Term 2

Welcome to Term 2, Oak Class!

There’s lots to look forward to this term so let’s get stuck in!

In English, we will read the wonderful book ‘Cloud Tea Monkeys’ by Mal Peet, using this to inspire our writing. We will continue to consolidate key skills in sentence-building, learning to create more complex sentences by using conjunctions and adverbials, as well as integrating speech into our writing and exploring writing in different tenses. As readers, we will enjoy The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman, delving into a world of mysterious fireworks and adventurous journeys, and exploring some brilliant new vocabulary along the way.

In Maths, we will continue our work on addition and subtraction – using both written and mental methods – before building on our already strong knowledge of times tables to explore multiplication and division in different contexts. The term will finish with a short unit learning about area. We will continue with our work on times tables, with Year 3 moving on to the 5 times table and Year 4 consolidating the 8 times table.

Our Science learning will see us continue to learn about the human digestive system, including carrying out an investigation to find the effect of different liquids on our teeth. After this, we will learn about forces, carrying out a range of investigations. This will be consolidation and extension of last year’s learning for year 4, and brand-new learning for Year 3.

In History, we will be learning about the fascinating Indus Valley civilisation as we ask the question ‘Who lived in the Indus Valley and what do we know about them?’. The Indus Valley was one of the world’s earliest civilisations, known for its well-planned cities, clever drainage systems and beautifully crafted objects. Children will discover how people lived, traded and created a thriving society thousands of years ago!

Our PSHE learning is centred around ‘Celebrating Difference’; we will explore what makes people different from each other and discussing and challenging some of the assumptions that we can make when we notice differences. Within this unit, we will also explore how we can stand up to bullying. Meanwhile, in PE we will be developing our skills in Football and Netball.

In Music, we will have plenty of opportunities to practise playing musical instruments as we explore different pieces and styles of music to answer the question ‘What stories does music tell us about the past?’. We will also spend plenty of time practising Christmas carols ahead of our end-of-term service, and an exciting opportunity for everyone to sing at the Westbury Christmas Lights switch-on – look out for more information about this coming soon!

Finally, our term will finish up with a DT project to design and create an afternoon tea to share with our parents. We will create invitations and menus, design and cook sweet and savoury snacks, and enjoy a festive afternoon tea together at the end of term.

Term 1

It has been wonderful to see Oak Class return to school with such a wonderful, positive attitude and ready to learn! Thank you to everyone for making the effort with book bags, PE kit and reading records – it is making a huge difference already to our routines each day.

Once we have settled back into the routines and expectations, we have lots of exciting learning to tackle. In our writing lessons, we have started exploring the beautiful picture book ‘Leon and the Place Between’ and talking about what it would be like to visit the circus. We will be recapping some of the most important skills involved in writing, leading us to create our own advert for a circus act and to write our own ‘portal’ stories. Our whole-class reading lessons will see us explore the poetry of Carol-Ann Duffy, focusing on fluency in reading aloud and exploring new vocabulary.

In Maths, we will build our understanding of increasingly large numbers, beginning with 3-digit numbers and building up to 4-digit numbers. We will spend a good amount of time looking at different ways to represent and work with these numbers as they form the foundation of much of our learning this year. We will then move onto mental and written strategies for addition and subtraction. Alongside this work, we will have daily times tables sessions, aiming to build fluency in all of our times tables to 12x12 by the end of Year 4.

In Geography, we are asking ‘What are the unique features of the UK?’, which will see us exploring the counties of the UK, the different words we use to describe the country we live in, and comparing rural and urban locations. In Science, our big question is ‘What happens to the food we eat?’. We will start off by looking at the five food groups and discussing different human and animal diets, before looking at the impact on our world of food waste. Later in the term, we will explore the human digestive system and carry out an investigation into the impact of our food choices on our teeth.

In our PE lessons on Wednesdays with Mrs Hobbs, we will be learning handball, whilst on Fridays with Miss Howick we will learn the rules and skills involved in playing cricket. In PSHE, we are exploring our place within our class and school communities as we think about ‘being me in my world’. In Music, we will learn to sing and play a range of songs as we think about musical structures, and at the end of term we will develop our sketching skills in Art.

Pictures of our fantastic learning are on the way!