Year 4 Curriculum Letter

Welcome Back

We hope you have enjoyed your Christmas break and we welcome back all of the children to year 4. This term we are going to be continuing with our subject topics and have lots more fun and engaging visits and visitors planned.

Music—Rock and Roll

This term in Music, our project will be exploring the genre iof Rock and Roll by learning ‘Born to Hand Jive’ and ‘Rock Around the Clock’. We will be learning how to sing longer songs as an ensemble. Learn the importance of a walking bass line.

Key Vocabulary: bass line, beat, chorus, dynamics

History—Roman Empire

This term in history, we will be learning about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. We will be looking broadly at how they lived, why they invaded and why they were so powerful . Children will be exploring the unit through the following questions:

What was life like in Britain before the Romans?
How and why did Romans invade Britain?
Boudicca – Who was she and why did she rebel?
When was life better? Before or after the Roman invasion?

Key Vocabulary: Empire, Hadrian’s Wall, Archaeology, migration, legions.

D&T—Healthy Diet

This term in D&T we will be learning about healthy and varied diets. Children will look at lots of different foods that can be used in a savoury pastry and create their own healthy snack.

Key Vocabulary:
Processed, seasonal, harvest

Art—Sculpture

In Art this term, we will be exploring sculpture inspired by the natural world around us. We will discover different materials that we can use to create a sculpture of a birds nest.

Key Vocabulary:
Sculpture, materials, construction

Geography—Food in Europe

This term in Geography, we will be building on the children’s knowledge of biomes to understand where different foods come from across Europe.

What is trade?
What foods do we import from Europe?
What foods do we export to Europe?

Key Vocabulary: tradelinks, economy, resources

PE

This term in PE, we will be covering the following sports:

Netball
Athletics

RE—Hinduism

This term in RE we will be learning about Hindu Dharma building on their previous knowledge of Hin-duism in year 3.

Key Vocabulary:
Aum, Brahman, deity, namaste

Science—Animals including humans and electricity

This term in Science, our first topic is Animals including humans , building on their work in years 1—3. This time, they will focus on the digestive system and food chains.

What happens to our food?
How does our body digest?
What happens to the food chain, if one species disappears?

Our second topic will be electricity. Children will learn how to create a basic circuit. Understand the function of a switch and investigate which materials are conductors and insulators.

How is electricity generated?
How does a circuit work?
Which materials are conductors?

Key Vocabulary: energy, appliance, circuit

Computing

We know how important it is for our children to be IT literate. This term in computing we will be :

Learning how to use the internet to conduct research in history.
Using our word processing skills to type up our story in literacy; change font, font size and typing skills.

Key Vocabulary: font, italics, bold, search engine

Homework

Each week your child will receive a homework sheet: 10 spellings, a short reading extract with 3 questions and 6 maths questions.

We would love for you to read with your child every day. This could be sharing a book together, listening to your child read or reading to your child. We would like reading at home to be an enjoyable and shared experience.