This term in Year 4 our learning is focused around “How the World works”. The central idea of our unit of inquiry is “Properties and changes of matter provide opportunities and challenges”. As part of our inquiry we will be trying to answer the following:
- What changed in Great Britain between the Stone Age and the Iron Age and what challenges did it create?
- How do different techniques change products?
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We will begin our inquiry by investigating how to chronologically order key events using a timeline. We will then spend time trying to understand what it might have been like for people living in the Stone Age. This will give us an opportunity to explore the main achievements of the Stone Age period and consider how their daily life differs from our own and how they developed and changed over time. We will think about the challenges and opportunities they were faced with and consider how the landscape was similar and different between the places and across the time periods.
We will spend time exploring the role of artists and crafts people and try our hand at some of the techniques that would have been used. We will look at cave paintings and use this to inspire us to create our own work using block printing techniques to produce the same pattern over and over again. We will also need to consider what we like and dislike about our own work.
To further our inquiry, we will be looking closely at rocks, their appearance and their properties. We will also look at how fossils are formed and how different types of soil are created.
In English, to complement our unit of inquiry, we will be using the core texts ‘Stone Age Boy’, “Um” and “How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth”. Our main focus will be on creative writing. We will be using these texts and others to help us write from a range of perspectives in a range of styles such as narratives, diary entries and instructions. We will be consolidating and developing key aspects of writing, including ensuring we have a clear structure and feel increasingly confident in proof-reading work and using a range of tools to up level and edit our writing.
In maths, we will be consolidating our understanding of place value. We will focus on Roman numerals, rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000, partitioning four-digit numbers and ordering and comparing numbers beyond 1000. Throughout our focus on place value, the children will be using their knowledge to solve number and practical problems.
Times tables form a key part of the Year 4 maths curriculum. This term, every Friday, we will begin our weekly multiplication challenge. We will start by using multiplication facts before moving on to the associated division facts where the focus will be on quick recall of our times tables up to the 12 times tables and related division facts.
We will spend time exploring the role of artists and crafts people and try our hand at some of the techniques that would have been used. We will look at cave paintings and use this to inspire us to create our own work using block printing techniques to produce the same pattern over and over again. We will also need to consider what we like and dislike about our own work.
To further our inquiry, we will be looking closely at rocks, their appearance and their properties. We will also look at how fossils are formed and how different types of soil are created.
In English, to complement our unit of inquiry, we will be using the core texts ‘Stone Age Boy’, “Um” and “How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth”. Our main focus will be on creative writing. We will be using these texts and others to help us write from a range of perspectives in a range of styles such as narratives, diary entries and instructions. We will be consolidating and developing key aspects of writing, including ensuring we have a clear structure and feel increasingly confident in proof-reading work and using a range of tools to up level and edit our writing.
In maths, we will be consolidating our understanding of place value. We will focus on Roman numerals, rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000, partitioning four-digit numbers and ordering and comparing numbers beyond 1000. Throughout our focus on place value, the children will be using their knowledge to solve number and practical problems.
Times tables form a key part of the Year 4 maths curriculum. This term, every Friday, we will begin our weekly multiplication challenge. We will start by using multiplication facts before moving on to the associated division facts where the focus will be on quick recall of our times tables up to the 12 times tables and related division facts.
