Year 3
What a lovely end to the week we have had in Year 3. The children are beginning to show a few signs of tiredness and restlessness, but when they focus, they are still bringing plenty of effort and enthusiasm.
A couple of important notes for next week:
From Monday to Thursday mornings, I will be part of the staff team supporting Year 6 with their SATs. During this time, Year 3 will be in the very capable hands of Mrs Dobson, Miss Kelly and Mrs Crook. We have lots of lovely activities planned, including our very own Great Year 3 Sewing Bee. I will also be checking in regularly throughout the mornings to monitor behaviour and learning.
Please note that spellings next week will be tested on Thursday to reflect the timetable changes.
This week, our learning has included…
English
We completed a Grammarsaurus check and explored the literary techniques used to persuade readers to visit Colchester Castle in our new text. The children then learnt the text by heart using a text map — impressively, in just one lesson — and began writing it from memory.
Maths
We have spent lots of time tackling analogue clocks. We recapped o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, before moving on to minutes past and minutes to in intervals of 5. The “minutes to” side proved particularly tricky. We are also continuing times tables practice three times a week and would love to see everyone move up at least one more level before the end of the year.
Science
In Science, we identified the male and female reproductive parts of a flowering plant. Each child dissected a tulip and identified the petal, stamen, pistil, sepal and stem. On Monday, I have promised to bring in one of my precious peonies for further investigation.
French
We continued practising “je suis” sentences about animals, learned colours, and read a rather bizarre story about colourful extra-terrestrials from Saturn. As you do.
RE
In their Humanism topic with Mrs Chittock, the children created their own “golden rules” for living a positive life and chose one as their most important rule.
PE
Mrs Crook organised some fun and energetic games following the fantastic Playground Proms performance.
DT
The children practised cross stitch and designed their own cushion covers, complete with appliqué patches and two different stitch types. Next week, we begin bringing those designs to life.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone.
Miss Murphy and the Year 3 Team
Year 4
A slightly shorter week, which we all agreed as a class, we quite like! And the excitement of Playground Proms on Thursday afternoon. What a week! But as we always do, we have been working hard at all times.
Just a little reminder, the whole school expectation is that children read 5 times a week (for year 4 this should be for about 15-20 mins at a time) and a 6th read awards your child with Star Reader status and this then leads to a treat at the end of the term if sufficient reads have been achieved across the term. I have noted that there are several children that are not achieving this, some that were, are not now! It has been proven that the more you read, the better writer you are, you have a better understanding of the world and are a better speaker.
Your child may feel that they are able to read, and so they don't need to read any more, but let me assure you that you can never read too much. With a plethora of genres to choose from, the world is their oyster. I feel so very sorry for those that are reading a minimum of 5 times a week, often 6 or 7 when on a Friday, in assembly when Bookster Bear is announced (the prize for the class with the highest number of star readers), and once again, we have not achieved a high enough number to have him. Please encourage your child to read. As I said at parents' consultations, they can read for themselves. They only need you to listen to them once a week. They can record their reads (number of pages) in their books themselves.
In our learning this week;-
Maths - We have returned to decimals and have been recapping the learning we did last time ready to move forward, and we continued with Time converting between analogue and digital times.
English - We have been working on our text map, adding actions and writing descriptively with pictures of volcanic eruptions to inspire us, and the children looked at a reading comprehension about VE Day.
French - The children looked at dates, and what is similar or different to how we write the date.
RE - Humanism, we looked at what we thought would be good golden rules to have for everyone to have a 'positive life' and then we chose one to be 'the golden rule.'. We then thought about whether everyone is good, or bad?
Science - The children compared the melting rate of ice at different temperatures.
Topic - We looked at the timeline of events for the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, a disastrous 24 hours!
Dates for the diary:
Tuesday 19th May - Class photo
Thursday 21st May - Reading Cafe
Friday 22nd May - Last day of this half-term
Monday 1st June - Return to school
Wednesday 17th June - Sports Day
Thursday 18th June - Marvellous Men pop-up shop
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Chittock and the year 4 team
Year 5
This week in Maths we have been adding fractions with different denominators. There are a lot of processes involved. It is yet another area of mathematics that is much easier if you know your times tables. Some of us even had a go at adding 3 fractions which all had different denominators.
In English, we wrote up our description of where Oliver first met Bill Sikes. The children worked so hard to vary their sentences, add detail and use period-specific language. Mrs Grosvenor really enjoyed reading the descriptions and was pleased to see lots of edits and changes. Reading your work for mistakes is so important when writing.
In Science, we looked at amphibian life cycles. We learnt all about how amphibians metamorphosise. We ended our lesson with a story, "The Tadpole's Promise", which is about a tadpole and a caterpillar who fall in love. In History, we looked at several events happened in Victoria's reign. We discussed which of these were the most significant. Lots of us were delighted that the FA cup started in Victoria's reign, but they were able to concede that it probably wasn't the most significant event for most people.
On Thursday afternoon we had a real treat - Graffiti Classic, a string quartet, came in to perform to the whole school. The children were mesmerised (and not just by the musicians dancing and doing the splits while playing complex classical pieces). Look out for the photos on the website.
Next week is Y6 SATs week. Y5 valiantly move out of our classroom to give Y6 more space and some peace and quiet. It will be a bit higgledy-piggledy for us as we will be in the hall for the mornings. We will still have playmakers on Tuesday, instrument lessons for those applicable on Tuesday, PE on Wednesday and swimming and PE on Friday. Bear with us!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor and Mrs Marsh
Year 6
This week in Year 6, the children have worked incredibly hard as we continue preparing for next week’s SATs. In maths and grammar, we have revised a wide range of key concepts and skills, and we have also spent time revisiting important spelling patterns to help build confidence ahead of the tests. The children have approached the revision with maturity and determination, and we are very proud of the effort they are putting in.
In Mrs Offley’s science lesson, the children carried out an investigation to observe what happened to the colour of a Skittles shell when submerged in four different liquids. The children made predictions, observed changes carefully and discussed why different reactions may have occurred.
The highlight of the week was undoubtedly yesterday’s Playground Proms — a hugely energetic, incredibly inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable performance. It was wonderful to see the children so engaged and enthusiastic, and it provided a very welcome break from SATs preparation.
A reminder that from Monday to Thursday next week, we would like all children to arrive at school by 08:10. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate younger siblings during this time. We will provide the children with a light snack each morning; however, they will still need to eat breakfast before arriving at school.
We are not setting homework this weekend, as we would like all pupils to come into school feeling refreshed and ready for the week ahead. SATs week can feel tiring, so early nights would be hugely beneficial.
As explained in last week’s learning update, on Friday morning we shall be celebrating the children’s hard work with our SATs party before continuing with art and PE in the afternoon.
If your child is unwell during SATs week, please telephone the school office before 08:10 and leave a message. We are then required to apply for a timetable variation. This means that, upon returning to school, your child must be kept apart from their peers until all tests have been administered.
Following SATs week, we still have lots of important learning to complete, including key writing tasks which contribute towards end-of-key-stage assessment. We shall also be hosting the first round of auditions for the major parts in our end-of-year performance, with rehearsals beginning after half term. The name of the production will be revealed next week!
Have a super weekend.
Mrs Gilmore & the team
