In honour of Times Tables Day, year 4 decided what their favourite times table facts were, said why and represented it in as many different ways as they could. This representation of the same fact – as an array, as a picture, or a Maths story, or in a different operation – is an activity we regularly do as part of our daily Maths fluency session. It shows deep understanding of the fact and of “number sense”, as opposed to rote learning of facts which is useful but doesn’t help with the reasoning and problem-solving aspects of Maths, which are just as essential as straightforward computation.
Reasons for choosing TT facts included products which were footballers’ numbers ( 10 x 2 = 20), or containing birthday details, or having numbers in cool patterns (11 x 12 = 132). Maybe you know the rhyme for 8 x 8 = 64………. which one class member chose? 12 x 12 = 144 is very popular, for different reasons.
Every child in year 4 was a credit to themselves and their school at Wednesday’s Mercy Mass. Along with the rest of the school, their singing was beautiful and rousing and they participated fully and respectfully in the service.
After Mass there were some celebrations inside and out. The children planted violas round the commemorative tree which had been planted earlier in the day. They then chose activities in the classroom, with many children deciding to play “Interland”, the game where the children learn how to be safe online. We also started our learning about Black History Month, learning about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King from “Horrible Histories” and sharing what we already know about these famous icons.
The classroom is looking bright and interesting with the children’s learning on the wall, including the home learning about Joseph. The paintings were done – carefully – in acrylic paints, throughout the week. Thank you for the painting aprons, at short notice.
The children are finishing the chapter on place value, working with numbers in the thousands. The next topic is adding and subtracting to 10 000. The daily fluency sessions provide opportunities to re-activate Maths learning and also develop the essential skills of sharing understanding, using correct vocabulary, with learning partners.
The home learning about Joseph looks fantastic. As part of understanding Jesus’ ancestry, we have been learning about Ruth and her qualities of loyalty and love, as well as Isaac and his sons Jacob and Esau. Here are the children role-playing these characters. This also gave us an opportunity to join in with some of the “Joseph” musical.
In Art, we have been exploring the stylised work of Julian Opie and used acrylic paints to create people in the style of his work.
]The children are reading more complex books in guided reading and are rising to the challenge of reading books where not everything is explained from the outset and inference and deduction are essential to understand how the plot and characters are unfolding. More and more children are recording their own reading in their reading records and it’s fantastic to see this increased independence and responsibility.
We have practised the songs and hymns for next week’s Mercy mass and hope to see lots of you there on Wednesday the fifth. In the meantime, white rabbits for tomorrow and have a wonderful weekend.
Year 4 is enjoying this half-term’s Music topic “Mamma Mia”. They also love the opportunities for moving and dancing with “imoves”, a popular track being “Eye of the Tiger”. All tracks that the older generations in their families may recognise! Other singing this week includes the songs for the “Mercy mass” on 15th October, with the class improving the words and tune to “Circle of Mercy” very well.
Older generations – including the terms descendants and ancestors – also feature in the current RE topic “Where do I belong?” and the first two pieces of home learning relating to this have a lot of thought put into them.
Place value learning in Maths proved another opportunity to discuss the meanings of similar words meaning going up and down – ascending and descending. The children have become much more accurate and confident in identifying values in 4-digit numbers and using the terminology correctly.
The children seem to be enjoying the books in the year 4 class library. Over the weekend, please think about one of the books you have read recently. As a class, we’re going to create a display with the children’s versions of book covers and reasons why they have enjoyed the books. Please think about what is unique about the book, what you have learnt from it and what the most important part is because this will be what you show on the front cover. We will do the work in class but some prior thinking would be really useful.
It was lovely to see so many of you at “meet the teacher” on Thursday. The slides I used on Google Classroom as a material, along with the year 4 parents’ information booket. If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me, as usual.
This week the children really enjoyed exploring circuits and how to make a working one. Their partner working and sharing of resources were both excellent.
We’ve started reading “The Iron Man” and the children are rightly intrigued by this fantastical character. They all wrote amazing similes and expanded noun phrases to describe The Iron Man. Today Alex was Hogarth and he went down “conscience alley”, when the other children suggested courses of action for the farmers to take against this new intruder. Next week the children will write the options, using modal verbs. Will they recommend blowing the Iron Man up, or shrinking him, or re-educating him, to name just a few examples?
We collaborated to write a prayer of thanks for Queen Elizabeth. The children, as a body, chose to say what an excellent role-model she was for King Charles; and how they will remember her for her kindness to everyone. The class also considered what it means to be a Mercy school and were creative and careful in their artistic expressions of Truth, Mercy or Justice or a quote by Catherine Mc Cauley. Neve and Gabriel read the prayer beautifully in front of the whole school this afternoon.
The class library bookshelves are much emptier now as children have borrowed books from there. These books are chosen by the children “for pleasure” . They do not need to be able to read them all themselves – maybe someone could read it with them, or to them. Please keep reading the school “scheme” books as these will ensure your child encounters vocabulary needed for his/her age range and to ensure that he/she makes progress.
Learning about Maths is much more interesting when it’s done with a partner, or as a “game” and can be when using equipment. Learning about place value, this week we used place value counters, place value cards and – my favourite – using dice to generate 4-digit numbers.
Spelling and Maths home learning tasks are posted, together with the new home learning grid. I’m looking forward to seeing the tasks you submit.
Let’s hope this beautiful autumn weather continues. I hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday.
Everyone made a great start to the new school year. It was fantastic to see everyone, eager and lined-up on time. Everyone seems to have had a good break and rest over the summer holidays and are raring to go again.
During the first week learning got off to a good start. The children have used place-value counters to explore numbers in the thousands, recap times-tables already learnt, use modal verbs in questions, used the bounce pass in basketball and learn why Ancient Greece had a “golden age”, amongst other learning. There are some fantastic books in the year 4 reading corner and we’re all enjoying our new class reader “Odd and The Frost Giants” by Neil Gaiman. “The 39-Storey Treehouse” is in the CD-player and it’s lovely to see the children enjoying listening to it so much. Swimming got underway again. It was just a check to see which groups the children should be in this week and next week the lessons will start in earnest. Well done everyone for coming to school with the right kit on the right days!
It’s really great to see the children again and hear their news. Their independence and self-help skills have improved and we’re looking for children to become more proactive round the classroom.
We’re looking forward to see you all at “Meet the teacher” on Wednesday 14th, just after 9.
It was a very short week this week! And a slow one, to accommodate the heat. The children were super-sensible, drinking lots and taking it easy. We hat “hot play” instead of “wet play”. The children enjoyed playing, amongst other things, chess and shut the box; using the listening post; drawing and chatting to friends and it was a relaxing end to the year. On Tuesday the children also enjoyed finishing off the left-over crisps and biscuits from the First Holy Communion party.
We all joined in wishing year 6 the very best of luck at their new schools. In three years time the current year 3 will be moving on, which seems hard to imagine just now. There’s a lot more learning and fun to be had at primary school before that.
I’d like to say a huge thank you for the very generous presents and the lovely, thoughtful cards from children and parents. I have had a fantastic term with year 3 and am delighted to move up into year 4 with them and to see them develop and learn more. I wish you all a very happy holiday wherever you go and whatever you do; and look forward to seeing you all in September
Year 3 looked stunning on Monday as they dressed up in their best outfits for a party at school to mark their First Holy Communions. We marked the occasion with a prayer in the shade in the prayer garden and then some games in the classroom. The children were free to wear as few layers as they chose, due to the heat. We also stuck to quiet games, the children enjoying “wink murder” and “banana!” Then they tucked into a magnificent spread provided by their very generous parents. I was very relieved that they all took great care with their clothes, which I think escaped the buttercream, sugar and chocolate.
It was very exciting for the children to visit their new classroom on Thursday. They have made their own labels for the lockers which will be in year 4 instead of drawers, so there will already be a little bit of something of their own when they arrive in the classroom in September.
On Thursday the children learnt about the Ancient Egytpians: what were they? Where were they built? Why were they built? They shared their thoughts on their own miniature pyramids.
On Friday the children watched the amazing school talent show. The range of skills and talents held by the children is vast and the children thoroughly watched each other perform.
Thank you for sending in full water-bottles, hats and sun-tan cream every day.
There are just 1.5 days left of year 3 for the children and I’m very excited about remaining with them next year. We will all be ready to hit the ground running and seamlessly continue with the learning. The children are ready for a break and plenty of time to be outside, meet friends and have a break from formal learning is just what they need to give them the energy to start afresh in September. Have a great weekend.
It’s great to be doing the usual end-of-year activities. It was lovely to see children showing their adults learning in the classroom and to get the chance to chat at the end of the day. The cushions and clay can now go home. The clay is quite delicate so I’ve asked the children only to take them if they know that they are going straight home. I have plenty of newspaper to wrap them in which will offer some protection.
Sports Day was very exciting. Every child in year 3 shows fantastic sportsmanship, taking part as well as they can, taking modest pride in winning and pride in participating.
This week the children learnt about Australia, a Commonwealth country. Here are there fabulous dot paintings inspired by Aboriginal art and Australian wildlife. If you play some backing music on the computer, you could sing “Waltzing Matilda” with your child, who should be able to explain the Australian lingo to you.
Tuesday saw the “bounce session” which was enormous fun. The team-building activities were not only fun, but also a real demonstration of how working with others can help everyone achieve a common goal. The children did really well at giving each other good advice, being only encouraging and helpful. Thank you very much for all the generous contributions by you and your extended families via the sponsorship money. It all goes towards making education more enriching for your children.
Please remember to bring in your Holy Communion, or smart, outfits tomorrow for the First Holy Communion celebrations on Monday afternoon.
Have a great weekend before the last full week of year 3!
The week started off with much excitement as year 3, with year 2, relived The Great Fire of London. Master Jonathan, from History off the Page, came to school with crates of resources and activities. A well was recreated in the hall! The children were apprentices for the morning, experiencing some of the crafts they may have practised had they been alive on 2nd September 1666. The children had remembered the reasons for the fire and the circumstances well, from their year 2 learning and now – just a bit later than would otherwise have been the case – they got to learn it more deeply that only a well-resourced session, with meaningful activities and an expert like Master Jonathan can bring. The afternoon involved a “mini-dig” excavating finds from a property to establish who had lived there and explaining how the evidence showed this.
We’ve had three lots of visitors, from across the curriculum, the last few days and year 3 showed excellent listening skills and behaviour during all the sessions.
This week the children learnt about “seasonal food” which means different things to different countries. We found out which foods grow in which season in the UK, cooked with some and designed a “fruit plate” with seasonal berries. Thank you to Mrs Solakova for organising the equipment and helping us with the cooking. The children loved preparing the tarts and fruit and tidied and cleaned up well afterwards, too. There is no need to cook an evening meal this weekend – just ask your son or daughter to do it for the family!
The children have been practising races for Wednesday’s sports and look forward to seeing some of you then (weather permitting).
On Wednesday morning we walked to church for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. I hope the children passed on the message from me that they all behaved impeccably and sang beautifully during the service. It was a lovely service and the children were credits to their families.
Our theme in RHE is living with and loving others. Today we talked about being like God which means aspiring to qualities such as wisdom, kindness, mercy, compassion. (The children thought of their own words to describe God.) We thought of examples where we could very practically live these out in our daily life, such as in the dining hall or classroom. Maybe you could ask someone to sit at your table? These are the sort of actions which helps other people else feel good about themselves. We also watched a youtube version of a book called “Have you filled a bucket today” which covers similar themes. It also discusses “filling someone else’s bucket” can make you feel good. The story is available via this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EuemNAo6XE if you’d like to share it with your child.
Next week will be another busy week. At open evening on Wednesday you can come and see what the children have made recently – some things have been sent home already. Thank you for remembering reading books and diaries on Thursdays and also keeping them in book bags on other days. It’s great to see more regular reading of school books happening and – importantly – children taking ownership and recording what they have read themselves.
