Dear Parents/carers,

Welcome to Year 4 and our first theme of the year: ‘Who’s Marching into Britain?’ We will be learning about Iron Age Britain and the lasting impact of the Roman invasion of the country. Please find below details about what we will be covering in literacy, maths and theme lessons over the next half term. We always welcome parents input into our work in school so if you have any resources at home or you have an interest in the subjects we are covering then do please let us know.

Literacy 

The Romans will be inspiring our literacy work as the children explore punctuation, grammar and effective writing through Roman stories and myths. Year 4 will also be looking at William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar with a focus on writing plays and interpreting stories through drama. We will also be looking in more detail at describing characters and settings as well as the structure of stories.

Maths 

In maths we are extending our understanding of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication; developing more efficient written methods of calculation as well as mental approaches. We will be looking at the properties of 2D shapes, discovering ways of sorting them, as well as increasing our understanding of symmetry. Year 4 will also look at handling data, exploring different ways of presenting data as graphs in close connection with our science learning. We will also be looking at Roman numerals alongside our current theme.

Science 

This half term we are looking at the states of matter – solids, liquids and gases – and the changes from one state to another. We will be investigating melting, evaporation and other processes as well as learning about how thermometers work and using them to measure changes in temperature. In the second half of the term we will be exploring sound including how sounds are made and how we hear them.

Theme 

The focus this term will be on history as we investigate what Roman Britain was like and how it affected the people living there. We will be looking at what made the Roman army so successful and seeing what it is like to be archaeologists. We will learn more about life in Roman Britain, as well as exploring the Roman’s feats of construction and the legacy they left behind. We will also be doing lots of Art and Design based on the Romans, including making mosaics and interpreting Roman-inspired music.

Miss Hahlo and Mrs Ray.