• Home Learning

Year 4 (Crispin) 2023 – 2024

Miss Sufi

Welcome to the Spring Term in Year 4

I hope you have had a lovely break and are ready for the new Term.

English

In English we will begin the term by looking at the book, Winter's Child by Angela McAllister. The children will be getting to know the characters and exploring their traits of empathy and compassion. We will be learning new vocabulary, practising our retrieval skills, making predictions and inferences about the text and practising our summarising techniques. 

Another text we will be analysing this term will be The Selfish GIant. We will be focusing on conjunctions, noun phrases and metaphors as well as using some ambitious vocabulary.

Later in the term we will be studying the text The Lion and the Unicorn and The Matchbox Diary. We will continue learning spellings from the Year 3/4 curriculum list along with other words with associated spelling patterns.   

Maths

We will begin the Spring term by focusing on the topic of Multiplication and Division. Length and Perimeter will be the next topic explored by Year 4. Fractions and Decimals will be our focus for the second half of the Spring term. 

We will also continue to practise our times tables (multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12) in preparation for the Multiplication Tables Check in June.  

Science

In the States of Matter project, your child will identify and classify solids, liquids and gases. They will learn the properties of solids, liquids and gases and discover that some materials have properties of more than one state. They will learn that particles make up all matter and how their arrangement determines whether the material is a solid, liquid or gas. They will find that materials can change from one state to another and learn about how materials can change state. They will use thermometers to measure the temperature of water and observe what happens when water changes state. They will investigate melting ice and record their data on graphs. They will also learn about melting and boiling points, researching various materials' melting and boiling points. 

In the second part of the Spring term, children will move onto grouping and classifying where they will learn why we sort and group things and the important classification skills of observing and questioning. They will learn what classification keys are and how they identify living things. Your child will learn the characteristics of the five vertebrate groups and the six main invertebrate groups. They will learn how to identify vascular and non-vascular plants and sort vascular plants into the three main groups. They will also examine and classify real plants and create a classification key based on their observations. They will learn about some newly discovered plants and animals and use a classification key to classify each discovery. 

- 

Humanities

In the Misty Mountain, Winding River project, your child will learn about the characteristics and physical processes of rivers, including how they shape the landscape over time, their significance around the world and the impact of flooding. They will learn how to use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and a key to locate and plot geographical places and features on a map, as well as how contour lines are used to show the topography of an area. They will have the opportunity to learn about the stages of the water cycle and about mountains and their different formations, studying mountain ranges in the United Kingdom and around the world. They will also learn about habitats and how human and natural influences can have an impact on the environment. 

Art, DT and Music

This Art project is linked to the Misty Mountain, Winding Rivers project. This project teaches children about the techniques that artists use when composing landscape images, such as colour and atmosphere. Later in the term we will move onto DT and our topic will be Functional and Fancy Fabrics. This project teaches children about home furnishings and the significant designer William Morris. They learn techniques for decorating fabric, including block printing, hemming and embroidery and use them to design and make a fabric sample. 

Zones of Regulation

We will be using the Zones of Regulation to help us manage our feelings. Self-regulation skills develop over time; adults support with this by helping children to identify their emotions and how to deal with them. There are four self-regulation zones and each zone is linked to a colour. Children learn to notice how the feelings in our bodies and our minds are linked. This will help them to recognise and control their emotions using agreed strategies. One of the key messages with Zones of Regulation is that all feelings are okay and we are going to learn to make good choices to manage our feelings.   

General Reminders

• PE will be on Thursdays. Children should come to school wearing their PE kit on these days. Please ensure earrings are removed for PE.
• Homework will be given out on a Friday, to be returned by the following Wednesday.
• Children are expected to read every night for 15–20 minutes. This should be recorded in their reading record books. Reading records will be checked on a daily basis. 
• Spelling rules will be taught and revisited throughout the week. The spelling rule will be tested on Fridays.

Thank you for all your support as your child continues their learning journey at Pippins. If you have any questions or queries please come and speak to me or email me at: ssufi@pippins.slough.sch.uk 

Miss Sufi