Year 3
It has been a week of fairly epic amounts of writing – the children have coped admirably! I have promised to give their writing hands a bit of a rest next week (although they will still be put to good use!) To this end, by Tuesday, could you please send your children to school with any spare cardboard you may have at home? Ideally brown or grey in colour, and not too thick to cut. We will be constructing working drawbridges as part of our design and technology learning.
Back to that writing, which saw the children invent a ‘fractured fairy tale’ version of Cinderella from another character’s perspective. We have also begun analysing sentences to pick out every single bit of grammar, spelling and punctuation we can identify in them, as well as completing our weekly Grammarsaurus task. We wrote at length in history, reporting on the battle of Watling Street in approx. 61AD where the Romans gathered strategically to entrap and eliminate thousands of Boudicca’s warriors, bringing her reign - and her life - to an end, and about 350 more years of Roman rule to Britain.
In maths, we have been comparing lengths, converting between mm, cm and m and adding and subtracting lengths. The children converted the Excel spreadsheets they created last week into bar charts, discussing the usefulness of visual representations when analysing data.
In PSHE Miss Spinks and the children explored what communities are and what different communities the children belong to. They demonstrated their understanding of the story of Rama and Sita with Mrs Chittock, and continued honing their football skills in PE.
Stay warm in this rather cold snap and have a restful weekend. One more week to go!
Best wishes,
The Year 3 team (Miss Murphy, Mrs Dobson and Mrs Troughton)
Year 4
Hello all, we have had a very busy week, as we do in year 4. The children are definitely showing signs of tiredness, only one week left. Don't forget on Friday, not only is it Valentines day, I hope you will be able to leave the house for the amount of gifts and cards you will receive, and will be able to come to our next 'Reading Cafe'.
Our learning this week;-
Maths - we finished our unit on Fractions by looking at subtracting fractions with the same denominator and then a final assessment. Mrs Harper looked at an assessment that she did with the children last week, looking at the answers and helping them see where - if - they went wrong.
English - This week we have started to look at the picture map for our focus text 'Should Smartphones be banned for children?'. We have also added the actions and will continue with this next week. With Mrs Harper, the children looked at a reading comprehension based around a fiction text.
Art - This week we started looking at sculpture and focused on Henry Moore and his abstract sculptures of people laying down or reclining.
Topic - We discussed why earthquakes happen. The effects of an earthquake on both the environment and people.
Computing - the children had to recreate a Scratch game with repetition in the code, and then make it their own by adding additional sprites. Mrs Harper said they were very impressive.
PHSE - The children looked at how to keep themselves safe around places they would likely encounter; roads, railways, building sites, water and there was a brief conversation about firework safety.
RE - Continuing with the Rama and Sita story we discussed how Rama and Sita would inspire Hindus to follow their Dharma. The children wrote a recount of the story.
One more week to go, and then a well deserved break for all. I look forward to seeing some of you at the 'Reading Cafe' on Friday.
Have a lovely weekend, I hope it's not too cold!
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team.
Year 5
I have again reached that point in the half-term where I can't believe we only have one week left - there's so much to do!
In English, we have been learning an instruction/ explanation text about meanders and have used this to imitate a text about oxbow lakes. Next week, we will use it to help us create a text about delta formation.
In Maths, we have been looking at different ways to represent unit fractions, non-unit fractions, improper fractions and mixed number fractions! We've also been calculating fractions of amounts, using our times tables knowledge to help us calculate both fractions of decimal amounts and fractions of very large amounts!
In Geography, we learnt about meander and oxbow lake formation. We've been able to use this learning to help us with our English work. In Science, we learnt about different types of mixtures: heterogeneous and homogenous. We made some 'alien soup' and learnt that all mixtures can be separated - but it's just much, much easier to separate a heterogeneous mixture than a homogeneous mixture!
In Computing, we coded out microbits to become pedometers. The code was simple and was easily manipulated (there were a few canny children who found ways to dramatically increase their steps all while sat at a laptop....) The children had lots of fun testing out their microbit pedometers - although it was rather disheartening when they accidentally reset all their steps!
Next Wednesday, we will be conducting a river study of the river in Moulton. You haven't done Geography properly until you've conducted some fieldwork!
Next Friday is also our reading cafe for this half-term. It would be lovely to see you there. I promise I'll actually know how to do the activity this time (although huge props to Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols for always knowing what is going on!)
The CWC are holding a cake sale next Wednesday to raise money for West Suffolk Hospital. It would be great if you could support them by donating cakes or buying some at the sale after school.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols.
Year 6
It's been another productive week in Y6!
In English, it has been so wonderful to have so many children desperate to write. We are busy drafting tales of suspense-Miss Spinks and I are so impressed with the stamina the children are displaying. They are responding really well to the need to go slow, focusing on description, action and dialogue.
In maths, we have been continuing to learn how to calculate ratio. We have also been increasing and decreasing scale drawings: the classroom was awash with pieces and pieces of paper yesterday.
In PSHE, we have continued to learn about the impact of alcohol, legal and illegal drugs on the brain. Again, we have been impressed with the mature attitude shown and the pertinent questions asked.
In geography, we have been learning about longshore drift and the transportation of material along the coastline to form bars and spits.
A huge well done to the UKS2 well-being team for leading a fabulous assembly yesterday. They delivered lots of good advice to their peers and were able to deliver some really important messages.
In art, the children have been making landscape collages.
In computing, the children were inputting formulae to create spreadsheets.
Home learning this weekend is a task to watch a Time Team video on the lost city of Dunwich. Questions are also assigned on Google Classroom for the children to answer. Children have also been given a paper copy. A spelling book with the spellings for Wednesday has also been sent home.
Have a super weekend
Nuala Gilmore
