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 – some afternoons
Here is what we are learning about this term:
Our learning in Term 6
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 money. This is another important life skill so any extra time work you can do at home would be beneficial (e.g. How much change will I get from £5 when I buy X and Y? Estimate the amount of money I will need to purchase X and Y.) We will also look at the topics of Shape which incorporates 2D shapes, 3D shapes, angles and lines and Statistics where we will look at pictograms, bar charts, line graphs and tables.
We have a Geography focus this term as we learn about Rivers and Coasts in the UK and the Water Cycle. Children will learn about how rivers and coasts are formed, use map skills to identify local, national and international coasts and rivers of importance as well as how and why humans use these natural resources.
In Science, we will continue our learning about ‘Animals, including humans’. The 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 focus on DT however the children will also complete some Art lessons. Children will learn about Alarms, using our knowledge of Circuits from our Science lessons earlier in the year to create an alarm system.
Our RE big question is ‘How do different Muslims in Somerset show submission?’. In Music lessons we will continue learning about Gospel music as well as rehearse for our end of year production. In Computing we will learn about coding. Our PSHE theme is ‘Relationships’. In French lessons we will learn how to talk about the weather. In PE lessons we will continue with Country Dancing and also do some Cricket!
- PE lessons will be on Tuesdays and Fridays. 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.
