Year 4

Year 4 Home Guide
Autumn Term

Welcome to Year 4! This guide contains information about the topics we are covering this term and suggestions for activities you can do at home with your child to extend their learning.

We shall be testing pupils on spellings every Friday, and the dates for these tests are provided on the school website as well as the spellings. The multiplication and division tables that we will be learning and regularly testing the children on are also provided.

Every Monday, Literature Circles (guided reading sessions) are led by a member of staff, who is not necessarily your child’s class teacher. As in Year 3, children will be set a piece of reading homework that must be completed for the following Monday. Finally, please try to read every day with your child.

Literacy Topics:

These are the topics we will be covering this half term in class, and suggested activities for parents and children.

Fiction: Stories with historical settings
We will be reading several short stories set in the Second World War throughout the unit, identifying characters and settings. We will map the stages in stories and discuss the passing of time. The children will also plan and write their own short stories set in the past.

Poetry: Creating images
In this unit, children will read and respond to a range of poems and prose extracts that use similes and other simple images to create a vivid picture for a reader. They will explore and create similes and write poems experimenting with the use of simile and other devices to create imagery.

Suggested activities:
• Read poetry at home with your children.
• Read books set in the Second World War with your children (fiction and non fiction).
• Visit museums to reinforce your child’s knowledge about what it was like for children during the Second World War.

Non-Fiction
Recounts Newspapers

In this topic, children will identify the features of a recount text, write a recount and discuss the concepts of fact and opinion.

Non Chronological reports

In this topic we will use the text ‘Charlotte’s Web’ to inspire the children to find out more about spiders. We will look at the features of non chronological reports and write our own reports about spiders and some imaginary creatures of our own.

Suggested activities:
• Continue to read poetry at home with your children and give them opportunities to write their own poems.
• Read newspapers and magazines with your child and discuss layout and content of the articles that you have read.
• Read non-fiction books about animals or look at websites with information about animals and discuss the style of writing.

Spellings:
On the Spellings (Autumn) link to the left, you will find the words we will be covering each week for the whole term. Please help your child learn the words that correspond to their group using the say, look, cover, write, check method as used in Years 2 and 3. We suggest your child practises their spellings for ten minutes every day. The expectation is that children should not just spell these words correctly in the tests, but should be using them in their writing.
Literature Circle:
We strongly urge you to encourage your child to experience reading every night, either to an adult, themselves or by listening to an adult read aloud – story tapes or CDs are also useful for extending vocabulary. We also include a list of the high frequency words that all children in Key Stage 2 are expected to spell correctly in their work.

MATHS
For details, click on the Maths tab left.


Science

Our first topic is Moving and Growing. Children will learn about different types of bones, the purpose and uses of the skeleton, how muscles work and how animals move

Suggested activities:
• research human bones and skeleton on the internet and at the library;
• research different animal skeletons and compare them with each other and human skeletons;
• Take a look at the bbc website on Moving and Growing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/moving_growing.shtml
• Discuss the words in the glossary below with your child.

Science Glossary

backbone – long bone in the back made from several smaller bones.
bones – hard pieces of the skeleton.
contraction – when a muscle shortens.
grow – to get bigger.
invertebrate –animal without a backbone.
relaxation– when a muscle stretches.
ribs - bones of the chest protecting the heart and lungs.
skull – bone of the head protecting the brain.
spine – the backbone.
muscle – meaty part of the body that makes us move.
vertebrate – animal with a backbone.

After half term, our science topic is Circuits and Conductors. Children will learn about electricity, using electricity safely and making and using circuits.

Suggested activities:
• Take a look at the bbc website on Circuits and Conductors: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/changing_circuits.shtml
• Discuss the words in the glossary below with your child.

Science Glossary

appliances – things that need electricity to work.
battery – provides energy for making circuits work.
battery terminal – where the battery joins the circuit.
bulb – a device that emits light and heat when electricity flows through it.
circuit – a network of wires, batteries and devices that allows electricity to flow through in a controlled way.
conductors – materials that allow electricity to flow through easily.
devices ¬–¬¬ things such as bulbs and motors that are part of a circuit.
filament – the part of a bulb that lights up when electricity flows through.
insulators – materials that do not allow electricity to flow through easily.
motor – a device that uses electricity to create movement.
switch – breaks a circuit and can turn things on and off.
volt – a measure of how hard the battery has to work to make electricity flow.
watt – a measure of electrical power, for example, how much heat and light a bulb produces.
wire – thin length of metal that conducts electricity.
 

History:
Our topic is ‘What was it like for children in World War II’. The aim of this unit is for children to find out about the effects of the Second World War on children in their local area, nationally and internationally. There are also opportunities to consider the effects of war on children today.
Children will use a range of sources, including the recollections of people who were children at the time. They consider:
• Reasons for and results of key aspects of the war
• Everyday life
• Anne Frank
• Childhood memories
• Experiences of local children
• The end of the war

Useful vocabulary:
• words associated with fighting the war, eg Blitz, air raid, bomb damage, submarines, allies
• words associated with evacuation, eg host family, evacuee, billeting officer
• words associated with the home front, eg gas masks, ration books, blackout.

PSHE:

We will be beginning again the SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) programme and our topics are New Beginnings and Getting On and Falling Out .

Other subjects:

In Art, our work will be topic related so the children will create art based around World War II.

ICT work will again predominantly use Apple Mac computers to enhance work across the curriculum, and for publishing work.

The children will have a weekly Music lesson with our new music teacher, Mr Morris, plus the big news is that all children will each be given a violin for this year and will have a weekly violin lesson – more details to follow. Children will also continue to have weekly PE lessons with Morris, and a weekly Dance lesson with Ms Robins.

Children will also be continuing to learn French, in weekly lessons. You might want to get them to tell you any new words they are learning!