Welcome to Year 4. 

We are Lilac Class!

The adults in Lilac Class are Miss Lennard, Miss Cooksey and Mrs Ali.

What are we learning about in Spring 2?

In English, we are exploring the text Street Child to understand what life was like for people during the Victorian times. We will enhance our understanding of life in the Victorian era through reading a number of Victorian related texts in our reciprocal reading lessons. 

In Maths, we are developing our knowledge of fractions. We will think about a whole and numbers greater than a whole and how we can convert mixed numbers to improper fractions.

In Art, we are exploring the work of Andy Burgess, who created abstract and geometric landscapes. We are developing our painting skills using water colours and water colour pencils and will showcase our work in our whole school art exhibition.

In PSHE, we are exploring the changes we will experience as we grow. We are very excited to welcome Juliet from SCARF into school to explore these physical and emotional changes. 

In History, we are exploring what life was like during the Victorian era, how technology improved and the changes to Bradford. We are visiting Bradford Industrial Museum to participate in an exciting Victorian classroom workshop. We will also explore mill machinery. 

In Science, we are answering the question 'Could you survive without electricity?". We will explore the components needed to make working circuits.

In Music, we are continuing to develop our ukulele skills and had a fantastic visit from the plumber drummer!

What have we been learning about in Spring 1?

In Maths, we will apply our timestables knowledge to the formal methods of multiplication and division. We will also complete a measure unit, learning about the different ways we can calculate the area and perimeter of rectangles, rectilinear shapes and regular polygons.

In English, we will read the novel, Street Child, which will link to our learning next half term (The Victorians).

In Geography, we will build upon our knowledge of the Vikings and discuss the essential and desirable qualities individuals and groups of people consider when finding a place to settle. We will use atlases and digimaps in most lessons to identify settlements.

In Science, we will find out about the digestive system and the parts of the body that are involved in the processes of digestion. We will carry out some interesting experiments to look at the effect sugar has on teeth and to see what the digestive system looks like (replicating this with a pair of tights!).

In PSHE, we will developing our understanding of our emotions and developed strategies to help regulate our emotions. This will link with MyHappyMinds and the zones of regulation we already use in school. 

In Music, we will continue to learn new songs on the ukulele.

In RE, we will reflect upon the story of the Good Samaritan and found examples of love and kindness today.

In our DT Days, we will plan, design, create and evaluate healthy cereal bars. Our parents and carers will come to visit at the end of the week for a tasting session!

What have we been learning about in Autumn 2?

In Maths, we have ben learning about addition and subtraction. We have used the formal written methods of column addition and column subtraction. We have also focused on timestables to increase our speed and fluency when recalling key facts.

In English, we explored the Viking story 'Beowulf'. Our reciprocal reading lessons linked with our text and we found out about Viking soda bread, myths and long ships. We began our English unit by creating magical mythical monsters like Grendel. We wrote our own historical narrative based on a Viking warrior and a mythical creature.

In Explorers, we developed our historical skills by learning all about the Vikings. We found out who the Vikings were and used our history box to find out about their daily lives.

In Science, we explored sound. We thought about sound sources, how sound travels and how sound can be absorbed. We created our own musical instruments in which we changed pitch and volume.

In Music, we continued to familiarise ourselves with the ukulele and learnt how to play a range of chords.

In RE, we reflected upon religious festivals. We made connections between them and thought about how people celebrate different festivals. 

 What have we been learning about in Autumn 1?

In Maths, we learnt about place value and how to represent and partition numbers in different ways. We used different concrete resources including base 10, place value counters and numicon.

In English, we explored the key grammatical features for writing in Year 4 through Grammarsaurus. We then explored the story 'The Lost Happy Endings'. Our reciprocal reading lessons linked with this exciting new text.

In Explorers, we developed our geographical skills through investigating the features of a river and the water cycle. We found out about how water is used by humans and its importance in everyday life. 

In PSHE, we reflected upon the qualities, skills and interests that we have and those around us have. We discussed the importance of self esteem and confidence and different types of thinking which can contribute positively to our self image.

In Science, we explored the different states of matter and their properties; solids, liquids and gases. We carried out a number of investigations and made links to our geography topic on the water cycle considering the processes of evaporation and condensation.

In Music, we familiarised ourselves with the ukulele and how to play a range of chords.

In RE, we reflected upon what it is like for people who believe in God and how choices in their lives may reflect these beliefs. 

Take a look at our Curriculum Year Group Plan below to find out what else we will be learning about in Year 4 this year. Remember, you can find the Knowledge Organisers for each unit on Class Dojo – please share these with your children and discuss the key vocabulary!

Important Information:

PE: Thursday

Library: Wednesday

Spellings: Thursday

Reading Books: Friday