Monday 8th January 2007

A belated Happy New Year to all of you! After our gentle introduction into a new term last week we start our main topics and work this week. All the children came back to school with lots of energy adn we are sure they are going to enjoy this half terms activities. I'm sure they have informed you by now of some of the little tweaks we have introduced and on behalf of the staff can we thank you for sending your children back to school looking so smart in their uniform.

Literacy

We are lucky to be able to start this term building up to some story writing - we hope you're not scared easily because this week we are going to work on writing horror stories.

http://www.sutton.lincs.sch.uk/pages/playground/zone/story/spooky.html - try a spooky story start.

http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/castle/castle.html - explore examples of other children's spooky stories by visiting the different rooms in the castle.

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/owl/OWL6Book1/1/story/index.html - a story that links to our super history topic too. Suitable for challenging confident readers or to work through with your child.

We continue to build up our confidence in spelling different words. Have a look at the two links below - each one has stories in it that have spelling mistakes - can you spot and correct them?

http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/LowerJuniorActivities.htm
http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/upperjuniors.htm

Keep practising those basic skills on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/index.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/

Numeracy

Keep plugging away at learning those tables - it really does make a difference if you know them forwards, backwards, upside down and inside out and here's a reminder of a couple of sites to get you going again:

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/index.html
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/a_mental/index.htm

Each group will be starting fresh topics in Numeracy this week but as usual a couple of great places to start are:

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mw/ - check out the activities on Grade 2 and Grade 3.
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ - find your group's topic - how many games can you find to play? If there are any you really like - let your maths teacher know!

Science

For Science this half term we will be learning about animals and where they live and why in our topic on Habitats. Have a look at the links below to begin to explore this topic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/habitats.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/

http://www.sandiegozoo.com/kids/games/index.html

History

This term we are going to be exploring one of my favourite history topics ever - the Ancient Egyptians. Through the course fo the term you will find out all about the pyramids, read hieroglyphics, learn about mummification, and so much more. Check out the sites below to get you started:

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/ - the British Museums site for children.

http://www.show.me.uk/topicpage/Ancient-Civilisations.html - lots of interactive pages

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Egypt.html - full of information for you to swot up on.

http://www.snaithprimary.eril.net/egindex.htm - another good site.

As well as all of that don't forget to have some fun on :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/home.shtml

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Games/educational/index.html

Have a good week

Year 3/4 team