Class 3 Newsletter – Spring Term 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely festive period with your children. Class three have returned to school focused and ready for some hard work. Below is an overview of what we will be covering and what you need to know for the coming term.

In maths, our next unit is generalising arithmetic which has a huge focus on division, including long division, bus stop method of division and mental division. The year six children will also learn about the order of operations (BIDMAS). Then we will move on to solving number problems, where the children will learn some basic algebra and apply their understanding of the four calculations. After half term, we will revisit fractions where children will apply what they already know and learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions. Finally, we will move onto statistics which focuses on interpreting and presenting data in tables, bar charts, line graphs and pie charts. We will continue with Schofield and Sims, a daily 10-minute mental maths session.

In English, we will continue to have a daily 30-minute Comprehension Bug session where children will read a selection of text types and answer a range of questions. Children will be encouraged to use Spelling Shed alongside the look, say, cover, spell, check method and a range of spelling games to practise their spellings, including spellings from the year 5/6 list. We will have a written spelling test each Friday. In writing, we will continue to plan, draft and edit a range of text types focusing on the purpose and audience of our writing. This term our writing will be based on PSHE (health and wellbeing) and geography (human and physical features). We may also use Literacy Shed video clips, class texts and current affairs to inspire our writing. The children will write for a range of different purposes – to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss.

In science, we are looking at properties and changes of materials throughout the spring term. Children will compare and group materials based on their properties including hardness, solubility and transparency. We will look at materials that dissolve to form a solution and investigate how to recover a substance from a solution. The children will be using all five types of investigation – pattern seeking, classification and grouping, observing over time, fair testing and scientific research – to investigate everyday materials and their uses as well as how to separate mixtures including filtering, sieving and evaporating, and finally, reversible and irreversible changes.

In geography this term we will be exploring human and physical geography of different areas around the world. The children will learn about human geography including settlements, land use, economic activity, energy resources, resource distribution, climate change and population. The children will also learn about physical geography including weather, climate zones, biomes, mountains, rivers, volcanoes and earthquakes. We do not have a history topic this term.

In design and technology this term, the children will design, make and evaluate their own version of Archimedes Screw in line with our Geography unit. The children will require technical knowledge including stiffening and reinforcing complex structures. In Computing, we will continue to learn about E-Safety, ensuring that all the children understand how to remain safe online. We will also continue to use Purple Mash to look at algorithms, programming and some basic coding.

In music, all children will continue to learn to play the guitar or ukulele and they will use their voices with increasing control. In RE, the children will explore whether we can live by the value of Jesus in the twenty first century. In French, children will learn to name the parts of the body, revise months, dates and pets and learn about market and vegetables. In PSHE & C the focus will be on media literacy and digital resilience, money and work.

The children have had a session with Dave from Skip2bfit and have started leading daily Wake Up Shake Up sessions – this will alternate with running the Appleton Mile. Mr Swankie will continue to lead a lunch time sporting club each Tuesday and all children are welcome to join in. He will also be teaching Class 3 on a Tuesday afternoon, firstly focusing on gymnastics and then later a range of invasion games.

We are continuing with our reading reward scheme in Class 3, where the children are rewarded each time they read and write a reflective comment in their reading journal. When the children have read 80 times, they will receive a bookmark and 100 times they will receive a book. I have given out lots of bookmarks and books already!

Thank you for writing any notes for me in the blue planners rather than reading journals.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We are looking forward to 2024!

Miss Rowling and Mrs Taylor