Year 4
Summer Term 2
Topic overview
In Geography children will be locating and investigating rainforests around the world. They will be looking at the effects of deforestation on our planet and what can be done about it.
Art and Design this half term is focused around the painting ‘Tiger in a Storm’ by Henri Rousseau. They will use this as a stimulus for their own painting and also to create a 3D painting that comes to life through design and technology skills.
In literacy we explore the theme of deforestation in more detail and the children will use their knowledge to write a persuasive letter and a narrative about a child who lives in the rainforest
In Science we will be focussing on animals and their habitats. Children will be able to classify animals, explore habitats and how animals are adapted to their environment.
Our PE lessons will focus on Athletics and field games. Year 4’s PE days are Monday and Tuesday. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit ready for these days (black shorts, white t-shirt, black plimsolls), and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank you.
Ideas to support your child
Children should be reading every day and it must be recorded in their Reading Record by an adult. Please also encourage to practice the common exception words.
Please also support your child with their regular homework activities including learning spellings, Reading comprehension and maths homework.
Year 4’s target times tables to continue to practice this half term are 9, 11 and 12.
Guide on the side
This term we will be learning about rain forests.
Choose from the following tasks, complete at least one writing task and one creative task.
a) Make a rainforest in a jar – find out about the different plants you would find in each of the layers of the rainforest and use paper, card, twigs, moss, grass and anything else you can think of to make a miniature rainforest.
b) Design a rainforest animal or bird. Draw it and label any adaptations (things about it that make it suited to living in the rainforest). Choose a name for your new type of animal or bird.
c) Design a rainforest animal or bird. Write a description to tell me;
- What it looks like
- What it sounds like
- Its habitat
- When it sleeps and hunts
- What it eats.
d) Write a description of walking into a rainforest, think about what we have learned about descriptive writing using all our senses. Describe what you see, hear, smell and touch and how you feel emotionally.
e) Create an acrostic poem on a chosen animal or the rainforest.
Visits/Visitors/Events
- My Money Week – 12th – 16th June 2017 (Parents invited in Thursday 15th P.M)
- Yr 4 Theatre Trip – English Touring Opera – 13th June 2017
- Yr 2/3/4 Sports Afternoon – 22nd June 2017
- Carnival – 13th July 2017
- Country Park visit – Educational visit (Date to be confirmed)
Summer Term 1
Whole School Theme: Let's Invent
Year Group Theme: Chocolate
Topic overview
In Geography children will be investigating Chocolate. This will include finding out about where in the world cocoa beans grow, what sort of climate cocoa beans need to grow and how the cocoa beans are produced and made into Chocolate.
Art and Design this half term concentrates on children designing their own chocolate bar and packaging as well as the advertising to promote their chocolate bar.
In literacy we explore the themes of relationships, suspicion and trust. Children will be reading the contemporary story Lost or Stolen by Narinder Dhami and then write a new chapter.
Non-fiction looks at information texts presented in a variety of styles, in a magazine feature format. The content of the magazine is used to stimulate to create and present their own information texts.
In Science we will be focussing on Electricity. Children will make circuits and investigate factors that affect the brightness of bulbs etc. They will also explore electrical insulators and conductors and look at the inside of a plug to see where these are used and why.
Our PE lessons will focus on Athletics and Invasion Games. Year 4’s PE days are Monday and Tuesday. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit ready for these days (black shorts, white t-shirt, black plimsolls), and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank you.
Ideas to support your child
Children should be reading every day and it must be recorded in their Reading Record by an adult.
Please also support your child with their regular homework activities including learning spellings, Reading comprehension and maths homework.
Year 4’s target times tables to practice this half term are 9, 11 and 12.
Guide on the side
This term we will be learning about chocolate. For your homework you need to begin by creating in your mind an amazing, imaginary chocolate bar (or type of sweets). It could be something that makes you able to fly when you eat it, something that means you don’t need to sleep for three days, be imaginative!
Choose from the following tasks, try to do at least one writing task and one creative task:
- Create an advert for the product.
- Design the room in the chocolate factory where it is made.
- Write a diary entry about the day you discovered the secret ingredient.
- Write a newspaper article about the day the product first went on sale.
- Write the script for a TV advert for your product.
Visits/Visitors/Events
Tuesday 25 April 2017
Bedtime stories (5pm-6pm)
Parent and child session
Wednesday 24 May 2017
This is an opportunity for parents to come in to their child’s classroom and join them in their learning in a fun and informal environment.
Spring Term 2
Whole School Theme: Take One Picture
Year Group Theme: Shaping Our View
Topic overview
In Geography children will be looking at Tilbury and Thurrock and how the environment has changed over the past 50 years.
Rhyming Narrative Verse and Explanation Text are the focus of our literacy lessons. Children will use drama and discussion to tease out some of the serious issues behind the humour in Kaye Umansky’s engaging tale of The Bogey Men and the Trolls Next Door. For our non-fiction unit children will be creating their own explanations in a variety of forms, culminating in the delivery of an explanatory lesson on how to get the ‘pop star’ look.
Art and Design this half term concentrates on the work of artist Alberto Giacometti and his abstract wire figures, and Henry Moore who is famous for sculpting people with hollow spaces in their bodies and for using flowing, abstract shapes.
In PSHE we will be focussing on healthy and safer lifestyles looking at personal hygiene and the benefits of carrying out a regular hygiene routine. We will also look at how illness and disease might be spread and how this can be reduced.
Our PE lessons will focus on gymnastics and Invasion Games. Year 4’s PE days are Tuesday and Wednesday. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit ready for these days (black shorts, white t-shirt, black plimsolls), and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank you.
Ideas to support your child
Children should be reading every day and it must be recorded in their Reading Record by an adult.
Children need to complete all weekly homework provided on a Friday and return it to school by the following Wednesday. (See inside homework book for details.)
Continue to help your child learn all times tables up to 12 x 12.
Encourage your child to complete the Guide on the Side Homework each half term, related to our topic.
Guide on the side
This term the whole school will be focussed on London, and Year 4’s area of expertise will be about our local area.
The children will need to complete a project based on how Thurrock has changed over the last 50 years. We suggest the children try a mixture of activities from the provided list which includes creating a map of the local area; making a model of a local landmark and interviewing people who have experienced the changes during the last 50 years.
Homework is due in on Monday 20th March.
Visits/Visitors/Events
2nd March: Parents evening
2nd March: World Book day – Children to dress up as favourite book character
14th March: GLC Science day
27th March: Parent and child session
Parent and child session – TBA
This is an opportunity for parents to come in to their child’s classroom and join them in their learning in a fun and informal environment.
Spring Term 1
Whole School Theme: An Eye on London
Year Group Theme: The Blitz
Topic overview
Our focus this half term is WW2 and The Blitz. Children will be learning what it was like to be around during the Second World War and what it meant to be an evacuee. They will listen to the clip of PM Neville Chamberlain announcing that Britain is at war, and radio clips of children’s experiences of being evacuated.
In literacy the children will be introduced to a story with a historical setting – Runaways! By Jim Eldridge. They will explore the setting and use it to immerse themselves in the story. The setting and period will then provide inspiration for their own writing.
In our non-fiction week, the children will broaden their knowledge of the Victorian period by looking through journalistic texts that are typical of the period.
Our Art lessons this half term concentrate on cross hatching, which is the use of fine parallel lines drawn closely together to create the illusion of shade or texture in a drawing.
PE lessons will focus on gymnastics and WW2 dance. Year 4’s PE days are Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit ready for these days (black shorts, purple/white t-shirt, black plimsolls), and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank you.
Ideas to support your child
Refer to the new homework guidance that has been sent home.
Guide on the side
This term we are studying WW2 and your Guide on the Side homework will be based around Anderson Shelters. Children will have the opportunity to choose from a range of tasks including creating a fact file, building a model of an Anderson Shelter, writing a safety brochure about how to act during the Blitz or writing a diary account in role of someone who has experienced being in an Anderson Shelter.
Homework is due in on Monday 30th January.
Visits/Visitors/Events
TBA: Visit to RAF Museum Hendon.
Parent and child session
Date: Monday 6th February 2017
World War II Art themed session.
Autumn Term 2
Whole School Theme: Influential People
Year Group Theme: Elizabeth 1
Topic overview
Our fiction focus this half term in Literacy is Play Scripts. Children will be reading, performing and writing play scripts based on a Vietnamese folk tale. Our non-fiction unit will concentrate on learning the features of Information Texts.
In maths we will begin with developing knowledge of shape and then move on to mental methods of addition, while in music we're learning both well-known and original songs for our Christmas Production. We will be focussing on clarity of diction, the dynamics of the song and performance techniques.
In science we are looking at states of matter - by the end of the term the children should be able to compare and group material together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases, be able to observe that some material change state when they are heated or cooled, and to be able to identify the part played by evaporation, condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.
In art we will be learning about portraiture and looking for inspiration from famous portraits. We will explore traditional and modern methods of creating a portrait and use the ideas gathered to create a portrait of ourselves. In DT we will be looking at the purpose of chairs and generating a design to create a model throne fit for a Queen or King.
In Religion we are exploring Christianity and the Christmas story- by the end of the term children should be able to understand the definition of symbolism, understand the important events that occur in the Christmas story and the symbolism within it, understand what the different parts of a Christingle symbolise and express what the Christmas story means to Christians today by designing their own Christmas decoration and Christingle.
This term in History we are exploring the Elizabethan Era and Elizabeth I. Children will get to investigate the ‘Golden Age’ of British history by investigating the influence of Queen Elizabeth I as well as the lives of those living in Elizabethan England.
The theme in PSHE is bullying and the unit covers ‘what is bullying?’ ‘types of bullying’ ’how does bullying make all those involved feel?’ ‘How can we support people who are bullied?’
In PE children will be exploring gymnastics, focussing on moving with control and awareness of space, and refining movements into sequences to include varying speed, direction, level and body rotation during floor performances.
Year 4’s PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit ready for these days (black shorts, Purple/white t-shirt, black plimsolls, black tracksuit bottoms for outside PE), and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank you.
Ideas to support your child
Children should be reading every day, recorded in their Purple Reading Records to receive a stamp. For every 10 stamps, children will receive a Reading challenge prize.The Maths Challenge supports your child with learning their Time Tables. Once they can recall their assigned times table – both multiplication and division facts – they can take the Maths Challenge and will be awarded if they successfully complete the test.
Visits/Visitors/Events
- 3 November: Parents evening
- 16 December: Year 3 & 4 Christmas Carols Performance
- Parent/Child Session (Date TBC)
Parent and child session
Our Parent/Child activity will be linked to our Tudor topic and we will be making fragrant pomanders.
From medieval times right up to the 18th century pomanders were carried, worn or hung in rooms against "foule, stinkying aire". In the court of Queen Elizabeth I, pomanders were worn in bejewelled gold and silver containers.
Homework
This half term’s homework is linked to our history topic on Elizabeth I. Children will need to complete two activities and will have a choice of writing a letter, creating a presentation, designing a crown or making a royal crown.
Autumn Term 1
Whole School Theme: Who's Who
Year Group Theme: Pakistan
Topic overview
This half term Year 4 will be focusing on the country of Pakistan through a range of different subject areas.
During our topic sessions children will look in detail at Pakistan and make comparisons with the UK. This will include examining location, population and climate as well as cultural differences between the two countries including a food tasting session!
Textiles will also be a focus in the Art and Design and Technology sessions where children will be given the opportunity to explore textiles and patterns linked to our topic work and then design and produce a bag or purse.
English will focus on poetry and newspaper reports which provides children with the opportunity to share their own experiences. The core text will look at the book ‘Boy – Tales of Childhood Roald Dahl’ while the Literacy and Language unit focuses on poets use of language to create images and emotions and ‘Your Alien Experiences/ The Daily Blab’-(Newspaper Report).
Maths will continue to use the Numicon scheme with particular focus this half term on revising calculation methods for adding and subtracting as well as securing key number facts and strategies; while Science this half term provides children with the opportunity to find out more about teeth, digestion and eating.
It will be an exciting time in PE where children will be looking at multi-cultural dance linked to our topic and also be learning how to play hockey. PE days in 4O are on Monday and Thursday and in 4P are on Wednesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit ready for these days and that all jewellery is removed before they come to school. Thank You!
Ideas to support your child
All children are expected to read at home with an adult for at least 10 minutes each day. This should include a range of text types. Please also encourage and support your child to complete their Guide on the Side homework to a high standard.
Letters regarding spelling and times tables will follow shortly.
Guide on the side
This half term’s homework is linked to our science topic: ‘Animals including humans’ which is linked to the whole school theme of: ‘Who’s who?’
Children are to research 1 organ in the body – they can choose which. They will need to find out what it does in the body to keep us alive and well, and present any other interesting facts they have found out.
Visits/visitors/events
This half term children will have the opportunity to taste some Asian food made by one of our parent helpers and then be taught how to make their own vegetable samosas as part of our Open futures/Cook it programme.
As part of our Literacy and Language unit children will also have the opportunity to select their favourite poems to Skype to other schools across the GLC.
Parent and child session
Date: 10th October 2016
Our Parent – Child Sessions enable children to share examples of their work with parents and gives parents an opportunity to take part in some of the activities with their child. The session will take place in the hall and will be a celebration of the learning that has taken place this half term.
Homework can be viewed on the left!
