In English this half term, the children will be exploring the book The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy. 

"What would happen if we lost the happy endings to stories - imagine the tears at bedtime! A fantastic and magical tale about what happens when, one night, a wicked witch steals the happy endings to bedtime stories. It is up to Jub, the keeper of the happy endings, to save the day and ensure sweet dreams everywhere in this lyrical story about storytelling. "

The children will be drawn into this beautifully illustrated book with its rich language. It is a highly engaging book that offers great opportunities to stimulate discussions and to inspire story writing. Through the lessons we will work on building our sentence accuracy and developing new skills to make our writing more interesting.  We will use the techniques demonstrated by the author to write our very own twisted narrative.

Reading

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 fractions.  The children will use concrete and pictorial methods to understand what a fraction is in terms of equal parts making up a whole.  We will learn how to identify fractions of shapes and of numbers and how to add and subtract fractions.  We will make links between fractions, decimals and percentages. We will also continue to develop our mental multiplication and division skills through our daily practice on TT Rockstars.

This half term we will have a history focus and will be learning about Roman Britain.  We will find out why the Romans invaded Britain and explore the changes they made, such as the new roads that they built.  We will learn about Queen Boudicca and Hadrian's Wall, with the children having the opportunity to use their ICT skills to complete independent research. We will be exploring how the Romans have had a lasting impact on Britain, looking at the changes they implemented that still exist today.

This term we will be completing a unit on Scientists and Inventors.  The children will have the opportunity to learn about important people and their discoveries, such as Marie Curie, George Washington Carver and Inge Lehmann.  It is so important for our children to learn about inspiring people in this field and their accomplishments.  You never know, it might just inspire one of us to be the next big name in Science!

This term we will be focusing on the question, 'Why is there so much diversity of belief in Christianity?'.  The children will have the opportunity to explore and discuss the different denominations within Christianity, different expressions of Christian worship and the different ways in which Christian festivals are celebrated.

Pupils in Dolphin Class will be learning about 'My Beliefs'. We will learn about challenging gender stereotypes and about how differences and similarities between people can arise from a number of factors including family and personal identity.

This will also be a focus in our Wise About Words sessions where we will explore different social situations through drama and role play and discuss the best courses of action and the possible outcomes.

In Art, the children will be focusing on sculpture. They will learn to cut, make and combine shapes to create recognisable forms, use clay and other malleable materials and practise joining techniques and to add materials to the sculpture to create detail.  They will use these skills to make their own Roman clay pots.

In D.T., children will be focusing on evaluating. They will learn to explore and evaluate existing products, explaining the purpose of the product and whether it is designed well to meet the intended purpose.  They will explore what materials/ingredients products are made from and suggest reasons for this.  They will then use this knowledge to explore design criteria, design and make a kite and then evaluate their product against the design criteria.

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 rap and play rhythmically and explore dynamic contrast. They will also be developing their listening skills by identifying the notes in a simple melody. They will listen to music by different composers, broadening their horizons outside the music they may usually listen to.

We will be learning all about animation this term, building on our exploration of Stop Motion films from our fabulous Science week.  The children will be developing their skills to enable them to produce a much more polished finished product. They will learn editing skills and how to refine their work.

We will continue our MFL journey into learning Spanish this half term.  We will be studying the unit 'All About School'.  They will learn the Spanish names for items in their pencil case and around the classroom, the subjects they learn in school and places around the school.

Outdoor learning will take place on Thursday 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 Tuesday 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 fitness and basketball.  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 Tuesday and Wednesday. Woodland is on Thursday and children need to wear sturdy, outdoor clothing.