Year 4

Autumn 1 

This term in Geography, Year 4 will be developing their map skills. The children will learn how to use the 4 and 8 compass points and practise using coordinates to locate features on a map. They will begin to recognise common symbols used on Ordnance Survey maps and use them to identify significant places and environments. The children will also have the opportunity to explore both large- and medium-scale OS maps to build their confidence in navigating and understanding the world around them. As well as identifying countries from each continent, our focus will be on Africa, creating a fact file on this fascinating region and discovering the similarities and differences between two African countries.

Autumn 2

After half term, Year 4 will be travelling back in time and asking 'How have children's lives changed?'. We will explore changes in children's spare time and health. We will look particularly closely at children's working lives, learning about a day in the life of a working child and the significance of Lord Shaftesbury in changing the lives of children.

Autumn 2

The Train to Impossible Places by P.G. Bell

Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2019.
"Great fun - fast moving and inventive" - Philip Reeve, author of Mortal Engines
"An exciting, imaginative, wild ride of a story that never lets up for a minute" - Robin Stevens

Join the journey to Impossible Places, where there's magic at every stop

Suzy is surprised to find a grumpy troll building a railway through her house - especially when a gigantic steam train crashes into her hallway! This is the Impossible Postal Express, the trusty delivery service of the Union of Impossible Places, and Suzy becomes its newest recruit. And with her cursed first package, an Impossible adventure begins.

Welcome to the Impossible Places Where there's fuzzics not physics, where adventure meets magic and where the journey will never, ever take you where you expect it to.

How we read in our guided reading lessons:

Autumn 2

Leon and the Place Between by Grahame Baker-Smith 

Wanting to prove to his brothers and sister that magic really exists, Leon volunteers to be in Abdul Kazam's magic show and gets transported to a mysterious world. Filled with rabbits, doves, playing cards and magician's assistants - among other things - if a magician can make it disappear, it will end up in the Place Between!

When Leon returns, not only do his brothers and sister believe, but we do too.

With diecut holes into and out of the Place Between, the reader takes a journey right through the pages of the book, into the mysterious world of Grahame Baker-Smith's breath-taking illustrations.

In this unit, children will write Leon’s secret diary about what really happened in ‘the place between’, including conversation between Leon and the boy.

Autumn Term

This term, we will look at the place value of 4-digit numbers, addition and subtraction, area, and multiplication and division. 

We will look ahead to the Times Table Check that takes place towards the end of the year. Check out www.timestables.co.uk for some fantastic games to aid learning as well as TTRS and www.topmarks.co.uk. 

PE - PE is on Mondays and Wednesdays. On these days, children should wear school PE kit with jewellery removed. Earring studs that are not removed will be covered with microporous tape.

Coats & outdoor shoes- please can you send your child in with a coat every day as we will be learning in and out of the classroom in both rain and shine. Outdoor shoes are particularly important as the weather becomes wetter and muddier. It is not safe for children to spend time in school without their shoes on, regardless of how wet they are. It is imperative that all belongings, including coats, are clearly named.

Water bottles - children should bring a water bottle in with them each morning so that they can access a drink during the day.

Reading - in Key Stage 2, reading continues to be something that children should be doing regularly so that they are able to build their fluency and comprehension. Please can you record in your child's reading diary each time that they read so that we can monitor their progress more accurately.

Bookbags -  Please bring in books/book bags every day. These will be kept in your child's drawer or on their peg. Where possible, please avoid sending your child in with very large back packs as we struggle to fit them all in the cloakroom