Newsletter 4/10/13

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

Well, it’s been another busy week in Year 3/4. We have seen lots of wonderful learning taking place and have been really impressed with the enthusiasm the children have shown towards each and every lesson - even when things have a got a little bit tricky!

Thank you to all parents and carers who attended this week’s meeting about the Year 4 residential in May 2014. We shared details of the trip, dates, times, kit lists and itineraries. If you would like your child to take part in the exciting trip, please can we ask that a non-refundable deposit of £50 is returned to school by half term?

There have been a few questions about changing books and whether there are set days for children to do this. The children can get a new book to take home whenever and as often as they like. There is no set day and we encourage the children to take responsibility for changing their own books whenever they have finished one, as well as recording their daily reading in their reading records. Reading at home will be rewarded in school with stickers and, as we have all seen, the competition for team point champions this half term has been extremely tight. It could be your sticker that wins it for your team!

Our Achiever this week is Lucas in 3/4B. Lucas has approached every lesson with enthusiasm this week and has applied every target given to him. His Star Write was jam-packed full of adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions too – there’s no stopping him! Well done Lucas. 

Numeracy

This week we have been looking at how to add using column addition. We have applied these skills in many ways including solving some pretty tricky word problems.  Next week we will be moving onto looking at column subtraction.  Home learning: your child will have received a selection of questions and problems from this week’s learning as a means of embedding and securing the learning that has taken place. Please also continue to support your child with their learning of their times tables and basic number bonds to 10 and 100. These basic number facts underpin almost everything that we cover during numeracy lessons. Thank you. Next week’s times table focus will be the 5 X tables…get practising!

Literacy

This week, we have been writing in the style of a diary, documenting the life of a Viking child. We have been focussing our attentions on the use of adverbs to describe the many actions as well as writing in the past tense and first person. Next week we will be continuing to look at how diaries are written and will be finding out more information about what life was like for Viking thralls (slaves).

Spellings

These spellings will be tested on Monday 14^th October. Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group One	Group Two
bravely	candle
clearly	ankle
cheerfully	rectangle
carefully	symbol
madly	single
neatly	difficult
nearly	signal
really	athletics
weekly	animal
weakly	Christmas

Other areas of the curriculum:

In PE we have once again taken inspiration from Olympic gymnast video footage and have been continuing our gymnastics by practising our rolls and balances and putting them into sequences in larger groups.

In Topic we have been very busy with our weaving of wool on hessian. These will form the backdrops for our moving mechanisms that will be started next week.

In music, 3/4B have begun composing their own musical masterpieces using the instruments available on the iads. 3/4T have been refining their recorder skills when learning to play a new song and 3/4S have continued with their percussion sessions using a variety of instruments.

In Science we have developed our graphing skills by presenting our collected data neatly and accurately in a bar chart.

In ICT we have continued to create our own information documentary about Vikings, complete with sounds, using the Kar2ouche software.

Reminders

 

·    Please can all Year 4 children remember to bring their swimming kit and goggles if needed every Friday in a bag large enough to fit their entire uniforms and shoes in – we don’t want to lose any belongings. Children may also bring a snack to eat on the coach on the way back to school. This can be a cereal bar or a piece of fruit – no crisps.

      ·    Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week.

·    As the weather begins to turn that little bit cooler and wetter, please ensure your child has a suitable outdoor coat/jacket.

Have a wonderful weekend!