Year 3
Year 3 have returned to school beautifully focused, enthusiastic and ready to learn. It’s just as well, because with only two weeks until our Easter play, we are squeezing a great deal into a very short half-term!
Speaking of the play… song booklets are coming home this weekend, so the children can practise and learn their lyrics by heart. Many of our narrators already know their lines (, but please do check in at home and help your child rehearse so they can perform confidently and with volume!
For costumes, we would be grateful if children could have plain dark clothes (ideally black). If this presents any difficulties, please do get in touch – we’re happy to help.
In English, we have been transported to the world of The Secret Garden. The children amazed us with their story maps after just one shared reading, demonstrating impressive listening skills, recall and attention to detail. We have also begun our character description unit. The children completed a “cold write”, independently writing a character description without adult support. It was good to see them drawing on their knowledge and vocabulary to bring characters to life.
In Maths, we have launched into fractions. The children have been learning about unit and non-unit fractions, understanding numerators and denominators, and confidently comparing fractions using greater than and less than symbols. It’s challenging work, but they’ve approached it with resilience and determination. Several children have also climbed their Times Tables Mountain and are improving their fluency and speed on Times Tables Rockstars. Regular practice at home really does make a difference – thank you for your support with this.
Our budding botanists in Science have been exploring the parts of a flowering plant and understanding the important job each part plays — from roots to flowers. In Geography, we’ve been sharpening our map skills by learning the cardinal (N, S, E, W) and inter-cardinal (NE, SE, SW, NW) compass points and using them to describe positions and find locations accurately.
In PSHE, Miss Spinks guided the children in creating a healthy packed lunch, reinforcing our learning about balanced choices and looking after our bodies. Meanwhile, in PE, Mrs Crook has been developing the children’s football skills, with a focus on understanding the different roles of attack and defence.
We are proud of the children’s effort and growing maturity.
Wishing you all a restful and sunny weekend,
Miss Murphy and the Year 3 team
Year 4
Welcome back everyone. We had a very chatty start to the week, only to be expected, but we are now better focused and working with more attention. I hope you all had a great week off. The children seem to have had a great time. Practice for our play is now in full swing, and you are in for a real treat. On Thursday, the children brought home a form to fill in with the information we need for our trip to Burwell. Please fill these in as soon as possible and return them to school. Thank you.
In our learning this week;-
PLAY PRACTICE - Drama skills, being more relaxed in our bodies and being able to express ourselves as something or someone else.
Maths - This week we have started a unit on Decimals, looking at 'two point three' etc, or 'two and three tenths'. We have looked at pictorial representations, where it sits in a place value chart, where it sits on a number line. It is all a bit foggy at the moment but 'the penny will drop' a little later! On Wednesday the children did
English - we have started to look at inventing our text, making it our own, our own quest story. At the moment I think my hardest task will be trying to manage the children's imagination, we are not writing novels! On Wednesday the children did a reading comprehension about
Science - the children learnt about the organs inside our bodies and what they do.
Music - Practicing the songs for the play.
Topic - We looked at why people live near the edges of Tectonic plates and Volcanoes and how they manage the risks. We then made notes ready for a debate!
Thank you for the one costume I've already had in, if you have yours ready and want to send it in then that will be great. Next week is parent's evenings, please check with the office to sign up, I look forward to seeing you then.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team
Year 5
We have started our new topic: the Ancient Egyptians. On Monday, we learnt about the scale of the Ancient Egyptian period, where Egypt is and some key events that happened during the nearly 7,500 year era! Children's homework task this week was to research one of the events on the timeline. Please steer them away from Tutankhamun – we will study him later in the term. Towards the end of this half-term, we will make Ancient Egyptian-style death masks. For this, we need cereal boxes. The bigger, the better! Cereal boxes can be stored in school as soon as you have one. Any spares are greatly appreciated, too!
In Maths this week, we have been multiplying fractions by integers, including multiplying mixed numbers. Today, the children even had a go at playing my 'very exciting multiplying fractions by an integer' board game. It really was as exciting as it sounds. We've had lots of good progression on Times Table Mountain this week, too. In English, we have been looking at non-chronological reports. Our model text focused on a mythical creature called the liosp. Children had a go at writing and performing monologues of the liosp - we have some budding David Attenborough's in our midst. Today, we have written 'Imagine 3' sentences. These are very descriptive sentences that help build suspense.
In Computing, we have started coding maze games on Scratch. So far, we have designed the first backdrop, picked our sprite (main character) and coded them so they can travel through the maze. In Science, we thought about separating mixtures by making some alien soup. Unfortunately, alien high command gave us the wrong recipe, so we had to take all the ingredients back out again. We learnt that separating a heterogenous mixture is much easier than separating a homogenous mixture! On Tuesday, we taste tested 2 different bolognese sauces and then planned our recipes. Our next DT lesson will be cooking bolognese! Watch this space!
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, Mrs Grosvenor and I are holding parents evening sessions. Please sign up for an appointment if you haven't already. It would be lovely to have the chance to talk about how your child is getting on and for you to have the opportunity to look through their books.
Have a super weekend,
Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor and Mrs Marsh
Year 6
This week in English, we have continued writing our tales of suspense. The children have worked hard to build tension and keep the reader engaged. A key focus has been improving the flow of writing by using cohesive devices (such as adverbials, pronouns, conjunctions and repetition) to link ideas across paragraphs. We have explored how these devices help the writing feel connected rather than ' jumpy'.
In maths, we have continued learning about ratio, solving a range of reasoning and problem-solving questions. We have also explored scale drawings, learning how to interpret and calculate real-life measurements using scale factors.
In geography, we have been considering whether Dunwich should be saved and debating why it is significant to Suffolk. The children have discussed its historical importance, coastal erosion and the impact on the local community.
In PSHE, we have been learning about the effects of alcohol on the body, focusing on how it can impact decision-making, health and wellbeing.
Home Learning
This weekend’s home learning focusses on cohesive devices:
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Answering questions about cohesive devices to deepen understanding.
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Editing a text we have already studied, improving it by adding the given cohesive devices to strengthen flow and cohesion.
Wishing you all the very best for Monday morning – we hope that everything goes the way you want it to.
Have a super weekend!
Nuala Gilmore
PS I have now received the promotional email from the supplier for the leavers' hoodies. Once the children have agreed on the format of the hoody, we will add a sign-up to the website for whether or not you would like your child to purchase one and be included in the collection of names.
