YEAR 3
Dear Parents,
What a great week to come back to school; no snow, sun, and warm wind! Students were thrilled to take advantage of outdoor time, to explore what is sprouting, to enjoy the sun’s warmth, and to talk about what else they would like to know about plants.
During the next few weeks, students in Year 3 will have the opportunity to explore more about plants: how they grow, what they need, what parts they have. Students will get their hands dirty as they will learn how to germinate and sprout their own bean to grow into a plant. Hands on opportunity to learn about the natural world around them, as well welcoming the change in season, and enjoy the warming weather outside.
YEAR 4
It has been a great start to term 3 for Year 4. The children have settled well back into the school routine.
In English we started our new non-fiction unit about the ‘The Shang Dynasty’. We thought of questions for things we want to find out, learnt to summarise, identified true and false statements using supporting evidence from the reading text and revised the use of pronouns for clarity and cohesion.
In Math, we have been exploring Number and Place Value. We have learnt how to write 4- and 5-digit numbers in words and vice versa, multiply and divide whole numbers by 10 and 100 and order and work out the difference between negative numbers.
In Topic we started our new unit: ‘Rivers and Water’. This week we used laptops to research about different major world rivers, specifically the continents and countries in which they are located.
In Science we started our new unit about ‘Grouping Living Things’. This week we learnt new vocabulary and worked in pairs to research information about different species of animals specifically the group they belong to and the habitat in which they live.
YEAR 5
It has been a busy first week back in this, our final term for the current Academic year. In English we have considered different genres of writing and ways of obtaining
information through both fiction and non-fiction. This is in the build up to beginning a new unit of work. We have also been working on a shared comprehension task and
considering the different types of questions we might expect to answer so for example, retrieval questions where we look for information in the text or an author’s choice where we focus on the words chosen by the writer.
In Maths we have reviewed some of the basics again and completed a short arithmetic paper at the beginning of the week. We have also revisited using rounding up or down to complete simple mental maths addition of decimal numbers.
In Science we began a biology unit of work on Life Cycles and enjoyed completing a quiz to test and check our prior knowledge, before looking at some examples of life cycles of plants and animals. We have also planted some seeds and bulbs which we hope will flower in the not so distant future.
We will continue with Topic and our previous unit of work from last term, today. All in all, Year 5 have continued to work hard and do their best in every class, working
amicably together and supporting one another.
YEAR 6
We have had a great week in Year 6. The weather has been great and we have been having fun playing outside. In class we have been working hard on a new novel study with Mr. Marsh. We have been learning how to pull information from the story and creating our own dictionaries of words we didn't know. In science Mr. Marsh has been teaching us about the human body and the role nutrition and exercise has on our bodies, it has been really interesting.
FRENCH
In Year 6 and in Year 5, we spoke about Easter in France. We learnt the main vocabulary, how to write it, how to pronouce it properly. We played with dominos and we did crosswords together. Playing dominos was a good exercice. We had to match the pictures with the good word. After that, using the domino we could easily write and fill the crosswords. The pictures were the same and we just had to link the pictures and to write correctly the words. In Year 4 and in Year 3 we spoke about the human body. We learnt the vocabulary. We drew the differents parts of the body and we wrote next to each part the translation in French. After that, we played to "Simon says" to remember which part of the body correspond in French. It was a very interesting week in French.
MUSIC
Such a wonderful first week we had at school in our music lessons. We have been practising with lines, intonations and ‘slow’ voice this week. The students learned about positions on the stage and the way they can speak to be heard by audience. Years 3 and 4 were rehearsing a new song from the Robin Hood Musical. The students have been practising singing in harmony with two voices.
ART
Year 3 are learning about symmetry this week. Using a grid, the children drew a butterfly on one side and repeated its symmetry on the other side. They then used warm colours for the butterfly parts and cool colours for the background or vice versa.
Year 4 drew a beautiful waterfall this week. Children learned how to draw objects like rocks, grass and surroundings in a simple sketch of a landscape with waterfall and trees.
Year 5 drew mountains. During this art lesson, students examined how atmospheric perspective changes the colours of mountains as they move back into space. Using this as inspiration, students experimented with watercolour paints by mixing colours, and texturing with layers of paper. The final work of art is a beautiful mountain scene at night.
Year 6 students used colourful pictures of insects as inspiration to draw and paint, using watercolours, their own. Insects might look complicated, with lots of tiny legs, delicate feelers and funny shaped bodies, but they are really fun to draw and paint!
