We’ve had another great week in Year 4, with a highlight being our science experiment with butter! More about that below. Here is what we have been up to this week…

Maths

In maths this week, we have been learning about adding and subtracting decimal numbers including amounts of money. The children learnt to use the column method, lining up the decimal point in every column and in their answer to ensure each digit was in the correct column. See the picture below.

The children practised regrouping under the next column to the left, as you can see in the picture 6 + 5 is 11, so the 10 from the 11 is regrouped in the ones column before the decimal point.

Using their understanding of how to add and subtract decimals, they then learnt how to represent addition and subtraction word problems on a bar model. They then solved the problem using the column method. An example of the types of questions we were doing is below with the bar model shown:

Next week we will be learning to solve problems involving decimals (like above) but with 2 steps instead of one. We will also be learning about money.

English

In English this week we have continued reading our new text called ‘Tales of Wisdom and Wonder’ retold by Hugh Lipton. The children began the week by writing their showpiece for our play script unit of writing. In the showpiece they have the chance to show off what they have learnt in the unit with less modelling from the teacher. In this showpiece, we turned the story of Jack and the Beanstalk into a play script. The children did incredibly well and their play scripts were amazing!

We then moved on to our next unit of writing which is learning to describe settings and characters in stories set in different cultures. We looked at a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) and identified the features of good descriptive writing. On Friday, we looked at the setting and characters in one of the stories from our text called ‘The Blind Man and the Hunter’. We explored the setting by drawing a picture of the men in the African jungle and then thought of expanded noun phrases to describe the men and the jungle e.g. the hot, humid air, the long, dangling vines, his coiled, ebony hair, his sharp, wooden spear.

Next week we will continue to learn some more skills for writing good character and setting descriptions in a story including verbs and adverbs and sentence openers.

Thematic

In Thematic this week, we started our science learning in our topic called ‘Water World’. The children learnt about the 3 states of matter; solids, liquids and gases. They found out that the particles in each state of matter behave differently, and that this is why liquids can flow and be poured, solids have a fixed shape, and that gases can be squashed and change shape. In the next lesson, we found out that temperature can change the state of matter that a material is in. We learnt about the 3 states of matter of water (ice, water and steam (water vapour)) and the temperatures at which water freezes, melts and boils. We then conducted an experiment to find out the melting point of butter. The children learnt how to use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the butter. The children thoroughly enjoyed this. Here we are conducting our experiments…

Next week we will be learning about the changes of state that occur in evaporation and condensation, and finding out about the water cycle.

Spellings

Spellings to learn this week are homophones. The children need to learn the meaning of each spelling of the word:

steal, steel, right, write, road, rode, made, maid, pour, poor, scent, sent, groan, grown

challenge words: cereal, serial, guessed, guest, isle, aisle

Love to Learn

For this week’s home learning task we would like you to practice adding and subtracting decimals using the column method. Choose 5 of the calculations below to solve that best suit you, or for an extra challenge try to answer all of them.

6.83 + 5.47 =                  12.56 – 7.84 =              327.16 + 405.88 =             3.8 – 2.4 =

4.6 + 2.2 =              64.28 – 31.75 =                300.08 – 174.62 =              10.7 – 7.2 =          8.26 + 7.52 =

Jen has 187.55cm of ribbon. She cuts off 64.83cm of ribbon to make some bows. How much ribbon does she have left? Show your calculation on a bar model as well as using the column method to work out the answer.

I have £24.65 in my bank. I get paid £132.90. How much money do I have now? Show your calculation on a bar model as well as using the column method to work out the answer.

Other News

TTRS PASSWORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED. Your child’s password is now their first name (all in lower case). If there are 2 children with the same name in a class the children have their name plus their initial e.g. if they were called Joe Green their password would be joeg.

Dates to remember

Tuesday 19th May - Year 3 and 4 Viking Games at Upton (packed lunched required for year 3 and 4 and these children to wear sports kit)

Wednesday 20th May – Year 4 class assembly at 2.50pm (parents invited)

Friday 22nd May – Be here, be you, belong parade on top field from 2pm. Children to wear clothes that they feel express who they are, this could be from an outfit from a hobby they have, to bright colourful clothing. All parents invited to watch.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Cousins, Mr Cook and Mrs Tammaro