Week 1 – One is a snail ten is a crab
Welcome back to a very exciting final summer term! Our topic this term is all about the seaside and different cities.
Our focus story this week is a counting book. We have been looking at the legs of different creatures. We have been adding different amounts together and creating numbers beyond 20.
Our word of the week this week is country. We have learnt more about what a country is and which country we live in and have lived in and different countries we have visited. We created finger print flags for different countries.
We have been working hard on our counting skills. We have been counting amounts to 20. It is important to count slowly and carefully so we don’t miss any numbers.
We have been using our predicting, counting and recording skills in our maths provision. We had to predict how many objects were in the bowls, counted to see if we were right and then recorded the amounts.
We are loving our new physical activities in our PE lessons. This week we have been taking part in ‘ants in your pants’. We have to work in partners and one person needs to get the ants into the hoop whilst the other person moves the hoop away.
Our poem this week is all about thunderstorms. We loved making the different sounds.
As the weather is set to get warmer please can we make sure that everyone has a sun hat, water bottle and sun cream.
Forest School
Today was our first Forest School session. We’ve had a fantastic time building a boggle house. A boggle is a tiny creature that lives in the forest but no ones ever seen it. It’s a small creature that you might see out of the corner of your eye but when you look it’s gone!
We also did some litter picking, swung on the trapeze and swayed in the hammock.
Residential day one and two
We’ve had a fantastic few days at Robinwood. The children are having a great time and embracing all the activities. We have done climbing, archery, zip-wire, raft building, canoeing, giant swing and much more. Before we head home tomorrow, we will be visiting the much anticipated piranha pool, crate challenge and knight’s quest.
We hope to arrive back to school at 4pm.
Living and Learning: I know the ingredients of a happy and healthy friendship.
Maths: telling the time!
This week, we’ve started to learn how to tell the time.
We know that the minute hand on a clock is the longer hand, and the hour hand is the shorter hand. This helps us to know what the time is.
We’ve learned to read the time when it is o’clock, half past the hour, quarter past and quarter to the hour. Our next challenge is telling the time to 5 minutes!
Help at home: ask your child if they can tell you the time at o’clock, half past, quarter past or quarter to the hour.
We LOVE to read!
A love for reading can be hugely valuable for children. Each week, we have a ‘Book Club’ lesson. During this, the children are given opportunities to develop a desire to read. The children are able to select their own reading material and enjoy spending time in our relaxed and comfortable book area.
Help at home
Children who may not be interested in reading will have subjects and topics that they are excited about, such as sports, movies or animals. Discussing books on a topic or subject that the child finds exciting will likely whet their appetite for that book. When children find reading fun and enjoyable, they are likely to repeatedly spend time with books, become engaged readers, and gain the benefits of leisure reading.
Please note that, if your child is reading as part of a group, it is essential that they have read to their given target page before the next session. If this has not been completed, it has an impact on the rest of that particular group and can create unnecessary embarrassment.
Help at home with times tables
By the end of Year 4, all children are expected to be able to recall their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12, fluently (being able to answer times tables questions accurately and quickly, without having to work out the answers). In class, we rehearse these in many different ways and it really helps children if this learning is continued at home.
How can I support my child in learning their multiplication tables facts?
Little and often is best and make times tables learning fun. Some ideas include: climb stairs counting in multiples, play verbal times tables games; listen to and learn times tables songs; take it in turns to
say different times tables in funny voices, i.e. a lions voice; play on-line maths games and use times tables grids.
Times Table Rock Stars is a fun, interactive way to support your child in learning their times tables.
Times table grids – no technology needed!
Multiplication grids are an essential feature in the classroom. These can be used at home and a free template can be downloaded here. https://thirdspacelearning.com/resources/resource-ks1-ks2-times-tables-grid-printable-pack/
The children are very competent at using these grids and could use them to test someone at home!
Start with columns and rows headed in numerical order. Children race to fill in their blank times tables grid as quickly as possible (noting down the time taken to do so to allow them to see if they can improve on their time during future times table grid races). Once your child has mastered the
times tables in order, randomise the column and row headings on the children’s blank times tables grids. There are lots more ideas about how times tables grids can be used on the internet.
Using arrays
Multiplication arrays provide a simple visual model that helps children to understand the concept of multiplication. A multiplication array is simply an arrangement of rows or columns that matches a multiplication equation. You can make arrays out of objects or pictures, and you can use any sort of shape. Look around your home. Do you have any household objects that show arrays?
We made amazing magnet games!
To finish our forces and magnets topic, Years 3 and 4 created some games using magnetic force.
Their favourite was the fishing game where they put some magnetic tape onto a rod and a paperclip inside a fish. They explained they knew that the tape would be attracted to the paper clip, so we could catch some fish!
As we did such a great job, we went and showed Reception our work.
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Help at home: Can your child explain how they created their game? Can they explain what we mean by magnets and how they attract and repel?
Maths: diagrams and charts!
This week in Maths, we have been thinking about tally charts and block diagrams. We have created our own by collecting data in class and adding a tally to our charts or a block to our diagrams.
Week 6 – My body
What a lovely sunny week we have had! Our focus book this week has been a non-fiction book all about our bodies. We have learnt more about x-rays and the different bones in our bodies.
We have used charcoal and chalk and create images of a skeleton and observational drawing of our hands. We explored smudging and creating different effects with the different materials.
We learnt more about the 5 different senses and went on a senses walk around school. It was amazing what we heard when we listened carefully. Whilst exploring on the school field we even heard a chicken! We then recorded the different things we had noticed through our senses.
We had a very special surprise when we arrived in school on Monday. Our butterflies have appeared! They are beautiful and lots of different colours. We released our special friends into the school field.
