Class Three Newsletter Spring Term
Class 3 Newsletter Spring 2019
Happy New Year and welcome back to school. I hope you have had a restful and festive Christmas break and are looking forward to a busy spring term.
English
In English we will be studying a variety of text types to help further develop our writing skills. We will become familiar with persuasive writing creating our own adverts centred on the short film ‘The Littlest Shoemaker’. We will write our own stories from imaginary worlds using “Fantastic Mr Fox” to support our writing and familiarise ourselves with Michael Rosen poetry. We will also write non-chronological reports through studying a Hogwarts Tour. Areas of grammar will be taught through activities based on these texts including complex sentences, 1st and 3rd person, how to punctuate direct speech, verb tenses, using adverbs and correct use of commas.
Listening to your child read continues to be very important, as does discussing their understanding of the texts they are reading and new vocabulary. There will be daily classroom time for reading, handwriting, and spelling activities.
Maths
This term we will continue to build on their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills including division within tables with remainders and multiplication and division word problems, as well as developing the children’s times tables knowledge by learning the 6 and 8 times tables and improving their speed and confidence in mental calculation –, measure in metres and cm; convert cm to m and vice versa. Measure in kg and g, convert g to kg and vice versa. We will also look at statistics including creating and interpreting pictograms, bar charts and tables. We will also begin to place fractions on a number line (1/4s 1/2s, 1/8s), find fractions of amounts (1/4s and 1/8s), understand denominator & numerator and comparing fractions, division within tables with remainders and multiplication and division word problems
Topic – History/Geography
Our current topic is Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, we will be learning about the origins of the Anglo-Saxons and the kingdoms they created, we will also compare this to modern Britain. We will learn about life in Anglo-Saxon Britain, the Viking invasions and origins of the Vikings. We will later be moving on to a geography topic looking at settlements, where did early settlers make their homes and why? How land is used in settlements and choosing an ideal place to settle, we will also link this with our History topic looking at Anglo-Saxon and Viking Settlements.
Science
First half term we will be studying rocks and fossils. We will be comparing and grouping together different kinds of rocks based on their appearance and simple physical properties, describing in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock and recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
In the second half of this term we will be studying forces and magnets. We will compare how things move on different surfaces, observe that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance, how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others, compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, identify some magnetic materials, describe magnets as having two poles and predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.
French
We will be building on the excellent start the children have made with their learning of French, continuing to practise greetings and numbers and adding to their vocabulary with some simple verbs and instructions, as well as learning the names of things around the classroom, subjects, days of the week, months and dates.
Computing
The children will develop their key board skills with word processing. We will also be starting to learn simple coding using Scratch.
RE and PSHE
In RE we will be studying Hinduism and Christianity specifically the lives of Krishna and Jesus and his parables. Later, we will be looking the festival of Holi. In PHSE we will talk about how to be safe and how to identify and manage risks.
Music
This term we will be looking at music in movies and how they create moods, we will work towards composing our own piece of music to accompany a film clip.
Art and DT
Both subjects are linked to our topic work and we will be studying Anglo-Saxon lettering, this will be followed by a study of the French artist Cezanne. In DT we will be focusing on Viking textile work and food technology looking at traditional Indian food that would be eaten during the festival of Holi.
PE
PE will take place on Wednesdays and swimming on Mondays at Grange Paddocks. Mr Dyce will be working on gymnastics, striking and fielding games and invasion games. Each child will need trainers suitable for use on the field as well as the playground and warm outer layers to be worn over their PE shorts and T-shirts. Please ensure they have separate socks (especially girls who wear tights) and jumpers to avoid their school jumpers/cardigans getting dirty.
Homework
As previously, in addition to hearing your child read whenever possible, the children will be set spellings to learn each week on Friday, ready for a test on the following Friday; please assist them with look, cover, write, check activities to consolidate their learning. Children who take part in Spell Attack groups will continue to have work set regularly.
Maths, English or Topic homework will continue to be set on Fridays for return the following Wednesday.
Please support your child to ensure that they understand what has been asked of them and to make sure that their work is clearly and neatly completed.
If you have questions or concerns, please make an appointment to speak to me before or after school.
Best wishes for 2019!
Miss Turner
