Year 4
'Let your light shine before others, so they see your good works and give glory to God' - Matthew 5 v. 16
Our teacher for this year is Miss Birkett. Our learning support assistants are Ms Davis, Miss Bell and Miss Renard.
Year 4 Spoken Language Objectives
Autumn Two Learning
English
This half term in English, the children will be exploring The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis. Firstly, the children will be focusing on fiction from our literary heritage, and they will be aiming to write a narrative with a different version of events, mostly focusing on settings. Secondly, the children will be focusing on persuasive writing, and they will write a travel brochure for Narnia.
After exploring The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis, the children will move onto a poetry topic; they will be focusing on vocabulary building and imagery. To achieve this, the children will look at The River by Valerie Bloom and will write a number of poems exploring different styles with rivers as their theme.
SPaG
Every Friday the children will continue to have a spelling, punctuation and grammar lesson. Every Friday the children will be tested on their weekly spellings. Within the week there will be opportunity for the children to visit these spellings ahead of the test.
Maths
Multiplication and Division
Key questions:
What is the next multiple of ...?
What is the multiple of ... before ...?
How many 3s are there in ...?
How do you find the digit sum of a number?
How can you tell if a number is a multiple of ...?
Are the multiples of ... odd or even?
How many equal groups do you have?
How many are there in each group?
How many are there altogether?
What does each number in the calculation represent?
What does commutative mean?
Is multiplication/division commutative?
How can you use facts from the 3 times-table to work out facts from the 6 times-table?
Science
Human Impact
In science this half term the children will be learning about human impact.
In this module children will learn about some of the positive and negative ways that humans change the environment, locally and globally, with a particular focus on how this affects other living things. They will begin to understand that actions can have both positive and negative consequences, that situations are not black and white, and that decisions involve compromises. They will consider how industry, housing and thoughtless behaviour can damage local habitats and also how humans can increase biodiversity by developing environments such as country parks and nature reserves.
This will be related to a developing understanding of food chains (building on what children learned in Year 2) and what happens if food chains are broken by habitat disruption or the removal of a species from an ecosystem. In this module children consider both habitats (where something lives) and ecosystems (the inter-relationships between organisms and their interaction with the habitat/environment). As an example of a local issue that they can influence, children will plan and carry out litter surveys and, through considering the effect of litter on animals, will understand that its negative impact goes beyond its appearance.
Children will also be introduced to some global issues by researching the impact of deforestation, ocean pollution (oil spill) and global warming on ecosystems. In the enrichment lessons children will consider and debate positive and negative aspects of keeping animals in zoos.
When working scientifically children will plan and carry out a litter survey, using a tally chart to record data. They will group items into categories to make survey data manageable and present their findings by constructing and labelling pictograms and bar charts. They will also present information as oral and written reports, posters and food chains. When working with information from secondary sources they will weigh and present evidence, recognise statements that do and do not support an argument, and participate in a debate.
Key Vocabulary
environment, impact, positive, negative, litter, pollution, waste, biodiversity, habitat, derelict, graffiti, traffic, destroy, create, location, food chain, producer, consumer, human impact , global issue, destruction, deforestation, rainforest, climate, climate change, zoo, endangered, breed, wild, natural, predator, prey, conservation, categories, tally chart, pictogram, bar chart, axes, scale, opinion, point of view, argument, viewpoint, debate
Art
This half term we will be focusing on Mayan Art.
Mayan artists sometimes signed their names on their artwork. Mayans used stucco plaster to make huge masks of their gods and kings. Some of the finest and best examples of Maya art have been found in the city of Palenque, Mexico.
RE
For the first part of this half term, we will find out what The Beatitudes are and how Christians can learn from them in order to live their lives more like Jesus, and how we may look to them for guidance too. In the lead up to Christmas, we will then explore our key question: Is the Christmas message of peace still relevant in today's world? We will understand the concepts of internal and external peace, what Christians can learn about peace from the Bible, and what Jesus teaches about peace.
Computing
We will be moving on to our second topic, We Are Toymakers for the second half of the autumn term. We will start off by researching interactive toys to find some inspiration before we design our own digital toys. After this, we will then create and program our toys in Scratch, before testing and evaluating our toys. Finally, we will present and pitch our toys to each other Dragons' Den-style!
Geography
We will be continuing with our Rivers topic. We have now studied the water cycle and each of the processes that make it, such as evaporation, condensation and precipitation. We then looked more closely at what rivers look like, and identified the features that are found in the upper, middle and lower courses of rivers. We can now move on to looking at all the different ways we use fresh water and how this demand can have a significant impact on fluvial ecosystems.
History
We will also be continuing our study of Vikings and Anglo Saxons. Now that we have gained an understanding of where these two groups came from and the reasons why they did, as well as looking at some the historical artefacts that have been unearthed, we can now look more at the influence their presence had on life on the British Isles. We will explore the Saxon way of life and the changes that came with it. Lastly, we will look at key figures of the time, such as King Alfred, and identify the meaning behind the naming of the Dark Ages.
Autumn One Learning
Over this term we have much to look forward to. The following information gives you an overview of each subject.
English
This half term the children will be reading and analysing two quality texts. The first fictional story will be Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl and the second will be Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. When focusing on Fantastic Mr Fox, the children will be writing and performing their own play using the narrative of the chapter book. When reading and exploring Odd and the Frost Giants, the children will work towards writing a Norse myth focusing on effective characterisation, linking dialogue and interweaving speech and action. They will then create their own mythological creature, based on Viking versions, and write a report.
SPaG
Each week, the children will continue to have a spelling, punctuation, and grammar lesson. Every Friday, the children will be tested on their weekly spellings. Within the week, there will be an opportunity for the children to revisit these spellings ahead of the test.
Year 3 & 4 Spelling ListHigh Frequency Word Mat.
Maths
In Maths, we will start the year by revisiting place value. We will now learn to recognise the value of each digit in a 4-digit number; order and compare numbers beyond 1000; count in multiples of 1000 and find numbers which are 1000 more or less than a given number. These skills will be useful when we then move on to Addition & Subtraction of 4-digit numbers, with and without exchanges. Throughout all of these, we will look to apply our knowledge to solve a range of both numerical and reasoning problems.
Science
In science the children will be learning about sound and how sound is made and detected. Throughout this half term the children will take part in a number of scientific experiments.
Key knowledge for the topic:
Sounds are made when objects vibrate. This makes the air around the object vibrate and the air vibrations then travel to and enter your ear. Sound is detected when the vibrations enter your ear and send messages to your brain
Sound waves can travel through solids (such as metal, stone and wood), liquids (such as water) and gases (such as air).
Sound can travel through solids, liquids and gases. Sound travels as a wave, vibrating the particles in the medium it is travelling in. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
Pitch is a measure of how high or low a sound is. A whistle being blown creates a high-pitched sound. A rumble of thunder is an example of a low-pitched sound.
Useful Link:
Spanish
In Spanish this half term, the children will be learning the names of animals, will classroom instructions and other instructions and parts of the body.
Geography
In Geography, our focus this term will be on Rivers. We will start by identifying what rivers are, where they lie in the water cycle, and how they are formed. After this, we will look to expand our locational knowledge of rivers around the world, before looking at the causes and effects that human pollution has on rivers and their local ecology. Given our close proximity to the River Thames, this unit will provide us with an excellent opportunity to undertake some fieldwork to better understand the features of the Thames, but also the problems it faces from the dense human population on its banks.
History
Anglo-Saxon & Viking Knowledge Organiser
Anglo-Saxon Britain will be the stage of our History studies this term. This unit will help us understand how the languages and cultures of the British Isles have been influenced by the invasion of historic peoples from other regions. We will first look at the state of Britain after the romans and the reasons for the eventual Saxon invasion. We will then explore the Saxon way of life and the changes that came with it. Lastly, we will look at key figures of the time, such as King Alfred, and identify the meaning behind the naming of the Dark Ages.
Art
The children will begin the year by studying Pop Art by Andy Warhol. The children will begin by recapping their portrait drawing skills by sketching facial features with accurate proportions. They will then use tracing paper to copy their portraits and then print them several times to replicate the style of Warhol. The children will use bold, block colours throughout this unit and will incorporate the use of onomatopoeias.
Pop art is a style of art based on simple, bold images of everyday items, such as soup cans, painted in bright colours. Pop artists created pictures of product labels and packaging, photos of celebrities, comic strips, and animals.
RE
People of God Knowledge Organiser
The big question that we will be exploring in RE up until half term is ‘how did belief in God affect the actions of people in the Old Testament?’ In order to do so, we will discussing what is meant by the term ‘People of God’, and revisit the stories of key biblical figures, such as Abraham. Furthermore, we will look at how these stories impact the lives of believers, and in turn shape their actions.
RSHE
Being Me in My World is our first unit for RSHE in Year 4. We will look to understand the thoughts and feelings we feel when we are in a team, and the importance role we each play within our school community. This will be helpful when we then start to explore the idea of democracy, and the need to give all members of our community a voice.
Computing
We are software developers Knowledge Organisers
In Computing, we will be taking on the role of software developers as we look to create an educational computer game using selection and repetition. We will need to use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work. As we build them, we will also be evaluating their performance to detect and correct errors in the program as necessary.
PE
The children will have their PE lessons with Mr Maura. This term our lessons will be on a Wednesday and Thursday.
