Year 4
Autumn – First Half Term - Information to Parents
Literacy:
What we will be covering:
Narrative: Fables
 To become familiar with a range of fables and their
morals.
 To recognise common structural elements and
language of fables.
 To recognise that fables often contain talking animals
 To recognise the human characteristics attributed to the
animals
 To introduce the literary technique of personification
 To recognise key characters and their characteristics
 To use a variety of conversational punctuation correctly
when writing a conversation between characters,
 To achieve an understanding of how the author uses
characters’ traits in the story for cause and effect
 To write own versions of fables or alternative stories
What we will be targeting:
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What you might like to do at
home:
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To use punctuation correctly with a particular focus on
speech marks.
Read fables with your children and discuss the morals
and how the moral may help them. Discuss
punctuation when reading- what is it used for and how
it affects the meaning.
Numeracy:
What we will be covering:
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Number, place value and rounding
- To compare and order numbers to 1000
- To recognise the place value of each digit in a
three digit number
Mental addition and subtraction
- To add pairs of two digit numbers and multiples of
10, 100 and 1000
- To use inverse operations to check answers
Multiplication recall and mental methods
- To mentally multiply multiples of 10 and 100
- To multiply three numbers together
Multiplication and Division – written and mental
methods.
- To divide multiples of 10 and 100
- To find missing numbers in multiplication and
division statements.
Geometry- shape properties
- To identify lines of symmetry
- To compare shapes based on properties including
symmetry
Measurement
- To calculate perimeters of rectilinear shapes
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What we will be targeting:
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What you might like to do at
home:
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including sides with lengths not given.
- To convert between units of time, measure,
pounds and pence.
Written addition and subtraction
- To add four digit numbers using column addition,
estimating to check
- Use a written column method of subtraction and
check by adding.
To use written methods for addition and to begin to
develop them for subtraction. To convert between
measures (mm, cm, m, km).
Practice the times tables up to 12 x 12. To check your
child is confident with his/her 2, 5 and 10 times tables
and then move onto the 3,4,6,7,8,9, 11 and 12.
To look for patterns in the times tables.
To add 10, 100 to numbers and 9, 11 and by adjusting
(adding 10 and taking one away or adding one on.
Science:
What we will be covering:
What you might like to do at
home:
Our Science topic for this half term is Sound.
 We will be listening carefully to sounds in the
environment.
 The children will learn to describe sounds, to suggest
how musical instruments make sounds, why animals
prick up their ears and why some have very large ears.
 The children will learn about how sounds are made
and that sounds can travel through gases, solids and
liquids.
 The children will examine the structure of the ear and
how vibrations are heard as sounds.
 They will learn about how people communicate if they
are hard of hearing and explore British Sign Language.
 They will compare light and sound waves and how
bats and dolphins use echolocation.
 The children will investigate soundproofing and discuss
why it is important to prevent some sounds from
travelling.
 The children will explore high, low, soft and loud
sounds with different instruments.
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They will investigate changes in pitch and volume and
listen to a variety of musical instruments so they can
compare their pitch and volume.
Talk about different instruments and the different sounds they
make. Discuss why their sounds may be different or have a
higher or lower pitch. Discuss thunder and lightning and why
you hear the sound first…
Theme Learning (Art, Design and Technology, History, Geography):
What we will be covering:
This term our theme is transport.
•The physical and human features of different locations for
airport travel.
•How to design, create and evaluate an airport and a flying
machine, using different techniques.
•How art has been used to capture images of transport and
create own artwork based on this.
•About significant individuals special to the local area that
have contributed to developments in transportation.
•How transport has changed the structure of our country.
What you might like to do at
home:
Talk to your children about different types of transport that
you have used. To support your child with their POWer Project
which is to design a vehicle (more information to follow).
Other Areas of the Curriculum:
Weekly Homework
Spelling homework- This will be given every Monday and the children’s spelling test will be
on a Friday.
Literacy/Numeracy Homework- The children will be given one piece of written homework
every Wednesday. This will alternate between Literacy and Numeracy. It is to be handed in
the following week.
Times tables- children are encouraged to learn and practice their times tables and
corresponding divisional facts.
Reading- Children are encouraged to read daily, ideally to a parent/guardian and a
comment left in their reading diary. This can be any book that your child is interested in:
comics, information books, e-books, magazines and novels. It would be helpful to discuss
the plot, the characters, what is happening between the lines , and how the characters may
feel within the stories.
Important Dates:
School Trip - Visit to Birmingham Airport - Thursday 2nd October