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

Pupils will be working this half-term towards writing their own adventure narrative based on Pie Corbett’s ‘Adventure at Sandy Cove’. Pupils will learn the story orally before looking deeper into its features. Across the term, pupils will create many short burst writes, all focused around the story and with the view to then write their own based around a similar story plot.

Many grammatical terms and features will be taught through our English lessons, but pupils will also take part in separate Grammar lessons. The big focus this half-term will be apostrophes, for both omission and possession. We will also recap previous word classes and features taught to consolidate the learning that has taken place in both previous years and Year 4 thus far.  

Bedrock will continue to be used to improve pupils’ vocabulary knowledge. Pupils will be given opportunities in class to complete sessions but the expectation for pupils to complete at least 2 lessons a week at home still remains.

Vocabulary

narrative   inverted commas   perspective     tense     apostrophe    omission    possession      plural       singular      word class      determiner     pronoun     clause    audience        structure      

Pupils will continue with their work on reading for inference. Pupils will look to use all the skills taught across the year such as retrieval, prediction, inference, visualisation and VIP words to gain a deep understanding of a given text. Pupils will also look at how to structure their responses to set questions.  

Vocabulary

fluency    key word      important     specific    recover    meaning     relate     relationship    annotate   unpick     understand    evidence    relevant    accurate 

visualisation    inference     prediction     summarise      conclude    

Pupils will start off the term continuing with their work on decimals. This will include rounding decimals, adding to make a whole, comparing and ordering and becoming confident in quarter and half equivalents. After spending two weeks on this, we will move on to money which includes various skills such as converting between pounds and pence, adding and subtracting amounts and giving change. Finally, before the end of the half-term we will start to look at time with a focus on telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes. 

Every week pupils will complete a Number and Lightning and skills for this will be taught in addition to their daily Maths lessons. Pupils who are already competent in various areas will further embed their understanding through a series of deepening and enriching tasks.

Times Tables will be a huge focus in class, with daily teaching and practice. 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

decimal    tenth    hundredth    rounding    whole   quarter    half    money     change    pence     pounds     coins    notes    symbol    amount    analogue    digital    o clock    quarter past     half past     past      too   

Other Subjects

We will be following Kapow for our Computing this term and will be focusing on Computational Thinking. Pupils will be looking at decomposition and how this can be used to solve problems. Pupils will use their learning to look at and identify patterns and create their own algorithms on Scratch.

Vocabulary

computational thinking      decomposition        algorithm     abstraction     code         script        sequence       input     output      logical reasoning       pattern      variable   

Safety and the Changing Body will be the focus for this half-term – looking at various areas such as Internet safety (staying safe online and how to communicate), privacy and secrecy (the difference between secrets and surprises), Asthma (how to help someone who has Asthma), tobacco (risks of smoking and benefits of being a non-smoker), growing up (physical changes that our body goes through) and introducing puberty (changes as we grow up).  

Vocabulary

Social media     age restriction    law    legal     point of view    reason    for    against   debate    digital age of consent    sharing     Internet   Airway    trachea      lungs    triggers    inhaler   medicine    larynx     inhale    exhale     inflate     deflate   private   public    secret    uncomfortable    worried    sorting    search engine     child     adult     change    grow    develop      physical changes     breasts     genitals    penis    hair    hygiene    puberty     tobacco     smoke    risk    health    choice     non-smoker

Our topic within RE is Kingdom of God –When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost? Within this topic we will look at, what Pentecost is, what this symbolises for Christians and why it is of such importance.

Vocabulary

Christianity    Kingdom of God     Pentecost     Bible     Easter     disciples      Holy Spirit          

Pupils will take part in two PE lessons each week. One lesson will be focused on Athletics and the other on Swimming.

Athletics - pupils will try a selection of different events that fall within Athletics such as sprinting, relay, long distance, shot put, long jump and triple jump. Within each of these, pupils will get the chance to evaluate their own and others performances and will look for ways to improve.

Vocabulary

Athletics       long jump      triple jump     hop     skip     jump     pit     propulsion     force     relay      baton     exchange     handover       track    lane      transfer of weight     aim     direction     evaluate      analyse     adapt      modify     improve     adjust      

Swimming – within these sessions pupils will become more confident in the water, aim to swim 25m or to at least achieve further than their own starting points, perform self-rescue and to perform a range of swimming strokes. 

Vocabulary

Swimming     front crawl     breast stroke     butterfly     backstroke     sculling     treading water     afloat      rescue      confidence     underwater     stroke     streamline  

In History, we will be learning about Arabia and Early Islam. Within this topic we will focus in on the rise of Islam, the city of Makkah and what it was like to grow up there. Pupils will look at Muhammed and his life and how this changed over the years when he escaped to Yathrib and then returning to Makkah.

Vocabulary

Dominated     Arabia   desert     Arabs    Islam   Makkah    pilgrimage     pilgrims    Bedouin      campfires    recite     Kaaba   shrines    idols    spirits    Muhammed    pastoral     nomads    widows   orphans   warrior    clansmen   clans     blood feud    ancestors     heritage    Petra    reared    oases     fragrant    Khadijah    matchmaker     followers    submission    revelations    paradise    preach    jeering   plunge    scorned    betraying     disapproved    refuges    tragedy    mosque    Prophet    Medina   Arabic   negotiate      truce

In Geography, we will be looking at Earthquakes. Within this topic we will be looking at what causes earthquakes, how we measure them, the impact that they can cause and how humans live with the fear and aftermath of an earthquake.

Vocabulary

Earthquake     tremors     aftershocks    visible    tectonic plates    plate boundary     fault line    Sa Andreas Fault    seven major plates    friction    epicentre    tsunami    focus    seismic waves     seismograph     magnitude    Richter scale   

In French this half-term, we will be focusing on classroom instructions and things that you would find inside a school. Pupils will learn to follow basic instructions given by the teacher and will be able to identify and use the names of key items within short sentences and conversations.

Vocabulary

Lisez    ouvrez    fermez    regardez      parlez     asseyez-vous    levez-vous    silence     un crayon     un taille-crayon    un stylo   un cahier    un sac   une gomme    une trousee    J’ai    tu as…?     dans mans sac      je n’ai pas      et     mais    oui     non     des ciseaux    

Music will be taught through a programme called Kapow and our topic is all Samba and Carnival sounds and instruments. Pupils will learn to recognise different Samba sounds and rhythms before composing their own piece of music in groups.

Vocabulary

Brazil    Carnival    Samba Batucada    cowbell    agogo     chocalho     ganza    caixa    rhythm     texture    dynamics    offbeat     syncopation     pulse     beat    

Science this term will all be focused on sound. Pupils will learn how sounds are created and how we hear them. Pupils will look at how sound waves vary depending on the pitch of the sound being produced.

Vocabulary

pitch    waves    frequency   vibration   particles    source    travel    dissipate    volume   sound  

This term, our DT is all about creating shell structures using CAD. Pupils will create a box template online and then turn this into a promise books which links in with our work in  RE.

If time, pupils will also be making their own musical instrument to coincide with their learning in Science on sound.  

Vocabulary

Equipment   structure      pitch     resource    modify    evaluate     layout    plan   assess   

 

Links to learning sites

https://bedrocklearning.org/

https://app.sirlinkalot.org/

https://ttrockstars.com/

https://app.gonoodle.com/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/

 

Key dates:

Summer term starts – Tuesday 18^th April 2023

Swimming starts – Monday 24^th April 2023

May Day - school closed – Monday 1^st May 2023

Class photo’s – Friday 5^th May 2023

King's Bank Holiday – school closed – Monday 8^th May 2023

Orienteering (selected pupils only) – Tuesday 16^th May 2023