Autumn 2
We’ve been working really hard this half term across the curriculum and have tackled some jam-packed weeks of learning with great enthusiasm!
We have learned how to calculate and compare the perimeter and area of shapes and are working our way through 2 multiplication and division units. The children have revised some of the times-tables introduced in previous years, and have been learning, identifying patterns and solving problems involving 6s, 7s and 9s. Why not ask them to count in these steps? We have continued to practise our arithmetic skills and to keep strands not covered in the daily mathematics session ‘on the bubble’, with lots of retrieval practise of number facts and application of taught written methods.
Our fiction unit in English this half term has been based upon portal stories, using the setting description toolkit from Talk for Writing. The children were encouraged to use a variety of sentence openers, expanded noun phrases and personification to describe a range of contrasting settings. For our second focus genre, the children looked at the organisational structure of an instruction text, explored fronted adverbials and comma use and how to use imperative verbs. During our English lessons, children are reminded to apply their SPaG knowledge and new spelling rules.
Year 4 have really enjoyed lots of activities in their foundation subjects this half term, such as using watercolour when studying the work of Martha Kisling and creating floral paintings for our calendars, learning how to play the ukulele in Music lessons, and their most recent History topic. To hook the children into their new topic about the Anglo-Saxon era, we had a full day off timetable where the children explored elements of Anglo Saxon life. They used axes and built fires using a flint and steel, weaved wool to make fabric, completed independent research, used runes to create their names and completed pencil studies of a variety of artefacts. We explored why they came to England from Northern Europe, why they stayed, their religious beliefs, the battles they fought and how eventually, their reign came to an end. Children became historians when deciding if a piece of evidence was a primary or secondary source, and what this tells us about Anglo Saxon life. We have covered a unit on sound in Science lessons too. The children have explored how sound is made and what affects volume and pitch through a variety of different experiments. The have identified the different parts of the human ear, and discovered how sounds are heard.
Our half term ended with a fabulous Christmas performance and festive enterprise project for the Christmas fair. We are really proud of the progress the children have made throughout this very busy time!
Have a wonderful Christmas break,
Autumn 1
What a great start to the year we have had!
Lots of children have settled back into the school routine brilliantly and they have already started making progress across the curriculum. They have responded really well to the weekly home learning they have been set; spellings, reading, arithmetic and TT Rock Stars.
We kickstarted Mathematics by recapping and deepening our understanding of place value. Addition and subtraction of four-digit numbers was then introduced and within this, the children have solved a wide range of problems using a variety of methods. Multiplication is a big focus within the Year 4 curriculum and the children have shown lots of enthusiasm when taking part in the weekly times table champion challenge and the academy wide TT Rock Stars day.
In SPaG lessons, we have been learning about word classification, with a particular focus on regular, irregular and being verbs. This knowledge should hopefully feed into their writing during English sessions.
Our first Talk for Writing unit this half term was a warning tale, The Canal, and we learned to use features of the characterisation toolkit. We then looked at the features of an information text. The tree giants had destroyed our classroom during the hook session, and this led to some super non-fiction writing when writing information. Throughout these units, children have been taught when to use commas and how to use broad range of sentence openers and descriptive vocabulary.
Our Geography topic this half term has been ‘How important is transport and trade?’. The children have enjoyed discussing different transport needs and the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of transport. They have discovered what kind of items are traded internationally and from where, and they have used atlases and online technology to find these locations. Ask your children to tell you our Geography fingertip facts! This half term, our Science topic has been ‘Animals, including humans’. We have explored our teeth and their function, completed a drama exercise detailing each stage of the digestive system and looked at the diet of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We have looked at food chains and the impact a deviation from the chain may have. Our focus religion in R.E is Hinduism and this will continue through to the next half term. The children have learnt about Brahman, the one God, and how he is represented in different ways through deities. We have explored our own journeys in life and thought about our reason for being, known as a dharma. We have discussed friendships in PSHE. The children have defined a good friend, thought about what may affect a friendship and what to do in different social situations and about it may feel to be excluded. We have been fortunate enough to have Mr Kinmen come into school to teach the children ukulele every week. It has been a pleasure to hear the progress they have made. They have such beautiful singing voices too.
We have had a jam-packed 8 weeks and hope the children enjoy a well-deserved break!
