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Year 4 Starlings

Welcome to Starlings

Class Teacher - Mr Cole

LSP - Mrs Andrews

email:     class.starlings@burnttree.sandwell.sch.uk

Our learning

 
Spring term
Maths

In our Maths lessons, we will be covering the following areas: multiplication, division, length, perimeter, fractions and decimals.  We will continue to use manipulatives to offer an engaging way of driving children to arrive at solutions to maths problems while understanding the strategy behind the process.

We will also be working on learning the times-tables securely.

 

English

In English this half-term, we will be reading ‘BFG’. We will use the text to inspire two pieces of writing: a narrative and instructions. We will write a set of instructions to create our perfect dream.

Next half-term, we will be using the film 'The Lone Robot' to inspire some descriptive writing, as well as a sequel to the film.  

We will be learning key spelling rules over the term, linked to Spelling Shed.  We will study a rule every week and then learn words that follow that rule.  The games on Spelling Shed really help us to do this!

Reading

Our guided reading text this term is 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl.  We will study a chapter every week and from time to time, we will use film to enhance our learning.  

Our class novel this half-term is 'The Boy in the Dress' written by David Walliams.  

Science

During the first half-term, our topic will be Sound. The children will learn how sounds are made and how they travel to our ears. They will also explore how sound waves change over distance, the pitch of sound and finally, we will investigate which materials are effective in absorbing sound.

After half-term, our topic will be electricity. Here, the children will learn how to be safe around electricity. They will then be introduced to the components of circuits and the children will have the opportunity to construct their own series circuit predicting which will work and justifying their reasoning.  

Topic

This term our topic will be Greece. We will be learning about its geographical location, climate zone and the landscape. We will also be studying their physical and human features as well as their customs and traditions. 

Our final outcome will be a restaurant where we will prepare traditional Greek food. In art, the children will research the work of Vincent van Gogh, comment on it and get inspiration to help them paint a Greek scenery.   

PE

Our PE lessons are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our topic this term is Dance and the children will develop dance 'freeze frames' based on a visual stimulus. They will demonstrate how to link positions in a variety of ways. 

Computing

During this term, the children will learn how to format cells. They will learn to use a timer and spin buttons. They will also learn how to use spreadsheets for budgeting and explore place value with a spreadsheet.  

We will also be working on 'Online Safety'. 

French

This term, the children will be developing their language skills by learning to read and retell the story 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' in French.  The aim is to encourage the children to spend time looking at, working with and reading some basic written words in French. This is a very valuable process and one that will help them with their language learning in the future.

RE

This term we will be learning about Christianity.  We will discuss what Christians learn from the creation story. We will also discuss what the 'Trinity' is and why it is important to Christians. Finally, we will compare Christian values to humanist values. 

Look what we have been doing...

After reading extracts from Chapter 15 and 16 of the BFG, on how the BFG mixes up dreams, we thought we should write a clear set of instructions on how to create our perfect dream. To help us gain a better understanding of instructions, we followed a clear set of instructions to make a jam sandwich.

To begin with, we looked at a set of instructions and discussed the features to identify what resources we would need to help us make a jam sandwich.

 

Once we had got all the resources needed, we washed our hands and worked through the instructions step by step.                  

 

Finally, we cut up the sandwiches and ate our creations.