Hello, and welcome to Year 4.

 

We have lots of fun things planned for the year, including a trip to the Royal Opera House and a residential visit to Ashbourne. 


Our English unit starts with the story Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White to support our learning. The children will make predictions about the events in the story before going on to sequence the events of the story and looking at the language used in the story. We will focus on writing sentences with conjunctions to link ideas and extending sentences to add details. We will also use prepositions and adverbials to begin our sentences in a range of ways. Following this, we will use the story The Wild Robot by Peter Brown to investigate actions and dialogue and how authors use these tools to advance the action in the story. Our final text of the year will be How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, through which we will look at narrative and how we can write effective setting and character descriptions to enhance the story. 

 

In Maths, we are building on our prior learning of numbers through the topic of place value, this time working with numbers up to 10,000. We will then spend a few weeks learning about addition and subtraction, using the formal written method (column method). We will revisit how to exchange and how this affects our calculation. We will develop our understanding of multiplication and division and link this heavily to our recall of multiplication facts. We will use efficient strategies to help us solve more challenging calculations, such as using multiples of 10 and 2 when multiplying by 12. We will learn how to use fractions to help us find parts of a whole and develop our understanding of equivalent fractions. 

 

In the afternoons, we are learning about the Windrush Generation in our History lessons. We will discover why people made the journey to the UK from Jamaica and the benefits of them doing this. We will explore the Ancient Greeks and how they lived their lives. Finally, we will be learning about life in the Roman Empire and the impact that this had on Britain.

 

In Geography, we are learning about Europe. We will investigate different countries in Europe and discuss the similarities between them. Developing this knowledge further, we will complete an in-depth study of Greece to learn about the country, its physical and human features and the difference between rural and urban areas. Finally, we will study volcanoes and understand the impact that they have on the environment, both positively and negatively. 


In Science, we are learning about living things and their habitats. We will learn about food chains, animal and plant life and the adaptations of different animals to their environment. Following this, we will learn about conservation and the impact that humans are having on the earth. Later on in the year, we will delve into the topics of sound, states of matter and electricity. 


We are learning about creating media in our Computing lessons, using Twisted Wave to create and edit an audio podcast. We will then begin to develop our coding skills using Scratch and extend our knowledge of branching databases.

 

Our PE the first term focuses on gymnastics and invasion games. During the spring, we will be learning dance and net/wall games. Finally, in the summer term, we will be going swimming and developing our skills in athletics and striking and fielding games. 


Design and Technology lessons revisit textiles and develop our stitching skills to create a stocking, our structural skills to create a Greek temple and our skills in designing and making mechanisms to create a Roman catapult.  

 

There is a big focus on multiplication this year in preparation for the Year 4 Multiplication Check during the summer term. Please access Times Tables Rock Stars as much as possible at home as we will be doing the same in school.



General reminders


 


If you have any questions, please find us on the KS2 playground at the end of the day.

 

Mr Willson and Mrs Shaw