Welcome To Year 4 with Miss Claxton

1. Welcome To Year 4 with Miss Claxton

2. Big ideas • Continuing from last • year… • Active 8 (after lunch) • Tasc – higher order thinking • skills • New this year… • Morning thinking skills tasks based on all areas of the curriculum – closely linked to creative writing strategies, helping children to think ‘outside the box’ and to develop creative elements in their work. • Problem Solving approach across the curriculum.

3. Literacy • Visual literacy approach – children will have the opportunity to engage in a text through different ways; video, ebook, books and audio - to try to appeal to all learning styles. this in turn should allow them to understand and analyse the plot more carefully. • Dramatic literacy – children will gain a good sense of character emotion through hot seating, conscience corridors, sound-scapes, senses walks, role plays and freeze frames. This should add empathy, reality and feeling to their writing. • More in-depth plot analysis – leading to longer comprehension activities.

4. Numeracy • Visual and practical maths – using stories, real-life problems, videos, hands-on activities. • Personalised learning environment – differentiation 5 ways (where appropriate), children peer and teacher assessed, teacher time with children who need extra help on a certain concept or to extend children on further. self assessment = teacher input the following day. • Problem solving/investigative approach – children to find their best way to tackle a problem • Topic themed (where appropriate)

5. Themes • Africa (term 1-2) • Ancient Egypt (term 3-4) Archaeological discovery, making a cartouche, using hieroglyphics, clay canopic jars, stories from a historical setting, play-scripts. • Famous figures (term 5) Influential figures through time – children to choose a famous person and create a PowerPoint project to present to the class. • Roman britain (term 6) How Romans influced britain – boudicca. Life in roman Britain, roman arts and crafts.

6. Numeracy Counting, partitioning and calculating, securing number facts, understanding shape, handling data and measures. Links to Africa: Climate Comparisons – data handling, capacity – African potion task etc. DSI – Mental maths skills Literacy Stories with dilemma – The Crocodile and the Dung Beetle, Jamonghoie and the Blacksmith’s Dilemma from African traditional texts. Stories set in Imaginary Worlds - African folktales – Anansi Stories – Anansi and the Sky Kingdom. Advertisements – WaterAid – linked to Geography – leaflets and posters. Letters – about children moving to large cities slum towns from rural villages. Science African habitats – Savannah – wild life and vegetation, rainforest -Plants and animals in Africa Sorting wildlife into groups – comparing and contrasting African animal food chains Predator/prey relationships Animal’s use of camouflage for protection Animal’s use of senses for protection Moving and Growing – looking at the human body – linked to Africa (food and famine). Drama Within Literacy/Dance– Hot Seating, Role Play, Freeze Framing, and Conscience Corridor etc. Wild Africa (Term 1) An exploration of the continent, traditions and culture of African countries. Art/DT African Arts and Culture African Savannah Chalk Pictures Rainforest Watercolour African Goli Masks Ndebele Beadwork Appliqué - Dyes & Designs African patterns – charcoal ICT Researching Skills: Finding Information - Using CD ROM and Internet linked to the topic (Kenya/ TRF, Animals). Branching databasesChildren learn to use and create branching databases to sort and classify information. Children will be introduced to ‘yes/no’ questions which separate a set of objects into two sub-sets. They are shown how to search and create branching databases (Africa) Wii and DSI PSHE & SEAL New Beginnings WaterAid Poverty in Africa Animal conservation Zoos – good or bad? Relationships Year 4 Geography/History Contrasting locality overseas - Learn how village life in rural Africa differs to life in Mk D African continent - cities and slums Kenya/ Mk D (contrast) Rainforest Savannah/ Safari Tourism Music - Mr Fell Feel the Pulse - Exploring pulse and rhythm (African drums) Songs - Walking in the jungle, The Elephant,Hippopotamus’ song etc. RE Harvest – Send A Cow The Story of Joseph The Books of the Bible The Nativity PE Games – Mrs Oakley (hockey) Swimming – Tues 10:15 Dance – African dance

7. Weekly OverviewClass 4C

8. Homework • Times tables – tested 3 times weekly • Spellings and HANDWRITING - 5 HANDWRITING WORDS IN TUES +SPELLING TEST TUESDAYS • Literacy – Mon (out) Fri (in) • Maths – Mon (out) Fri (in) • Reading

9. Learning Environment To ensure all children have the opportunity to learn and develop in class we have a ‘working well chart’. If a child chooses not to follow class rules, they will be given a visual warning using this chart. On the opposite end of the scale – if a child shows great effort, kindness or ability they will be given a class point or will go in to the ‘happy book’!

10. The Small things • Shopping addition/subtraction • Card games • Reading with your child • Who what where why story builder • Beat The Clock Times tables • Vocab shower (WOW WORD FINDER) • Sentence substitution • Another word for…

11. Extras There may be times when extra help is required in the classroom/outside the classroom - if parents could spare the time to help out it would be greatly appreciated. If you have questions now, or at any time in the year, please do not hesitate to ask!