Autumn Term 2 - Sutton Who?

Key Events

• Monday 30th October - First day of term
• Wednesday 6th December - Books before bedtime
• Thursday 7th December - Flu immunisations
• Friday 8th December - Winter Fayre
• Friday 15th December - Last day of term

Hook

Children looked for clues in a picture of a scene from the past and together with their historical knowledge identify which period of history we will be learning about this term. Once we established it was a scene from Anglo-Saxon times, they placed this in chronological order with other key events from the past, before and after this era. We then had lots of questions: who were the Anglo-Saxons? Where did they come from? Why settle in Britain? What did Saxon Britain look like and did people’s lives change?

Outcome

The children will share all of their learning from the, ‘Sutton ‘Who?’ project with children across the federation. They will showcase their application tasks from across the curriculum, including their new sculpting skills from D&T alongside their broadened historical knowledge relating to the Anglo-Saxons.

Reading

This half-term, children in year four will mainly focus on the historical legend, Beowulf and make links between this genre of fiction and their history topic. They will also revisit their understanding of poetry texts by exploring a range of poems and have the opportunity to perform some. Children will also explore different non-fiction texts relating to the Anglo-Saxon period and answer a variety of comprehensive style questions to gain further understanding of the text.

To help your child at home, please continue to encourage them to read daily and record their progress in their planners for the teachers to see.

Writing

During each half-term, the children will write one fiction, one non-fiction piece of writing and a piece of poetry. Within each of these learning journeys, they will learn new skills, practise using them and apply them through extended pieces of writing.

Fiction

During this learning journey, the children will be writing a historical narrative to share with Year 3. They will explore the features and deepen their understanding of fronted adverbials and descriptive language to create an imaginative and authentic story set within the Saxon era. Within the poetry unit, children will create their own hybrid creature and use poetic features such as similes and onomatopoeia to produce three stanzas of powerful imagery.

Non-fiction

During this learning journey, children will be writing a non-chronological report to show their knowledge of the Saxon period and present their research into a factual and informative piece of writing.

Spelling

The spelling patterns children will learn this half-term are:

Prefixes:

• in - can mean ‘not’ and ‘in/into’
• dis - & mis- have negative meanings
• re - means ‘again’ or back’
• sub - means under
• inter - means ‘between’ or ‘among’
• super - means ‘above’
• anti - means ‘against’
• auto - means ‘self’ or ‘own’

Suffix:

• ation is added to verbs to form nouns

Maths

The children will be focusing on the following units:

• Place Value - The children will build upon their prior knowledge of place value and apply this to their understanding of four-digit numbers. They will learn how to round and order and compare whole numbers.
• Addition and subtraction – The children will revisit their understanding of the place value to apply to written methods of addition and subtraction.
• Times Tables will be a focus throughout year 4 securing the children’s knowledge of multiplication facts up to 12 x 12.

Science

In autumn two, the children will be learning about electricity. We will learn how electrical devices are powered and research different sources of energy, including renewable and non-renewable. We will then learn how an electric circuit works and problem solve when we build some simple series circuits. We will investigate different conductors and insulators, testing which ones work best.

Art

This term, children will have the opportunity to explore different sculptors and analyse their colour, shape, size, material and patterns. Children will then learn how to use tools effectively on clay to create their own sculpture either of a chosen Anglo-Saxon artefact or a mythical creature inspired from their writing. Children will evaluate their learning and consider if their finished piece matches their expectations.

Languages

In Spanish this half-term, the children will be learning:

• In my pencil case
• Days of the week
• Months of the year
• Revisit Year 3 learning
• Greetings

Computing

The year four Computing learning journeys for this half-term focuses on the ways in which we can stay safe online. They will develop their word processing skills to create Word and PowerPoint documents. Alongside this, they will improve their research skills using internet searches.

PSHE

This half-term, the children will focus on the concept, ‘Valuing Difference’. The children will learn about negotiation and compromise, exploring different strategies to resolve issues with friends. They will explore the ways in which people are different and think about the word respect and how it can be defined. Children will then move onto looking at different stereotypes and how these may be presented within the media before ending the unit on different types of relationships and how these influence their own lives.

RE

In RE this half-term, the children will learn about the Hindu festival of Diwali. They will focus on the customs and traditions of the Hindu faith and find out how it is celebrated around the world.

Music

This half-term, the children will learn to play notes BAGCD on the recorder to play simple tunes. They will also be given opportunities to respond to, identify, compare and contrast sounds and music in different contexts and for different purposes.

PE

In P.E this half-term, the children will work on their personal and social skills. During their dance lessons, the children will learn to react positively when things become difficult and persevere with a task, improving their performance through regular practise. They will also focus on different footwork skills and coordination.