A very busy half term for Cherry Class. A highlight being our trip, the Roman Baths in readiness for our History topic next half term. We all thoroughly enjoyed the workshop where we got to dress as Romans, create mosaics and look at artefacts before taking on the role of an archaeologist, digging for further artefacts, building Roman structures and identifying Roman sculptures. After all that, we got to explore the Roman Baths themselves, even getting to taste the water – it was disgusting!!
Another standout for this half term was Health and Fitness Week. We all had fun participating in a variety of sports: gymnastics, dance, hockey, football and orienteering along with tasting a mixture of fruit and vegetables!
In Maths we have heavily focused on our times tables. We have learnt both multiplication and division facts for several of our times tables applying our knowledge to reasoning and problem-solving questions. We also continue to use Doodle Tables to enhance our recall.
In our Guided Reading lessons we focused on the text, Shackleton’s Journey’ as this closely links with our Geography topic of Antarctica. We have been able to retrieve and identify pieces of text that will support our explanations and inferences. Furthermore, we have learnt new vocabulary and applied this to our understanding in our Geography lessons. In Geography we have identified the physical features of Antarctica and how life can survive through adaptation. Later in the half term we discussed how global warming is affecting the continent.
In our English writing lessons, we have written both fiction (poem based on a season of our choice) and non-fiction (persuasive advert based on edible cups!). We worked together to collect relevant vocabulary to enhance our writing along with ‘deepening the moment’ through use of metaphor and simile.
We have loved having Mr. Phillips teach us football in PE. We have worked upon our attacking and defending skills. In the forest, we climbed trees, built dens and had fun in the mud kitchen! Some of us enjoyed whittling and sawing along with making Remembrance themed God’s Eyes.
In PSHE we have built upon our BIG IDEA of Celebrating Differences, and we are now able to define vocabulary such as: stereotypes, prejudice, unique and judgement. In RE we have developed and deepened our knowledge of the Nativity story, with a main focus on symbolism.
Cherry Class are in for another busy term after Christmas and we are all looking forward to it!
Remember, to keep checking the Longvernal Facebook Page to see what Cherry Class have been up to!
I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
Best wishes,
Miss Collins
Logistics for Term 3
PE – Friday afternoon (SWIMMING)
Forest – Wednesday afternoon (*CHANGE OF DAY*)
Homework – Children are to learn their personal spellings, read a minimum of 3 times a week (recorded in their reading log), complete a scrapbook style journal entry and complete 10 minutes of Doodle Maths or Doodle Tables. Ideally, children need to practise their times tables as often as possible.
Time flies when you’re having fun! Cherry Class have had a brilliant start to Year 4 and have been working hard across the curriculum and have grown in maturity and increased their levels of independence already!
In Maths, we have worked hard to build upon our place value knowledge, learning the value of digits, adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000, as well as learning Roman numerals and ordering and comparing numbers to 10,000. We have also been spending a lot of time practising our times tables.
In English, we have enjoyed writing a narrative based on ‘Feast’, a short Disney film. We have introduced new writing techniques, as well as developing techniques we were already familiar with. Our Guided Reading lessons have allowed us to explore ‘Roar’, which we are also enjoying as a class novel. We also focused on novels and non-fiction texts based on inspirational black people, such as Nelson Mandela, during the month of October to recognise Black History Month. We have continued to work on our written answers to a variety of question types.
We have focused on fitness in our PE lessons, exploring how to improve our balance, agility and speed. We have enjoyed working as a team, and independently to improve on this. It has been great to get back out into the forest, we straight back to climbing trees, building dens and playing in the mud kitchen. Furthermore, we have created Gods Eyes, tree spirits and pine cone creatures!
In History our focus has been the Ancient Greeks, we have explored who were the smartest Greeks, become familiar with who Alexander the Great was and identified what legacy the Greeks left behind, we have done all of this through a variety of oracy tasks, which has been great!
In PSHE, we have focused on ‘Being Me in My World’, we have had many class discussions on how we fit into our communities, and what democracy is, and putting that into practice by voting for our class school counsellor. Our Art lessons consisted of learning how to use shading to create a 3D image. We later developed images through using scissors which we then recreated using wax crayons and kebab skewers!
A firm favourite of ours this half term has definitely been our Science lessons which focused on states of matter. We have learnt the properties of solids, liquids and gases and have been able to sort and group materials. We have carried out some investigations to identify how temperature affects state, as well as making Oobleck to explore whether it was a solid or a liquid. We will continue this topic next half term before we move onto sound.
I hope that you all have a great half term and come back feeling refreshed ready for another jam-packed half term on the lead up to Christmas!
Best wishes
Logistics:
Forest – Tuesday afternoon
PE – Friday afternoon
What a lovely week Cherry Class has had! The children have all settled back into school life so well and they have loved being back with their friends. The children have got straight back into learning new things and working hard.
We have started our place value topic in Maths, along with beginning to practice and rehearse of our times tables (a huge focus for us this year!) In English we have begun writing a narrative based on the short Disney film, Feast. The children are very excited to find out what happens as we get further into the plot. In science we are exploring states of matter and are very much looking forward to making Oobleck next week to identify the differences between states! These are just a few of the highlights so far and there is much more to come so keep an eye on our Facebook page and website for further Cherry Class updates.
Important Information:
Tuesday – Forest
Forest school will take place regardless of the weather (unless extreme) so please can you ensure your child is wearing appropriate clothing (long sleeve tops and trousers) as well as bringing their wellies and waterproofs in a separate labelled bag to change in and out of, if necessary.
Thursday – PE
Please could children come into school wearing the correct PE kit (Longvernal P.E. t-shirt, black shorts or sports trousers and trainers). PE will be outside for the first term, so black Longvernal fleeces or green Longvernal jumpers can also be worn.
Homework –
Weekly spellings – found in your child’s Reading Record and tested every Friday.
Read a minimum of 3 times a week (recorded in their reading log)
Complete a scrapbook style journal entry
Complete 10 minutes of Doodle Maths/Tables
Practise their times tables as often as possible.
I am very much looking forward to an exciting year ahead!