Term 3, 2020

Vile Victorians

Welcome back! I hope you had an exciting but relaxing Christmas holiday! I am really looking forward to teaching Willow Class for my first term full-time and am especially enthused by our topic on Victorians!

Curriculum

During registration (8.45-8.55), is time for Early Work: this focuses on skills that need frequent practice to support all areas of the curriculum. We will be practising spellings Monday to Thursday. Please make sure the children come to school with their spelling books which they need to bring into the classroom promptly, ready to practise their spellings.

ENGLISH:

Reading: We will carry out guided reading 4 times per week from 8.55-9.25. Our guided reading sessions will focus on a strategy called 'Reciprocal Reading.' In each session, the children will focus on a different skill. The four skills covered will be 'questioning, summarising, predicting and clarifying.' For questioning, the children will make up their own questions about the text; for summarising they will say what events have happened, who the main characters are etc; for prediction, they will state what they think will happen next using the text as evidence, and finally; for clarifying, they may consider words or events that they do not understand. An adult will work with each group at least once a week.

(When you read with your children each day, it would be useful if your child could practise these skills.)

Writing: We will use the Literacy strategy, ‘The Write Stuff,’ to learn our writing skills through  the story of Street Child at the start of term 3. We will then move into biographical writing, with our intended outcome being to produce a biography on Queen Victoria or a famous Victorian inventor of our choice. Our SPAG skills will be woven through this, as well as being part of our Headstart Spelling Strategy.

MATHEMATICS: We will continue to follow the Year 4 program of study. This term focusses on multiplication and division. We will start by revising our place value skills when multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100, moving quickly into understanding what happens when we multiply and divide by 0 or 1. After this, the children will be introduced to the 6x, 9x, 7x, 11x and 12x tables, which they will continue to practise throughout the academic year. Please practise the 3x, 4x and 8x prior to this, making sure they know these really well and are ready for the next stage of their learning.

TOPIC: We will be taking a trip back in time to the era of Queen Victoria, starting with a Victorian day on Friday 10^th January. (A separate letter will come out to inform you about this.) As part of our topic, we will use our historical skills to compare the life of rich and poor Victorians, empathise with the lives of Victorian children, learn facts about Victorian inventions, as well as the important role of Queen Victoria during this era. We will also use our geographical skills to consider the dangers of the industrial revolution on pollution, particularly in cities like London.

SCIENCE:  This term, we will all be Victorian inventors (or famous Victorians, interested in observing the progress of Science in our era). Our amazing Queen, HRH Queen Victoria has taken a deep interest in the role of Inventors under her reign and has challenged us to a range of investigations to support her beloved people. These include testing materials to keep food frozen (there were no fridges in those days!), testing food products to thaw food quickly and considering the invention of the telephone and the importance of vibrations and sound waves in allowing this form of communication to work.

RE: This term, we will focus on the core beliefs and values of Christianity, including the role of Christian charities in the community. We will learn about the role of a church leader, what their daily routine might look like, as well as other important work they would carry out in the community. We will also look at the work of Thomas Barnado, a Christian from Victorian times that set up homes to support poverty-stricken children.

ART: During term 3, we will look at the work of Victorian artist, William Morris. We will analyse the patterns in his work, copy them using a range of materials then produce our own ‘William Morris’ style art pieces.

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY: For the term’s ‘Fabulous Finish,’ the children will use their skills to design a Victorian-style puppet theatre, creating these in small groups.

PE: This term PE will be on a Thursday afternoon. As well as this, we will have swimming on a Friday morning (as per the letter sent out at the end of last term).

All children are expected to take part every week and must have their PE kit in school at all times. We will do outdoor PE on the field unless the weather makes this impossible, so please ensure children have footwear suitable for wet and muddy conditions.

If your child does any school sports clubs can we suggest that they have a separate kit for those so that their PE kit can remain in school for PE lessons. If your child is not able to take part in PE due to injury, please ensure you send a note stating this to the office.

DAILY REQUIREMENTS

• Reading diary. Please ensure your child is reading every day for 15-20minutes. Please ask them to explain what they have read once a week. Can you discuss the book with them? What has happened? What might happen next? How do the characters feel? Please ask your child to focus on our reciprocal reading foci: questioning, predicting, summarising and clarifying. These will be looked at every Thursday.
• Buster Book Club Bookmark (complete Wednesday, bring to school Thursday)
• PE kit – every day please, even if children have attended a sports club. Please ensure that this includes well-fitting shoes suitable for sports. 
• Painting apron if you haven’t already brought one into school.
• Coat and High Viz Jacket

Please could children leave gadgets and toys at home unless a project specifically calls for them.

HOMEWORK

Please see the homework grid for all homework for term.

Websites

logins Bug Club reading - www.activelearnprimary.co.uk school code - 6jqa.

Weblinks to support your child at home:

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/  General homework help

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/mental

Times table songs

I cannot stress enough how important it is for the children to learn their times tables. From Year 4, they underpin many mathematical concepts which the children will struggle with without a solid times table understanding.

As well, as using TT Rockstars and simple reciting, the following are the links to songs for each of the times tables. The children can listen to these and sing along in order to learn each one. I will also be using them in class! Although I have checked the videos are appropriate, as it is Youtube, the adverts may not always be. Please make sure you set these up for the children so you can check them first, before letting your child watch them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XzfQUXqiYY 3 X TABLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJY1_fzzM6Y 4 X TABLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X620IeUkYE 8 X TABLE SONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9os1VUUp5io 6 X TABLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH171nowcJk&list=PLSIYqOvhfLqJfDczj4BIXGhhesFZc8kS2&index=89 X TABLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Iyvoo7wNI 7 X TABLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvHO1qjguUY 11 X TABLE SONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMbMPVi5F4 12 X TABLE SONG

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns; I will be happy to help.

Joanne Seymour