Monday 17th September

Things are all settling down in Year 3/4 now. Routines are being introduced gradually and the children have adapted very well to their new classes.

House-Keeping

Induction Meeting

Please remember that we are holding our Induction Meeting in Miss Robinson's room on Wednesday this week (19th) at 3.15pm. Even if you are a Year Four parent there will be lots of important and new information given out. Please feel most welcome to attend and meet the staff afterwards.

Diaries

Your child’s high frequency words will be stuck into the diaries this week, so you are able to support their learning at home. It is important that these diaries do come into school every day, as we have messages, information and targets that we need to pass onto you. Also, we do love to read your comments, so please do write in the diary when you have read with your child every week. We are aiming for a 100% response rate this year, so your efforts to help us achieve this targets are appreciated. From many years experience, children who are heard to read regularly at home, make rapid progress.

Harvest Festival

On Friday, we will be having a non-uniform day and we would ask that the children bring in something for the Harvest Festival, which will take place next week. We do ask that children bring in non-perishable items, as they are taken to the St. Joseph’s Family Centre and re-distributed from there.

Homework

Your child will be coming home this week with some homework. On a Monday they are given their spellings to learn that week. The children will get a differentiated number of spellings to be put into a sentence at the front of their homework book. Some children will write three sentences and some children will write five. All Year Four children will be expected to write a sentence for every spelling given. Please make sure that the children have a date and title which is underlined and the homework is signed by an adult. Please send the homework in on Thursday as this allows the time for the teachers to mark it. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

They will also be receiving Numeracy homework each week too. A letter will come home this week explaining the routines of homework more fully, and of course this will also be covered in Wednesday's meeting.

LITERACY

This week in Literacy we are exploring SETTINGS. We are challenging ourselves to really set the scene for a story and draw the reader in with our descriptions. Talk to your child about different settings: a street, a house, a shop, a forest. Ask them to think about what they might hear, see, smell, touch, taste. We've also been thinking about describing a setting as though we are making a movie. One sentence to describe the setting from a distance, then a sentence getting closer and picking up more detail and then finally zooming in for a close-up shot. We have been watching parts of The Secret Garden and the children are becoming very good at spotting the different types of shots.

http://www.learnatglobal.com/assets/applets/grammar.swf - check out this link to learn more about descriptive writing.

We will be focussing the children on sentence writing too. It is so important to make sure that they can use capital letters adn full stops in all the right places without needing reminders:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/lug.shtml - capital letters

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/hms.shtml - full stops

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/whatisasentence/flash7.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/punctuation.shtml

We will be continuing to work on our comprehension skills each week, making sure that we always understand what we have read and can answer questions. Have a look at the links below:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2005/read/level2/level2reading.htm

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2005/read/level3/level3reading.htm

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2005/read/level4/level4reading.htm

http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/psmain.htmhttp://www.eslbears.homestead.com/Map_and_Directions.htmlhttp://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/english/activities/literature_comp/lit_comp_home.htm - if you really want to challenge yourself have a go at some of these. Be warned - they aren't easy!

http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/auto/18/49.html - keep building up your spelling skills

NUMERACY

I know that Mrs Harding's group will already be keen to start testing their times tables again so I found a new game for the new year. What NASA ranking will you achieve? Will you reach the stars?

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=Quiz-Times-Tables

In Numeracy this week Mrs Harding's group will be starting the year reviewing place value. We will be practising reading and writing large numbers and practising rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. See below for some web sites.

http://education.jlab.org/placevalue/index.html

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/PV_BIGGEST.ppt

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/placevalue_y5_t1_unit1.ppt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/whatarenumbers/rounding/quiz.shtml
http://www.aplusmath.com/Flashcards/rounding.html

In Miss Robinson's and Mrs Bethell's Numeracy groups this week we will be exploring place value, ordering and comparing numbers, greater than and less than. Check out the websites below to get ahead!

http://www.mape.org.uk/startower/owl/resources/index2.htm - ordering numbers game

http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/gamesroom/awards/awardc.html - want to really challenge yourself - youo can choose to try to order numbers up to 1 million!

http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/puzzlemaths/frog_ladder_game.shtml - can you put the numbers in the order?

http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game11.htm - practise your counting skills to get frog across the pond

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=npmenu - can you tell the difference between an odd and even number?

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=ncmenu - practise using your crocodile signs. Can you complete all the levels?

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=Toolkit%20index2a - this is called a teacher's toolkit and is just that. It has time, place value, calculators, number lines, tables tester so that you can support your child online with their learning.

TOPIC

We have started our new topic based curriculum and we are trying to make the curriculum exciting and interesting. We are all very much looking forward to having the opportunity to go a little further in our learning and make the links across lots of subjects. The three teachers will be planning and teaching blocks of work, initially to our classes. The classes will then be rotated round so that all the children in Year Three/Four benefit from our expertise. All our topic themes this year centres around

OUR WORLD

Mrs Harding's class will teaching the Science and the topics will centre around Electricity and light. For more information see below. Please take note that the other two classes will have the same lessons in the coming weeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/electricity.shtml

http://www.andythelwell.com/blobz/guide.html

http://www.rp-l.com/rplkids.htm

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm?menu=light&main=light/light&on=home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/light_shadows_fs.shtml

http://www.molli.org.uk/burma/theatre/goose.htm

Miss Robinson will be looking at 'How The Earth Began'. We will learn about what the Earth is made from, why the world changes, volcanoes and earthquakes, rocks, crystals and fossils. This will be a very hands-on topic focus. Wait 'til your child starts to tell you how the Earth is like an egg!!! The websites below should be useful, fun and above all interesting to look at for this topic.

http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tectonics/pangea-animation.html - plate tectonics.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Continents.shtml - a little tricky to read but super pictures for how the Earth is formed.

http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/teachers/tNatural-World/STO1043.html - VOLCANOES!

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/kids-only/fun-games/volcano/build-a-volcano.html - want to make your own volcano on-line and watch it grow and erupt. Fantastic site with lots to explore! Make sure you fo on the Mission - you can choose what you are going to discover.

http://volcano.und.edu/volcanoes.html - all about volcanoes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/rocks_soils.shtml - the basic info you need to know about rocks and soils for this topic.

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/geomysteries/mysteries.html - all about rocks - a really interactive and interesting site. Make sure you check it out!

http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/EarthMaterials/index.html - an interesting way to test the hardness of rocks + a database for different rock types.

http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/fossils/index.htm - learn interactively about rocks and fossils.

That's all for now, folks.

Have a safe and happy week.

The Year 3/4 Team

xxx