At St Joseph’s, we are so grateful for the invaluable support that our parents and carers provide for our pupils. We know how well our families have been able to adapt to home learning so now that we can welcome all of our pupils back to school, we wanted to provide opportunities for our pupils to continue their learning at home, if they choose to. The homework given will prepare and support your child’s learning across the curriculum each half term. The homework tasks below are optional. If you would also like to read our homework policy, please follow the link below.

Please follow the links below to access our online learning platforms that are used for homework.

Resources to support optional homework tasks

Writing for Pleasure

To suggest some ideas for our aspiring authors for their next best chapter books, I included some links to fun picture prompts, story starter ideas and sentence challenges. Take on the challenge and see where a piece of paper, a pencil and your imagination takes you!

Maths

We know the importance of learning our times tables in Year 4.  We all know that we are expected to know all of our times tables by the end of the year.  Please use these links to help you learn your times tables online. Come up with some active ways to practise your times tables. Design a Burn2Learn activity to practise or learn some moves from the Super Movers. Super Movers Top Marks games Times tables online games Online and downloadable Oxford Owl activities

Here are some games you could download, print and play as a family too.

Try the Multiplication Tables Check activity that generates the 25 times tables questions randomly and the children have 6 seconds to type their answers in.

Multiplication Tables Check

Autumn 1

To help you with your learning this half term, here are some optional homework tasks and resources/activities for you to complete. I can’t wait to see your work that you complete at home!

Art

Sir John Tenniel was a Victorian artist who became well-known for his illustrations in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He had great attention to detail and used the techniques of hatching and cross-hatching to create the darker areas in his illustrations.

Choose some of your favourite book characters and sketch them. Can you create lighter and darker tones in your drawings by using cross-hatching in the style of Sir John Tenniel?

Watch these videos to learn more about hatching and cross hatching. Hatching and cross hatching What is cross hatching?

Take inspiration from Sir John Tenniel’s artwork. Sir John Tenniel Illustrations

Geography

It is important to know which is your left hand and your right hand. In map reading, it is just as crucial to know where north, east, south and west are. Have a go at discovering features of the UK by using the 8 points of a compass. Can you tell which direction is Wetherby from London and other cities of the UK? Can you create your own map of an imaginary place like Wonderland?

Learn more about how to use a compass. Compasses and directions

Use these templates to create your imaginary map. Imaginary map

Work with this UK map to show directions. UK map

History

The period between 1837 and 1901 was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign. Can you look into Wetherby’s history and find some interesting facts about the town? What was it like to live in Wetherby in the Victorian era? How was it different to what Wetherby is like today?

Find out more about the history of Wetherby. History of Wetherby

Read more about the first train station in Wetherby. First train station in Wetherby

Read the brochure with lots of fun facts in. Wetherby brochure

MFL

This half term in French we will be learning about colours and our school and what we can find around the classroom. Can you draw a picture of the school or the classroom and label what you can see in French?

Use the images from the classroom to practise the names of various objects. Classroom objects

Draw a picture of your classroom and label your drawing in French. Classroom frame

Music

Hans Zimmer has helped shape the sound of today’s film, television and games. He has composed unique and powerful soundtracks for films including The Lion King, Kung Fu Panda and Blue Planet II. Evaluate the music from your favourite film! Can you use descriptive music vocabulary to describe why the music works well with the pictures? Try choosing one image from the movie, print or draw it and annotate with your thoughts and likes.

Watch an interview with Hans Zimmer about the composition of Planet Earth II. Hans Zimmer talkes about the music of Planet Earth II

Use the following musical vocabulary to describe your chosen musical composition. Musical vocabulary

Look at an example about an amazing cuttlefish. Cuttlefish example

Science

Water is one of the most important substances on Earth. Being essential to all living cells, 75% of our bodies is made up of water! Water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface and is the most common liquid we come across. Water is continually recycled on our planet. Can you create your own information poster to explain the processes of the water cycle?

Read the following diagram to learn more about the water cycle. Water cycle diagram

Read more about the water cycle. The water cycle

Have a go at labeling the following diagram with the correct scientific words. Label the water cycle