Spring 2024 2nd half
Spring 2024 2nd half
Over the last half term, year 4 pupils have been making great progress in maths. As well as all of their fantastic practise on times tables rock stars, they developed their multiplication and division skills by learning the formal written methods. We also introduced the topic of length. Fractions will be the next area of learning – the children will explore unit and non-unit fractions, equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions.
Biography writing was the first piece of prose that year 4 embarked on in January and they produced some very interesting and factual work about David Walliams. A real highlight of our English learning this term was our visit from the author, Keith Hatton. He led fantastic drama workshops with the children, which inspired some amazing writing all about a gladiator fight. Following that, we changed the genre and focussed on poetry using Michael Rosen’s poems about Chocolate. The children wrote their own poems and were then able to perform their poetry aloud and really show off their writing skills to their peers.
In geography we loved learning all about Italy in our topic, Viva Roma! We learnt its location in Europe and we studied some of the physical and human geography of the country, including the two major mountain ranges and the animals which inhabit them. We also looked at important landmarks and cultures in the Italian cities. We then combined this knowledge with computing and the children created some great films about Italy using imovie.
We are now following a new computing curriculum and this term the children have learnt about repetition in shapes with the end result being designing wrapping paper. In spring 2 they will be using a data logging App and we will use the App to determine if sound decreases with distance, which is one of the objectives in our science learning.
In the latter part of February and March we will be finding out all about the Roman Empire; how they successfully invaded Britain, what life in Roman Britain was like and then identify major achievements of the Romans that have impacted our life today. We will finish our learning about the Romans with a trip to Verulamium in St Albans where the children gain so much from an artefact session as well as the information boards. In RE we have found out lots about Sikhism and were able to study the Sikh way of life as well as comparing Sikh beliefs to our own. Christianity and Pentecost will be studied as we approach Easter.
The children have really developed their art skills over the last half term. We began by exploring collage and evaluating various artists’ work, for example the famous artwork of Eric Carle in ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ books. We learnt all about the colour wheel, specifically complimentary colours, and then explored this further by creating organic shapes on contrasting backgrounds. We pulled all of our work together by creating our own beautiful collages inspired by the fabulous work of Henri Matisse.
As well as swimming lessons each Tuesday, we know the second half of the spring term is going to be action packed, exciting and enjoyable.