Oak Class

Term 2

In English, we will be continuing our work on the wonderful book Weslandia. Just like Wesley created his own civilisation, we will be inventing our own societies and creating non-chronological reports to spread information about them far and wide! Closer to Christmas, we will read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. As we write a range of texts inspired by this magical story, we will focus on some key aspects of composition and grammar and develop our stamina and independence when writing longer narratives.

Our reading lessons will see us dive into a range of poetry as we explore the book ‘The Lost Spells’. This beautiful collection of poetry about the natural world will help us to experience a wider range of text types and enrich our vocabulary.

Our maths lessons will see us developing our understanding of, and fluency in, the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Year 3 will be finishing our work on mental and written methods for addition and subtraction before exploring connections between the 2, 4 and 8 times tables. After finishing up our work on column subtraction, Year 4 will explore connections between the 3, 6 and 9 times tables. We will also look at the 7, 11 and 12 times tables, and related division facts. Continued practice on TT Rockstars will help all of the children to consolidate the times tables they have learned throughout the year.

In the wider curriculum, we have lots to look forward to!

In science we will be using our research and classification skills to ask ‘How are living things grouped?’, including researching the effect of climate change on animals around the world. Our history learning will see us digging into the fascinating world of Ancient Greece, asking ‘What did the Ancient Greeks bring to the world?’ In Religion and World Views, we will explore the question ‘What is the most significant part of the Christmas story for Christians today?’, and in PE we will be developing our skills in football and basketball.

Towards the end of term, we will use our sewing skills in DT to design, make and evaluate a flag for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and in Computing we will be learning about word processing to create an eye-catching poster to inform others around school about how we can protect our environment. In music, as well as singing and playing lots of Christmas songs, we will be asking ‘How does music connect us to our past?’ and listening to pieces of music from different genres and time periods.

Term 1

Curriculum:

We are enjoying reading the book ‘Tar Beach’ by Faith Ringgold as part of our writing lessons. This beautiful picture book tells the story of a family living in Harlem about 100 years ago, and the dreams that they have for themselves and the people they love. We started off the term by writing poetry about the theme of ‘freedom’, and throughout the term will be writing letters, dialogue, descriptions and even a script for our own 3-part mini-series, which we will perform and record at the end of the term! 

In our spelling sessions, we are focusing on:

• the /u/ sound spelt ‘oul’ as in the words would, could and should
• adding the suffix -ing to verbs, as in the words making, running and flying
• using apostrophes for contraction, as in the words doesn’t, won’t  and can’t

Our reading lessons are based around the book ‘Charlie Changes Into A Chicken’ by Sam Copeland. This funny book has got our year off to a great start and we always look forward to reading the next chapter together. As we explore the book, we are developing our stamina and love for reading, some new vocabulary, and other important reading skills such as prediction and inference.

Our Maths this term is largely focused around place value, with Year 3s exploring numbers to 1,000 and Year 4s going up to 10,000. We are recapping some of the key knowledge from previous year groups to help us to get to grips with these larger numbers. Meanwhile, Year 4s are continuing on their quest to master all of their times tables by the end of the year. After recapping the times tables that we already know, we will move on to our 3 times table. Year 3s are recapping their 2s and 10s before embarking on more structured teaching after Christmas. All children have regular opportunities in school to practise on TT Rockstars and we encourage you to make sure they are logging in at home, too, to get up to speed!

In our wider curriculum, we have some big questions to explore. In Geography we are asking ‘Why is London the capital city of the UK?’ – we will explore what a capital city is, learn about capital cities of other countries, and dig deep into some of London’s transport systems and famous buildings. In Science, we are using investigations, research and building on our prior knowledge to answer the question ‘What role do the different parts of flowering plants play in keeping them healthy?’, and in RWV we are asking ‘How special is the relationship Jews have with God?’. Our Music lessons will see us explore ‘How does music bring us closer together?’ as we play, sing and compose together, learning more about how music can be written down; in French we are learning how to greet each other and introduce ourselves through different speaking, listening, reading and writing activities.

Our PE days are Wednesdays and Fridays – we are learning Dodgeball with Mrs Hobbs on Wednesday mornings, and on Fridays we learn Cricket with our visiting coach, Mr Cox. Children will come home in their PE kit on a Friday and we ask you to make sure it comes back into school with them on Monday mornings, ready for their PE lessons that week.

On the way!

On the way!