Welcome to the lower key stage two class page!

Here, we will keep you posted on all the exciting things the year 3s and 4s are getting up to in class.

Geography: The UK

In this unit, we will take a look at the geography of the UK - from the physical features of mountains, rivers and seas to the man-made administrative regions and counties. The children will find out how the UK has changed over time, looking at how London grew and how the population of the UK as a whole has changed throughout the course of history.

Science: Human nutrition

In this unit children will develop their understanding of their personal health and how this is related to human nutrition, dentition and digestion. They will describe, sequence and investigate the simple functions and the basic parts of the digestive system in humans and they will identify and name the different types of teeth in humans and some other animals, and their simple functions. Children will understand how their teeth could decay and how they could keep teeth healthy.

Working Scientifically, children will have the opportunity to set up simple enquiries and fair tests, asking questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them. They will have compared and contrasted human and other animal dentition. They will have conducted an investigation on tooth decay substituting eggshells as a close representation of human teeth. Children will have used their results to draw simple conclusions and raise further questions. 

Homework

Children will receive English and Maths homework every Friday in their homework books. This is to be completed for the following Monday. Homework is always based on work children have been doing in school and set to suit their abilities. If something is sent home that a pupil needs more help with, please inform us as soon as possible so we can help!

Spellings and Times Tables

Spellings and Times Tables are set on Friday and the children have their test on the following Friday. Children write their spellings in their book and have time to practise in school during the week. All spelling rules are taken from the National Curriculum statutory word list for Year 3 and 4. A selection of games to help pupils practise their spellings can be found below:

https://wordwall.net/en-gb/community/y3/4-statutory-spellings

Pupils are taught times tables in school and time is dedicated to this on a Friday as well during maths lesson during the week. Pupils were given times table sheets (with times tables up to 12×) at the beginning of the year. They are to use this to practise at home. While children are given time to practise in school, it is important they take the time to practise at home too. There are some excellent resources and links below that will help the children to practise recall of times tables below, including Times Tables Rock Stars which all children have a log in for:

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth

https://www.timestables.co.uk/

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

https://talkingtimestables.uk/y4_ks2_mtc_practice_tests_multiplication_tables_check.php

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/times-tables

ActivLearn

Sometimes we use resources, both paper and digital, from Pearson's ActivLearn platform. Pupils can access their own ActivLearn page via the link below:

https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

All pupils have a log in for this which is in the following format:

Example name: Joe Bloggs. Format: firstname all lowercase followed by first letter of surname

Example username: joeb

Example password: juniors

The Guide Dogs

This week the guide dogs paid us a visit. We learnt about how they are a huge help and what it's like to be blind/visually impaired through playing various fun games. It was a super time!

Pet week crafts!

We made origami koala bear book marks and animal face masks.

Biscuit decorating!

To raise money for the guide dogs the children donated a pound and got to wear non-uniform and decorate a biscuit each. 

Iron age hill forts

We first learnt about these early settlements and how they were used for defence. The children then designed their own, made them from dough, before covering them in paper mache and painting them. They look fab!

Sorting Shapes!

We've been looking at the properties of 3D shapes and sorting them into Venn diagrams!

PSHE- Tangram challenge!

We looked at the importance of successful collaboration and teamwork! We spoke about the importance of turn taking, sharing ideas and being considerate of others. We then worked in pairs to solve the challenge and develop our skills!

Asking questions in role!

The children had a go at role playing the different characters from 'Storm' by Kevin Crossley-Holland. They were asked questions and had to answer in role. They did very well!