Friday 10th January 2025

 Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to 2025 and the start of the Spring term at Down Hall. We hope that you all had a wonderful festive break.

This term, we are all looking forward to getting stuck into our new project, Around the World in Eighty Days. We have already started looking at Jules Verne's story in English.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The children in Sunflower class have brought a letter home today about Times Table Club that will be taking place on a Thursday after school, to help them prepare for this.

Spelling Frame Rule 13 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 13
Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Times Tables

The children have these stuck in their little blue books already and we are now beginning to revisit . the 2x, 5x and 10x tables. The children will be tested and taking part in times table activities throughout the week. Using TTRS is an excellent way to practise these.

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks

Year 3 English - Pages 60 & 61 - Punctuating Speech

Maths - Page 26 - 3, 4 and 8Times Tables

Year 4

English - Pages 60 & 61 - Punctuating Speech Maths - Page 28- Factor Pairs

Must Do

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin