Happy New Year!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and ready for a fresh start this Spring Term.

A few reminders:

• PE - PE kits to be worn on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Coat - Please ensure your child wears a coat to school particularly in this extreme cold weather.
• Water bottles - Children need to have a water bottle in school every day.
• Homework - As a school we expect the children to regularly read and complete any homework set. The children should be reading at home to an adult at least 5 times a week and record this in their reading diary. The children also have weekly spellings to learn. They are given a new list each Friday alongside a homework sheet to complete. We work through various spelling activities throughout the week and then have a spelling test at the end of the week. All spellings can be learnt using the Spelling Shed app on tablets or on any internet browser. The children have termly spelling tests on the Common Expection Words, they have these lists in their spelling books. Timestables can be practised throughout the week using TTRockstars. By the end of yr 4 children need to be able to recall their timestables up to 12 x 12. It is important they continue to practise these after this point as it will help in multiple areas of their Maths curriculum.

In Literacy this term, Ash and Maple will be using THE BFG as their class text. We will spent time throughout the term reading the text and all work will be linked to it. At the end the term we have booked to take the children to Chichester Festival Theatre to see the theatre production of THE BFG (more details about the trip will follow near the time). If your have a copy of the text please encourage your child to bring it in so they can read alongside in class. 

Maths

Yr 4 - A  new unit! Multiplication and Division - this week we will be finding factor pairs and multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100. 

Yr 5 - Multiplication and Division - this week we will be learning to use a range of methods to multiply 3 and 4 digit numbers by 1 and 2 digits.

Literacy

This terms Literacy is all based on THE BFG. This half term we will be focusing on using fronted adverbials aswell as identifying main and subordinate clauses and using direct speech in our writing. Our final piece of writing for this half term will be a newspaper report.

This week we will be exploring the beginning of the text and making predictions. We will be identifying the difference between main and subordinate clauses and write some description of the BFG.

Science

Yr 3 - Having previously learnt about different types of rocks, this week we will be exploring fossils.

Yr 4 - We are started a new unit on SOund. This week we will be learning about vibrations.

Yr 5  - Continuing with our Space unit, this week we will be focusing our learning on planet Earth.

RE

Our Big question for this half term is:

What are important times for Jews?

This week we will be identifying significant points in our lives and any ceremonies or rituals which mark this time.

Computing

Yr 4 - This term we will be using Purple Mash for our unit on Composing Beats. This week we will be understand the main elements of music. 

Yr 5 - Our unit this term is Branching Databases using Purple Mash. To begin with we will understand the concept of using 'Yes' or 'No' questions to sort objects.

Art

Our Art unit this term is Fashion Design.

We will be exploring designers that bring their own culture, experiences and passions into their designs. We will use colour, pattern, line, shape, form, material and texture to express our creativity.

This week we will be looking at a range of fashion designers and artists and their work. We will create artist profiles in our art books.