Welcome Back for Autumn 2.

We’ve had a fantastic start to our Year 4 journey. We have another jam packed term ahead of us filled with lots of learning and fun!

English

Mathematics 

Children made a great start to Maths last term and showed a great understanding of place value. Place value underpins everything in maths and will support children in our next units, addition and subtraction and measurement – length and perimeter.

We will also continue to develop our fluency with multiplication and division facts.

We will continue to follow our concreate, pictorial and abstract teaching sequences.

Our History topic this half term is, The Great Plague! We will also be looking at the similarities and differences between the Great Plague and COVID 19.

Over this unit children will be able to;

Show their increasing knowledge and understanding of the past by:

• Making some links between and across periods, such as the differences between clothes, food, buildings or transport.
• Identifying where some periods studied fit into a chronological framework by noting connections, trends and contrasts over time.

Events, People and Changes

Be able to describe some of the main events, people and periods they have studied by:

• Understanding some significant aspects of history, e.g. how the Great Plague of 1665 affected London and beyond.

 Communication

• Construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
• When doing this they should use specialist terms, e.g. Bills of mortality, plague pits and vocabulary linked to chronology.
• Produce structured work that makes some connections, draws some contrasts, frame historically-valid questions involving thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information using appropriate dates and terms.

 Enquiry, Interpretation and Using Sources

• Understand some of the methods of historical enquiry, and how evidence is used sources to make detailed observations, finding answers to questions about the past.
• Use some sources to start devising historically valid questions about change, cause and significance e.g. of the Great Plague.
• Understand some of the methods of historical enquiry, how evidence is used to make historical claims.
• Use sources as a basis for research from which they will begin to use information as evidence to test hypotheses e.g. whether the uniform of a plague doctor would work as protection from the disease.
• Identify some of the different ways in which the past can be represented, and that different versions of the past such as an event may exist (artist’s pictures, museum displays, written sources).

In this geography topic, children will learn about the importance of taking care of the environment. They will consider environments at a range of scales from their classroom to the whole world. It will include issues around litter and waste e.g. damage to the environment; reducing the level of resource use; and reuse, as well as recycling, of resources. Children will recognise how people can adversely affect, as well as improve, the environment. They will begin to identify and explain differing views that people have about topical environmental and geographical issues.

In art, children will be linking their learning in history to their art work. Children will be exploring the use of the image of the skill. We will be looking at two artist works Damien Hirst and Jean Basquair. Children will then explore a range of drawing and painting techniques to create their own skull artwork.

English

To start our term in Year 4, we will be using the text ‘Until I Met Dudley’ by Roger McGough.

This week, children in Year 4 have been using actions to retell an explanation from the text ‘Until I Met Dudley’. Children were able to orally retell how a toaster works. Have a look at our action shots below. Can you work out what each action means?

Our next text we will be using in English is the fantasy story, The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman.

Key Learning Writing:
• Create sentences with fronted adverbials for when e.g. As the clock struck twelve, the soldiers sprang into action.
• Use inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech.
• Explore, identify, collect and use noun phrases e.g. The crumbly cookie with tasty marshmallow pieces melted in my mouth.
• Read and analyse narrative.
• Discuss and record ideas for planning e.g. story board, boxing-up text types to create a plan.
• Organise paragraphs in narrative.
• Link ideas within paragraphs e.g. fronted adverbials for when e.g. In the distance, a lone wolf howled.
• Generate and select from vocabulary banks e.g. powerful adverbs, adverbial phrases, appropriate to text type.

Key Learning Reading

• Regularly listen to whole novels read aloud by the teacher.
• Identify, discuss and collect effective words and phrases which capture the reader’s interest and imagination e.g. metaphors, similes.
• Make predictions based on information stated and implied.
• Demonstrate active reading strategies e.g. generate questions, find answers, refine thinking, modify questions, construct images.
• Draw inferences around characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions and motives, and justify with evidence from the text using point and evidence.
• Make and respond to contributions in a variety of group situations e.g. whole class, independent reading groups, book circles.

This week, children used conscious ally in our English lesson. This allowed the children to explore their reasons for and against our main character Lila wanting to leave. Each children had to give their reason to either leave or stay to Lila. When our character Lila got to the end of the ally, she had to decide if she had been convinced to stay or still leave.

Science

This term, we will be exploring electricity. In this unit children will be able to;

• Identify common appliances that run on electricity.
• Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers.
• Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
• Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Last week, year 4 were given a challenge in science. They had to make a burglar alarm. The children used their learning from our unit to help them to complete this task. It wasn’t easy and the children showed great perseverance and resilience throughout this challenge.

D.T

In this unit, children will be using their learning of circuits to create their own light up box. Within this unit children will understand and use electrical systems in products.

This week, children created a simple circuit to make a picture light up.

Last week, children began the design process of their light up boxes. On Friday, children created their boxes and we had lots of fun decorating them! We cannot wait to add our circuits to them this week. Keep your eyes peeled!

Year 4 have tested their light up boxes today. They each created a circuit containing light blubs (some used more than one). Have a look at their light up boxes.

PE

Our PE days this term will be on;

• Tuesday
• Thursday ( Mr Archer)

Please remember to come to school in your PE kit on these days.

This term on Tuesdays, year 4 have been using their learning of electricity and circuits to create movements, group dances and duet dances. Here are a few snaps from our lesson last week.