In Year 4 our unit of inquiry is ‘Legends can inform people about the culture and history of countries.’ The children will be following different lines of inquiry to help them discover:
- How can legend be portrayed in different ways?
- What do legends tell us about the history of Britain?
- How does oral story telling affect what we know about our culture?
Our unit of inquiry work will lead us to examine the history behind legends. We will investigate the meaning of “living legends” and discover the characteristics that are needed in order for a traditional tale to become a legend. As part of this unit of work we will be practising our persuasive presentation and debating skills whilst sharing our own research into a legend of our choice. To support this line of inquiry our core texts will be the legend of Robin Hood and the legend of St. George and the Dragon.
Legends will also support our art study with the focus of our art lessons being the investigation of how moods and feelings can be portrayed using different colours and tones. We will be developing our colour mixing skills and thinking about how to use watercolour techniques and brush skills. We will spend time exploring light and shadow within an image and discuss what effect this has on the audience through the message given by the painting. We will use these artistic techniques to create a woodland painting showing different moods and feelings.
Legends will also support our art study with the focus of our art lessons being the investigation of how moods and feelings can be portrayed using different colours and tones. We will be developing our colour mixing skills and thinking about how to use watercolour techniques and brush skills. We will spend time exploring light and shadow within an image and discuss what effect this has on the audience through the message given by the painting. We will use these artistic techniques to create a woodland painting showing different moods and feelings.
In Term 3, our science focus is sound which sits outside our central idea but is within our transdisciplinary theme ‘How we express ourselves’. We will look at how and why pitch and volume increase and decrease, as well as how sound travels. This will also involve looking into the anatomy of the human ear and discussing how the shape of the inner and outer ear help us to hear sounds of varying pitch and tone.
In English, we will be looking at how three key story elements are demonstrated in these legends; the description of characters, the description of the setting and how the plot is portrayed to the audience. Our challenge and focus will be to turn the story of Robin Hood into a short story with a word count limit! This will be challenging because we will need to think very carefully about our word choices, character and place description, as well as what key elements to include within the narrative in order to ensure that we retell the story.
In Term 3, our maths work will focus on three key areas of the Year 4 maths curriculum: multiplication and division, meaurement and fractions. We will begin the term by continuing our work on multiplication and division. We will be learning how to multiply and divide a 2- and 3- digit number by a 1 digit number and continue to consolidate our knowledge of the multiplication tables up to and including the 12 times table. Our work on measurement will lead to us investigating how to calucate the area of shapes and to compare the area of a variety of two 2D shapes. Our fraction work focus on understanding unit fractions, adding in tenths and exploring equivalent fractions.
You might like to join in our learning by…
In English, we will be looking at how three key story elements are demonstrated in these legends; the description of characters, the description of the setting and how the plot is portrayed to the audience. Our challenge and focus will be to turn the story of Robin Hood into a short story with a word count limit! This will be challenging because we will need to think very carefully about our word choices, character and place description, as well as what key elements to include within the narrative in order to ensure that we retell the story.
In Term 3, our maths work will focus on three key areas of the Year 4 maths curriculum: multiplication and division, meaurement and fractions. We will begin the term by continuing our work on multiplication and division. We will be learning how to multiply and divide a 2- and 3- digit number by a 1 digit number and continue to consolidate our knowledge of the multiplication tables up to and including the 12 times table. Our work on measurement will lead to us investigating how to calucate the area of shapes and to compare the area of a variety of two 2D shapes. Our fraction work focus on understanding unit fractions, adding in tenths and exploring equivalent fractions.
You might like to join in our learning by…
- Studying the legends of Robin Hood and St. George and considering what these legends tell us about our country.
- Investigating the difference between a myth and a legend.
- Exploring a landscape painting by a famous artist and considering how moods can be portrayed in paintings by changing the tone and shade of colour choices.
- Researching a painting, pictures, music, plays or other expressive arts that show a legend.
- Considering our own feelings and emotions and how we can express these in different ways.
- Learning how to use watercolour paints.
- Creating your own woodland landscape painting.
- Investigating how sound travels and can be changed.
- Using animation to create short stories.
- Finding out about the Jewish festival of Pesach.
