Year 4 - Jungle Book & Northern Lights
Year 4 – Summer 2 Vikings VS Anglo-Saxons
As Readers
We shall be diving back in time to the Viking era with, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, Cressida Cowell. The main character, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an incredible sword-fighter, dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking hero who ever lived. But he wasn't always like that - in fact, in the beginning, Hiccup wasn't fierce, brave or heroic at all. But the arrival of the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus offers the chance for Hiccup to shine. The ferocious bravado of the other Vikings proves useless, and Hiccup is called upon to save them by using his brains rather than his brawn. Can he defeat the dragon and save the Viking tribe from certain death?
Our whole class reading sessions will be linked to the history topic, ‘Vikings’. As part of this, we will be focussing on both fiction and non-fiction texts:
Information texts:
Vikings in Britain
Viking Myths
Viking Gods
Narratives:
The Theft of the Hammer
Riding the Waves
Key Vocabulary: vocabulary, inference, prediction, retrieval, explain, summarise, preposterously, bleak, ominous, gorge, primeval, fortifications, viciously, solemn, quarrelling, shovelling, ravenous, indignantly, sodden, modesty, barbarians, simultaneously, peril, hurled, raged, malevolent, sneered, bracken, expectantly, encircling, fiendishly, coaxed, optimist, extinguish, bard
As writers
As writers we will begin by exploring synonyms, first person, inverted commas, expanded noun phrases, similes and metaphors. Using these grammar skills, we will re-write a chapter from a chosen character’s perspective. The children will then design a dragon before using technical vocabulary to describe them. Finally, they will collate the information to produce a non-chronological report.
Key Vocabulary: punctuation, simile, descriptive, metaphor, inverted comma, direct speech, expanded noun phrase, first-person
As Mathematicians
Children shall explore how a year can be represented on a calendar, which shows the number of days in each month. They will compare the different units of time, recognise how often a leap year occurs and be able to calculate future leap years. Following this, we will move onto different turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. We will perform different turns from different starting points, including using compass directions. They then work out the turn after being given a start and end position. They will also consider what a pictorial representation of an angle looks like and how this relates to turns. Later on, the children will be gathering, interpreting and presenting data through a range of graphs and charts. Finally, we will look at translation and symmetry.
Key Vocabulary: hours, minutes, seconds, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, decades, anti-clockwise, full, half, quarter, turn, north, east, south, west, co-ordinates, left, right, forwards, backwards, bar, pie, line, pictogram, angle, right-angle, obtuse, acute, translation, symmetry
As Scientists
The exciting topic of sound, will give children the opportunity to research what sound is and how it is made, before giving our children the chance to investigate how sound travels, how it can be blocked, how different pitches can be attained, and much more! Get ready for this hands-on sound travelling experience.
Key Vocabulary: sound, pitch, volume, wave, vibration, amplify, hertz
As Historians
We will take our class on a fascinating journey back in time as they find out about the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the kingdom of England and how England became a unified country. Year 4 will explore where the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings came from, how they fought for territory and power, and how their fighting ultimately led to the kingdom of England we know today. Along the way, they will also find out what life was like for everyday people living in Anglo-Saxon and Viking Britain, exploring things such as Viking runes and Anglo-Saxon stories like Beowulf.
Key Vocabulary: Settlement, settlers, period, Dark Ages, invasion, tensions, battle, counterparts, unify, artefacts, chronological, evidence
As Artists
This unit is an opportunity for our children to undertake a range of creative and artistic activities within a common theme – Dragons. We will learn and consolidate knowledge of a range of different techniques. This will include, how to blend colours when using colouring pencils and soft chalk pastels when creating dragon eyes compositions. They will use this knowledge when decorating their ceramic dragon eyes and clay models of dragons. As part of the drawing element within this unit they learn how to enlarge drawings using a simple grid method. This will be linked with the work of, ‘Umberto Boccioni’, in particular his painting ‘Blurple Dance The Enigmatic Chinese Dragon’. They will delve into futurism, capturing the colour and dynamism of modern life in a style he theorized and defended in manifestos.
Key Vocabulary: Futurism, line, tone, blend, shade, composition, enlarge, scale
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 Wednesday (the latest) the following week.
