Welcome to Year 4.
Homework will be sent home on a Wednesday and is due in by Monday.
Spellings will be sent home on a Wednesday and tested on a Wednesday.
Outdoor Learning is on Friday.
Please remember to send your children with a change of footwear suitable for muddy conditions and suitable clothing. (coats, waterproof trousers if you have them, hats and gloves when it gets colder)
PE will be on a Monday and Thursday.
Literacy
We are starting our year with our oracy and will record our own explanations. We will be reading ‘Boy of the Deeps’ by Ian Wallace. This links with our Geography and History topics around coal mining and is about a boy who goes coal mining with his dad for the first time. Based on this book we will be writing our own diary entry. Then we will read ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind’ by Bryan Mealer which is based on a true story. We will develop our journalism skills and write our own newspaper reports.
After half term we look at the picture book ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker and develop our own adventure story about a boy who finds a magic crayon! After that, we will be reading the classic ‘The Water Horse’ by Dick King Smith and creating our own animal fact files. In reading skills, we will develop our retrieval, inference and summarising skills. You can help your child by listening to your child read regularly through the week and recording this in their reading record.
Maths
We begin our year looking at place value. We will learn how to partition, compare and order 4 digit numbers and build on our learning of roman numerals. We will also learn how to round numbers and estimate on a number line. Next, we will build on our column addition and subtraction skills using 4 digit numbers. The children will learn how to choose the correct and most efficient method as well as skills in estimating answers.
In the second half of the term, we will learn how to calculate the area of a shape in our measurement unit. Then, we will build on our multiplication and division skills learning our 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 multiplication and division facts. In our mental maths sessions we will be consolidating our number bonds up to 20, comparing and ordering numbers, learning our times table facts up to 12×12. Remember these should be instant recall (not counting on fingers). Please help your child learn their number facts that are sent home as homework and test them regularly. All children have a Times Tables Rock Star log in that they can access outside school and should use regularly.
Science
We start off our year learning about States of Matter – solids, liquids and gases. We will investigate changes of state when materials are heated or cooled. We will deepen our understanding of the Water Cycle by exploring the processes of evaporation and condensation. A scientific experiment to look forward to will be when we design an experiment to change the rate of evaporation! Our scientist that we will learn about will be Lord Kelvin.
After half term, we will be exploring the digestive system as part of our Animals including Humans topic! Through our experiments we will learn about taste, identify parts of the digestive system, learn how we digest food, identify our different types of teeth and create our own food chains with a producer, predator and prey! We will develop our scientific skills and use a range of scientific enquiry types.
History
We start our History this year with our Local History topic and this year it focuses on the coal mining heritage of the North East of England. We develop our historical enquiry skills and use primary and secondary sources to help us answer some of our questions. We create our own timeline of the Industrial Revolution and important events linked to coal mining. We will research the lives of local miners and their families and the changing impact of the coal mining industry on local communities.
Geography
In Geography this term, we learn about the what local natural resources are in our area. This will include how the landscape is changed by activity such as coal mining and quarrying. We will explore what energy resources there are and learn about renewable and non-renewable sources. The children will conduct some fieldwork and learn how to use 4 figure grid references. They will create their own maps using symbols and a key.
Art
In Art we will be developing our drawing and sketching skills as part of our ‘Big School Draw’ taking inspiration from the illustrator E H Shephard. We will experiment with different grades of pencil, develop our skills in drawing three-dimensional and use perspective. After that, we will create art using wet felting techniques taking inspiration from local artist Claire Priestley. The children will design and develop their own ideas as part of this process through their Art Journals.
Design Technology
This term we will be researching, designing , making and evaluating our own wallets/purses. This is part of our ‘Textiles’ topic and we will use our skills to measure and join pieces of our pattern together to create our final design.
RE
In the beginning of the Autumn term we will learn about Judaism and specifically the festival of Hanukkah. The children will explore what Hanukkah is, how it is celebrated and why. They will also compare it to other festivals of light that they have already studied.
In the second half of the Autumn the children will look closer at the symbolism and role of light for Christians at Christmas. We look at how and why Jesus is represented as the light of the world and the role of light in the nativity story. This will be another opportunity to compare it to Hanukkah and other religious festivals.
PE
We begin with Football and Gymnastics in PE this half term. In football, we will learn ‘trap’ and ‘cushion’ stops, develop our dribbling and shielding skills, practice passing and receiving the ball, finding space and when to overlap or underlap. In Gymnastics, we will learn how to link movements at different levels smoothly using spins, balance on points and patches, explore different types of rolls, create sequences and perform them!
After half term, we will move on to Handball where we will learn how to catch a handball on the run, throw accurately, pass and receive throws, intercept and block, and use these skills under pressure. It is our famous inter class ‘Dance Off’ so we will be learning our dance to perform in school and develop our skills in timing, partner and group work as well as individual performance, creativity and flair!
French
In French, Year 4 will recap and extend our learning on colours, numbers up to 20, days of the week and months of the year. We will practice reading, saying and writing as well as learning some of these through songs. We also learn how to use a bilingual dictionary. Towards Christmas we will learn about francophone countries and French traditions.
Music
We are very lucky to have every child in Year 4 learning how to play a Brass Instrument up to Christmas with a talented Brass Tutor! If any children would like to take up individual lessons following on from this, please let us know.
Outdoor Learning
We begin our year with some activities designed to promote good mental health and wellbeing including reading for pleasure outside, outdoors music creation, an autumn scavenger hunt, bubble blowing and micro-journeys! We follow on from this with a topic on ‘Team Building’. This will include outdoor problem solving, team games, learning how to be a successful guide and assault courses!
Computing
In the first half of the term we will be looking at ‘Computer Systems and Networks’. The children will apply their knowledge and understanding of networks, to appreciate the internet as a network of networks which need to be kept secure. They will learn that the World Wide Web is part of the internet, and will be given opportunities to explore the World Wide Web for themselves in order to learn about who owns content and what they can access, add, and create. Finally, they will evaluate online content to decide how honest, accurate, or reliable it is, and understand the consequences of false information.
After half term we will be ‘Creating Media – Audio Production’. We will identify the input device (microphone) and output devices (speaker or headphones) required to work with sound digitally. The children will discuss the ownership of digital audio and the copyright implications of duplicating the work of others. In order to record audio themselves, learners will use Audacity to produce a podcast, which will include editing their work, adding multiple tracks, and opening and saving the audio files. Finally, they will evaluate their work and give feedback to their peers.
We will also be looking at various ways to keep ourselves safe online!
PSHE
We have started an exciting new programme called ‘My Happy Mind’ which has a huge focus on how our brains work and how to promote our own mental health. We start in the Autumn with ‘Meet our Brain’ where we learn about parts of the brain and how they work.
