Year 3
First of all, we must say how absolutely amazing the children were at Colchester Castle. From their bus behaviour to their enthusiastic exploration of the exhibits, they represented our school beautifully. They asked thoughtful questions, listened carefully, and fully immersed themselves in the experience.
The children loved getting hands-on with history - building a Roman villa, racing chariots and dressing up as Celts and Romans. They wowed us when we descended into the Roman vaults for storytelling about the Roman invasion, the building of Camulodunum, and the Romans’ interactions with local tribes. Of course, Boudicca’s uniting of several tribes to take on the Romans sparked plenty of discussion. It was fascinating to see how many children decided to “switch sides” and join the Romans (purely because they knew the final outcome for Boudicca and the Celts at the Battle of Watling Street.) A wonderful example of historical knowledge influencing decision-making!
Today, we handed out the narrator speaking parts for our Easter production with Year 4. The children were able to choose whether they would like one or two lines, or three or four, and I was pleased to be able to accommodate everyone’s preferences. Please could you support your child in learning their lines by heart over the half-term break? Knowing their words securely will help them feel confident when rehearsals begin after the holiday. I have reassured the children that if it ever feels overwhelming, they do not have to perform, but we would absolutely love them to give it a go.
For costumes, plain black tops and trousers are ideal (navy or dark grey are also perfectly fine). We are excited this year as we are performing a brand-new play, with some delightful songs.
We wrapped up the half-term with a fantastic burst of creativity and writing. In English, the children invented their own Cinderella tales from the perspective of a “wicked” stepmother or an “ugly” sister, exploring the character's voice and motivation. In history, they transformed into roving reporters, delivering newspaper reports from Watling Street as Boudicca’s army faced the mighty, well-trained, well-organised and well-equipped Roman forces (sadly, as we know, it didn’t end well for the Celts).
In maths, we completed our unit on measurement by learning all about perimeter – measuring shapes carefully and calculating their total distance around the outside.
Alongside all this, we flipped pancakes, enjoyed energetic games of dodgeball, explored lively body percussion and boomwhacking in music, and began learning our Easter story and songs – just a little taster of what is to come next half-term.
We are all very tired… but very happy!
Wishing you all a restful and happy half-term break.
With warm wishes,
The Year 3 Team
Year 4
Well, that's another half-term completed, and we are now officially half-way through our year together. How time flies! We have had a busy week and the children have worked really well, if also being a little too chatty! It was lovely to see some of you at the Reading Cafe today. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. The next one is Monday 23rd March. The children really enjoyed the pancake flipping, and they were flipping good at it. There were even some fancy tricks!
In our learning this week:
Maths – this week has all been about problem-solving. This is something the children find hard, reading some text and then working out how to find the answer. They enjoyed the week, but this is still something we will need to work on.
English – We have innovated our text this week and have written it up.
Topic - We recapped what we have learnt so far using the technical language to describe volcanoes, the Earth's structure and Earthquakes.
RE - the children replayed snakes and ladders but with a difference, moving on to different boards. The children discussed what happened and how they felt, they were introduced to the word Samsara.
Science – the children made a poster about sound.
Computing – using scratch, the children continued to create their quiz.
Music – the children continued to compose their pieces based on the theme of the Japanese Cherry Blossom.
Easter production – The children were introduced to the 'musical' for our Easter performance. We have agreed that year 4 will be mainly acting with some small speaking parts, and year 3 will narrate. Your children have expressed their preferred part and I have done my best to accommodate this, but it hasn't been possible for all. If your child has a speaking part, they have brought home their words to practice. They have also brought home what they are and what they will need to wear. Please do not feel you have to buy anything expensive. Home-made, cobbled together will be absolutely fine.
Mrs Manning has emailed you all with some information about the residential to Burwell House. I am not able at the moment to tell you what activities we will be doing, or what the menu will be, as I haven't decided yet, and I haven't had the final choices from Burwell House. More information will follow as I know it.
Have a great week, I hear some of you have some great things planned,
See you back at school on Monday 23rd February.
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team
Year 5
We've reached the halfway point of the year! It feels like only yesterday that the children barrelled in, in September.
It was lovely to see many of you at the Reading Cafe this morning. Lots of us got the hang of Danish woven hearts in the end. Several children chose to stay in at lunch to make more of them (and not just because they wanted to stay inside out of the cold and rain).
In English, we have finished our explanation and instruction unit. The children wrote their own text about delta formation. We used the laptops so we could format them to look professional. In Maths, we have begun to look at fractions. We love fractions! We've looked at multiplying fractions by an integer, which isn't as scary as it sounds.
In Geography, we researched one of the world's dirtiest river - the Marilao in the Philippines. The children researched some context about the country, learnt about why it was so polluted and then did some research about what is being done to save the river. On Wednesday, we completed a river walk in the village. We visited 3 different sites along the river to see what types of pollution we could see. There was lots of dog poo at site 1 and lots of litter at site 3. The children came up with lots of reasons as to why this could be the case. Our next unit is Ancient Egypt so we are heading back, back, back in time! We will need cereal boxes to make our Ancient Egyptian style death masks so if you could start collecting them, that would be great!
In RE, we consolidated all of our learning and drew a rather complicated concept map linking all the key terms together. We had to think carefully to make sure we were linking karma, dharma and samsara in the right ways (which is tricky when then words all rhyme!)
Have a wonderful half term. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday, 23rd February.
Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor and Mrs Marsh
Year 6
We can hardly believe that we have reached the halfway point of the final year of primary school! The year is flying by, and the children continue to show such maturity and determination – we are incredibly proud of them.
We hope that the adults who were able to join us for our Reading Café thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The children led this so capably and confidently – a huge thank you to them! Their effort, enthusiasm and especially their wonderful Japanese pronunciation were truly impressive. I am extremely proud of how they represented our class.
Despite feeling a little tired after our amazing time at Horstead, we have been very busy this week – please read on for a snapshot of our learning.
Maths:
We have been learning how to use ratios to increase and decrease numbers, applying this to a range of reasoning and problem-solving questions. The children have also completed a series of maths assessments, approaching them with resilience and focus.
English:
In English, we have continued planning our tales of suspense. These will be written on the first Monday back and will contribute towards our end-of-year writing assessment data. Alongside this, the children have completed a grammar paper and a reading assessment, demonstrating their growing confidence in test situations.
Geography:
We have been learning about the formation of bays and headlands, exploring the processes of erosion and understanding the difference between concordant and discordant coastlines. The children have shown great curiosity in understanding how our coastlines are shaped over time.
Home Learning:
Over half-term, home learning will consist of a maths revision bank and a reading paper. We strongly recommend that children spend at least two hours completing this carefully and thoroughly, as this will be highly beneficial in consolidating their learning.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We hope you all have a fantastic and restful half-term!
Nuala Gilmore
