Reading: Performing Poems
The children have been performing the poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ by William Wordsworth to their peers. In this homework review, the children practised their oracy skills of:
- eye contact,
- voice projection,
- fluency and pace,
- and tonal variation.
The outcome was fantastic!
Science: Our Solar System
In Science this week, we learnt about our solar system. We sorted fact cards into four different categories (planets, sun, moon or Earth). Then, we carried out research using secondary sources (a form of scientific enquiry).
This learning linked to our Computing and Living and Learning curriculum as we discussed the reliability and accuracy of information from the fact cards and the websites which we were looking at.
In addition, we created solar system posters; have a look at our fabulous work:
Finally, we made mnemonics to remember the order in which the planets orbit the sun.
Help at home: Come up with a new mnemonic to remember the order of our solar system. Here is an example:
Mercury My
Venus Very
Earth Epic
Mars Marvellous
Jupiter Jumper
Saturn Suits
Uranus Unqiue
Neptune Neil
Or why not watch the ‘we are planets’ song.
Week 2: The Secrets of Winter
Literacy
Our focus story was The Secrets of Winter by Carron Brown and Georgina Tee. We had a lots of fun shining a torch onto the pages to find the hidden winter surprises.
On Wednesday, we talked about the difference between non-fiction and fiction books and why they are both important. We then sorted a selection of non-fiction and fiction books into two groups.
We’ve also learnt lots of interesting facts about penguins! We watched various videos, talked about the life cycle and had a go at writing our favourite facts. Ask your child if they can remember one fact about penguins.
Maths
This week, we continued to engage with counting activities. A key focus this week has been the stable order principle – understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. To help us understand the stable order principle, we used cubes, blocks and other resources to make staircase patterns.
When making our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman. We used our imaginations and pretended to build snowmen.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the challenges this week…
Reminders
- Please make sure you write in your child’s reading record when you’ve read at home. It is important we see how your child is doing with their reading at home.
- Don’t forget our Phase 3 Funky Phonics Stay & Learn session! Thank you to everyone who has returned their slip. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday and Tuesday.
- E-books are assigned every Thursday. Please make sure your child reads this daily at home.
Home-Link Challenge
Class assembly reminder Wednesday 18th January
We look forward to welcoming you to our second class assembly next Wednesday.
The children are looking forward to sharing their learning.
The assembly starts at 2:40pm. We hope to see you there!
Living and Learning – drugs, alcohol and tobacco
The last couple of weeks have been focused on talking about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This topic is really important. The children have become familiar and educated on these substances so that once they are old enough, they can make safe and informed decisions on what they choose to do.
The year 4 children identified how certain drugs and household items (i.e. paracetamol or surface cleaner) should be used safely. They were really sensible and knew exactly what to do:
- Do not touch these items without permission from a trusted adult.
- The instructions on the products must be followed.
- Keep them out of reach of small children.
Our circle time was focused on this too! We spoke about how these substances can affect our health. The children responded to statements such as, I drank some water today, I think talking about my feelings makes me healthy and being thin automatically makes someone healthy. We decided that as long as we have things in moderation such as, chocolate and sweets and we balance them with fruit, vegetables and exercise then that will make us feel healthy.
We are readers!
On Thursday afternoon Year 1 decided to change around their book corner. Mr McGriffiths spread out lots of new and interesting books on our tables and we were able to explore all the books. Everyone was very excited to look through and read these different books, which ranged from superhero potatoes to snow dragons via mischievous cats! In the end, we had to choose just one book to go into the book corner. It was very difficult to choose but we can’t wait to share our choice with our friends!
I was very proud of how enthusiastic all the children were when exploring and reading the books and I am very excited to get reading these books to the whole class!
Help at home: make sure you are reading your library books with your children every week as well as enjoying reading books to and with them. Don’t forget to write in your child’s reading record ever week when you have read their e-book.
Living and Learning: drug education
In our latest Living and Learning lessons, we’ve been learning about safety around medicines and household products.
We considered:
What are medicines?
What do they look like?
How are they used?
Why do people use them?
The children had lots to share about their experiences of taking different medicines and what they are used for.
Using different scenarios, we thought about what would be the best things to help. Sometimes a hug, some water, rest, a tissue or sleep can be enough to help someone feel better and medicine might not be needed.
Then, we considered safety rules at home and how to keep themselves and others safe.
We discussed the following safety rules depending on whether they were true or false or if it depends on the situation.
In some more scenarios, we thought about why the situation was unsafe and what the character could do to prevent a danger.
We need to take the right medicine for us.
Medicine should only be given by adults.
The wrong medicine can make you very poorly.
These are adult pills and they should not touch them.
They need to be kept in a safe place.
Help at home: please reinforce this key safety message at home. Make sure your child is aware of possible dangers at home, such as medicines and household products, and how to seek help if they need it.
Last Friday, a poem was sent home for Year 4 to learn. Learning a poem by heart is a really important skill for children to practise and Year 4 have done a fantastic job of this!
Catch a Little Rhyme by Eve Mirriam (CC)
Once upon a time
I caught a little rhyme
I set it on the floor
but it ran right out the door
I chased it on my bicycle
but it melted to an icicle
I scooped it up in my hat
but it turned into a cat
I caught it by the tail
but it stretched into a whale
I followed it in a boat
but it changed into a goat
When I fed it tin and paper
it became a tall skyscraper
Then it grew into a kite
and flew far out of sight …
As you can see, the poem contains lots of rhyming words and this really helped the children get into a rhythm when reciting the poem to the class.
The performances have been great with amazing expression, clear and projected voices and some children even added actions to help them remember the words – very clever!
Help at home by occasionally reading poems instead of fiction or non-fiction books to broaden the children’s reading.
Living and Learning: drug education
In our latest Living and Learning lessons, we’ve been learning about safety around medicines and household products.
We considered:
What are medicines?
What do they look like?
How are they used?
Why do people use them?
The children had lots to share about their experiences of taking different medicines and what they are used for.
Using different scenarios, we thought about what would be the best things to help. Sometimes a hug, some water, rest, a tissue or sleep can be enough to help someone feel better and medicine might not be needed.
Then, we considered safety rules at home and how to keep themselves and others safe.
We sorted the following safety rules depending on whether they were true or false or if it depends on the situation.
In some more scenarios, we thought about why the situation was unsafe and what the character could do to prevent a danger.
We shouldn’t take someone else’s medicine. It is just for them.
Medicine should only be given by adults.
These might be tablets so they shouldn’t touch them.
They should tell an adult they have found them.
Help at home: please reinforce this key safety message at home. Make sure your child is aware of possible dangers at home, such as medicines and household products, and how to seek help if they need it.
Spring term after-school clubs
