Year 4 - Chestnut 2026 - 2027

Welcome to Chestnut Class home page

My name is Mr Brereton and I am the class teacher for Chestnut and the English and PSHE lead. 

I enjoy seeing the children working together as a team and learning to develop their skills and grow in confidence.

I have a passion for sport and enjoy supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers and playing cricket for Great Alne CC. 

Miss Tyler is our amazing Teaching Assistant.

This term's topic is Rivers and the Water Cyle

This term, Year 4 will be learning all about rivers and the water cycle. The children will have the opportunity to research and locate rivers from around the world, discovering interesting facts about where they are found and why they are important. We will also investigate the key features of a river, such as its source, tributaries, meanders, waterfalls, floodplains and mouth. These features will be brought to life during our exciting school trip to Hams Hall Environmental Centre on Thursday 1st October, where the children will explore a river environment first-hand. Alongside our work on rivers, the children will learn about the water cycle, exploring how water continually moves between the land, oceans and atmosphere through processes such as evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We look forward to an exciting and hands-on topic that will help the children understand the importance of rivers and water in our world.

Our class reader will be:

Year 4 Trip to Hams Hall Environmental Centre

Year 4 had a fantastic and very memorable trip to Hams Hall Environmental Centre this week, where the children had the opportunity to explore the River Tame and its surrounding environment, linking the learning to the current topic of Rivers and the Water Cycle.

During the day, the children learnt about the history of the River Tame and developed their geographical knowledge by identifying and discussing the different features of a river. They were able to use their understanding of rivers to make observations about the environment around them and were fascinated to discover how the river and its surroundings have changed over time.

The children then put their geographical and mathematical skills into practice during a river study. Working together, they carried out investigations to find the average speed of the water. They showed excellent throwing skills to throw and apple into the river and then carefully collected measurements, used their mathematical knowledge to calculate averages and discussed what their results told them about the river.

One of the highlights of the day was the pond dipping activity. The children were excited to discover a wide variety of amazing wildlife living in the pond including Dragon Fly nymphs, newts and small fish. They carefully examined their findings, identified different creatures and showed great enthusiasm and curiosity throughout the investigation.

Throughout the trip, the children demonstrated their excellent scientific curiosity. They asked thoughtful and insightful questions, shared their existing knowledge and were eager to find out more about the natural world. They also showed that they understood the importance of looking after nature and protecting our environment, discussing ways in which we can all help to care for wildlife and habitats.

We were particularly proud to hear such positive feedback from Anna from the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, who was extremely complimentary about the children's knowledge and the quality of the questions they asked. She was impressed by their curiosity, enthusiasm and understanding of the environment.

It was a wonderful day of learning, exploration and discovery. The children returned with lots of new knowledge, exciting memories and an even greater appreciation for the amazing wildlife and natural environment around us.

Thank you to all the parent volunteers for helping on the trip and for finding lots of exciting creatures during the pond dipping activity.

Start to the year

Chestnut Year 4 have had an exciting start to the year, focusing on developing their teamwork and collaboration skills through a range of fun and challenging activities. Working together, they showed creativity and determination as they built impressive towers using just spaghetti and marshmallows! The children also took part in a variety of team games, including working together while holding hands to guide their team through hoops without letting go, and playing ‘keepy uppy’ with a balloon in different orders. They also faced the challenge of catching a balloon using two skipping ropes, which required excellent communication, resilience and support for one another. It has been fantastic to see the children encouraging each other, persevering when things became tricky and discovering just how much they can achieve when they work together as a team. What a brilliant start to the year!

https://play.ttrockstars.com/?_gl=1*1koujn3*_ga*Mjk3MzU0NjE1LjE3MjkwMTUyNjg.*_ga_FYSNH92ZJH*MTcyOTAxNTI2Ny4xLjAuMTcyOTAxNTI2Ny4wLjAuMA.. 

Click the link and sign in to practise your times tables . Keep practising regularly so you can create a heat map to show which times tables you are confident and fluent with. Can you work yourself up to become a rock legend? Do you think you have what it takes to challege Mr Brereton?

Enjoy learning your times tables in a fun and enjoyble head banging way!

Times Table Rockstars update- At this stage of the year, children are recommended to practise for 21 minutes a week. Stats show that the children who practise at least for this time are more likely to make progress and become even more confident with their times tables. We practise at school and this together with practise time at home will lead to many confident times tablers :) 

Spellings:

To be handed out on : 30.10.26

To be tested on : 06.10.26

words with the prefix ‘sub-’ meaning ‘below’ or ‘further divided’

subdivide
subject
substandard
subway
subheading
submerge
subtitle
subtropical
submit

To be handed out on : 08.10.26

To be tested on : 13.10.26

Words with the prefix inter-

interact,

intercept,

interchange,

intercity,

intercom,

interface,

interfere,

international,

internet,

interview

Chestnut Class Reminders :

Chestnut class PE days are Wednesday & Thursday. PE kit should be worn to school on this day. 

Children should have a water bottle and a coat in school. 

Ways to support your child:

-Practise your child's spellings with them.

-Read (preferably daily) with your child. Try and encourage them to read a range of genre of books and authors. Here are a couple of useful lists of recommended books for year 4 children:

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-4-pupils-ks2-age-8-9/

https://www.thereaderteacher.com/year4

-Practise times tables with your child. Little and often is often the best way with times tables. Purple Mash is an excellent resource which has lots of times table activities on. Here are a few good websites with games that your child can play whilst also practising their times tables:

Each child has login details for www.ttrockstars.com where they can explore and practise the timestables ready for the Multiplication Check towards the end of the school year. 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/arithmetic

-Support your child in completing their weekly maths and English/topic homework which (starting from wk beg 9th September) will be handed out on a Thursday to be completed and handed in by Tuesday. . 

Reading:

Any bit of reading you can do with your child will be hugely benficial. The following link will take you to a list of great books that are recommended for year 4 children: https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/Pie-Corbetts-Reading-Spine-Year-4-Pack-x-7-9789951118682

This link will take you to a website that will suggest alternative options if your child enjoys one particular author or genre of book: https://www.booksfortopics.com/booklists/branching-out/

Whilst it is great when a child finds an author or genre that they love, it is also important that they branch out and try alternative authors or genres. The guide above will help you make suggestions for your child to try, based on what they know they already love.