Summer 2

Our learning in Year 4 will build upon prior knowledge and learning as well as delving into and exploring new topics and skills. 

English 

Our focus this term is on an explanation text. This will be based on a text called ‘Why Dragons are extinct?’. We will then use Talk 4 Writing to learn, unpick and understand the features used within this text type before then planning our own explanation text based on the question ‘Why are Polar Bears endangered?’. We will continue our class text of The Lost Bear by Hannah Goldsmith.

Grammar 

Many grammatical terms and features will be taught through our English lessons, but pupils will also take part in separate grammar lessons. Pupils will work on selecting the appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition. We will also use these grammar lessons to recap our previous terms’ learning, which was focused on fronted adverbials and word classes. 

Pronouns         subordinate     conjunctions     contractions     relative clauses     parenthesis

Guided Reading 

Pupils will continue with their work on reading for inference which was introduced last year and continued last half-term. Pupils will focus on inference and visualisation, both of which will support the pupils’ ability to unpick and relate to a text. This approach enables pupils to gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading and helps pupils to learn strategies to support them in becoming good and confident readers. In addition to this, our focus will be on retrieval and ensuring that the evidence used from the text is accurate and specific to the question. 

Vocabulary 

fluency    infer     relate     specific     accurate   relevant   evidence      point     explanation     argument    retrieval   

Maths 

This term, pupils will focus on the measurement of shape, statistics and position and direction.

We will start with a focus on studying shape with a focus on turns, angles and comparing angles. We will then be able to recognise and describe 2-D shapes before moving onto triangles, quadrilaterals and studying lines of symmetry. Following on from this we will be studying statistics with a focus on charts and line graphs.   

We will end Summer 2 with position and direction with describing position and drawing and moving on a grid.  

Every week pupils will complete a Number and Lightning and skills for this will be taught in addition to their daily Maths lesson. Pupils who are already competent in various areas will further embed their understanding through a range of reasoning and problem-solving activities. 

Times tables will be a huge focus in class as we prepare for the multiplication check in May. It is imperative that pupils are able to recall all multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12 in order to access all the curriculum. Pupils should also work on their times table at home. 

Vocabulary 

Measurement    money  calculate    turns    angles     right angle     2-D shapes      triangles     quadrilaterals     charts    line graphs      position    direction    grid

Other Subjects 

Science 

Science this term will be focused on Habitats and human impact. We will begin by investigating the plants and animals within their locality, and how biodiverse these local habitats are. We will continue to develop our prior knowledge of classification to explore and create classification keys with increasing independence. We will end the topic by exploring human impacts on plant and animal habitats. We will develop our awareness that these impacts can be both positive and negative.

Vocabulary 

Habitat    rural habitat    urban habitat    biodiversity      classification key    vertebrate    invertebrate     habitat     natural resources    deforestation    rewilding

Computing 

We will be continuing to follow Kapow for our Computing this term and will be investigating weather. We will be looking at how the weather forecast is created and learning how satellites work. 

Vocabulary 

climate zone      condensation    degree Celsius    extreme weather

forecast  lightning    rain  satellite      temperature      thermometer     weather forecast

PSHE, RSE and MyHappyMind

During this half-term we will focus on the relate topic in MyHappyMind and economic wellbeing. This topic is focused on teaching children the importance of being able to relate to and get along with others in order to have positive relationships. It uses Character Strengths to illustrate the need to be able to see other perspectives in order to build relationships. Through lots of examples and discussion, the children learn about two key skills that will serve them well in relationship building

Vocabulary 

 Character Strengths, Relate, Get along, People, Active Listening, ‘Stop Understand and Consider', Friendships, Relationships, Differences, Perspectives

PE 

This half term, pupils will focus on Rounders and Football. 

Rounders- We will focus on developing our batting technique and starting to think about developing our tactics.  

Vocabulary 

Stance, grip, bat, strike, bowler, fielding

Football:

Within this topic we transition from basic ball control to controlled movement, focussing on close dribbling and two touch passing. We develop tactical awareness by learning how to move into open space.  

Vocabulary 

Dribbling, passing, tactics, coordination, decision making

Geography 

We will be learning about reivers through the topic of ‘What are rivers and how are they used.’ We will focus on the water cycle, how rivers are formed and the different areas of a river as well as how rivers can be used to support our needs.

Vocabulary 

Water cycle, river, source, upper course, dam, hydroelectricity.

Music 

Music will be taught through a programme called Kapow and our topic is ‘Adapting and transposing motifs’. We will listen to the

Vocabulary 

backing track    bass line    beat    call and response    compose    crotchet    dotted minim    flats     graphic notation    in-time    in-tune    key    key signature    loop    lyrics     minim    motif    notation    ostinato

Art and Design 

Mechanisms- Slingshot Car.  

This unit of learning will enable the children to develop their ability to design and make a car with a working slingshot mechanisms and being able to house the mechanism using a range of nets. 

Vocabulary

Chassis    energy    kinetic    mechanism    air resistance    design   structure   graphics    research   model    template

Latin

The origins of language

This unit helps contextualise the English language in relation to Latin (and a little bit to Greek), and also sets out how parts of Western culture are rooted in the Ancient World. We start to explore the Latin language, looking at how Latin and English are similar in vocabulary, but very different in how they construct meaning by putting words together in sentences.

Vocabulary 

Femina, magnus, vacca, aqua, optimus