Welcome to Penguins class.

We are Year 3&4 and we are taught by Mr Young and Miss Winfield. 

Welcome to Spring! 

The weather should start to improve and the daylight will slowly extend! Hurrah!

This term our maths has a continued focus on multiplication and division - moving on from the fact based lessons last term to the methods in this term. Keep working on learning the tables though - the work you've done is beginning to pay off!

Our geography will focus on many things including discovering more information about the polar regions - this will tie into out English learning about Ernest Shackleton and his adventures!

In Science we will be learning about life processes and discovering what makes a living thing, a living thing! We will also learn about teeth, skeletons and muscles! 

In English we will be reading a couple of different books linked to the same topic and we will discover if they same story is always told from the same viewpoint. We will be writing newspaper reports, persuasive letters and potentially a biography.

Mrs Droy will be leading Forest activities on Wednesday afternoons, and our class PE slot will be MONDAY so as always, please ensure you have the correct kit on the correct day.

Madame Ziebeck will be teaching French on Wednesday afternoon as we will be having our music sessions on Monday afternoons now. 

Homework and spellings will be available on the class TEAMS page from Monday 6th January along with the Spring spelling list which takes us all the way to Easter - if one set is within your confidence zone, then use the fact you have them in plenty of time to learn those that you are less sure of - if you need a paper copy, let me know.

As always, if you need support with this, please do grab me and we can sort a time for a mini-tutorial.

Year 4's need to start focusing on their timetables, over and above home learning tasks, as they sit the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) in June. This is a 25 question 'test' set by the Department for Education for all Year 4 children to complete. They are set 6 seconds to answer each question - I will be doing regular times tables work with them during the week but the link below is the app we use in school to replicate the timings and appearance of the 'test':

https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/ it would be great if you could support this at home across the year.

My thanks, as always, for your continued support!

MR Y

Year 3 & 4 home learning

Every week, we will be looking at new Spelling rules / patterns which help us in our writing. The term list will be sent via TEAMS (hard copy available from this webpage) and there will be a weekly test.

If your child is secure on a particular set, you can begin working on those spellings later in the term as you have the full set.

You will receive weekly homework in the form of a READ task and Spellings. Spelling lists will be set on a termly basis via TEAMS, to be tested on Friday. READ tasks will be set per book for those on banded books, and weekly for those Free-Readers who are reading thicker texts. 

Children in Penguins will also receive termly homework, given out in the first week of term on TEAMS and due back in the last week of term. This is usually 6 activities to be completed across 6 weeks (but this may change due to the length of a particular term). These activities cover Literacy, Maths, Science, Art, Design and much more but will all allow you and your child to get really involved in our class topics.

Literacy

In Literacy, we work hard on a range of skills, both in Reading and Writing. Everyday we have a spelling and phonic session looking at age-appropriate rules and patterns, a Writer's Toolkit session looking at Grammar and Punctuation and a Guided Reading session looking at our comprehension and inference skills. In our main Literacy lesson, we look at reading and writing skills, both composition and creative skills. We often use to Drama to help us understand better the texts we are looking at and Talk for Writing skills help us get ready to get our ideas down on paper.

Reading

Each child has their own school reading book, chosen with an adult from school library at an appropriate reading band for that child. Your child will bring this home, along with their 'READ book' - this is their reading diary where they need to record what and when they are reading. In this book will also be a READ activity; a specific task we would like your child to complete to help support their comprehension of the text they have brought home. This task should be completed once a week (for Free-readers) and per book for those on banded books. Reading books can be changed on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday but we expect children to have their school reading book and READ book in school every day.

If your child would also like to read books from home, that is very much encouraged! Please write any extra books you also read at home in your READ book so we can see the wide range of literature you are getting through! If you have a request for the school library, a book you would love to find on the shelves to have as a school reading book, please pop a note in the requests box on the shelf and we will see what we can do!

Maths

In Penguin Class, we are working very hard on our Maths Passport targets; learning all of our number bonds, times tables, division facts and mental maths skills. We are trying our hardest to make sure we know our 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables. Every child has their own targets which can be worked on by following the link below...

 Useful Links