Year 4 - Curriculum Outline - Autumn 2022

Year 4 Curriculum Outline Autumn 2022

Fire and Ice ~ Colours of History

Humanities - Social Understanding

Fire and Ice is a fantastic topic in which pupils will be learning key skills such as mapping, evaluating evidence and sources, researching and comparing and contrasting Year 4 will be learning about volcanoes, Pompeii, the water cycle, and deserts.They will also have an opportunity to follow other areas of their own interest. Pupils will be encouraged to ask questions and make connections

Colours of History is an inspiring theme where pupils will be thinking how colour has shaped our world, for example, colours associated with royalty and battles Mapping skills will be developed through looking at scale, orientation and plans

In RS, pupils will study Hinduism. Pupils will learn about the origins of Hinduism and key beliefs held by Hindus. Pupils will listen, explain, research and show understanding of major festivals, gods and goddesses, how and where Hindus worship and their beliefs related to life and death They will consider worship in the home and what being a Hindu means in everyday life

Language and Communication

In English, embedded in our Fire and Ice theme, pupils will be focusing on dragons, writing non-chronological reports and legends How toTrainYour Dragon is our key text and we will be completing much of our grammar and comprehension work through this text Pupils will be revisiting and extending key writing skills, such as using commas, varied sentence starters, similes and conjunctions whilst encouraging an ambitious range of vocabulary In the second half of the term, through our Colours of History topic, pupils will be working on historical fiction and persuasive writing. Pupils will focus on Boudicca, writing about events from her perspective They will be developing their use of language and layout features appropriate to a given task and developing their use of clauses within their writing

Assessment

PTE (ProgressTest in English)

In Modern Languages, developing good oral communication skills remains at the core of our lessons with the use of written clues to help with pronunciation, comprehension and the consolidation of vocabulary Linking into the thematic topics, pupils will explore the language, discovering patterns in words and structures, learning about cultural aspects and getting plenty of chances for conversation and working on accents. Songs and rhymes will help pupils recall key phrases and words and embed their knowledge In French this term, pupils will discover a range of weathers, revising seasons and months alongside and they will apply weather and compass points to talk about weathers across the country Pupils will revise and extend their knowledge of key family members, consolidating their learning towards the end of term in targeted revision activities. In Spanish, pupils will start the term revising and consolidating basic vocabulary regarding days of the week, months of the year, weather and seasons They will also learn how to recite and write some autumnal poems Students will have the opportunity to learn about the Hispanic culture They will be taught about the Mexican celebration ‘Día de los muertos’using the famous movie “Coco” alongside learning about Christmas traditions in Spain.

Mathematical Understanding

The term starts with a focus on place value.This topic includes work on Roman numerals, rounding, partitioning, negative numbers, comparing and ordering numbers Pupils will then

move onto addition and subtraction, with and without exchanges, estimating answers and checking strategies

Other topics include properties of shape and measurement, specifically, properties of shape and length/perimeter, including working with kilometres.Their final topic is multiplication and division where pupils will be asked to recall and use multiplication and division facts for multiplication tables up to 12 x 12 Pupils will also multiply and divide mentally and with written strategies and solve multiplication problems

Assessment

PTM (Progress Test in Maths)

Physical Education and Well being

In PE lessons at the Fitzwilliam Building, pupils will be participating in units of work on team building and problem solving, principles of invasion games, dance, and an introduction to outdoor and adventurous activities For their Games session, the girls will be participating in hockey. Please ensure that your daughter has a mouthguard, a hockey stick, shin pads and long socks.The boys at Fitzwilliam will be playing football and will require a pair of studded football boots (different to astroturf trainers) and a pair of shin pads After the half term break, girls will be playing football in their morning games lessons and the boys will be playing rugby (in afternoon lessons and for fixtures, football for boys and hockey for girls will continue)

At Dame Bradbury’s, boys will begin to play contact rugby as part of their Games programme All pupils will need to have a mouthguard and boots Dame Bradbury’s girls will play hockey and will require a hockey stick, shin pads and a mouth guard At Dame Bradbury’s, the pupils will have a weekly swimming session where they will be grouped according to their swimming ability.These classes will be held atThe Lord Butler Leisure Centre.

More information about fixtures can be found at wwwstephenpersesport com or wwwdamebradburyssport com

In PSHEE this term, pupils will consider emotions that may be involved in loss and change situations They will describe what helps and hinders them when they are experiencing difficult feelings, identifying people who can help them if they are experiencing difficult emotions Pupils will be developing an understanding of what bullying is, how it feels and what strategies can be used to prevent bullying and how to get help if they need it The children will also learn about medicines and other drugs, considering safety rules around storing medicines and knowing what to do if they come across any risky substance Online safety will be an area of focus, with pupils discussing what to do if they are worried about anything online Pupils will also have a regular focus on wellbeing in form time, considering strategies for building confidence, what constitutes a positive friendship and understanding positive and negative character qualities.

Creative and PerformingArts

For their Drama work this term, pupils will rehearse for and perform their year group production This process will include beginning to understand basic stagecraft such as body language, facial expression, movement and working within a defined space Pupils will learn to speak audibly and fluently in their performance through work on projection Students will learn the importance of teamwork skills when working as part of an ensemble.

In Create Design and Engineer, pupils will study famous artists, learn basic colour theory and will explore mixing using a variety of paints The topic of Fire and Ice will be covered as the pupils develop sketching skills, rendering images of dragons before carving in clay They will learn and practise silk painting and embroidery techniques

In Music this term, pupils will prepare for their year group production, developing their vocal technique and repertoire through rehearsing the show’s musical numbers Following the production, pupils will then prepare for the annual Carol Service in December Throughout the rehearsals and preparations for the Carol Service, pupils will continue to build their understanding of the key musical elements and develop an increasingly mature sense of vocal technique.Alongside the production, pupils will also study Fanfares, exercising their core skills of listening, performance and composition

Each week, the pupils will warm up their voices in a fun and creative way through vocal games and short improvisatory exercises, and develop an increasingly broad bank of musical terminology. In addition, the pupils will continue to expand their recorder repertoire or use their own instruments in an orchestral ensemble context to develop their instrumental technique As well as building ensemble performance skills, pupils will develop their confidence and fluency with reading staff notation This will allow them to experience playing their instrument in a new context with increasing competence whilst also affording them more opportunities to compose as part of a group.

Scientific Understanding

This term’s Science has a focus on the properties of materials.The first topic deals with keeping warm, and includes developing skills like accurate temperature measurement and independent investigations into how effective materials are as heat insulators

Pupils will then move on to learning about the properties of solids, liquids and gases, including what happens when materials are mixed together and how they can be separated again.This will allow the pupils to develop key scientific skills, such as precise measurement, handling chemical laboratory apparatus and identifying the presence of substances after carrying out an experiment

How you can help: Visit local museums, such as the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Saffron Walden Museum and Cambridge Science Centre

Subscribe toThe Week Junior Science & Nature Magazine, encourage your child to explore online resources, such as BBC Bitesize Science, and look out also for science programmes onTV orYouTube

With the Google apps at the heart of digital curation our pupils use Google Classroom to complete work digitally and hand in work that is produced in a variety of ways We have identified 7 main apps, our EverGreen apps, that help to showcase our pupils’learning An animation, movie or annotated piece of work provides richer feedback for the teacher and ultimately helps to make greater progress

Explain Everything wwwexplaineverything com Green Screen wwwdoink com Stop Motion wwwcateatercom Strip Design wwwvividapps com/Strip Designer/ Notability wwwgingerlabs com Book Creator wwwbookcreatorcom Puppet Pals wwwpolishedplaycom

The Outer Wheel

We have a number of apps that we use consistently throughout our curriculum that lend themselves to our creative approach We avoid apps that are specific to a particular outcome, preferring content free apps that can help to enhance our pupils’work and understanding Some examples are: Minecraft, iMovie, KeyNote, Pages and Padlet

ThinkingToolkit

Coding

Another aspect of our digital curriculum is the coding/programming skills that are embedded in all subjects or taught discretely inYears 5 and 6 We have identified a progression of apps that help to develop our pupils’ability to code The apps provide variety and challenge and help to develop the computation skills that are crucial learning in our digital work

We combine the coding experiences with physical output Using Spheros, BBC Micro:Bits and Ozobots provides visual outcomes that bring our code to life As our pupils develop further they transition on to written code

Alongside and underpinning our curriculum, we ensure that our pupils are developing as active learners and active thinkers Throughout each subject area, pupils are encouraged to use their range of thinking tools and reflect on when and how they are using them Pupils are encouraged to reflect on how their thinking tools underpin all aspects of their learning and not just in the more obvious ways How are they creative in maths? How do they enquire in English? How are they critical in Music? How do they think computationally in PE?

Inclusion

This curriculum map outlines the core curriculum for each year group each term but at the heart of our wheel is the individual learner Each subject area has a progression of skills, which enables staff to stretch or support individuals as and when they need a little help, a bit of a push or a just a different way in. Within our classrooms, through planning, teacher knowledge and interactions, work is differentiated to suit the needs of each individual.