Class 4 Letters
Dear Parent and Carers,
Welcome Back!
Class 4 have already made a great start to the new academic year and have quickly settled back into school; they are enjoying learning and being with their friends. We have a busy term ahead re-visiting previous learning and gaining new knowledge and skills.
For the first half term we will be focusing on a geography topic about rivers and after half term we will move onto ‘The Victorians – a time of change’ this will enable the children to develop their skills and use of different historical sources.
In Science, our topic is, ‘Earth and Space’. The children will be working scientifically to develop their knowledge and understanding in these areas.
The different topics will give us the opportunity to teach in a cross curricular way and to develop the children's skills in art and DT. The children will have the opportunity to explore different mediums including pastels and paints and will be recreating their own artwork in the style of artists including Peter Thorpe and Hokusai. In DT they will be designing and making Mars Rovers/Lunar buggies.
Our writing will be linked to the topics and to our class story ‘The River Singers’ by Tom Moorhouse and ‘Street Child’ by Berlie Doherty. The children will have the opportunity to develop story writing, non-chronological reports, diary entries and newspaper reports in a meaningful way.
In RE, we will be covering the following units of work: Harvest, Life is a Journey, which will provide the opportunity to explore different beliefs and journeys in different religions, and Advent.
We will continue to follow the Twinkle spelling programme which is linked to National curriculum requirements and provides a structured programme to develop children’s strategies for learning to spell. The children will have weekly spelling which will be given out on Wednesdays; they will have a spelling test on the following Tuesday.
In Maths, we will continue to follow the White Rose small steps and teaching will be adapted to suit the needs of individual children. The topic at the start of the term is place value but we will continue to revisit past learning through Flashback maths. Times Table Rockstars will be used at school and as part of homework to further improve quick recall of multiplication facts and related division facts.
In PE, the focus will be on basketball netball skills and the children will take part in small-sided games. As well as this, they will work on stamina and fitness and next half term we will start a gymnastics unit. PE will be on Mondays and Fridays and children will need to come to school in school PE kit (in cooler weather tracksuit bottoms or legging can be worn with a school sweat shirt). The ICT learning will focus on online safety and sharing information safely and video editing. Recorder lessons will be on Monday afternoons, whole class ukulele and guitar lessons will be on a Tuesday afternoon and other woodwind instruments will be on Wednesday mornings.
We will set regular homework in spelling, reading, maths and grammar. As well as this, a piece of work linked to the geography/history topic or to the science topic will be set as and when is appropriate. It is important that children hand homework in on time so it can be marked, and class work planned to support areas of difficulty.
I know the children will enjoy the term ahead and will do their best. Many thanks for your continued support. Please contact us if there are any problems or worries that your child may have.
Mrs Carr and Mrs Fletcher
English Glossary
