Year 4 2023 - 2024

Welcome to Year Four!

In Avocet Class, your class teachers are Miss Westbrook and Mrs Bostock, who will be supported by Mrs Rickwood.

In Teal Class, your class teacher is Mrs Sutherill, who will be supported by Mrs Milner.

We also have Miss Gladstone and Mrs Welch supporting across the year group. 

We all welcome you warmly and wish you a successful year.

Important information

Our day starts at 8:25 and ends at 3pm.

Year 4’s PE day is on Thursday and so children are asked to come to school in their PE kit. Please wear a school PE kit, tracksuits are available to order or children can wear blue/ black leggings or joggers and a white T-shirt. Trainers need to be worn for outdoor PE please.

Our Curriculum Summer Term

Topic summer

This term we will be learning about the Amazing Americas. Throughout the unit we will learn about the countries which make up the continents of North and South America. We will learn about key natural and human characteristics in these places. One of the areas that we will be looking into more deeply will be the Amazon Rainforest and learning about the people, plants and animals that live there.

In our art session we will be learning about and creating our own Batik pictures.

This half term we will book learning about animal lifecycles and food webs and also about sound and how it travels.

Maths summer 1  

In this half-term we will be completing our second decimals unit.

This involves:

• Making a whole number with tenths and hundredths.
• Partitioning decimals in different ways.
• Comparing and ordering decimals.
• Rounding to the nearest whole number.
• Writing halves and quarters as decimals.

We will then be moving on to money.

• Converting between pounds and pence.
• Comparing amounts of money.
• Solving problems with money.

Finally we be working on time. The children should be able to tell the time to the nearest minute on an analogue clock already. You can help by continuing to work on this skill regularly at home. This year we will focus on:

• Converting between analogue and digital times.
• Converting between the 12 and 24 hour clock.

English summer 1    

In our English lessons we will be look at the text Alba the Hundred Year Old Fish. We will be working up to writing an information board for an exhibit in an aquarium.

The Mastery Keys that we are working on this half term are as follows.

• Recognise the grammatical difference between plural and possessive ‘s’
• Indicate possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns
• Organise paragraphs around a theme
• Build a varied and rich vocabulary
• Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentence

Our Curriculum Spring term

Topic

Our new topic is ‘Misty Mountain, Winding River’. In this topic we will be focussing on Geography, Science and Art.  

Geography (knowledge organiser)

• Name, locate, describe and compare rivers and mountains.
• Explain how rivers have changed the landscape over time through deposition, erosion and transportation.
• Explain how rivers are used around the world.
• Explain the formation of different mountain types.
• Identify the topography of an area using contour lines on a map.
• Use specific geographical vocabulary to explain the water cycle.

Science

• Describing the water cycle.
• Exploring how environments can change over time.

Art

• Painting- creating and exploring warm and cool colours.
• Drawing mountain landscapes from an unusual perspective

Maths Spring 2 

In this half-term we will be focussing on Fractions.

This involves:

• Partitioning, comparing and ordering mixed numbers.
• Understanding and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers. 
• Recognise and find equivalent fractions and create fraction families. 
• Adding and subtracting fractions.

Later in the half term we will be looking at Decimals. 

This involves:

• Record tenths as decimals and fractions.
• Record hundredths as decimals and fractions. 
• Divide a 1 or 2 digit number by ten or a hundred.

English Spring 2   

In our English lessons we will be look at the texts Amazing Islands and Koji's Island. Building up to writing a story from an alternative viewpoint. 

We will continue with our class novel The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson.

Maths Spring 1

In this term we will start with Multiplication and division (unit 2) which looks at: Identifying factors, multiplying and dividing by multiples of ten and a hundred and multiplying a two or three digit number by a one digit number.

Here is an example of how we model multiplying a two digit number by a one digit number.

Toward the end of the unit we will develop this further to multiply a three digit number by a one digit number.

In our Length and Perimeter unit we will be building up to finding the perimeter of rectilinear shapes and regular polygons. The perimeter is the total measurement of all of the edges of a shape.

English

In our English lessons we will be look at the book Our Tower by Joseph Coelho.

Our class novel is The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson.

Our Curriculum Autumn term 2

Maths

This term, we will start by working on adding and subtracting four digit numbers. In this unit we will…

• Add and subtract multiples of 1, 10, 100 or 1000 from a given number.
• Add and subtract four digit numbers with no exchanges.
• Add and subtract four digit numbers which require one or more exchanges.
• Estimate the answers to questions.
• Use checking strategies.

Here are some examples of how we would use concrete, pictorial and abstract methods to solve  5321 + 2495 =

                   concrete                                                  pictorial                                                      abstract

Here are some examples of how we would use concrete, pictorial and abstract methods to solve  3258 - 1536 =

                   concrete                                                  pictorial                                                      abstract

Later in the half term, we will move onto our multiplication and division unit. In this unit we will…

• Multiply and divide by 3, 6 and 9.
• Multiply and divide by 7.
• Multiply and divide by 11.
• Multiply and divide by 12.
• Multiply by 1 and 0.
• Multiply 3 numbers.

As we shared at parents evening, we have a big focus on times tables and you can support this learning by encouraging children to access https://ttrockstars.com/ regularly at home too.

English

In our English lessons we will be look at the book Leon and the Place Between by Angela Mcallister and Grahame Baker. Our final writing outcome will be to write Leon’s secret diary about what really happened in ‘the place between’

These are the skills that we will be focusing on:                                                                                    

• Use Standard English forms e.g. he was, they were
• Extend the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions including when, if, because, although.
• Indicate possession by using the possessive apostrophe.
• Recognise the difference between plural (dogs- meaning two dogs) and possessive ‘s’ (dog’s toy – meaning the toy that belongs to the dog).
• Build a varied and rich vocabulary.

Our class novel is The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Rauf.

Topic

Our new topic is ‘Transformations’. In this topic we will be focussing on Science and DT.  

Science (knowledge organiser)

• Sorting and recognising the properties of solids, liquids and gases.
• Learning about the particles in each of the states of matter.
• Explore how some materials can change from one state to another using heating and cooling.

DT (knowledge organiser)

• Creating and transforming 2d nets into 3d packaging.

Our Curriculum Autumn term 1

Maths

We take part in daily maths lessons and we hope that children really enjoy their learning. Our teaching incorporates the concrete (physical apparatus), pictorial (visual representation) and abstract (the written concepts) model and children are encouraged to choose whatever method they find the most helpful . Maths equipment is available to children at all times as we encourage children to be independent in their learning. You may hear children talking about base 10 or place value counters as we are using those to help with our understanding of 4 digit numbers. We want children to build really solid foundations in these first important units of maths.

This term, our maths learning begins with our place value unit focusing on 4 digit numbers. Here are some of the things we are learning to do:

• Know the value of each digit in a 4 digit number
• Order 4 digit numbers on a number line
• Count in 1000s
• Find 1, 10, 100 and 1000 more or less than a given number
• Partition numbers using a part, part whole model
• Compare numbers using greater than and less than
• Solve problems using mathematical reasoning skills
• Count in 25s

English

In our English lessons we will be look at the book Gorilla by Anthony Browne. We will be producing many different types of writing including descriptions, information pages and writing our own version of the story.

These are the skills that we will be focusing on:

• Expand noun phrases by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and prepositional phrases
• Choose nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition
• Use fronted adverbials
• Organise paragraphs around a theme (to organise and sequence more extended narrative structures)
• Use commas after fronted adverbials

Our class novel is How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell.

Topic

Our first topic is Traders and Raiders. This project teaches children about life in Britain after the Roman withdrawal. Children will learn about Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions up to the Norman conquest.

Science

This half term, we were learning about the type different types of teeth that we have (and how to protect them) and how our digestive system works.