The children will be setting sail to Ithaca this half term, joining Odysseus for his grand welcome home from the long, brutal Trojan war in our core text, named after the main character 'Odysseus. The children will develop emotive and descriptive language to describe the characters and setting of the myth. Then they will plan, draft, edit and publish a recount, ensuring that they include structural and language features to engage the reader. Lastly, they will innovate the ending using their own ideas. 

In reading, children will focus on a range of reading skills including inference, making connections, summarising, evaluating, clarifying and questioning.  They will be reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts linked to our Spring 1 topics of power and governance along with Ancient Greece.

This half term, Year 4 will be exploring the theme of celebrations within different religions including Ramadan, Eid-Ul-Fitr, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah and Bandi Chor.  They will also identify similarities and differences with celebrations within their own communities.

In maths, children will be continuing to use practical resources, drawings, and formal methods to develop their understanding of multiplication and division. They will also learn how to calculate perimeter on a grid.  

Furthermore, they will use their skills and knowledge to solve word problems and reasoning questions in real life contexts. Finally, they will continue to consolidate their knowledge of times tables and division facts up to 12 x 12 through daily practise.

This half term PE will be on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tuesday's session will be an indoor session of gymnastics looking at travel, balance and flight. The Friday session will be outdoors with a focus on rugby to develop children's agility, coordination and teamwork.

This half term children will be learning about electricity.  They will create simple electrical circuits and will develop their investigation skills by making predictions and carrying out investigations based on what materials make the best conductors and insulators.  They will also evaluate the risk and safety requirements related to electrical appliances. 

The focus in PHSE this half term will be safety including building awareness of online safety and the benefits and risks of sharing information online. They will also identify the difference between private and public information and knowing how to help someone with asthma.

This half term the children will be learning all about Ancient Greece. They will research the first Olympics in Ancient Greece and compare it to our modern day Olympics.  They will also research Greek gods within their class system and understand the system of democracy in Ancient Greece.

In computing, Year 4 will be looking at Online Safety within daily activities. They will also look at how to help someone with asthma and also recognise that change is part of growing up.  The children will be using backgrounds and foregrounds to make an animation more complex and engaging for the audience.

The children will continue looking at Ancient Greece in art this half term. Focussing on Ancient Greek vessels, how they were used everyday in many different ways. They will then design and make their own interpretation using clay.

This term children will be building on their knowledge of describing people’s appearance, and will learn different adjectives to describe personalities.  The focus will be on accurate pronunciation, being able to read as well as understand adjectives and be able to orally describe and write a character description in third person. 

In Music this half term, year 4 will be exploring sounds. They will look, through the music, at the question, 'How does music make the world a better place?' Throughout the term, the children will listen and respond to music, learn to sing songs, play instruments along with songs as well as compose and improvise their own music. 

• Tuesday 4th February - Bat & ball skills workshop for Y4

• Tuesday 11th February - Parents Evening 3:30pm - 7:00pm

• Thursday 13th January - Parents Evening 3:30pm - 6pm

• Friday 14th February - Break up for half term