Dear Parents,
I am wishing you all a warm welcome back after the holidays, I hope you have had a restful break. 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 'Passport to Europe'.
English
The first unit for this half term will be Novel as a Theme, pupils will view, read and discuss Gulliver's Travel. Our class novels will be 'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathan Swift and 'Fig's Giant' by Geraldine McCaughrean. By the end of the unit, pupils will write a story based on a plot structure. It will be written in first person including fronted adverbials for where and a description of the setting and characters. The following unit of work is Non-Chronological Reports, pupils with read and discuss a range of non-chronological reports focusing on language, structure, presentation and features. At the end of the unit, pupils will create an information poster with flip-flap facts. 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 Spring 2, pupils begin with measurement, consolidating prior learning regarding the 24-hour clock, converting between units of times, including hours, minutes and seconds. Next, pupils will focus on fractions, decimals and percentages, learning about tenths and hundredths. Pupils will progress to compare and ordering decimal numbers, recording the decimals in different ways, before writing fractions as decimal numbers. Finally in preparation for learning in Summer 1, pupils will discuss how to count and record in pounds and pence, making links between tenths and hundredths and decimal notation for money. 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 above.
Science
In Science we will learn about 'Animals Including Humans' where we will focus on teeth and digestion (Biology). By the end of the unit, pupils will be able to name the main parts of the digestive system and know what happens in each part of the digestive system. In addition, they will be able to construct food chains and identify consumers, predators and preys. 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, drawing and labelled diagrams, identifying similarities and differences and using scientific evidence to answer questions or support their findings and reporting on findings. Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser which will assist them with their weekly quizzes.
Geography
In the Spring term, pupils will build on their locational knowledge and fieldwork learning by looking at world maps and revisiting the northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, equator, longitude and latitude. They will focus on Europe and the countries within it. Pupils will learn about the physical geographical features of this region for example: climate, weather patterns, vegetation belts and landscape. Then they will learn about how the physical features of the region affect the human geographical features such as settlement size, economic activity and trade links.
Design Technology
During the DT lessons, pupils will explore existing passport wallets on the market. Then, they will plan their own design thinking about the cover, fastening type and joining techniques. At the end of the unit, pupils will create a passport wallet that is fit for purpose and aesthetically pleasing.
Physical Education
P.E sessions will take place on a Thursday afternoon, our unit is Gymnastics. Pupils will create a sequence which combines travelling, balances, rolling and jumping. 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 Families and Friends, pupils will learn how to maintain a good friendship and understand the impact of listening well to others. 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 Spring 2, pupils will explore the genre of soul and gospel through a unit called Lean on Me. They will identify the piece’s structure and the instruments being played. They will learn to play notes F and G on glockenspiels as part of a performance. By the end of the unit, they will compose a simple melody using simple rhythms as part of the performance.
Computing
Pupils will start their Information Technology unit of Writing for Different Audiences. They will utilise 2Simulate to act as a journalist and record relevant information. Then, pupils will explore font size and style for different purposes, produce a news report and write a community campaign.
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).