Welcome to Year 4

Mrs Summers, Mrs Turner, Miss Jones and Miss Julian

Our theme for Summer 1 is:

How did the civilisation of Egypt wax and wane?

Our Theme

Our driver theme this term is ‘How did the civilisation of Egypt wax and wane?’, which is mainly a History theme based on the Ancient Egyptians but the children will also be looking at aspects of Geography as they will be looking closely at the River Nile. The children will be discovering facts about Egypt’s past through investigation of archaeology. We will explore how Egyptians built such immense buildings and explore tombs and mummification. We will explore pharaohs and what responsibilities they had even at such a young age.

English 

In English this half term, we will be using a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books linked to our theme on the Ancient Egyptians. The children will be writing in many different genres such as recounts, diary entries, biographies, newspaper reports and discussion texts as well as some narrative pieces and poetry.

Reading, as always, will be a crucial part of the children’s learning. The children will continue to use Accelerated Reader for their daily reading books, which they will also bring home. The children will also have whole class reading comprehension lessons using a variety of books linked to our topic and focusing on different domains such as retrieval, prediction, vocabulary and author’s choice.

Maths

In Maths, we will be finishing our unit on decimals. We will then start our unit on perimeter and then they will be introduced to area by counting the amount of squares in a shape. Our next unit will then be on solving money and measure problems.

Science

This half term, in Science, we will be finishing our unit ‘In a state’ where the children will look at the changes in state.

Following that, we will be starting our unit ‘Good vibrations’ based on sound. The children will develop their vocabulary for describing sounds and identify different sound sources. They will explore ways to change the pitch and volume of sounds.

RE

In RE, this terms’ theme focuses on Buddhism and is all about the eight fold path. We will be exploring a focussed enquiry question: What is the best way for a Buddhist to lead a good life?

Art

In Art, we will be making papyrus paper and then drawing on it. The children will be making observational drawings of Egyptian artwork and hieroglyphs. They will then investigate how to make papyrus paper and will create their own design.

PE

This term the children will be learning skills to support them to play tennis with the coaches from Onside. They will learn the skills to build up to playing a game.

For their second PE session, the children will be going swimming on a Thursday afternoon. The lessons will undertaken by qualified swimming instructors at the Alan Higgs centre.

Computing

We will starting our unit on ‘Effective searching’, which follows on from the unit that the children completed on this in Year 2.

The children will be looking at locating information on a search results page, searching effectively and then assessing whether the information source is true and reliable.

Following this they will become ‘Hardware investigators’ looking at the different parts that make up a computer.

PSHE

In PSHE this half term, the children will finish their unit ‘Healthy me’, looking at the effects of smoking and alcohol, being assertive, peer pressure and celebrating inner strength.

The next theme will be ‘Relationships’. The children will be looking at jealousy, love and loss, memories of loved ones, getting on and falling out, girlfriends and boyfriends and showing appreciation to people and animals.

Important information

• PE this half term is timetabled for a Tuesday and the children will have their swimming session on a Thursday afternoon. A separate letter has been sent out regarding what the children need for this as well as a reminder email sent out on 09.04.24
• The children will need to bring in their AR books daily to read in school and should bring them back home, You should continue to read with your child at least 3 times a week. The children will come home with their AR book at the beginning of next week.
• Homework-this will be given out on a Friday and will consist of spellings based on the rule that we have been working on that week, an English activity based on the learning for that week as well as an optional Maths with parents activity to consolidate their learning. We also encourage the children to play on Times Tables Rockstars to improve their multiplication and division fact recall. As mentioned previously, the Maths homework will be focused on times tables recall ahead of the Multiplication Tables Check in June.

How you can help at home

• Encourage your child to complete activities on Times Tables Rockstars particularly on the ‘Garage’ tab where the children will then develop their own ‘heatmap’ which will identify the weaker times tables which they can then practise. Practise times tables recall with your child. A meeting regarding the Multiplication Tables check will be coming up soon. Details of this to follow. Please find attached a leaflet for parents about the check.
• Listen to your child read at least 3 times per week and have discussions about the text (record the reading sessions in their reading records). Encourage them to summarise what they have read. I have now added a list of the types of questions you could ask your child when reading with them to the class page in the form of a bookmark.

We work with a company called SEND Supported at school and they are releasing newsletters each week offering support and guidance to parents of children who many have additional needs in school. Please find below a link to these newsletters:

There are also lots of other resources and information available on their website. The 'Things to do Issue 2 - Resources' file has some lovely activities for all children regardless of whether they have additional needs or not. There are lots of great visual puzzles and games for children to play so please have a look if you can. There are also resources available now to support with developing children's memory skills in 'Thing to do Issue 3 - Resources.'

Literacy Links

Free e books - just register  

Maths Links

P.E Links  

Look out for information being sent to you with login details to use this at home!

Daily half an hour workouts Monday - Friday 9 a.m (Don't worry if you missed it, they are all saved)

Curriculum Links                                      Myleene's Music Klass