Well, it is hard to believe that we are at the end of Term 5 already! We have had an amazing term! We would like to send a HUGE thank you to all the parents and carers that came to our Year 4 assembly to find out what we have been learning and to see the children being incredibly brave and speaking in front of such a packed audience – many thanks!

Here is what we have been up to this week…

Maths

In maths this week, we began by learning about factors and multiples. The children made ‘Freddie Factors’ to show the factor pairs for a number e.g.  the factors of 24 are 1, 24, 2,12, 3, 8, 4 and 6. They learnt that multiples are the numbers that occur when you count in steps of that number from 0 e.g. these numbers are all multiples of 7:    21, 77, 28, 14, 35 etc.

We also learnt about square numbers this week. The children found out that if you multiply a number by itself e.g. 2 X2 or 6 X 6, the answer will be a square number e.g. these numbers are square numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64 etc.

We then went on to learn about how to multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number for the first time using the expanded grid method. This is an important step in their understanding before they learn how to multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers using the column method. Please see an example below.

After half term we will be going over 2 step word problems and using the bar model to represent subtraction problems.

English

In English this week we have finished our learning about character and setting descriptions, and the children wrote their showpiece, showing off all of the skills they have learnt in this unit. Their writing was incredible and they used fronted adverbials, compound and complex sentences, verbs and adverbs and expanded noun phrases.

After half term, we will begin reading our new book called ‘I was a Rat’ by Phillip Pullman. Our first writing unit will be stories with dialogue.

RE

In RE this week, we have been learning about Buddhism. We found out some key facts about Buddhism and about why Buddhists celebrate Vesak and The Ploughing Festival.

After half term our new thematic learning unit is called ‘My home, your home’. We will be learning about Spain and comparing it to the UK. We will also be learning about the animals and plants that live in Spain and the UK and learning how to classify them into groups such as vertebrates and invertebrates and deciduous and evergreen trees.

Spellings

Spellings to learn over half term:

capture, picture, structure, nature, future, fracture, puncture, culture, moisture, texture, sentence, separate, special

Challenge words: signature, literature

Multiplication Check

The children will be taking part in the Year 4 Multiplication Check on Thursday 4^th June which is the first week back after half term. We would like to ask for the children to PLAY AS MUCH TTRS as possible over half term to help them prepare for this. Many thanks for your support with this.

Love to Learn

For this week’s home learning task we would like you to be scientists. Find out the difference between invertebrates and vertebrates and list some animals that fit in each group. You can decide how you would like to present your findings. It could be an information page with writing and pictures, and maybe a labelled diagram. It could be a poster, or you could draw and label animals from each group. You could go out and about and find animals from each group and take photos of them and stick these in your book, it is up to you. We look forward to seeing your home learning. Please hand in this task by Wednesday 3^rd June.

Art Competition Opportunity

The Kent Arts Conference is hosting the following art competition for schools:

Competition Topic: Everyone’s Talking About This

Please follow the below links for further information and to submit your artwork.

Art Competition Information - Schools Art Competition 2026 - Kent Arts Conference

Entry Form - Art Competition Entry Form - Kent Arts Conference

Dates to remember

4th June – Year 4 to take Maths Multiplication Check 

17th – 24th June – Book Fair 

19th June – Zoe Artemedis (local Author) visiting school 

24th June – Class photos 

26th June – Non-school uniform day for all in return for Summer Fair donations (see Summer fair letter that will come out early term 6 for details) 

30th June – Music evening at 6pm 

1st July – Big fat quiz of the year – parents invited to attend (year 4 at 1.30pm and year 5 at 2.15pm) 

8th July – Year 4 Come Dine with me picnic 

10th July – Year 3-6 Sports day from 9.15 on the top field 

10th July – School reports sent home 

13th, 14th, 15th July– Transition days (children will spend these days with their new class teacher) 

14th July 2.45pm – Parents invited into child’s new class to meet their teacher 

 

We hope you have a lovely half term,

Mrs Cousins, Mr Cook and Mrs Tammaro