SEAHORSES CLASS (Reception)

UNDER THE SEA:

In our final half term in Reception, we are learning about different sea creatures that are linked to our school, for example, dolphins, seahorses and jellyfish. We will share photos of our learning in our weekly Tapestry posts.

ENGLISH:

We will be reading the book, Somebody Swallowed Stanley, written by Sarah Roberts. The book is about a plastic bag called Stanley who gets thrown into the ocean. Please look on our cloakroom door for the other Under the Sea related stories we will be reading in our daily story time.

RWI PHONICS:

Some of the children are now learning Set 2 and Set 3 special friends. The children are being encouraged to read with fluency by using Fred in their head. The children will read their RWI book in school several times to build their fluency before they bring it home.

WRITING:

We are continuing to learn to write a sentence using a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. We are going to write key facts about different sea creatures and create a poster about World Ocean Day.

MATHS:

We will be spending time consolidating what we have learnt using the NCETM Mastering Number Term 3 Review and Assess lesson slides and activity plans. We will also learn about doubling, sharing quantities equally and odd and even numbers. We will enjoy linking our learning to Numberblocks and using rekenreks.

‘The parcel was sent by a famous Egyptologist who has just been found dead! Is the curse of Tutankhamun the cause? Lil decides, with the help of her new friends, Tulip and Oz, that the only way to help her grandad is to return the package to its rightful resting place in Egypt…

English:

In our English, we will be continuing with our extended narrative ‘The Journey.’ This will be chance for us to use all taught SPaG across UKS2 and allow us to focus on how we use punctuation and vocabulary to engage and interest the reader. We will also be focusing on how our writing style needs to change depending on the audience and the purpose of our writing. This will take several eeks and we will hopefully be able to share these stories with children in other classes.

Maths:

Year 6 We will be consolidating aspects of our learning by revisiting certain mathematical concepts throughout the year.

Year 5 will be moving on to area and perimeter, we will also be focusing on volume and having fun learning Roman Numerals.

Geography:

In Geography, we are going to be exploring the changes to Leeds and the UK. We will be developing our map reading skills especially of the local area of Leeds and our surroundings of Oulton. We will explore the human geography and how this relates to our environment especially how the population has grown and how this has affected how humans commute to other places. We will then conduct a local field trip to enquire which place has the busiest use of the local transport and make a prediction on what the local area may look like in the future.

Science

In Science we will be exploring Light. Through this topic they will: recognise how light travels; understand how objects are seen and explore how shadows are formed. This work will lead on nicely from their Earth and Space topic last year and Light topic in Year 3.

PSHE:

PSHE is taught through discussion. UKS2 will be continuing our learning about Identity, Society and Equality, focusing on the experiences of refugees, human rights and about homelessness in our society.

Spanish:
In Spanish this final half term, both year groups will continue to focus on ‘My world’. In this unit, the classes will apply previous skills and knowledge of topic areas such as family, animals and homes to extend their conversation abilities. Children will learn how Spanish adjectives must ‘agree’ with the noun they describe, in relation to both number and gender.

Design Technology:

In DT this half term, we will be focusing on building innovative, functional and appealing structures that are fit for purpose. Children will explore and evidence how products can be made stronger and more stable. Then use finishing techniques to strengthen and improve the appearance of their own model design.

Music:

We are going to be studying the ‘Celebration’ unit, with a musical focus on performance. Children will learn how music can provide a lively and upbeat mood. We will be learning celebratory songs from other cultures and work together to build a performance of our own by using body movements with song too. This also links to our year 6 who will be developing their acting skills and singing repertoire for their upcoming musical stage performance of ‘Cinderella.’ Make sure you book your tickets when they become available – It’s going to be a great show.

PE:

Our PE focus for this half term are Cricket and Gymnastics. All classes will be accessing two hours of PE every week and all children in Year 6 will continue to access swimming lessons which is now back to its original date of Tuesday and at Rothwell Leisure Centres the new pool is now up and running. Please see below which sports your class will be learning.

Jellyfish: Cricket and Swimming

Starfish: Cricket and Swimming

Octopus: Cricket and Athletics

We have already had an amazing start to the summer term. We are looking at the topic of Waterways, which will be accompanied by a walk to Woodlesford Lock.

Our walks will take place on the dates bellow.

Stingrays – 30^th April 2024

Blue Tangs 2^nd May 2024

Pufferfish, 3^rd May 2024

A busy half-term ahead, but we are excited to learn!

English   

We have started the term by looking at an extended narrative based on the picture book ‘Leon and the Place Between’. The children have become really invested in the story so far and have lots of questions and predictions.

At the end of the half-term, we will also be looking at non-fiction writing which will be in the form of an information leaflet, linked to their science topic of plants.

Our class book this half-term is, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’. It follows the story of an ordinary boy who finds fame after telling a local news reporter exactly what he would do if he were leader of the country. 

We have previously read extracts of this book in our Guided Reading sessions. The children really enjoyed the funny and witty characters, as well as the exciting storyline.

It is important that the children apply what they have learnt in their daily spelling lessons, so please don’t forget to keep practicing the spelling rules identified within their logbooks each week.

Maths   

At the start of the term, Year 3 are going start their topic on time, before learning about picture graphs and bar graphs. Year 4 will begin to learn about decimals, money and measurements. Throughout, the children in LKS2 will continue to use mental arithmetic, structural apparatus, jottings and column method to solve one step and two step word problems.

During their fluency lessons, the children will also revisit a range of strategies they can use to solve mixed calculations with speed, efficiency, and accuracy.   

We are keen for the children to become fluent with all their times tables, so extra practise at home is essential.

Geography 

Our Geography topic for this half-term is ‘UK Waterways’. We will be looking at the features of rivers and canals as well as locating them on a map of the UK. We will use our walk to Woodlesford Lock, to collect data around physical and human geographical features. We will also explore the use of canals and rivers both in the present and past.

Science   

In science week this half-term, we will be learning more about plants. We will look at the different parts of a plant, what plants need to grow and survive. Alongside how water is transported through plants and their life cycle.

PSHE 

Over this half-term we will be focusing on ‘Identity, society and equality: Celebrating Differences’ We will be looking at different types of communities, diversities, traditions and cultures. As well as valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others.

Music  

This term we will be focusing on time. Looking at developing our understanding of beat, metre and rhythm. We will do this through listening to a range of audios and using a variety of instruments to create percussion.

Pufferfish are being taught by Leeds Education to play the djembe. They are really enjoying it so far.

Computing  

Pufferfish and Blue Tangs will be putting their editing skills to the test to crop, rotate and adjust the colour of images. They are currently having lots of fun trying to copy and paste images to different platforms.   

Stingrays will be looking at sequencing sounds using the programme Scratch. They will start by being introduced to programming before creating their final project, a representation of a piano.

Art

In Art, the children are going to be focusing on their sketching techniques. During which, they will explore using cross hatching, and other techniques to add depth and shadow to their sketches. Following this, the children will learn how to use watercolours effectively. They will use our trip and photos of Woodlesford Lock as inspiration for their final piece.

Spanish 

The children will start to learn numbers up to 31, which will then help them as we learn the days of the week and months of the year. They will then be able to say and read the date in Spanish.

PE 

The coaches are teaching the children the basic principles of rounders including moving around a space with agility and coordination, whilst throwing a ball with precision. We will also be looking at dance and the different ways we can move as weather.

SPACE:

We will learn about the learn about the astronauts: Tim Peake, Dr Helen Sharman, Mae Jemison, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and what they achieved in Space. The children will learn that space contains more than Earth and the moon. We will use our building skills to build space rockets with large construction, this will also involve us working collaboratively in small teams. We will learn to follow simple instructions to make a rocket.

ENGLISH:

At the start of the term we will be reading the book, Whatever Next, written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The book is about a baby bear who uses a cardboard box to fly to the moon! We will have fun retelling the story and learning about the story plot. We will enjoy reading other space related books in our daily story time.

PHONICS:

The children have been working hard in their Read, Write, Inc Phonics and reading lessons. This half term lots of the children have moved to a different Phonics group which will see them learning new letter sounds, special friends, green words and red words (tricky words). The children are being encouraged to read with fluency by using Fred in their head.

WRITING:

In their Phonics lessons and writing activities, the children will use their Fred fingers to write the letters they hear in words. They will learn to write a sentence using a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths, we will learn all about the number 10. We will be learning our number bonds to ten using different equipment such as tens frames, numicon, abacus, part whole model and cubes. We will also learn a Number bond to 10 song and learn to use a game called Hit the Button on the free website Topmarks.

This is what Clownfish (Nursery) are learning about in Summer 1:

GROWING:

Our topic this half term is ‘Growing.’ The stories we will read and explore this half term are- The Hungry Caterpillar, Jasper’s Beanstalk and the Enormous Turnip.

We will have caterpillars in our class to take care of and will learn all about the life cycle of a caterpillar.

We will be growing our own fruit, vegetables and flowers, and learn what we need to do to help them to grow.

PHONICS:

In Phonics we will continue to play Fred Talk games. We will be trying to become secure in orally blending and segmenting words before starting in Reception in September.

We have also begun Read, Write, Inc phonics lessons now, and are learning new sounds each week. We will start posting onto Tapestry which sounds we have focused on each week, so that you can support your child to remember these sounds at home. Little and often is the key to them becoming secure in their phoneme recognition. 

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths this term our number focus will be numbers 4 and 5. We investigate these numbers in depth. We learn to count that number of objects and learn to stop when we have counted them all. We will learn to recognise the numeral and have a go at matching the numeral to the quantity. We will look at being able to subitise that amount. We will have a go at finding 4 and 5 in the environment by going on number hunts, and we will look at different ways of making 4 and 5, using cubes and counters on our 5’s frames.

THE WOODS:

Now Spring is in full swing, we will look more closely at the seasonal changes, by investigating the buds, flowers and leaves that are growing and changing. We will also take a closer look at the wildlife in the woodland area, and learn how to look for minibeasts, making sure that we are being respectful to them and their home. 

PE:

In PE, this half term we are doing dance. We are working on being able to use and remember sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm. We will use our stories as a stimulus for our dance and look at different ways of moving; slithering, crawling, spinning and galloping.  

English:

In our English, we will be looking at developing our writing skills by studying different grammatical tools. We will investigate these tools and consider the impact they have on our writing and how a good writer can use these to their advantage.

Both Year 5 and 6 are going to be studying dialogue and understanding how this is an effective tool to move narratives forward and develop the reader’s understanding of the characters. We will then continue to focus on narrative skills as we create an extended narrative.

The year 6 children will also have their SATs this half term week commencing 13^th May. The children will sit two English papers a Spelling and Grammar test on the Monday and a reading comprehension test on the Tuesday.

Maths:

We are always working on our mental maths skills and strategies in Year 5 and 6. This half term is no different as we will continue to discuss and practise the best mental strategies for solving problems.

Alongside this, Year 6 will be looking at Geometry and angles. We will also be focusing on algebra and recapping the key areas of maths in preparation for the SATs. The maths tests will consist of an arithmetic paper and two reasoning papers on the Wednesday and Thursday of the week commencing 13^th May.

Year 5 will be moving on to Geometry – where we will be learning how to measure, draw and calculate different angles. Followed by a unit of area.

History:

In History, we are going to be exploring Ancient Egypt. During this topic, we will be learning about things such as: Egyptian civilisation, the pyramids of Giza and who were the Ancient Egyptians. Alongside this, we will be learning about Howard Carter to find out why he was a significant person during that historic time period. This is a topic we know the children are excited about learning!  We will also be visiting Leeds City Museum, where we will take part in an Ancient Egypt Workshop and come face to face with a real Egyptian Mummy.

Spanish:

In Spanish this half term, both year groups will be focusing on ‘My world’. In this unit, the classes will apply previous skills and knowledge of topic areas such as family, animals and homes to extend their conversation abilities. Children will learn how Spanish adjectives must ‘agree’ with the noun they describe, in relation to both number and gender. 

Art:

In Art this half term, we will be focusing on printing. This will include studying different designs from Ancient Egypt, exploring different techniques used in printing and creating our designs.

Music:

For our music, we are going to be studying ‘At the Movies’ unit, exploring how music is used for effect in film and investigating the different creation of sounds impacts the audience. We will then compose our own piece of music for a short film.

PE:

Our PE focus for this half term are athletics and tennis. All classes will be accessing two hours of PE every week and all children in Year 5 will continue to access swimming lessons every Monday. During the term swimming will be moving back to Rothwell, as the new pool is completed. Class teachers will keep you up to date as to when this will be. Please see below which sports your class will be learning.

Jellyfish: Athletics and Swimming

Starfish: Athletics and Swimming

Octopus: Athletics and Tennis

We had an exciting start to our Crime and Punishment topic!

We couldn’t believe our eyes, as we walked into the classroom after half term and found a size 5 boot, several footprints and numerous fingerprints! As well as a can of diet cola, a Manchester United Card, several fidget toys, a spade and clumps of black hair. Within minutes, we realised that our beloved class mascots were missing! Shortly after, we cornered off the area with caution tape, to ensure the evidence wasn’t tampered with. After working tirelessly for several days, we had our final six suspects who we interrogated carefully. The following day, we found a UV light that revealed a secret message from Mrs Hoskins! It explained that she had taken our beloved class mascots to show the special visitors at our school!

English   

The children have already written a newspaper report to inform others about the unexpected events at our school. They have also written a thank you letter to the staff at the YHA in Whitby or to Olaf (the Viking), who visited our school a couple of weeks ago to carry out an amazing workshop with the pupils.

The children are currently turning a dramatic animation called ‘Rock, Paper. Scissors,’ into a narrative. At the start of the story, the characters live in an idyllic setting until a vicious villain called Snip interrupts their utopia. Will the characters live happily ever after, or will he destroy their lives forever?   

Making writing lively and interesting is key. Therefore, the children are always encouraged to use carefully chosen fronted adverbials, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and similes to bring their writing to life. Throughout, the children are encouraged to use ARMS and COGS to edit their work.  

It is important that the children apply what they have learnt in their daily spelling lessons, so please don’t forget to keep practicing the spelling rules identified within their logbooks each week.

Maths   

Year 3 are going to complete several units linked to Shape, space and measure including length, volume, mass and money. Year 4 will learn about fractions, including finding equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions and finding improper fractions. The children will apply what they have learnt to help them to tell the time. Throughout, the children in LKS2 will continue to use mental arithmetic, structural apparatus, jottings and column method to solve one step and two step word problems.

During their fluency lessons, the children will also revisit a range of strategies they can use to solve mixed calculations with speed, efficiency and accuracy.   

We are keen for the children to become fluent with all their times tables, so extra practise at home is essential.

History   

We’re exploring how crime and punishments have changed over different periods of time, including the Middle Ages, Victorian times and modern Britain. Throughout, the children have tried hard to identify similarities and differences between each and use a range of secondary resources to extend their understanding further.

Science   

 The children enthusiastically used several working scientifically skills to help us solve our crime scene. This included, using a magnifying glass to look closely at the evidence, spot key patterns, make links and to ask key questions.

We had lots of fun!

PSHE 

The children have started to learn about drugs, alcohol and tobacco in PSHE. During their unit, the children have discussed the risks of smoking tobacco and explored the help available for people who want to stop. They will also learn that drugs (including medicines) can be harmful to people, while understanding that they can also be used to manage and treat medical conditions such as asthma.

Music  

We have been busy practising numerous songs for our Spring assembly on Thursday 28^th March 2024. During these sessions, the children have learnt how to use their voices effectively to sing in harmony, parts and rounds!

We can’t wait to show you what we have learnt.  

Computing  

The children have enjoyed putting their editing skills to the test to crop, rotate and adjust the colour of images. They are currently having lots of fun trying to copy and paste images to different platforms.   

Art

The amazing artist ‘David Hockney’ has inspired our artwork this half term. During their lessons, the children have described the similarities and differences between his work and have started to use his style and techniques to create their own scenic landscapes. They have also created a colour wheel to explore primary, secondary and complementary colours.

Spanish 

The children have worked hard to use key words and phrases to talk about families. This has included identifying different family members, talking about where they live and the pets they may have.

PE 

The coaches have taught the children the basic principles of dodge ball including moving around a space with agility and coordination, whilst throwing a ball with precision. We’ve also had lots of fun playing team games which have required the children to listen carefully, share their ideas respectfully and to identify the next steps in their learning.

This half term, each class in KS1 will be learning about a different country. Orcas will learn about Brazil, Flying Fish will learn about Japan and Swordfish will learn about Australia. The children will find out about the geography of their country, explore its culture, create art work linked to their country and even make some food that would traditionally be eaten there. At the end of the term, we hope to invite parents and carers to a special Learn with Us assembly where each class will share what they have learnt.

Our English focus this half term is instructions. Children will learn to give, read and follow instructions before writing their own based on the book ‘How to sneak a Monster into school’ and their food technology project. We will talk about the features of instructions (headings, numbers, bullet points, adverbs, imperative verbs, time adverbials) and look for these in different pieces of writing.

In Maths, Year 1 will learn about shapes. They will name and identify a range of 2D and 3D shapes including circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, cubes, cuboids, spheres and pyramids. They will then begin to describe the properties of shapes using vocabulary including sides, corners, edges, faces, straight and curved. Once this unit of work is completed, Year 1 children will begin to think about numbers to 40 and work to secure their understanding of place value within a 2 digit number.

Year 2 will complete their work on fractions and begin to look at time. They will revisit reading and making o’clock and half past times before focusing on quarter past and quarter to times. Once this is secure, children will begin to read the time to 5 minute intervals. Please help your child become confident in telling the time by practising lots at home. Staff will be sending home some useful documents that will support you with this.

Our Science unit this half term is Living things and their Habitats. Children will learn about local and world habitats and the different types of plants and animals that live in them. They will explore how living things are adapted to live in their habitats and consider what might happen if a plant or animal was placed in an unsuitable habitat. Our visit to Lotherton Hall will include a workshop about habitats and a guided tour around Wildlife World. Using their prior knowledge about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, children will look at different food chains and use the words producer, consumer, predator and prey to describe them.

In PE, children will continue to develop their throwing and catching skills. They will also use their gymnastics skills to create simple sequences of movements.

PSHE will be taught through our Where in the World? work. Children will learn about playground games from different countries, the food associated with festivals and celebrations from their focus country and be taught the importance of sun safety.

In Music, the focus is performance which will be taught through a unit all about travel. Children will use tuned and untuned instruments, alongside their voices, to perform a range of different songs.

The focus for RE is special books and stories. Children will learn about special books for Christians and Muslims and the stories that are within them. They will explore the meanings of these stories and consider why they are so important to people of the Christian and Muslim faiths.

In computing, children will look at digital photography. They will get the opportunity to use different devices to take photographs and then evaluate their quality. Children will use the words portrait and landscape to describe the orientation of a photograph and decide when it is best to use each one.

English:
In our English, we will be looking at developing our writing skills by studying different grammatical tools. We will investigate these tools and consider the impact they have on our writing and how a good writer can use these to their advantage.

Both Year 5 and 6 are going to be using different stimuli as our writing inspiration. We will be writing newspaper reports on the 2004 Thailand Tsunami as well as writing diary extracts as if we were. As part of this, we will be watching part of the film ‘The Impossible’ and interviewing a member of staff who was in Sri Lanka at the time. We will also be looking at writing instructions around baking hot cross buns.

Maths:

We are always working on our mental maths skills and strategies in Year 5 and 6. This half term is no different as we will continue to discuss and practise the best mental strategies for solving problems.

Alongside this, Year 6 will be looking at Graphs and Averages, Percentages, Volume and Area and Perimeter. We will also be focusing on our arithmetic which is recapping and practising the four operations.

Year 5 will be moving on to decimals and percentages. They will be learning how to find different percentages of whole numbers and multiplying and dividing decimals by whole numbers.

Spanish:
In Spanish this half term, both year groups will be focusing on ‘Eating Out’. They will be learning how to order hot and cold drinks; engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others and seek clarification.

Science:

This half-term, both Year 5 and Year 6 will be looking at Electricity. They will focus on developing the following skills:

• Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
• Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches.
• Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.

Art:

In Art this half term, we will be focusing on 3D shapes. This will include sketching 3D shapes and incorporating this will clay work.

Music:

For our music, we are going to be practising songs with the entirety of KS2. This will then be shared with parents at the KS2 Easter event.

PE

Our PE focus for this half term are handball and health related exercises. All classes will be accessing two hours of PE every week and all children in Year 5 will continue to access swimming lessons every Tuesday. Please see below which sports your class will be learning.

Jellyfish: Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA) and Swimming

Starfish: Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA) and Swimming

Octopus: Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA) and Dance

As part of our new topic, the children will be learning about:

• The climate in Madagascar and how it is different from the climate in England.
• The Baobab trees in Madagascar and all the different uses of the tree.
• The animals that are unique to Madagascar, including lemurs.
• Some of the similarities and differences between the islands of the UK and Madagascar.

PHONICS and WRITING:

In their Phonics lessons and writing activities, the children will continue to learn to use their Fred fingers to write the letters they hear in words. Once the children have mastered learning to write words, they will be taught how to write a simple sentence.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths, we will learn all about the numerals 8 and 9. We will be partitioning these numbers, learning our number bonds, one to one correspondence counting and learning the formation of numbers so we can write them correctly.

CLASS TRIP to Askham Bryan Wildlife Park on Thursday 14^th March

The children are excited to visit the lemurs at Askham Bryan Wildlife Park and ask the zookeepers questions about them. They will also meet lots of other animals and wildlife at the park. If you would like your child to accompany us on the class trip you must complete the Google Form to give permission by Monday 11^th March. The Google Form was included in a recent email to parents. If you need help paying your contribution for the trip or need help completing the Google Form, please contact the staff in the school office.

RECYCLE and REUSE! Instead of putting these items in your bin please give them to us:

• Birthday cards – we like to cut out the pictures on the cards and use them to make new cards.
• Envelopes – please save the envelopes you get in the post that have a clear plastic window. We like to use them to put our pictures inside. Please do NOT send us envelopes with your address on.
• Empty kitchen roll tubes – we like to use them to make telescopes.
• Plastic bottle tops and corks – we like to use them in the water tray.
• Pans, metal bowls, metal jugs and metal utensils – we use them in our outside Mud Kitchen.

In Clownfish (Nursery) we are learning all about ‘Farms.’

We will begin our topic by reading the traditional tale, The Three Little Pigs. We will learn to retell the story by using Pie Corbett actions for the words. We will enjoying acting out the story in our roleplay area with the Three Little Pigs houses that we make. At the end of this half term we will put on a small performance of The Three Little Pigs for our parents/grandparents.

We will also read the story, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and will learn more about farm animals and Spring.

PHONICS:

In Phonics we will be playing Fred Talk games all term. We will be trying to become secure in orally blending and segmenting words before starting in Reception in September.

You can help with this at home, as little and often will be the key to us becoming confident with oral blending. For example, at different times in your day you could use ‘Fred Talk’ to talk to your child. Can you put your c-oa-t on please? Or, do you want to read a b-oo-k?

We have also begun Read, Write, Inc phonics lessons and are learning the sounds each letter makes. For example, ‘sss’ for snake.

MATHEMATICS:

In Maths our big focus this term is number 3. We will be reading stories like Goldilocks and the Three bears, so that we can count all the things that come in 3’s.

We will continue to look at recognising numerals 1-5, subitising numbers to 5 by being able to say the amount without counting them and using positional language.

Every day we talk through daily patterns- What day it is, what day came before, what day will it be tomorrow. We sing and count the days of the week as well.

Our class book this term is ‘The Stolen Spear’, Saviour Pirotta. This is a book written by an author who we had the pleasure of inviting into our school a couple of years ago. It is based around our topic of Stone Ages: Wolf has always been an outsider to his community, with his strange dreams and stargazing. When he is saved by a secretive stranger called Crow, he brings her into his village. Some time later, someone breaks into the sacred burial mound and steals a precious spear belonging to a dead healer. Convinced that Crow stole the spear, Wolf is banished by his village to find it. But the world outside the village is harsh and new… will Wolf find the strength he needs to find the spear?

Maths:

We are always working on our mental maths skills and strategies in Year 3 and 4. This half term is no different as we will continue to discuss and practise the best mental strategies for solving problems, alongside continuing to learn our times tables.
In addition to this, we will be learning about Place Value, including reading and writing numbers up to 1000 in Y3, and numbers up to 10000 in Y4. Pupils will be comparing, sequencing and calculating with numbers, using bar models to help them. Following this, Year 4 will progress onto rounding and estimating to conclude this topic.

English:

We have read ‘Stone Age Boy’ this week in classes and the children have been very inquisitive about life during the Stone Ages. We are delighted to feel the enthusiasm for this topic brewing as they will be learning lots of information during their History lessons, alongside their English ones.

In English, we will be focusing on various aspects of grammar to support the pieces of writing we have planned. The children have already made a great start of their character descriptions and we know they’re setting descriptions will follow on with as much effort. There are going to be lots of writing opportunities and we are looking forward to seeing what the children’s outcomes will be.

RE/PSHE:

Children in both year groups have already started exploring ‘What do the creation stories tell us?’. They have made a brilliant start with this and have worked hard to understand some difficult concepts relating to religion. We hope that the children will continue to show respect and understand the world around them in greater depth.

Children in Year 3 and 4 will be accessing some PSHE lessons focusing on RSE this half term with their class teachers. Parents/carers should have received an information letter which gives more details about these sessions. Please ask staff in the LKS2 team if you think you may have missed this.

PE:

Our PE focus for this half term are handball and health related exercises. All classes will be accessing two hours of PE every week. Please ensure your child wears their PE kit on their PE days – you can find this information out from your child’s class teacher.

Please see below which sports your class will be learning:

Stingrays: Handball and Health Related Exercises

Pufferfish: Handball and Health Related Exercises

Blue Tangs: Handball and Health Related Exercises

Science:

Our next Science week is w/c 25/09/2023 and both year groups will be learning about Animals including humans. Children will be working within their own year groups during this week.

Spanish:

During this half term’s topic of ‘Time to Eat’, children will learn and repeat key vocabulary. They will learn to make statements about food that they like and dislike as well as making polite requests and identifying quantities. Further into the topic, children will be drawing on their prior knowledge of adjectives in Spanish to describe food and drinks items. We are hoping that by the end of this unit, children will be able to have a short conversation about food, in Spanish.

Music:

During music lessons this half term, children in Y3 and 4 will be learning songs, beats and even some dance moves in our ‘Human Body’ topic. We have planned for children to use percussion instruments to accompany songs. They are looking forward to the challenge of being able to multitask with playing, singing and dancing! Alongside lessons in class, each class will get the opportunity to work with our outreach Djembe teacher – Autumn term: Blue Tangs.

History:

In History, we will be learning about the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Bronze Age and just how long ago these periods were! We will learn about people’s way of life during this time and how this changed over the time period. As we don’t have any written records about prehistoric times, we will find out how archaeologists have discovered what life was like then.