Lower Juniors

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.

Mr E will be teaching the class for Summer 2.

Geography: Extreme Earth:

The children will learn about the different layers of the Earth. The tectonic plates and their role in creating natural events. Learn and discover about earthquakes and tsunamis. Closing the unit with some practical understanding of volcanoes and the implications volcanoes can have on human settlements. This final lesson will tie in with our art unit as well, linking across the subject knowledge.

Science: Electricity:

The children will discover and analyse electrical appliances, how they use the electricity and what they need to design their own electrical appliance. Children then learn about simple circuits and how to light a bulb. They will recognise some common conductors and insulators by creating a simple experiment to test the materials. From here children will explore through investigations on conductivity, writing their findings up.

English: Spoken Language : Debates

The children will learn how to inference from a piece of non-fiction texts, discuss and form evaluations of their findings. Children will learn how to listen, discuss and analyse different viewpoints. They will have time to challenge different viewpoints, in a respectful manner. They will form their own viewpoints and learn how to justify using evidence. They will have to create their own speech on their viewpoint, those feeling confident can present to the whole class. Those who are less confident may present in smaller groups. Each child will get an opportunity to debate their viewpoint. Practising their oral language skills such as expression whilst also developing their writing and emotive language needed for a speech.

Mathematics: Finding and exploring sequences, place value and multiplication facts.

Children will learn how to spot a sequence, what rules to investigate and how sequences are used in everyday life. They will explore creating their own sequences as well as understanding place value in regards to rounding. Children will learn how to round up to the nearest ten, hundred. They will learn the phrase '4 or less, let it rest. 5 or more, let it sore.' Children, especially year 4, will be having regular lessons drawing on their multiplication facts and knowledge in preparation for their MTC.

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

Maths:

We have been creating our own times table games using their own flashcards. This can be replicated at home as well to improve fluency and speed.