SUMMER 2023
With only a third of the academic year left, the Summer terms promise lots of learning - and fun! Hopefully, the sun will keep its hat on, allowing us to do plenty of outdoor learning. We are very much looking forward to our day out at The Cotswold Wildlife Park, and to some great interactive drama at In the Net.
PPA will continue to be on a Friday - we will alternate weeks - and the classes will be covered by Mrs Hill.
History topic – Ancient Greece
From Rome, to China and now to Greece - or more specifically the ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 BC, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 32 3BC. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific achievements that formed a legacy with unparalleled influence on Western civilization. We will learn about the birth of Democracy; about scholars and philosophers; the differences between the great City-States of Sparta and Athens, and the amazing story of Pheidippides and the Battle of Marathon.
RE
After the agony of the crucifixion and the wonder of the resurrection, we move to the Christian festival of Pentecost. We will consider how the disciples might have felt at different times of the story - from the reappearance of Jesus, to his Ascension into Heaven and finally the winds and fire of the Holy Spirit. As always, our RE lessons will be a mixture of discussion, writing and art
SCIENCE:
Fittingly, considering the weather (we hope!) the last two terms are all about Living Things and their processes and habitats. To begin with we will learn about the grouping of living things - using classification keys to group, name and identify them. We will also look at how changes to the environment could endanger living things. This will tie in with the work we did on the Rainforests in English last term and also the visit from the Cheltenham Wilson Museum.
During GUIDED READING 4Wa will study "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver whilst 4Wr will read " When the Mountains Roared" by Jess Butterworth. Both books are full of amazing imagery and brilliant vocabulary - and both tie in with our focus on nature and habitats. The two classes will swap books after half term. For our final narrative unit in English writing, we return to the marvellous Michael Morpurgo and his novel "The Butterfly Lion". The children will be able to hear the author read his own story and they will adapt characters and settings from the book.
In MATHS we will be focusing on decimals and fractions in the first few weeks back. However, the time of the statutory Y4 Times Tables Challenge is almost upon us! We do encourage you to practise the tables with your children - every little helps. The tests will be administered during the first two weeks of Summer 2 and the children will be doing LOTS of practice on the iPads. A reminder that Times Table Rock Stars is still available: the children should all have their logins from last year. If they have forgotten/mislaid them, please contact us.
Also useful are the URBrainy site
https://urbrainy.com/mtc
and https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
Please do not hesitate to let us know if you need any further support with this, or if you have any other queries.