Year 4 - Jungle Book & Northern Lights

Year 4 – Summer 1                            

 

As Readers

We will be reading the book, ‘Charlottes Web’, E.B. White.  This is the story of a little girl named Fern, who loves a little pig named Wilbur – and of Wilbur’s dear friend, Charlotte, a beautiful large grey spider. When Fern’s uncle decrees that Wilbur must become bacon, Fern, Charlotte, Templeton the rat and all Wilbur’s farmyard friends come up with an ingenious plan to fool the humans, and save their very special pig.

Joyful, funny, and deeply moving, Charlotte’s Web is a story about the power of friendship, and celebrating what makes everyone special. It is rightly heralded as one of the greatest children’s books ever written.

Our whole class reading sessions will be linked to the science topic, ‘food chains’.  We will be looking at non-fiction, whilst focussing on the key skills of: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explain, retrieval and summarising.

Key Vocabulary: environment, grief, nature, loss, mythical, issues, imaginary, well-tended, sidelong, dew, baaing, dusk, agile, bewilderment, solemn, hibernating

 

As writers

As writers we will be looking in depth at poetry, through visualisation.  The children will be given the opportunity to write their own poems, followed by performing them to music.  We shall follow with writing a persuasive text.  This will include a submission for a competition to redevelop, design and name a new town.  The children will be expected to produce annotated diagrams/maps and explain their rationale for selecting particular facilities for the new settlement.

Key Vocabulary: punctuation, rhyme, noun phrases, ode, visualisation, elegy, persuasion, rhetorical, diagram, labels, sub heading, heading

 

As Mathematicians

Children begin this block by exploring different ways of making 1 whole by combining tenths, before moving onto making 1 whole from hundredths.  Using place value counters and place value charts to support children in recognising the place value of each digit in a number, the children will partition numbers with up to 2 decimal places into their place value parts. Part-whole models will be used to partition the numbers using the children’s understanding of place value.  They will then go on to compare and order these numbers, before rounding them and finally applying their knowledge of decimal equivalents of hundredths and tenths to recognise and write fractions.

Key Vocabulary: whole, part, numerator, denominator, decimal, tenth, hundredth, centimetres, metres, rounding, equality symbols, greater, less, equal, integer

 

As Scientists

We kickstart this unit by examining plants.  This will include the scientific skills of classifying, grouping and identifying.  We will take learning outside by exploring the school and local grounds.  Shortly after, we will research food chains.  We will observe producers, predators and prey, while also learning about animals in different habitats. The lessons begin by encouraging children to identify how different living things are linked by what they eat. The term ‘producer’ is introduced to describe the living thing (usually a green plant) at the bottom of each food chain. Children will build upon their knowledge of food chains from key stage 1 and delve deeper into the concept by looking at energy transfer and the labels that can be applied to the different living things in the chain.  Following that, we shall move onto how environmental changes in farming impact on wildlife.

Key Vocabulary: classify, group, observe, key, compare, differences, similarities, producer, habitat, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, environmental

 

As Geographers

The children will travel back to the time of the early village settlers as your class discover how towns and villages got their names and why certain areas were chosen as settlements. Then return to the present day and look at settlements and explore maps of surrounding areas. Through this unit, the children will gain a greater understanding of what settlements are, how settlements were formed and also to improve their map skills. We will discover how reading maps can tell them what a settlement is like. They will also get the opportunity to take on the role of town planner as they design their own settlement.

Key Vocabulary: Settlement, settlers, origins, hamlet, village, town, city, ordinance survey, symbol, abbreviation, grid reference, amenities

 

As Artists

This half term Year 4 will literally be going dotty about art! Not only will we find out about George Seurat, the father of Pointillism, and his famous Pointillist artwork, but we will also have the chance to create our very own Pointillism art projects using a range of techniques.

Key Vocabulary: Pointillism, Neo Impressionism, compare, contrast, optical mixing, primary, secondary, shade, blend

Home Learning

In Year 4, pupils will be given a list of 10 spellings from the statutory spelling list each week, which they are expected to learn in preparation for a spelling test every Friday. Pupils are expected to demonstrate learning using Ed-Shed or, if this cannot be accessed at home, by asking their class teacher for an alternative.

Please continue to read regularly with your child at home, as reading regularly will help your child’s vocabulary knowledge, spelling and writing skills. Furthermore, we ask that you encourage your child to learn their multiplication tables up to 12. This is an ongoing expectation until your child can confidently recall them in a mixed order and using inverse operations. Times Tables Rock Stars should be accessed to help them.

We shall also send Mathematics, English, Science or Topic homework home on a Friday.  This must be completed and returned by Friday (the latest) the following week.