Friday 5th October 2012

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

This week has been a very busy and productive week in year 3/4. The children have enjoyed learning more about the Victorians and their independence and attitude to their learning has been just fantastic!

Home Learning

Every week, the home learning is for the children to practice their spellings ahead of our weekly test on Monday morning. We would also like the children to continue reading as often as possible at home. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team. We were extremely pleased by how many signed reading records we receive on Monday – thank you! Your child may also have some extra home learning in preparation for our Harvest Festival Performance (Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church). Everyone needs to be learning the words to ‘Food Glorious Food’ which has been sent home with them. Some children in 3/4M have ‘Pease Pudding Hot’ to practice on the recorder and some children across all three classes have lines to practice if they are a reader or an actor.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we have been finding out all about Victorian leisure and play. The children were VERY excited to discover that Blackpool Pleasure Beach was built during the Victorian era and that the first ever ride is still there today! We have been watching videos and reading books to practice our note taking skills before putting all our facts and information into some super rainbow paragraphs. The children are getting great at using engaging features (questions, alliteration, brackets) and VCOP (WOW words, connectives, sentence openers, punctuation) in their writing. Next week, the children will be writing their own poems about Harvest. We will be performing these at our harvest celebration on Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church.

Numeracy

This week, we have been looking at rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as finding the range, median and mode of a set of data. The children learned Woody’s Round Up rhyme to help them with their rounding skills. Ask your child if they can remember the words! Why not ask them to round some numbers for you when you go shopping? Next week, we will be learning how to make sensible estimations.

Next Week

Next week, we have two very exciting days planned! On Monday, we will be taking part in the Big Draw event. Please ensure your child has an art shirt to cover their uniform for when they are artists in the hall. On Wednesday, we will be taking part in an ICT day, which will see the children developing their ICT skills to create their own IBooks about the Victorians and learn about computer programming to make their own video games. We are very excited about these events and are privileged to be able to offer such diverse learning experiences for the children.

Reminders

·        PE kits need to come in on a Monday and taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday

 

 

Week 6 Spellings

Spellings to be tested on 8^th October (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
Bee	Worry
Feet	Absorbent
Knew	Sorry
Tree	Several
Sheep	Coffee
Queen	Yesterday
Teeth	Thousand
Cheese	Character
Wheel	Understand
	Similar

Week 5 Spellings

These spellings will be tested on Monday, 1st October:

Group One	Group Two
hay	familiar
clay	choose
tray	forward
play	forget
pray	explain
say	captain
hooray	elbow
runway	empty
crayons	sugar
holiday	pattern

Friday 28th September 2012

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had a super time in lower key stage 2 this week! The children have been blowing us away with their grown up behaviour and their outstanding learning.

Home Learning

This week for home learning, we have asked the children to continue learning their spellings which can be found in their reading records. We were blown away after this week’s spelling test with all of the high scores the children received. Some of your children have been issued with a purple learning pack. Please support us in supporting your child’s learning, by encouraging them to practice their key word spellings on a regular basis. Please also continue to encourage your child to read regularly at home. Please sign their reading record as evidence.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we have been finding out all about Victorian Schools. The children have been watching different film clips and reading a variety of books in order to learn interesting facts to include in their writing. We have been further developing our understanding of compound sentences by using sophisticated connects, for example: despite, although, as well as. We have also been encouraging children to write paragraphs with audience engaging features, such as questions to the reader, alliteration, and brackets for further information.

Numeracy

In Numeracy this week the children have been using the more than and less than symbols to determine the value of a given number. The children have really impressed us by using decimal notation and negative numbers. Next week we will be joining Wood and the round up gang to learning how to round 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s!

Topic

This week in Topic, children have been watching a variety of film clips, including Oliver, and using information books in order to make relevant notes about Victorian Schools. We have been learning all about how terrible the teachers were, and have had great discussions about the punishments that were dished out! Next week we will be learning about Victorian leisure and play activities.

Reminders

·        Please ensure your child has an art shirt, which stays in their locker throughout the year

·        PE kits need to come in on a Monday and taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday

·        Please ensure you bring in your signed reading record on Monday morning.

Have a lovely weekend,
Team 34

Week 2 Spellings

Today, the children were assigned to a spelling group (group one or group two). They were also given their spellings to stick into their reading record. Please ensure you practice these with your child regularly at home. They shall be tested on them next Monday, which is also when they will receive their new spellings for the following week. We will always put the spellings on the blog too, so you can access them if your child is absent on a Monday.

 

Thanks in advance for your support!

 

Team 3/4

 

To be tested on Monday, 17th September:

Group One	Group Two
face	plant
ace	moth
cake	bulb
case	length
gate	strength
wave	insect
grapes	hundred
flame	village
whale	success
snake	present

Friday 7th September

Home Learning As part of the children’s home learning in 3/4, we ask that the children read as often as they can across the week. All of the children have now picked a new reading book and have received a brand new reading record. This is where they can evidence all of the amazing reading they are doing at home. Please continue to encourage your child to read on a regular basis and fill in the reading record. We ask that your child hands their record in on a Monday so we can reward them for each day they have read. If a child reads every day they will be rewarded with 5 house points for their new house team.  We will also be giving spellings out every Monday that will be written in their reading records.

 

News

We have had an amazing and exciting start to the new year in year 3/4 and we are extremely proud of all of the children for their sensible and mature attitudes towards their learning.  We are very excited for the year ahead! We have been blown away by the amount of holiday home learning we have received so far. The children have worked super hard to research an aspect of Victorian life which they have presented in many different ways such as: pictures, ICT presentations, fact files, time lines and lots more! There is still time for your child to bring in some home learning around our new topic Victorians that we can display in our classroom.

We would like to welcome Miss Snowden, Mrs Comstive and Mrs Brooks to the happy 3/4 team. The children have been introduced to the new behaviour system in school and have all been given a house colour.  This will be explained in more detail at the Parent Meeting which will be held on Monday 10^th September at 2:40 – 3:10 in your child’s class.  We encourage you all to attend this as a time to learn more about your class teacher, the routines and our expectations for the year ahead.

Some children were given a cardboard folder with a keyword mat and an exercise book to practice over the Summer. If your child had one of these packs, please can you ensure it comes back in every Monday morning to be marked by the class teacher. We will be sending some of these packs out to more children over the coming weeks with a letter. Thank you for your support.

PE

PE is a vital part of the curriculum, therefore every child needs to bring in their PE kit either on the day or it can be left in their locker for the half term.  At times the children will be using different apparatus and need to be dressed in safe and appropriate clothing.  3/4T and 3/4S will have PE every Tuesday afternoon and 3/4M on a Thursday morning. If your child does not have their PE kit they will not be able to take part in the fun and exciting activities planned for their own safety. 

Literacy

During Literacy this half term, your child will be looking at the features Non-Chronological Report and writing one all about the Victorians. The children will continue to extend their super ideas into compound and complex sentences using a variety of connectives such as: so, if, but, because, when. The children will also be grouping these super sentences into rainbow paragraphs using lots of engaging features to interest the reader.

Numeracy

This half term your child will be looking and Counting, Numbers and the Number System. Your child will learn to develop their independence around choosing appropriate strategies for solving mental maths questions, as well as develop their confidence in their times tables.  Each week we will give you information about how you can support your child at home.  Please use the school website: Learning Zone, Numeracy and support your child playing the Number games.

Have a lovely weekend,

Team 3/4

 

Welcome Back!

All the year 3/4 staff would like to welcome everyone back to school! Here on our blog, we will keep you updated with our weekly newsletter and spellings and you can also find some fantastic online activities to help you with your learning at home! Please make sure you visit our blog regularly from home!Here's to a great year ahead of us!

 

"Impossible is nothing"