Sycamore Class Year 4

 Mr Needham and Miss Long

Autumn Term 2024-2025

In Art and Design we will be learning to extend our drawing skills: 

• Create several pencil tones when shading and create a simple 3D effect.
• Explore the effect of holding a pencil in different ways and applying different pressures.
• Use charcoal and rubber to show areas of light and dark in their drawings.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the relative size of the objects they draw.
• Use scissors with care and purpose to cut out images.
• Try out multiple arrangements of cut images to decide on their composition.
• Use different tools to create marks and patterns when scratching into a painted surface.
• Show some awareness of how to create contrast by including areas with more and less marks.
• Create an interesting finished drawing based on their original composition, including detail such as contrast and pattern.
• Work co-operatively to create a joint artwork, experimenting with their methods.

In Computing we will be learning to collaborate with others:

• Understand the need to be thoughtful when working on a collaborative document.
• Use comments to suggest changes to a document and understand how to resolve comments.
• Use a variety of different slide styles to convey information, including images and transitions.
• Create a Google Form with a range of different question types that will provide different types of answers, e.g. text, multiple choice or numerical values.
• Export data to a spreadsheet, highlighting data, using conditional formatting and calculating averages and sums of numbers.

In Design and Technology we will be constructing a slingshot car:

• Work independently to produce an accurate, functioning car chassis.
• Design a shape that is suitable for the project.
• Attempt to reduce air resistance through the design of the shape.
• Produce panels that will fit the chassis and can be assembled effectively using the tabs they have designed.
• Construct car bodies effectively.
• Conduct a trial accurately and draw conclusions and improvements from the results.

In French we will be learning to describe ourselves:

• Understand that adjectives change depending on whether they are describing a boy or girl, for example: sérieux and sérieuse.
• Identify a person correctly from a description of their hair and eye colour.
• Place word cards in the correct order, with the adjectives following the noun.
• Compose a spoken sentence to describe a friend.
• Write four sentences accurately with the correct adjectival agreement, helped by a support sheet.

In Geography we will be learning the importance of rainforests:

• Describe a biome and give an example.
• State the location and some key features of the Amazon rainforest.
• Name and describe the four layers of tropical rainforests.
• Understand that trees and plants adapt to living in the rainforest and give an example.
• Define the word indigenous and give an example of how indigenous peoples use the Amazon’s resources.
• Name one way in which the Amazon is changing.
• Articulate why the Amazon rainforest is important.
• Give an example of how humans are having a negative impact on the Amazon and an action that can be taken to help.
• Use a variety of data collection methods with support.
• Summarise how the local woodland is used and suggest changes to improve the area.

In History we will be learning about how children's lives have changed:

• Make inferences and deductions from primary and secondary sources.
• Explain why children needed to work.
• Identify the jobs Tudor and Victorian children had.
• Describe the working conditions of Tudor and Victorian children.
• Identify how Lord Shaftesbury changed the lives of children and evaluate the impact of his work.
• Use sources to identify leisure activities and compare them over time.
• Identify diseases past children suffered from and discuss how effective the treatments were.

In Music we will be learning about body and tuned percussion:

• Identify the structure of a piece of music.
• Have an idea as to when there is one layer in a piece of music and when there are two.
• Play a sequence in the correct order in time with their partner.
• Have two contrasting rhythms being played together.
• Have two different melodies being played together.
• Have a complete piece of music with four different layers with an appropriate structure.

Our PE focuses for this term are 'Football', 'Netball', 'Dodgeball' and 'Tennis'.

In PSHE we will be thinking about families and relationships:

• Understand that manners vary in different situations.
• Understand boundaries in friendships, including physical boundaries and expectations.
• Understand that what they do and say affects other people.
• Understand the impact of bullying and the role bystanders can take.
• Recognise male and female stereotyped characters.
• Understand that stereotypes about disabilities are usually untrue.
• Understand that families are all different and they offer each other support but sometimes they can experience problems.
• Know what bereavement is and how to support someone who has experienced a bereavement.

In Religious Education, we will explore the questions 'How and why do people try to make the world a better place?' and 'How is faith expressed in Sikh communities and traditions?' We will be learning to identify some beliefs about why the world is not a good place and make links between religious beliefs and teachings and why people try to live in a way that makes the world a better place. We will be learning to identify and describe key Sikh beliefs and values including Waheguru and Sewa and explain examples of text such as the Mool Mantar and what this teaches about God.

In Science we will be learning digestion:

• Label key organs found in the digestive system and describe each of their functions.
• Describe the functions of the four different types of adult, human teeth, using key vocabulary.
• Know that good dental care involves brushing their teeth twice a day with toothpaste and a soft toothbrush.
• Produce a food chain that begins with a plant and has arrows that move up the food chain.
• Define a producer, predator and prey and identify examples in food chains.
• Describe digestion, teeth and diets when talking about the observed poo clues.
• Write a letter that uses a range of scientific vocabulary from the unit.

Class Homework

• Daily reading
• Daily times tables
• Weekly spellings to learn
• Weekly English or Maths
• Fortnightly PSHCE/Computing/Art/DT/Science/RE/PE etc.
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• 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.