Primary 4 Curriculum Newsletter 2018/19

Welcome back after the September weekend, I hope you have had an enjoyable holiday!

In language, the Unit Study for Primary 4 for the last term has been ‘Hodgeheg’ by Dick King-Smith. The children are developing and consolidating their understanding of the roles of the predictor and clarifier within Reciprocal Reading. Going forward the children will begin to develop their skills in summarising and will identify the characteristics of the main characters by observing and discussing the language used by the authors. Our grammar focus this term has been identifying pronouns, adjectives and similes through our novel studies and a range of texts. In writing, we have had a major focus on the use of connectives to join short sentences together. The children are enjoying the challenge of using more sophisticated connective others than ‘and’ in their written work. Please continue to encourage your child to use connectives to write extended sentences in their homework tasks. Next term, our focus will move to verbs and adverbs. As always neat presentation of written work is encouraged for all tasks. Soon the children will begin to learn the joins to begin joined script.

In maths, we continue to learn the 2,3,4, 5 and 10 times tables. Please continue to encourage your child to practise not only the multiplication fact but the number bond facts to 20. This will aid quick random, mental recall. The children have explored angles and can successful identify right angles. They have also been successful in using grid reference to plot and read maps.  The children have been introduced to developing mental strategies for adding and written column addition. They are encouraged to remember to carry the carrying figure on the line. Soon the children will explore 2D and 3D shapes and will learn a variety of new shapes (e.g. hemisphere, prism) and their properties such as vertices, edges and faces.

Our Interdisciplinary focus this term has been our novel study, ‘Hodgeheg’. The children enjoyed reading this novel and learning about the importance of road safety. Their learning on being safe on the roads tied in nicely with the September Health and Well-being focus ‘Safe’ from the SHANARI wheel.

                                                                       

                                     

In partnership with our Parish, we have begun preparing for First Holy Communion. Thank you for joining us on the Feast of Our Lady's birthday. Thank you also for supporting the Rosary homework task. I look forward to meeting you at our Mary's Meals Mass in St. Patrick's Church.

Please ensure your child has a full PE kit and all jewellery removed before coming to school.

PE days are as follows:

P4 - Tuesday and Friday

Thank you for support with your child's homework. Please continue to ensure homework is returned to school on Thursdays.

Primary 4/3 Curriculum Newsletter 2018-2019

Welcome back to the children in Primary 4/3. Everyone is working very hard and have settled in well during the first term. We have had lots of fun getting to know each other and working with our classmates again!

Religious Education 

This is an important year for both Primary 3 and Primary 4 this year as they will both be preparing for their Sacraments. Primary 3 have recently started preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To prepare the children, we will be completing lessons alongside the other Primary 3 classes and would ask for your support with this by completing any follow up homework issued. Our first Theme was Creation and how we all have a duty of care for the environment; thank you for your support with the homework tasks and attendance at mass.

This is an equally important year for Primary 4 as they have begun preparing for their First Holy Communion. In order to prepare for this Sacrament, the children will be taking part in lessons in class and would ask for your continued support with this by completing any follow up homework issued. During the first term the children have been learning about The Rosary and will continue this in term 2.

Literacy

In Phonics Primary 3 have been completing a revision block of sounds previously learned. The children will learn new sounds weekly and we would appreciate if you could reinforce these sounds at home. Primary 4 have been learning new sounds weekly and again we would appreciate if you could reinforce these sounds at home.

Primary 4/3 have been working on creating different styles of text and recently wrote their own recipe for ‘How to make an empire biscuit’. The children thoroughly enjoyed the practical lesson for this piece of writing when they were given the opportunity to make their own empire biscuit.

We will all continue to work on reciprocal reading strategies; predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising. We use these strategies daily in class and your child should try to use them at home to support their reading. I would ask to encourage all children to read for enjoyment at home as it has many benefits including their self-confidence as a reader.

Numeracy

In Primary 3 children will continue to work on developing their understanding of numbers to 30. You can support your child with this at home by modelling and encouraging mathematical language such as before, after, higher, lower, more than and less than. In term 2 Primary 3 will continue to work on addition with an introduction to place value.

Primary 4 will continue to work on addition in term 2 using mental strategies and written methods. Primary 4 will also start working on place value during this term learning about thousands, hundreds, tens and units and the value of these. Practise of multiplication tables will also be ongoing throughout the new term.

All children will continue to work hard on their quick recall of mental maths questions.

Interdisciplinary Learning 

In term 1 Primary 4/3 were learning all about The BFG as part of our Novel Study. They completed fabulous art work as well as using their technology skills to research Roald Dahl and find out interesting facts about his life.

Next term the Primary 4 children will be leading the Mary’s Meals campaign alongside the other Primary 4 class. Primary 3 will also be learning about children living in Poverty and the different effects it has on their lives.

Reminders

Just a little reminder that we have PE on a Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child comes to school wearing a polo shirt and brings shorts ) if your child is in primary 3), or a full P.E kit if your child is in Primary 4, to allow them to participate in our lessons, jewellery should also be removed.

Please remember to provide your child with a water bottle to ensure that they have access to a drink throughout the day.

Please note homework will be issued on a Monday and should be returned on a Thursday each week.