This Term

Below you will find information about what the classes in Year 3 and 4 are learning about this term.  You might also like to view our Homework page for ways that you can support learning at home.

Spring 2024

English

This term we will begin our Talk for Writing scheme. Our first focus will be on Myths which will be linked to our topic work on Invaders and Settlers. The children will study the story of King Midas and focus on three areas; imitation, innovation and invention. Finally, the children will create their own myth and then move on to creating their own information text linked to our Invaders and Settlers topic for the second study unit. We will then move on to looking at a story with a dilemma called ‘King of the Fishes.’

During Spring 2, the children will work on performance poetry about the Vikings where their subject knowledge from our History unit will support their ideas. We will end the term with a non-fiction unit learning the features of a recount. The children will write a recount of their trip to Murton Park.

Maths

The children will be studying a range of concepts and calculations focused on number. These will include; place value, different methods for addition and subtraction, word problems, methods for multiplication and division, number puzzles, doubling and halving and fractions. In addition to the number focus; children will also work on 2D and 3D shapes, handling data, measure activities and presenting data.

Topic

Over the course of the Spring term we will be learning about how Invaders changed Britain, studying the impact of the Romans, Saxons and Vikings on everyday life and making comparisons between the lives of the different invaders, focusing on homes, food, society and clothes. We will also visit Murton Park Danelaw Museum, where the children will experience life as a Viking for a day.

For more detailed information about Topic learning for this term please see the Topic work page here.

Science

We will begin this term with learning about Sound. We will look at how sound travels, the pitch and how different objects sound. The children will learn about how we can hear sound and what it looks like when sound enters the ear. Our second unit is Electricity. Children will learn about the different components within a circuit to make light, what a current is and how to make a working torch. Our lessons will include practical activities and the children will work together to conduct experiments.

Computing

During the first half term, the children will be learning about how to create a power point presentation. They will use a range of icons, learn how to insert pictures and include transitions and animations. Their presentations will be based on their learning about the Romans, Saxons and Vikings. We will then move to our next coding unit. The children in Year 3 will be learning about conditional events and the Year 4 children will be completing the unit ‘introduction to variables.’

P.E.

Year 3 will continue to work on our core scheme of Real P.E. focusing on teaching integral skills to support children’s development. The first unit covered this term focuses on balance which will build on the skills learned in Autumn 1. We will then move on to co-ordination when using equipment. The children in Year 4 begin their swimming lessons which will take place for the whole term. Both Year 3 & 4 will focussing on gymnastics for the first half term then moving on to dance with an external dance teacher. The team from Foot Tech will also be in school working with some of the classes.

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Art

The children will be learning about painting during the first half term. We will be looking at the use of different colour to create mood, colour mixing and blending using tone and shade. The children will also learn how to use watercolours to create a landscape. During the second half term, we will be completing our first DT unit of the year. The children will work in groups to design, plan, make and evaluate a Viking long ship using different materials. They will then have the opportunity to test how effective they are in the water.

Life Curriculum

This term we will focus on Feelings and Achievements. We will learn about celebrating our achievements and feeling proud as well as mental well-being and emotions. The children will also discuss and identify when behaviours and emotions in reaction to a situation are appropriate and proportionate.

Our unit continues during the second half of the Spring term, the focus being differences. The children will learn about respecting others and their differences as well as the importance of being courteous and using manners.

Music

In the first half of the term we will use the Charanga program by studying the unit “Bringing Us Together.” The second half term will see the children make music using boom whackers and hand bells as well as learning and performing songs linked to Viking Sagas.

French

Our focus for the first half of the term is “Reconte moi une histoire.” This unit is a storytelling unit and will link with our Talk for Writing unit “Myths”. During the second half of the term children will learn vocabulary related to animals in our topic “Les Carnaval des Animaux.”

R.E.

In R.E, we will spend the full term looking at the creation stories from different religions and make comparisons. The children will study creation stories from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism Sikhism and Maori as well as the argument of creation versus science.