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Year 4 (Crispin) 2023 – 2024

Miss Sufi

Welcome to the Autumn Term in Year 4

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

English

In English we will begin the term by looking at the book, Tar Beach by Faith Ringold. The children will be getting to know the characters and learning about what racism means. We will be learning new vocabulary, practising our retrieval skills, making predictions and inferences about the text and practising our summarising techniques. We will also be writing a playscript for the BBC to review. 

Another text we will be analysing this term will be The Mermaids of Zennor. We will be focussing on fronted adverbials, similes and metaphors as well as using some ambitious vocabulary.

Later in the term we will be studying the text FArTHER and The Iron Man. 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 Autumn term by focusing on our place value topic and then move onto addition and subtraction. Next, we will move to area and measurement. At the end of the term we will focus on multiplication and division.

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

This term we will begin by learning about The Digestive System. The children will learn about the features of ecosystems and the meaning of new terminology, including 'biotic', which means living, and 'abiotic', which means non-living. We will research an ecosystem and use the information gathered in future lessons. Everyone will learn about two scientific diagrams, a food chain and a food web, finding out what these diagrams are and what they show. The similarities and differences between food chains and food webs will be discussed. The children will revisit the word 'interdependence' and its meaning and discuss how living things depend on biotic and abiotic features of ecosystems for their survival. Finally, we will discuss the challenges different ecosystems face from human activities such as pollution or natural events such as deforestation. 

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Humanities

In the Invasion project, we will explore the effects of the Roman withdrawal and the chronology and geography of subsequent invasions. The children will study the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in detail, examining their reasons for invading, their settlements and their everyday life. We will also look at monasteries and the Anglo-Saxon legacy and we'll consider how we know about life in this period and investigate the Sutton Hoo ship burial. 

Art, DT and Music

In art children will learn about the features of Islamic art. We will make geometric patterns and motifs on paper, with fabric and in clay. They use their learning to create a high relief clay tile, decorated with geometric patterns. In DT our topic is Tomb Builders. In this project we will learn about simple machines, including wheels, axles, inclined planes, pulleys and levers, exploring how they helped ancient builders to lift and move heavy loads. In music we will be learning about the music and culture of South America by listening to samba music alongside the sights and sounds of the carnival. We  be will exploring the percussion instruments used in celebrations such as Carnival in Brazil and playing our own rhythms in groups contributing to a whole class piece of music.

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