Team 4 2023 - 2024

Our Year 4 Team includes Miss Martindale and Mrs Hilton.

To keep up to date with the latest news and work from Team 4 follow us on Twitter @PrimaryKingsway, @KingswayYear4  and on Class Dojo.

 Reading

Reading is essential to all curriculum areas and we spend time focusing on reading every day. We use VIPERs from the Literacy Shed which are comprehensions. In our comprehension, we focus on understanding of vocabulary, retrieving information, summarising, giving evidence and inference. Some children also have access to our phonics lessons, Read Write Inc, and our computer-based literacy programme IDL.

Children also experience the joy of reading through a whole class novel. The class novel is a time to come together around a powerful, relevant text that engages the children and promotes discussion. In Team 4, we read a range of exciting texts. We especially enjoy our quiet time reading at the end of the day to wind down and relax. We also love visiting our school library every Wednesday and choosing a book that is purely for reading for pleasure.

Reading at home is essential. Reading books go home on a Monday and are returned to school by Friday. Children are encouraged to read at least 3 times a week and to record their own thoughts, feelings and ideas about what they have read in their reading records as well as comments made by adults at home.

Writing

Our writing lessons follow Pathways to Write, which is a programme of study designed to empower children to become confident and successful writers. The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of both fiction and non-fiction writing opportunities. 

Mathematics

Mathematics lessons follow White Rose Maths, which aims to develop children’s mathematical fluency and their deep, long-term and adaptable understanding of maths. The children can then use this knowledge and understanding to solve a range of maths problems. White Rose Maths adopts a concrete – pictorial – abstract method that enables all children to access learning and lessons are differentiated so that all children achieve. To supplement maths lessons, we also dedicate time each week to revisit skills previously taught through Flashback Four activities. 

Times Tables

In Team 4, we have a big focus on the times tables up to 12x and spend time each day practising this. We use Times Table Rock Stars daily to encourage our learning as well as one arithmetic lesson a week focusing on a particular times table and understanding the facts and mastery of this. The children are encouraged to practise times tables at home with a weekly homework sheet as well as logging on to TTRS at home. 

The Wider Curriculum

In Team 4, children are taught a broad and balanced curriculum that includes all of the National Curriculum subjects. Over the course of the year, different subjects are prioritised at different times to ensure coverage and maximum attainment in all areas. The curriculum is exciting, dynamic and has been designed to build upon the children’s prior knowledge. 

Autumn 1:

This half term, Team 4 will be studying the fictional text Gorilla by Anthony Browne. Pupils will be introduced to a rich and varied vocabulary in order to support expanding their sentences with modifying adjectives as well as creating a more extended narrative structure. The unit will conclude with them writing a fictional fantasy narrative based on the story of ‘Gorilla’.

In maths, we will be exploring place value and addition and subtraction by following the school’s concrete, abstract and pictorial approach. We will use reasoning and problem solving to apply our learning. 

In Science, we will be learning about animals including humans. Specifically, the children will focus on food chains and food webs, the human digestive system and the types and functions of teeth. In Computing, we will learn about networks and the internet, including how to stay safe online. In our Jigsaw lessons, we will be learning about “being me in my world”, looking at citizenship in our school as well as rights, responsibility and democracy in our world. In RE we are focusing on a comparison of Islam and Christianity during worship. 

Our main project this half term will be a history based topic called ‘Invasion’, this project teaches children about life in Britain after the Roman withdrawal. Children will learn about Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions up to the Norman conquest.