Pine Marten Class

Class teacher’s welcome

Welcome to Pine Marten Class Page!

I am so excited to share with you all the wonderful work and exciting things we get up to in Pine Marten Class. It is going to be a fantastic year with lots of engaging and exciting opportunities for new learning. We are a loving and nurturing class and this year we will continue to support the children to flourish and develop both socially and academically throughout their school journey.

I look forward to showing you all the wonderful things we get up over the coming weeks.

Miss Wheelhouse x

Logo - pine marten

This Spring term, Pine Marten are travelling back in time to the land of pharaohs, gods, magic and mysticism. The first lesson saw the children explore a range of Ancient Egyptian artefacts, answering questions such as ”Why were cats so important to the Egyptians?” and ”Why do you think they mummified the dead?”. The children felt like real archaeologists for the afternoon – we had so much fun! As the term continues, we will be studying the achievements of the Ancient Egyptians; looking at how they accomplished many developments in science, medicine, construction, mathematics, and even agriculture.

Curriculum news

At a glance – Spring 1

Maths: Multiplication and Division (B), Length and Perimeter
English: Marcy and the Riddle of The Sphinx (Legends), How to mummify a body (Instructional Text)
Science: Electricity
History: What were the achievements of the Ancient Egyptians?
RE: How do the 5 pillars help Muslims to lead a good life?
Computing: Repetitions in shape
PSHE: Keeping myself safe
Music: Recorders (Music and Arts): taught throughout the year by the Music and Arts Service.
DT: Worry monsters (Textiles)

Home Learning

All children are encouraged to complete a home learning project to build on their class History and/or Science learning.

Ideas include…

Make an Egyptian death mask using cardboard or clay. These would look fabulous painted too!
Make a 3D model of an Ancient Egyptian pyramid.
Write a diary of a day in the life of an Ancient Egyptian slave or Pharaoh.

These projects are designed to run alongside the learning for a half-term and should be handed in on or before Friday 7th February 2025. We look forward to inviting you into school at the end of the term to share the children’s projects.

Spelling

At All Saints’ Primary School, we follow the Read, Write Inc. spelling scheme in Key Stage 2. This Spring, we will continue learning the Year 4 spelling rules, spending two weeks on each set in order to fully imbed the the children’s understanding of each spelling rule.

Week	Focus	Example Words
6^th January	Words with the s sound spelt sc	scissors, ascend, descend, scent, fascinate, muscle
13^th January	Words with the s sound spelt sc	scissors, ascend, descend, scent, fascinate, muscle
20^th January	Words ending in zhun spelt -sion	confusion, division, explosion, decision, revision
27^th January	Words ending in zhun spelt -sion	confusion, division, explosion, decision, revision
3^rd February	Adding il- and revising un-, in-, mis-, dis-	impatient, unkind, illogical, illegible
10^th February	Adding il- and revising un-, in-, mis-, dis-	impatient, unkind, illogical, illegible
Half-term	–	–
24^th February	The c sound spelt -que and the g sound spelt -gue	cheque, catalogue, tongue, unique, antique
3^rd March	The c sound spelt -que and the g sound spelt -gue	cheque, catalogue, tongue, unique, antique
10^th March	Adding ir- to words beginning with r	irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible, irresistible
17^th March	Adding ir- to words beginning with r	irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible, irresistible
24^th March	Adding the suffix -ion	Confession, possession, discussion, admission
31^st March	Adding the suffix -ion	Confession, possession, discussion, admission

Dates for the diary

PE days: Mondays (Miss Wheelhouse), Wednesdays (Mr Megson)

Spring 1: 30th January 2025 – Visit to Leeds Museum (Ancient Egyptians)

Spring 2: 27th February 2025 – Kings Hall (School’s Singing Together)

Links to support learning

Reading

Please encourage your child to read daily for a minimum of 10 minutes. At least 3 reading sessions per week should be recorded in the school Reading Record. Children should all have a school reading book (that can be changed regularly) but should be encouraged to read other material as well.

Read more about English in Y4 in the National Curriculum Programmes of Study

Maths

Your child in Year 4 will be taking the statutory multiplication tables check (MTC) for the first time, in June this year. It is an online test, completed in school, for all pupils in Year 4. Pupils are asked to answer 25 questions on times tables from two to 12. They are given six seconds per question, with three seconds rest between each question. To help prepare your child for this check, we recommend using Times Table Rock Stars (login on inside front cover of Reading Record) – Y4 introduces 6, 7, 9, 11 & 12, as well as building on 2, 3, 4 5, 8and 10 multiplication tables (from Y3 & Y2).

Moreover, written methods for addition, subtraction and multiplication are taught as in the pictures below.