Year 4

Welcome to Year 4!

Meet the Teacher

I am Mrs Kelly and I teach Year 4 at St Barts. This is my fourth year at St Barts after previously teaching Year 5, and I am really looking forward to teaching you in Year 4. I am the subject lead for Reading and Early Reading – Phonics. In school, I look after all the class libraries, and everything connected with books. I will always have a book recommendation for you if you ask!

I also love to teach History and Art. In my spare time, I enjoy reading for pleasure and spending time with my family, and you might even find me at the gym.

Autumn Term Curriculum

What we will be learning

Autumn term will be packed with exciting learning for your children, and we are excited to share all the fabulous learning to come. Autumn term’s learning will be based around our geography topic ‘Awesome Earth’, where the children will explore the impact of nature and how natural events shape our planet.

The children will learn about volcanoes, how they erupt and the different types of volcanoes. We will also learn about earthquakes and where earthquakes are most common. We will be delighted to welcome a visitor from One Day Creative to share a special learning day surrounding Awesome Earth.

Science

Autumn term will provide two science topics for Year 4.

Firstly, the children will look at circuits and electricity through our Switched On topic. They will explore how circuits work, the role of conductors and insulators, and they will build their own simple circuits using bulbs, batteries, wires and buzzers.
The second unit will move to biology, where the children will learn about the digestive system. They will use scientific names and will find out what happens to our teeth when we drink sugary drinks.

English

Our autumn units will be based around our geography topic.

In Autumn 1, we will start with the book When the Giant Stirs, writing a persuasive speech to convince islanders that they must leave the island due to a volcanic eruption.
We will then move on to a non-chronological report about volcanic eruptions.
We will also spend time looking at Valerie Bloom’s poemNothing to Do, recreating our own version based on tidying up our classroom.
In Autumn 2, we will use The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman as inspiration for a chapter continuation and a character description.

Reading

In Year 4, the children will start by reading The Boy Who Met a Whale and Kensuke’s Kingdom. The children will follow Razi, his sister Shifa and their friend Cheng on an adventure searching for lost treasure. Kensuke’s Kingdom will follow Michael on his adventure after being washed ashore on what appears to be a desert island, where he will soon find out he is not alone.

Maths

Maths will follow the White Rose scheme of learning, building strong foundations in number.

The children will:

develop understanding of place value up to 10,000, including comparing, ordering and rounding numbers;
learn written and mental methods for addition and subtraction, including exchanging and checking using inverse operations;
begin formal learning of multiplication and division, focusing on known facts and patterns;
practise rapid recall of times tables up to 12 × 12 in preparation for the Multiplication Tables Check.

Religion and Worldviews

The children will consider the question:
“How might your worldview lead you to do hard things for good reasons?”
They will think about how their worldview and the worldview of others are shaped by people, positions and ideas.

Additional Autumn Highlights

Art: Collage – Volcano
DT- Electrical Systems, Earthquake alarms
Music: Body and tuned percussion – Rainforests
PE: Football, Gymnastics, Dance
French: Portraits and Clothes
PSHE (SCARF): Me and My Relationships, Zones of Regulation
Maths: White Rose – place value, addition and subtraction

Spring Term Curriculum

What we will be learning

Spring term will be packed with exciting learning for your children, and we are excited to share all the fabulous learning to come in this term. Spring term’s learning will be based around our history topic ‘Invaders and Settlers’, where the children will explore “How has Anglo-Saxon and Viking settlement changed England?”

The children will find out about the impact each of these settlers had on Britain and how Anglo-Saxons and Vikings still impact our lives today. The children will have the opportunity to visit Ufton Hall and experience a day in the life of a Viking.

Science

In Spring 1, the children will focus on a chemistry unit about solids, liquids and gases. They will find out how changes occur to states of matter and how the water cycle changes water’s state.
In Spring 2, the children will learn about famous scientists and will find out about the five different scientific approaches to learning.

English

English learning will link to history, narrative, and poetry. The children will:

Use Beowulf to write a narrative retelling and letter recounts, imagining events from different perspectives.
Explore How to Train Your Dragon to retell stories from Hiccup’s point of view and write their own adventure narratives inspired by the text.
Write poetry using kennings, focusing on either an animal or a character, to practise figurative language and creative expression.

Reading

Spring term reading will start with an exciting adventure retelling of the Rapunzel story, Rumaysa: A Fairy Tale Retelling, with a modern twist. After this, the children will enjoy an epic quest for revenge in Viking Boy, following the journey of Gunnar as he seeks revenge for his father’s death.

Maths

During the spring term, the children will extend their number knowledge and move into new areas.

They will:

secure methods for multiplication and division, including formal written methods;
learn about fractions, finding fractions of amounts and recognising equivalent fractions;
explore decimals and their links to place value and money;
develop reasoning through multi-step problems.

Religion and Worldviews

The children will consider the question:
“Who or what is God and how is the divine understood in theistic worldviews?”
In this unit, the children will learn about types of power in the world and will consider what most Christians believe about God, linking this to their learning about the Holy Trinity.

Additional Spring Highlights

Art: Drawing – Viking Longship
DT- Mechanisms- Story book Mechanisms
Music: Pitch, tempo and dynamics – Rivers
PE: Tennis, QAA, Swimming
French: Numbers, calendars, weather
PSHE: Valuing Difference, Keeping Safe

Summer Term Curriculum

What we will be learning

Summer term will be based around our geography topic ‘Food Glorious Food.’ The children will explore “Where does our food come from?” They will learn about food grown in the UK and around the world, the importance of climate, global imports and Fair Trade, and how their choices can make them responsible global citizens.

Science

In Making Waves – Sound, the children will learn how sounds are made and how they travel.
In Environment Explorers – Living Things and Their Habitats, they will investigate classification and local habitats.

English

English learning will link to both geography and adventure themes. The children will:

Use Sam Wu Is Not Afraid of the Dark to write tasks linked to camping and outdoor adventures, including instructions for setting up a campsite and writing to narrate an adventure story inspired by the text.
Explore Charlotte’s Web, where children will write descriptive passages about the barn, and develop their imagination by writing a recount in character as either Fern or Charlotte.
Continue to develop skills in non-chronological reports, explanations, and narrative writing through thematic links to food and environment topics.