Welcome to Year 4

We are delighted to begin the new academic year with you all and can't wait to get to know you. We have lots of wonderful topics and exciting activities to look forward to throughout the year. Check back regularly to see what we have been up to!

Meet the Team for

2023-2024

Key Information

Summer 1 PE Uniform Days

Monday - Indoor PE

Friday - Outdoor PE

Year 4 Residential

Walesby Forest - Monday 17th June 2024 - Tuesday 18th June 2024

Supporting your child at home

Reading

Y4 children will all have a colour banded reading book which is appropriate for their level as well as a reading for pleasure book.  Please support us by reading and discussing their books at home.  There is an additional sheet stuck in diaries explaining the goals and how to help your child.

Spellings

Each week the children will be given ten spellings, engaging in regular practice using a range of fun and helpful activities. You can support them to practice their weekly spellings as well as the common exception words that you will find stuck in their diaries.

Practising their spellings little and often and making it fun is key to helping your children to become confident and successful spellers. As a team, we can help the children to become super spellers. 

Maths

Rapid recall of the times tables are paramount for Year 4 children, not only because they will help them with their maths work but also because of the 'Multiplication Tables Check'  - a test set by Government for every child in Year 4. In order to help practise their time tables, each child has a Times Table Rock Star account. This can be accessed from home so please encourage your child to have fun and practise their times tables. Inside diaries there is a copy of the times tables up to 12x and  a 'key instant recall facts' (KIRFs) sheet.  Each half term, a different KIRF will be focussed on. 

Half Term Creative Homework Project

Every half term, we set a creative topic homework project linked to the current topic.  It's always a favourite time of the term, when we share these in the last week before we break up. Please see the flyer below for this half terms homework.

Useful website links for practising times tables 

Summer 1 

This half term our topic is called 'Teeth to Toilet' where we will be learning all about teeth, the digestive system and how to keep ourselves healthy. We will also be learning about food chains. Check back soon to see what we have been up to. 

Helpful Documents

Week 2 - Week beginning 22nd April

In literacy this week we have been writing setting descriptions. We have been trying hard to include the technique of 'the power of 3' within our writing and have been completing some drama to help us generate ideas. 

Week 1 - Week beginning 15th April

We have had a fun start to your 'Teeth to Toilet' topic and have enjoyed completing an experiment about how the digestive system works as well as created our own set of teeth out of card. 

Spring 2

This half term our topic is called 'Invaders and Settlers'. In shared reading we are reading 'Viking Boy' by Tony Bradman and writing our own Viking invasion stories. In topic we will be learning all about the Vikings, including why and when they first invaded Britain. Check back soon to see what we have been up to. 

Helpful Documents

Week 6 - Week beginning 25th March

We have had a very busy week this week. We have enjoyed showcasing some of our learning to our parents at carers at our Year 4 Showcase and PROUD assembly. Thank you to all the grown ups who came. We have also completed our double page spreads to demonstrate all of the learning that has taken place in topic. 

Enjoy the well deserved break and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 15th April. 

Week 5 - Week beginning 18th March

We have really enjoyed our dance lessons this half term with Miss Talia and have done a great job of learning a dance.

Week 4 - Week beginning 11th March

We have really enjoyed raising money for Comic Relief this week. On Friday we came to school dressed in red and sporty clothes. We had a 'design the best red nose' competition, completed a fun run and had a great time taking part in an orienteering challenge. A big well done to all of the children in Year 4 who took part in all the challenges brilliantly!

Week 3 - Week beginning 4th March 

We had great fun celebrating World Book Day on Thursday. Some children came in costumes of their favourite book characters and others came in comfy clothes ready to enjoy reading. We had a great time sharing books with each other and particularly with the children in Year 1. We created our own monster and animal themed book marks and used the app Comic Life to write our own comics and book reviews. 

Week 2 - Week beginning 26th February 

We had fun learning about religious pilgrimages. The children worked in small groups to complete a drama activity.  

  Week 1 - Week beginning 19th February 

We had a fabulous time on our school trip to Perlethorpe this week. We were very lucky with the weather and the sun shone all day! We had lots of fun visiting a replica Viking longhouse and learning about different weapons as well as working in teams to build dens. 

Spring 1

This half term our topic is called 'Rumble in the Jungle'. In shared reading we are reading 'Fire Girl, Forest Boy' by Chloe Daykin and writing stories and letters in writing. In topic we will be learning about the water cycle, the rainforest and deforestation. Check back soon to see what we have been up to. 

Helpful Documents

Week 6 - Week beginning 5th February

Week 5 - Week beginning 29th January 

 We have had lots of fun in outdoor PE this half term and have been learning lots of new athletics skills. This week, we have practising our javelin throwing. 

Week 4 - Week beginning 22nd January 

 In PSHE this week we having been talking about goals and dreams as well as discussing the word 'disappointment' and how sometimes our dreams and goals don't always come true. We then acted out different scenarios in small groups.

  Week 3 - Week beginning 15th January 

 In computing this week we having been using the programme Turtle Academy to write our own codes to draw the initials of our names. It was a tricky activity but a great accomplishment when the children finally managed to get their code to work. 

  Week 2 - Week beginning 8th January 

 We had lots of fun this week during our Wow Day to start our 'Rumble in the Jungle' topic. We were very lucky to be joined by Helen, who is a creative practitioner, and lead our sessions for us which involved lots of different drama activities. 

  Week 1 - Week beginning 1st January 

 We have had a fun couple of days to start our new term. We have thought about what we would like to achieve in 2024 and come up with some steps to help us achieve our goals. We have also began our 'Rumble in the Jungle' topic and in science have been investigating the different properties of solids, liquids and gases. 

Autumn 2

This half term our topic is called 'Romans on the rampage'. In shared reading we are reading 'Romans on the Rampage' by Jeremy Strong and creating Roman poems and stories in writing. In topic we will be learning about the Roman Empire. Check back soon to see what we have been up to. 

Helpful Documents

  Week 6 - Week beginning 11th December

We have had a fun week this week. One of our highlights being learning about the different layers of a Roman road and recreating our own roads using chocolate and biscuits. We have had our last swimming lesson and had fun playing some festive team games in the water. We enjoyed our PROUD assembly and receiving our certificates, thank you to all the grown ups came to share in the celebration.  

  Week 5 - Week beginning 4th December

Wow! What a busy week it has been! We are so very proud of all of the children in Year 4 and how hard they have all worked. In maths we have had fun learning our times tables, we have created our own times table games and songs to help us  and also used the laptops to have some time on Times Tables Rock Stars. 

  Week 4 - Week beginning 27th November

Maths

In maths, we have used cubes to help us with our mathematical investigations. 

Swimming

In swimming this week the children were asked to wear pyjamas in the swimming pool over their costumes. The pool floor was also lowered too so that they weren't able to touch the floor. This allowed the children to learn about water safety and practise safe self rescue. Some of the activities that the children took part in included treading water whist signalling for help, floating on their backs and using equipment to help 'rescue' a partner. 

  Week 3 - Week beginning 20th November

Writing

Over the past two weeks we have been learning about the different features of an adventure story. Using the 'Talk for Writing' process we have drawn a story map and learnt to retell an adventure story about a Roman soldier called Alberto who gets lost from the rest of his legion. This week we have began to write our innovation texts where we use our own ideas to adapt the story. They are brilliant! Have a look at us retelling the story below.

  Week 2 - Week beginning 13th November

Swimming

As one of our PE lessons this term, the Year 4 children are going to a local leisure centre to take part in swimming lessons. We have been really impressed with the children's swimming skills and their determination so far and we are sure this will continue throughout the half term. Well done to all the Year 4 children. 

  Week 1 - Week beginning 6th November

Wow Day

We had great fun during our Roman Wow Day to begin our topic. We created laurel wreaths, shields and catapults. The children worked very creatively and produced some excellent work.

Autumn 1

This half term our topic is called 'Flashes and Bangs'. In shared reading we are reading 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes and will be basing our own writing on the story. In topic we will be learning about electricity, circuits and sound. Check back soon to see what we have been up to. 

Helpful Documents

  Week 7 - Week beginning 19th October

Maths Parents and Carers Workshop

Thank you to all of the grown ups who attended our maths workshop this week. We hope you found it informative and will be able to use the ideas shared to help your child learn their timetables. If you were unable to attend, please find the booklet shared during the session using the link below. 

Double Page Spreads

We have been blown away by the double page spreads Year 4 have created to show their end of topic learning. They are beautifully presented and include lots of facts about what they have learnt this half term. 

Topic Homework

Year 4 have completed some brilliant homework projects this half term! They have been very creative and worked really hard to produce some excellent work linked to our Autumn 1 topic of 'Flashes and Bangs'. We've had Iron Man models, working circuits, fact files and some super art work to name just a few. Well done Year 4!

  Week 6 - Week beginning 9th October

Computing

Last week, the Year 4 children worked in pairs to write a script for a pod cast, this week they have began recording them using the programme Audacity. They have chosen to discuss lots of interesting topics and we can't wait to share the finished versions with each other!

Shared Reading

We have been reading The Iron Woman in shared reading, the sequel to The Iron Man. On Friday we completed some drama where the children pretended to be journalists and interviewed the character Lucy from the book. It was great fun!

  Week 5 - Week beginning 2nd October

Basketball - Outdoor PE

This week Year 4 have continued to enjoy learning different basketball skills during their outdoor PE lesson. We have some very talented basketballers! 

  Week 4 - Week beginning 25th September

The Iron Man - our own versions

This week Year 4 have worked incredibly hard to write their own versions of 'The Iron Man'. Listen to some of our stories below. 

  Week 3 - Week beginning 18th September

Music - Guitar Lesson 1!

This week week year 4 had their first guitar lesson with Mr Hull from Nottingham Music School. The children listened really carefully and tried incredibly hard in their first lesson. We clearly have some talented musicians in the making at Old Basford School. 

Week 2 - Week beginning 11th September

Jigsaw - Team work

This week we have been learning about team work in our Jigsaw lessons. We had the very tricky task of passing a ball around a circle without using our hands! Although it was difficult, it taught us to work as a team and allowed us to discuss the many skills needed to work successfully together.

Making circuits in Science

The children have loved investigating with electrical circuits today and working out how to make a bulb light up within a circuit. Once they had completed their circuit, some of the children had a chance to join another group to work out how to extend their circuit with an extra bulb followed by experimenting with what happened when they added an extra battery. We have some fabulous budding scientists in Year 4!

Week 1 - Week beginning 4th September

Wow! What a busy week we have had in Year 4. It has been fantastic getting to know all of the children and they have made a super start to the year. We have been thinking about the year ahead and what each child's aspirations for the year are. We've made dream catchers out of natural materials which we found in the school's ground and we've had lots of fun during our Wow Day to start our new topic. 

Mysterious objects found on the trim trail!

Mrs Widdowson alerted us this morning that some mysterious objects had been found on the trim trail. We went out to investigate what had happened. The children came up with some great ideas!

Musical Instruments

We have looked at and played a variety of musical instruments which inspired us to design and make our own instruments out of recycling. While creating them, we thought carefully about the different pitches the instruments made and how we could change the volume of them.