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In English the outcome of all reading activities is to continue developing a sight vocabulary and the strategies required to read accurately, fluently and with understanding. This term, a particular focus will be reading comprehension. Please also make this a focus of your reading sessions with your child, asking them questions about what they have read; both obvious from the text and also and most importantly what is suggested / implied. We will also be discussing word choices made by the author and questioning what the text tells us about the author’s feelings / opinions. Phonological awareness and spelling continue as a major focus. We will continue re-visiting long vowel phonemes, plurals, prefixes and suffixes and I will also be teaching and exploring compound words (pan/cake) and breaking words into syllables. I will send home a letter next week about the new arrangements for spelling. The text types this term are poetry and non-chronological reports (See topic). In poetry we will identify and discuss pattern, rhythm and rhyme. The children will write poems on given themes and formats. To be successful when writing; poems need to have a title, look and sound like a poem and include at least one poetic feature. The easiest feature and the one I will be encouraging is a simple repetitive pattern. We will also be investigating ‘adventurous’ word choices. In handwriting I will be teaching letters in the ‘r’ family.

The theme of R.E is ‘Judasim’ and will involve finding out about Jewish beliefs. Lessons will focus on the Passover celebrations and how through this Jewish people show God that they value him.

The science this term is ‘Living things. We start with a focus on the characteristics of living things and will investigate the differences between living and non-living things. The children will learn that all animals share many characteristics (they move, grow, feed, sleep, use their senses and reproduce). It is important that children learn that as humans we also belong to the group ‘animals’. We will also work on what living things need to stay alive (food, water, air) and will investigate what contributes to a healthy lifestyle.

The topic this term is ‘Rainforests’ and this will be taught by Mr Jeffreys for two lessons a week. Mr Jeffreys is lucky enough to have experienced first-hand a rainforest environment so is very keen to take ownership of our geography based topic about a contrasting locality. The children will start by labelling continents and oceans on a world map and go on to also show rainforests. The geography focus then shifts to English where lessons will focus on learning (through research and from Mr Jeffreys) about rainforests (jungles) and showing what they have learnt in different ways. The children will write fact files and non-chronological reports. This will involve learning about the text layout and headings. In design technology children are going to design and make a ‘jungle globe’ using a jam jar. This will involve using clay. The topic ends with a return to geography to contrast what they have learnt about rainforests with Chippenham.

Learning In Maths continues to involve counting, writing and ordering numbers to 100 and beyond. We will be working with all four number operations ( / / × / ÷) including missing numbers (3x=15/ +14=20 / 15-=11 / ÷10=7. I will be planning lessons on worded problems (Sarah is 16 and her sister is 9. How much older is Sarah?) and problems relating to money. As always I will continue to use coins as a way of learning and working with our number system. We will continue working on the 2, 5, and 10 times tables but this term we will also investigate and learn the related division facts (6x5=30 so 30÷5=6). I will be testing the class on the x facts and sending home information as I did with the + and – facts. The children will continue practising strategies for + and – which will include adding and subtracting 1, 2, & 3 to any number, also 9 or 11, adding 3 numbers, doubling and finding ½ of a given even number. We will also be practising number facts with a focus on pairs that equal 20 and 100. There will be a lot of work on partitioning numbers into hundreds, tens and ones and I will also be encouraging the use of empty number lines to aid a range of calculations. There will be lessons on telling the time at o’clock, ½ past and ¼ to and ¼ past. Accuracy of the hour hand at these times will be a priority. There will also be a focus on working systematically to find all possibilities.

In French this term Madam Webber will be teaching the children about New Year traditions in France and telling them the “Roule Galette” story. They will also revise simple questions and answers about food, colours and body parts through a range of songs and activities.

The topic in computing is ‘You’ve got mail’ and this introduces the children to email. I will be setting them up with a special email address via ‘tocomail’ which they will use to send emails to you and other people that you choose. (Letter to follow in week 3)

Our P.E. sessions are Tuesdays and Thursdays. The children will be working with an FA football coach on Tuesdays (with me) and with Mr Murphy the school’s P.E coach (and Mr Jeffreys) on Thursdays. Mr Murphy is going to teach and play a game called Tchoukball.

StarlingsTerm 3 – 2017 - 2018