Term 2 - America: how do the regions of America compare to the UK?

Our learning this term is all about the Americas - specifically a Geography focus comparing human and physical features of North and South America to that of the UK. We will continue to develop on the Year 3 learning of climates and biomes using comparative skills to gain a deeper understanding of the varied geography of the Americas.

In RE, our topics this term are:

• Baptism and Confirmation - Belonging: called, where we will develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be chosen and called to follow Jesus' mission.

• Gift – Advent: loving, where we will explore the gifts bestowed on us by God, the Good News and the symbolism of giving and receiving gifts during Advent, Christmastide and Epiphany.

• Local church – community, where we will identify the role of the parish and the parishioners, those who help us and those who lead, understanding what it means to be a part of a community.

• Hinduism, our world faith day where we will make links between the way people worship in Hinduism and Christianity. We will focus on 3 key areas: making links between places of worship for Hinduism and Christianity; exploring the concept of different manifestations of one divinity; and understanding that Hindus believe that there is one divine agency, Brahman, who can appear in many forms.

In Maths, our learning is addition and subtraction, area and multiplication and division. We will be focusing on understanding the concept of area, making links to arrays and learning further about rectilinear shapes. In multiplication and division we will be exploring number patterns, learning to manipulate calculations confidently, partitioning and regroup whilst becoming more confident with our times tables and related number facts.

In Science, we are continuing to learn to compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases. We will then investigate the impact of temperature on materials and make links to the water cycle.

In Art and Design we will explore American artists, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, focusing on the Pop Art movement, developing on from the learning in Year 2. Design Technology, our focus is in textiles where we will complete the design process to create a Christmas stocking; researching and evaluating existing products, creating patterns and understanding a variety of ways to join fabrics.

In English, we will continue to explore the Americas following Tom on his adventures to be "The Boy Who Biked The World: Riding The Americas" (by Alastair Humphreys). This is the second book in the series, continuing the narrative from the Year 3 learning of Book 1. We will be writing diary entries about Tom's nail-biting start to his journey, followed by informal letters.