At school we do lots of work, but it is important to keep practising this at home, especially if you feel you need to understand it better. Here are some things you can do at home.
English
Here are last year’s Class 4’s favourite books, if you need some inspiration for what to read next: Y4 book suggestions. This is the scholastic (book fair) reading list for children ages 8-9 for other ideas.
This website has some good advice for what to do with your child when reading. Some general questions you could ask are:
- What do you predict will happen/how will the story end? Why do you think this?
- How does that character feel? How do you know this?
- Can you summarise what you have just read in a few sentences?
- Why do you think the author chose to use that word? What effect are they trying to achieve?
- Pick a word / phrase – look it up in the dictionary. Can you use it in your writing this week at school?
Use the time you read with your child to practise their spellings. Look at the words in the story, are there any they didn’t know? Which words do they want to ‘steal’ and use in their writing? Practise using these words correctly in short pieces of writing at home. Children could write about what they have read so help with their writing.
Maths
Mathletics is a great website that we use for homework, but also has excellent activities to help with problem solving and times table practise.
This version of countdown can help your mental maths and problem solving, and can be set for different levels.
This game uses an empty times table square to help you practise any of your times tables, or all of them!
Use this game to listen to music and learn your tables at the same time.