Welcome to Lower Juniors!

Years 3 and 4 are taught in this class by Mrs Roberts, supported by Miss Lord, Mrs Wynne and Mr Elliot. Our bright and cosy classroom is in The Nook and benefits from plenty of lovely sunlight.

History: Ancient Egypt

This half term the children will be taking a step back in time to discover what life was like in Ancient Egypt! They will begin by investigating artefacts and thinking about how historians build up a picture of the past before studying the geography of the land of Egypt. They will research the pyramids, which acted as tombs for the Pharoahs and people of significant importance. They will then learn about the challenges of daily life in ancient Egypt, as many had to work incredibly hard. They will derive historically valid questions about the past and compare similarities and differences to today. Then they will move on to explore the mummification process, and why the Egyptians believed it would help the deceased in their travels in the afterlife, which links to the importance of Pharoahs being decorated in their tombs and to create a death mask. We’ll look at how the ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics to write and to decipher messages written in hieroglyphics and also create our own secret messages before seeing if our friends can work out what we’ve said!

All our history work this half term directly supports our English Unit, 'Was Tutankhamen Killed?' in which the children will work on their non-fiction comprehension and writing skills while investigating the mysterious death of the boy king who died in strange and mysterious circumstances. 

Science: Plants

In this unit, children will explore what plants need to grow well, with a focus on the individual functions and parts of a range of plants, including flowering and non-flowering plants. They will begin to compare how plants grow in different soils and explore how fertilisers can be used to improve growth. Children will investigate the amount of water needed to help a leafy pot plant grow well and look in detail at root function. They will also investigate how space affects plant growth by comparing how well grass seeds grow with more or less space. Children will use the results from their investigations to produce a helpful hints and tips card to describe what helps plants grow better.

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: joeb