Year 4 Spring 2 Curriculum Information

As we begin a new term, on our first day back we will be having our Behaviour Boost and focusing on the importance of wellbeing as part of our PSHE curriculum.

This term we will be reading Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell. The novel blends fairytale and history, and focuses on friendship, love and resilience – linking with our school values and PSHE topic, ‘Healthy me’

In English, we shall be looking at the narrative ‘Float’ by Daniel Miyares. This is a thoughtful picture book about a boy and his paper boat. It's a rainy, gloomy day and he decides to head out to play in the water with his paper boat. We will be submerging ourselves in the story to develop our own narrative-writing skills. The narrative compliments our new science topic ‘The Water cycle’, where we shall be delving into states of matter, thinking about our Big Question: ‘How does the water cycle recycle?’

In history we are continuing our studies into Roman Civilisation, with a focus on causation, thinking about what factors led to the fall of the Roman Empire. We will be exploring the Roman Empire, building on our knowledge of Julius Caesar, the Punic wars, and the ultimate fall of the Empire. We will be looking at Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, to help deepen our understanding.

In PE, we will be developing skills in teamwork, ball control and agility in hockey and netball.

In maths we will be continuing to focus on fractions, decimals, and percentages with a huge focus on times tables before our upcoming MTC in June.

In geography this half term we will be moving west across Europe by focusing on Northern Ireland, looking at landmarks such as the Giant’s Causeway, The Marble Arch Caves and thinking about our Big Question – ‘What are the physical and human features of Northern Ireland?’

In computing, we will be developing our programming knowledge by looking at patterns and algorithms.

In Modern Foreign Languages, we will be developing our conversational skills and looking at how to talk about where we live in French.

In RE, we will be once again returning to Christianity by making links between the story of Noah and how Christians live in school and the wider world. We shall also look at Jesus and the Easter story, examining the Big Question: ‘What is it like for someone to follow God?’

In Music, we will be continuing our weekly singing assemblies, and we will also be starting our guitar lessons! We will also be attending the Leicestershire Music Festival where we meet and celebrate music with other schools.

In DT, we will have a full two days designing and constructing when we look at fastenings and cross stitching by creating our own book sleeves, and in Art we will be looking at design, creating our own compositions inspired by expressionism.

Additionally, to reinforce our promotion of reading, we will be celebrating World Book Day on the 6^th March. We will also be having a CLS museum session on Art Rocks! As this is only a small insight into what we will be learning in class, please keep a look out on Class Dojo for photos of our learning, information, and updates. 

Thank you for your continued support.

Year 4 Spring 1 Curriculum Information

Welcome back Year 4, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New year. Let’s tell you all about the new and exciting things we will be learning about this half term!

This term we will be having another interactive assembly by the Library Services team, this time all about Shakespeare, which builds upon our class novel – the thrilling ‘Julius Caesar’. In this text, Shakespeare tells the story of the conspiracy against Caesar, his assassination, and the great defeat of his conspirators. The well-known play links to our history unit on Ancient Rome, and we will be encouraged to look at the historical inspiration for the play and the chronology of the events during this period.

Shakespeare’s tragic tale will focus on hardships, friendships, and the betrayal of others. Thus, encouraging the acceptance and help from others to reach your goals – which links in with our school values and Personal, Social and Health Education topic, ‘Dreams and Goals’.

A second book we shall explore is ‘Dreams of Freedom’. This book is a celebration of champions of freedom throughout history, and introduces children to the importance of human rights, freedom, and the history of these concepts. It also has a collection of words from Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Anne Frank, Malala Yousafzai, and many more!

Marching into Maths – we will be working hard to continue developing our times tables knowledge, and build on our understanding of place value from last term, focusing on fractions and decimals.

In English we shall be looking at the wonderful world of our own microbiome – looking at how microbes help us stay healthy. We will continue to use our sentence stacking lessons to support our independent writing. This ties in nicely to our new science topic ‘The Human body’, where we shall be delving into cells, nutrients, teeth, digestion; even creating our own science experiments using egg shells to develop our understanding. We will be thinking about our Big Question: Why and how should we look after our bodies?

In PE we will be starting gymnastics and outdoor adventurous activities. We will be utilising some of the skills we explored last term, and will be developing character muscles of courage, resilience, perseverance and teamwork as we try new things and work together to overcome problems and take sensible risks.

In history, we will be thinking about the question: Why does Pompeii hold the richest source of archaeological evidence in ancient Rome? We are exploring life in Ancient Rome, looking at the monarchy, the Roman Empire, and the sort of lives Roman people lived. We will be able to use our new library artefacts to handle and explore which really helps bring our history lessons to life! These include pottery and an Ancient Rome project box, as well as building on our topics from last term on Ancient Greece and Mediterranean Europe.

We will also be celebrating Local History Day, by venturing out into our town and following a heritage trail around Melton to explore some of our historically significant buildings.

Meanwhile in geography, we will be travelling east from the Mediterranean and looking at Eastern Europe, asking: How do physical features differ across different locations? We will be looking at the difference between the Baltic countries and the Balkan peninsula and comparing the landscapes across the region.

In music this term we will be continuing our weekly singing assemblies and looking at some new songs as part of unit: ‘Compose with your Friends’.

In Art, we have a two hour ‘Take flight’ art session with the library service, which will get the children’s creativity flowing, ready for our Art Days. During our Art Days we will be looking at the meaning of design in art, the elements of art, composition, cut-outs, expressionism, colour and line to create emotion, and complementary colours, creating our own compositions based on Munch’s ‘The scream’.

Finally, in RE we will be returning to Judaism, examining the question, ‘how important is it for Jewish people to do what God asks them to do?’

Now this is just a whistle stop tour so please keep a look out on Class Dojo and Weduc for photos of our learning, information, and updates, as we will continue to keep you updated along our learning journey.

Thank you for your continued support.

Year 4 Autumn 2 Curriculum Information

I’s time for a new and exciting half term! This half-term we will be reading the spectacular ‘Oliver Twist’ by the marvellous Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist is a young, innocent boy who runs away from the brutality of the workhouse, only to find himself taken in by a gang of thieves. The devilish Fagin runs the show alongside his violent side kick, Bill Sikes, and the irreplaceable Artful Dodger. Rescued from London’s dingiest and darkest dens, but then forced to help in a violent burglary, Oliver’s chances of survival are slim and his chances of happiness is almost nil. Will he survive? This novel will focus on hardships, friendships, and the understanding of others. Thus, encouraging compassion, teamwork, and acceptance of each other – which links in with our Personal, Social and Health Education topic, ‘Celebrating Differences’. We have completed our unit on Judaism for now in R.E., and we now move on to looking at the nativity story as part of Christianity – just in time for Christmas!

Our ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ book this half-term is called The Flower by John Light. It is a beautiful book about how we can turn the dull in to the beautiful. Always seeing the positive and overcoming adversity through what we can learn and change.

In English we shall be looking at the remarkable story of ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. This story includes a gigantic metal robot who appears out of nowhere, crashing onto the beach and shattering into many parts. He is discovered by a young boy called Hogarth, who becomes his friend. The Iron Man proceeds to devour farm machinery, until the farmers rise up against him and threaten to bring in the army. Hogarth comes to his rescue and suggests that the monster should be left in peace to feed from the scrap metal yard. But is the Iron Man the only strange creature to visit Earth?

We are also excited to have a special author event in school in November. We will be live streaming with the author Joseph Coelho who will be talking to us about his new book called Relic Hamilton – Genie Hunter!

In maths we will continue developing our timetables knowledge, looking at multiplication and division, as well as geometry. We will continue to practise our times tables daily using our special counting stick technique – this term we will focus on our 7s, 8s and 9s.

In science, we will be learning all about electricity, and thinking about our Big Question: How do we make a light shine? This will include circuits, switches, and lots of electrifying fun, including creating our own circuits using batteries, wires and bulbs.

We will also be continuing our Ancient Greece topic in History, looking at Greek art, architecture, legacies, and the Olympic games. In Geography, we will look at Mediterranean Europe and be asking, ‘How has it impacted Britain?’, using our map work from last term to help us to locate different places in the Mediterranean region.

Following the success of our Art Days last half-term, we have two Design Technology days where we will be designing and constructing a pavilion as part of our topic on Structure, using our knowledge from Ancient Greek architecture to inspire us!

As well as our PGL residential trip, we also have a Creative Learning poetry session, a Water Workshop and a special Christmas assembly with the Creative Learning Team.

We have lots of exciting experiences planned for this half-term, so please keep a look out on Class Dojo and WEDUC for photos of our learning, information, and updates.

Year 4 Autumn 1 Curriculum Information

Welcome to Year 4 – I hope you’re ready for some new and exciting learning!

This term, we will be reading ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ by Onjali Q. Rauf. This is a compassionate story about a boy that joins a school as a refugee from Syria, based on the author’s own personal experiences of working with refugees in London. The novel explores and encourages compassion, teamwork, and acceptance of one another – which links in with our PSHE topic, ‘Being Me in My World’.

As part of our ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ initiative we will also be reading a book called ‘The First Slodge’ which opens discussions about sharing and kindness and how our world is for everyone.

In English, we shall be looking at the Ancient Greek myth, ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ – we will meet kings, a ravenous beast, and a brave hero. According to the story, King Minos ruled Athens and forced the people to sacrifice their children every nine years to keep the beast’s hunger at bay, until Theseus decides to take on the vicious minotaur! We will be unpicking the rich vocabulary from this novel to use in our own narrative writing. Who will win, beast or boy? 

To support our understanding of Ancient Greek mythology, we will be learning about the Ancient Greeks in history. We will be exploring the question – how has Ancient Greek culture influenced the Western world? We will be learning about city states, and looking at the birthplace of democracy which will help to develop our understanding of the British Values - Democracy and Individual Liberty.

In geography we will be expanding our knowledgebase by looking at spatial sense, asking – where is our local area and how has it changed over time? We will be identifying and locating tropics on a globe, looking at scales and grid references to help us. We will also be using our map reading skills to identify where we live and look at our local area - perhaps you already know some famous facts about Melton Mowbray... cheese and pork pies come to my mind!

In Maths, we will continue developing our multiplication knowledge and focusing on place value and how this can aid our problem solving and reasoning skills. We will be developing our fluency by practising written addition and subtraction methods.

In Science, we will be learning about the classification of plants and animals, developing our grouping skills and looking at different classes of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. We will be learning about the scientist Carl Linnaeus, and working scientifically in our new science room!

In RE, we will be building on the British Value of tolerance by looking at Judaism and thinking about beliefs and practices and the relationship Jewish people have with God. We will be marking the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, in class with some apples and honey, and exploring why these foods are symbolically eaten.

In Computing we will be looking at collaborative learning using Google, and also looking at how we can use technology to enhance our learning. Music this term will be looking at musical structures and listening to some fantastic tracks – we may even have a go at playing some of the pieces! Choir will continue for any children that would like to join us as we begin preparing for our Young Voices concert!

During our curriculum Art Days we will be looking at the artists, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Goncharova and Begum as part of our topic on light, exploring the concepts of tone and shade and how they can help create form.

PE this term is really exciting! We will be having a special visitor from the Leicester Tigers to teach us tag rugby for 5 weeks!

Please keep a look out on Class Dojo for photos of our learning, information, and updates. We have lots more exciting experiences planned for this half-term such as Roald Dahl Day, our curriculum Art Days and many more.