out

Newsround

 

 

 

 

 

In our Topic work,  we are learning about the Vikings. To enhance our work in school we went on a trip top the Royal Armouries where we listened to the story of Beowolf before creating our own 'Saxon Sagas'. We also found out about how archaeology can help us to learn about the past by taking part in an archaeological dig.

 

 

Our Science work this term is all about sound. The children have enjoyed making string telephones to find out about how sounds travel. They have also learned to distinguish between pitch and volume through the use of a variety musical instruments.

 

 

As part of our science lessons about teeth, Year 4 have learned about the different types of teeth and their functions. To help them understand this they each made a clay model of their lower jaw. First they had to carefully observe their own teeth in a mirror before sculpting the clay into the correct shape to represent each tooth. This took a lot of concentration. When all the teeth were in the right place and had been moulded to the correct shape they were left to dry before painting them.

 

 

As part of Art Week year 4 learnt about Morley's weaving history and then used weaving techniques to create their own 'Viking mead bowls' in our Topic lesson. The children had to use a template to mark the cuttings they needed to make on a paper plate before choosing the colours they wanted to use. It took a lot of concentration and resilience to finish their bowls. They looked great in the art gallery at the end of Art Week.

 

 

Photos from Year 4 2017 - 2018

St Francis Day

Saxon Sagas Workshop

Collective Worship

We enjoy coming together for our class worship. We read passages from the Bible and pray together.

Dogs Trust Visit

We were visited by Laura-Jane from the Dogs Trust and her Pug Winnie! We were very careful when we were stroking her.