Year 3

A wonderfully bright and warm start to the Summer term! We began week 1 by reading about the beautiful plantation in India through our English text, called Cloud Tea Monkeys. The children took leaves from baskets and imagined themselves in these glorious, symmetrical valleys, as they described with their senses what it would be like to wake up there. Slowly, we have found out that life is not as easy as it looks, which has led to the writing of a letter, persuading the estate owner for better working conditions! The children have particularly been challenged to use the present perfect tense - has had, have been etc. Can they spot this tense in their own reading? Why do we use the present perfect tense?

After exploring what actions require a pull and push force, the children carried out an activity with different surfaces, comparing how far the marble would travel using different materials. We will continue to explore how friction is made and how we use it in our everyday lives. 

We have now finished our unit on fraction, adding, subtracting and finding the equivalence. The children used division and multiplication facts to support their learning and finding of groups. This is a great way to consolidate their previous learning and challenge them to look at numbers in different ways. Our new topic has inspired the children to be shopkeepers, where they find different amounts with coins so they can purchase what they need at the support market. Here the children are revisiting counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and learning to do this more speedily and efficiently so they can find totals. 

Our Art topic this half term focuses on using different media to create a collage. By the end of the topic, the children will be creating a piece in the style of Njideka Cosby. An incredible artist, who uses paint, and photographs to create scenes with families talking, eating and simply being together. Her work is based on own experiences and uses her own photography taken in Nigeria. This week, the children used layers of fabric and paper to create a fruit, they used bright colours.

              

              

This week: 31.03.25

Spelling rule: sound /u/ spelt ‘o’ e.g. women

 

Key words: 

Maths: coins, notes, pounds, pence 

English: bullet points, present perfect

Science: force, pull, push, surface

Geography: compass, county, UK

 

Maths facts: 6 x tables

 

Next week: 06.05.25

Spelling rule: short /u/

sound spelt with ‘ou’ e.g. enough

 

Key words:

Maths: value, comparing, equal to

English: letter, address, formal

Science: 

Geography: 

 

Maths facts: 6 x tables

 

Key dates: 

7th May - Open Classroom (8.45 - 9.15am)

7th May - Celebrating Diversity family workshop 9.15-9.45am 

8th May - Horrible Histories trip

14th May - Kew Gardens trip

24th May - End of half term. School closes at 3.15pm

 

Year 4

We’ve had a fantastic start to the summer term in year 4 - the sunshine has been amazing and the children have been brimming with positivity.  

We must start with our class assemblies! We are so proud of every child who performed with focus and enthusiasm, bringing to life the scriptwriters’ visions! The children didn’t have long to learn their lines after the Easter break, and proved what they can achieve in a short space of time. Well done everyone!

In English, the children have been introduced to a classic book - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. They’ve taken on the character of the youngest child, Lucy, and have written a terrific, formal letter about her thoughts as an evacuee child fleeing the Second World War with her siblings. The children have been loving the story, and have been transported to another world in reading lessons. 

In maths, our focus has been decimals. The children have grown in confidence in considering fractions and decimals in relation to tenths and hundredths, whilst understanding the place value of such numbers (0.1, 0.01 etc). 

Our new art topic has explored the use of different media, with a theme of nature. Last week, the children collected leaves from the school grounds, and experimented with printing by painting directly onto the leaves!

Our science topic of living things saw more nature-focus, with a lesson on food chains. Following this, the children learned about different types of teeth in adult humans. In an exciting afternoon, filled to the brim with temptation, they worked in groups and made an informative poster by using marshmallows to represent different teeth!

               

                

w/b 28.04.25

Prefix auto-

autograph

autobiography

automatic

autofocus

autocorrect

autopilot

autopsy

automobile

autonomy

autocue

Key words: 

Decimal, tenth 0.1, hundredth 0.01, formal, informal, tectonic plate, friction, pressure, plate boundary, printing

 

w/b 05.04.25

Prefix non-

non-stick

non-stop

non-starter

non-smoker

nonsense

non-fiction

non-drip

non-violent

non-profit

non-believer

Key words: 

Decimal, tenth 0.1, hundredth 0.01, volcano, lava, magma, eruption, fertile

 

Key Messages: 

• Open Classrooms - 7/5/25 - 8.45-9.15

• Celebrating diversity workshop for all families 7/5/25 - 9.15-9.45

• Multiplication practice - we’re really encouraging children to practise at home, and using TTRS enables teachers to track children’s progress!

• Reading records - a reminder that children should have 5 entries per week, with reading records handed to class teachers every Monday. 

• Please ensure the children have a water bottle, hat and are wearing sun cream.