Our Learning in Summer 1

In our first half term there will be lots of exciting learning taking place in Year 4. 

In maths, we are continuing our Power Maths learning by moving onto studying money problems to consolidate our learning on decimals; time problems and statistics.

In English, we are reading and writing a number of different text types based on fiction and non-fiction books. We will write our own zoo information boards based on rainforest animals while reading Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker. In our reading lessons we will also be studying Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet by Kate Pankhurst.

In history, we will be doing a local history study. We will cover:

• Knowledge of how the industrial revolution (mills) and key events changed Manchester.
• Knowledge of key events and famous people.
• Significant people such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Alan Turing.
• The Peterloo Massacre.
• The impact of WW2 on Manchester.
• The IRA Bombing

Additionally, in geography we will be learning about the local geography of Manchester including:

• Knowing how canals are made, where they are and what they were used for past and present.
• To know what a lock is.
• To know that canals are man made but rivers are natural.
• To know that some features of the ship canal is man-made and some are natural such as tram and train tracks.

For design and technology and computing pupils will be constructing a light up game. This will involve them creating circuits and using electrical systems in products.

For science this half-term, we are learning about electricity. By the end of the unit of work pupils should be able to:

• identify appliances that run on electricity.
• construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers.
• know if a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
• recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit.
• recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.
• Know what a cell is and its importance in a circuit.

In art pupils will be studying collage and tie dye. By the end of the unit pupils will be able to:

• To know about patterns on clothes.
• To know about dye and how fabric is dyed.
• To know that not all patterns are repeated, some are inverse some are scatter patterns.
• To know that natural dyes can be found around us and can be used to dye clothes (fruit and veg).

In PE, we are continuing our swimming lessons once a week. Pupils are all reminded to ensure that they are bringing their swimming kit including a towel on their swimming day. 4CC will swim on Tuesdays and 4ML and 4MJ will swim on Thursdays.

Finally, in music we are using the recorders again. We will learn a number of new songs and predominantly use B, A, G and E notes to produce our own rhythms.