Dear Parents and Carers,
We hope that you have had a lovely Christmas and New Year and a restful holiday with your children. The children are looking forward to a new and exciting term ahead full of hard work and fun.
Please read below to see what we will be covering over the next term.
In English, we are continuing with Comprehension Bug. This involves a daily half an hour reading session where the children will complete independent activities to help them to develop their comprehension skills. One of the sessions each week will be to share and discuss their answers with the teacher. We will also be continuing to use Spelling Shed, which we will be using alongside spelling games and activities to practise the year 3/4 spelling list and weekly spellings. We will have a written spelling test each Friday. In writing, we will be exploring a range of Fiction and Non-Fiction texts and the children will be planning, writing and editing these types of texts. We will be basing our writing on a range of subjects such as Science (electricity), Geography (physical and human features) and PSHE, but also using ‘Literacy Shed’ video clips and a range of texts to inspire our writing.
In Maths we will be working on written methods for multiplication and division and applying these methods, as well as mental methods to solving problems. In the next unit we will be exploring fractions. We will learn to find fractions of amounts, compare and order fractions, identify equivalent fractions, and add and subtract fractions with the same denominator. Year 4 will also be converting simple fractions in to decimals, rounding decimals and ordering and comparing numbers with up to 2 decimal places. Year 3 will be learning to measure and calculate perimeter of simple 2D shapes and they will also work on adding and subtracting amounts of money and applying this to problem solving. Year 4 will be learning to measure perimeter accurately in mm, cm and m and they will calculate area of simple 2D shapes. We will be continuing with Schofield and Sims where the children will have a daily 10 minute session to develop and apply their mental maths skills. The children will also be encouraged to practise their times tables regularly using games, activities and computer programs. The expectation is that pupils should be able to recall the 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 x tables facts by the end of Year 3 and all the times tables facts up to 12x by the end of Year 4.
Our Science topic for this term is ‘Electricity’. The children will be constructing simple circuits and investigating circuits and how they work using different components. They will also learn about and investigate conductors and insulators.
Our Geography topic this term is about ‘physical geography’. We will be exploring and learning about many aspects of physical geography, such as rivers, weather patterns, mountains and coasts.
In Art and DT we will be applying our knowledge and understanding from our Science topic to help us to design, make and evaluate a lighthouse. In Computing, we will be learning about E-Safety ensuring that all the children understand how to remain safe online. We will also continue to use the IT programme ‘Purple Mash’ to look at algorithms and programming. In music, children will continue to learn the ocarina and they will listen with attention and detail to recall sounds. In RE, children will be learning about Hinduism. In French, children will continue to learn basic vocabulary and phrases linked to everyday experiences such as numbers, dates, animals, colours, foods, objects and weather. In P. E. Mr Swankie will continue to teach Class 2 on a Tuesday afternoon. He will be covering Gymnastics for the first half term and Invasion Games during the last half term.
Please ensure that your child continues to read as much as possible at home in order to help them to progress with their reading. When you hear your child read please could you discuss the characters, events and stories, for fiction books, and check understanding of information for non-fiction books. We would be very grateful if you could sign the reading record on each day that your child has read at home and add any helpful comments. Also, if your child has read on their own, they can make their own reflective comments in their planner. We are continuing with the reading reward scheme. If your child reads 80 times in total they will receive a bookmark and if they read 100 times in total they will receive a book!
P.E. days in Class 2 are Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child continues to come in to school in their P.E. kit on those days. Girls will need to have a soft bobble to tie their hair up for P.E. If your child wears earrings, please could you ensure that they are able to take them out themselves for P.E.
Homework will be given out to the children on a Friday and needs to be handed in completed by the following Thursday.
Spellings will be handed out on a Friday and must be practised ready for our spelling challenge on the following Friday.
Many thanks for all of your help and support. If you have any queries or concerns please contact us.
Mrs Atkinson and Mrs Guyll