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Year 4 - Seal & Dolphin class

Welcome to Year 4

Seals' class teacher is Ms Pierzchalska with Mrs Lee working alongside her.

Dolphins' class teacher is Mr Fleet with Mrs Hall working alongside him.

Both classes are also supported by Mrs Scholfield and Miss Hunt.

Both classes will have PE on a Tuesday afternoon and will need to come to school wearing their PE kit. Please ensure the children have a plain, red t shirt, plain black leggings/jogging bottoms and trainers/daps.

Important dates

Autumn Term Dates:

 

 

 

 

Teachers can be contacted on the following email addresses:

mpierzchalska@eastoverschool.co.uk

jfleet@eastoverschool.co.uk

 

No Outsiders!

What is an outsider? 

Someone who feels left out, who feels like they don't belong and are not welcome. We want schools to be teaching that there are no outsiders because everyone is welcome. A four-year-old understands what it feels like to be left out and does not want to be left out. We need to create classroom environments where no child feels left out; every child needs to be taught that they belong.

Along Came a Different provides opportunity to discuss attitudes towards race and racism - the red shapes don't like the blue shapes, who in turn don't like the yellow shapes or the red shapes. At the key point of the story, the shapes draw up a set of segregation rules, which gives a class a basis to work from. What do we think of these rules? How can we rewrite them? Dogs Don't Do Ballet teaches children to go for their dreams. Everyone tells a dog that he can't be a ballerina, but he proves in the end that you can be what you want to be. In Red: A Crayon's Story, a crayon who looks red can only colour in blue. This is very distressing for him as he knows he should be red, but he cannot get it right. For us this tale is a fantastic stimulus for discussion about identity and expectations, and for teaching children to be who they are.Aalfred and Aalbert gently shows how two aardvarks get together, helped by a small blue bird. Some children may realise the aardvarks in the story are two males, but that is not the focus of the lesson plan; rather, the focus is recognising loneliness, choosing to help others, finding common ground and understanding how companionship affects mental health. When Sadness Comes to Call picks up from The Bad Seed (used in Year 3) and explores further how to recognise feelings of sadness and their impact. The lesson plan focus is on good mental health and how it can be achieved.

Julian is a Mermaid tells the story of a small boy wanting to be a mermaid. The key to the story for me is Nan's attitude to her grandson; the reader is led to believe she is going to tell him off for dressing up, but instead she supports and helps him. It is a heartwarming story of difference and acceptance.

Accelerated Reader

Reading in years 3-6

At the beginning of every new school year(in Key Stage Two) your child will complete a reading assessment called 'The Star Reading Test'. STAR Reading is a computerised reading assessment.

Questions continually adjust to your child’s responses. If the child’s response is correct, the difficulty level is increased. If the child misses a question, the difficulty level is reduced. The test uses multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 20 minutes. Your child will re-test on The Star Reading Test every half term.

The Star Reading Test will give your child a ZPD (Zone of proximal development) The ZPD is the range of books that will challenge a child without causing frustration or loss of motivation. 

Your child then picks a book at his/her own level and reads it at his/her own pace. They will start at the lowest level in the range and read through the levels at their own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer – passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood what has been read. 

Every time your child passes a quiz their book level will rise by 0.1. The whole process is overseen, monitored and adjusted (where necessary) by your child's class teacher and teaching assistant. 

At Eastover, we have many rewards in place to motivate:

  • prizes given after every quizzed passed
  • a visit to our gift shop once they have passed a certain amount of quizzes/ read a certain amount of words
  • different competitions held throughout the year
  • class readometers-the first class to reach the top every half term receives a class prize. 

More information can be found here: 

https://www.renaissance.com/2016/09/09/parents-guide-renaissance-accelerated-reader-360/ 

Homework

Children in Y3- Y6 have the following homework each night. Please record in the children’s yellow books that all the tasks have been completed. If your child wishes to do more homework or spend longer on each task, or complete their own tasks afterwards, this would be excellent! Please note, additional tasks linked to other subjects may be sent out by class teachers.

10 minutes of reading aloud

10 minutes of TT Rockstars or Doodle practice for those with a log in

10 minutes of spelling practice

If you have any problems, please ask!

Important websites

  • TTRockstars Log in here each day and complete 10 minutes of homework TTRocksstars closes at 7:45 pm

  • myON Home reading

What are we learning?

Please click on the link below to find the planning document for year 4; this will tell you what the children are learning throughout the year.

  1. Welcome to Year 4 pptx