Stokenham Area Primary School

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you have had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed the break. Here is an overview of the areas we will be covering over the Spring Term.

English

In English we will be studying a fiction text (Arthur and the Golden Rope), a non-fiction text (A Question of History) and a poetry text (A River) to learn about fiction and non-fiction writing techniques. Within these texts we will look at grammar for the Year 4 curriculum. The children are encouraged to improve the sentences they compose, by extending their range of adjectives, adverbs, fronted adverbials and conjunctions along with building up sophisticated vocabulary.

Spellings will be tested on a Friday and new ones given out on the following Monday. Strategies you might like to use at home might include: Look, Cover, Write, Check, Shape spellings, Pyramid Spellings, Spellings into sentences and Speed Spell to name a few (the children know all of these techniques).

Maths

We will continue to develop children’s confidence in solving mathematical problems as well as continuing our unit on the 3, 6- and 9-times table. Once we have finished this, we will move onto the seven times table and patterns, finishing the term looking by looking at multiplicative relationships and coordinates.

Year 4 children are expected to know all of their times tables by the end of the year and in June the whole class will undergo the national times table test. We practise daily in class but this is a very useful area to cover at home as well if you get the opportunity!

Science

This term our two units are:

1) Sound:

• How is sound made
• Pitch
• Changing Volume
• Sound and Distance

2) Living Things and Habitats

• Species depend on one another and their environment to survive
• Living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• Classification keys can be used to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in the local and wider environment

Geography
Rivers and The Water Cycle
In this unit children will name and locate some of the world’s most significant rivers and mountain environments. They will be able to name features of a river and explain how rivers and mountains are formed. They will explore named rivers in the UK and will be able to identify their contribution to the wider water cycle.

History

The Ancient Greeks:

In this unit, the children will explore how time has changed since the Ancient Greek Civilisation and draw comparisons between different time periods in history. They will begin to question and draw conclusions about why the Ancient Greek Empire became so important, as well as investigating the lives led by the Spartans and the Athenians. 

They will utilise a variety of sources of evidence to develop their knowledge and understanding of the different time periods and historical chronology.

RE

This term we will be looking at Christianity and Islam. In Christianity we will be investigating the question ‘What is it like for someone to follow God?’, and in Islam we will be exploring the question ‘How do festivals and worship show what matters to Muslims?’

Music

This term we will begin our unit on the ukuleles. We will build our confidence and familiarity with playing the instrument over the course of the term and compose and perform different pieces of music with them.

PE

PE will take place twice a week on Tuesday and Friday. Please make sure that your PE kits are in school all week.

PSHE

This term our topic is ‘Living in the wider world’ where we will look at:

Belonging to a community

Media Literacy and Digital Resilience

Money and Work

French

This term in French we will be exploring the units ‘Au Café’ and ‘En Classe’

Computing

Programming - Repetition in shapes
Children will create programs by planning, modifying and testing commands to create shapes and patterns. They will use Logo, a text-based programming language.
Data Logging
Children will consider how and why data is collected over time. Children will consider the senses that children use to experience the environment and how computers can use special input devices and sensors to monitor the environment.

DT and Art

Over the next term Art and DT will be covered half-termly. For Spring 1 we will be starting with art, where the children will be exploring surface and colour. In Spring 2 the children will transition onto their DT topic, where they will be investigating and making shell structures using computer aided design.

Homework

This will be set every Friday and due in the following Wednesday. We aim to cover a range of subjects.

Miss Imogen Woollard

This Year’s Curriculum

Stokenham Area Primary School Curriculum Map

If you would like further information in relation to the curriculum please feel free to contact the school office.