St Nicholas was a Greek Bishop and worked tirelessly throughout his life to spread the word of God. His feast day is on the 6th December and he is the Patron Saint of Bakers and Pawnbrokers.
“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic His giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” - St Nicholas of Myra
Year 4's class value is 'Generosity'. This value is celebrated in January.
“Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.” - Psalm 112: 5
English
Using our Humanities ‘Big Questions’, we will focus on developing debating and discussion skills, as well as exploring written genres such as biographies There will be a strong emphasis on oracy and presentation, particularly handwriting. We will be celebrating Black History month in October, where we will be looking at carnivals in South America stories from other cultures using the Anansi Stories.
Maths
Maths
The children’s Maths learning will include a variety of topics including; number and place value, addition and subtraction factors and calculating, 2D shapes, angles and symmetry, different numbers and applying addition and subtraction.
RE
In the first half of the term our RE ‘big question’ will be: ‘How did the belief in God affect People from the Old Testament?’ The children will reflect on how Abraham demonstrated faith in God and how people today might do that. They will understand how Moses felt about following God’s ‘calling’ and the consequences of this.
In the second half, our RE big question will be ‘Why Is Remembrance Important?’ The children will use faith based vocabulary to describe some of the ways in which people show their beliefs about remembrance. The children will also investigate the question ‘What exactly is peace?’. They will describe what a Christian might learn about peace from the Bible, particularly during Christmas time.
Science
During the first half term, our topic will be ‘Human Impact’. The children will learn about some of the positive and negative ways in which humans change the environment, locally and globally, with a particular focus on how this affects other living things and the rainforest. They will learn that actions can have both positive and negative consequences. They will consider how industry, housing and thoughtless behaviour can damage local habitats and how humans can increase biodiversity by developing environments such as country parks and nature reserves.
The second half term’s will focus on ‘Where does all the food go?’. The children will learn the characteristic properties of solids, liquids and gases, first through physically exploring typical materials and then by classifying examples, such as powders and viscous liquids. They will learn the names of some common gases. The children will explore the expansion of liquids and gases when they are heated, using this to make a simple thermometer and will explain how it works. We shall also learn about the water cycle, modelling it in different ways and further developing an understanding of changes of state.
Creative Development
This shall link to our topics: for the rainforest, we will learn about Henri Rousseau’s artwork and create rainforest dioramas. For the Romans, we will be looking at Roman art using mixed media. Children will be designing helmets, mosaics and a Celtic Roundhouse.
Humanities
Our first topic will have a History focus, the overarching question being: ‘Why were the Romans so powerful and what did we learn from them? ‘. We will be concentrating on the Roman army, their invasion of Britain, Gladiators, why forts were built and famous figures in Roman history such as Boudicca and Julius Caesar. We will use a range of evidence and resources to understand how Romans influenced our society, as well as assessing their legacy.
In the second half of the term, we will be concentrating on Geography, studying the Amazon Rainforest. Our ‘Big Question’ will be ‘Why should the rainforest be important to us?’ The children will learn where rainforests are located, their main features and the impact of deforestation. In addition, they will understand the importance of the Amazon river to the South American rainforests.
ICT
We shall be looking at creating music digitally and will continue to use our ICT skills across the curriculum.