We are chemists!
This week, we have started our next unit in science: reversible and irreversible changes. For this topic we are going to be chemists. Chemistry is the study of the properties of substances and the changes they go through.
In today’s lesson, we tested which substances could be dissolved in water. If our substance did dissolve this meant that it was soluble and created a solution. If it did not dissolve, then the substance was insoluble.
Our scientific enquiry type was ‘comparative and fair testing’.
Help at home: Discuss our new science vocabulary.
PE – ball skills
This week in PE we have started to work on our ball skills. We will be using our hand eye coordination to throw, catch and aim our balls. We started with a challenge to ourselves – could we catch the ball and clap our hands? If they finished that level then they had to catch the ball after touching their head and shoulders! The children were really determined and did a brilliant job.
We finished the lesson by playing ‘clash ball’. The children had to sit opposite each other and roll their balls so they clashed in the middle. It was lots of fun!
We will continue to practise our ball skills for the rest of the half term.
Help at home by practising throwing and catching different sized balls.
Writing: Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen
Year 3 are going to write a narrative based on Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen.
A narrative is a story and its purpose is interest and entertain.
We’ve watched Michael Rosen perform this poem and it really makes us laugh! Give it a watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWrOeNKvtHI&t=46s
Our narrative will be inspired by this but we’re going to tweak it so that we are sneaking up to the teachers’ staffroom to steal their food.
In our narrative we’re going to include; description, action and dialogue (direct speech).
We’ve began practising our use of inverted commas for direct speech…
Help at home by practising writing direct speech. Have a conversation with someone at home and write it down using inverted commas. Use the list of R2s above to help you!
Summer 1: Week 1
Welcome back!
We hope you had a happy and healthy break. Thank you to the parents who sent in some photos. We really enjoyed sharing these on Tuesday.
This half-term our topic is called Life on Earth. We’ve kicked off our topic by reading The Bug Collector by Alex G. Griffiths in literacy and going on bug hunts. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be learning more about life cycles. We’ll closely observe caterpillars to help us understand the different stages of a life cycle.
Phonics
This week, we’ve started Phase 4. In this phase children will use the phonemes learnt in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to read and spell words with four or more phonemes and words ending in suffixes:
–ing, –ed /t/, –ed /id/ /ed/, –est
Here are some examples:
CVCC words: tent, damp, toast
For example, in the word ‘damp’, d = consonant, a = vowel, m = consonant, p = consonant
CCVC words: swim, plum, spoon
For example, in the word ‘plum’, p = consonant, l = consonant, u = vowel, m = consonant
CCVCC words: stamp, crept, twist
For example, in the word ‘stamp’, s = consonant, t = consonant, a = vowel, m = consonant, p = consonant
CCCVC words: strap scrub strong
For example, in the word, ‘strap’, s = consonant, t = consonant, r = consonant, a = vowel, p = consonant
CCCVCC words: strand strict sprint
For example, in the word, ‘sprint’, s = consonant, p = consonant, r = consonant, i = vowel, n = consonant, t = consonant
They’ll also learn to read and write 18 new tricky words.
Help at home: Practise reading and writing this week’s tricky words.
said so have like
Maths
This week, we continued to engage in activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We revisited the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether.
A key area we have continued to develop is counting strategies for counting larger numbers of objects, including those that cannot be moved. We had lots of fun helping Gary the giraffe count the packets of raisins for our snack. We n develop their counting skills – will help to embed these key areas of understanding.
Living and Learning
On Tuesday, we talked about personal hygiene, including handwashing. We discussed how we keep ourselves clean.
Gur – We clean our face, body and brush our teeth.
Po – We have a bath and a shower.
El – If there’s still dirty stuff in your teeth, you can floss.
Sh – Wash our hands.
Th – I brush my teeth in the morning and just before bed.
We then had a go at a little experiment to see why it is important we wash our hands well with soap.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was called Pitter Patter. Click here to watch us.
Some more fantastic learning…
What is WWII?
We’ve started our new topic for this half term – history! We’ve been very excited about it and the children know lots already.
Before we got started, we looked at our new history vocabulary and rated our confidence as a class: red is never heard it before, orange is heard it but not confident and green is I am fully confident.
Today, we learnt about what WWII was and how it began.
We made a lot of great notes before we recorded a report to announce the outbreak of war.
Help at home by discussing how this lesson links with the following historical concepts:
- invasion
- power
The other concepts we learn about are trade, inequality and innovation.
PE: netball
This half-term in PE, we’re doing netball!
Netball is a fantastic sport for your children to practise a variety of different skills (e.g., passing, catching, shooting, defending etc.).
This week, we began exploring some different ways we can pass the ball in netball – chest pass and bounce pass. We recapped our ‘pass and point‘ technique which we used in rugby. When you release a ball during a pass, your fingers should end pointing towards where you are aiming. This is a great technique to ensure an accurate pass.
Help at home: if you have a ball at home (any ball will do) practise some chest and bounce passes with your child. Remember, you must not move with the ball!
Year 3 and 4 footballers
Today, ten of our year 3 and 4 footballers took part in the Leeds Well School Partnership Year 3/4 football competition at Goals.
We had a great day of back to back matches and all the children were determined, resilient, focussed and worked together as a team supporting each other.
The team fought to secure second place in their first round league and put in some brilliant performances across the day.
A special mention to our goalkeeper who made some amazing saves throughout the day.
Well done to all the children for representing our school so well.
History – Heroes (Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen)
We have started out new history topic all about real life heroes. The first important person we’re learning about it Nelson Mandela. You can find more about him here. He believed that everyone should be treated the same. We will be learning about equality, apartheid and the suffragettes.
Next week, on Friday 2nd May, we have invited all children to come to school dressed as a real life hero.
The vocabulary below links to the two heroes we will be learning about this half term.
Help at home by discussing real life heroes in History that have been important in your family.
Living and Learning: allergies
As part of our health and prevention focus in L&L, today Year 4 learnt all about allergies.
We began by answering the question: What is an allergy?
An allergic reaction happens when a person comes in contact with something that their body thinks will be harmful to them (called an allergen).
We discussed how all our bodies are different and something that may not harm us could make somebody else very poorly.
There are 14 main food allergens:
It’s important to remember that even though we might not see an allergen in our food, doesn’t mean it isn’t in there. To make sure we’re being careful and only eating foods which are safe for us, we must always look at the packaging. The main allergens are always in bold so it’s clear for us to see.
Your children then had the challenge of reading through some recipes and highlighting any allergens that appear.
Then, we discussed some signs of allergic reactions and what we should do if we suspect somebody is having an allergic reaction.
Mild/moderate signs:
- itchy skin rash
- tummy ache or being sick
- puffy eyes or lips
- itchy/tingling mouth
Serious signs:
- difficulty breathing or noisy breathing
- difficulty swallowing
- feeling dizzy, floppy or sleepy
Help at home: watch this video (until 3.22) and discuss these questions with your child. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFAbgaHg26U
- What happened?
- How did Max feel?
- What was the hospital worried about?
- Why did Max’s body react this way?
We met a famous author!
It was Dermot O’Leary! We walked to a different primary school to hear about his new book.
He answered lots of questions – including Ryan’s!
We even did a draw along with his illustrator! It was really fun and we were all able to draw his main character Agent Feathers.
He was really nice and even signed some of our sketch books!
Luca said, “It was really inspiring.”
Rayhan said, “He had such great ideas and imagination.”
Raheem said, “It was really fun going to see a different school and of course meeting Dermot O’Leary.”