Year 3
It’s been a lovely Valentine’s day – we all felt particularly warm-hearted after our reading café. It was lovely to see so many adults joining in with the craft activity.
There may be some excited children after school today, as the children will have been told their parts in our Easter play, Good News. Your child may come home with lines to learn (their part is highlighted in yellow on the script). If they do not bring a script home, it may be they have put themselves forward for a singing role. The children asked for particular types of roles (e.g. narrator, acting, singing…) and we have done our best to achieve this, and to put them in roles they will enjoy and perform well. We will learn the songs after the half term holiday. It would be absolutely brilliant if the children could learn their lines by heart during the half term break – any support you can give them would be much appreciated. That way, we can we can begin rehearsals on the front foot! More play details to follow next half term…
We have rounded off the half term with lots of super learning. The children particularly enjoyed designing and making their working drawbridges in Design and Technology (using a barrel and chain mechanism). Please see photographs of them engineering away on the school website/School News. We also carried out a science investigation into which materials to use to make a book bag which can be seen by drivers when carried by children on their way to and from school. The children tested metallic, waterproof, fluorescent and retroreflective materials among others. We discussed how certain materials reflect light to make them visible and why some do this more effectively than others. The children came up with some great ideas about whether Boudicca made a ‘good’ leader and described how her rebellion impacted the Romans in Britain – demonstrating their understanding of our history learning this half term.
In English this week, we put the final touches to our fractured fairy tales, completed a writing assessment (the story of Pip, the trainee assistance dog) and wrote some vividly descriptive kenning poems about Boudicca. In maths we completed our learning on measurement with subtracting lengths, and perimeter. Lots of our class are absolutely flying through times tables speedily and accurately – we are so proud of them! Mrs Chittock and the children are expressing everything they learned about Hinduism this half term, they also completed their unit on communities in PSHE, and I witnessed from very focussed dodgeball playing in PE this week.
We wish you a wonderful half term week and will be very much looking forward to seeing the children after!
The Year 3 team (Miss Murphy, Mrs Troughton and Mrs Dobson)
Year 4
Well, here we are, the end of the first half of the Spring term. That means we are already half way through the school year! This week has been busy as usual and the children have worked really hard. Well done everyone! Miss Murphy and I have this week organised the parts for the Easter Production. The children were asked what sort of part they would like and we allocated them accordingly. The children have brought home today any lines that they need to learn. Some children have singing parts and we will organise the soundtracks for you to practice at home after the half-term break. The children do not know much about the play yet - they will find out more when we return.
Our learning this week:
Maths - We have been looking at problem-solving - practicing the reading of questions carefully and then applying our mathematical knowledge to solve the questions.
English - We have continued to look at our discussion text, looking at the picture map and adding actions. The children also had a writing assessment based around the story of Pip the guide dog.
Art - The children made some saltdough and then sculpted it into an abstract art reclining figure in the style of Henry moore. (sculptures coming home today)
Topic - We looked at why people should choose to live near the edges of Tectonic plates and what is put into place to protect them from possible earthquakes, volcanic erruptions or tsunamis.
Science - The children were looking at sound and focusing on pitch, high and low sounds.
Computing - The children made their own games thinking about the theme, sprites, background, sounds and costumes.
Over the half-term holiday please continue to read (rehearsing play lines can count as a read, within reason!), Times Tables, Maths Targets and spellings.
Have a lovely week off; I hope the weather is brighter even if it's not warmer.
Best Wishes
Mrs Chittock and the year 4 team.
Year 5
We've made it to the half way point of the year! It was great to see so many of you at the Reading Cafe this morning. I hope the children enjoyed making their origami pop up heart. They did look very good.
In English this week, we have finished our unit on instruction and explanation texts. We researched, planned and wrote a text all about deltas. We typed these up on Thursday morning. I really enjoyed hearing the children discuss how they felt they needed to format things and which photos or diagrams they needed to make their text look its best. In Maths, we have been calculating fractions of amounts. Our times table knowledge has really come in handy here. We have had an amazing amount of 'move ups' this week - we had 7 children move up on Thursday alone! Today, we had a go at multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 using place value sliders.
On Wednesday, we completed some fieldwork as part of our Geography learning. We conducted a pollution survey on the River Kennett. We found that overall the water quality looks clean (we couldn't see any oil spills or excessive plant growth) but there was lots of litter and lots of dog poo - despite walking past 5 dog bins! A clipboard did make its way into the river at one point, but we were able to play 'pooh sticks' and rescue it down by the ford.
After half term, we will begin our Playmaker sessions. This is where Y5 are trained to be play leaders. This will give them the opportunity to run their own lunchtime club for younger children (supported by our MDSAs). When they get to secondary school, they can build upon this training to become sports leaders and run competitions.
There is no set homework for the children to complete over half term - but we expect reading to continue. Bookster Bear likes living in Y5 with Skelly.
Have a wonderful half term - stay safe. I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday, 24th February.
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols
Year 6
We are officially 50% of the way through your child's last year at primary -how time has flown this year!
As always, it's been a very busy week in Year 6.
We have been working on some SATs papers this week, and we are really pleased with the children's attitudes. One of their key learning points has been to read the question carefully. This is definitely something you can support with at home too, when your child is reading or completing homework.
In English, we completed our tales of suspense, which I am enjoying reading. We also revisited a former writing task from lower key stage two, so at some point, we will compare them to highlight the progress the children have made.
In maths, we have continued to work on ratio, in particular scaling up and down recipes and comparing the value and cost of goods - all really helpful life skills.
In geography, we have been combing the learning from the homework at the weekend and research in the classroom to write about the lost city of Dunwich, looking at whether or not we believe it could be saved.
Dodgeball in PE was a definite favourite - I was able to hear their delight from the office as they played!
For those parents who were able to attend, we hope that you enjoyed the reading cafe-I would like to say a huge thank you to the reading cafe craft crew who were able to put into practice the vision we had for the craft, knowing my creative limitations. They selflessly gave up their time at lunch time to not only make examples to show but to also ensure that the other classes would have their resources.
Home learning for half term is reading and maths-based. Please keep up with TTR (for those children who are not secure in multiplication and the associated division facts) and Spelling Shed for all. Reading is also essential as it will feed creative brains - as we prepare for collecting our writing evidence, we are needing creativity as well as precision. Non-fiction is important too.
Have a super half-term break. I will check my email periodically, and will respond to urgent matters as soon as I can.
