Ferney Lee Primary School

Great things happen here

Ferney Lee Road, Todmorden,
Lancs, OL14 5NR

01706 254848

admin@ferneylee.calderdale.sch.uk

Welcome to Year 4!

What are Year 4 learning about in Spring 1?

This half term, our Geographical enquiry question is:

'Why do our seas and oceans need protecting?' 

In our Geography lessons we will learn where the oceans and seas are, what lives in the ocean and where, why the oceans matter, what is harming our oceans and what we can do to help save and look after our oceans. Linking to this topic, we will be going on a trip to The Blue Planet Aquarium. 

In English, we will base our writing on the class text 'Song of the Dolphin Boy' by Elizabeth Laird.

In Maths, we will complete our second Multiplication and Division unit and then a unit on Area. 

In Science, we will finish out topic on 'Animals and Humans' before beginning our topic on 'Electricity' where we will explore common appliances that run on electricity, constructed simple electrical circuits, and learn about switches and common conductors and insulators.

In PE, we will continue to learn new skills in the water in our weekly swimming lessons every Wednesday and then take part in creative dance lessons every Friday, which will involve us choreographing and performing our own dance routines.  

In Art, we will develop ideas for 3D work through drawing and visualisation and use more complex techniques to shape materials in 2D. We will explore how shapes can be formed and joined in wire and consider the effect of how sculpture is displayed. Using these skills, we will create wire ocean animals and make soap fish sculptures.

In Music, we will listen to changes in pitch, tempo and dynamics and relate it to something tangible and familiar. Linking to our geography learning, we will represent different stages of the river through vocal and percussive ostinatos, which will culminate in a final group performance.

In PSHE/RHE, our focus is 'Caring and Responsibility' where we will answer the question, 'What are our rights and why are they important?'

In DT, we will link our activity to our Science learning by creating 3D Angler fish with an electrical circuit which will allow our model fish to light up. 

In French, we will learn French numbers 1-31, the days of the week, months of the year, dates and seasons through maths and songs and class surveys. We will also research dates of French festivals and revise the unit by having a traditional French birthday celebration in the classroom.

What did we learn in Autumn 2?

In Autumn 2, our Historical enquiry question was: 

'Why were the Romans such a successful ruling empire?'

In our History lessons we learnt how Rome was founded, what the hierarchy was like in Rome, the different ways Rome was ruled, what life was like in the Roman Empire, what it was like to be a Roman soldier and who the Romans believed in. 

In English, we wrote writing non-chronological reports and setting descriptions based on our class text, 'Romans on the Rampage' by Jeremy Strong. 

In Maths, we completed our unit on addition and subtraction by using different skills and strategies to add and subtract within 4 digit numbers. We also completed a short unit on finding the perimeter and our first of our multiplication and subtraction units where we finished learning the rest of our times tables, learnt to multiply by multiples of 10 and 100 and how to multiply by 1 and 0. 

In Science, our topic was 'Animals including humans' and we began answering the enquiry question, 'What happens in our digestive systems?

In PE, we continued to be confident swimmers every Wednesday and learnt new team game skills every Friday. 

In Design and Technology, we designed, made and built our own Roman Chariots. 

In Art, we created centurion portraits. 

In Music, we used our understanding of repeating patterns in music, before being introduced to the concept of motifs. We learnt a musical motif based on the Romans and performed it.

In PSHE/RHE, we explored similarities and differences and answered the enquiry question, 'Why is identity and diversity so important?'

In French, we learnt vocabulary to describe items of clothing, along with the different forms of the indefinite article. We incorporated previous learning about colour into our descriptions of clothing and expressed our opinions about outfits in French.

What did we learn in Autumn 1? 

In our first half term, our Geographical enquiry question was:

'How would living in Italy compare with living in England?'

In our Geography lessons, we compared the climate, crops, physical geography, settlements, landmarks and capital cities of England and Italy. 

In English, we completed a Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar unit concentrating on different nouns, verbs and clauses to create accurate sentence structure.

In Maths, we learnt about the Place Value of numbers up to 10,000, which includes rounding, ordering, comparing and representing numbers in different ways and began our Addition and Subtraction Unit. 

In Science, we explored, 'States of Matter' by answering the enquiry question, 'Can a material change from being a solid, a liquid or a gas?'

In Art, we completed a 'Monochrome' unit where we learnt how artists create perspective, how they use line, shape, and value to create a sense of form, and about different shading techniques.

In PE, we began weekly swimming lessons on a Wednesday and learnt how to play as part of a team during Tag Rugby lessons every Friday.  

In Music, we used a mixture of body percussion and tuned percussion instruments to create our own rhythms of the rainforest. 

In PSHE/RHE, we explored the question, 'How can we make and maintain a good friendship?'

In RE, we completed a unit called, 'How do ancient stories influence modern celebrations?' We then explored the religions Christianity, Hindu and Paganism.

In French, we learnt adjectives for describing people’s physical appearance and their personality. We then created simple sentences ensuring that the adjectives agreed with the gender of the noun.

In Computing, we learnt how to stay safe online as well as building basic computer skills using a touchtyping programme. 

Keep checking our individual Learning Journeys on Seesaw for photos of us enjoying our learning!

Meet the staff...

Miss Blanchard (Class Teacher)

Miss Bury (HLTA)

Mrs Adams (Support Assistant)

Welcome to our Library...

Below are the some of texts and literature we will be using in Year 4 to support the delivery of our curriculum. 

Below are the some of texts and literature we will be using in Year 4 to support the delivery of our PSHE and RHE curriculum. 

Throughout the year, we add the books we read as a class to our beautiful Class Reading tree on the wall outside our classroom. 

Ferney Lee Road, Todmorden,
Lancs, OL14 5NR

01706 254848

admin@ferneylee.calderdale.sch.uk