Welcome to Year 4

Mrs Summers, Mrs Carolan and Mrs Harbour

Our theme for Summer 1 is:

How did the civilisation of Egypt wax and wane?

Our Theme

After finishing off our theme on Canals, our driver theme this term will be ‘How did the civilisation of Egypt wax and wane? This 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, the children will be writing their innovated story based on Little Red Riding Hood. This is after reading the alternative version: ‘The wolf’s story: What really happened to Little Red Riding Hood’. Following this, 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 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, after finishing our unit ‘In a state: Melting, freezing and evaporation’, 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 term we will continue to explore the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ this will also have links to Easter.

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. We will also be making our final product from our DT topic, a sarcophagus that opens using pneumatics with a mummy inside!

 PE

This term the children will be learning skills to support them to play tennis. 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 finishing our unit on animation and then will begin our unit on ‘Effective searching’, which follows on from the unit that the children completed on this in Year 2.

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 Monday and the children will have their swimming session on a Thursday afternoon.
• 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. This term the maths focus will solely be on times tables as the Multiplication Tables Check approaches.  We also encourage the children to play on Times Tables Rockstars to improve their multiplication and division fact recall as well as practising for the upcoming Multiplication Tables Check by using the links mentioned below. The children may also receive some English homework as well as spellings based on that week’s spelling rule.

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. Use the following websites which simulate the times tables test that the children will be taking part in June.

https://www.themathsfactor.com/times-tables-check/#/

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-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. 

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