Curriculum News                                                Summer Term                                                        Y4   

Topic – Creature Comforts

This term Year 4 will be undertaking work on a topic based theme – ‘Creature Comforts’. During the summer term, the children will have the opportunity to explore creatures, plants and habitats within the school and the local area. The topic will have a strong scientific focus, and will allow many opportunities to explore all other curriculum areas within our work.

Mathematics

The class will continue to extend their mathematical thinking by solving mathematical problems, communicating and reasoning mathematically using contexts from across the whole range of mathematics, across the curriculum and as applied to real life problems.

They will continue to work through the four main operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). They will be developing their understanding of place value, ordering and rounding, fractions and decimals, symmetry, angle and position.

English

For our Non-Fiction work, we will be studying the features of information texts and persuasive texts. The Children will be studying Haiku poetry as part of our fictional work.

Our class targets for this term will be to continue to improve our spelling (especially the high frequency words) by using different strategies such as looking for words within words, rhyming and spelling patterns, breaking down longer words into syllables etc. We also need to improve how we write in sentences, using capital letters and other important punctuation correctly. Therefore ‘skills’ lessons will concentrate on these areas.

How can you help? We will be continuing with our Big Write literacy programme during the term. As last term, pupils will bring ‘talking homework’ home on a weekly basis. This is a great opportunity to enjoy some time together where you can talk around a subject the pupils will be writing about in their Big Write sessions. This programme was a great success last term with the pupils making good progress in their writing, we hope that with the pupils continued hard work and your support, their writing skills will continue to develop this term. Please also ensure that your child has learnt the weekly spellings and wherever and whenever possible, enjoy a book together.

 RE:

This term we will be conducting a comparative study on ‘Special Places’. Children will learn about the important world faiths by comparing their buildings and artefacts with those of christianity.  We will visit St Bridget’s church, and hopefully Llandaff Cathedral. We will then consider the life of Moses and his role as a leader.

Science

The children will investigate the different wildlife habitats found in the school grounds and local area. We will begin by reinforcing their understanding of living things & focus on where they live. We will find out how living organisms are adapted to their habitat & conduct an investigation into the most suitable habitat for mini-beasts and plants. We will also be studying the nutritional needs of living organisms.

Geography / History

No specific Geography or History will be taught this term; however, elements of the subjects may be taught and developed through topic work and other curriculum areas.

PE

Our P.E. days are Tuesdays(indoor- dance/gym and outdoor- games activities). The children will be continuing to develop their gymnastic skills and they will be preparing for our Mini Olympics by practising athletic skills.

It is very important that every pupil takes part in as much PE as possible. It is therefore vital that they have the correct kit with them. Due to our changeable weather, pupils will need to ensure they have kit that can be used both indoor and outdoor every Tuesday.

Music

This term Year 4 will be exploring descriptive sounds through the module of ‘Animal Magic’. They will also be working with others to create compositions within a class orchestra.

Art

During this term, pupils will be exploring and experimenting with the methods of Henri Rousseau and Ann Bridges before making their own collages based on our topic.

Welsh

The Welsh topics this term are Chwaraeon (Sports) and Dyddiadur Gareth (Gareth’s Diary).

Welsh folk-tales and traditional stories will be told, and Welsh cultural and historical information will be introduced to ensure the Curriculum Cymreig is addressed throughout the term.

DT

During DT lessons we will research, plan, design and make shelters that would be most beneficial in our school grounds.

ICT

The children will begin the term looking at digital art and how images can be altered using a computer. We will then learn how to use Multimedia techniques to produce a digital film using both still and moving images. Children will be choosing appropriate resources to create a film and will need to explain their choices accordingly.

Visits

 We will hopefully be visiting Techniquest for ‘The Environment Show’, which will be hugely beneficial for our science topic!

Depending on the weather, we are planning a walk around our local area to observe and investigate the different species of animals and plants that are native to our locality.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Homework Diary - Pupils will use this diary for their homework. It is also there for you to use as a means of contact with myself and will therefore need to be in school every day! If you write in the diary PLEASE remind your child that they will need to get it out of their bag and give it to me!

Homework - This will be sent home on a THURSDAY and pupils will, in the majority of cases, have a week to complete this work.  Pupils are expected to bring their homework in ON the due date!

Spellings - Pupils will have their spelling lesson and test on a Tuesday. Spellings will be sent home on a Tuesday in their Spelling books, however the weekly spellings will also be posted on the Y4 page on the schools website (stbridesprimary.org.uk)

Home Readers - the same system as last term will remain in operation.