Class 3 Summer Term 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

We 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 9^th May, so we will be doing lots of revision 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 Convince Me 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 for year five. Year six have a focus on coordinates across all four quadrants. We will then move on to exploring shape, visualising shape and describing position. In these units the 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 are continuing with Comprehension Bug and we will have a daily half an hour reading session. We will also continue using Readiwriter, which we will be using alongside spelling games to practise the year 5/6 spelling list. We will have a written test each Friday.

In writing, we will continue to practise planning, drafting, and editing our writing. We will be basing our writing on a range of subjects such as PSHE (health and wellbeing) and History (ancient Greece) where our new class text is ‘Who Let the Gods Out’ by Maz Evans. 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.

Geography will be taught discretely. 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).  

History will also be taught discretely and this term our topic is ancient Greece. The children will learn all about key events during ancient Greek times. We will then look more closely at the Trojan War and the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece. We will learn about the history of the Olympics, comparing the Olympics back then to the Olympics we know and love today. We will link to PSHE looking at how democracy worked in ancient Athens and compare the daily life in ancient Athens to the daily life in ancient Sparta. Finally we will learn about Alexander the Great’s empire.

In design and technology this term, the children will observe and sketch some 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 will be using a range of information technology including the internet. This will be closely linked with our Science, Geography and History topics where children will collect, analyse, evaluate and present information.

We will continue to have a daily wake up shake up session and Mr Swankie will continue to lead a lunch time sporting club each Tuesday, where all children are welcome to join in. He will also be teaching Class 3 on a Tuesday afternoon, firstly focusing on striking and fielding and then moving on to athletics and net and wall sports.  

We are hoping to do a year 5/6 leaving performance at the end of the summer term. No official plans have been made yet, but I will keep you updated when they have!

I will also be arranging an information evening to tell you more about our residential to Bewerley Park closer to the time.

Thank you for your ongoing support, we are excited for our final term together!

Miss Rowling and Miss Wright.