Year 4

Welcome to Year 4

Summer 1 2024

Dear Parents,

I am wishing you all a warm welcome back after the Easter holidays, I hope you have had a restful break and a lovely Eid.  In Year 4, we will revise our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty.  We will continue with our 'Brookhouse Monsters University' rewards scheme to acknowledge positive attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with our values.  If your child is in the winning team, they will celebrate with a party at the end of term.  Homework will be collected in on a Wednesday to be marked and returned by Friday.  There will also be online tasks to complete on PurpleMash, SPAG.com, Reading Plus and Times Tables Rockstars.

Our topic for this half term is 'Water, Water Everywhere'.

English

The first unit for this half term will be Stories with a Theme.  Our class novels will be 'The Mousehole Cat' by Antonia Barber and 'The Waterhorse' by Dick King-Smith.  To start, pupils will listen, read and discuss a range of fiction.  Then, they will make predictions and draw inference around characters' thoughts, feelings, actions and motives using evidence from the text.  By the end of the unit, pupils will write a narrative based on a text using noun phrases, fronted adverbials for where and elements of the writer's toolkits.  The following unit of work is Poems with a Structure linked to the theme of water, pupils with read and discuss a range of poetry focusing on language, structure, presentation and features.  They will analyse haiku, limericks and kennings.  At the end of the unit, pupils will create a poem with a structure.  All units will utilise the 'Talk for Writing' strategy of Imitate, Innovate and Invent.

Reading is a priority of ours at Brookhouse therefore Whole Class Reading sessions take place everyday, where children are expected to read a range of texts and answer questions by summarising, retrieving, making inference and explaining.  We also have a specific focus on vocabulary, which will be sent home to learn before the lesson.  In school, we will continue to use the online reading resource called 'Reading Plus' and encourage children to complete lessons at home.  It is imperative for you to support your child with reading, please use the question stems to ask your children questions to check for understanding.  Also, ensure your child is learning their spellings for ten minutes daily. 

Mathematics

In Maths, our aim is to improve maths fluency, reasoning and problem solving.  We do this through concrete, pictorial and abstract models.  In Summer 1, pupils will begin with measurement.  They will be taught how to round money to the nearest pound to estimate amounts and totals.  Then, pupils will apply these skills to problem-solving situations, finding totals and calculating change.  They will also learn how to visualise a money problem using a bar model and begin to explore unequal sharing in the context of money.  Next, pupils will learn how to estimate and measure mass, volume and length.  They will also learn how to convert units of measure.  Finally, pupils will learn about the concepts of area and perimeter.  They will measure area by measuring surface coverage by counting squares before measuring area by using multiplication.  They will then apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem solving by utilising the QUACK method.

Please encourage your child to practice their timetables up to 12x tables as they are required to complete the official Multiplication Tables Check in June, to see if their knowledge is at expected level.  During the Multiplication check, children will have 25 questions to answer with only 6 seconds per question.  In order to aid them with this, your child can use Times Tables Rockstars, UR Brainy MTC and the maths area on Purple Mash, all website links can be located on the Website Star. Please familiarise yourself with the multiplication tables check parent guidance in the useful documents section above. 

Science

In Science we will learn about Chemistry, specifically 'States of Matter'.  By the end of the unit, pupils will be able to group, compare and name properties of solids, liquids and gases.  They will also know that materials can change state when heated or cooled.  In addition, they will be able to explain the water cycle.  Pupils will be expected to work scientifically by asking relevant questions and using scientific enquiries to answer them, setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests, making systematic and careful observations, recording findings using scientific language, drawings, tables and charts.  Furthermore, they will identify similarities and differences and use scientific evidence to answer questions or support their findings and reporting.  Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser which will assist them with their weekly quizzes.

History

In History, pupils will learn about the Ancient Egyptian civilisation which lasted for over 3000 years.  The unit will start by exploring artefacts.  Then, they will create a timeline comparing early and late Egypt, paying particular attention to the key events that occured.  The unit will teach about influential people during that period such as King Narmer, Cleopatra and Alexander the Great.  After that, pupils will learn about the inventions for example hieroglyphics and papyrus.  Finally, pupils will research about the River Nile and why the Egyptians settled by the body of water and how they utilised it. 

Geography

In the Summer term, pupils will develop their locational knowledge, by looking at world maps, this time with a focus on the oceans that separate the continents of the world.  They will expand on their previous physical knowledge of the UK by looking at water sources, and which can be identified on a UK maps for example rivers, lakes, reservoirs and canals.  Pupils will learn about water flow and how the streams and rivers they have identified are connected to the sea.  They will finish the unit by building upon their prior human geographical knowledge of land use and settlements by identifying reasons that people created settlements near water, and why the reasons for this may have changed over time.

Art

During the art sessions, pupils will research the famous Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.  His most popular piece The Great Wave will be analysed.  Then, they will be able to identify different textures within images and create depth and texture using paper mache.  After that, pupils will create effects and tone using coloured tissue paper.  At the end of the unit, they will evaluate work, both individual pieces and collective pieces.

Physical Education

P.E sessions will take place on a Thursday afternoon, our unit is Athletics.  Pupils will learn the push, pull and sling throw for accuracy and distance.  Alongside throwing, they will develop a combination of jumps such as the standing long jump and the triple jump.  Please ensure your child comes into school wearing their full P.E kit.  The kit should include a yellow P.E top with the school's logo matched with black shorts, joggers or leggings and black pumps or trainers.  Over the top, children will wear their school jumper or cardigan.  All jewellery must be removed, ensure earrings are taken out before the session or covered with plasters.

PSHE

Our unit is Keeping Safe, pupils will learn how to manage the feeling of negative pressure and know when to notify somebody that there is an emergency.  Furthermore, well-being will be a main focus throughout the year, children will have the opportunity to share and discuss any concerns or worries openly.  

Music

For Summer 1, pupils will explore the genre of pop through a unit called Blackbird.  They will know the lyrics from the selected songs tell a story linked to equality and civil rights.  Then, pupils will identify the instruments used.  By the end of the unit, they will perform using voices and instruments.  Year 4 pupils will continue to learn how to play the recorder. 

Computing

Pupils will start their Computer Science unit of Logo.  They will utilise 2Logo to input simple instructions to create letter shapes, then use the repeat function to make more complex patterns.  Eventually, pupils will build procedures in Logo.

Oracy - Voice 21

As a school we are developing our oracy, learning through talk and learning to talk.  In class, we have created discussion guidelines to aid meaningful discussions.  We encourage children to fully participate by taking on a range of roles and utilising sentence stems to articulate their ideas.  We will provide opportunities for discussion in all areas of the curriculum.

If you have any queries, do not hesitate to discuss these with us at the end of the school day or arrange an appointment through the school office.

Thank you for your support.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Martin (Class Teacher), Miss Matadar (Special Support Assistant), Mrs Khonat and Mrs Patel (Higher Level Teaching Assistant).