In English this half term, the children will be exploring Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann, a heart-warming story about helping outsiders that highlights the plight of polar bears in today’s changing climate. "When a polar bear arrives unexpectedly in the woods, the other animals fear and avoid him – and his odd habit of collecting leaves only adds to their distrust. Then one day, they watch as he attempts to fly over the water with wings made of colourful leaves… trying to get back home."  The children will be learning to write an outsider narrative and an information report.

Children will take part in guided reading sessions each week in which we explore and respond to a variety of quality texts, including activities which will build our verbal and written comprehension skills.  Those children who are still learning the fundamental skills of decoding will continue to take part in Read Write Inc. phonics sessions and will take home books linked to their development and learning from these sessions. Children who are fluent and confident readers will have access to a wide range of books to choose from for their reading.  Every child will visit our wonderful library and take home a book of their choice to read independently or share with their family each week.

Reading is an integral part of our learning in Dolphin Class. We love our class story time as it is really cosy when we all sit together and share a story.  We like thinking about the characters and plots and discovering new vocabulary that we can use in our own writing.  We have a wonderful reading area full of a wide range of quality texts outside our classroom that children are encouraged to explore freely, voluntarily and with delight.  We use Wise about Words techniques to share and explore stories and to promote a deeper love of stories amongst our children. It helps us to develop a richer vocabulary, build confidence and increase emotional literacy. Immersing our children in stories and drama will help them to overcome barriers to their learning.  We want our children to love to read and explore books because reading is an adventure that never ends.

This half term we will be learning about multiplication and division.  We will be using our knowledge of place value to help us to understand the written methods and complete mental arithmetic challenges.  We will be learning how to multiply and divide using concrete apparatus such as Numicon and Dienes and then we will move onto pictorial representations before finally learning about the written methods.  We will learn to understand how the two operations are the inverse of one another. We will also be developing our mental multiplication and division skills through our daily practice on TT Rockstars.

This half term we will have a history focus, learning about the Stone Age to the Iron Age. We will cover the chronological shift from nomadic hunter-gatherers (Stone Age) to settled farming communities (Bronze Age) and hillfort tribes (Iron Age), focusing on changes in tools (stone, bronze, iron), homes (caves, roundhouses), food, art (cave paintings, pottery, metalwork), and belief systems (Druids) using evidence like Skara Brae and Stonehenge to understand life before writing.

This term our science unit will be Plants.  We will be identifying plant parts (roots, stem, leaves, flower) and their functions, understanding essential needs for growth (air, light, water, nutrients, space), exploring plant life cycles (seed to plant, pollination, dispersal), investigating how plants transport water, and learning about photosynthesis, all through hands-on experiments like comparative tests to see what plants need.  We will be making local memories by using our wonderful allotment area to grow our own plants.

This term we will be focusing on the question, What is the Trinity?  The children will be exploring what the Trinity is in Christianity and learning how Christians might express their beliefs about the Trinity (e.g. in art or literature). They will learn to recognise ways in which belief in the Trinity might make a difference to the way a Christian thinks about their life and how they see the world.  Our local reverend will also come in and talk to the children about this.

Pupils in Dolphin Class will be learning about 'Asking for Help'. They will learn to know the differences between secrets and surprises, knowing when it is right to break confidence and share a secret. They will also learn when to ask for help to manage a situation and the skills to ask for help.

In Art, the children will be focusing on textiles.  They will learn to select appropriate materials, giving reasons, to use a variety of techniques, e.g. printing, dyeing, weaving and stitching to create different textural effects and to develop skills in stitching, cutting and joining

In D.T., children will be focusing on making. They will learn to cut, shape and score materials with some degree of accuracy, assemble, join and combine material and components with some degree of accuracy, measure, cut, shape and join fabric with some accuracy to make a simple product, join textiles with an appropriate sewing technique and to select and use different and appropriate finishing techniques to improve the appearance of a product such as hemming, tie-dye, fabric paints and digital graphics

This term, children will have the opportunity to build upon the knowledge and skills gained in KS1 and compose different rhythm patterns and transfer these to tuned instruments. They will learn to sing a traditional call-and-response song, create a partner rhyming line to extend the lyrics, insert extra syllables while keeping in time and create new clapped rhythmic ostinato to accompany the verses.

We will be learning all about Google Classroom this half term.  The children will learn to login independently and complete and hand in tasks in Google Classroom.  This is an important skill for them to learn in their journey towards high school.

We will continue our MFL journey into learning Spanish this half term.  We will be studying the unit 'Time to Eat', learning how to recognise and repeat key vocabulary about food, use determiners for identifying quantities in making polite requests, give a preference for or against things, describe the colour(s) of an object by modifying adjectives and use adjectives accurately to describe food items

Outdoor learning will take place on Tuesday afternoons. It is important that your child comes dressed in long sleeves and trousers and has a change of footwear.  We are so lucky to have our own woodland on-site and so the children have the opportunity to access outdoor learning every week.  Having our own woodland gives children the opportunity to develop their respect for the natural world, which ties in with our core values.  They develop resilience and problem-solving skills through challenges and wild play in the woods, as well as broadening their horizons by learning and developing their outdoor survival skills such as shelter building and fire lighting.  

P.E. lessons take place twice a week, with Monday afternoon sessions being led by Miss Clarke (Mrs Morrell will be leading these this half term) and Wednesday morning sessions led by Mrs Morrell.  The units this half term are dance and netball.  Over the course of this term, children in Dolphin Class will have the opportunity to go for swimming lessons at Alderman Peel High School.

Class Dojo is our main form of communication with parents. If you have not yet signed up for Class Dojo and would like to, please do not hesitate to come and see us.  We are more than happy to help if you are having difficulty accessing this.  It's a great space where you can view photos, videos and information about all the amazing things that are happening in our classroom and around the school. It gives you the chance to see what your children have been learning in school each week, giving you the opportunity to talk to them at home about what they have been doing.

Home learning in Dolphin class is about reading every day either to an adult, a sibling or to themselves.

The year four children will be undertaking the National times table check in the summer term and it is essential they practice their times tables regularly (they can use TT Rockstars for this).

There is a pick and mix homework menu which enriches the discovery learning we are doing in class. Pick a task, complete it and post your work on Dojo by Wednesday.

Please make sure all of your child’s possessions are labelled. Children do not need to bring toys or pencil cases into school. Children should wear PE kit to school on Monday and Wednesday. Woodland is on Tuesday and children need to wear sturdy, outdoor clothing.