Class Teacher - Mrs Partington

 

Terms Three and Four

Our enquiry is: How has electricity changed our lives?

Our big themes are: Purpose, Phenomena and impact 

This term, the children will be exploring the big question: “How has electricity improved our lives?” To help us investigate this, we will work through a series of mini-enquiries:

• What do you know about electricity?
• How can we use electricity?
• How do you make a circuit?
• What’s important about shadows?
• How do we conserve energy?
• What if we cut off all the power?
• What game can you make using light/electricity?

Through talk, learning about significant scientists, practical investigations and having an electricity-free day, children will develop skills as scientists.

This term's learning enquiry is all science-based, so there will be no Geography or History this term.

Phonics  

Some children in our class follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme. Children are assessed regularly and work in groups that closely match the sounds that they need to learn.

Families can support children at home by reading the books that are sent home multiple times across the week so that the children become fluent story-tellers. Children will also have a QR code for the current book that they are reading, which will be given to them on a Friday.

English

Those children who have completed the RWI programme will be doing daily handwriting, first ensuring that letter formation is accurate and then beginning to join when children are ready. This term’s reading lessons are based on the books 'Too Small Tola' by Atinuke and 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. These lessons will develop children’s retrieval skills and help them to understand new vocabulary.

All children’s writing lessons will be based upon the books Home for Grace and Mrs Noah’s Pockets. These lessons will explore literary techniques as well as grammar, and will provide opportunities to create fiction and non-fiction pieces of work. The class will be reading  as our class text.

Maths

Across the term, the children will develop themselves as mathematicians. We will work on multiplication and division as well as fractions. The children will have daily mastering number lessons. Families can support at home by encouraging children to complete short sessions on either Numbots or TT Rockstars.

RE

In RE, we are thinking about morals and what happens if we do wrong in the context of different world views.

PSHE

This term’s first unit focusses on Citizenship. We will learn about children’s rights, charity and local democracy. The next unit focusses on economic wellbeing and we will be learning about budgeting and careers.
PE

Our PE days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please can children come to school wearing their PE kit (white T-shirt, plain black shorts or jogging bottoms, school jumper or school PE hoodie and trainers/daps).
This term, we will focus on dance, followed by tennis.

Science

Our first unit is electricity. We will be learning to identify common appliances that run on electricity, to construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers, to identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery. We will be able to recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit. We will also learn some common conductors and insulators.

Our second unit is light. Children will recognise that they need light in order to see things, notice that light is reflected from surfaces and recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes. They will be learning that shadows are formed when the light from a source is blocked by an opaque object and finding patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.

Music

Our unit on ballads will teach children to sing in time and to tell stories through song. They will compose and perform their own verse.

DT

This term, we will be planning, designing, and creating an electronic charm using a microbit.

ART

Children will be improving their drawing skills this term.

Computing

We will be introducing the concept of networks and learning how devices communicate.

Home Learning

For home learning, children should be doing the following every week: 

• Reading as often as possible – ideally 5 times a week. Please make a note of which book and which pages your child has read (older children can do this themselves)
• Practising times tables on TT Rockstars (go into Garage to practise at the right level) 
• Spelling Shed - Complete spelling games and complete the assignment (specific words) set by Miss Smith 

Children have logins for the websites above in their reading records. Please let Mrs Partington know if the children need another copy of their log-in details.