Welcome to Buffaloes Class Page

Year 4

We are the brilliant Buffaloes and we are a Year 4 class. Our teacher is Mr Illsley and the teaching assistants who are in our class are Miss Watson and Mrs Cowan. 

In the Spring Term, our learning will explore the question:

Will rainforests survive the 21st Century?

Writing

Our English work in the first half term will be based around our new topic ‘Will the Rainforest Survive the 21^st Century?’ We will use Talk for Writing to help us write a setting description of a rainforest, thinking carefully about what our five senses can detect. We will also be writing poems, supported by our Reading lessons. During the second half term, our focus will be on non-fiction writing.  We will be applying our knowledge of deforestation and the rainforest to write a series of persuasive pieces. We will continue to have a strong focus on handwriting, spelling, grammar and punctuation throughout the term.
 

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.
 

In our Grammar learning this term, we will continue to us ‘Rainbow Grammar’ to help us to construct effective simple, compound and complex sentences. We will develop our understanding of fronted adverbials and explore how these differ from subordinate clauses. Spellings will be on EdShed and the children will have weekly spelling lessons and tests. 

Reading

In Reading, we will be focusing on developing our reading skills and linking this with answering questions about a text. We will also be developing our inference skills - using clues to help us answer questions. To begin the Spring term, we will be reading a range of different poems and in the second half-term, we will be exploring non-fiction texts in more detail. Like before, the children will have access to range of books on Bug Club.

Our class book that we will read for pleasure will be 'Kid Normal' by Greg James and Chris Smith.

Maths

In Maths this term, we will be focusing on multiplication and division methods. We will be focusing on the children developing their recall of multiplication and division facts, in addition to using an efficient written method. Towards the end of the first half term, we will learning about area and perimeter. After the half term break, we will apply our multiplication knowledge and skill-set as we will be learning about Fractions and Decimals. Like the Autumn term, there will be a real focus on learning the timestables up to 12x12 and being able to recall them confidently.

Science

In Science, we will be learning about three different topics in the Spring term. Our first topic is called ‘Our Changing World’ and we will be exploring how trees and plants are identified and classified. Our second topic of the half term is called ‘In a State!’ and we will be learning about the different states of matter and investigating these.  In the second half term, we will be learning about electricity in our ‘Switched On!’ topic.

RSHE/SRE

In RSHE, we will be exploring the topic ‘Caring and Responsibility’ with the children learning about their rights and responsibilities. We will be looking at families and diversity too. After the half term break, we will be exploring the topic ‘Families and Committed Relationships’ looking at relationships and boundaries.

Geography

Our thought-provoking topic question this term will enable us to think about our changing world and the impact humans are having. We will be using digital mapping and atlases to locate continents, countries and capital cities. We will be learning about the rainforest and the animals that live there. As we progress into the second half term, we will be focusing on deforestation and how the rainforests are used. We will also be making a comparison between The Amazon Rainforest and Sherwood Forest

Art / DT

In our Art lessons, we will be learning about Henri Rousseau, and we will be replicating some of his rainforest inspired artwork. As part of our DT work, we will be utilising our electricity science knowledge as we will be creating an electrical game.

Computing

Our computing work will, as always, involve work around E-Safety and knowing how to stay safe online. Our main focus will be ‘Physical Computing’. We will be writing and testing algorithms.

RE

As part of our RE learning this Spring Term, we will be learning about Spiritual Expression. This will focus on how Christians worship.

Music

Our music themes are 'Stop!' and 'Lean on Me' 

In ‘Stop!’ we will focus on a rap song about anti-bullying. We will listen and appraise music and also come up with our own rap. In 'Lean on Me’ we will look at the song of the same name by Bill Withers. Will will use instruments in this topic.

PE

In Buffaloes class, our PE days in the Spring Term will be a Tuesday and Wednesday. We will be working with the coach Mr Saleh in our lessons.

Homework

There will be two pieces of homework a week, which will be given on a Friday and will be uploaded on Seesaw. Spellings will also be given on a Friday and these will be available on EdShed. Weekly spelling tests will take place every Friday.

Like always, children in Buffaloes need to read at home at least three times a week. Colourband books and red reading records need to be in school every day.

For non-urgent enquiries my email address is tillsley@crescent.notts.sch.uk