Year 3

Year 3  have returned to school after half-term with excitement and determination for the term ahead. They have been eagerly practicing their lines and songs for next week's class assemblies. We have some future stars in our midst! 

This week in maths, we have continued our learning about time, using both analogue and digital clocks. The children have had lots of opportunities for practical application in this unit, and we really encourage you to practice reading the time with your child as this is a valuable life skill (and a challenging topic in year 3!).

‘Emmanuel’s Dream’ is the inspiring new book we are reading this term, about a young boy from Ghana who overcomes his physical difficulties and cycles around his country. The children will be assuming the role of reporter and writing newspaper articles about this incredible human!

In science, we’ve started learning learning about genes and DNA. The children have found it interesting to discuss Inherited characteristics in humans and animals. In RE, we are beginning a fascinating new topic on sacred scriptures, kicking off our new unit of Judaism and Islam. Taking a closer look at why the Torah is sacred and how it is made will help year 3 to understand the Torah's role in guiding Jewish faith, practices, and ethical conduct. History’s topic on Ancient Egypt has been eagerly anticipated, and the children loved being archaeologists and exploring Tutankhamun’s cave this week!

  

                                   

Key Messages

• Please remember that children need to learn all of their lines ahead of the assemblies next week!

• We encourage them to dress up according to their roles. 

• KIRFS: Time

• Spellings: ‘ai’ (snail in the rain)

 

Year 4

We have had a busy week in Year 4, starting lots of new topics as well as having the Multiplication check. We want to start by saying how proud we are of all the children in Year 4, they were absolutely brilliant during the test and it was clear the hard work they had put into learning their times tables this year. In History, we began our new unit comparing the Iron Age with Ancient Egyptians. This is an opportunity to recap the knowledge and skills taught in Year 3 before beginning to compare and contrast the periods. This week, we began by focusing on chronology and created a dual timeline on our desks. We began our new unit of Space this week in science, focusing on where we are specifically in the solar system and also understanding the way humans have viewed Earth's position in the solar system in the past.  In maths this week we have continued looking at shape, focusing on quadrilaterals towards the start of the week and polygons at the end. The children really enjoyed creating polygon posters on their desks, some groups created comic strips or various characters to show off their knowledge. We have had a focus on sentence types this week in English through our new text ‘Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx.’ The children have been varying their openers using -ing, -ly and -ed words. We are very impressed with the quality of their paragraphs.

  

        

                                            

Key Messages

• Key vocab: polygon, regular, irregular, simple, compound, complex, heliocentric, geocentric, solar system, circuit, chronology, pharaoh, archeology. 

• Spellings: common exception words

• All swimming lessons have been completed. PE days return back to Mon & Fri. 

• Upcoming dates: Summer Fair 15th June, Barnes Literary Festival 20th June