Welcome to Year 4
I hope everyone enjoyed the summer break and are looking forward to the start of the Autumn term in Year 4.
The Year 4 class teachers are Mrs. England (Mon-Wed), Mr Tull (Wed-Fri) and our teaching assistant is Mrs. Dunsmuir.
- This term our topic is Ancient Greeks
- If you would be interested in offering assistance with other aspects of the curriculum, please contact the school office for further information.
How to help your child in Year 4:
- Encourage your child to complete daily reading at home, this should be for a minimum of 10 minutes. Reading records and books are to come into school every day, please. If you would like some book recommendations, we would advise exploring https://www.booksfortopics.com/yeargroups
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Encourage your child to practise their weekly spelling lists. This could be on paper or by logging on to Spelling Shed. Weekly spelling tests are on a Friday.
- Practice Times tables.
- Keep an eye out for posts on this website and also on Class Dojo.
English
In English, our writing will be based on Ancient Greeks. We will be exploring Greek myths, such as Medusa and Theseus and the Minotaur. We will be drawing on Greek myths and mythical creatures to create our own wanted posters and non-chronological reports. Additionally, we will be linking our writing to the book Who Let The Gods Out, where children will be writing their own newspaper reports.
Guided Reading
In guided reading this term, we will mainly be looking at the book Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans.
Here is the blurb;
Elliot’s mum is ill and his home is under threat, but a shooting star crashes to earth and changes his life forever. The star is Virgo – a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, and must then turn to the old Olympian gods for help. After centuries of cushy retirement on earth, are Zeus and his crew up to the task of saving the world – and solving Elliot’s problems too?
During guided reading we will be focusing on the skills of vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, summarising and retrieval of information.
We always strive to develop our pupils passion for reading and provide lots of opportunities throughout the school day to listen and read a variety of books.
Maths
We will be following our PowerMaths scheme, therefore our first unit will be place value of four digit numbers. Children will develop their confidence with counting, representing, ordering, rounding and comparing 4-digit numbers. Following this, we will be moving on to addition and subtraction of 4-digit numbers using the column method.
After half-term, we will be exploring perimeter, with the children measuring and calculating the perimeters of rectilinear shapes. We will also be starting our multiplication and division unit.
The overview of the units are shown above.
Times Tables
In the summer term, the Year 4 children will be doing their multiplication check, where they will be time tested with a series of 25 random multiplication questions. This test will check your child's fluency with recalling their times tables up to 12.
You can help your child by doing times table practice at home.
- Visit Daily 10 - Mental Maths Challenge – Topmarks
- Practise times table each week. Make it fun! – family challenge etc.
- Regular practise on TT rockstars. Times Tables Rock Stars – Times Tables Rock Stars (ttrockstars.com)
Children can use this website to familiarise themselves with the multiplication check format:
Science
This half-term, our first unit is Teeth and Digestion. Children will learn more about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores in the context of teeth, digestion and the food chain. In addition, they will extend their understanding of food chains to more complex chains and food webs.
Next half-term, our unit is Living Things and Their Habitats. In this unit children explore a variety of ways to identify, sort, group and classify living things. They learn how animals are split into ‘vertebrates’ and ‘invertebrates’ and begin to consider the differences between living things within these classifications. They use and create classification keys to group, identify and name living things from the local habitat and beyond. This unit also introduces children to the idea that environments are subject to man-made and natural changes, and that these changes can have a significant impact on living things.
Topic
For the first half of the term we will be doing History. We will be discovering what the Ancient Greeks believed and investigating who the Greek Gods were. We will also be looking at the daily lives of Ancient Greeks and we will make comparisons between the social structures of Ancient Greeks and Romans.
Next half-term, we will be doing Geography. Our focus will be on map work, where we will discover the location of Greece, explore where the major cities are and study the human and physical features of the country.
Physical Education
Our PE days are on a Monday (indoor) and Friday (outdoor)
For the first half-term we will be doing gymnastics and football.
- In football we will be learning about how to dribble and change direction at speed. Additionally, we will learn how to pass over different distances, as well as developing our attacking and defending skills within game situations.
Next half-term, we will be doing dance and netball.
- In netball, we will be learning the different footwork rules when passing and moving. We will also be learning about the different passes, shooting, how to lose a defender and how to win the ball. We will be applying our knowledge to netball games.
Computing
Autumn 1
Our first computing unit, following the Purple Mash scheme, is coding. Student's will use the Free Code Gibbon programme to increase their knowledge of coding. By the end of the unit, children should be able to;
• To begin to understand selection in computer programming.
• To understand how an IF statement works.
• To understand how to use co-ordinates in computer programming.
• To understand the 'repeat until' command.
• To understand how an IF/ELSE statement works.
• To understand what a variable is in programming.
• To use a number variable.
• To create a playable game.
Autumn 2:
Our next unit of learning will be spreadsheets, where children will learn to format cells as currency, percentage, decimal to different decimal places or fraction. They will also use the formula wizard to calculate averages and add a formula to a cell to automatically make a calculation in that cell. Finally, they will use a spreadsheet to model a reallife situation.
Music
Autumn 1 -
We will be learning how to use the ukulele! Miss Eatock will be teaching the key chords and how to play some groovy tunes.
Autumn 2-
Our unit of learning is Rock and Roll. Pupils who are secure will be able to:
- Perform the hand jive hand actions in sequence and in time with the music.
- Sing in tune and perform their actions in time.
- Play the notes of the walking bass in the correct sequence.
- Independently play their part with some awareness of the other performers.
PSHE
Our first unit is Rights and Responsibilities, where children will learn the difference between wants, needs and rights. Children will be developing their understanding of their rights and the responsibilities that go along with it. During this unit we will be exploring the concept of respect and discuss the creation of rules and conventions. We will also look briefly into democracy.
Our next unit will be Working Together. In this unit we will be focusing on recognising our own worth and identify our current skills and explore ideas for skill development. Children will have the opportunity to develop their communication and group work skills and apply these skills to real situations.
Finally, we will be completing the Family and Friends unit. Children will be able to recognise the qualities of good friends and understand about health friendships. They will develop strategies for managing friendship challenges and for supporting others. As part of this unit we also look into family and other special people and how people are able to support each other in difficult times.
Our prayer space
Religious Education
In Autumn 1, we will be exploring the question, What do Christians learn from the Creation Story? We will be discovering the story of Adam and Eve, and how they lost God's trust.
In Autumn 2, we will be carrying on our Christianity learning, this time transitioning to asking the questions, What is it like to follow God? and What is the Trinity?
We also have access to our prayer space. Prayer spaces enable children and young people, of all faiths and none, to explore life’s questions, spirituality, and faith in a safe, creative, and interactive way.
Art
In art we will be focusing on the structural work of Andy Golsworthy and will link his work to Ancient Greek structures. We will also have the opportunity to make our own clay pots.