Year 4

This term we will be working on the following topics:

English        

Our focus texts this term will be Together, a Forest by Roz MacLean, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley and Poems from a Green and Blue Planet by Sabrina Mahfouz. While exploring these texts, we will compose and rehearse sentences orally and in written form, as well as sequence sentences to form narratives. In our narrative writing, we will use a variety of descriptive devices to talk about settings, characters and plot. We will also continue to learn how to group our ideas together to form paragraphs in our writing. We will edit our finished pieces of work to ensure they make sense grammatically and suggest improvements to engage the reader.

During our Guided Reading sessions, we will be reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts and answering questions focusing on retrieval and inference as part of the “VIPERS” reading skills.

 

Maths           

We will be teaching maths using the NCETM materials and guidance. We will be working and reviewing our adding and subtracting using the column method and will be looking at numbers up to 10,000. We will also be learning to multiply and divide numbers from 1 to 12 and using our learned strategies and applying them to word problems.

 

Science       

We will be studying two science topics this term. In the first half term, we will be looking at Electricity. We will be learning how electricity runs through circuits. We will look at making circuits and how we can connect the circuits together in order for the electricity to flow efficiently. This will be followed by Classification where we will be developing our understanding of the importance of Linnaeus’ system for naming plants and animals.

 

History         

In our Iron Age topic, we will be adding to their knowledge of the Prehistoric era by learning about population change, technological change and settlements. Children will carefully study artefacts to discover more about life in the Iron Age and identify key features of that particular era.

 

Art & Design               

In our Art and Design skills lessons, we will learn and develop their drawing skills and explore tone, texture and proportion to create realistic and expressive drawings, inspired by artists Sarah Graham, Nicola McBride and Beatriz Milhazes.

 

Music            

In Music this term, Year 4 begin their First Access instrumental sessions. We will start to learn either the trombone or the violin. We will learn about instrument care, playing technique, and simple tunes using pitch and notation. We will also be learning songs for Christmas performances.

 

Computing  

During the Autumn Term, we will be learning that the World Wide Web is part of the internet, and will be given opportunities to explore the World Wide Web for ourselves in order to learn about who owns content and what we can access, add, and create. Finally, we will evaluate online content to decide how honest, accurate, or reliable it is, and understand the consequences of false information. Following on from this, we will learn and consider how data is collected over time and see how sensors can act as input devices to monitor the environment.

 

Design Technology                  

As part of our work on Electricity, we will be designing a torch. The children will be looking at different materials we may need to make a torch. We will also be looking at electricity linking to our science topic to explore the ways in which the light on a torch works.

 

Physical Education                   

This term, we will carry on with our swimming sessions at the Eltham Centre. We will participate in various other sports, such as basketball and hockey.

                       

Religious Education                 

In RE, we will be further developing our knowledge of food and fasting. We will be looking at how food is important in different religions and what it means to communities. We will be looking at why some people fast and their belief behind this.

 

Personal, Social & Health Education / Relationships & Sex Education This term we will be exploring the following themes:

My healthy self: How can I make healthy choices?

We will explore how healthy choices support both physical and mental wellbeing by learning about exercise, nutrition and hydration. We will learn about signs of emotional and mental health challenges using familiar vocabulary, understand the difference between a fixed and growth mindset and recognise how our actions affect others.

Connecting with others: How can we respect each other?

We will be examining respectful and disrespectful behaviour and considering how actions and expectations can vary in different settings. We will learn about personal boundaries, resolving disagreements fairly, building confidence and managing frustration, as well as about stereotypes. 

 

• Your child should read to an adult for 15 minutes three times a week and independently every day.  It is also important that an adult reads to your child regularly. Please talk to your child about the book and check their understanding by asking questions about events and the characters’ actions. Please also explain new or unfamiliar vocabulary. Their book bag should come to school every day. There will be a weekly times tables and spelling test. A spelling list will be posted weekly on Google Classrooms.
• Your child will have PE on Monday. The children must come to school in their PE kit on PE days. We will be having swimming lessons which will begin on Thursday 10^th September and take place at the Eltham Centre. A swimming kit consists of close-fitting shorts, not board shorts, or a one-piece swimming costume, a towel, swimming cap and goggles. Children can also bring a piece of fruit as a snack on their return walk to school. The snack needs to be in their swimming bag.
• Your child needs to bring a water bottle every day.
• The weather is often cold at this time of year and the children will go out to play if there is light rain. It is important that your child has a waterproof coat, gloves, hat and a scarf.
• We are a Healthy School. Please do not put sweets or chocolate bars in your child’s packed lunch. Please do not send in sweets or other treats when it is your child’s birthday. If you want to celebrate your child’s birthday with their classmates, you could buy the class a book, send in a healthy snack such as boxes of raisins or buy stationery such as a pencil, but due to the impact on the environment, we ask you not to send in plastic toys.
• If your child is absent from school, please contact the school office: 020 8850 5486 and leave a message detailing why your child is absent. If your child has had an upset stomach, they can return to school once they feel better.  Please try to book medical appointments outside the school day and note that family holidays will not be authorised.
• If you have any questions or wish to raise a concern, please contact the class teacher in the first instance.

Please see the school calendar and weekly newsletters for information about events for Year 4.