Thematic

This week, we kicked off our brand-new thematic topic: "See the Light, Feel the Force!" It’s been an exciting start, full of curiosity, hands-on experiments, and a lot of learning.

To get everyone thinking, we began the week by posing Big Questions: Can we feel the force? How do we see the light? All classes buzzed with ideas, as we shared everything from the basics of light – how it travels and helps us see – to a wide range of forces we experience every day, like gravity and friction. It was fascinating to see how much the children already understood and how eager they were to learn more.

After gathering our thoughts on light and forces, we moved right into exploring forces through some exciting hands-on activities. We started off by discussing what forces are and how forces make things move, stop, or change direction. We also investigated how different forces act on objects by experimenting with pushing and pulling.

One of the highlights of the week was planning an investigation into friction, one of the most interesting forces we experience. The classes worked together to design an experiment to investigate how different surfaces affect friction. Children made predictions about which materials would create the most friction (like carpet or sandpaper) and which would create the least (like smooth plastic or metal). They carefully set up their investigations, rolling objects down inclined planes covered with different materials and measuring how far the objects would travel before stopping. It was incredible to see them applying their knowledge of forces and friction in such a hands-on way.

Next week, we’ll be diving into the fascinating world of magnetism, learning about how magnets work, where we find them in everyday life, and exploring the invisible forces that make them so special.

English

Our focus in English this week, has been creating rich, vivid setting descriptions. The children worked hard to enhance their writing by incorporating key skills, such as prepositional phrases and expanded noun phrases, to bring their descriptions to life.

The class began by re-reading key passages from the book to gather ideas and discuss the atmosphere of the settings described by Ted Hughes. We looked at how the author uses vivid imagery and precise language to make the settings feel alive, and we discussed how we could use similar techniques in our own writing. Children used prepositional phrases to describe the location of nouns within the setting, and expanded noun phrases to bring their descriptions to life with more detail.

 

Book Banter

This week, we had an exciting session of Book Banter, where our Year 4 children joined our Year 3 children for a fun-filled, collaborative celebration of reading! It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to come together, share their love of books, and inspire each other with creative ideas and storytelling.

The session kicked off with the Year 4 children sharing the reading promotion posters they had designed. These colourful, imaginative posters were created with the aim of encouraging others to discover the joy of reading, and they did just that! Each poster featured catchy slogans, vibrant illustrations, and book recommendations, all designed to grab attention and make reading look exciting. It was a fantastic way for Year 4 to share their passion for books with their younger peers.

Next week, our focus will be on learning how to write informative, engaging newspaper reports about an event that occurs within our core text.

Anti-bullying Week

On Tuesday, children across the school took part in the nationwide ‘Odd socks Day’ initiative to express their individuality and also highlight the annual anti-bullying week initiative.

Learning centred on the theme ‘Choose Respect’, which also involved the children engaging with the nationwide BBC live lesson, exploring healthy, positive relationships. Children also took part in writing poetry based on the theme.

 

Maths

This week in maths, we've been busy consolidating our understanding of place value. To help consolidate these skills, children have been tackling a variety of place value problems. Whether it’s breaking down large numbers into their individual parts or practising mental strategies, children have been using their understanding of place value to solve problems efficiently.

In addition to revisiting place value, we’ve also begun exploring the exciting world of statistics, focusing on two key skills: interpreting pictograms and bar charts. Children have practised reading pictograms with different key symbols representing a certain number of items; they then moved onto interpreting and answering questions about different data sets. In addition to pictograms, we’ve been interpreting and creating bar charts—another essential tool in statistics. Children have been working on reading charts to find out important information, such as identifying which category has the most or least items.

Next week, we’ll continue to build on these skills, diving deeper into problem-solving activities, as well as exploring even more ways to interpret and present data.

Art Competition

In this term's art competition, you will get the chance to create your own Pop Art Masterpiece inspired by our artist of the term: Roy Lichtenstein!

Using Lichtenstein's style as a guide, create a work of art that uses bright colours, bold outlines, and Ben-Day dots to show an exciting scene or object from your daily life. This could be a favourite toy, a scene at school, anything that is personal to you.

The competition starts from Monday 11th November and closes Friday 20th December. Please bring all entries to Mr Mason’s art room and be sure to include your name and class on your artwork. Winners will be announced at the beginning of term 3. Good luck!

Home Learning

Attached below, is the overarching Thematic Curriculum homework ideas. Please refer to the homework menu which gives a variety of creative tasks for the children to choose from. Children only need to complete one task as a minimum, but can choose to complete more if they wish. Children have been given a Home Learning book to complete their Home Learning tasks in- children will be bringing their Home Learning books home on Monday. 

Home Learning is due in on Friday 20^th December 2024

Reading Records 

With AR Assessments complete, children will be given a new ZPD, which you will find in their Reading Record: ‘Term 2’ ZPD sticker. If children have not yet brought in their reading record to school, they need to make sure they bring it in. Please ensure children are reading every night and are likewise taking quizzes.  

Spellings

To support children with their spellings, we would like children to practise ‘Level 1- WILD WILDE Bundle’ 

To access it on a laptop, PC, Mac or Chromebook (therefore IWBs): 
1. Type in the browser itself where you normally type www (not a search engine)...app.sirlinkalot.org (with no Ws before it) 
2. Click on 'More' (top right) 
3. Click on 'Sign in' 
4. The children will then need to type in their access code  

To find out more about Sir Linkalot, there is a parent workshop taking place on Tuesday 1^st October: 3pm-4pm. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Times Tables Rock Stars  

• Tasks to be completed online. 

• Children’s logins are stuck in their Reading journal.   

Mathletics  

• Mathletics tasks will be set from Friday to Friday.  

• Tasks will always follow the learning that week.  

• Children’s logins are stuck into their Reading journal.  

Reminders  

• Year 3 have PE on Tuesdays and should come to school dressed in the correct school PE kit.  

• 3R and 3Y will swim on Mondays this term- children will need to come dressed in their PE kit to school on this day, and bring with them their swimming costumes to change into.   

• Swimming kit reminder: full swimming costume/swim shorts and swimming hat.  

• Children to bring in healthy snacks for breaktimes.