Year 4

Welcome back! In Year 4, we will be looking at the Ladybird ‘Histories book on the Anglo-Saxons’, which links to our history topic. This book will be used to support learning across the curriculum.

Pupils will be looking at money and how they can subtract amounts of money in order to give the correct change. Pupils will be using their fractional knowledge to help with their understanding of how discounts can be given. Pupils will also be looking at Roman Numerals and how they are represented. Then pupils will be looking at telling and writing time from an analogue clock, also using their Roman numeral knowledge to support them.

Using the Power of Reading book, pupils will look at the Anglo-Saxons and learn about how they changed Britain through studying the settlement of England following the Roman period including learning about King Redwald, a significant individual from this time (and believed to be buried at Sutton Hoo). They will also discover the impact the Anglo Saxons had on the western world, making contrasts and connections with the world today. Pupils will use a range of historical resources to find evidence, asking and answering their own questions about the Anglo Saxons. They will use their learning to help them create a chronological report on the Anglo Saxons.

During English, pupils will be exploring a variety of poems by Valerie Bloom also taken from the Power of Reading. They will be discussing different sounds of language, performing poems, taking part in debates, studying different geographical areas and responding to different poems through a variety of mediums.

This half term, pupils will look at rhythms and discover how these contribute to storytelling as part of their music topic.  They will use this skill to think about how music can tell a story, which will lead them to creating their own piece of music for the story ‘Cinderella’.

In RE lessons this half term, pupils will learn about Islam and will understand and explain the five main practices of Islam (the five pillars of Islam). They will explore the question ‘How do Muslims express their beliefs through practices?’ Pupils will have the opportunity to create a poster explaining important beliefs and practices they follow that have a positive impact on their life.

As part of the PSHE curriculum, pupils will continue to build on their understanding of how the choices that we make can have an impact on the environment: this links well with the work on sustainability from the Easter holiday homework.

In Spanish, pupils will revisit the parts of the body before moving on to learning ‘los animales’. They will learn different adjectives to describe jungle animals and progress to writing a sentence using a noun, a verb and adjectives to describe animals. Pupils will then use what they have learned to write their own jungle explorer story.

Pupils will continue to build on their understanding of algorithms this half term in computing lessons buy creating algoritms to make things move.

PE will continue to take place on Wednesdays so pupils should come to school wearing the correct PE kit on this day! Jasper Class will continue with swimming lessons so must have their kit with them.

Year 4 Recommended Reading List

1. The unfortunate series of events - Lemony Snicket
2. How to train your dragon - Cressida Cowell
3. The Brilliant World of Tom Gates - Tom Gates
4. The Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg
5. The Lion Above the Door - Onjali Q. Rauf
6. The Boy at the Back of the Class - Onjali Q. Rauf
7. Wicked World Cup - Michael Coleman
8. The Twits - Roald Dhal
9. Iron Man - Ted Hughes
10. Little People Big Dreams - Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
11. Sun, Moon and Stars - Stephanie Turnbull
12. Helping our Plant - Jane Bingham
13. Michael Rosen's Book of Nonsense - Michael Rosen
14. The 13-Storey Treehouse - Andy Griffiths
15. My Brother Is a Superhero - David Solomons