Hello everyone,

We hope you are well and safe. What a first half term it has been. We are incredibly proud of how the children have settled so well into their learning and we would like to thank you for all of your help and patience along the way.

In English, the children have continued to research lots of facts and statistics about hairy eight-legged beasts and have made a bank ready to write their own fact file on a spider they have designed. This week we have also been exploring different sentence structures when using subordinating conjuctions and looking at how we can move our main and subordinate clauses. On returning back to school the children will be well equipped to plan, draft and edit their own non-chronological report inspired by the class text ‘Spider Diaries’.

In Maths this week we started to look at money problems. The children explored the different values of money and their equivalnce (100p = £1). With this knowledge, they were able to answer multistep problems that included addition (how much altogether), subtractoin (change) or even both. To help them answer these problems children were using a range of strategies and representations such as bar models and numberlines in order to help them. Our next Maths topic, we will be focusing on length studying conversion, perimeter and area.

In Science this half term, we have been exploring simple electrical circuits. Children now understand what a closed and open circuit is,  what components a circuit needs and how to modify one. Children are now prepared to make their own circuits for our next DT project ‘Making torches’ whereby the children will be making safety torches for children to use on Bonfire Night. We have asked the children to keep hold of materials like toliet tissue rolls, so if you have any lying about we would really appericiate the donation.

Some quick reminders,

• Please continue 10 minute daily reading with your child over the half term.
• Spelling and vocabulary homework has been sent out and will be due back the first Thursday of Autumn 2.
• Reading journals will be due back on the first Thursday.
• MyMaths and Timestable rockstars have been set. A really good timestable resource on Times Table rockstars is the soundcheck tool!
• Please send your child in their PE kits on first Thursday.

We really hope you have a fantastic half term and look forward to seeing you in November!

Stay safe and keep on smiling,

Miss Jackson-Nash, Miss Honeywell and Mrs Cairns.

Hello,

We hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

This week, we have started our new unit of learning on The Spider Diaries. The children have really enjoyed taking a look at documentaries including Planet Earth and the Deadly 60 (CBBC) in order to find out more about these creepy crawlies! At the start of the week, Year Four designed their very own arachnid and used vocabulary banks in order to use scientific terminology when labelling the parts of the body e.g. muscular, strong pedipalps. As the week progressed, the children then considered a selection of nouns and pronouns that they could use to replace ‘spider’ and ‘web’ for the non chronological report they shall make as their written outcome. We have been amazed by the quality of the language that has been used by the children and are delighted to see lots of pupils accessing challenge tasks e.g. Can you include a verb, adverb, or preposition to add further detail to your expanded noun phrase?

In Maths, we have been focusing on subtraction and how to use expanded column to solve problems. We discussed how to exchange values and use a ‘magic exchanging pen’. Later on, the children then had a go at bar model challenges, discussing where they felt particular numbers should go based upon their place value when interpreting a problem. By Friday, Year Four had successfully interpreted a range of multi step word problems that involved both addition and subtraction. Please make sure that your child logs on to My Maths, as there have been lots of activities set based on Money and Conversions. We look forward to exploring pounds and pence next week! What do you know about money already? How do you calculate change? Be ready to share your ideas with the class on Monday…

A few quick reminders:

• Please ensure your child wears their PE kit to school on Monday for a PE lesson with their class teacher in the afternoon.
• Red home learning books (spelling/vocabulary) and Yellow home reading journals to be handed in on Thursday please.

We hope you all have a great weekend,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns

Hello everyone,

We hope that you have all been having a good week so far.

In English, we have been learning about the Tin Forest and the children have been using subordinating conjunctions to add their ideas together across sentences. We have been very impressed by the children’s use of emotion words, technical vocabulary and expanded noun phrases. Next week, we look forward to selecting WAGOLL examples (What A Good One Looks Like) and sending copies to Waterlooville library for their display board.

In Maths, we have been looking at the addition of four digit numbers. The children have used place value counters to explore what happens when they have too many ones, tens or hundreds in their place value columns (i.e. carrying). They have now begun to solve Tin Forest problems on subtraction – both classes have used dienes drawings to explore what happens when they need to do when exchanging a ten or hundred for more ones or tens  (i.e. exchanging). Please ensure that your child logs on to Sumdog for additional Times Table practice this week.

Reminders for next week:

• Children to wear PE kits to school on Thursday morning, for a PE session with CM sports.
• Spelling and vocabulary homework is due on Thursday.
• We will not be collecting yellow reading journals until two weeks time (a fortnightly homework).
• Sumdog has been updated with Times Table learning only for this week.

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend,

See you on Monday,

Miss Honeywell, Miss Jackson-Nash and Mrs Cairns