Welcome all new Year 4 children to Mr Thompson's class! I am excited to begin a new academic year with a fresh set of faces. We have already spent a week together and I am getting to know all of the individual personalities.
A letter should have gone home on Friday giving details of the class schedule, but here they are again as another reference. We will have PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays: dance on Tuesdays with Mr Thompson and Football with Mr Clark on Thursdays. Please remember to have PE kits washed and ready to go for Tuesday afternoons. As it is especially hot right now, the kits may need to be washed more than once a week.
Homework:
Spellings: The children will go over a list of words for a week, then be given that list the following Monday. They will then have a test on those words on the following Thursday, so they will have four days and three evenings to study their words. They will copy the words into their orange homework books and I will send a printed-out copy for the parents in case any words got transcribed wrong. They will be given opportunities to study during the daily routine, so make sure they have their homework books in school every day and at home every night. On Thursday I will collect the books to mark the tests and return them on the next Monday when they will get a new set of words. We may have a week or two near the end of the term when there are no spelling words because of the chaos that is the Christmas season, but otherwise expect words every week and expect to see the homework book every night.
Children who get more than three words wrong will be sent home with a note in their books to that effect so that they can take a make-up test the next week. It can be difficult to study for that many words in one week, so the best able you are to stay on top of it, the better.
Times Tables Practice: The children will also get tested every Thursday on the times tables they are currently working on. They will have three minutes to fill in a sheet of times tables problems and will be considered to have passed if they get most of them done in that time. They will keep testing on that group of times tables until they pass, then they will move on. The goal is to get all children in the class to have memorised all tables up to 12 and simple division of those same numbers. When they pass that point, they will be given a weekly maths puzzle to complete by Thursday.
On Monday I will have put the maths and spelling scores from the test into the homework books for parents to monitor. I may send other notes/concerns as well so that parents and teacher can remain in touch about the homework.
Project: At the end of December the big research project will be due. If you have not seen the details on the Class 4 letter please check your email or a printed copy can be provided to you.
Another potentially confusing thing is the door leading into the classroom. In the mornings, for various reasons, we will have that door closed and the children will need to enter around the other side of the building to enter the classroom. At the end of the day, however, I will open the class door and look for parents to dismiss the children.
We are learning about classification of living things in our science lessons for this half-term, and then we'll move on to digestion and teeth. We will spend a lot of time looking at living things whilst the weather is still cooperating.
Our history topic for this term is Ancient Egypt, which is always popular and captures children's imaginations.
One other quick note: This year we will do show-and-tell only about our topics or science subjects. We have a lot to do and can't spare a lot of time for show-and-tell, so if it is related to science or history right now, don't hesitate to bring it into class, but otherwise, please keep it at home.
I look forward to meeting all parents/guardians over the next few weeks. I have high ambitions for the upcoming year, so we are hitting the ground running.
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