Mrs Bowker and Mrs Stott
Welcome to Year 4
Scandinavia
In Year 4 the children are well established in the juniors and our expectations have gone up even further. We are learning to work independently and think for ourselves, applying our learning and making decisions about how we do things.
In English we continue to develop our reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and the children get to dive into lots of fantastic books as a class and use these as inspiration to write their own fun stories. In Maths, as well as following the White Rose curriculum, we are also preparing for the Multiplication test which everyone will take at the end of the year. For this reason it is vital to have an instant recall of all the multiplication facts.
The majority of foundation subjects are now being taught as part of a creative curriculum. Topics to be covered this year include 'All about Scandinavia', ‘Hinduism in Britain today’, 'The Ancient Egyptians' and ‘The Golden age of steam'.
In Year 4 we have a weekly swimming lesson and really develop our confidence in the water, developing our strokes and building stamina.
Our class name is ‘Scandinavia’ and our class artist is Andy Goldsworthy. We will continue to learn Spanish this year.
Autumn
Our first priority is to lay the groundwork for the children to ease back into school routines and remember how to be independent and resilient. Our maths this term will focus on place value, addition and subtraction, area and multiplication and division. Additionally, we start to become familiar with our class countries in ‘Scandinavia’ and we learn about the people that live there and the contrasting biomes and geographical features within the country, using our ‘doing’ followed by ‘thinking’ methodology. As part of our creative curriculum, geographical, historical, and science are all covered in the course of this topic. This term also provides the opportunity for Year 4 to host the annual Harvest Festival and the Carol Service, alongside Year 3. This helps build the children’s confidence and develop a sense of responsibility.
Spring
In the Spring term our History topic is ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and there are some fantastic opportunities for artwork and creativity supporting our ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’ skills while the children learn all about the Romans. We cover many fascinating areas such Boudicca’s rebellion, Hadrian’s wall and Roman roads. In science our topic is States of Matter and we explore how materials change when they are heated or cooled. Our maths topics this term include length and perimeter, decimals and fractions. We will focus on safe internet use and using Scratch to make quizzes. In RE we will explore further what it means to be a Hindu living in Britain today.
Summer
During the Summer Term, pupils in Year 4 consolidate their learning from throughout the year and prepare for the transition to Upper Key Stage 2. In maths this term we will focus on money, time, statistics and shape. In science we focus on Living Things and their habitats and finish with a unit on Sound. The geography will be linked to local fieldwork studies in our topic town or village. We finish with a fun unit on the Golden Age of Steam. Additionally, we had a fabulous Sports Day and really enjoyed the opportunity to compete and challenge ourselves. In RE we will explore what we can learn from religions about deciding what is right and wrong.
