Year 4 (Crispin) 2022 – 2023

Mrs Matton

Welcome to the Summer Term in Year 4

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

Of course, our big excitement this term is our residential trip to Sayers Croft. There will be plenty of information about the trip closer to the time.   

English

In English we will begin the term by looking at the book, The Boy at the Back of the Class, by Onjali Rauf. The children will be getting to know the characters and learning about what it means to be a refugee. 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 formal letter to the King and a newspaper report.

We will also be looking at a short fantasy film clip called Powerless. This film clip will inspire our own stories based on the film. 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 some of the stories from the book Tales Told in Tents by Sally Pomme Clayton and Sophie Herxheime. We will be learning about how the tales came about, as the merchants travelled to sell their products and met each other along the way, sharing stories, art and culture. This book has some beautiful illustrations and we will use these to inspire our own writing.

We will continue learning spellings from the Year 3/4 curriculum list along with other words with associated spelling patterns.   

Maths

We begin the summer term by ordering and rounding decimal numbers. We will move onto calculating using money and converting between pounds and pence. During this term we will look at time and converting between analogue and digital times as well as using a 24-hour clock.  Moving onto the topic of shape, we will learn how to identify angles and lines of symmetry. In statistics we will learn how to interpret charts and graphs and how to draw line graphs. We will continue to apply our knowledge by practising reasoning and problem solving. 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 be learning about Electrical Circuits and Conductors. We will be identifying the sources of electricity and comparing how electrical devices are powered. We will be making our own circuits and identifying the function of the circuit components and exploring how they work. We will also identify and classify conductive and non-conductive materials by conducting a comparative test. Finally, we will identify the parts and materials of three-pin plugs, identifying why electrical conductors and insulators are used.

Humanities

Our history topic this term will be Ancient Civilisations. This topic begins by establishing a timeline showing the location, dates and duration of early civilisations and learn when civilisations began and when they ended. We will study the rise of ancient Sumer and discover the importance of rivers and nutrient rich soil for settlements and technological developments. We will investigate farming in ancient Sumer and look at the changes that have happened over time. We will consider how inventions during this time changed everyday life and made work more efficient. We will also look at the legacy of Sumerian technologies in the world today.

Later in the term we will turn our attention to ancient Egypt, when we will study the features of the civilisation at this time. We will investigate the use of the river Nile, the development of cities, architecture, art and inventions. We will learn about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and how the discovery of the artifacts inside provided information about the pharaoh and life in ancient Egypt.

To finish this topic, we will compare and contrast the ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian civilisations, considering the reasons for these similarities and differences.

Computing

We will be looking at e-safety in some of our computing lessons and we will be using the internet to research our humanities topics. Our first computing unit is Repetition in Shapes. In this topic we will be looking at repetition and loops within programming. We will create programmes by planning, modifying and testing commands to create shapes and patterns. Our second unit is repetition in games. This unit explores the concept of repetition in programming using the scratch environment. We will explore the difference between count-controlled and infinite loops, and use this knowledge to modify existing animations and games using repetition.  

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 Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 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 weekly on a basis. The number of times children read will be counted as part of our new reading challenge.
• 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: jmatton@pippins.slough.sch.uk.

Mrs Matton