Year 4 English articles

Comedy is often an underrated learning tool. It can encourage your child to be creative, express their individuality and help them engage in reading, writing and performance. Encourage your child’s inner comedian with these tips from stand-up comedian, children’s author and comedy writer Steven Vinacour.

Whether you're taking your child out of school for a period, setting out on your home education journey or simply looking for extra activities to boost your child's learning, here's why the daily learning programme could be the right fit for you...

Our children's generation have the opportunity to change the world for the better, becoming guardians of our planet and promoting equity and social justice. Help them understand the role they will play in protecting people and environment and show them that every one of us can make a difference with this selection of inspiring, positive kids' books about activism and activists.

Biographies and autobiographies bring the lives of influential people to life for young children, highlighting the role exceptional individuals have played in our shared history. Introduce your child to the world's greatest artists, activists, scientists, inventors and humanitarians with books aimed at every age group. Each biography and autobiography is bursting with anecdotes, imagery and information, sure to inspire young people to follow their own dreams and aspirations.

Classic literature is reimagined, updated, revisited and reinterpreted in each of these brilliant retellings, which expand on traditional tales or use comic-strip illustrations or modern settings to make brilliant stories accessible to a new generation of readers.

Can you scare your friends silly with a spooky story? Are you a master of suspense and a lover of all things supernatural? Learn how to keep readers on the edge of their seat with a terrifying tale with writing tips from Phil Hickes, author of the spine-tingling Aveline Jones series for readers aged 9+.

Actor, children’s author and former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell shares what it was like growing up with a disability, and why children’s books need more disabled characters.

Whether your child is just learning to read and print letters or looking for ways to put their creative writing skills to the test, we've rounded up some fantastic resources to help them practise phonics, grammar, story-writing and comic-creating at home. Plus there are loads of different ways to connect with authors and listen to stories.

Great ideas for keeping your child engaged with reading and broadening their taste in books.

Learning to read is a complex task and it's common for children to come up against "reading barriers". Parent and teacher Alex Quigley, author of Closing the Reading Gap, suggests ways you can help your child overcome difficulties at home.

In this day and age, we may be spending more time indoors but thanks to our laptops and devices we can let the world come to us instead – take a trip round Frida Kahlo’s kitchen, share some chocolate cake with Michael Rosen and journey to the International Space Station with our pick of 50 of the best virtual trips and educational experiences. By Hetty Walton

Teacher, education writer and mum Phoebe Duffy shares her tips about what to focus on with Year 4 children to support their learning at home.

Speaking and listening may not be formally assessed in primary schools, but they’re vital skills for every child. Here’s why – and how to encourage oracy.

Children start learning about punctuation in Reception and Year 1 when they are introduced to full stops and their use. Understand how and when your child learns to use full stops correctly with our parents' punctuation guide.

Whether you're on the move or at home, a great activity book offers hours of screen-free learning and fun. Crosswords, maths challenges, mystery solving and code writing are all covered in our best activity books for kids picks. We can't guarantee you won't want to help out with the puzzling, though!

Ancient secret societies, a Stone Age boy and an Edwardian girl, a planet terrorised by jelly-like creatures and a 'practically perfect' nanny make these books the ideal twentieth-century classic reading choices for children in Key Stage 2.

We could tell you that reading and – even better – learning poetry by heart, will do wonders for your child’s memory, vocabulary and writing. We could tell you that reading and reciting poetry is now a key part of the National Curriculum. Or we could simply say that reading a brilliant poem might give your child a great deal of pleasure. Here are some of the best children’s collections out there, chosen by poet Emma Harding.

Singular and plural nouns and how they're taught in primary school, plus how KS1 and KS2 children learn about the formation of irregular plurals and how to use possessive apostrophes.

Ninja cats, lazy dragons, stolen jewels, talking china rabbits and a magical land hidden beneath King’s Cross Station make these books for nine year olds essential and exciting reading!