Beech Class – Year 3/4
Welcome to Beech Class! We are Year 3 and 4 children.
We hope that the information below gives you a good insight into what we will be doing this term.
Class Teachers:
Mrs Howells will teach every Monday and Tuesday.
Mrs Mitchell will teach every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Teaching Assistants:
Miss Middle – mornings
Mrs Winchester – mornings and one or two afternoons
Miss Lindsay & Miss Mills – some afternoons
Here is what we are learning about this term:
Our learning in Term 5
In our writing lessons, the children will be working on their stamina and independence. They will continue to use ‘Think, Say, Write, Check’ to build their sentences with increasing complexity. The children will also build on their poetry writing skills to create their own original pieces of performance poetry. We are working towards an upcoming poetry event later in the term run by the trust – more information coming soon!
In our Reading lessons, children will analyse a range of poems as well as short extracts. We will continue to build our skills with a range of retrieval and inference questions, ensuring we find evidence in the text to support our answer when appropriate.
In Maths we are learning about time. This is often a tricky topic, even for more confident mathematicians, so any extra time work you can do at home would be beneficial (e.g. We are leaving at half past 8, where will the hour and minute hands be? How long until _____? Your show is 20 minutes so what time will it end? – little and often! If your child does not have their own watch then this is a great age to start wearing one and also gives them responsibility and motivation to learn to tell the time).
In Y3 we will be learning: to tell the time to 5 minutes and 1 minute (both past and to), how to read the time on a digital clock, how to use a.m and p.m, and then apply this learning to solve problems using knowledge about minutes and hours (for example I went out on my bike at 3:35pm for 37 minutes, what time did I get home?) and problems using days, months and years.
In Y4 we will be learning: to solve problems involving years, months, days and weeks (e.g which is greater – 40 months or 3 years?); hours, minutes and seconds (e.g. It is 10 minutes past 3, draw hands on the clocks to show the time… in 10 minutes, in 120 seconds, in 60 minutes, in 1 ½ hours). We will also convert to and from the 24 hour clock.
We will also look at the topics of Mass & Capacity where we will use grams & kilograms and litres & millilitres. We will learn to measure, compare, add and subtract these quantities.
We have a Geography focus this term as we learn about Europe. Children will learn about geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region in a European country. Initially children will learn about Europe as a continent and an overview of Europe before ‘zooming in’ on the Mediterranean region, Italy and Bologna. Children will draw comparisons of similarities and differences between areas.
In Science, we will be learning about ‘Animals, including humans’ for both Term 5 and Term 6. This term, children will learn about nutrition, understanding that animals, including humans, cannot make their own food. They will learn that all animals need the right nutrition to live a healthy life and learn how to understand and construct their own food chains. Children will learn about the function of muscles and skeletons (and why some animals have or do not have skeletons). Children will describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans. Children will identify the different types of human teeth and their functions.
This term we will have Art lessons, rather than DT. Children will learn about who Vincent Van Gogh was and will create a replica of his work, experimenting with different mediums to explore technique. They will replicate Van Gogh’s techniques to create a replica of ‘Sunflowers’, using careful analysis to create accurate tints and shades. Children will develop their sketching skills, creating movement through lines and sketching a 3D object from a number of angles. Finally, children will create self-portraits, being encouraged to have a bold approach and embrace the ‘ish’-ness of their work.
Our RE big question is ‘What do Christians believe about the Kingdom of God (Church)?’ In Music lessons we will be learning about Gospel music. In Computing we will learn about searching online and presentation skills. Our PSHE theme is ‘Relationships’ (how to be a responsible family member, friendships, being a global citizen, recap of how to stay safe online). In French lessons we will learn the names of different animals and how to say ‘I am…’ plus the animal nouns and determiners.. In PE lessons with Premier we will do athletics and with Miss Mills we will do country dancing.
- PE lessons will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please send your child to school wearing their PE kit.
- Children need to have in school every day a spare pair of shoes or wellies for our Adventure Play and Paddock area.
- It is important that children always have a coat in school as we will be outside as much as possible in all weathers.
Weekly Home Learning Tasks
Your child’s reading record and scheme reading book needs to come into school every day.
Please ensure your child is:
- Reading every day and noting this in their reading record
- Completing times table practice every day
Reading, Spellings and Times tables
Your child will have two reading books that they use at school. One will be a levelled scheme reading book that will go home and be brought into school every day. The other will be a book that they keep at school to read for pleasure. Your child will be assessed on their book level by the class teacher and teaching assistants at regular intervals throughout the term.
Spellings lists will be shared on Class Dojo weekly, and we will carry out a test every Friday. Sometimes this will take the form of a traditional spelling test, but this could also be in the form of a dictation exercise.
Times table practise will be checked and monitored every week. Children will be tested on their times tables alongside their Maths lessons so will not have a regularly scheduled times table test. We encourage children to use Times Table Rockstars for their daily practise – specifically the Garage mode. Please leave the ‘Gig’ mode for us to use at school, as it forms part of our regular assessment plan. Within these modes the game assesses your child’s speed, accuracy and fluency, and adjusts their difficulty level accordingly. If a child has 100% accuracy but takes too long to answer the questions, they will not progress. Both elements are important when learning times tables. If your child is not yet confident with their times tables, please see the Parent Guide for TTRS which explains how to adjust the settings (e.g. turn the timer off) whilst they build their fluency and confidence. We highly recommend that children practise their times tables using an online resource several times a week, this is because at the end of Year 4 children have to complete a statutory times table test using a Chromebook at school. The test gives the children 6 seconds to read, answer and type their response to a times table question before moving on to the next question.
Login information for any online resources has been stuck into the inside cover of your child’s reading record.
If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Mitchell on Class Dojo. However to report absences, illness or update on medical appointments or results, please phone or email the school office.
