Year 3

The last two weeks of term have been very busy. The children have created beautiful, atmospheric poems about ‘Richmond in Autumn’ using personification, similes and alliteration:  “Conkers shiny as pearls”, “fierce, fiery foxes fight through the night” and “the wild wind whispers what to do”.  Consolidating learning about the different stages of rivers in geography, the children created a comic strip of a sloth’s journey down the Thames and out to the sea.  They also utilised their knowledge about bones and muscles in science to try and answer the question ‘Do people with longer femurs jump further?’.  In addition to being an active and fun session, the children were able to make predictions, consider how to make the testing fair and then evaluate their findings.  Over all, we discovered that the length of the femur was not necessarily an indicator of how far others could jump.  What other factors do you think would be important?  It’s been another active start to our Year 3 PE curriculum this term.  We have had opportunities to explore playground games, such as elastics and Grandmother’s Footsteps, practise ball skills such as throwing, catching, basketball and use rhythm to help us move.  Running at different speeds was particularly testing and amusing!  In our reading lessons, we are exploring the poems from Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. In addition to looking at new vocabulary, the children have been experimenting with reading aloud using expression, pace and rhythm.  They have also enjoyed watching the songs from the musical.  Well done Year 3, we are impressed with your positive hunger for learning.  Enjoy your well earned break.

  

                        

w/b 21.10.24

Spelling rule: homophones and near homophones (eg. meet/meat)

Key words: addend ,sum, minuend, subtrahend, difference, nutritional, classify, immune system, body, skeleton, vertebrate, invertebrate, spine, tributary , main channel, meander, erosion, floodplain, deltas, mouth 

Maths facts: 10 and 100 more nor less

 

w/b 11.11.24

Spelling rule: Creating adverbs using suffix ‘ly’ (root word ends with y - more than 1 syllable) eg: happily/angrily

Key words: equal groups, repeated addition, array, commutative, multiples, multiply, divide, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, imperative verbs, light source, vision, visibility, dark, time period, BCE, CE

Maths facts: counting in 3s, 4s and 8s

 

Key dates: 

Tuesday 12th November - Strings concert (10.35am - 11.00am)

Tuesday 12th & Thursday 14th November - Family teacher meetings

Friday 15th November -  Odd socks day

Thursday 21st November - PTA disco

Wednesday 4th December - Trip to Butser Farm

Friday 13th December - Christmas Fair - 3.30 - 6.30pm

Tuesday 17th December - Sapphire Carol Concert

Wednesday 18th December - Ruby & Emerald Carol Concert

Thursday 19th December - Christmas jumper day, Christmas lunch and movie

 

The first week after half term is STEM week and Year 3 and Year 4 are going to be exploring alternatives to plastic for carrying water and, in particular, materials that could be used instead of plastic to make drainpipes.   We will be asking children to bring in cardboard tubes (toilet roll, kitchen roll etc) that week so would be grateful if you could collect these over the next few weeks.   If you have any other materials at home that you think we could include in our experiment, please send a message to the Y3 or Y4 email.

 

Year 4

We have had a great end to the half term, and the children have continued to work hard right up until the final day!

In English, they have written diary entries from the perspective of ‘imperfect pets’ in the story Barnabus, using ambitious writing features and immersing their readers in the strange and wonderful world they have created! In maths, we have been impressed with the children’s confidence in exchanging when adding and taking away within 4 digits. 

They loved completing their podcasts in computing, layering audio with spoken dialogue and background music to create an entertaining and educational piece.

Our first week back after half term will be STEM week, in which we will study mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani and create our own 3D geometric shapes. Our key question in science is: ‘what if plastic was never invented?’. We will explore everyday items that contain plastic and explore their purpose. Then, we will attempt to redesign a plastic product using a different material, to see whether alternative materials can provide similar results (please see a resource-plea below)! The children are also invited to bring a science product to share at the end of the day on Friday 8th November.

  

  

                           

w/b 21.10.24

Spelling rule: Review week this week and during half term. We will test the children on a variety of spelling rules learned from this year when we return!

Key words: first person, past tense, exchange, Taiga forest, Tropical forest, biome, precipitation, water cycle, evaporation

Maths facts: Number bonds to 100

 

w/b 11.10.24 - STEM Week!

Spelling rule: Words with a /shun/ sound spelt ‘sion’ e.g. expansion

Key words: rounding, estimating, efficient, exchanging, sum, difference, physical features, characteristics, Roman, BCE Before Common Era, CE Common Era, 3D, geometric

Maths facts: Number bonds to 100

 

Key Messages: 

• A reminder that children should be bringing in a healthy snack (fruit or veg) for their break times. Thank you.

• Spelling revision practice: we will test the children on a variety of spelling rules learned from this year when we return!

 

Key Dates:

• Friday 8th November - Science Fair (after collection)

• Tuesday 12th & Thursday 14th November - Family teacher meetings

• Friday 15th November -  Odd socks day

• Thursday 21st November - PTA disco

• Friday 13th December - Christmas Fair - 3.30 - 6.30pm

• Tuesday 17th December - Year 4 Carol Concert

• Thursday 19th December - Christmas jumper day, Christmas lunch and movie

 

The first week after half term is STEM week and Year 3 and Year 4 are going to be exploring alternatives to plastic for carrying water and, in particular, materials that could be used instead of plastic to make drainpipes. We will be asking children to bring in cardboard tubes (toilet roll, kitchen roll etc) that week so would be grateful if you could collect these over the next few weeks.   If you have any other materials at home that you think we could include in our experiment, please send a message to the Y3 or Y4 email.