Indoor PE | Wednesday afternoon |
Outdoor Games | Thursday afternoon |
PPA/COSMIC | Tuesday afternoon |
Library | Thursday afternoon |
Year 4 – Curriculum Map 2023-24
Spring Term
Art
The lovely Darrell Wakelam sent our classes a lovely video message
The children have had a fantastic start to 2024 and have all settled back in brilliantly. Please see below for a summary of our learning so far.
Reading
In English, we have been reading ‘The Princess who Hid in a Tree’ where we have been predicting what might happen from details stated and implied. We have also been drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence.
We were unbelievably excited to get the opportunity to have a Zoom call with the author Jackie Holderness! We had lots of exciting questions and enjoyed finding out what it is like to be an author.
Writing
This term, we have continued our writing journey by producing an alternative perspective prequal to the book ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ and a letter based on the book ‘FArTHER’. To develop our non-fiction skills, we have written an explanation text and linked this to our Science topic of States of Matter. We are looking forward to coming back in Spring where we will be looking at playscripts first.
Maths
Throughout Year 4, we will all be working incredibly hard to learn our times tables in preparation for the Multiplication Tables Check in the Summer term. To support this, we have been visually representing times tables in a variety of ways to include multiple representations, models and images to support learning. If you would like to extend your learning further at home, please feel free to use your Wonde login to access Education City, Times Table Rock Stars or access www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check
In lessons across the Autumn term, we had a first visit to most of the domains. These included; Number and Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Measurement, Fractions, Geometry and Time. We are going to start Spring term with revisiting the domain fractions. We will focus mainly on finding equivalent fractions using diagrams.
Science
During the Autumn term, we were learning about States of Matter.
If you like a challenge, please help us work out if slime is a solid or a liquid.
To begin our new topic this term, we were discussing the things we already know about sound. To support our discussion, we used retrieval practice from our prior learning to justify our thoughts. We also considered the following questions:
- What is Science all about?
- How do you know you’re learning about Science?
- What does Science look like at Warren Park?
- Can you tell me about the Science you’ve been doing?
We found out that sound waves are caused by vibrations (‘back and forth’ movements) of, for example, a string, drum ‘skin’, air in a pipe or vocal cords.
The loudness of a sound is determined by how far something is moving backwards and forwards (or up and down) and is known as the amplitude of the vibrations. Bigger vibrations make louder sounds, smaller ones make quieter sounds.
The pitch of a sound that you hear is determined by the frequency (how many times something vibrates in one second). The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch of the sound.
Geography
During the Autumn term, we were trying to answer the question ‘Is the Costa Blanca a world away from our local area?’
To launch our topic, Warren had hidden his treasure around Europe and needed our help to locate it. To help Warren find his treasure, we had to use a range of geographical skills, maps and atlases to:
- locate Europe’s environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries and capital cities.
- identify the oceans bordering Europe
- identify features using the four points of a compass
To support our findings, we included symbols and a key to show the different features on a map of Europe.
This term, we are excited to be learning about Mountains and Earthquakes.
Art
This half term, we have been learning to become sculptors. Our key artist that we have been studying is Darrell Wakelam who is a 3D artist who works predominantly with paper, card and cheap, everyday materials. We have enjoyed looking at his art work and have used a well-known, cheap technique called papier mâché to begin sculpting our very own Sutton Hoos. We enjoyed getting our hands very messy and we are looking forward to adding detail once our papier mâché is dry and has been painted.
Computing
During our Computing sessions, we are expanding our understanding of the features of the Scratch environment before decomposing a working game together as a class. We have started to utilise the PRIMM strategy to promotes Predicting, Running, Investigating and Modifying code before Making something.
Music
In Year 4, we are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work with the Hampshire Music Service where we have been learning to play the ukulele. To celebrate our success, we enjoyed inviting family and friends in to watch us in action. During the Spring term, we are beginning the Power of Music project where we are learning to create music using technology.
Spanish
We have enjoyed our unit learning how to say what pets we have and to give an opinion on animals. In the Spring Term, we look forward to learning about different hobbies.
Cosmic
During the Spring term, our children experience our Cosmic curriculum every Tuesday afternoon. See our Long-Term plans to find out which topics are being covered each half-term.