Language Day

We started celebrating Languages Day by completing a quiz together. We learnt lots of facts!  Did you know there are more than 200 languages spoken in Europe?

We were also lucky enough to have children volunteer to teach us words from languages they speak at home. We heard many languages including Punjabi, Turkish, Polish, Russian and Greek! We were taught numbers one to 10, how to say hello and goodbye and how to say your name in those languages. We also learnt the different words for foods in different languages. We then designed flags and bookmarks. We had a great afternoon! A special thank you to those children who shared their knowledge of other languages.

Exploring The Americas

This year, all of Year 4's learning will be focusing on the Americas. We will be learning all about the geography, history, culture and more.  

Useful Links

Below, you can find a number of useful links to help support your child's learning:

Multiplication Tables Check practice

Hit the button (times tables practice)

MC Grammar Times Tables Raps

National Literacy Trust - A great range of reading resources and support available.

Oxford Owl - Library of free E-books that can be accessed on any device

As you may or may not be aware, in the summer term of each academic year all children in year 4 will be sitting the Multiplication Tables Check. This is a statutory assessment to assess children’s fluency and competency with their times tables. The check assesses knowledge of all times tables from 1x1 to 12x12, and it is vital that children can recall these multiplication facts quickly and confidently, as children are only given six seconds to answer each question.

The table below shows how frequently each times tables is likely to show up in the times tables check. Questions are randomly generated, so the amount will vary each time.

As you can see from the table, there is an emphasis on the 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 times tables as these are considered more challenging, so it is really important that children know these tables fluently and confidently.

Throughout the year we will be consistently practising, learning and reinforcing your child’s times tables knowledge. We will be practising times tables daily in school, and will be running mock multiplication checks twice a week, alongside smaller focus groups to support children with developing their times tables skills.

To continue to support your child at home, we would strongly recommend the following:

• Using Times Tables Rockstars at least twice a week to practice.

Times Tables Rockstars has a range of settings to use, including mock times tables checks, timed questions, and the ability to choose which times tables to use for targeted practice.

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school

• Using the maths frame times tables check to rehearse the timings and structure of the Multiplication Tables Check.

The link we have provides for the maths frame times tables check is similar to what children will experience in the final times tables check. This is really useful to help familiarise themselves with their timings, as well as the layout and structure of the check.

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

• Using a range of other resources to support your children with times tables practice.

Over the last few terms we have also shared with you several resources to support your children at home with learning their times tables. Please find several further links below that may be of use.

Hit the button: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

This game gives children 60 seconds to answer as many questions as they can, and helps to test their speed and fluency with times tables. It can also be used to practice the inverse with their division facts.

BBC times tables collection: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/times-table-collection/z4vv6v4

We will be using these videos in school and the children really enjoy them. They get children up and dancing along whilst singing their times tables.