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.