Maths - week starting 14th December

Welcome to the last week of maths before our jolly holidays!


This week we will be concluding our work on multiplication using the grid method and will begin to make connections with more formal written methods. This is a crucial step for the children so that they can eventually use the standard multiplication method and fully understand all of the steps this involves.

Homework - due date Thursday 17th December
This week's homework is to answer 6 different calculations using the gird method. Ask your child to explain what they are doing - do you understand this method?!

Maths - week starting 7th December 2009

This week we shall be completing our focus on doubling and halving in relation to multiplication. We shall then introduce the grid method for multiplication. This is a really great written strategy to help you prepare for the more formal written methods used. Ask your child to show you the grid method. You may also like to follow this link for a more detailed explanation of this method: http://www.mad4maths.com/math_help_multiplication/

Homework - due date Friday 11th December
This homework will be given on Wednesday. The task is to cut out and decorate their own personal tables cards (these will be provided for the class). These cards then need to be plastified, for Friday if possible.

Gardening Club Christmas Sale

Junior School Gardening Club Christmas Sale:
Help save our planet and buy a young tree to replant. This sale will take place on Tuesday 15th December, 2009 during lunch break. The children will be selling herbs and young trees that they have planted themselves in ceramic pots that they have painted and decorated. This sale is to raise funds for the Gardening Club which plays an important part in protecting the local environment. Please bring 1 Euro and buy a plant.

Maths for this week - starting 30th November

This week the focus in our maths lessons will be how halving and doubling can help us to multiply and divide. We will use doubling to help us x4 and x8. We will also use halving to help us divide by 4 and 8.

We will also look at division and investigate what happens to the quotient (answer) when you halve the dividend and divisor.
e.g. 24 divided by 6 = 4. If I halve 24 (the dividend) and 12 (the divisor) will the quotient (the answer) still be the same?

As you can see, there is also a lot of vocabulary we are learning for multiplication and division too - so ask your child to explain these words for you.

We will also be looking at function machines to help us improve our pattern and function skills and there are some great websites for practising this. These will be added very soon.

Homework - due date Friday 4th December
Create, using a word processing programme, 25 question cards for your maths bingo card. Make sure that each question card is the same size and shape. Please remember that all 25 answers on your bingo card must have a question card.

This Week's Language Arts Nov 23

This week we are going to be working intensively on the summative assessment (board game) in class and some groups may choose to do certain parts of it at home. Therefore, we have decided to not give out language arts homework in order to allow for more time to work on the board games.

Maths for this week - starting 23rd November

This week the big focus in maths is doubling. We will be looking at how we can use partitioning to help us double mentally.
e.g. double 34
= double 30 + double 4
= 60 + 8
= 68

We will start by using smaller numbers and then progress to working with larger, more complex numbers so that the children are confident with this strategy.
We shall then begin making the connection with halving, again using partitioning to help us halve mentally.

Homework - due Friday 27th November
This week the children will design their own doubles bingo card. They need to draw a 5 x 5 grid and then choose the numbers for their grid. They will then need to decorate their grid and we will then laminate these and use them in class for games of doubles bingo. It will be great!

School Photographs

Please remember that there will be school photographs on Tuesday 24th November. All children must wear full school uniform...and bring along a big smile too!

This Week's Math Nov 16th

This week in Maths we will be investigating a whole range of things!

We will be continuing our work on measurement and reading a variety of different scales. This can be very tricky and needs a lot of practise!

We will also be continuing to look at multiplication and will investigate how products can be modelled using arrays (ask your local Year 4 experts to explain an array!). We will also continue revising the vocabulary of factor, multiple and product.

This week's homework focuses on arrays and is due in on Friday.

This week's Language Arts Homework Nov 16th

This week in Language Arts we are continuing to look at instructional text but will also begin to look at the language used in surveys. As a class we will construct a survey about how we can make a difference regarding water responsibility. The class will then carry out this survey at home as their language homework for this week. We will look at the results of this on Friday and next week.

Great Writing Website!

This week the Language homework is to write a procedure text (instructions) for a game played in maths.
This is a link to a really great website that will help remind you what you need to write an excellent procedure text. It shows you examples of the text and gives you lots of little tips.

Make sure you have a look at this website this week!

http://www.writingfun.com/

This Week's Language Arts Nov 9

This week in Language Arts we are continuing our focus on procedural and instructional texts and will be exploring the structure of examples that are used in everyday life.

HOMEWORK:
(To be sent home Tuesday night)
In class students will play games based on factors and products (maths) and must write an effective set of instructions for these by Friday.

This Week's Math Nov 9th

This week's focus is a revision of the multiplication vocabulary of factors, multiples and products. We will also continue to look at the relationship between multiplication and division.

We will start inquiring about volume and capacity. We will begin by looking at what the students already know and how capacity is used in everyday life. Then we will start looking at how to measure capacity accurately.

HOMEWORK:
The homework for this week is all about factors and needs to be completed by Friday.

Maths fun for this term and the week of 2nd - 6th November

Welcome back everybody. We hope you all had a truly wonderful week and are ready and eager for the work ahead!

There is going to be LOTS of maths this term and the children will be learning all about volume and capacity as part of their unit and will also touch briefly on data handling when carrying out surveys, collecting data and recording their findings. Most of the stand alone maths will be focussing on multiplication and division and will look at how these are connected. We will also be continuing our work on number facts (number bonds, times tables, doubles and near doubles) and will practise counting forwards and backwards in different steps - counting backwards is really hard!

This week we start by looking at the vocabulary of multiplication and how the children feel about multiplication and division. We will then set some class goals and begin to look at fact families - hopefully you will hear the phrase 'three for free' lots over the coming weeks! We will also be modelling arrays and exploring if multiplication is commutative (3x4 and 4x3).

As you can see there is lots to do! Please feel free to contact us if you have any queries about the maths and how you can help at home.

Many thanks.

Brains on, please!!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As it is the midterm break, I certainly hope that people are enjoying their time relaxing and not working too hard. But let's not forget to turn on our brains while we are out having fun too!! Remember, our unit is "Water for Life" so keep your eyes peeled for interesting water facts and uses, or abuses.

We hope everyone is having fun and is excited about coming back next week!

Miss D, Miss Bodfish, Miss Lamb

Half term maths fun :)

Well, we're now at the end of our first half term and we have learned so much! Everybody is making progress with their tables and number bonds and we're looking forward to our next maths work on multiplication and division.

We know that everybody is now ready for a holiday and whilst we encourage everybody to spend time with their family and have fun, it is important that we continue to make progress in our times tables and number bonds.

We would be very happy if year 4 could spend a few minutes practising their times tables and number bonds. They could do this by playing games on the woodlands site or using their digit cards or drawing multiplication squares for themselves. Lots of fun ways to get quicker and quicker!

See you all in one week and have a very happy holidays and learn those tables!

Just a reminder about International Day on the 22nd of October from 3:30pm to 6:30pm.

There will be nearly 20 stalls from around the world as well as cultural dancing and foods from across our wondrous planet!

All children can wear their national costume to school (or the colours of their flag).

Players from Benfica will also be attending and children may collect their autographs if they wish (they can also sign tshirts, so please bring an extra tshirt to school).

Please come along and enjoy the fun!

Maths Review

We are now coming to the end of our current work in maths and are busy reviewing what we have learnt so far in maths this year. We made a very long list but decided that the main focus has been on problem solving, addition and subtraction (using partitioning and adjusting) and number facts (such as number bonds upto 20, 50, 100 and 1000). We know that we have made lots of progress but still need to practise all of these new things for homework.

We will be starting more exciting work in maths after the half term break - we'll keep you informed about the areas we will cover through weekly posts on here.

Number Bonds!

We have had soooo much fun practising our number bonds! We need to be able to recall all our number bonds up to 20 (that means number bonds to 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 etc) but we also need to know our number bonds to 50, 100 and 1000 - PHEW!

We have talked about how this takes a LOT of practise. We know we are doing this for homework every Monday night but we also need to practise in class.

Miguel Nunes from 4LB came up with a great idea for helping us work even quicker. He suggested we all use a stopwatch with our maths partners and time how quickly we could recall our number bonds. Everybody had great fun and worked quicker and quicker and quicker! What a great idea Miguel!

Keep on working with this fantastic enthusiasm Year 4 and let's see if we can keep practising those number bonds to beat our times next week!

Make sure you check our blog for links to some fun number bonds games.

International Day!!

Just a reminder that St. Dominic's is going to be hosting International Day on the 22nd of October from 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Everyone is welcome! There will be nearly 20 stalls representing countries and cultures from around the world, so please come out and see cultural dancing, and try foods from across our wondrous planet!

Last Week's Quotes from 4D

"I was proud of the assembly because everyone laughed and had a good time!"

"I was proud of this week because everyone saw the assembly and now knows why we are "Fantastic 4D!""

"I was proud because we worked really well as a team."

Permanent Library Day for 4D

Please remember, 4D, that every Wednesday we have our library day! Be sure to bring back any library books you have signed out with your library bag so that you may get out new ones!

Monday 5th October 2009

Please remember that school is closed on Monday. Normal classes will resume on Tuesday.

Have a great long weekend everybody!

4LB Assembly!

We are going to do an assembly all about family! The sharing will start at 8.30am and is on 9th October 2009.
We hope you can come and enjoy it!

Sonia, Charlene, Miguel P and Sofia 4LB

Voting for Student Council

Yesterday year 6 did many things so we would vote for them and in assembly today they said what they wanted to change in school. They then went to our classrooms so we could vote for them.
We can't wait to find out who has won!

Rita, Afonso, Amrit and Ines 4LB

Bipods and Tripods!

The maths problem for this week needed a lot of thought. It was all about aliens called bipods and tripods. It used lots of addition. It was fun and exciting. We checked it on the carpet with Miss Bodfish.
Let's hope next week's problem is fun!
Aya, Carla, Khalid, Ze and Mads 4LB

Our unit

Our unit is called My Family, My Self. So far we have made posters about our family roles and we also watched movies about families in China, India and Australia. They were nice movies.

Chiara, Daniella and Miguel N. 4LB

Year 4 News

Every week we are going to write some articles about events that have happened for our year 4 blog. We hope that you read them and that you like it!

Laura and Luis 4LB

School Directory Cover Design Competition

Each year the PTA puts together a very useful Directory with phone numbers and addresses to help you and your parents get in touch with each other.

They would like you to get more involved in putting it together and so, for the first time this year, the PTA are running a Junior School competition to design the front cover of the Directory.

There will be a 30€ FNAC voucher for the best design.

Hand in your entry with your name and class to the Main Reception by lunch time Friday 9 October (next Friday).

Only 1 entry per person.

Please remember that Thursday is Library Day for Ms. Louw/Ms. Bodfish´s Year 4 Class. Each student needs to bring a library bag and the books they would like to change. Students need a library bag before they are allowed to take books out of the library. Posted by D.Louw

Maths Problem Solving

What a great start Year 4 has made to problem solving! We are so pleased with their efforts and we are looking forward to seeing even more enthusiasm when working on class problems!

Each Monday a new problem will be provided for homework which is then discussed in Friday's lesson. The problems we choose will usually support what is being taught in class but may also revise what has been previously taught. It is super important that everybody brings their homework books each Friday.

The problem for this week is all about aliens and requires lots of thought about the 2 and 3 times tables. It will be very interesting to see what strategies were used to help solve this problem (diagrams, drawings, tables, tallies etc). The different strategies used for problem solving are something we will gradually build up with the children so that soon they will have a whole bank of ideas to choose from!

Good luck and get solving!

Patterns, patterns and more patterns!

This week we will be looking at all the wonderful patterns you can find in times tables. We will be using 100 squares to compare the 2, 4 and 8 times tables and the 2, 3 and 6 times tables. I wonder how many patterns we will find?!

Over the next few weeks we will also be reviewing the times tables from Year 3 (1s, 2s, 4s, 5s and 10s) and will begin learning the Year 4 times tables (3s, 4s, 6s and 8s). These tables should form the basis for maths practice each Tuesday night, for 5-10 minutes.

Pillows in 4LB

Could students in 4LB please bring a pillow (small flat pillow) to sit on during our daily discussion times?

Thank you,

Miss Louw

Cancellation of PTA Welcome BBQ

Please note that the Welcome BBQ scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled until further notice.

Many thanks.

Parent Meetings

Thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to come and talk to us on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was lovely to see so many supportive parents!

We hope you feel that these meetings were helpful - we certainly gained a lot of important knowledge for the year ahead.

Please remember that if you do need to contact us, simply write a note in the school diary, phone Thea or email us.

Many thanks
Miss Louw, Miss D and Miss Bodfish

Woodlands Website

Here is a great site for you to explore.
You'll be able to play different educational games as well as get homework help. I think this is one of my very favourite websites!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

Keep checking for more links to great websites soon.

Miss Bodfish

4D Math Homework

Hello everyone!

Just to let parents know that the math homework will be sent home tomorrow (Tuesday) this week as I was out of the classroom for most of the day. Please ensure that you write in the 4 boxes provided what your child does every night for the 5 -1 0 minutes of mental math, and then sign or initial the box. This lets me know that they have all been working with an adult to improve their mental math.

Thanks!
Miss D

Maths Homework

Please remember that maths homework is set every Monday and needs to be completed by Friday. Children need to remember to bring their homework books to school as we will be using these in class.
We understand that this is a new system for Year 4 and will take a few weeks to perfect! Please support us in this area and we will do our very best to encourage great maths (and organisation) skills!
Thank you.

International Day - Information and Change of Date

This is just a reminder about our fantastic International Day celebrations that are coming up shortly! There will be a whole range of exciting activities occuring in classrooms in the afternoon and stalls will then be set up after school for different countries. More details about these events will follow shortly.
Please note that the date in your diary is 17th October but this has been changed to Thursday 22nd October.

Miss Bodfish

Hello!
It's so lovely to be back at St. Dominics after my time away on maternity leave. I am ready for a new adventure and am very happy to be working with the lovely 4LB! We are all working very hard planning an exciting year ahead and I know that we will make this a FANTASTIC year 4!Enjoy!
Clare Bodfish

About Me, Miss D.

My name is Miss D and I come all the way from Montreal, Canada, where we never have this many consecutive days of sun ever! I am quite enjoying my time here in Portugal and especially with 4D at St Dominic's. My background is largely in theatre and music and I am looking forward to a fantastic year with both of those in the classroom!

Miss Louw

Hello!

My name is Desiree Louw and I have just moved to lovely Portugal from Nanjing, China. I am looking forward to a fantastic year with 4LB. The children are settling in nicely and we have a fun filled year planned for everyone!

Best wishes

Miss Louw

A New Week!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have completed our first week in Fantastic 4D and are now in a brand new week! We are getting to know our classmates well and are learning how to work well in groups and in pairs. We have started our unit on "My Family, My Self" and have been discussing roles of different family members within a family, including ourselves. We will soon be investigating different types of families from all over the world and how they work in comparison to our families here at St. Dominic's. We will soon be adding different websites to the blog that will aid with math homework, so be sure to check back later on this week!

We are looking forward to having a fantastic week #2!

Miss D