Year 3

What would you do if you walked through a cave and found a land in another time?  This is what children have been exploring during English in preparation to create their own version of the text Stone Age Boy.  We have thought about what you might say to another child who lived during this time with a focus on the correct punctuation when writing speech. In history, we looked further into the lifestyles of stone age people and the changes that happened at the start of the Bronze Age.

The new topic of multiplication and division in maths has begun!  The children have revisited their learning about sharing and grouping to help make calculations and are underpinning this with their sticky maths facts that stick in our head such as, times tables.

Science saw further investigations into light and reflection.  Did you know that cat’s eyes on the road are just highly effective reflectors and not actual light sources?  There was also a lot of fun with torches last week, whilst observing and identifying transparent, translucent and opaque objects around us.

The well-being of everyone is very important to us and we continued our PSHE topic of celebrating differences by looking at how we can support each other if we witness unkind behaviour.  As always, the children impressed us with the kindness and thoughtfulness in their responses.

We were so lucky to have some parents helping during our sewing practise during DT.  A big thank you to those who were able to help with threading and unpicking - we really couldn’t have done it without you.  There will be another plea for help in the next couple of weeks when we expect to complete our stone age bags.

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w/b 25.11.24

Spelling rule: Creating adverbs using suffix ‘ly’ (exceptions) eg: truly/daily

Key words: 

Maths: equal groups, repeated addition, array, commutative, multiples, multiply, divide, conjunctions, adverbs

English: inverted commas, fronted adverbials, nouns, pronouns

Science: reflect, mirror

History: lifestyle, nomadic

Maths facts: counting in 4s

 

w/b 2.12.24

Spelling rule: Common exception words eg: appear, believe

Key words: 

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

English: inverted commas, fronted adverbials, nouns, pronouns

Science: reflect, mirror

History: settlements, bronze age 

Maths facts: counting in 4s

 

Key dates: 

Wednesday 4th December - Trip to Butser Farm

Friday 13th December - Christmas Fair - 5 - 8pm

Tuesday 17th December - Sapphire Carol Concert

Wednesday 18th December - Ruby & Emerald Carol Concert

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

Please be aware that the trip to Butser Farm will be outside all day in an open area.  Previous classes have reported back that it can be very cold, even on mild days so it is important children are dressed in warm clothes.  Pocket hand warmers have been recommended!

 

Year 4

Year 4 has really been impressing all of the teachers over the past couple of weeks. 

Our trip to the Buddhapadipa Temple was incredibly insightful to all the children. Seeing all the beautiful artwork in the temple and having a monk explain the ‘life of a Buddhist’ was a real highlight for the children. We ‘tried’ meditation but were not all successful at it… 

The children had a real ‘hands on’ lesson during D.T. Skills such as peeling, cutting and grating were used in preparation for our pasta salad creations next week. After all the cleaning up, the children reviewed how they thought they did and commented on their skills (including the ones they need to develop).

During science, we observed how different species of the same animal have adapted to different environments. The children also created classification keys to help them group and identify different living things. 

This week in English, the children have been preparing their ideas to write an alternative narrative based on the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit. They have loved the story and have demonstrated fantastic creativity with their setting and character descriptions. This story has linked to our history topic on Roman Britain… We discussed the difficulty of invading Britain as an island, with even Julius Caesar and his well-trained Roman army failing to conquer the island (twice!). The children discussed whether or not invading Britain would be a good idea, and when put to a democratic vote, the answer was a resounding: yes.

     

   

 

w/b 25.11.24

Spelling rule: ‘cian’ ending that sounds like ‘shuhn’ 

Key words: factors, factor pairs, multiplication, narrative, inverted commas, 

Maths facts: 9 times tables

 

w/b 2.12.24

Spelling rule: words with ‘ough’ to make a long ‘o’ ‘oo’ or ‘or’ sound

Key words: seasonal, recipe, allergy, empire, invade, narrative, Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius, observe, environment, adaptation

Maths facts: 9 times tables

 

Key Messages: 

• Please can children bring in cooked pasta and salad items they would like to use in our D.T lesson (Friday 6th December). Any questions, please email the Year 4 inbox

• Children have been set times tables on TTRS - please can the children complete the multiplications they have been set

• Spelling revision practice: we will test the children every Monday

• Please can all reading records have 5 entries per week

 

Key Dates:

• Friday 6th December - pasta salad creation

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

• Tuesday 17th December - Year 4 Carol Concert

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