In English, our core book for this half term is ‘The Girl Who Stole an Elephant’ by Nirvana Farook. The story is about Chaya, a rebellious child, who is the daughter to the headman of her village.  She takes trinkets from the rich to help those in need, except, one day she goes too far and steals the Queen’s jewels – leading to an escape into the jungle with her friends and the King’s elephant. The children will use drama and talk for writing to develop emotive and descriptive language. Next, the children will plan, draft, edit and publish their diary entry and narrative of the core text, ensuring that they include structural and language features to engage the reader. In reading, the children will develop learning behaviours such as supporting and actively listening to each other. They will read a range of fiction and non-fiction texts and focus on reading skills including evaluating, inferencing, making connections, summarising, predicting, and clarifying their understanding of words and phrases. 

Throughout this half term, the children will continue to explore the importance of rules within society and how it helps us to feel part of a community. They will look at different religions and the rules each religion follows and then compare similarities and differences between religions and their own experiences.

Year 4 children will explore the area of shapes, making shapes and comparing areas. They will learn that area is the amount of space taken up by a two-dimensional shape.

They will also focus on multiplication and division by looking into the link between counting in 3s and the 3 times table. They will build on this knowledge to explore the 6 times tables.

The children will also multiply and divide by 7, 9, 11 and 12 and find strategies to recall these times tables. Multiplying 3 numbers and dividing a number by 1 and itself will also be explored.

This half term the children will use a variety of different passing techniques, shooting a ball at a net, playing in different positions within a team in the context of netball. The PE coach will again be teaching the children and building their abilities within a netball game. Indoor PE will focus the children on passing, catching, jumping and landing.

States of matter is the Year 4 topic for this half term and the children will be learning all about solids, liquids and gases. They will compare and group materials, investigate how gases can be made visible, use thermometers to measure temperature and understand how states of matter change.

PHSE will see the children look at a range of topics this term, including well-being and how we look after our teeth, relaxation, celebrating mistakes, and our emotions.

In geography, the children will use atlases and a globe to locate different countries, cities, and biomes across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. They will use a key to locate physical features on a map. They will read and write coordinates for different locations.  The children will make comparisons between Sri Lanka and the UK, whilst simultaneously looking at the distribution of power. They will learn about how a country or region is governed and the need for rules within a society. They will explore how everyone can play a role in the creation and amendment of them.  

In computing, we will learn the structure of the language 2 Logo and use it to create shapes, repeat commands and build procedures. The children will be able to explain how online identities can be very different from those offline and will learn how people online can pretend to be someone else.

The children will be exploring textiles in D T this half term. They will investigate and analyse items while they think about how the items are used and how they are made. We will be exploring the work of textile designers such as Cath Kidston, William Morris and Lucienne Day. They will then design and produce their own drawstring purses/bags, using techniques such as cutting, measuring and sewing.

In French, the children will build on their science learning about living things and their habitats. They will learn how to read, write and say the essential things plants and animals need to survive and talk about 5 key habitats in the world in French.

This half term, the children will be taught by a music teacher. They will explore the structure of songs and recognise the patterns in them. Throughout the term, the children will listen, sing, play instruments, and improvise their own songs. 

• Thursday 21st November - Yera4  Class Assembly @ 8:45am

• Friday 29th November - Inset Day (school closed to all pupils)

• Wednesday 4th December - Science Museum trip

• Friday 20th December - Whole School Carol Concert & Christmas Lunch (pupils can wear a festive jumper)

• Monday 23rd December - Sunday 5th January: Christmas Break 

• Monday 6th January: School reopens to pupils