Welcome to Year 4
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children explored the purpose and audience of a core text. They were able to identify the features of a core text and the audience and purpose. The children used conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause and planned by discussing and recording ideas. The children used their plans to start to draft and write by organising paragraphs around a theme.
In Maths, the children interpreted and drew pictograms and bar charts to represent discrete data. The children collected and represented data in a table and used charts to compare data. The children explored which scale would be the most appropriate when drawing their own bar charts and which key would be the most appropriate for a pictogram. They gathered their own data and then presented it as bar charts and pictograms.
In Art, the children understood the starting points in a design process. They described images and objects using art vocabulary, selected images that interested them to draw, gathered images, shapes and colours together and identified a mood/theme. Additionally, the children explored techniques to develop imagery. The children were able to discuss the inspiration for an artist’s work, choose interesting sections of one picture to draw and used materials and tools to show colour and texture.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 04.07.25
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children organised ideas to write an engaging paragraph. They were able to describe the setting at the start of their adventure, included a description of the main character and included action in opening. The children wrote a draft, describing the setting in more detail, included expanded noun phrases, the power of 3 and used ‘show not tell’. The children were able to evaluate the effectiveness of their writing, edited their draft and proofread in order for them to then complete a published piece of writing, presenting it in a neat manner. Furthermore, the children were able to conduct a reading session by performing their magical adventure stories to the class.
In Maths, the children were introduced to coordinate grids and began to describe the positions of points on a grid. The children learnt that the x-axis is horizontal and the y-axis is vertical. The children described the positions of points using coordinates, understanding the importance of reading from the x-axis first. The children used their understanding to plot points with given coordinates on a grid and considered which coordinate corresponds to which axis. Furthermore, the children gained more experience of reading and plotting points by drawing 2-D shapes on a coordinate grid. They used examples where three out of four vertices of a rectangle were already on a grid and considered where the fourth vertex would be. Furthermore, children described the translation that had taken place when they are given a pair of points or shapes.
In Geography, the children described the journey of a cocoa bean and mapped and calculated the distance food has travelled. The children learnt there are different opinions on importing products, recalled the locations a cocoa bean travels through to reach the UK and described the process from cocoa bean to chocolate. Furthermore, the children labelled countries on a world map using an atlas, used the scale bar on a map to calculate approximate food mileage and considered questions about where the food we eat comes from.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 27.06.25
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to write a narrative setting description and use the power of three to describe a character. The children added more detail by including dialogue to describe characters, used speech punctuation with accuracy and used the text and illustrations to understand the character. Furthermore, the children were able to infer who the characters were, using details from the text, used a varied and rich vocabulary bank to create a clear, well-planned setting and character.
In Maths, the children used their previous learning on estimating to estimate with money. The children made estimates for calculations by considering the number of pence represented in the amounts and how close they are to whole numbers of pounds. The children extended their learning by multiplying and dividing with money and used informal methods such as partitioning and number lines to support them when calculating with money. Furthermore, the children applied their calculating skills with money to solve problems using all four operations in real-life contexts, including multi-step problems.
In Science, the children were able to conclude and evaluate their investigation and applied careful observations to problem solve. The children described how sound travels in solids, liquids and gases, compared the properties of solids and liquids and wrote a conclusion that refers to data and evaluated the trustworthiness of a method. Moreover, the children were able to name the organs and describe the pathway through the digestive system, observed the speed of absorption of different viscosity liquids and selected the best viscosity medicine for different purposes.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 20.06.25
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to analyse a character, describe a character’s journey, use dialogue to add more detail and create a narrative setting. The children used the text ‘Alice’s adventures in wonderland’ to build a description of the key character, begin to understand the setting for the story and add more detail by including dialogue. The children included varied sentence openers, prepositions to add more detail and wrote engaging descriptive phrases.
In Maths, the children were introduced to decimal notation for the first time, for example £4.25. The children were able to write a given amount in decimal notation and represent amounts that are given in decimal notation. Furthermore, the children moved on from reading and writing money using decimal notation to converting between different types of notation and between different units of money.
In Science, the children planned a comparative test and gathered and were able to recorded data accurately. The children explained the term viscosity and identified and described the properties of a liquid and characteristics of insects. Furthermore, the children discussed the different variables in an investigation and were able to measure accurately in minutes.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 13.06.25
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children explored a variety of poems by the poet Joseph Coelho. From these poem, the children were inspired to write and perform their own poem. The children performed various tongue twister poems as a group and considered why the words in tongue twisters are to be pronounced powerfully and clearly. The children wrote a kenning poem to describe themselves and created a mind map of ideas to complete the success criteria for a kenning poem. Furthermore, the children wrote a draft, edited and published their own kenning poem and orally rehearsed each kenning to ensure their poem had a good rhythm for their audience.
In Maths, the children explored the relationships between a year, a month, a week and a day. The children discussed how a year can be represented on a calendar, which shows the number of days in each month and recapped the number of seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour. The children used multiplicative reasoning and related number facts to convert and compare times recorded in hours, minutes and seconds. Furthermore, the children converted between analogue and 12-hour digital times and were introduced to writing 24-hour clock times. The children discussed the importance of knowing whether a time is taking place in the morning or the afternoon, recapped the concept of am and pm to support them when converting to the 24-hour clock and recognised that to convert pm times between 1 pm and 11:59 pm into 24-hour clock times, they add 12 hours to the time.
In Geography, the children were able to explain the positive and negative impact of food choices on the environment, state why certain foods grow in different biomes and describe how to make small changes to a diet to help fight climate change. The children learnt about the importance of trading responsibly and discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of importing food. The children were able to explain what trading responsibly means, how responsible trading supports equality and how trading responsibly impacts farming communities. Furthermore, the children considered why we import food from other countries and listed the reasons why different foods are grown in different biomes.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 06.06.25
As we draw closer to the times table check, you can use this link to test your times tables knowledge:
https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In Maths, the children explored partitioning numbers with up to 2 decimal places into their place value parts. The children used place value counters and place value charts to support them in recognising the place value of each digit in a number. The children then extended their knowledge to include flexible partitioning through considering the values of the digits in place value order and comparing digits in the greatest place value column first.
In Design and Technology, the children demonstrated their ability to use cross-stitch as a decorative feature to join two pieces of fabric together. The children developed appliqué designs based on design criteria and design, cut and shape their template for an Egyptian collar. Furthermore, the children decorated their Egyptian collar using a variety of techniques, such as appliqué, cross-stitch and buttons. The children were able to measure and attach a ribbon with a running stitch, recognise different types and qualities of fabrics and explain the aesthetic and functional properties of some of their material choices.
In Computing, the children described the purpose of a trailer, created a storyboard for their book trailer and took photographs and recorded videos to tell a story. The children considered camera angles when taking photos or videos, imported videos and photos into a film editing software and used software to edit and enhance their video adding music and text on screen with transitions. Furthermore, the children added text to their video, incorporated transitions between images and evaluated their own and others’ trailers.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 23.05.25
As we draw closer to the times table check, you can use this link to test your times tables knowledge:
https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
Have a wonderful half term.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to plan a journey for a reader to follow the instructions to complete. The children considered the intended effect on the reader/ audience, made a list of useful vocabulary and spellings, included language choices such as how they would achieve the effect and wrote examples of what they would include in their journey. Furthermore, the children wrote the first draft of a set of instructions for a journey, including conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions, edited their instructions by suggesting additions and substitutions for verb and adverb choices and published their set of instructions.
In Maths, the children explored dividing 1-and 2-digit numbers by 100. The children explored different ways of making 1 whole by combining tenths and then hundredths. The children used their number bonds to 100, partitioned numbers with up to 2 decimal places into their place value parts and used place value counters and place value charts to support them in recognising the place value of each digit in a number.
In Science, the children were able to describe the relationship between vibration strength and volume. The children discussed what happens to the volume of a sound as the distance from the source increases and decreases and estimated the comparative loudness of a sound based on its volume and distance. Furthermore, the children described the term pitch and how to change the pitch of different musical instruments, explained how insulating materials can be used to muffle sound and described how insulating materials can be used to protect the ears.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 16.05.25
As we draw closer to the times table check, you can use this link to test your times tables knowledge:
https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to draft and write a short story by composing and rehearsing sentences orally. The children constructed command sentences using the present tense and accurately used prepositions when writing commands. The children used prepositions accurately and included adverbs and direct speech to their commands. Furthermore, the children were able to plan a journey for a reader to follow the instructions to complete through using a story map to retell a story and setting goals for the audience and purpose.
In Maths, the children extended their understanding of tenths by exploring them on a number line. The children were able to see the relationship between tenths and whole numbers and found missing decimal numbers in a sequence to deepening their understanding of the value of 1 tenth. The children explored the concept of dividing a 1-digit number by 10, resulting in a decimal number with 1 decimal place. Furthermore, the children built on their previous learning of tenths as they began to explore hundredths. They learnt that a hundredth is 1 whole split into 100 equal parts.
In Science, the children described how sounds are made, defined the term vibration and identified the part of an instrument making a sound. The children were able to identify how different instruments make a sound, described how sounds are heard through different mediums and described how a sound wave travels through the air to the ear. Furthermore, the children compared how sound travels through different mediums.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 09.05.25
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to write a recount in role, create a story map for oral retelling and plan and write a group story. The children retold the main events, included sound effects to engage the audience and in groups, the children were able to plan the next adventure for the characters in the text ‘Hermelin’.
In Maths, the children explored the idea of a tenth as a fraction and through different representations of 1 whole split into ten equal parts, including place value counters on a ten frame. Children looked at a variety of representations of tenths as decimals up to the value of one whole. This then led to adding the tenths column to a place value chart for children to see how tenths fit with the rest of the number system and to understand the need for the decimal point.
In History, the children were able to evaluate the challenges of building an Egyptian pyramid and made inferences about Egyptian beliefs, using primary sources. The children explained why and how the ancient Egyptians built pyramids, identified the problems of building a pyramid and suggest solutions. Furthermore, the children explained which sources are used to explore Egyptian beliefs, identified the meaning of symbols from Egyptian papyrus and explained some Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 02.05.25
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux
This week in Ithaca…
In English, the children were able to respond to ideas in the text they have been exploring called ‘Hermelin’. They used retrieval skills to gain an idea of the storyline, wrote a book review on the text and wrote a thank you letter as the character used in their hot seating. The children considered what they could find out from looking at covers for the book, what the book could be about and who would they recommend the book to. Furthermore, the children took on hot seating as one of the characters from ‘Hermelin’ and considered some questions about what happened in the story.
In Maths, the children explored angles as a measure of a turn by comparing and ordering angles. Also, the children explored different types of triangles, quadrilaterals and polygons. The children began by looking at examples and non-examples of triangles to help them summarise the characteristics of a triangle, identified different types of quadrilaterals from a selection of shapes and then extended their knowledge of the names of polygons. Furthermore, the children discussed the meanings of “regular” and “irregular” in the context of polygons, learning that in a regular polygon, the sides are all equal in length and the angles are all equal in size.
In History, the children learnt about when and where the ancient Egyptians lived and identified ancient civilisations. The children were able to describe the features of Egypt and sequence key periods on a timeline. The children explained the importance and identified the characteristics of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Furthermore, the children explained about the Egyptian creation story and the meanings of the symbols and characteristics of their chosen Egyptian god or goddess.
Please find the home learning attached:
Ithaca Home Learning – 25.04.25
Have a great weekend.
Miss Molyneux