Prep 4 Curriculum Brief

Spellings will again be predominantly based on the Year 4 spelling rules and the children’s individual targets. Tests will be held on a Thursday and new spellings (10 in total) will be given each week.  We will continue to test comprehension by asking questions based on their individual books and shared texts in class.  Children will also be asked to summarise what they have read in a paragraph/page and develop an ability to skim read texts so that children can find key words or phrases quickly. We will be looking in detail at the book The Colours of History: How Colours Shaped The World by Clive Gifford. This will be used to inspire the children to write their own information text detailing interesting and surprising facts about a certain colour through history. We will also look at Poetry Pie by Roger McGough and the poetry of Matt Goodfellow to consolidate our understanding of poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, personification and hyperbole. The poetry will inspire us to both write and perform our own poems. We will revise and consolidate our knowledge of compound words, possessive pronouns, commas, prepositions to express time and cause, expanded noun phrases and subordinate clauses.

During the Summer Term, Prep 4 will continue to have weekly times tables tests and a mental maths session to improve the children’s speed of calculation. Main areas of topic work include the following: Decimals – understand tenths and hundredths as decimals and fractions, divide 1 and 2 digit numbers by 10, understand the place value of tenths and hundreds, partition, compare, order and round decimals. Money – write money using decimals, convert between pounds and pence, estimate and calculate with money using all four operations. Time – vocabulary associated with time, convert between analogue and digital times, convert to and from the 24-hour clock. Shape – angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, lines of symmetry, completing symmetrical diagrams/shapes and all associated shape vocabulary. Statistics – interpreting charts and line graphs, drawing line graphs. Position and Direction – coordinates, drawing 2D shapes on a grid, translations. NB We will be incorporating reasoning and problem-solving questions within all topics.

This term Prep 4 will be continuing their learning about Animals including Humans. They will strengthen their knowledge of the digestive system, gain a firm understanding of food chains and animal teeth. 

In the second half of the term Prep 4 will be learning about Living things and their habitats. They will learn about different ways of classifying living things, how we can identify that something is alive, and studying the creatures in their local environment.

We will begin the term by considering water as a finite resource, looking at the conservation of water and the issues surrounding supplying clean drinking water to the world’s poorest nations. We will be looking at the effects local flooding can have on a community ie. the Boscastle floods of 2004. We will also discuss the pollution of water, both in rivers and oceans.  What can we do as individuals to protect them?

This term we will be learning about the Incas and Aztec Civilizations. They will learn who they were and where and when they lived. They will use maps and atlases to locate where they existed. In addition to this they will learn about the religious beliefs and rituals of the ancient people and find out more about some of the many gods they worshipped.

We will consolidate our learning of numbers to 100, parts of the face, sports and toys. We will then move on to learn the vocabulary for life in the countryside, the beach and different modes of transport. To improve grammatical knowledge, we will look at words ending in ‘eau’ and revise the definite article in its different forms.

This term we begin by thinking about how the apostles felt after Jesus left them and how the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost changed their lives. We then look at the early Christian church with some stories of Paul and the work he did.

Prep 4 will begin the summer term in art by finishing their Mayan masks which are really taking shape and looking very exciting! We will then be focusing on the art of Wassily Kandinsky; looking at how his synaesthesia condition inspired his abstract work, and we will also be investigating his bold, colourful landscape paintings. We will explore a range of painting techniques and will develop these skills into some vibrant and imaginative artwork. Our aim is to create some abstract clay relief pieces full of shapes, texture and colour!

This term Prep 3 and 4 will be 4 learning about music from around the world, in particular the music of Africa and India. They will develop an understanding of how rhythmic patterns are used to create pieces of music and use body percussion to create their own compositions.

This term we will continue to build on children’s practical and creative abilities through a range of new, engaging hands-on projects. They will deepen their understanding of the design process by researching, planning, making, and evaluating their own ideas. Children will continue to develop key skills such as accurate measuring, cutting, joining, and refining their designs. They will build confidence in using tools and materials safely and effectively.

This term pupils will be learning how to use a microbit and develop a project in designing a game to be used. They will be developing a powerpoint presentation based on their residential trip. They will also look at creating a newspaper as a class including taking pictures and designing text.

We will start by working on team building and co-operation activities. After focusing on Poetry Assembly we will use the universal theme of environmental sustainability to explore the conflicting feelings and interests of a community and the need to consider natural habitats that support wildlife.

Simple cricket activities, including limited game situations. The skills involved in catching, throwing, bowling and hitting will be developed. Athletics – to include sprints, hurdles and relays. In field events simple javelin/ high jump/long jump.

Swimming: Water time will be spent on the development of correct technique and other related activities. All work based on the ASA ‘National Plan for Teaching Swimming’.