Year 3
Happy Friday Year 3 families! We have had a super end to the week – the children are noticeably developing more stamina and resilience in their learning.
Please note that spelling tests and handwriting homework submission is on a Wednesday for the last two weeks of this half term. Unfortunately, we have dropped in the star reader rankings and haven’t featured in the school top 3 for a few weeks – we need 6/7 reads per week to achieve this. Please support your children to read at least 5 times a week (a short read is still a read).
We have been measuring in mm, cm and m this week, and making comparisons between these units of measurement. You might like to practise this around the home – working out which unit is most appropriate to measure different objects. Or, have a line drawing competition to see who can be most accurate. In English, the children have planned and written a fractured fairy tale – Little Red Riding Hood: the wolf’s perspective. They also practised punctuating direct speech accurately, which feeds into their story-writing. We conducted an investigation into how shadows are formed and change when a light source is moved in science. In computing, learning about databases continued with the children creating Excel spreadsheets, then applying filters to sort the fields for each record to analyse data.
In history, we learned about Boudicca’s quest for revenge against the Romans, who broke the terms of her late husband’s will, by uniting the Celtic tribes and wrecking death and destruction on Camuludonum, Verulamium and Londinium (see if the children can remember the modern-day names of these cites). They wrote a diary entry in character as a Roman civilian whose day in Camuludonum takes a turn for the worse when Boudicca’s wild, painted warriors storm this bastion of Rome in Britain. Miss Spinks lead PSHE, the story of Rama and Sita was this week’s RE learning with Mrs Chittock and football skills were practised in PE.
We wish you all a lovely weekend.
The Year 3 team (Miss Murphy, Mrs Dobson and Mrs Troughton)
Year 4
The children have been working hard this week with some tricky concepts in both English and Maths. But, they worked hard and enjoyed their work. As you know, I talked through the PowerPoint for the residential trip. The children seemed really excited. We had an extensive question slot afterwards, and I am giving them an opportunity every day to ask any questions they may have thought of as the information settles in. It will be so much fun, I'm really looking forward to it. It was lovely to see the children in all their bright colours today, it really cheered up a dull day.
Our Learning this week;-
Maths - More work with fractions, looking at improper fractions and equivalent fractions. These are tricky and are still a 'work in progress' for many. The problem solving in area/perimeter is still causing some confusion so this also continues to be a 'work in progress' with Mrs Harper.
English - this week we have looked at relative clauses and generalisers. Then we looked at the features of a discussion text. The reading comprehension this week was all about Volcanoes around the world.
Art - This week we released our inner Claude Monet and used watercolours and combined wax relief work to recreate a Water Lillies picture that Claude Monet was famous for producing. The children learnt a valuable lesson in how we are our worst critic in art and how others don't see the mistakes; Claude Monet believed he wasn't very good at painting people and we saw how this wasn't true - in our eyes.
Volcanoes - This week we looked at the effects of a volcanic eruption on the people and environment surrounding it looking at things like volcanic bombs and ash clouds.
Science - was looking at how sound travels from the sound source to the brain and also looking at the loudness of sound.
PHSE - The children were discussing and looking at 'managing risk and keeping ourselves safe online.
RE - We looked at the story of Rama and Sita and how that connects to Diwali. We looked at the characters in the story and discussed if they were fulfilling their Dharma. Where they a good Hindu?
Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Chittock, Mrs Harper and the Year 4 team
Year 5
It was lovely to see Y5 in their bright colours supporting the JRSOs today. I'm sure they'll let you all know the grand total of their fundraising efforts when we've counted everything up!
In English this week we have started to learn about instruction and explanation texts. We've had a look at a text about meander formation to see the features that these text types require. We also learnt about how to correctly punctuate bullet pointed or numbered lists with colons and semi-colons. It was great to see the children use this when we were writing in science later in the week! In maths, we have begun a rather mammoth fraction unit. We have recapped some key fraction vocab and have been multiplying fractions by integers.
In Computing this week, we coded our microbits to count votes. It was very long code, but we were able to work out which code blocks we would need to make working code.
In PSHE, we discussed how people behave differently in different relationships. We also discussed what sort of behaviour is never acceptable in relationships and what we can do if someone is overstepping one of our boundaries. We have been having a real focus in class on 'conscious speaking' and only saying what is kind, necessary and true so this lesson tied in quite nicely with that.
We have done lots of experimenting this week. In Geography, we conducted a ramp and flow speed investigation to see how the gradient of a ramp affects the speed of the water flow. We did multiple tests and then calculated averages to make sure our results were as accurate as they could be.
In science, we conducted an experiment to see how the temperature of a solvent affects the rate of dissolving. We had a long chat about which variables we would need to control, but some may have gone awry because we did need to retest a few. As a scientist, it was lovely to see the children recognising that some of their results can't have been accurate because they didn't fit the expected pattern.
Have a great weekend,
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols
Year 6
It's been another busy week in Year 6!
In maths, we have been learning to calculate and compare ratio. We have also practised arithmetic skills and are seeing pleasing progress.
In English, we have been preparing to write tales of suspense, taking it very slowly to focus on characterisation and dialogue to advance the action.
In science, the class had a morning on fossils. We learnt about how different fossils are formed. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow some fossils which we studied and drew.
In computing, the class were using what we learnt last week about sort and filter to interrogate a database from the 1891 census data. This generated lots of great discussion on how different life was then.
In geography, we were learning about why some parts of the coast erode at different times, and we're learning about how caves, arches, stacks and stumps are formed. It was exciting to be able to discuss how we will be able to see the effects of coastal erosion when we go to Aylmerton next month.
Home learning:
We are setting a straight-forward homework task this week: we have noticed that engagement in Spelling Shed at home is exceptionally low, so we are setting a task which encourages the children to revise spelling rules which they will need to apply in a test next Wednesday. We know that for some children, spelling is a real challenge, and for others, it comes naturally, like the ability to catch, memorise facts or draw portraits.
We appreciate that we all have strengths and weaknesses, but this is an important area of the curriculum we need to revise. From next week, we shall go back to a more traditional approach of sending home typed lists of spellings which the children will need to evidence their practise.
Next week: please remember that we have a meeting to issue information/forms for the trip on Monday. We hope to see you there!
Have a super weekend.
The Y6 Team
