Year 4
Welcome to Magpie and Starling Class
This year we have planned many exciting topics for the children in Year 4. The children will be working hard to develop their skills to reach the standard of the Year 4 curriculum. As well as developing their confidence as independent learners, they will also be given opportunities to peer and self-evaluate and become more active in deciding their own next steps. We continue to provide engaging opportunities for the children and aim to accelerate progress to raise standards.
In the Autumn term, our work is inspired by London and the river Thames. through a cross curricular approach. We will write descriptive pieces using images and books of London and go on to produce an informative leaflet for tourists documenting all that London has to offer. We will be continuing to write a range of genres, including narratives, across the year. In this first term, we will also be focussing a lot on our mental health and well-being which will continue throughout the year.
In the Spring term, we travel back in time to Ancient Egypt. Our geography focus throughout the whole year is ‘Rivers’ and we will explore this more by comparing the River Thames to the Nile. We will also deepen our geography skills by completing work on maps and locating important places. Through English, we will researching and writing about different Egyptian Gods as well as imagining we were there at the time learning Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. In Science, we focus on electricity and continue to link this to Howard Carter by exploring tombs and designing and making our own torches.
During the Summer term, we move onto Anglo-Saxons and their settlement in Britain. Adventure stories is one of the text types we focus on. In science, we will be using our ears and learning about sound during the first half of the term, moving onto ‘Animals, including humans’ during the second. This will support our final topic of World Wild Life and Conservation.
Homework
Homework will go out on Friday and should come back on the following Tuesday. There will be skills practise based on class work and spellings will reflect the topic and high frequency words.
Reading
The children will read to adults on a regular basis, in a group and independently. They will have the opportunity to change their books on Mondays and Thursdays and they will be expected to write a comment in their reading record every day. Please read with your child at home and encourage reading for pleasure. There is evidence to suggest that children that read consistently perform better at reading and writing. At Southwark Park we use Accelerated Reader, so children will be using iPads to do comprehension tests on all the books that they read to deepen their understanding, and earning prizes for reading enough and understanding their books well.
We look forward to an exciting year in Year 4 and we thank you for your support.
Ms Grant and Ms Burgess
