Welcome back Year 4! I hope that you’ve all had a wonderful break and are ready for the term ahead. Below is some information about what the children will be learning during the Spring term.

Literacy

This term we will focus our learning around the key texts ‘Leon and the Place Between’; ‘The Village that Vanished’ and ‘Varjak Paw’. We will be exploring the stories and using them to inspire our writing. We will write various pieces including: written predictions, setting descriptions, recounts, character descriptions, a parallel narrative, information writing – fact files, persuasive writing – speeches, diary writing, continuation of the ending and recounts. In reading we will continue to develop key comprehension skills. Children will continue to develop their spelling, punctuation and grammar skills, learning about a range of literacy forms.

Maths

This term our main focuses will be multiplication and division, fractions and measurement - specifically area. For these three topics children will be relying hugely on their ability to fluently recall their timetables. Fluent recall of times table facts will lighten cognitive load when working through a method, enabling them to fully process and understand new concepts.

Science

In this unit we are learning about the human digestive system and how it breaks down food to provide us with nutrients and energy. We will also be exploring different types of teeth, what their role is and how we can look after them. Finally, we will be learning that animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement. We will be working scientifically by using secondary sources to research all about teeth and digestion. We will also be grouping and classifying teeth and using different ways to report on findings and draw conclusions.

Humanities

This term we will be learning about one of the first ancient civilisations - the Shang Dynasty. We will also be learning in more depth about plate tectonics, and discovering the world’s major biomes.

Homework

Homework is set on Fridays and collected in the following Friday. Homework is set online using Times Table Rock Stars and Spelling Shed.

Please make sure your child reads for at least 10 minutes per day and records something in their yellow Reading Record. For those on chapter books, it is still important that they have the opportunity to read to an adult and discuss the book. Please ensure the sentence stems at the back of the reading record are used to write the comment.

Reading records are checked daily and need to be in school every day. They are also used to communicate with parents, so please do check for notes (and of course, feel free to respond).

Curriculum Letter

Curriculum Map

Times Tables Rock Stars

SpellingShed