Year 4
Teacher: Mrs Mabe
Teaching Assistants: Mrs Lowe, Mrs Arciniega and Mrs Thornborough
Our Gospel Value is: Peace
Our School Councillors: Theo and Melin
Our Eco Warriors: Eva and Melody
Our SHINE Councillors: Tonaya, Heather and Robert
Our link Governor is: Mandy Palmer
Helpful Information:
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Reading records are needed in school every day.
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When your child has finished reading their book they may change it for another one.
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Library book changing day is Wednesday.
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PE days are Tuesday and Thursday- please come in PE kits.
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Homework is given out every Friday to be completed and returned by the following Thursday.
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Spelling tests are weekly on Friday. Weekly scores will be written in your child's reading record.
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Log-ins for Timestables Rockstars and Nessy are in the front of your child's reading record.
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Musical instruments for lessons will be safely stored in Year 4's cupboard - don't forget to take them home at the end of the day!
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Healthy snacks - if your child does not have morning toast, they may bring in a healthy snack for morning playtime.
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Water bottles - children will need a water bottle in school each day (water only). Please make sure water bottles are clearly named and are returned daily after washing.
Looking ahead:
- Forest School and 'Come Outside' Curriculum in Spring Term.
- Trip to Fairhaven Lake on Thursday 9th January 2025.
- Visit to Bolton Museum on Thursday 24th April 2025.
Spring Term message from Mrs Mabe:
Happy New Year and welcome back!
This Spring Term we will be starting our Geography Topic “Misty Mountain, Winding River” with a fieldtrip to Fairhaven Lake. Remember to bring your wellies!
On Mondays, Year 4 will be taking part in our 'Come Outside' and Forest School curriculum. We will be planting root vegetables and potatoes, composing climate change poetry, making nettle crisps and using nature to make collages.
The exciting learning doesn't stop there, we will also be learning the ukulele in Music!
At St Thomas' we LOVE to read, have a look at Year 4's 50 recommended reads below. What will you read next?
Times tables! Times tables! Times tables! In June, all Year 4 children will have to complete the Multiplication Tables Check. This means it is more important than ever to be practising your timetables at every opportunity. Whether it is reciting them in the car or practising on Times Tables Rockstars (Garage) for 3 minutes per day. We will also be learning our times tables in class. For more information please see the PowerPoint below.
Please have a look at our 'Knowledge Organisers' linked below. These contain our key learning for Spring Term in Geography, Science, DT and French.
If you have any questions - please do not hesitate to ask - I am here to help!
Mrs Mabe
Useful Documents for Year 4
Year 4 'Meet the Teacher' information (Sept 24)
Year 4 'Multiplication Tables Check' information
Year 4 '50 Recommended Reads' Poster
Autumn Term Documents
Year 4 Learning Letter for Autumn
Year 4 Spellings for Autumn Term 1
Year 4 Spellings for Autumn Term 2
Year 4 Knowledge Organisers Autumn
Spring Term Documents
Year 4 Learning Letter for Spring
Year 4 Blog
Making and playing Dreidels
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have been learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the Jewish people’s struggle for their freedom. It is also known as the festival of Lights. It is a time when Jews remember the desolation of their holy Temple in Jerusalem by King Antiochus in 164/165 BC. Jews celebrate Hanukkah by lighting a special menorah, called a Hanukkiah. The celebration lasts 8 days due to the miracle of the oil in the Menorah lasting 8 whole days. The children discovered another way of celebrating Hanukah was eating food cooked in oil such as potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, and playing a game called dreidel. The children then made their own dreidels and had a go at playing the game.
Healthy Snacks
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
In DT, Year 4 have been thinking about how we preserve food to keep it fresh for as long as possible. We looked at famous inventors such as Louis Pasteur, William Cullen, Nicolas Appert and Jacob Perkins. We have explored packaging, thought about food hygiene and revisited our cooking skills by making healthy snacks. Year 4 have grated, peeled, sliced, chopped, mashed and weighed to create popcorn, hummus with vegetable sticks, vegetable crisps and fruit skewers. The best part was definitely getting to taste what we had prepared and cooked!
Trip to St Annes Library
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 love to read and we had a great time on Wednesday afternoon at St Annes library. We turned up with our library books to return, we enjoyed browsing the shelves, having a read and taking out more books to enjoy. We even completed another step on the Lancashire Reading Trail!
What is sound?
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have started their new Science topic, Sound. We have discovered that sounds are caused by vibrations that travel through a medium such as a solid, liquid or gas. The children visited activity stations to explore how different instruments vibrate to create sound. We had a very noisy time!
Boocia
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have been playing Boccia and have learnt it is a Paralympic Sport. The ball can be either thrown or pushed by your foot. The children have practised throwing a bean bag for accuracy and precision using an underarm and overarm throw. We had a great afternoon!
Drawing Stories
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have been drawing stories by exploring mark making with charcoal. They also used rubbers and white pastels as complimentary tools. They then created a scene with 'small world' objects and then drew their scene with a line of story to describe what was happening.
Gymnastics
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have been demonstrating their gymnastic skills including travelling, balancing, jumping and rolling. This culminated in creating a 'show' sequence of 6 moves which they performed to their classmates.
Super Scientists
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have been SUPER scientists and have been reconstructing the digestive system using chocolate cake and tights! They used scientific vocabulary to describe the process and the parts of the digestive system.
Dissecting Flowers
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have enjoyed reading our new book 'Varmints' in English. At the beginning of the week we discovered plant pots, seeds and lilies had been strewn across the classroom floor. We were challenged to find out more about plants so have been learning the scientific names of the parts of a flower. We then dissected a flower and identified it parts and thought about the job of each part.
Singing rhymes in French
year4 teacher (F.Mabe) on: Year 4 Blog
Year 4 have loved learning French through our brand new scheme of work, Kapow. This term, we have been learning greetings using finger puppets, emojis and rhyme. Year 4 had to learn the words to 'Deux petits chatons visitant Paris'. They used their knowledge and recognised words that sound similar in both French and English to translate the rhyme into English. They listened to instructions in French to make their own finger puppet and then performed the rhyme with their partner. Très bien!