Welcome to Year 4

Mrs Summers, Mrs Ellis and Mrs Harbour

Our theme for Autumn 2 is:

How do natural disasters impact peoples of the world?

Our Theme

Please note that we have continued with our topic on the Romans for this week focusing on what the Romans have done for us and how they changed Britain and will move on to our new unit next week.

Our driver theme this term is a geography theme, ‘How do natural disasters impact the peoples of the world?-Volcanoes and earthquakes’.  We will be looking at what volcanoes are and why they erupt and will look at what happened when volcanoes have erupted such as Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna. After that, the children will be looking at what earthquakes are and why they happen as well as tsunamis and floods, each time looking at a real life example that has happened to see what impact it has had.           

English 

In English this half term, we will be reading ‘Escape to Pompeii’ as our class book which ties in nicely with our Geography topic. The story follows the two main characters Tranio and Livia and their experience of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Inspired by the book, the children will be writing some setting descriptions as well as a newspaper report on the eruption of 79 AD using various non-fiction books on Pompeii as well as other sources to help them add authentic detail.

 Following that we will be using the non-fiction book ‘The street beneath our feet’ to tie in with our topic in science on rocks. We will be using this book to write non-fiction texts such as information and explanation texts.

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 and focusing on different domains such as retrieval, prediction, vocabulary and author’s choice.

Maths

In Maths, we will begin the term by finishing our unit on multiplication and division which looks at securing our multiplication facts to secure the children’s understanding of times tables to 12 x 12, with a particular focus on the 7 and 9 times tables.

This also explores looking at a range of multiplication strategies. We will then move on to interpreting and presenting data. We will finish by looking at a unit on calculating with multiplication and division

with a focus on division strategies and going over short division with the children.

Science

This half term, in Science, we will be starting our unit ‘Rock Detectives’ where the children will indeed become rock detectives. They will establish their knowledge and understanding of rocks, their relationship to soils and how fossils have formed over time.

RE

In RE, we will be exploring a focussed enquiry question: What is the most significant part of the Nativity story for Christians today?

The children will look at the symbols of Christmas from the nativity story.

DT

In DT this half term, the children will be creating their own gift boxes which will have a Christmas theme, using computer aided design. These will then house some Christmas chocolate treats that the children will be given at the end of term!

PE

This term the children will be learning skills to support them to play Dodgeball. They will learn the skills to build up to playing a game, such as different sorts of throwing and tactics that they can use during the game.

They will also be learning Gymnastics with the coaches from Onside.

Computing

We will starting our unit on Online Safety. During this unit, the children will learn about how they can protect themselves as well as learning about their digital footprint, they will also be looking at the risks and benefits of installing software as well as the positive and negative influences of technology.

PSHE

In PSHE this half term, the theme will be ‘Celebrating difference’. The children will be looking at challenging assumptions and how people judge by appearance. As well as this, they will be looking at accepting themselves and others. They will move on to understanding the things that may influence us as well as bullying. They will also look at identifying how special and unique everyone is.

Important information

• PE this half term is timetabled for a Wednesday and a Friday. Children should come to school wearing a white T shirt, shorts/joggers and trainers/plimsolls in school on these days.

• 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, a maths and English activity based on the learning for that week. We also encourage the children to play on Times Tables Rockstars to improve their multiplication and division fact recall.

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.

Encourage your child to find out about volcanoes and earthquakes as well as the different types of rocks to help support their learning. Here are some useful websites: https://school-learningzone.co.uk/key_stage_two/ks2_geography/volcanoes_and_earthquakes/volcanoes_and_earthquakes.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8heA8e9_zk Video about rocks

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 and have also attached it to this email.

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