Year 4 - Beech
Autumn Term - Imagination Emporium
In Year 4, we began the new school year by looking at all things creative and wonderful. We wanted to know what imagination was and how we could express our imaginations.
We began to understand how different artists show their creativity by using different colours and drawing techniques. We decided that colour was a good way of expressing your emotions with many of us agreeing yellow was a ‘happy’ colour. We then created our own imagination portraits to really showcase our imagination!
We then started to focus on the wonders of the world around; specifically, The 7 Wonders of the World. We were intrigued why those monuments had been picked. Why were they more wonderful than everything else? We split up into different groups to research the different ‘Wonders.’ We realised that all the monuments had a purpose. We then decided it was about time there was an 8th Wonder so we designed and created our own. Take a look at some of our creations.
Spring Term - In The Beginning
Year 4 have become really curious this term. We started our topic wondering how our tap water made its way to us. Some of our responses were definitely interesting! We decided we needed to start researching. We found out about the water cycle and carried out our own science investigation to understand the process.
We were interested to fund out if the different climates of countries had an impact on the water cycle in those areas. We used our geography skills to locate different countries around the world, understood what hemisphere they are in and the average rainfall they get a year. Once we had all of our information we created our own weather report in the style of the BBC.
We realised how important water is and how lucky we are to have clean water at our disposal. We were shocked to find out how many countries don’t so we decided we should hold a fundraiser for WaterAid. To raise money, we used empty water bottles and reinvented them to sell!
Summer Term - Children of the Moors
During the summer term, Year 4 have studied two local moorland areas; Haworth and Ilkley. Beginning with a study of Haworth, we asked the question: would Haworth be famous without the Bronte sisters? To be able to answer that question, we had to first understand who the Bronte sisters were and what they did that made them so important. We were shocked to find out that they wrote novels that are now deemed as classics at such a young age! We were also horrified when we realised they had to pretend to be men to be taken seriously and for a long time no one knew they were the real authors and didn’t receive the credit they deserved.
We visited Haworth to learn more about the famous sisters and to look inside the house they once lived in. We found the Bronte Parsonage really interesting and we liked that it was staged to mirror what life was like in Victorian time Haworth. We learned what life was like for the average person in Haworth at the time of the Brontes and we couldn’t believe how dirty it really was. Did you know that very famous cobbled street that is now home to the Tour de Yorkshire once flowed with sewage?! We went up on to the moors to see why the sisters gained so much inspiration for their books from there.
We realised how stark and bleak moorland actually is after we had been on Haworth moor and we decided to recreate it through art. We worked with local artist to create our own felt to be used in our landscapes. We worked as small groups and in pairs to bring photographs of Haworth moor to life. Using wool, we ensured we picked colours like brown, green and purple to showcase the moor.
Some of the children then experienced their first residential as we visited Nell Bank for 2 nights and 3 days. We had lots of fun doing different activities such as den building, pond dipping and mini beast hunting. We even went on another walk across moorland but this time it was Ilkley moor and it was much longer! We were able to notice the similarities and the differences between the two landscapes. We had a brilliant time but everyone was excited to get home and have a good night’s sleep!
Medium Term Plan - Autumn 2018
Medium Term Plan - Spring 2019
Medium Term Plan - Summer 2019
Newsletters