Year 3

Have you ever looked down and thought about what is under your feet?  Does the ground just stop or is there another world deep in the earth?  In English, we are using the text The Street Beneath My Feet to help us recount the journey of a worm from the rock section of the planet back through the clay to find their way home in the topsoil. 

Rocks have also been a focus in science. We have learnt that there are 3 different ways that rocks are formed so can be classified as igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic. However, even within these groups the rocks can be grouped in many other ways such as a texture, colour, weight and whether they are flammable or not.  We never knew rocks could be so interesting and it would be fun to explore the stones and pebbles in gardens and parks over the next few weeks. 

Multiplication and division continues in maths and we are learning how to do this with 2 digit numbers using partitioning.  If I know that 2 x 30 = 60 and that 2 x 4 = 8 then I know that 2 x 34 = 68.  Your answer can be checked by using the inverse (division) - 60 ÷ 2 = 30.

Geography is taking us to the continent of North America and we have learnt that it has 23 countries (not including Greenland) and at least 4 different climate zones.

In French, we are learning about parts of the body and we started off PE concentrating on our technique when we perform basic moves such as running, squatting and lunging.

   

                                    

This week: 13.01.25

Spelling rule: Words with short /i/ sound spelt ‘y’ eg: gym, mystery

Key words: 

Maths: equal groups, repeated addition, array, commutative, multiples, multiply, divide, product, quotient

English: recount, time adverbials, coordinating conjunctions, sentence opener

Science: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic, lava, magma, classify, properties

Geography: North America, climate, polar, temperate, tropical, desert

Maths facts: 3 x tables

 

Next week: 20.01.25

Spelling rule: Adding suffixes beginning with a vowel to words with more than one syllable eg: gardener, gardening

Key words: 

Maths: equal groups, repeated addition, array, commutative, multiples, multiply, divide, product, quotient

English: recount, time adverbials, coordinating conjunctions, sentence opener

Science: fossil, sediment, organism, minerals, dissolve

Geography: Landscape, landform, vegetation, wildlife, humidity

Maths facts: 3 x tables

 

Key dates: 

• Friday 17th January - Parent Volunteer training - 9.15am
• Monday 20th January  - Rainbow Monday ‘Yes’ day
• Wednesday 22nd January - Open Classroom - 3.15 - 3.45pm
• Friday 31st January - International Day
• Monday 17th February - Friday 21st February - half term

 

Year 4

The three Year 4 classes returned on good form from their Christmas break and enjoyed catching up with classmates, exchanging holiday news and finding their new seat in class, matched with a new talk partner. 

We have had fun revising the traditional tale of the Three Little Pigs, with a twist: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs re-tells the story from the point of view of suave Alexander T Wolf, who was only trying to borrow some sugar to make a birthday cake for his grandma… or so he says. If you have a tangible newspaper at home, please encourage your child to explore it: physical newspapers are now only an occasional experience in our digital natives’ lives. 

Our maths learning has moved on to division and continues to demonstrate the importance of children having secure times tables knowledge in order to work accurately and confidently. Please continue to practise tables on TTRS, as well as via songs, rote learning or drawing, if this better suits your child’s learning style.  

Science learning this half term introduces the topic of electricity, laying the foundations before the topic is picked up again in Year 6. Children used drama to inform their understanding of an electrical charge before considering which electrical appliances are powered by mains or battery, as well as talking about relevant safety considerations.

In geography, we recapped Year 3 learning and added to this with some more specialist river vocabulary. Recent science learning was incorporated this week as children enjoyed a practical lesson where they depicted the role of rivers in the water cycle. There were some fun and inventive models made and some detailed technical labelling. 

Stephen Wiltshire, prodigious cityscape artist, captured the children’s imagination as they turned this half-term’s art focus to ‘taking their pencil for a walk’ and creating different patterns and textures determined by throwing a dice. This work will culminate in an end of half-term landscape drawing of a view of Richmond Hill, inspired by a classic landscape artist, JMW Turner.

   

    

    

This week: 13.01.25

Spelling rule: Homophones and near homophones 

Key words: 

Maths: correspondence, combinations, equivalent 

English: sentence types, headlines, sub-headings, past and present tense 

Science: electricity, appliance, battery, mains

Geography: source, mouth, meander

Maths facts: 11 x tables

 

Next week: 20.01.25

Spelling rule: Nouns ending in the suffix ation 

Key words: 

Maths: multiplication, division, efficient

English: parenthesis, apostrophes to denote possession, cohesive devices

Science: circuits, safety, components

Geography: River Thames, Cotswolds, human features

Maths facts: 12 x tables

 

Key dates: 

• Friday 17th January - Parent Volunteer training - 9.15am
• Monday 20th January  - Rainbow Monday ‘Yes’ day
• Wednesday 22nd January - Open Classroom - 3.15 - 3.45pm
• Friday 31st January - International Day: please let your class rep know if you could offer an activity based on your national food/music/language
• Monday 17th February - Friday 21st February - half term
• Monday 3rd March - visit to British Museum to look at Egyptian artefacts; please let your class rep know if you could accompany the year group
• Tuesday 29th April - Onyx class assembly
• Wednesday 30th April - Zircon class assembly
• Thursday 1st May - Carnelian class assembly  nb) different to dates doc: check!