Topic: Why do tourists visit Venice?
Today, we were critical and safe users of the internet during our geography lesson. We wanted to conduct some research on the iPads to answer the question…
Why do tourists visit Venice?
We must be careful when conducting research as geographers as not all online sites are helpful, safe or appropriate for our research question. As a class, we discussed four different web pages about Venice and which would be best to answer our question.
This website will provide information about what to do in Venice. However, it’s audience is not children and therefore is not the safest website to use.
This website’s audience is children and it’s full of brilliant facts all about Venice. This is a safe and helpful website to use.
Although BBC Bitesize is a great website that we use a lot in school, this page was not about the city of Venice but rather the Shakespeare play. We must always check that it answers our question.
A blog will contain someone’s opinion and we know this may not always be trustworthy. It may not contain as many facts.
Help at home: research things to do in York as a tourist. As you’re going through the websites, discuss with your child which you should use and why.
Geography: What is a rainforest?
This half term, we are geographers. Geographers study the land (the physical features) and the people who live within it (the human features).
This week, the children have been busy exploring the different layers of a rainforest. We’ve discovered that there are 4 different layers: emergent, canopy, understory and the forest floor.
They explored what plants and animals live in each part and then took to drawing. Take a look at their work:
Year 6 then learnt about why the Amazon Rainforest is important.
“We need the Amazon Rainforest because it produces oxygen for everyone to breath.”
“The Amazon Rainforest is important because it helps to reduce climate change as it takes in the carbon dioxide in the world.”
“Lots of different animals and plants live there – we don’t want to destroy their home!”
Help at home: Can your child use their new topic vocabulary in a sentence?
Maths: Division
This week in Maths, we’ve been working hard on developing our understanding of division. We’ve been using our knowledge of multiplication facts to help us solve division problems, making links between the two concepts.
Help at home:
To further support your child at home, please continue practising the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, as this will really help build their confidence and fluency. You can also support your child by creating simple, real-life division problems for them to solve in everyday situations.
Here are some suggestions to try:
- Sharing snacks:
“We have 10 biscuits and 2 people. How many biscuits will each person get?” - At dinner time:
“There are 15 chips and 3 people. Can you share them equally?” - Tidying toys:
“You have 20 LEGO pieces. Can you put them into groups of 5? How many groups will you make?” - Setting the table:
“We have 10 forks and 5 people. How many forks does each person get?” - Shopping or unpacking food:
“We bought 6 yoghurts for 3 days. How many can we have each day?” - Grouping objects:
Use small items like coins or buttons:
“Can you make groups of 2 from 12 coins? How many groups are there?”
Multiplication Tables Check
Coming up the first week after half-term, Year 4 will be completing their Multiplication Tables Check (MTC).
They will have to answer 25 times table facts and will have 6 seconds for each question. It will be completed on the iPads.
I’m so proud of all the progress Year 4 have made with their times tables this year. They’ve put in so much time and effort and this is reflected in their fluency.
In preparation for the MTC, ensure your children are practising their times tables up to 12s at home. Here are some ideas:
- Visit https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check to complete a practice MTC.
- Go on TTRS and do Garage and Soundcheck.
- Ask your child a different times table fact at each meal time.
- Play a game to see who can answer 10 times table facts the quickest.
- Stick some post-it notes around the house with different multiplication facts on.
Science: Does the amount of seeds affect the growth of a plant?
Does the amount of seeds affect the growth of a plant?
Year 3 have set up a test to see whether the amount of seeds in one pot affects the growth of a plant and more specifically a dwarf sunflower!
What are we measuring?
We are measuring the height of the plants in centimetres every week.
What are we keeping the same?
We are keeping the size of the pots, the amount we water them and conditions (windowsill) the same.
What are we changing?
We are changing the amount seeds in each pot: 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 seeds per pot.
We went out in the sun to plant these and to plant our own individual sunflower seeds too!
The children will measure how these grow over the weeks and take them home.
Check back here to see updates!
Help at home by predicting what you think will happen to our 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 seeds’ growth.
Living and Learning: the importance of exercise
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.
During the school day, here’s some ways we move our bodies:
Travelling to and from school by walking, bike or scooter
Wake Up Shake Up
Running around at playtimes
PE: basketball
The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.
We spent part of our lesson moving our bodies!
Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local junior park run, tennis lessons or have a look at our local physical activity guide for more ideas!
Maths: column addition
Year 3 have recently learnt how to add two numbers using column addition. Column addition is a great method for when we aren’t able to use reasoning and mental maths to help us add numbers together.
Top tips:
- Use HTO to help you line up your numbers.
- Use one digit per box to keep it neat and tidy.
- Always start adding from the smallest value column!
This is what your working out might look like if each column adds up to 9 or less.
We have then learnt what to do if a column totals 10 or more! We use these facts to help us:
10 ones = 1 ten
10 tens = 1 hundred
We must exchange the 10 ones for 1 ten and mark it underneath our answer box and do the same for 10 tens exchanged for 1 hundred.
Help at home by practising this method. Can you add two 3-digit numbers using column addition?
Herd Farm 2026!
We’ve just got back from our Year 4 residential to Herd Farm and it was brilliant! One of the reasons we like to take the children on a residential visit is to find out more about the children outside of school as well as the obvious opportunity to experience the adventurous activities. This year was no different – we see a whole different side of the children and love having a laugh with them outside the classroom!
It was an amazing visit and the children were fabulous. There were hesitations and nerves about some activities but everybody gave it a go and a lot of them surprised themselves. This is what they got up to…
We hope you had some very happy (and tired!) children tell you all about it!
Guided Reading Week 3
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 8th May.
Ghost Hunter– up to page 160
Kensuke’s Kingdom – up to page 117
Two weeks with the Queen – up to page 95
How to train your dragon – up to page 159
Spy fox– up to page 127
Considine Curse – up to page 137
Science – reversible changes
This week in Science, we have been looking at reversible changes. We mixed sand with water to create a mixture. Then, we separated the mixture using filter paper which captures the sand and let the water pass through.
Next, we dissolved some salt in some water. This made a solution so we couldn’t just filter the salt out. We decided that we wanted to test if we could use evaporation to separate the salt and water. We poured our solution into a petri dish and left it on the window sill to see what happened.
We observed the changes over the next few days, making sure we recorded our findings in our books. We were very excited to see the salt reappear.
Help at home by talking to your child about their experiment. Is there any other time they have seen evapoartion?