Welcome to our Year 4 Shark Class page! Here we will share our plans for the term, to help you start conversations with your ‘shark’ about what they are enjoying and learning about in school.

In English, we will learn and perform a famous poem called 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', study and write our own portal stories and develop our persuasive writing techniques. We will continue to work on sentence structure, vocabulary and punctuation, as well as exploring and writing similes and metaphors. In Guided Reading, we will read examples of the text types mentioned above, as well as a range of other interesting narrative and non-fiction texts to develop our fluency, comprehension and knowledge across the curriculum. We are continuing with our ‘Just Read’ novel ‘The Land of Roar’ by Jenny McLachlan. We are really enjoying the book and are excited to see what happens next.

In Maths we are ready to start a unit on area. This will be followed by expanding our knowledge of multiplication and division. We will also be encouraging lots of practise with multiplication and related facts, as later on in Year 4 the children will have a Multiplication Check. TTRS should be accessible from home and logins have recently been sent out. Weekly challenges have been set and there are certificates to be won! Please ask if there are issues logging in and we'll do all that we can to get things sorted for you.

In Science our focus is ‘Animals including humans’. Here, we will identify, name and describe the function of parts of the human digestive system, find out about our teeth and carry out a fair test about tooth decay using eggs! 

After an exciting Ancient Egyptian topic in History, we now move on to finding out about volcanoes in Geography. We will look at the structure of the Earth and how tectonic plates are formed, where volcanoes can be found and how and why they erupt. We will discuss the 'Ring of Fire' and identify significant volcanoes of the world, including eruptions of the past; such as Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii.

In PSHE/RHE, we will be looking at the importance of community and families being made up of different people. To help develop our thinking we will be using a book called The Barnabus Project which will provoke a lot of super discussion. We will cover aspects of rights and freedoms; considering identity and diversity as we identify how our world is wonderful due to our similarities and differences. We will continue to look in greater depth at the community, worship and celebrations of people of the Hindu faith.

Computing in Year 4 will introduce Google Classroom as a presenting and sharing platform; accessing pre-loaded documents and saving and submitting their own work. Children will begin to understand what is meant by a digital footprint and how difficult it is to erase. Google Classroom will be used to access information across the curriculum, not just within our computing lessons.

In Design Technology, the children will be designing and making a Christmas stocking. They will research existing stockings, practise stitching techniques, plan how to make and decorate their work and finally evaluate their finished product.

In French this term, children will be learning how to say hello and introduce themselves.  There will be lots of opportunities for listening and responding, supported through the use of images, short tasks and games. We'll be ready for a trip in no time!

PE will continue to include swimming on a Monday – Children to wear sports kit and bring their swimming kit (swimsuit, towel and swimming hat) in a plastic bag. Goggles are optional. Children should also wear their sports kit on a Wednesday, as we explore movement through dance using different kinds of music and events such as Bonfire night fireworks.

If you have any questions or need to speak to us, please catch us at the end of the school day or leave a message/make an appointment by phoning the school office.

Many thanks,

Mrs Baldwin, Miss Dickinson and Mrs Beaumont (The Year 4 Team)