Brits in the Blitz

Mini challenge alert!

As part of our new topic on WW2 why not carry out some home learning to share with us in school. This could include: Visiting a library, talking to grandparents, visiting a museum, internet research, creating a PowerPoint, creating a scratch project, some art work etc. 

Don't forget to have your costume ready for our trip.  

Remember...Leos are up for grabs!

This term's topic is...

Leo and the Tomb Raiders

Mini challenge Alert!!

Challenge: Can you carry out your own research into an aspect of Ancient Egypt? Record it neatly on a piece of paper and we'll add it to our classroom display.

Reward: 1 Leo up for grabs!

Dear Families,

Today your child has brought home their DT project – a torch. Please may we remind you that this contains a working electrical circuit, created by your child. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the electrical components work safely, this torch is not a toy and should be used under supervision.  

Kind regards,

The KS2 team.

Save the Rainforest Challenge!

After our animal handling session, the children were set the challenge of seeing how many different products around the home contain palm oil as palm oil plantations can be a threat to the rainforests of the world.

Challenge: (With an adult) Look for different items (Including food items) around the house that contain palm oil. Put all of the items together and take a photo to bring into school - or write a list of all the things you found.

We will discuss our findings next week.  

Cracking Times Tables!

The children have started to take part in a weekly times tables challenge called 'Cracking Times Tables'. Each week they will try to tackle a set of times tables questions within 3 minutes. When they have got all of the questions correct, two weeks in a row, they will move up to the next level. Each new level includes an additional times table pattern, and more questions - however the time limit remains at 3 minutes.

Once the children's challenge has been marked it will be sent home. This will enable families to praise any progress made since the previous week's challenge, and identify the areas to be focused on. This may be a whole pattern, or simply one specific multiplication that the child is struggling to remember.

The purpose of Cracking Times Tables is to support the development of rapid recall and give the children a fun and purposeful reason to continue to work hard, practising their times tables at home. It will also provide families and teachers with an even more accurate understanding of how they are getting on with their times tables.

Please be aware that this is in addition to Times Tables Rock Stars.       

Year 4 Pen Licence

As an incentive to encourage year 4 students to continue to improve the quality of their handwriting, they have the opportunity to earn a Pen Licence. Once a licence has been awarded, children are able to use a handwriting pen in class. Pen licences will be awarded when there is enough evidence of:

• Correct letter formation and size.
• The consistent use of diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters.
• An understanding of which letters, when next to each other, are best left unjoined.
• Letters correctly positioned on the line.

Pupils should be using joined handwriting throughout their independent writing tasks. Handwriting will be taught across the week with the aim of increasing the fluency with which pupils are able to write down what they want to say. This, in turn, will support their composition and spelling.

Spellings - Spellings will be handed out Friday ( 21.9.18) Your child will come home with a page of words. Any highlighted will indicate which words your child is not yet able to spell confidently, and we ask that you practise these words over the course of the year. How you do this is up to you, but here are a few suggestions.

1. Choose 5 words at time to focus on over the week using a 'Look, cover, write check' approach.

2. Choose 5 words at a time to try and write in different sentences across the week. This will really help the children understand the word and the contexts it can be used in.

3. Choose words, and challenge yourself to use them at different places within a sentence - start, middle and end. (Special toys are kept on the shelf. I love the special things you do for me. The letter is so special.) 

4. Choose words and look up their meaning in the dictionary.

5. Write the words in interesting ways - turning them into pictures. 

6. Write words and use dots and dashes to count the phonemes (sounds) E.g  W  eigh  t = 3 sounds

7. Dictation - Adult reads the word in a sentence, and the child records the sentence.

8. 'Speed spell' See how many times you can write the word in 30 seconds. Challenge an adult!

I hope this gives you some fun alternatives to learning spellings.

This term's topic is:

Leo in Rio!

Welcome to our new Maple Class page!!

We hope you had a wonderful summer holiday and are looking forward to the new school year.

I know I am, even if my dog Archie will miss me now!!

We are also looking forward to having our new Year 3 children in the class and I know the Year 4 children who were in Maple class last year, will help all of them settle in to their new class and to enjoy what will be an exciting term.

As you can see our topic this term is 'Leo in Rio' and we will be discovering lots of interesting facts about the country of Brazil.  To begin the topic can you find the answers to these three questions?

How big is Brazil?

Why is it called Brazil?

What language do the people of Brazil speak?

Have fun!!

Mrs Alexander, Mrs Grice and Mrs Fitzsimmons