Sycamore Class Year 4

 Mr Needham and Miss Long

Spring Term 2024-2025

In Art and Design this term we will explore 'How can I use light and dark in my work?' The children will share their ideas about a painting, describe the difference between a tint and a shade, mix tints and shades by adding black or white paint, use tints and shades to paint an object in 3D and try different arrangements of objects for a composition, explaining their decisions.

In Computing this term we will explore 'Can I create a weather forecast?' and 'Can I think like a computer?' The children will search the web efficiently to find temperatures of different cities, design an automated machine that uses selection to respond to sensor data, search for and record weather forecast information in a spreadsheet and explain how this data is collected, create a video which includes weather forecast information, understand that problems can be solved more easily using computational thinking, understand what the different code blocks do and create a simple game, understand the terms pattern recognition and abstraction and how they help to solve a problem and create a Scratch program which draws a square and at least one other shape.

In Design and Technology, we will ask the question, 'What do I need to construct a pavilion?' and 'Can I adapt a recipe?' The children will produce a range of free-standing frame structures of different shapes and sizes, design a pavilion that is strong, stable and aesthetically pleasing, select appropriate materials and construction techniques to create a stable, free-standing frame structure, describe features of biscuits using taste, texture and appearance, follow a recipe with support, use a budget to plan a recipe and adapt a recipe using additional ingredients.

In French, we will ask the question, 'Can I count?' The children will say the numbers to 31 in French, say all the days of the week, working out the words for the days that are yesterday and today, match most of the French months to their English equivalents and say the seasons of the year.

In Geography, we will ask the question, 'Where does our food come from?' The children will identify that different foods grow in different biomes and say why, explain which food has the most significant negative impact on the environment, consider a change people can make to reduce the negative impact of food production and describe the intentions around trading responsibly.

In History, we will ask the question, 'How hard was it to invade and settle in Britain?' The children will explain how the Britain felt when the Romans left, suggest reasons for the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, name the key features of Anglo-Saxon settlements, identify changes and continuities in settlements from prehistoric Britain.

Our Music focus for this term is 'What instruments influence carnival sounds?' The children will explain what samba music is and that it is mainly percussion instruments used in celebrations such as Carnival in Brazil, clap on the off-beat (the and of each beat), be able to play a syncopated rhythm and play their rhythm in time with the rest of their group.

Our PE focuses for this term are 'Dance', 'Gymnastics', 'Basketball' and 'Hockey'.

In PSHE, we will ask the question, 'What do I know about health and wellbeing?'  and 'What do I know about safety and the changing body?' The children will identify and share key facts about dental health, describe a calm place that helps them to feel relaxed, describe a calm place that helps them to feel relaxed, describe how they feel when they make a mistake and explain what can be learned from making mistakes, understand the reasons for legal age restrictions, understand how quickly information can spread on the internet and some of the risks associated with that and assess and give first aid to a casualty who is having difficulty breathing due to an asthma attack.

In RE this term we will explore the questions 'How do festivals and worship show what matters to Muslims?' and 'Why do Christians call the day Jesus died 'Good Friday'?' The children will identify some beliefs about God in Islam that are expressed in the Qur’an, make clear links between beliefs about God and ibadah (e.g. how God is worth worshipping; how Muslims submit to God) and think, talk and ask questions about whether Jesus’ ‘good news’ is only good news for Christians, or if there are things for anyone to learn about how to live, giving a good reason for their ideas.

In Science this term we will explore the questions 'Can I describe the difference between sound and vibrations?' and 'What is classification?' The children will describe how sounds are heard through different mediums, explain the relationship between vibration strength and volume, group animals in various ways, including vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish) and invertebrates, group plants in various ways, including flowering and non-flowering plants and recognise and describe different habitats and their inhabitants.

Class Homework

• Daily reading
• Daily times tables
• Weekly spellings to learn
• Weekly English or Maths
• Fortnightly PSHCE/Computing/Art/DT/Science/RE/PE etc.
• Please upload a picture of completed homework to ClassDojo

Class Timetable 

Please note the timetable is subject to change.

Home Learning Support

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Useful Information

PE is on Mondays and Tuesdays. Please ensure your child wears their named, correct PE kit to school on these days, that earrings are not worn and long hair is tied up.

The children have access to their water bottles in the classroom during the day. Please ensure that your child has a named water bottle in school which is taken home regularly to be washed.

Your child is welcome to bring in a snack of fruit or vegetables each day. 

Reading books are your child's responsibility and they will be responsible for changing their own book. Please ensure they record the date, title of the book and a sentence explaining the last event that occurred in their reading book. Here an example for further guidance with this:

e.g.18.09.23 - Varjak Paw

Elder Paw held a family council.