Caroline

Chisholm

School

The Home/School Partnership Curriculum Newsletter Autumn Term 1 2007

Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 -- Year 4 Year 4

Our Learning Theme:

Spain

MFL: Spanish

Art: Picasso

English: Report writing

Geography: Our Friends in Spain (link with Spanish Partner School).

Math

s: Num

ber, Sha

pe and

Co-ordinates

English

: Story w

riting

and

Story structure

Scien

ce: Moving an

d Growing

PSHE: New

Beginning

s

Gam

es: Invasion

Gam

es

Gym

nast

ics

RE: Islam

DT: Prepa

ring

a Healthy San

dwich

Circle Time

Autumn 1

Important dates for your diary...

Friday 12th October Year 4 Spotlight

Assembly

Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th October

Parents Evenings

October 15th– 19th BIG Healthy Week!

Throughout this time the whole

Primary Phase will be

focusing on keeping healthy.

We will learn about the impor-

tance of a healthy diet and

regular exercise. To support

our learning, the Life Education

Bus will visit Y4 on Monday 15th

October. We will also be visited

by our brand new School Nurse!

The subjects shown in this column are our connected curriculum for this half term. They will be taught through the

theme of ‘Spain.’

The new Year 4 have been learning how to work together effectively as part of a team. See inside for more photos of our ‘Build the Tallest Tower’ Challenge!

Y4

English This half term, Year Four will be learning about aspects of narrative writing including character, setting and story structure. The texts studied for this will be ‘The Mousehole Cat’ by Antonia Barber, and ‘The Wreck of Zanzibar’ by Michael Morpurgo. Having learned the structure of a story they will write their own based on ‘The Mousehole Cat’, but with an alternative resolution and ending. The children will explore character and setting and write a personal response to the texts studied drawing evidence from the text. They will also write a character sketch based on one of the characters from the story.

Non Fiction: Your child will be learning about the features of report writing which will link with their learning in science on moving and growing and in Geography on Spain. Children will be learning the features of instruction writing and then creating a recipe for a toasted sandwich. This will link with the design technology unit.

Spelling The children will learn to distinguish between the spellings of common homophones such as to/two/too and their/they’re/there. They will learn to spell irregular tense changes such as can/could, go/went and they will also use third and fourth place letters to locate and sequence words in alphabetical order. They will have weekly spellings to learn for a test each Wednesday.

Grammar Your child will learn to identify adverbs and powerful verbs and understand their functions in sentences. This knowledge will be applied to their writing.

Mathematics In Maths we will start the year looking at place value. This will involve your child knowing what each digit in numbers up to 10,000 represent. They will then be extending their understanding of addition and subtraction and the relationship between them. This knowledge will be applied to solving word problems involving the addition and subtraction of money.

The children will learn to describe and visualise 3-D and 2-D shapes, including the tetrahedron and heptagon, and recognise equilateral and isosceles triangles. They will also learn to classify polygons according to the number of sides and angles they have, whether or not they are symmetrical and if they are regular polygons. They will also be learning to calculate the perimeter of rectangles and other simple shapes. Finally they will learn how to describe and find the position of a point on a grid of squares.

Part of your child’s home learning

is to read three times a week to

an adult or independently. Please

encourage them to complete their

own Reading Record each time, to

reflect upon their own reading.

Please encourage your child

to read instruction texts

at home. Good examples

are recipes and rules of

play for board games.

When out shopping, encourage your child to look at price labels and know what each digit in an amount represents. You could try this at the checkout in the supermarket!

Science The unit of work covered in science this half term will be Moving and Growing, which links with our Big Healthy Week. The children will be learning about the main bones in a human skeleton and a variety of other skeletons. They will learn about the main functions of the skeleton and how it grows during childhood and adolescence. They will also learn the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates. The children will plan and carry out an investigation to answer the question ‘Can people with larger feet jump further?’ They will also observe the effect that exercise has on their bodies.

ICT The first unit of work covered involves the children gathering and handling data which will be stored on to the computer. This will involve researching and devising questions in order to construct a database. They will learn how to input the data and how to locate information by carrying out searches of a range of databases. There will be a strong focus on skills that can be used with other software. These skills can then be applied to work in other areas of the curriculum.

Geography As part of our connected curriculum, we will be learning about Spain in Geography. This links with report writing in English when the children will be expected to write a report on one aspect of Spain. We will be looking at various aspects of Spain with a focus on our Spanish Partnership School, Joaquin Blume, and the area it is in, Torrejon de Ardoz. We will practice reading maps and plans of the area studied, and we will research food, festivals, homes and work. We will also look at the similarities and differences between our own locality and Torrejon de Ardoz.

Spanish

In Spanish this half term the children will be learning basic greetings,

numbers up to 20, days of the week, weather and they will be able to use basic classroom vocabulary. The unit fits in well with our Geography unit on Spain where they will be able to

put into practice some of the vocabulary learnt.

Art To tie in with our study of Spain, the children will explore the ideas and

meanings in the works of the famous Spanish artist, Picasso. They will produce their own representations to interpret his

style.

Music

This half term the

children will learn about

rhythmic pieces of music

from around the world.

The main focus is

‘Stomp’.

They will have the

opportunity to listen and

watch stomp and then

compose and perform

their own stomp.

Our Partnership School:

CEIP Joaquin Blume!

PE and Games Gymnastics: The unit aims to encourage the children to create gymnastic sequences which focus on body shapes, balances and a broad range of actions. They will use compositional devices such as changes in speed, level and direction.

Invasion Games: Children will follow a unit on invasion games which encourages them to learn and develop the skills and tactics

necessary for a range of invasion games including netball and football. They will develop the skills of catching and throwing and develop an increased understanding of the tactics involved in invasion games. Both gymnastics and games provide a valuable link to our Big Healthy Week.

RE In RE we will be studying the religion of Islam. The children will learn about the religious beliefs and teachings of Islam and their importance to Muslims. They will learn about the customs and rituals associated with Islam and how they manifest themselves in the daily life of a Muslim.

Please ensure your child has their PE kit at school

every week. Year 4 will have games every

Tuesday, and gymnastics every Thursday.

During Big Healthy Week the children will be designing and making a healthy sandwich snack. More information will follow shortly.

WANTED! We have a small selection of Everyday texts such as comics, magazines and news-papers in the class for use in our guided reading sessions, but we would be grateful for any donations to add to our collection. These help the children to develop their reading skills.