Welcome to Year 4!

 We are really looking forward to the year ahead.

We will add to this blog throughout the year to give you a flavour of the many great things the children will be doing.

Meet the team:

Miss Watts, Miss Fitzsimons and Mrs Moody are the class teachers in year 4. Mrs Emmerson and Mrs English are the teaching assistants working within the year group.

Our curriculum this term:

Religious Education

We will be following the To Know You More Clearly scheme this year. Our first Branch is called Creation and Covenant during which we will explore Abraham and how he is an example to Christians. In our second branch, titled Prophecy and Promise, we will lead up to Christmas by learning about how the coming of the Messiah was prophesised.

English  

In English, we are studying Philip Pullman’s version of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp. We are using this as an opportunity to develop well chosen, powerful vocabulary and make use of this within a wide range of sentences. We are building up to an exciting independent write at the end of this topic. Later in the term , we will be using Escape from Pompeii as a stimulus to develop our writing skills.

We will continue to develop our spelling, grammar and handwriting skills both in discrete learning sessions and with our text level work.

Maths

Our maths work will be focussed upon building our knowledge of place value (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) including within addition and subtraction. We will then be making use of this learning in a range of problem solving and reasoning activities. We will be developing our understanding of multiplication and division and using the inverse to check calculations. We will explore perimeter and symmetry, and classify a wider range of geometric shapes.

We also hold daily retrieval sessions where we revisit previous learning to embed and consolidate our skills. We will be working on the full range of times table throughout year 4. Weekly tasks on Times tables Rockstars will be assigned to the children to help them strengthen their speed and accuracy with their knowledge of the multiplication tables and the related division facts.

Additional information about the government times table check is available below this blog.

Science

Our science unit is about states of matter. We will be looking closely at the properties of solids, liquids and gasses. Alongside this we will we looking at how these states change, including the evaporation, melting and condensation.

Geography

For our geography unit, we will be carrying out a range of fieldwork within the local area, looking at maps on different scales and making use of keys. We will be comparing our local are with the city of Liverpool.

History

In history, we will learn about the Roman Empire and the impact they had on Britain. We will use a range of sources to investigate the past and learn about life during Roman times.

Art

We are focussed upon drawing for our first art topic. We’ll use different techniques to draw and shade, adding shadows and highlights to objects drawn at different scales. We will be creating our own still life compositions.

DT

As part of our Design and Technology work, we will be designing our own gift boxes. We will investigate different structures and create boxes that fit a specific design brief.

Spanish

In Spanish we are focussing upon core conversational vocabulary, including asking and answering questions about our names, ages and feelings.

Computing

In computing we will be focussing on networks and will look at how computers interact with each other over both local networks and the wider internet. As always, we will introduce elements of online safety information and build on this throughout the year.

Music  

We will be learning about musical motifs and how we can adapt and transpose them to create different effects.

You, Me, Everyone

In our You, Me, Everyone lessons, we will be learning about the importance of expressing our own feelings and how to look after our mental health. We will also learn about how we should all be accepted and respected and the importance of sleep to a healthy lifestyle. We will explore bereavement in an age-appropriate way, drawing on the theme of seasons and leaves to explain change.

PE
For PE we are aiming to learn a range of invasion games and activities that get us moving whilst revisiting elements of throwing, catching and tactics. We will be working with a coach from LFC to develop our gymnastics skills.

Our PE days this term will be Monday and Wednesday

Things to Remember

Please ensure all items, but especially coats, jumpers and lunchboxes, are clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Please can you ensure your child brings a waterproof coat each day to school - one can be left on their peg if you prefer.

Children need to bring their water bottle in every day. These need to be clearly labelled with your child’s name.

School is not currently selling any snacks at break time. Please consider sending your child in with a healthy snack.

Children will bring a reading book home every Thursday and this needs to be returned to school by Tuesday of the following week.

Children will take spellings home every Thursday and they need to return their spelling books back to school on Wednesday for their spelling check.

We look forward to continuing to work with you all this term. Please contact any member of the Year 4 team if you require any further information. If you need to speak to us on the yard after school, we ask that you kindly wait until we have seen all the children safely to their parent or carer. After this, we will be more than happy to chat. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the school office via phone or email.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

The Year 4 Team