Welcome to the year group page for Mackintosh, Picasso and O'Keeffe.

During Spring term one, we will be answering...

What happened when the Romans came?

This half term we will be learning about the Romans and why this is such a significant era in History. Our class text will be 'Romans on The Rampage' by Jeremy Strong which is a story about a Roman boy called Perlius who loves chariot racing and in Design Technology will have the opportunity to design and make our own chariots. 

We will also take part in a Roman experience day where we will be visited by the real Roman soldier, Maximus, who will explain what life is like in the Roman Army.

In Spring half term 2, our big question will be...

Are there any volcanoes in Britain?

This term we will be finding out about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. We will look at their geographical locations, how they are formed and the consequences for the people who live nearby.

We will also be investigating sound in Science: how we hear sounds and what affects these sounds.

In Summer half term 1 we are learning about the Victorians and answering our big question: What did the Victorians do for us?

We will be finding out all we can about the Victorians: When was the Victorian era? Who was Queen Victoria? How did people live? What jobs did they do? We will be focusing upon the lives of children during this time but also learning about some of the many inventions created and the impact that these started to have. We will also learn more about life at this time through the story of Oliver Twist and being able to start to put themselves in the position of the different characters. We will also look at Charles Dickens as one of our famous Victorian people. In addition to Victorians we will be investigating electricity, electrical circuits, conductors and insulators. We will study the work of famous artists from Victorian times such as William Morris and using their work as inspiration for our own pieces of art.

In the Summer term 2, we will be answering...

Does every river flow to the sea?

This term in Year 4 we are focusing on Rivers with our big question 'Does every river flow to the sea?' We will be investigating the location and features of rivers alongside studying the water cycle and solids, liquids and gases in Science. We will be reading 'The Whale Watchers' by Dougie Poynter and using texts linked to the Water Cycle in English, all to extend and deepen our knowledge of water in our world.

  In the second half of the Autumn term we will be answering our big question which is...

Why do we remember?

As part of our learning, we will be specifically looking at World War One and why it is important to remember the people who served in the war. Our class text will be the fantastic 'War Horse' by Michael Morpurgo and we will also incorporate our History learning into our writing sessions. The learning will tie in nicely with Remembrance Sunday and hopefully some of our children will even visit Retford Market Square for the service! 

The children will spend time in the Pilgrim’s Gallery to learn about the story of the Pilgrims and how it still resonates today. We will also discuss how the geography of the area and how that contributed to the development of the separatist movement. They will also learn about the Wampanoag, the tribe that helped the Pilgrims survive and the impact the story has on them.