Orchard Way Primary School

Year 4 Spring Curriculum Overview

World War II

How parents can help:

- Listen to your child read for 15-20 minutes per day and ask them questions about what they have read.

- Support your child with their Mathletics challenges and working on their Number Stars.

- Encourage your child to learn their spelling and complete the activity each week. Spellings are given out on a Monday and the children are tested on the words the following Monday.

Please make sure your child has a water bottle in school.

At this time of year, it can be really cold but we still go outside for PE so please make sure that your child has warm clothes and trainers to wear.

English

Reading (word reading and comprehension)

Children will:

Apply knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes to read new words and work out their meaning.

Use dictionaries to check the meaning of words.

Discuss words and phrases, which capture the readers’ imagination.

Develop the ability to infer information, which is not immediately obvious.

Retrieve and record information from non-fiction.

Take part in discussions about what they have read, taking turns to listen to what others have to say.

Writing (handwriting, composition, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.)

Children will:

Plan writing by discussing and recording ideas e.g. writing a newspaper article of the day WW2 began, after listening to Chamberlain’s radio broadcast.

Draft and write by organising paragraphs around a theme.

Write narratives with an interesting plot, setting and characters based on The Lion and the Unicorn.

Write non-narrative material, which uses organisational devices e.g. designing a peace treaty, debating evacuation, persuasive campaigns for everyone to play their part in the war.

This term, we will be particularly focusing on using commas after fronted adverbials, which tell us how, when or where something was done, using pronouns and nouns appropriately, apostrophes for plural possession and using and punctuating direct speech correctly.

Maths

This term, the children will be consolidating learning from the Autumn term, as well as learning some new material.

The topics covered this term are as follows:

Place value in fractions and decimals.

Addition and subtraction of money.

Addition and subtraction in a word problem context.

Measurement conversions, including mm, cm, m, kg and g.

Recording and interpreting data from tables and bar charts.

Fractions and decimals.

Negative numbers.

Telling the time to the nearest minute.

Reading and interpreting timetables.

Plotting coordinates.

Consolidate times tables and related division facts.

Science

This term, our topic is Living Things and their Environments. This is a really exciting topic as we can extend our outdoor learning and make the most of our beautiful school.

The children will be able to:

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living

things in their local and wider environment.

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Topic – World War II

We are lucky enough to have another fantastic topic to learn about this term – World War II. The children will learn about why the War began, evacuation, rationing and The Blitz.

Children will cover the following History objectives within the topic:

Apply knowledge of chronology.

Make a timeline of events/developments.

Describe similarities and differences between time periods.

Describe the ways of life of people who lived in this country.

Describe the ideas and beliefs people had.

Describe why events and people are significant.

Select appropriate information from different sources to find out about the past.

Write as if they live in the past.

RE – Christianity.

The children will be learning about Christianity and explore the following questions:

What do the different descriptions of God tell us about the Christian belief in God?

How is Jesus important to Christians?

Who is in authority in Christian communities? What are their roles and responsibilities?

What is the Holy book of the Christian people? How do they use it?

How are the stories/parables, which Jesus told to his followers, relevant to us today?

How do Christians use their homes to show they are living the faith? What is the

significance for many Christians of the Ten Commandments?

Easter

Art and Design

The children will be studying the artist, Eric Ravilious. They will improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing and painting with a range of materials.

They will also be designing and creating minibeasts sculptures to develop techniques using 3D media.

Design & Technology - Textiles

The children will look at the ethos of ‘Make Do and Mend’ with a focus on textiles. They will

research and develop design criteria and generate, develop, model and communicate their

ideas through discussion and annotated sketches. They will then select tools and materials to

cut and shape. This will help them to understand how key events and individuals in Design and

Technology have helped shape the world.

PE

Spring 1 – Gymnastics

The children will explore different shapes and movements on and around the gymnastics

apparatus and gradually build towards choreographing a sequence to perform as part of a

group.

Spring 2 – Dance and Swimming

The children will learn and help to choreograph a dance to perform at the end of the term.

Swimming

The children will travel on the minibus to Royal Russell school, where they will have a 1/2 hour

swimming lesson from a qualified swimming instructor.

Children with long hair will need to wear a swim hat and have their hair tied up.

Computing

The children will select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a

range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that

accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and

information:

- Animation

- Audio/Music

- Presentation

- Data Handling

They will also learn how to use information respectfully including how to:

Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly.

Recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour.

Identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

Music

The children will continue to learn how to play their instruments, they are doing so well!

They will be working on how to:

Play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voices and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.

Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music.

Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.

Use and understand musical notations.

Appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music drawn from different traditions and from great composers and musicians.

Develop an understanding of the history of music.

As you can see, we have a very busy but very exciting term in Year 4. We look forward to supporting your child on their learning journey and seeing them develop into independent, enthusiastic learners.

Thank for you continued support,

Mrs. Gardner and Miss Trype.