Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Spring Term. 

We start with a 6 week half term with PE as normal and no Forest Schools for Maple Class. 

In Literacy, we will be reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. Each week we will be reading another few chapters, completing various short pieces of writing. Our grammar objectives will be to learn about main and subordinate clauses, using fronted adverbials with commas, inverted commas for speech, and learning how to follow the rules of standard English. Our longer final piece of destination writing will be a newspaper report about the BFG including interviews with some of the other characters from the text. Every child will have their own writing target for the term which they will be focusing on. 

In Maths, Year 3 will be continuing with multiplication and division, moving onto lengths and perimeter. In the second half of term, they will be learning about fractions and mass and capacity. Year 4 will also complete the rest of the multiplication and division unit, measuring length, then moving onto fractions and decimals in the second half of the term. Year 4s will also be focusing on their times tables practice whenever they have a spare moment! This is in preparation for the June Times Tables Check. Keep supporting your child with practicing at home too. 

In History, Year 3s will be learning about the Ancient Egyptians. Year 4s will be finding out about the Shang Dynasty. Year 5s will be learning about the Vikings invading Great Britain and the power struggle they encountered with the Anglo-Saxons. 

In RE, we are learning about Judaism. We will be asking the Big Question, 'What symbols and stories help Jewish people remember their covenant with God?' 

In Art, we will be studying Paul Cezanne as our artist for the term. We will be learning how to paint still life portraits using colour and mixed media. 

In Computing, Year 3s will be creating branching databases. Year 4s will be making music using software through Purple Mash. 

PE and Music will continue as normal this term, with PE on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. Please remember to wear PE kits to school, and bring extra layers to keep warm as they will be outside in the colder temperatures. 

A reminder to be reading 5 times a week at home, with parents signing reading diaries to show us in school that an adult is hearing your child read at home. We do have a volunteer who comes in on a Thursday afternoon so she will always try to hear as many children read as possible. Please do continue to complete spelling homework as much as possible before Thursday morning when it will be seen by myself. New spellings can then be stuck in ready for the Friday afternoon and weekend so your child has 7 days to practice their new spellings before the following week's test. 

I will be running a 'Catch Up' club this half term by invitation only. This will give extra time and space for the children to complete their spelling homework, read to an adult or simply discuss their maths work with me. I will  be sending out a dojo invite to start in week 2 so keep an eye out for this. Other booster groups will continue to run as normal. Again, I will send out new invitations and reminders via the dojo, to start in week 2.