English

This term, we are writing portal stories influenced by our model text ‘The Impossibly Possible Bookshop’. This unit builds on the work children did in Year 3, this time focussing on a more ‘fantasy’ based text.

We are learning how to describe a setting using powerful adjectives, adverbs and prepositions to create a vivid picture for the reader. Children will also learn how to show mood and atmosphere in their writing through the use of dramatic fronted adverbials. By the end of this unit, the children will have written their own portal story, including the skills taught during the build up and including their own imaginative ideas,

Our next unit, will be Explanation Texts where we think about using ‘how’ and ‘why’ to explain an event, in this case, the extinction of a species. This unit will link to our Guided Reading text, The Land of Roar, giving children the chance to incorporate a fantasy element into the planning and writing of their own explanation text.

Guided Reading

Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan. This text is a fantasy story which explores the relationship between two siblings as they reconnect in their childhood fantasy land full of dragons, mermaids and ninja wizards. The real world and fantasy worlds are connected through a portal which the children are able to draw on when creating their portal stories in English.

Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore by W.E. Joyce

This is text is a picture book. It will be taught in between our main class text above. There is a central who the reader follows throughout their life. The character goes through a transformation from someone who is orderly and complete in control, to someone whose life is turned upside down.

Mathematics

Children begin the Autumn term exploring place value in numbers to 10 000 supported by Maths - No Problem! quality resource using a Mastery approach.  This is followed by addition and subtraction, again in numbers to 10 000.  Alongside this, they work on their factual fluency using Number Sense number fact strategies to improve speed of recall.  These strategies are then applied in the children's maths lessons.

Geography

This half term our topic will be focused on the geography unit, Settlement.

This unit explores the question - Where do people live and why? – and involves children identifying the different types of settlements around the UK, including Bridlington and our local area.

Science

In Science this half term, the children have learnt about 'Humans including Animals'. Within this topic, we have carried out investigations into tooth decay, using hard boiled eggs to mimic the enamel coating our teeth, as well as creating a digestive system using tights, a sandwich bag and a combination of food and drink items. Both Teal and Purple class have loved getting involved in this and using their new knowledge to create investigation questions to then carry out. As part of this topic, have also spent time looking at Food Chains, identifying the Producer, Prey and Predator in a variety of different Food Chains.

In the second half of the Autum Term, children will be looking closely at the topic of 'Electricity' and investigating how a circuit works in order to power a lightbulb, before moving on to create their own battery powered torch in DT!