Year 4 Curriculum Outline Autumn 2019
Year 4 Curriculum Outline Autumn 2019 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. They will be learning about volcanoes, Pompeii, the water cycle, and deserts, and they will 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 continue through looking at scale, orientation and plans. Pupils will be developing our understanding of local History through the joint Rosedale House/Dame Bradbury’s collaboration day. In R S, 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 how a family may choose to worship one of the Hindu God's 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 to Train Your 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, sentence starters, similes, conjunctions and encouraging an ambitious range of vocabulary. In the second half of the term, through our Colours of History topic, pupils will be focusing on historical fiction and persuasive writing. Pupils will create an anthology of short stories using book creator and other apps. They will be choosing using language, literacy and layout features appropriate to a chosen task and developing their use of clauses within their writing. The focus in Modern Languages continues to be on good communication skills and on encouraging a love of languages. Pupils will talk about themselves in more detail and will begin to focus on reading aloud. Linking to the thematic learning topics, they will explore the Geography of Spain, using the famous rivers as a starting point for pronunciation practise and learn a poem. Learning a Christmas song and Halloween vocabulary offers performance opportunities and helps the children to learn about Spanish and French culture. French lessons will focus on the seasons and the weather and some bigger numbers. Of course there will be plenty of opportunity for games, songs and stories! Pupils can consolidate their learning by using at home the Linguascope or Grow Story Grow websites or by using one of the free websites which have been used in class.
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. The next topic is measurement, specifically, length and 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.
Physical Education and Well-being In PSHEE this term pupils will be focusing on looking at the main stages of the human lifecycle and what it means to be grown up. They will be thinking about how to develop our maturity with regard to our friendships, belongings and work. Pupils will be developing an
understanding of what bullying is, how it feels and what strategies can be used to prevent bullying or get help if they need it. For PE this term the pupils will have a weekly swimming session where they will be grouped according to their swimming ability and held at The Lord Butler Leisure Centre or The Leys swimming pool. For their games session the girls will be doing Hockey in preparation for Autumn fixtures. Please ensure that all girls have mouthguards, shin pads and long socks. The boys will play football and some Touch Rugby also in preparation for local fixtures. Boys at Dame Bradbury’s will begin to play contact rugby as part of their Games programme to prepare them for competitive rugby matches against other Prep schools in Essex and Hertfordshire. More information about fixtures can be found at www.stephenpersesport.com or www.damebradburyssport.com
Creative and Performing Arts For their Drama work this term pupils will rehearse for their year group production.This will include beginning to understand basic stagecraft. Pupils learn to speak audibly and fluently in front of an audience. Drama skills covered include developing observational skills through mirror work and developing tableaux within mimed sequences. In Create Design Engineering pupils will be beginning with basic colour theory they will explore mixing using a variety of paints over the weeks. Fire will be under scrutiny first, with a focus on abstract art and layering a canvas with different textures. Ice will be a theme that explores mosaics and the tessellation of shapes, culminating in a sculptural piece made from collections of found materials and a few new additions. In Music this term the pupils are preparing for their year group production; developing their vocal technique and repertoire through rehearsing the musical numbers featured in the show. Following this production the pupils will prepare for December’s Carol Concert. Throughout the rehearsals and preparation for the Carol Concert, pupils will continue to build upon their understanding of the key musical elements, develop an increasingly mature vocal technique and listen to various works in the musical canon, analysing pieces in increasing detail. The pupils will warm up their voices each week in a fun and creative way - through fun vocal games, short improvisatory exercises, and develop an increasingly broad bank of music terminology along the way. In addition, each week the pupils will continue to expand their recorder repertoire, or use their instruments in an orchestral ensemble context, to develop their instrumental technique. Being a member of either ensemble enables the pupils to develop their ensemble performance skills, helps to build their confidence and fluency with reading staff notation, and allows them to experience playing their instrument in a new context with increasing competence.
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 good 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 Visit online resources like BBC Bitesize Science and look out for science programmes on TV
Digital
The Inner Wheel 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 www.explaineverything.com Green Screen www.doink.com Stop Motion www.cateater.com Strip Design www.vividapps.com/Strip_Designer/ Notability www.gingerlabs.com Book Creator www.bookcreator.com
Puppet Pals ​www.polishedplay.com 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.
Coding Another aspect of our digital curriculum is the coding/programming skills that are embedded in all subjects or taught discretely in Years 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.
Thinking Toolkit
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.