Staincliffe CE Junior School

Year 3/4

Teachers - Miss Eatwell & Miss Wilby (3/4E)

HLTA - Miss Kauther

Teaching Assistants - Mrs Akroyd, Mrs Latif, Mrs Sadiq, Mrs Jasat, Mrs Mayet, Mrs Khot, Miss Knapton and Mrs Zareef

Year 4

Teachers - Mrs Hemingway (4H) & Miss Ritchie (4R)

HLTA - Miss Arshad

Teaching Assistants - Miss Jubb and Mrs Hussain

Below is the SPRING TERM overview - this covers everything that your child will be working on throughout the spring term in Year 4. 

For the full year overview of all subjects covered across this year group, please click on the Long Term Plan link below:

Year 4 Long Term Plan 2024-2025

PARENTS' OVERVIEW - SPRING TERM 2024/25 (downloadable doc)

PARENTS' OVERVIEW - AUTUMN TERM 2024/25 (downloadable doc)

SPRING TERM 2025

Maths

In Year 4, we follow a progressive approach ensuring the children get experience of mathematical concepts in blocks of a week or two weeks. They then revisit these concepts over the year to ensure they have mastered previous knowledge and understanding that has been taught.  We encourage the children to be independent learners in maths and they utilise their Maths Toolkit to support their learning when required.

During the Spring term the children will learn about: multiplication grids (TUxTU), multiplication and division using chunking (TU/TU), fractions and decimals, area and perimeter, geometry, area and perimeter of rectilinear shapes, measures (capacity and mass) and mental/written four operations again.

Times Table Rock Stars

This year your child will take their multiplication check. This is a timed test similar to TT Rockstars so we highly encourage the children to practise their times tables and challenge themselves on TT Rockstars as often as possible.

Literacy

In Literacy, over the Spring Term, Year 4 will be looking at a variety of texts.

In the first half term, the children will be looking at the Ice Palace by Robert Swindells. As part of the analysing of the text, the children will develop empathy with the characters, they will be writing a range of different pieces including: a letter, narrative and a character description.

They will look at dinosaurs too. A Dinosaur adventure, where they will plan their own cliff-hanger ending and a character description. The children will create a non-chronological report on a dinosaur of their choice.

PE Physical Education

During Spring term 1, Year 4 children will be developing their cognitive skills in their PE lessons.

This will include: Unit 1: Cognitive.
Children will develop and apply their dynamic balance on a line and ball skills through focused skill development sessions, healthy competition, cooperative games and group Personal Best challenges.

Unit 2: Creative.

Children will develop and apply their sending and receiving and counter balance with a partner through focused skill development sessions, healthy competition, cooperative games and group Personal Best challenges.

PE Day: Wednesday

Children need to come to school in uniform and bring in their PE kits.

Science

Our first year 4 topic in science during the first half of the Spring term will build on what the children have learned in the Autumn Term with Living Things and their Habitats (Conservation). In this unit, the children will learn to recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

In the second unit, we will be studying States of Matter where the children will compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases; observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled and make many other scientific discoveries!

Music

Year 4 will be listening to a Soul/Gospel Song by Bill Withers – Lean on Me.

This unit will require the children to listen and appraise a new genre of music where new progressive Warm-up Games will be played. The children will use new progressive improvisation resources and a new tool for composing. We can’t wait to hear what the children create!

MFL Modern Foreign Language (French)

In French this term the children will be learning the vocabulary to describe items of clothing, along with knowing when to use ‘a’ and ‘an’ in the French language. The children will also be incorporating previous learning about colour into their descriptions of clothing and recapping the concept of adjectival agreement. As the term progresses, they will also have the opportunity to express their opinions about outfits in French.

Computing

In the first term the children will be learning about the world of spreadsheets using Purple Mash.

In the second half of the term children will be learning about coding. The coding unit will start by looking at existing code, asking the children to ‘read’ it and make predictions to what they think will happen when the code is run. You’ll then Run the code and give them time to discuss what happens and relate it back to their predictions. You’ll spend time with them investigating the code, looking at how different parts work and helping them to understand how. Once children have an understanding of how the code works, they will be encouraged to modify it - changing and adding code and re-running the program to view the impact of their changes. And once confident with this, they are encouraged to try and Make their own program from scratch.

PSHE Personal Social Health Economic Education

In the first half term our topic will be ‘Dreams and Goals’. We will be looking at hopes and dreams children have for the future. We will learn about ways we can deal with disappointment when dreams and goals are not achieved and how to manage our feelings. We will also be looking at the positives of not achieving as well. We will be learning how to set new realistic goals and how to be resilient.

In our second half term our topic will be ‘Healthy Me.’ We will be looking at the different ways in which we can keep our bodies and mind healthy. We will be looking at how food and harmful substances can affect our body and how to reject temptation. They will also be learning about how different people have different roles in society.

RE Religious Education

Over the Spring term, in year 4, the children will be exploring the big question:

Why do the lives of the Gurus inspire Sikh believers?

The children will be examining Sikh beliefs and practices, including the belief in Guru Nanak and his importance in the Sikh religion. They will learn about his life and disappearance. They will begin to explain and give reasons for Sikh values e.g. equality, honesty. 

Art and Design

During the autumn term the children will be looking at Craft and design: fabric of nature.

They will develop their skills in: generating ideas from a range of stimuli, developing use of sketch books by annotating and planning, showing an awareness of proportion and working as a professional designer to by collating ideas to generate a theme. They will evaluate ‘batik’ and surface pattern techniques to consider how fabric is used differently.

DT Design Technology

During the Spring term, children will be making a sling shot car!

Year 4 children will enjoy making a sling shot car. Children will transform lolly sticks, wheels, dowels and straws into a moving car. They will be using a glue gun to construct the materials, making the launch mechanism, designing and also making the body of the vehicle using nets and finally, assembling these to the chassis. Then it will be over to them to race… how successful was their design?

Geography

In this unit the children will be trying to answer our big question:

What are rivers and how are they used?

Throughout this unit children will learn about how the water cycle works, recognise features and courses of rivers and other information relating to rivers, including some map work!

History

Our History topic for the term is ‘What was life like in the Stone Age?’

Children will be learning about how life was like during the era. They will be learning about how Stone Age progressed through to the Iron Age.

Spelling

We follow the spelling patterns from Spelling Shed.

The children can then use the website to practice their weekly spellings choosing the level of support they need. Each child in Year 4 has a copy of the spelling lists in their school book bag.

Children who are having phonics teaching will get spellings from their phonic phase.

We will also cover the spellings from the Statutory Year 3/ 4 list.

Homework

Every week on Friday (due in the following Tuesday) Year 4 children will be given a maths activity, either linked to their learning that week or revisiting a previously taught skill.

They will also be expected to:

• read their reading book and get their reading record signed x3 weekly
• Play on TT Rockstars and Spelling Shed games.
• Learn their times tables- the children will be told which timetable to learn.
• Learn their weekly spellings (each week has a different list focus that the children have been practising in school that week)

Each term Year 4 children will:

• be set their black book homework tasks. They need to be as creative as possible so it could include art work, writing, computer presentations, 3D models, posters etc. It is hoped an adult at home will work collaboratively with the child and help them with their learning and presentation. When this happens the work is often simply stunning!

Black book homework

This is your chance to show off what you can do!  Choose at least 3 activities from the list below to complete over the spring term and during the half term holidays

(due in on Monday 31st March.)

You are going to share all your homework with your class mates and teacher. It could include art work, writing, computer presentations (printed out), 3D models, posters, photographs etc. You will have to explain to the class what you have done.

Homework for research to be completed in Black Books: