Year 3
Happy half-term holiday, Year 3 families!
We have had a super week to end the half term, including winning Bookster Bear for being star readers this week, and our lovely Reading Café. Hopefully, you have spotted the bookmarks the children brought home. I was so impressed by their collective artwork that I turned it into a bookmark for each child — fingers crossed it encourages lots of reading!
The class photo has been sent home, so please do look out for it in bags. We also noticed that some children did not have hats this week. As the weather gets hotter, hats are a must.
Over half term, there are no set spellings for everyone. Children do have times tables activities to complete, and some will bring home spellings linked to the statutory words tested in Year 4. It may be helpful to begin looking at these gently with your child.
In English, the children planned a persuasive text about visiting Moulton, and explored main and subordinate clauses. A main clause makes sense on its own, such as The dragon flew over the castle. A subordinate clause adds extra information, such as because it was searching for treasure. Year 3 also completed their weekly Grammarsaurus check.
In Maths, we moved from analogue to digital time and learnt about a.m. and p.m. The children have shown great perseverance with this tricky topic — they are watching the clock and letting me know when it hits p.m. !
In History/Geography, we completed our local study on Newmarket, exploring horse racing jobs today and comparing them with jobs during the reign of Charles II, the “King of the Turf”.
In DT, the children finished their cushions using running stitch, cross stitch and over stitch, adding appliqué patches and buttons. They were rightly proud of their fantastic creations — some even wanted to sew at lunchtime!
In French, we looked at adjective-noun agreement and learned that some adjectives come after the noun, such as un serpent vert, which literally means “a snake green”.
In Music, the children added instruments to their ballad compositions and performed to their peers. Well done to everyone who bravely shared their work.
In RE, they used the stampede scene from The Lion King to discuss decisions, consequences and what we can learn from mistakes.
In PE, the children had fun-filled choosing session, including cricket, football and activities with hoops and balls.
The Year 3 team can hardly believe we will soon enter our final half term together…!
Miss Murphy and the Year 3 team
Year 4
Well there we are then, half way through the Summer Term, Year 4 is nearly finished! It was lovely to see so many of you at the Reading Cafe on Thursday, I hope you enjoyed it, the children did and the collaborative picture is on the wall. It has been lovely to end the half term with warm sunny weather - maybe a promise for the week off.
In our learning this week;-
Maths - We have concluded our unit on Decimals and then carried out an assessment to see how well they have remembered the learning. On Friday we had a treat with Mrs Shipp teaching a lesson with a fun problem solving task. On Wednesday they children continued to work on Time, the analogue clock is proving to be a bit tricky for them!
English - We innovated and then planned the invention for our text and on Wednesday the children did a reading comprehension about Anansi and the Tiger.
Art - The children used their Andy Goldsworthy work from last week to create a Claude Monet styled watercolour picture of the natural art, the class are very artistic and really enjoy using watercolours.
French – The children learned how to ask "Comment es-tu?" and to answer by describing their hair and eyes with the correct adjectives.
RE - We spotted and discussed bad decisions when watching the stampede clip from The Lion King. We then talked about the consequences and what that means, and we identified the consequences from the behaviour in the film clip.
Science – We continued to look at changes in state of matter.
Music – 'Performance time'.
Spellings - this week the children have 2 lists to do (so that we can keep in line with EdShed!) Feel free to use spare paper if the boxes are too small.
Please continue to read, we were so very close to getting Bookster this week, maybe we could be the first to get him when we return - please.
Have a lovely week off, please don't get sunburnt or sunstroke,
Make lots of happy memories
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team.
Year 5
This week in maths we have been adding mixed numbers. This has given us a great opportunity to practice all of the skills we have been developing over this half term. There were some very tense games of mixed number addition connect 4 played on Tuesday!
In Science, we made digital classification trees to help us sort different animals. This involved planning our tree on sugar paper (we like to work big) and then creating a PowerPoint with functioning hyperlinks. It was quite the organisational challenge - working out which word needed to link to which slide.
In History, we looked at the dark side of the British Empire and it's impact on the rest of the world. We had some very interesting discussions about the ethics of what was done in the name of Empire. There was definitely a feeling that, historically speaking, we are the baddies!
In DT, we investigated bridges. The children made 4 different bridge structures and tested to see how much weight they could hold. Each bridge only contained 2 pieces of card but were surprisingly strong. We had some bridges that held over 200 multilink cubes! In PSHE, we discussed peer pressure, and how your friends can pressure you in a positive way, and a negative way.
In RE, we looked at the differences between Catholic and Anglian Eucharist services.
It was lovely to see so many of you at our final reading café of the academic year. After you'd all gone, we put the pictures together into one piece. It looked superb!
Have a wonderful half term – we look forward to seeing you back for the final half-term on Monday, 1st June!
Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor & Mrs Marsh
Year 6
It has been a very busy but highly successful half term in Year 6. Although SATs are now behind us, the children have shown great maturity in maintaining their focus and continuing to apply themselves to their writing.
As part of our preparations for transition, the children have written thoughtful letters to their new tutors, introducing themselves with increasing confidence and reflection. It has been lovely to see them begin to consider the next stage of their journey with such positivity.
On Tuesday, the children explored the properties of chromatography, conducting a practical investigation to observe how different substances separate. They approached this with curiosity and care, demonstrating strong scientific thinking.
The highlight of the week has undoubtedly been the auditions for our end-of-year play. The children threw themselves into the process with enthusiasm and courage, and we are very much looking forward to announcing the cast after half term, when rehearsals will begin!
Nuala Gilmore
