HCH Year 4 Curriculum Overview - Spring 2024

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Contents Art Ballet Découverte du monde Drama English FLAM & French Harmony Maths Music PE PSHE Science

Key contacts Susie Byers Head of Prep sby@hchnet.co.uk

Cecilia Marston Year 4 Tutor cma@hchnet.co.uk

Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Art Students will be working on a series of co-curricular projects this term, making art in response to some of the Greek myths.

Starting with Theseus and the Minotaur, each student will have the chance to design and create their own maze. To complement learning about the Trojan War, students will make preliminary sketches of the infamous Trojan Horse before creating their own three-dimensional sculptures, complete with hidden soldiers.

Ballet This term students will continue to work on their Royal Academy of Dance Grade 2 syllabus. We will build on the foundations learnt in the autumn term and continue to develop our musicality, technique and performance in readiness for our assessment at the end of term.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Découverte du monde History The pupils will learn about Greek heroes and myths. Each week they will study a new story and will especially spend time on the Trojan War and the Odyssey, Ulysses' journey. We will learn about Ancient Greece, artefacts, and the way of life.

We will talk about the difference between Sparta and Athens. We will discover what is a democracy Ancient Greece as well as the society and punishment. Finally, we will learn about the Roman Empire, their religious beliefs, and the gods/goddesses they worshipped as well as their language (latin) and first newspaper.

Geography Year 4 will learn about the different climates of the world and how to differentiate them. They will study the weather forecast and climates (tropical, dry, mild, continental, and polar). Learn about the natural disasters (tsunami/flood, earthquakes/volcanoes, tornadoes/hurricanes, snowstorm/wildfire). After the half term, the children will study natural disasters and what causes them. Finally, they will discover what are the features of a river and describe English and French rivers.

Drama Darkwood Manor Students will use a story of a spooky manor house to explore Drama techniques.

They will learn about conscience corridor to explore characters feelings. They will use absent focus to give the illusion of a presence onstage. Mime and narration will be used to develop storytelling. Creative movement skills will also be explored in this spooky term.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

English

Spring 1

Spring 2

Genre

Focus Texts

Assessment Focus

Written outcome

Fiction Traditional Tales and playscripts. Using different versions of The Princess and The Pea, the children will explore fairy tales with twisted viewpoints.

The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Anderson (any version)

Use of a range of punctuation (including full stops, capital letters, question marks, paragraphs and punctuation of speech) Spelling of known and learned words. Use of pronouns and conjunctions.

Write a playscript based on their own version of a traditional tale.

Non-Fiction Explore Recounts. Study adverbials and possessive apostrophes.

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett

Use of the past tense, first person, the way paragraphs are used to structure the recount and the use of adjectives and adverbials.

Children will plan and write an imaginary personal recount from the perspective of an animal that has had a narrow escape

Poetry Read and write list poems, including kennings. Explore devices such as simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Study word classes: nouns, adjectives, verbs, and expanded noun phrases.

Poems Younger Brother by Trevor Millum Ten Things Found in a Wizard’s Pocket

by Ian McMillan Today, I Feel

by Gervase Phinn As, as, as…

by Robert Hull Land of the Ocean Noise Anon Squirrel

by Celia Warren

Expanded noun phrases, prepositions, use of powerful language and a rhyme scheme.

Write and publish list poems.

Fiction Stories that raise issuesRainforest stories.

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry The Shaman’s Apprentice by Lynne Cherry

Discussion of point of view Conventions of letter writing Use of fronted adverbials

Letter writing Character profile.

Non Fiction Reports Read Wolves in the Walls (Gaiman) and Wolves (Gravett) for features of nonchronological reports. Use adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions of time/cause.

Produce reports.

The Wolves in the Wall by Neil Gaiman Wolves by James Maclaine Walk with a Wolf by Janni Howker.

Answering questions from non fiction texts Understand how non fiction reports are organised

Write a non fiction report about wolves.

Poetry Explore a range of narrative poems.

The Works, chosen by Paul Cookson

Use of noun phrases, fronted adverbials and pronouns.

You Wait Till I’m Older Than You – Michael Rosen – Puffin (2016)

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

FLAM (Français langue maternelle) In the first part of Spring term, Y4 FLAM students will focus on reading, understanding and writing comics. In grammar, they will learn to conjugate verbs of the 2nd group in the present tense. They will also broad our vocabulary by using synonyms. In the second part, they will discover how a poem is built and how to use words to express emotions. They will also revise the future tense and will practise the agreement subject/verb. The pupils will be assessed at the end of each unit and will also have short conjugation and spelling tests.

French This term, the children will work on their written, verbal, listening and reading skills, using the book Passe Passe 3. In the first half term, we will focus on habits, activities, giving instructions, talking about clothing and gardening.

After the holiday, the pupils will be able to focus on learning how to communicate abroad. For example, describing a place or a train trip or learning to buy groceries.

Throughout the term, the children will also improve their grammar by learning new verbs in present tense: aller, faire, partir, and develop their culture by studying Morocco and Provence (France). Finally, the children will keep getting ready for their DELF Prim exam (in the summer term) with several listening and reading comprehensions in class.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Harmony (Sustainable Thinking) These lessons are designed to teach children about the Principles of Harmony in Nature and the importance of keeping this harmony in balance. The Principles of Harmony are Interdependence, Natural cycles, Diversity, Adaptation, Health, Geometry, and Oneness. The subject is explored by students through inquiries of learning, reading, and discussing stories, explorative walks in nature, and creative activities. These questions are linked with their syllabus content each half-term and learning is interdisciplinary with Art, Maths, English, and Science subject knowledge development.

This term’s theme will be Chronologies.

Spring 1: Oneness Inquiry Question: What impact (good and bad) humans have on their environment?

Students will investigate how human activities can cause disruption in the food webs of living things, and what can they do within their environment to prevent or minimise disruption. They will use their knowledge about the classification of living things to identify habitats.

Spring 2: Health Inquiry Question: How do humans obtain nutrition?

Students will learn about the basic parts and functions of the human digestive system. Gain knowledge about varieties of diets connected to different locations, celebrating cultures and seasonality. They will explore how other living things (animals and plants) digest food differently and identify producers, predators, and prey.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Maths Spring 1 Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Timetables, multiplication facts Factors and multiples

Drawing shapes Circles and polygons

Identify and explore 3D shapes

One place decimal Equivalent fractions

Decimals by multiplying, dividing by 10,100,1000

Revision of all topics

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Column method (2 and 3 digits) Multiply 10s and Division with Subtraction 100s Grid remainders strategies multiplication (chunking) (written methods)

Line of symmetry Types of polygons

Spring 2 Week 1 Adding money using column method Count up to find change and difference

Week 2

Week 3

Revision of all topics

Music Folk Music and Song writing Pupils explore the folk music of Britain, and learn about its cultural importance. Pupils develop understanding of a history of aural tradition and learn a variety of folk tunes and songs by ear in different tonalities and time signatures. They explore how and why people have sought to notate the music and about folk song arrangements and accompaniments.

They then draw upon this knowledge and apply skills of practical musicianship to write their own folk song to respond to issues important to them through music. In particular, they will consider time signature, rhythm, lyrics, melody, phrase, structure and accompaniment.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

PE In the Spring term, the Year 4 children will learn about gymnastics, hockey, dodgeball and benchball. In gymnastics, they will create sequences that include changes of level and speed and focus on body tension and extension. They will learn through partner work and in small groups. In hockey, the children will explore the fundamental skills of dribbling, passing and shooting. They will develop these skills through fun-based games and goal orientated drills. There will be a focus on small sided conditioned games and the positions that pupils will need to take up to compete in this format.

In dodgeball and benchball, the children will learn about the rules of the game, tactics they can employ and play competitive games to develop their throwing and catching skills.

PSHE This term in PSHE we will be exploring the compulsory RSHE topics (relationships, sex and health education). Called Relationships and Changing Me in Jigsaw. We will begin in the first half term with Relationships, which looks at the themes of jealousy, love and loss, friendships and coping strategies for falling out, memories and celebrating relationships. In the Changing Me topic, we will look at what makes us a unique person, puberty, reasons people choose to have a baby and accepting change. The topics are explored in an ageappropriate way, and all lesson plans and resources will be made available to parents at the start of each half term. Each of the lessons is delivered with a mindful approach, meaning there is time for thinking, discussing and reflecting.

Due to the sensitive nature of the topics this term, teachers are encouraged to have an anonymous question box available for the children.

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Year 4 Curriculum Overview Spring Term 2024

Science Science at HCH is about investigation and teaching children to think like scientists.

Spring 1: Sound

Week 1

Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating.

Week 2

Week 3

Explore sound further and investigate vibrations and how sound travels.

Investigate pitch and volume by exploring instruments and the different sounds they make.

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Understand how we hear sounds and begin to consider ways to reduce what we can hear.

Plan and investigate which material best reduces the sounds we hear.

Present your ear defenders design and explain your findings.

Spring 2: Living things and their habitats Take a trip within the local Recognise that environment, living things can observe be grouped in a habitats and variety of ways. record the different living things you find.

Make a branching database to sort and identify the local invertebrates

Make accurate observational drawings of an invertebrate found in the local environment.

Understand that accurate knowledge of the features of living things is vital to classification.

Create and use a classification key to name a variety of living things in the wider environment.

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