Class 3 Newsletter – Summer Term 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely Easter with your children. The children have come back focused and ready for some hard work. The year six SATs will begin on Monday 13th May, so we will be doing lots of practice before then. Below is a break-down of everything that we will be covering and what you need to know for the coming term.

In maths our next unit is exploring change which has a focus on telling the time (analogue and digital) using 12-hour and 24-hour time. We will then move on to exploring shape, visualising shape and describing position. In these units, children will recap symmetry and their knowledge of angles. They will also classify shapes based on their properties including regular and irregular polygons, and year six will explore the properties of circles. We will revise coordinates and then look at the effects of reflection and translation. After half term, we will move on to measuring and estimating, where the children will learn to convert between different units of measure including between metric and imperial units. Our final units will be proportional reasoning and solving number problems where we will look at ratio and proportion and revise the four calculations, including some algebra for year six. We will be continuing with Schofield and Sims where the children will have a daily 10-minute session to use their mental maths skills.

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 our history topic, Ancient Greece. Our class texts for this term will be ‘Who Let the Gods Out’ by Maz Evans and ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief’ by Rick Riordan. We will also be using Literacy Shed video clips and a range of texts 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 living things and their habitats. We will begin by studying the life cycle of plants and animals, discussing asexual and sexual reproduction. We will learn about Jane Goodall, and her work with chimpanzees and then finally explore metamorphosis. After half term we will move on to evolution and inheritance where we will look at who/what inhabited the earth millions of years ago using fossils to find evidence. We will explore how and why offspring vary and are not identical to their parents and how plants and animals adapt to suit their environment. The children will be using all five types of investigation – pattern seeking, classification and grouping, observing over time, fair testing and scientific research.

In geography this term we will be exploring locational knowledge. The children will learn to identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night).

Our history topic this term is Ancient Greece. The children will learn about key events during ancient Greek times. Children will spend time learning more about:

• The Trojan War
• Ancient Olympics
• Athens compared to Sparta
• Gods and Goddesses
• Alexander the Great

In design and technology this term, the children will do observational drawings of Greek pottery. They will then design and sculpt their own version of Greek pottery using clay. They will evaluate their final piece. In Computing, we are learning about controlling devices where children will learn how to use flowcharts, to programme outputs including multiple outputs, inputs and decisions, subroutines and finally, combining these skills to design and create their own programming solution.

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 what it means to be a Muslim in Britain today. In French, children will learn to name and describe music, instruments and clothing.

In PSHE we are introducing a new scheme called My Happy Mind. Children will learn all about their brain, how it works and how it is different to their mind. Children will learn about neuroplasticity and learn a new technique – happy breathing. Year six will focus on the transition to secondary school, discussing and concerns or worries they might have.

We will continue to do Wake Up Shake Up sessions Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and the Appleton Mile Tuesday and Friday mornings. 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, focusing dance, cricket and athletics.

Please continue to encourage your children to read daily and write reflective comments in their reading journals. Thank you for writing any notes for me in the blue planners rather than reading journals.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We are excited for our final term together!

Miss Rowling and Mrs Taylor