Welcome to Oak Class!

 

10.1.20

Happy New Year! Oak Class have had a fantastic first week back. We have begun learning about our new topic, Home and Away, and the children made some fantastic contributions, amazing us with their knowledge about life in other countries. We have had a big Geography challenge, naming the countries of the United Kingdom, the continents of the world, and the countries of Asia. We have also been learning about the importance of Cherry Blossom (Sakura) in Japan, and the ways in which its arrival is celebrated. Pupils in Oak created some fantastic written accounts of the history and significance of Hanami (flower viewing festival) and then made beautiful printed and tissue paper flowers. Here are some pictures of Oak class in the middle of their Art lesson - looking very busy, and creating some lovely artwork!

Week commencing 4.11.19

We have had an amazing time taking part in Careers, Aspirations and Ambitions week this week. Our trip to Moor Farm has definitely put some roses in our cheeks after our lovely long walk, and the children learned so much about where our food comes from and what farmers do. We have also enjoyed talks from lots of different people on a huge range of different careers and aspirations, including a Channel swimmer, some animal rescuers, a firefighter, plumber, power station experts and a head teacher – and we still have one more exciting visitor this afternoon! We have been doing lots of writing and discussion about our strengths, skills, and dreams for the future and it has been fascinating to hear the children’s ideas. Hopefully there will be some interesting conversations at home too, perhaps sparked by some of the things we’ve seen and done this week. I have thoroughly enjoyed the week and I hope Oak pupils have too! 

Week commencing 28.10.19

This week we have had a lovely time celebrating Diwali. Oak class learned about the significance of light at Diwali and made paper lanterns to brighten up our classroom. In Maths, we have continued learning about addition and subtraction, with Years 3 and 4 getting to grips with column method, estimating, and checking using the inverse. Year 2 have also been adding and subtracting, and answering worded questions too. For English this week, we wrote spooky poems, and all of the children were asked to include alliteration in their poems. However, they decided to impress us by doing this and adding rhyme, rhythm and similes to their work – seriously spooky stuff and perfect for Halloween! In our Exploration Zone, the children have started work on life-size collages of Henry VIII – I can’t wait to see the finished results! 

 

 

Week commencing 14.10.19

 

Well done Oak class for a fantastic start to the school year this half term.

 

We finished off the half term with a week of creative fun. For their Science topic, the children made fantastic habitats using shoeboxes and other materials. Their models show the shelter and nutrition offered to the living things that can be found in that habitat and the children were really innovative in finding different ways to show these features.

 

Continuing our Tudors topic, the children also sketched each other and then painted portraits of a friend. This really helped them to develop their observational skills. They also put their colour mixing skills to good use, sharing ideas and even mixing up colours for the whole table to use.

 

In Maths and English we have been working hard as well - Years 3 and 4 have moved onto formal written methods for addition, and Year 2 have been busy looking at different methods for subtraction, especially subtraction involving numbers made up of tens and ones. In English, Oak class have been looking at poems and the different uses of language that we find in poetry. They did some really good group work looking at poems together, before planning and then writing their own Senses poem based on our school field. 

 

I hope everyone enjoys their half term break after all their hard work! Have fun, Oak class, and see you soon!

Mrs Parkin, Miss Reed and Mrs Rose

Week commencing 16.9.19

 

We have had another busy week in Oak Class!

 

We have continued reading The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. The two main characters are now on the run from the police, following their robbery of the City Bank - and poor Dish has tripped over and cracked into pieces! The children had fun making WANTED posters to help the police catch Spoon. They also composed a diary entry together, retelling the story from Spoon's point of view. The children then started their own diary entries - and amazed Mrs Parkin by remembering the right spelling for "diary" in all their books! 

 

In Maths, we are still looking at place value, and the children have been working very hard counting in multiples - each year group has been focusing on a different set of number for this. This is a tricky bit of maths, but Oak have showed great determination in tackling this and drawing some fantastic number lines.

 

Half of Oak Class went out with Mrs Tickle this week, making scent bags in our garden area and exploring the smells of different plants! The other half stayed in the classroom and we looked at some Tudor artefacts from St. Neots Museum. They used differently-graded pencils to sketch the artefacts and record their observations. Next week we will swap over and each group will get to do the activity they haven't done yet!

 

Well done Oak class.

 

Mrs Parkin

Week commencing 9.9.19

 

We have had a fantastic second week back at school. We met our new PE teacher, and learned team sport skills such as dribbling a ball and following a partner. We also started our new Science topic, Living Things and their Habitats. Oak class drew their favourite living things and added labels. We also read the book we will be looking at in English this term, The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey. The children worked in groups to explore the illustrations this week and came up with some fantastic ideas using their inference skills! Next week we will continue writing expanded noun phrases and using exciting vocabulary. In Maths, we have been recapping Place Value and looking at different ways to represent numbers. The children were very creative in their approach and we saw some fantastic ways to represent the number of children in our class from both our Year 3/4 group and from Year 2. Well done Oak!

Week commencing 3rd June
We have had a fantastic first week back at school and are pleased to have Mrs Parkin back in our classroom. She taught the children how to create their own printing tiles and use acrylic paint to print with. The children designed their tiles based on Aztec patterns. They look amazing! The rest of the class will be doing theirs next week.
In Literacy, we have started reading the book Gregory Cool and have been making some inferences about where it is set and the characters in the story. The children then worked hard to write character descriptions.
We have started learning about statistics in Maths. The children created a class pictogram to show their favourite flavours of ice cream and learnt about using a key to show the value of each image. They were then able to read the data on pictograms to answer questions. We have also been using data to draw our own bar charts.
In Science, we have started our unit on sound. We used musical instruments to explore how sound is created and discussed how sound is caused by a vibration. The children used rice on a drum and a tuning fork in water to visualise the vibrations better.

We have been learning about Ramadan and the celebration of Eid al Fitr, which muslims have celebrated this week. We watched some videos to develop our understanding and I was impressed with how the children knew.
Homework for the next 6 weeks will be the humanities project that went home yesterday. The children have already come up with some fantastic ideas so I can’t wait to see these. Mathswhizz, reading and spellings are also part of homework.

Week commencing 13th May
We’ve had another busy week in Oak class. We have been learning about deforestation as part of our topic and the effects this has on the local and wider environments. The children have enjoyed playing different roles such as loggers, pharmacists and local inhabitants to debate their views. 
In Literacy, we have continued this topic and have been using our knowledge to write persuasive speeches to stop deforestation. The children worked in small groups on this to do some shared writing, which resulted in excellent work. We have also been writing diaries in role as the man from our book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ describing his day where animals spoke to him about not cutting down their tree. The children were able to emphasise with the characters and also inferred how he might be feeling. We also enjoyed some drama to create freeze frames exploring the effect of deforestation. 
In Maths, we have been learning about money. The children have been practising adding and subtracting amounts to work out total costs and the change needed. We have also played mathopoly to further practise this.
In Science, the children have been learning all about light and shadows. They made puppets of animals from the rainforest and investigated what happened to shadow size as the light source moved further away from the puppet. We had great fun and we were able to describe what we found out.
I hope you have all had a fantastic weekend. I look forward to seeing all your artwork for the competition.

Week commencing 1st April

We had a great last week of term with lots of fun. On Monday, we enjoyed a fencing lesson where the children learnt how to position their feet, how to move and how to score points. It was fantastic! 

In Literacy, we used our notes from last week to write a game review about Dawn of the Dead, a vampire game that we trialled. The children were able to use what they have learnt about non-chronological reports to write wonderful reviews about the game. They gave information such as what the game was about, how to play and discussed what they liked and didn’t like about the game. The children then worked on their proof reading skills with a partner to check it made sense and read well.

We also wrote non-chronological reports comparing children’s lives today to those of Viking children. Oak have been researching topics such as food, school and hobbies to help them make comparisons.

In Maths, we have continued learning about fractions and developing our understanding of them. We have been counting up and down in fractions such as one fifth, two fifths, three fifths and using visuals to understand what this means. We have also looked at fractions on number lines to identify where they go and have been practising our reasoning skills to identify if they are correctly labelled.

In Science, we have come to the end of our unit on plants and have observed the plants we have grown to help us understand what plants need to grow and survive. The children were able to draw conclusions from their observations and have used their knowledge on plants to support them.

The children enjoyed designing their own Easter eggs using fabric and have created wonderful collages.

We had a fantastic reward day where the children took part in an Easter egg hunt, made chocolate crispie cakes and made Easter cards as well as watching the Easter film Hop.

On Friday, we had our Easter service where the children performed the songs and poems they have been learning, as well as the Easter bonnet parade. It was wonderful to see so many of you there. We hope you enjoyed it.

Have a great Easter break! No written homework has been set but please keep up Mathswhizz and reading. Spellings have also been set.

Week commencing 25th March
This week, we have continued learning about game reviews as part of our Literacy unit on non-chronological reports. The children are now secure in their knowledge of how these are written and what information is included. We enjoyed testing out a CBBC game and have made notes to help us write a review on it next week. The children explored the game to work out what the aims were and how to play it. They were able to explain positives and negatives of the game as well as deciding who the target audience might be.
In Maths, we have been revising the basic concepts behind fractions to make sure we have understood what they are and have been exploring ways to work out equivalent fractions.
The children enjoyed getting creative making Mother’s Day cards and used their previous learning on Kennings poems to write one describing their mums. I hope you all liked your cards and have had a wonderful day today!
Year 4 enjoyed 2 days of peer mediation training (see Miss Reed’s post) and are now ready to be peer mediators. Well done! 
While Year 4s were out, Year 3s have been learning about earthquakes and volcanoes. We learnt about how volcanoes are formed and the different types: active, dormant and extinct. We looked at some of the most well known and destructive volcanoes across the world and the children used their research and map skills to plot these into a map. The children were really interested in how earthquakes happen and have developed a good understanding about the tectonic plates that make up our Earth’s crust. We also learnt about earthquake safety and even practised an earthquake drill.

Week commencing 18th March
We started this week with an exciting archery session, where the children developed their understanding of how to load and shoot an arrow. We got some amazing scores!
In Literacy, we have started a unit on non-chronological reports and have been focusing on game reviews. The children have been learning about the key features of these and have looked for examples in texts. We’ve discussed who can write reviews and how some could be biased. We’ve also developed our understanding of subordinating conjunctions, prepositions and adverbials to give information on when, where and why.
We’ve continued learning about fractions in Maths, focussing on equivalent fractions. We have been using fraction walls to support our understanding and to see which fractions are the same size. We have also been looking into the relationship between equivalent fractions and how you can multiply the numerator and denominator to find an equivalent.
The children have been researching about Viking children’s lives, focussing on areas such as their school life, home life, hobbies and food. Next week, we’ll be using this information to compare their lives to ours.
We’ve also been designing our own Viking brooches after looking at their designs.
In Science, we’ve been learning about pollination and fertilisation in plants. We’ve been able to label the key parts within the flower and have learnt about their roles.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 11th March

We have had an exciting week with lots of Science! On Monday, we had a visit from Lockheed Martin who talked to us about their involvement in space engineering. They showed us some examples of space landers, which have been to the moon and Mars. The children were then give the challenge to design and make their own space lander to safely transport an egg. It had to have legs, a parachute and some kind of crumple zone.

On Thursday, Mrs Garland came in to talk to us about the layers of a leaf and we had chance to have a look at these under microscopes.

In our own Science lessons, we have continued learning about plants and have focussed on the roles each part do. Our seeds have started to grow and we are starting to make some observations about which ones are growing the most.

In Maths, we have started learning about fractions and understanding what each part tells us. The children worked in groups to match fractions to their visual representation and have also been learning about what a unit fraction is.

We have finished our work in Beowulf this week and the children have written their own legends. I have really enjoyed them!

Year 3s have shared their Viking projects with Year 4 so we have all learnt some interesting facts. The children have also been learning about settlements and how Vikings and Saxons would have given a lot of thought to where they chose to settle. We discussed the availability of shelter, food and water as well as being able to see oncoming attackers.

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend.

Week commencing 25th February

We have had a fun first week back at school. On Monday morning, the children enjoyed working together using communication and problem solving skills to try to stand up without using their hands. They were all successful after a few attempts! On Wednesday, we had a visit from St John’s ambulance, who taught us how to use DRS ABC to assess and deal with a first aid situation. The children were shown how to do CPR and had a chance to practise this. They were impressed to hear that the tune of baby shark can be used to help get the speed of CPR right.

As part of our topic, we have been learning about Sutton Hoo and the discovery of a Saxon burial site. The children have been discussing the importance of archeological finds and have begun to understand their importance in teaching us about the past. We were able to learn some interesting facts about Saxon beliefs and also inferred a lot about what their lives were like.

In Science, we have started our unit on plants and have begun an investigation into what plants need to survive and grow. The children were able to name several elements already so we are trying to find out how much of these plants need. Each group is focusing on one element such as sunlight, water, space or air and have planted 3 seeds varying how much of these elements each seed will receive. They have come up with interesting ways to control these. We also wrote a set of instructions to help another class to carry out our investigation.

Year 3 had their forest school session with Mrs Tickle this week, while Year 4 continued with their coding. They have been learning about codes and variables. Please remember to send a change of clothing for forest school on Thursdays as the children need to be warm outside and they are likely to get dirty.

It has been assessment week so the children have worked hard to complete Maths, reading and SPAG papers. I am very proud of their attitudes towards the tests. I have therefore not set any written homework but please keep up Mathswhizz and reading.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week commencing 28th January

Weeks commencing 14th and 21st January

Oak class have had a busy 2 weeks. They have got stuck into their forest school sessions with Mrs Tickle and are enjoying having the longer session outdoors. Please ensure that children bring something warm to change into or layers they can put on over the top of their uniform as it is still really cold.
We enjoyed a samba music workshop on Wednesday where the children developed their understanding of rhythm and used a range of instruments to create some samba music. It sounded amazing!
The children have also been getting to grips with coding on Espresso. We have been developing our knowledge of programming and using terminology such as objects and codes. I'm sure they have already showed you the games that they have been learning to make but if not, please ask them to as they have really enjoyed it.
In Literacy, we have been reading the story of Beowulf and have been learning how to develop our character descriptions through improving the verbs, adjectives and nouns that we use. The children have revised the parts of speech and are becoming more confident with identifying these. We have also been practising our proof-reading and editing skills by focussing on one section at a time.
We have started learning about measuring length this week and have built on their previous learning. We have been using rulers and tape measures to measure the length of lines and objects, being accurate to the nearest millimetre. The children have even moved onto using decimals to record these. They have been learning how to use their knowledge to support them in converting between mm and cm or cm and m, and have been able to find the differences between measurements.
In Science, we have been learning about states of matter. The children worked in groups to sort a range of items into solids, liquids and gases and then decided on criteria for how we know which state something is. They carried out an investigation on items such as sugar, fizzy drinks, butter and sponges to test them against their criteria to work out which state of matter they are.
We have been learning about the origin of town names in the United Kingdom and have specifically looked at places with Viking origins. We learnt about what Viking words such as thorp, by and borough mean and the children then used atlases to find examples of these. The children also used drama to explore some of the decisions that the Britons and Anglo-Saxons might have had to face. They worked well in groups to explore each possible option and came to a democratic decision.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please ask if you're unsure about anything. Keep up the Mathswhizz and reading.

Week commencing 7th January
We enjoyed starting our first week back with a residential at Grafham Waters, where the children did archery, mountain biking, bush craft and problem solving activities. 
Then it was straight back to working hard and learning about our new topic Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The children are very excited to learn more about this period and have already come up with lots of relevant questions that they hope to explore this term. This week, we have been learning about when both groups invaded Britain and where they came from. We looked at a timeline to see where this time period was in relation to our previous topic on the Romans. The children read about some key events that happened during the Anglo-Saxon and Viking period and placed these onto a timeline. They also used their mathematical knowledge to work out how long ago some of these events happened.
We have also been developing our ICT skills to be able to create a front cover for our new topic. The children have been learning and practising how to search for relevant images on the internet; how to copy and paste these onto a word document and how to manipulate them to their chosen size and place. 
In art, we have been learning about illuminated letters and looking at how they were used in Anglo-Saxon times. The children then created their own designs for their initials and used pastels to add colour. They have incorporated lots of interesting images into and around their chosen letters.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 10th December

We have had a busy but exciting week in Oak class. On Monday, we learnt about the meaning of Christingle and made our own ones for our service. The children were able to remember what each part of the Christingle represents. In the afternoon, we sang a few songs and performed a poem to our audience. The children were all very sensible with their lit Christingles.
On Tuesday, we had a Science quiz on our Electricity unit to assess what the children had learnt this half term. They enjoyed working in teams and were very competitive.
In Maths, we have continued practising using the bus stop method for division as well as beginning to understand worded problems that involve multiplication or division. We worked on recognising key words in the problem that gave us clues for what calculation we needed and developed our understanding of recognising whether the answer was a sensible one.
The children planned and wrote their own endings to the story of the “Ice Palace” making sure that it followed on from the story in the same style. They worked hard to write in paragraphs and we focussed on using exciting sentence openers. We also spent a lesson editing our writing: focusing on one thing at a time. We had a spelling station, a punctuation station, a ‘does it make sense?’ station and an adding more detail station. The children enjoyed moving around to focus on one thing at a time and this really helped them to check and improve their writing.
We have been making and decorating our Roman shields this week. The children followed their designs, tweaking them where necessary and they used a range of DT skills to get the shape of their shield. We are looking forward to having a Roman role play afternoon next week.
The children have also been making Christmas decorations out of clay. They used a range of skills to mould the clay and attach pieces together using a slip technique. These should have come home yesterday so hopefully they are adding to your festive decorations at home.
No homework has been set this week but please keep up reading and Mathswhizz. The children will have a big spelling test after the holidays on a selection of words from the last half term.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 26th November

Despite a lot of us feeling poorly with colds and sickness bugs this week, we have still managed a lot of learning and fun. We have continued our learning about electricity in Science and discovering whether materials are insulators or conductors by carrying out an investigation. The children were able to make predictions first and explained these well.

In Literacy, we have been learning how to create tension and suspense in our writing. We read further into the book “The Ice Palace” and the children described the scene where Ivan is chased by wolves.

We have been designing our own Roman shields, which we will be making soon. We learned about the shapes and symbols that were used on shields, which the children were able to use to support their designs. They also considered how they were make it and which materials they would need.

It has also been assessment week and the children have all showed great attitudes towards their tests. I am immensely proud of their focus and for always trying their best.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that everyone is feeling better.

Week commencing 5th November
Oak class have been very creative this week. We learnt about silhouette art and used this along with a collage technique to create beautiful remembrance artwork. You can see these up on our classroom window. The children also took their artwork outside and have created a poppy using stones. This is still in the playground if you haven’t seen it yet.
We developed our understanding of the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali, and compared this to the Sikh festival Bandi Chhor. The children were able to retell the story of Rama and Sita and we learnt about how Diwali and Bandi Chhor are celebrated. We then created our own rangoli patterns and showed our understanding of these festivals through poems and information texts.
In Maths, we have started learning about multiplication and division. The children have recapped their understanding of these terms and what they mean. We have focussed on multiplying and dividing numbers by 10 and 100 to develop children’s understanding of the digits moving place. We even looked at decimals to really challenge our thinking.
We have started reading a new book in Literacy called the Ice Palace. The children have developed their prediction and inference skills by using the front cover to explain their ideas. We looked at winter images and how we could describe the settings in great detail. We have developed our understanding of using noun phrases, adverbs, similes and prepositions to add more detail. The children then worked in pairs to write poems about the settings. We have also been using drama to explore what characters might be doing and feeling at different points. The children were able to show emotion in their freezeframes too.
This afternoon, we took part in a BBC live lesson about remembrance where the children learnt a bit about what life was like in the First World War. We also learnt about Haiku poems and the children wrote their own about remembrance. They were very excited when our class was mentioned along the bottom of the screen.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 29th October

It’s been a very successful first week back for us: Year 4 came second in their sports tournament, Year 3 won their sports tournament and our 4 spellers came joint first at the spelling bee :) A huge well done to Oak class for working so hard and always trying their best.
We had a fun PE lesson on Tuesday recapping our basic ball skills and practising ready for the sports tournament. We learnt the rules on how to play netball and the children practised working as a team to pass the ball before trying to score. Year 4 were very supportive and helpful in showing Year 3 how to block and defend.
In Topic, the children have been developing their online research skills by finding out about Roman inventions. They’ve started to find out details about inventions such as the aqua duct and roads. I’m looking forward to seeing their finished work next week.
We have continued practising our subtraction skills, including looking at when is best to use different methods. The children have a strong understanding of using the column method for this and have been revising their place value knowledge to be able to mentally subtract multiples of 10 or 100.
This afternoon, the children enjoyed using marbles, paint and shoebox lids to create exciting pieces of artwork representing fireworks.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 15th October
This week, the children have enjoyed making Roman flatbread. They were able to follow the recipe accurately to measure out their ingredients and worked well in their groups to split the jobs. The children also wrote a fantastic set of written instructions to help anyone else make the bread.
We also looked into Roman coins and the designs that are on them. The children then designed their own version, based on these, which they will make out of clay after half term. Many thanks to George's sister, Sophia, and Zach for sharing some replica coins for us to look at :)
In Science, we have been learning about muscles and the children planned and carried out their own investigation to find out whether exercise made muscles stronger. They worked hard to write up their predictions and explained their ideas as well as their results afterwards.
In Literacy, we have continued writing poetry. This week we learnt about calligrams and how to set poetry out in the shape of what it's about. They also practised performing these to the class.
No written homework has been set for the holidays but please keep up with reading an Mathswhizz. There will be a spelling test when we come back on a random selection of words from the past 6 weeks.
Have a lovely half term!

Week commencing 8th October
It’s been another busy week for us in a Oak class. At the start of the week, the children went on a poetry hunt to find and read different poems about Autumn. They were also looking for examples of adjectives, verbs, similes, alliteration and onomatopoeia, which they did a great job with. We learnt more about these types of language as well as personification and metaphors and the children then planned their own examples for some of these about Autumn. They later used their ideas to write their own Autumn poems. Some chose to write in the style of an acrostic, while others tried a cinquain. 
In Maths, we have moved onto subtraction and using the column method to work out answers. The children have revised their mental subtraction skills and how to use number bonds to support them. We have also started looking at exchanging our tens when we don’t have enough ones to take away from.
We have been learning about different types of skeletons in Science. The children demonstrated their great understanding of vertebrates and invertebrates by completing a quiz to sort animals into these categories. We also learnt about endoskeletons, exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons and discussed which animals could fit into these categories. 
In PE, the children continued to work on their ball skills and how to pass the ball without it being intercepted. They practised different techniques to move around their opponents and pass the ball.
As part of our topic, we have been learning about Roman roads and cities that were named by Romans. The children have been learning how to use an index in an atlas to locate some of these cities on a map and plotted them onto their own maps. They also learnt about some Roman roads which went between these cities and plotted those onto their maps.
We enjoyed an afternoon of creating Autumn artwork using a range of autumnal colours. The children experimented using paintbrushes, their fingers and leaves to create different effects with the paint.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please keep up the great work with Mathswhizz and reading.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 1st October
It has been another busy week for Oak class. We started the week at church with our harvest festival service. The children really enjoyed singing the sings they’ve been learning and those who performed the poem did a great job!
We’ve been learning about the skeleton in Science and what some of the scientific names for our bones are. The children worked together to put a skeleton together and labelled the main bones. Some then looked at animal skeletons to find common bones between their skeleton and ours.
In Literacy, we storymapped “escape from Pompeii” and used this to help us to plan our own stories based on the book. The children worked hard to include lots of action, description and speech in their stories.
We have moved onto addition in Maths and how to use our number bonds to support our mental addition. We started learning about written methods and how to use column method to add 3-digit numbers together (4-digit for Year 4). We’ve used base 10 to support our understanding of carrying numbers over.
In PE, the children have continued developing their ball skills with Mrs Marriott. They practised putting their skills into a range of games and have enjoyed working together.
As part of our topic, the children have been learning about Boudicca. We read a story about her and the children researched further information about her. As a class, we discussed the impact she has had on lives today. We also developed our understanding of Britain and located East Anglia on a map.
On Thursday, we took part in a live lesson to celebrate national poetry day. We learnt about similes and metaphors and then wrote our own examples. The children practised using different emotions such as shock and happiness to help them read poems in different ways. They then planned their own poem about school using their senses.
Homework and spellings have been set. The children need to practise where each of the homophones can be used in sentences and what they mean.

Week commencing 24th September 
This week, we have been learning about Roman mosaics and where they would have been found. The children were fascinated to learn about how each piece was made and put into place. We looked at different designs such as images of soldiers, animals and patterns. The children then used these ideas to create their own design, which they then accurately made using coloured stickers. We have also been finding out about what homes were like during the Roman times. The children worked in pairs to carry out their research and have been practising finding relevant information.
In Literacy, we have continued our work on the book Escape from Pompeii. We have been learning how to write a diary entry and what to include in one. The children worked in pairs to plan their diary entry in the role as one of the main characters and then wrote excellent diary entries to describe their escape from the erupting volcano. We have also been using drama to act out what the characters might have said to each other during their escape and then learnt how to write these conversations correctly using speech marks.
To practise what the children have learnt about place value, we went on a reasoning ramble outside for them to find and answer the reasoning questions. They worked well together and discussed how they would work out the answer. We have been learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.
We started learning about the skeleton in Science and discussed why we need a skeleton. The children had lots of wonderful ideas and we looked specifically at how certain parts of the skeleton have specific roles such as protection. We also learnt about the different types of joints we have and where these joints could be.
Have a wonderful weekend! We look forward to seeing many of you at church on Monday for the Harvest Festival.

Week commencing 17th September
We have had an exciting week as our new student teacher Mrs Parkin joined our class. She will be working with us until Christmas and then back with us again after Easter. The children enjoyed introducing themselves and discussing their hobbies during circle time.
The children enjoyed another PE lesson with Mrs Marriott where they continued developing their throwing and catching skills, as well as looking at different types of throws.
In Maths, we have been learning how to partition numbers into hundreds, tens and ones (Year 4 also looked at thousands) as well as comparing number using greater than and less than symbols. The children have learnt how to add ten or hundred to a given number by using their place value knowledge and some have challenged themselves with reasoning questions on this.
We have continued reading the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ in Literacy, focussing on the main characters. The children have learnt how to write a character description and have practise editing their writing to make improvements. We revised the parts of a sentence such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs by learning a song to help us remember. The children were then able to identify these in a text.
As part of our Topic, we have been learning how to sketch and have practised using shading. The children used the Roman replica items to create wonderful sketches.
We have had our first growth mindset lessons of the year. Year 3 read a story about a character who was scared about falling off a tightrope and discussed how they might support them in not giving up their dreams. Year 4 looked at successful celebrities and discussed who thought was more successful. We then found out about the failures they had had to overcome before they succeeded such Bill Gates failing his exams. The children were able to explain how having a growth mindset encouraged these celebrities to persevere and eventually become a success.

On Tuesday, we learnt about the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur and what happens on that day. The children then made cards in celebration.
Homework, spellings and Mathswhizz have all been set. Please ask if you have any questions. The children should be reading their book band books to an adult as much as possible, as well as reading their dotted books independently. They will complete quizzes on the dotted books once they have read them to check their comprehension of the book.

Week commencing 10th September
The children have worked really hard this week and have enjoyed working together. We had a visit from the life bus, where we learnt about what’s in our bodies and how to keep healthy. We also looked at the effects of alcohol and drugs. 
On Thursday, we celebrated Roald Dahl day by discussing our favourite Roald Dahl books and the children wrote a factfile about him. We also designed our own piece of art using characters from his books.
In Science, we have started learning about healthy eating and the five food groups. They worked together to organise foods into proteins, carbohydrates, dairy, fruit and vegetables and sugars and fats. There were some excellent discussions about foods such as fish and chips, which could be a mixture of the food groups especially depending on how they’d been cooked.
In topic, we have been looking at when the Roman period was and discussed BC and AD. The children then used their understanding of timelines and dates to put some important events into order. 
We have started learning about place value with Year 3 looking at 3 digit numbers and Year 4 looking at 4 digit numbers. The children used dienes, counters and drawings to represent numbers, as well as looking at where they would go on a number line.
Our book in Literacy this half term is called ‘Escape from Pompeii’. The children have been using the front cover and title to make predictions and inferences about the story. We started reading the story and have been making notes on the setting of the story using the five senses. 
In PE, we have started our dance lessons and multiskills lessons this week. The children practised controlling the ball in different ways and developing their throwing and catching skills.
Homework has been set and the children have new spellings in their books to learn. Please continue with Mathswhizz and reading too. If you would like to use Mathswhizz on a tablet, you need to download the Puffin app and choose Mathswhizz through there. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week beginning 9th July

What a busy week it's been! We started the week with our swimming lesson, where the children learnt about synchronised swimming. They worked in small groups to create their own routine and performed these to the rest of the class. They looked amazing!
In maths, we've continued learning about measurement and have been looking at mass. We have revised the units used and developed our knowledge of converting between these. We discussed the vocabulary needed to... describe mass and the children practised using different scales to measure mass.
Oak class have written newspaper reports describing the disappearance of a professor, who went exploring in the North Pole. The children were able to find and infer information from a video clip to give them all the facts they needed to build a report.
All week, they have put a lot of time and effort into rehearsing for the end of year performance, which (I'm sure you'll agree) they did an excellent job of.
Today, they have started practising the parable of the good punk rocker with Mrs Dack, which they'll perform at the church next month if children are available to go. Further information about this service will be in the newsletter next week.
There's so written homework this week but please make sure children are up to date with their Mathswhizz.

Week beginning 2nd July

We had an exciting start to the week with our poetry festival in St Neots. The children enjoyed performing the 3 poems they’d learnt, including the actions, and listened well to the other schools performing theirs.
We have been enjoying the sunshine as well and taken some of our learning outside. The children planned an investigation to find out what happens to sound over distance. They worked in pairs and measured how far away they could get from their part...ner, who was playing a musical instrument. I think they were surprised at how far sound travels!
In Maths, we’ve been learning about the difference between capacity and volume. The children have revised their understanding of measuring liquid, including using different scales. They worked accurately to measure out ingredients for potions and then had fun making their own.
We’ve also been rehearsing with Rowan for the end of year performance of Macbeth. The children are working hard to learn their lines and are enjoying all the singing!
On Wednesday morning, Year 4 spent some time in their new class with Mrs Duncan and we welcomed Year 2 into Oak.
No written homework this week but please keep up the reading and Mathswhizz. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 18th June

We started this week with some fun games at our swimming session. The children used noodles to relay race against each other. They practised different ways of getting across the pool as quickly as they could. We then played a game of water polo, where all children had to remain on noodles as a challenge.

Year 2s joined us for an afternoon carrying out some research about countries in the World Cup. The children worked in pairs to use the internet to find out facts such as capitals, population and language. They then shared 2 of their chosen facts to share with everyone.

In Maths, we have started learning about shapes and angles. We revised what a turn is and the children practised using language such as clockwise and anti-clockwise. We then looked at different sizes of angles and learnt the terms right angle, acute and obtuse to describe them.

As a class, we have rewritten the poem ‘Don’t call out’ to ‘Don’t lie’ following the same structure. We discussed our ideas and then came up with a list of rhyming words for lie. The children then worked in groups to write a verse using these. We have created actions to help us remember this poem and have started practising it.

This afternoon, the children enjoyed erupting their volcanoes. I’m sure you’ll agree how great a job they’ve done building them!

Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 4th June

We had a great start to our last half term by tasting the children's baked goods, which they had made for their homework. They were then able to write detailed instructions for how to make their cakes/biscuits.
In preparation for our Poetry Festival next month, we have started learning our first poem 'The blind men and the elephant'. The children looked up unknown words and used the context to work out what they meant. We practised reading it through to deve...lop our expression and tone and decided how to perform it. We have been learning the actions to the poem and trying to remember it off by heart.
In Maths, we've been revising how to tell the time on analogue and digital clocks. The children have also learnt how to write the time using the 24 hour clock and understand the difference between am and pm.
We have started making our volcanoes in partners using all the recycled items to create the shape. The children worked really well together to discuss what they wanted to use, if they needed to change the shape of anything and how they could attach it. They are looking brilliant already.
In Science, we have started learning about sound and where it comes from. We went on a sound hunt around school to see which sounds we could hear and we tried to work out what made them. The children have been learning about how sounds are caused by vibrations so we wanted to work out what was vibrating for each sound.
Oak class look forward to seeing you tomorrow at our stall at the school fete!

Week commencing 7th May

This week we’ve enjoyed learning about how volcanoes are formed and finding out where some of the world’s most active volcanoes are. The children used the internet to research where these are and plotted them onto a map.
In Literacy, we’ve continued reading the Iron Man and discussing the problem he poses to the farmers. We looked at what the farmers could do to solve the problem and if these would work. The children then wrote persuasive letters suggesting ...their ideas to fix the problem, describing how to go about it and using persuasive devices. After they’d written them, they worked with a partner to edit and improve their writing.
In Maths, we’ve been learning about statistics and how to interpret the information on bar charts and pictograms. We’ve learnt how to find the information on the charts and how to use it to work out further information. The children then asked each other about their favourite sports, hobbies or food to create their own bar charts. They are learning how to choose an appropriate scale, label axes and add their information accurately.
We’ve continued learning about living things in Science and have been learning how to construct a food chain. The children matched up definitions to vocabulary such as consumer, producer, predator and prey.
They then worked in pairs to choose living things to build a food chain labelling each part.
In PE, we’ve been practising our athletics skills. The children used howlers, tried shot put and practised their long jump. We also had a relay race using bean bags to develop our balance and coordination skills.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 30th April

This week we’ve enjoyed getting stuck into our new topic on robots and inventions. The children researched significant inventions such as the light bulb, penicillin and automobiles to find out when they were invented and by who. They then plotted these dates onto a timeline using their understanding of dates. The children also chose whether to design a healthy meal for the Iron man and explain their food choices or to design their own robot using paint and explain what they do.

In Maths, we’ve been learning to solve problems involving money. The children used their understanding of money to work out problems involving finding totals, change and investigating what they could have bought. We have been using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to solve problems.

We’ve continued reading the Iron Man in Literacy and have been using freeze frames to explore character’s thoughts, feelings and what they could say in reaction to events in the story. The children have been writing a diary as Hogarth describing the night he saw the Iron Man. They described what they saw in detail and recorded their feelings to this.

In Science, we are continuing to learn about classification as part of our living things unit. We discussed the terms reptiles, mammals, amphibians, birds and fish so that we could explain the characteristics of living things in each group. We then learnt how to use questions to help us sort living things onto a flow chart.

Homework and spellings have been set. Please keep up Mathswhizz and reading too. Enjoy the wonderful weather this bank holiday weekend.

Week commencing 26th March

This week we’ve enjoyed doing lots of creative activities to finish our topic on India. The children glazed their clay gods, which have now been in the kiln and are looking amazing! We drew the Taj Mahal on our wash backgrounds we painted last week and used oil pastels to add colour. The children learnt how to use these and blend the colours. They then added the little details on using pencil. We also added our finishing touches to our dandiya sticks and practised our dances. The children loved performing their dances to Ash class and Puddleducks this afternoon. We also enjoyed listening to Ash class share their booklets about Emperor penguins. We’ve learnt some interesting facts from you too!

In Literacy, we read a range of poems about Spring looking at the features used. The children then used these ideas to write their own riddles, acrostics, shape and free verse poems.

In Maths, we used Easter challenge cards to practise our problem solving skills. The children used their knowledge to work out what they needed to do to solve them and revised their methods to work them out. They also enjoyed completing several different types of questions to solve an Easter mystery.

The children polished off their gymnastics routines this week and enjoyed with each other. They were able to include a range of balances using the equipment and include transitions in and out of them.

Have a wonderful Easter break. No written homework has been set but keep up the Mathswhizz and reading please. The spelling test after Easter will be on the next 2 lists.

Week commencing 19th March

This week we’ve enjoyed lots of creative activities for our topic. The children learnt how to create a wash using water colours, which we’ll later use as a backdrop for Taj Mahal drawings. They also painted the base colours for their dandiya sticks ready for decorating in detail next week. The children researched Indian dancing, in particular ones using dandiya sticks. They used this to help them to create their own Indian dance in pairs. We look forward to performing them with our own dandiya sticks.

As part of our Science unit, we have been learning how fossils are formed. The children then created their own fossils using salt dough. They’ve worked pretty well and you can see the imprints of the animals.

In PE, we brought all the equipment out including the wall bars, which the children loved exploring. The children used these to develop their balances even further and challenging themselves. 

We’ve continued learning about fractions and using our understanding to answer worded problems. We compared who had the most pizza, which amount of pocket money would work out more and worked out the number of people with a certain characteristic based on the fraction of a group.

In Literacy, we planned and wrote our own persuasive letters asking to be allowed to choose our own bedtimes. We recapped the persuasive devices we’ve been learning about and learnt how to write strong opening and closing paragraphs. 

We ended our week by fund raising for Sports relief. The children enjoyed a range of activities at lunchtime as well as dressing in their own sportswear to raise money.

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 12th March
We’ve enjoyed doing a range of experiments to celebrate Science week including learning about the effects of acidic vinegar on milk and how we can get things out of ice. The children showed great determination in trying different ways to save their figurines from the ice including using warm water. They were able to explain that warm water melts ice because ice melts when warm. Oak class used grated chocolate to create different types of rock to develop our understanding our how sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks are formed and what they look like. We also enjoyed watching the mad science show and taking part in a range of activities with the Unilever scientists.
As part of our topic, we created Indian Gods out of clay. The children practised moulding clay and attaching parts to create a God they’d chosen. They were able to add details through mark making.
In Maths, we continued learning about fractions and decimal equivalents for halves and quarters. Year 4 also looked at tenths and hundredths as decimals. We also looked at how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominators. We used pictures and bar models to help us understand what was happening and why the denominator stays the same.
We revised the different sentences types: simple, compound and complex. We discussed how these are formed and how we could improve a simple sentence into a complex or a compound sentence. We used our unit on adverts to practise writing these types of sentences.
In gymnastics, the children moved onto using a range of equipment to adapt their balances and tried different ways of entering and exit each balance. They are trying challenging balances and becoming more confident in showing these to their peers.

Week commencing 5th March

The children have worked hard this week on their assessments. They all have a great attitude to tests and always try their best. They have made massive progress this term and I am so proud of them!

We looked at a range of worded problems in Maths this week to revise all 4 operations and our understanding of problem solving. The children were able to use their knowledge to work out how to solve these and supported each other in practising our written methods for calculations. 

As part of our growth mindset lessons, the Year 3s learnt about mistakes that worked such as how the frisbee ended up being created by accident. The Year 4s discussed characteristics of a good learner and used these to create top trumps cards about themselves. They then explained the ratings they’d given themselves.

The children used their understanding of earthquakes to write a diary entry as someone who had experienced one. They discussed what features diaries need and what details they could include before writing.

In PE, we continued developing our balances in gymnastics and how we could challenge ourselves. We started to include other pieces of equipment such as benches and worked on how we could transition between the balances. 

In Topic, we finished our biographies about a famous person in Indian history and then planned how we could make a clay model of an Indian god, which we’ll be making next week.

No written homework has been set as they have worked so hard on their tests. However, please continue with Mathswhizz and reading.

Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 26th February

We have had a a lot of fun this week with all the snow and world book day but have still been working hard. In Maths, we have been learning about equivalent fractions using fraction walls to help us see that they’re the same size. We have been looking at links and patterns between equivalents to support our understanding of how to find them. We have been counting in tenths and hundredths while developing our understanding of what denominators tell us and what a whole is. We have also started looking at how to find a fraction of an amount by using drawings to help us see how they’re being shared out.

In Literacy, we have been improving our knowledge of writing adverts. We have learnt how modal verbs improve adverts and have been practising how to use them. We have also looked at how we could adapt adverts to suit different target audiences.

We have been learning about different ways rocks can be formed and what these might look like. The children are able to use the terms sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic to describe how rocks can be formed and we tried to sort our rocks into these groups by identifying characteristics.

In PE, the children have continued learning about different balances. We discussed using different body parts to balance on and how we could make them more challenging.

As part of our topic, the children have started researching Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi as their chosen significant figure in preparation to write a biography. We are developing our use of the internet for research and how to find relevant information.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 19th February
Oak class have enjoyed being back at school this week. We have got stuck into our new science unit on rocks, which seems to be a keen interest for the children. They have been bringing in their rock collections to share with us all and sharing their love and knowledge with it. This week, we looked at how we could classify rocks by appearance and texture. The children inspected a selection of rocks and grouped them with other rocks that shared its characteristics. They were then able to use a flow chart to identify which rocks they had.
In Literacy, we have started a unit on advert. We have been watching popular TV adverts and reading written adverts to see what makes them persuasive. The children identified features such as exaggeration, rhetorical questions, strong adjectives and slogans. We discussed well known slogans and looked at persuasive language that could be used then the children planned and wrote their own adverts for a toy. They created their own jingles for adverts and performed their adverts to the rest of the class.
We have started learning about fractions this week and have been using cut outs to help support our understanding of equal pieces of a whole. We looked at different ways we could represent fractions such as on number lines, bar models and of a shape. We also compared fractions using our cut outs and the children were able to clearly see the size of each fraction.
We have been sketching Indian gods as part of our topic and the children have been practising their shading and toning. They also started researching the religions in India and finding our about their beliefs. The children enjoyed trying some Indian food too!
In PE, we have started our gymnastics lessons with Mrs Marriott. The children explored different ways to move around the room and tried a range of balances. We were very impressed with their form.
Have a lovely weekend!

 

Oak class enjoyed tasting a selection of Indian food this afternoon. We tried butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, bombay potatoes, sag aloo and a selection of starters. There was also mango chutney and raita to dip our naan breads and poppadoms in. They were curious to try new foods they hadn’t had before and several of them went back for further helpings! Lots of fans of Indian food now!

Week commencing 29th January
This week has been another busy one for Oak class. As part of our topic on India, we have been developing our map skills by learning how to use grid references and understanding what ordinance survey symbols represent. The children tried to work out what the symbols could mean using their general knowledge and then looked them up online to check if they were right. We learnt how to read and write grid references then played a game to consolidate our understanding of using these to describe location. The children were able to use these skills to describe where certain places in India are.
In Maths, we have extended our learning about length by looking at the perimeter and area of shapes. The children have learnt what both of these mean and how to work them out by using the length of the sides. We looked at counting squares to find the area but the children soon worked out, using their arrays knowledge, that it was quicker to multiply the 2 sides together. We have started investigating if there is a relationship between area and perimeter.
We have continued reading Indian folktales in Literacy this week. The children worked in pairs to read ‘The old man and the magic bowl’ and used the context to work meaning of new words. They also developed their dictionary skills by checking these definitions in a dictionary. We revised the different uses of commas in writing and the children were able to identify where they needed to go.
In Science, we looked at the dangers of electricity and discussed how to keep ourselves safe. We watched a cartoon to embed one of these and the children designed their own posters for people to keep safe.
The children continued developing their table tennis skills in PE this week and even built up to using a full length table. They all received some one to one advice from our coach on how to improve their game.
Homework has been set. Keep up the great work with the spellings and I’m glad to see that Mathswhizz averages are going up so keep it up! Please don’t forget to read with the children every week and write in their reading records. It really supports their comprehension if they can read to an adult and discuss the book. If you’re unsure which questions to ask them, please see me for some ideas.

Week commencing 22nd January
This week we have continued learning about Indian folktales in Literacy. We have been reading the girl in the forest and making predictions about the story using what we would expect from a traditional tale. The children acted out their predictions to the rest of the class and explained their ideas. We have been revising our knowledge of adverbs and using them to describe how the characters were doing things or when they did things. 
In Maths, we have continued learning about length and converting between the units. The children worked in pairs to tackle a range of reasoning and problem solving questions relating to length. They have developed their explanation skills and used their knowledge to support this.
Earlier this week, the children finished their PowerPoints about India and presented them to the rest of the class today. They did a great job! We enjoyed learning from each other and have developed our confidence at standing at the front.
In Science, we continued learning about circuits. The children made predictions about whether they thought it was a circuit and if the bulb would light up. They then set up the circuits to test them and explained what they found out. 
We also continued learning how to play table tennis. The children developed their control skills as well as their batting and played some proper games.
Homework and spellings have been set. We had another amazing set of spellings results today and the children are using them in their work so keep it up!
Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 15th January
We have had another busy week in Oak class. In Literacy, we have continued looking at Indian folktales with a focus on the story of Rama and Sita. We listened to a few different versions and the children chose their favourite version. We worked on giving reasons for our choices and explaining our favourite parts. As a class, we mapped out the story and the children used this to help them plan and write their own version of the story. We stuck to the main theme but changed small details.
As part of our topic lessons, the children have been learning how to use PowerPoint to create a presentation about India. We looked at how to choose backgrounds, add images and change the style of each slide. 
In Maths, we have been learning about measurement and have been choosing appropriate tools to use. We have recapped the units for length and the children have been measuring every object in sight! They were given instructions to follow to create their own monster using certain measurements e.g. length of arms had to be an odd number, legs had to be over 10cm etc.
We have been getting excited about electricity in science. The children were given the task of making the lightbulb light up using a battery and some foil. They had some interesting discussions about how to do this and we looked at how it is possible. We learnt how to make a series circuit and the symbols needed to draw it.
The children have continued developing their table tennis skills and have built up to games.
Homework has been set. Please keep up the reading and Mathswhizz. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 8th January
We have settled back into school quickly and have immersed ourselves in our new topic about India. We shared some of the things we already know about India and discussed what we hoped to learn this term. The children have been working in pairs to research areas they are interested in such as clothing, famous people and food. They will later create PowerPoints and present what they have learnt to the rest of the class. They have also been finding out about Mehndi patterns and designing their own. 
In Literacy, we have started learning about folktales and the children shared folktales they knew with their groups. They were able to retell these stories well and suggest what they thought the message/learning from the story is. We have been reading Indian folktales and discussing their messages, as well as retelling the story of the Tiger Child in our own words.
We have continued with our topic of multiplication and division in Maths making sure we are confident in using the written methods. We have also used our knowledge to solve mastery problems. The children have been learning how to solve problems involving recipe portions needing adapting and the true size of buildings based on their models.
In PE, we have started table tennis. The children have been getting used to holding the bats and controlling the balls. We moved onto a game, where the children had to work in their groups to keep the ball within the table and control their hitting of the ball.
We have started our new science topic on electricity, which the children are very excited about. They shared their knowledge so far and we looked into where electricity is used. They were able to name electrician appliances and we discussed the use of batteries. We learnt about how electricity is generated and have been discussing renewable and non renewable energy sources.
Their homework is to carry out an electrical audit at home to develop their understanding of electrical appliances. Please continue learning spellings, doing Mathswhizz and reading. We had excellent spelling scores this week so well done Oak! 
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 11th December 
We have had a busy week in Oak class. There was our Christmas lunch on Wednesday, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Th children made their own Christmas hats for the meal too! 
In Maths, we have been learning how to understand worded problems involving multiplication and division. The children worked hard to make sure they understood the questions before deciding on what calculation they needed to do. They worked in pairs to explain the bus stop method to each other and develop their own understanding of it. 
We have continued writing letters in Literacy. This week, we have focussed on the present perfect tense and learnt how it is formed. The children did some role play using this tense to explain to Santa what good things they have done and why they deserve to be on the nice list. They then used this to write their letters.
We have also been looking at calligram poems, which the children then wrote some of. They focussed on Christmas, writing about snowflakes, snowmen, Santa and Christmas trees.
 In PE, the children worked in groups to design their own assault course and explained it to the other group. They developed their communication and teamwork skills as well as considering how to make their course more challenging.
We have been painting our Victorian houses this week too. The children have been really focussed and followed their plans carefully.
No written homework has been set but please continue with Mathswhizz and reading.
See you next week for our last two days!

Week commencing 27th November 
This week we have been getting excited for Christmas. We posted our letters to Santa on Monday and received a response today. Buddy, the elf, has come back with Mr and Mrs Claus, which Mrs Claus knitted for us! The children decorated their KPA jumpers for the Christmas tree festival and have also made some decorations for the classroom. They enjoyed getting using pasta shapes to create a design, as well as decorating stockings and making paper chains.
In Literacy, we have started a Christmas unit using the book Dear Father Christmas. The children story mapped the book and we have been discussing the impact of using letters to tell a story. We have been looking at using powerful verbs to improve our sentences too and seeing how they can change the meaning.
We have continued using the grid method for multiplication in Maths and the children have worked together to be able to explain the process. We have also been revising and practising our times tables to enable us to be quicker at using the grid method.
In PE, we played a whole class game of netball. The children have developed a good understanding of the rules and working as a team to be able to score.
We learnt about the different types of teeth we have and the function that each one has.
In Topic, the children designed their own Victorian house, which we will start making next week. We would appreciate any resources that they can cut up to use :) 
Homework has been set. Please continue the good work with the spellings. I am very pleased with the results each week. Could you please encourage the children to read aloud to you as much as possible to develop their fluency and intonation.
Have a good weekend!

Week commencing 21st November
Last week, the children got stuck into their Science topic on digestion by creating a model of the digestive system. I'm sure they have already given you all the gory details but here are the photos! The children broke up the food into pieces (acting as the teeth) and added water (saliva) to make it soft. Once in the bag (stomach), they added orange juice (stomach acid) to help break up the food and gave it a good squish (as the stomach muscles would). The food then went into a pair of tights (the intestines), where all the vitamins and minerals were absorbed into the body and the solid waste food made its way to end of the digestive system.
In Literacy the children have been learning about persuasive writing and when we might need to be persuasive. We talked about MPs in Parliament and the children used drama to practise persuading each other of their arguments for and against whether football should be banned on the playground. We also looked at how we can make our arguments persuasive by using persuasive devices and giving reasons. Later in the week, they used their ideas to write a persuasive letter to Mrs Suzi Whiting, who'll have to decide which argument was the most persuasive!
In Maths, we continued learning about multiplication and moved onto using the grid method to work out 2-digit numbers multiplied by 1-digit numbers.
We have also started our assessments, which I'm pleased to say the children have shown a great attitude and mindset to.
In PE, we continued improving our ball skills to support our team games. We played a range of games for the children to practise and develop their bounce passes, chest passes and overarm passes.
The children write their letters to Santa, which we'll be posting together today. The children are very excited to walk down to the postbox to send their own letters. Let's hope he has time to reply to us!
No written homework was set this week so I'm hoping lots of Mathswhizz and reading has been done! Keep up the spellings too. Everyone did brilliantly on Friday's test.

r

 

Week commencing 13th November 2017

We have had an exciting week with both Year 3 and Year 4 going to sports tournaments to compete against the other trust schools in dodgeball, netball and football. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and showed great teamwork skills. We took part in a live BBC lesson with the royal school of ballet, where the children learnt some motifs and created their own based on these. In dance, they are continuing to learn and practise their Christmas routine with Miss Jones. It is looking great!
As it is anti-bullying week, we have been discussing friendships and kindness. The children made some kindness promises with Mrs Tickle which they wrote on leaves during their outdoor learning sessions. We also looked at a range of bullying scenarios, which the children discussed in groups to put in order of most serious. They had some really interesting conversations and showed great empathy. 
We have been working on our growth mindset too. Year 3 watched a clip of what happens in the brain. They then thought about the effects on the brain of having a growth mindset and what it might look like. Year 4 came up with things people with a growth mindset might say and things people with a fixed mindset might say. They also thought about how they feel when they make a mistake and how they can overcome any fixed mindset feelings.
In Maths, the children have been learning about multiples and factors. They used their times tables knowledge to support them with this and created factor bugs. We have continued practising our quick recall skills through times table games such as hit the button and board games. We have also been learning how to multiply and divide by 10 and 100 using place value grids. Year 4 have started looking at decimals too!
In Literacy, the children have written their own non-chronological reports about a chosen sport they had researched. They have been able to use sub-headings to arrange their writing, as well as writing in the past tense and third person.
The children have continued learning about the digestive system and what each of the organs do. They made some predictions about what they thought each part’s role was and then we looked at path our food follows.
Homework has been set. Please don’t forget Mathswhizz and reading. It’s important that the children read aloud to you, as well as doing some independent reading.

Week commencing 6th November

This week we have been preparing for the sports tournaments that are happening next week by developing our Netball skills. The children learnt and practised different types of passes and built up to mini games. They quickly picked up the rules and have worked on their attacking and defending.
In Maths, we have been working on worded problems involving addition and subtraction. We looked at key words which give us clues about the calculation needed and have continued practising the column method to solve these. We have also looked at 2 step problems and made sure we understand the question to be able decide what we need to do to solve it. The children have worked on explaining how they know what to do and what information each calculation gives us. 
The children have been researching a chosen sport to plan an information text, which they’ll write next week. They used a planning frame to structure their ideas and plan their headings and paragraphs. We have been discussing what an information text needs to include and what they key information about each sport is. The children have enjoyed sharing what they have found out about these sports. 
In Topic, the children have chosen an area about the Victorian times that they are interested in learning more about and have started a research project on it. They are all making great progress with using the internet to find information and deciding whether things are relevant or not.
We have started learning about the digestive system in Science. The children learnt about which parts make up our digestive system and where they are in our bodies. The children quizzed each other to see how many parts they could remember and in groups they decided where to put the organs on our body poster. 
Have a great weekend! Keep up the reading and Mathswhizz. Please let me know if there are any questions about the homework.

Week commencing 30th October

We have had a busy first week back. The children have got stuck into our new Literacy unit on non-chronological reports, where we have been reading lots of reports about a range of sports. We have learnt some interesting facts about some sports as well as the features that non-chronological reports need to have. The children were able to find these features in the text and have practised changing a past tense piece of writing into present tense to make it a formal report. We also revised the parts of a sentence and the children looked for examples of these in a text.
In Maths, we have recapped using the column method for addition and subtraction consolidating our understanding. We also looked at different methods for subtraction, where the children practised using a variety of methods to see which ones were easiest for them and if it depended on the question.
We have been learning about the British Empire during the Victorian times and the importance of trade agreements. The children used atlases to name the countries in the empire and then researched some of their key exports.
We have enjoyed writing firework acrostic poems, creating Halloween paintings and drawing haunting houses. The children also wrote amazing descriptions to go with their haunted houses.
Homework and spellings have been set. I am pleased to say that spelling test results have gone up recently so keep up the great work! Please also continue with Mathswhizz and reading.

Week commencing 9th October
This week in Maths we have moved onto addition and have been learning how to use the column method.  This is completely new to Year 3 but they have taken this in their stride and have used their strong understanding of place value to support them with carrying numbers over. Year 4 have reinforced their understanding of using this method and have been able to complete missing number questions. We practised some mental Maths strategies to help us add quickly such as making a whole 10 and near doubles.
In Literacy, we have been learning how to add tension to our writing through short sentences and key words. The children have also practised using ellipsis and describing sounds to develop their writing. We have revised our knowledge of speech ready for our story writing next week and have been able to write great speech using different words for said, adverbs and even including extra information. We have been learning about interesting ways to start our sentences and the children have come up with some great examples. They planned their own story based on street child, which they'll write next week.
We have had an exciting science lesson learning about the water cycle and have used our knowledge of the different states to understand all the processes. The children learnt a song to help them remember the meaning of the words and then danced along to another water cycle song. We even created our own water cycle in a bag, which you can see on our classroom window. The water has already begun evaporating and condensing on the side of the bags.
In PE, the children moved onto playing a small game of hockey. They are able to use the skills they've been learning to control the ball in the direction they wish, work as a team to get the ball towards their goal and have even been able to intercept the ball from their opponents. The children have also continued their dance sessions. I saw them practising their leaps today.
In Topic, we learnt about Victorian schools in preparation for our Victorian school day next week. The children were shocked to see how different the classrooms looked and that boys and girls had some different lessons to each other. They were very interested in the discipline in those times.
Homework is to write an acrostic poem about something Halloween based and Mathswhizz. Please continue reading and learning the next set of spellings. The test will be on Thursday as Friday is a training day. We already have a few children, who have reached the first flag on our reading race so keep up the great reading! 
Don't forget Monday is Victorian school day and we would like the children to join in with the dressing up in role. Miss Reed and I will be role too!

Week commencing 2nd October

 

This week has been a busy week for Oak class. They are thoroughly enjoying learning about the Victorians and sharing what they have found out. The children researched Victorian clothing and were able to see the differences between what the poor and rich wore. We discussed how fashion has changed over the years and the children designed their own Victorian inspired outfit. We were also very lucky to have Mrs Traynor come in to share information about her hous...e, which was built in the Victorian times. The children were very interested in the sash windows and asked lots of questions.
In Maths we have continued working on place value and deepening our understanding. We have been working on reasoning and problem solving questions using our knowledge of place value. The children also looked at patterns in multiples to help them learn their 50s and 25s. They were able to complete missing number sequences and explain their answers.
We are continuing to read Street Child in Literacy and have been using drama to understand the feelings and motives of the main character. The children came up with for and against arguments for whether Jim should escape the Workhouse and why. They then tried to convince Jim, played by Miss Reed, of their argument. We also looked at examples of diaries and the children then wrote their own diary as Jim about being in a Workhouse.
In Science, we looked at the processes melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation. We demonstrated how water changes state through these processes and the children developed their explanations of what happens to the particles.
Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 25th September 

We have had another busy week working hard and learning lots. On Thursday the whole school celebrated Harvest Festival at the church. They donated food, sang beautifully and each class shared something they had prepared.
In Maths, we have been learning how to add 10, 100 and 1000 to numbers as well as how to round them to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. The children have quickly picked up the rules and were able to use their understanding to explain reasoning questions. We are continuing to practise our times tables using hit the button.
We are continuing to read 'Street Child' in Literacy and we have been looking at how to write setting descriptions. We watched a scene from Oliver to help us visualise what a Victorian Workhouse would have been like. The children came up with some exciting phrases to describe what could be seen, heard and smelt. We also spent some time editing our writing to improve it using exciting sentence openers and stronger adjectives.
The children investigated the melting temperature of chocolate in Science and decided that warmer temperatures melt it quickest. Before the investigation, they had considered that 30/40 degree heat in Spain, Cyprus and other Mediterranean climates causes chocolate to melt so they already had a good inkling. We then enjoyed using the chocolate to make crispy cakes.
In PE, we have continued developing our hockey skills. The children are getting very good at controlling the ball and have developed some speed. They have continued enjoying their street dance sessions.
We have been learning about Victorian toys in Topic and were lucky to see some Victorian dolls that a few girls brought in. We discussed how toys have changed since the Victorian era and what toys are still just as popular. The children were able to spot differences in what they were made from and noticed that there were no electronic devices, which I'm sure made them appreciate today's technology!
Homework has been set today and is due on Tuesday. Please encourage children to spend a good length of time writing and checking their work. Mathswhizz, spellings and reading are to be done as well please to support their learning.
Have a good weekend!

Week commencing 18th September
This week we have been developing our understanding of place value in Maths. The children used their understanding of the value of digits within 3 and 4 digit numbers to help them compare numbers using more than and less than. They were also able to order numbers and explain their answers. We explored some mastery challenges that really made the children think about the possibilities.
In Literacy we have continued reading 'Street child' and used drama to explore the characters feelings and motives. We have been looking at examples of persuasive writing to identify key features and any strong vocabulary we could magpie.
The children have been learning about gases in the environment and discussing whether they weigh anything. They learnt that carbon dioxide creates the bubbles and fizz in fizzy drinks. We then investigated which fizzy drink had the most carbon dioxide in by shaking them to remove the gas. The children really enjoyed that part!
We have been learning about the artist William Morris, who created imaginative and colourful designs in the Victorian times. The children looked at his style using nature and bright colours and created their own design inspired by this.
As part of their outdoor learning, the children explored making art using their surroundings and nature. They really enjoyed choosing what to use and working together.
In PE the children have developed their hockey skills further and enjoyed building up to defending and attacking. 
Homework has been set and is due Tuesday. Please encourage your children to spend at least half an hour on their written piece and to check their work afterwards for errors. Mathswhizz is also all good to go now so the children should be using that weekly to practise their Maths. Spellings is the week 3 list and there will be a test next Friday. Please keep up with reading too :)
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 11th September 
This week the children have got stuck into place value and reading numbers. The children investigated different ways of representing numbers and estimated where to place numbers on a number line. As part of Roald Dahl day, we also revised our problem solving skills based around his stories.
In Literacy, we have started reading Street Child which is set in Victorian times. We have already found out some facts about what life was like in those times especially for poor people. The children have been making inferences about characters in the book and learning to find evidence in the text to back up their thoughts. 
We delved into Victorian homes in Topic and did an interactive tour through a rich person's home. The children discussed how their homes were similar and different to the Victorian home.
The children started their outdoor learning with Mrs Tickle this week and did a great job clearing our patch. We look forward to growing lots of produce.
During Roald Dahl day, the children wrote a description of their own chocolate factory. We watched a clip of the film to develop our ideas and discussed how to make our factory sound amazing. The children shared their favourite Roald Dahl books and what they liked about them.
We have started our Science unit on States of Matter and the children discussed what makes a solid, liquid and gas. They even acted out the particles in each of the states.
The children developed their hockey skills further in PE this week. They were able to dribble the ball around and stop the ball. We worked up to a small game where attackers had to steal the ball. The children had great fun trying to stop this and have developed some great skills.
Homework is to write a prediction about our Literacy book in detail and spellings are week 2. A bigger copy has gone home today so please put this up so they can practise daily to help them remember these. We will be starting Mathswhizz soon but in the meantime please keep up the times tables practise.
Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 4th September 2017

 

We have had a great first week back at school and have had fun starting our new topic on the Victorians. We were very lucky to have some Victorian objects to look at which the children used to develop their ideas about life in that era. They inferred that they had no electricity or lights because there were candles and a heavy iron without a plug. We discussed how life has changed since then and new things that we have at home that make our lives easier. The... children worked on their sketching skills by drawing some of these objects. We looked into silhouettes and the children have created some amazing portraits of themselves in this style. The children looked at some key events during Victorian times and chose the ones they thought were most significant and plotted them on a timeline.
In PE Mrs Marriott from Hunts SSP introduced us to hockey. The children developed their control and practised using a hockey stick to move the ball. We also played a game of steal the eggs. Later this week the children enjoyed a street dance session with Miss Jones.
We have been focusing on our timetables and playing lots of games to make it enjoyable and hopefully easier to remember. We have used times tables races to beat our times and have had great success already!
The homework is to create a front cover for our topic books on the Victorians and learn spellings ready for a test next Friday. These are at the back of their homework books and is labelled according to the weeks. Mathletics isn't quite ready yet so please practise times tables instead.
Have a lovely weekend!

Medium Term Planning Overview - Oak Class 3/4 Autumn 2017

Week commencing 10th July

Week commencing 3rd July

Oak class update:
This week in Science we have been exploring the habitats on our school field and the children practised their sketching skills to sketch a range of living things that they found. We discussed why certain creatures or plants live on our field and how they survive.
The children have written some great diary entries as the Beast in Literacy and were able to describe their day as well as their feelings using some great vocabulary. They also enjoyed writing an information text for the new reception children telling them all about KPA.
We have been practising our times tables through a range of games as well as singing and shouting them out loud to help us remember them. Please encourage your children to say or write the whole number sentence such as 2x8= 16 to help them recall the facts later on. 
In PE, we continued enjoying golf. The children have been learning how to chip and were very successful in getting the balls over the 'river'. We even pushed ourselves further to aim to get the ball in the 'channel' which was tricky but we had some good successes. The children have developed great perseverance in PE this year and are determined to improve further.
Homework is Mathletics and spellings. If they would like, they could research their country further as we will be doing our writing up next week and starting to share our learning with the class.

 

Week commencing 26th June

We have had another busy week with lots of learning and fun. Oak enjoyed a dance lesson by Linda Allen, who gave us a taster session of some ballet as well as modern dance. The children enjoyed learning some of these skills and were able to complete a routine really well (video to follow). They even did some meditation to unwind at the end! 

The children continued developing their golf skills with Karen Tyers from Hunts sports partnership. Despite the drastic change in weather since last week, the children were just as enthusiastic and showed some great skills. 

We have started reading 'The lonely Beast' in Literacy and considering how the main character feels. We looked at diary entries and some of the children wrote a diary entry about their weekend while the others rehearsed for the end of year show. We planned what we may include in a diary if we wrote as the Beast and the children came up with great vocabulary. We also played some great spelling games such as Battleships to practise our spellings.

We continued learning about Islam and the festival of Eid which was this earlier this week. The children made biscuits to celebrate and have produced some lovely work for display. They have been able to make comparisons between Islam and Christianity and have been really interested to learn about other religions. The children made the biscuits in groups by following the recipe themselves and measuring the ingredients out with a little help.

In Science, we continued learning about the different types of habitats and their environments. We looked at what types of plants and animals live in each and how they are able to live there.

As part of our topic on Europe, the children have been given a county to research and they will present what they've learnt to the rest of the class. Half of the children started their research this week and have made great progress using the internet for research to find out about capitals, landmarks and food as well as much more. Their homework is to continue their research.

Please continue with Mathletics and Spellings as these are still important to grasp and develop before they move into the next year.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 19th June

This week we have been enjoying the glorious weather and learning more about being safe in the sun. The children have taken great care of themselves by wearing their hats, staying in the shade and drinking plenty of water.
In Literacy, the children have been writing their own adventure stories using the videoclip 'Taking flight' as inspiration. We looked at how we structure and develop stories so we wrote a different section each day focusing on what was needed. The children learnt about leaving endings open for sequels or throwing in a shock ending. They have worked hard to include all the things they've learnt this year and have been working on their editing skills to check and improve.
We have revised our knowledge of homophones and the Year 2s enjoyed writing some of these as well as their common exception words in the playground.
We also wrote letters to the Paralympian Alastair who visited us last week to say thank you for visiting us and to tell him more about ourselves.
In PE, we have continued learning about golf and putting in particular. The children worked on their control and force, varying the distance from where they putted from.
We have been discussing other religions, in particular Islam. The children used books to find out about the religion including their beliefs, special holidays and places of worship. They were able to make some comparisons between Christianity and recognised similar values.
Homework this week is to research an author and write about their books and life. Spellings are to continue learning their word walls and any they aren't confident with. It would be lovely to see more Mathletics certificates next week too!
We look forward to seeing everyone at the school fete tomorrow. Come try juggling and plate spinning at our stall :)

Week commencing 12th June

This week we have enjoyed being outside in the lovely weather. We have started learning about living things in Science so we explored our field to see what we could find. The children looked for things that were living, dead or had never lived and were able to explain why using the 7 processes. We used MRS NERG to help us remember these processes.
In Literacy, we have been looking at setting descriptions and how we can more detail when describing settings. ...We watched the videoclip 'Taking Flight' and the children wrote wonderful setting descriptions about the jungle. They used the 5 senses to help them consider more than just what they can see. We also inferenced how the boy in video was feeling at different points and explained how we knew. The children were able to retell the story verbally as well as writing it in detail.
We have worked on our reasoning skills in Maths to develop our understanding of Fractions. The children looked at different ways of representing fractions and developed their explanations of how they knew what fraction it was. We also looked at words problems and calculation fractions of amounts as well as finding the missing number.
In Topic, we have been doing lots of atlas work to find out about Europe. We looked at countries that are in Europe, their capitals and their flags. The children chose a flag to paint for our display. We have some very detailed ones!
I have not set homework this week in the hope that the children will use that time to do more Mathletics and learn their spellings. They need to know their word walls so weekly tests will be on a selection of those words from now on.
Next week is the school fete and Oak class will have a plate spinning stall. We would be very grateful for any donations for prizes.
Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 5th June
We have had a busy first week back. In Literacy, we have started reading Mr Gum and making predictions about what might happen in the story. We looked at how the author described Mr Gum's character and identified what had been used. As there were a lot of similes, we chose to write some of our own to describe him and built up a collection of adjectives and noun phrases too. The children then used these to help them write their own character descriptions about him.
We also wrote a recipe for a teacher in Exciting Writing. The children had fun thinking what makes a good teacher and were able to use lots of interesting vocabulary.
In Music, the children have started learning a song which links nicely with our topic. They have included actions as well as using instruments. Perhaps you might see it at the Soiree next month.
We have been learning how to find fractions of an amount in Maths. The children were able to apply their understanding of what a fraction is and what each part of a fraction means to help them do this.
In PE we started our Golf sessions with a Hunts Sports Coach this week. The children really enjoyed learning the skills needed. It seems we already have some keen golfers!
Homework and Mathletics have been set. Spellings are to revise the whole of their word wall as these should now be embedded. Their test next week will be a selection of these words.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 15th May

Even though the Year 2s have had their SATs this week, we have managed to have lots of fun too! I was very proud with the children's attitude towards the tests as they all took them in their stride and kept trying even when they found parts tricky.
The Year 3s have been learning about coordinates. They can use axes to read the location of points as well as plotting points to complete shapes. They have also looked at turns and right angles.
In PE, we have been doing some gymnastics. We tried out different ways of travelling across the room and worked individually as well as in groups using our bodies to create shapes. 
In Literacy, we have been reading "The day the crayons quit" and discussing the purpose of the letters in the book. The children chose an object in the classroom to be and wrote letters of complaint about how the class have been treating them. They really enjoyed getting into character and used great emotive language to get their point across.
We have been looking at pointillism in Art and have linked this with our Topic to create paintings of areas around Kimbolton. We looked at examples from the artist GeorgeSeurat to help inspire our paintings. 
The children looked at ordinance survey symbols and matched them up with what they thought they meant. They used these as well as some of their own symbols to design their own town.
Homework has been set and is due on Tuesday. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 8th May
This week we received letters from our penpals across the country. The children really enjoyed reading these and finding out about them. We have written book reviews recommending our favourite books to send back to them so we hope we will persuade them to read them. We looked at examples of book reviews to figure out what we needed to include which has helped us write brilliant reviews. 
In Maths we have been revising ready for the Year 2 SATs next week. We recapped the four operations, time, fractions and measurement. We practised lots of problem solving questions in these areas to deepen our understanding. 
We have continued looking at plants in Science, in particular the life cycle of a plant. We are continuing to observe our sunflowers to see under which condition they will grow the best.
In swimming we worked on our backstroke: developing our arms and kicks to use minimum effort but go further. 
Oak class made some amazing cakes, cookies and brownies for today so thank you to all the parents who helped out with this. They were yummy! 
Homework has been set but there are no spellings this week. Please continue reading with your children and developing their comprehension skills as these are really coming on :)
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 1st May
We have had an exciting week preparing for our poetry festival which the children loved being part of yesterday. The children worked in groups to write a verse for our class poem 'The Home-time Rush" and we made up actions together. I was very impressed with their poetry writing. 

Whilst we were on our trip, we also visited the museum and the library to learn about the history of St Neots. The children loved exploring old photos, looking through books and seeing artefacts.
In Maths, we have been learning about statistics and different ways of presenting results. The children have used bar graphs, tally charts, pictograms and tables to read information and answer questions. We have worked on finding differences and totals as well as lifting information. They practised using a tally chart to record class favourites.
We have continued learning about plants in Science and looking in particular at the process of pollination. One of our sunflowers has started to grow so we have been discussing which conditions have enabled that. 
As part of our topic, the children wrote their own questionnaires to find out about where people live and their thoughts about the area. They have drawn tally charts so they can record several responses. Their homework is to ask at least 10 people their questionnaire.
Homework and Mathletics have been set which is due on Tuesday. The children have spellings to learn as well for a test next Friday. Please also continue to read as much as possible and ask them comprehension questions to develop their understanding.

Week commencing 24th April
This week, the children have been writing letters to their penpals at other schools across the country. They have introduced themselves and our school, as well as asking a series of questions. These have been posted today so we look forward to the letters we will receive next week.
We have been learning the poem "The Morning Rush" for the poetry festival next week. The children enjoyed making up the actions for the poem and have been rehearsing these with enthusiasm. 
In Maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes: recognising them, naming them and describing their properties using vocabulary such as edges, vertices and faces. We also revised measurement by investigating myths. The children worked out whether it is true that height is the same length as armspan, face is the same length as hand and if forearm is the same length as a foot. 
We have planted some sunflower seeds to find out what plants need to grow. The children will be testing this by leaving each pot under different conditions and keeping an eye out for how they grow. They have made predictions based on what they think the plants will need.
We have started our swimming lessons this week. The children have been practising floating on their backs, pushing off and gliding as well seeing which stroke is best for swimming longer distances.
As part of our topic, we've been researching facts about our local area so that we can tell our penpals more about the area we live in. The children have been using their computer skills and internet search engines to find out information.
Homework and Mathletics have been set. I am pleased to see that the children are spending more time on Mathletics. This is reinforcing their learning. Spellings have been sent home today. Please reinforce the importance of learning these to improve their writing.
Have a lovely bank holiday weekend!

Week commencing 18th April
We have immersed ourselves straight into our new topic: Home and Away. The children discussed whether Kimbolton is a village, town or city and how they know this. We looked at features that villages, towns and cities have and whether some can be present in more than one. We have been looking at where Kimbolton is located in our country and learning a pneumonic to help us remember the points of a compass. The children have pen pals at other schools in the country which we will be writing too so they are really excited to tell them all about our school and area. We have already thought of some questions we'd like to ask them.
This week we have started preparing for our poetry festival by learning the poem 'Pillow talk'. The children have been practising performing poetry with intonation and tone as well as using actions to help them remember it. We have also been revising our spelling rules for plurals and suffixes.
In Maths the children have been learning about the properties of 2D shapes and how to sort them into vein diagrams. We have been looking at sides, edges, lines of symmetry, right angles and parallel lines.
We inspected the results of our mummified tomatoes. The children loved getting stuck in and were feeling and smelling the tomatoes to describe how they had changed in the past 2 months.
We started looking at plants in science. The children were able to label the main parts of a plant and we learnt about the roles each part have.
Homework is to design a front cover for our topic books about our new topic: Home and Away. The children can choose the title based around our topic where we will be learning about our local area, the U.K. And Europe. Spellings this week are the slip that has been sent home.

Medium Term Planning Overview - Oak Class Y2/3 Summer 2017

 

Week commencing 20th March

This week we had our class assembly. The children were so proud of what they've learnt and enjoyed showing their work. It was lovely to see so many parents there.
In Maths, the children used a variety of resources to help them understand how to find a fraction of an amount. They worked in pairs to share objects fairly, recapping on their previous division work. They understand what each part of a fraction tells us and moved onto working these out without resources. We have also been looking at adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator, which the children have quickly picked up. We used circle puzzles cut into different fractions to help us visualise what this means and how it works.
The children have been considering how the pharaoh in our book is feeling and have been writing all four sentence types to show what he might say. We then looked into features of diary writing and they wrote a diary entry as the pharaoh with some excellent descriptions of what he'd been doing and his feelings.
In topic, we looked at Egyptian artefacts that may tell us about the past. The children used these to write a newspaper article about a stolen artefact.
We used our learning about magnets in Science to make compasses. The children have developed their understanding of how magnets react with each other to help us find direction. They used this to help them find their team's hidden treasure.
Homework and Mathletics have been set. There will be no spellings test next week but after Easter we will be doing a test on any of their word wall words which they learnt so far. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great weekend!

Week commencing 13th March

Week commencing 6th March

Week commencing 27th February

We have had a lovely week with a lot going on. We enjoyed celebrating World Book Day yesterday by dressing up and enjoying sharing our favourite books. There were lots of amazing outfits so well done for making such a great effort! Oak class wrote book reviews about their favourite stories and told the class why they enjoyed them so much.
As part of our topic, the children have started making their Ancient Egyptian death masks. They used masks and cardboard ...to create the shape that Egyptian Pharaohs' masks were so a big thank you for all the cardboard that was sent in. The children were very good at drawing their own shape, cutting this out and carefully attaching the pieces together. We will be working on these for the next few weeks so I am looking forward to seeing the final product!
In Maths, we have started learning about fractions. The children have been able to use the vocabulary numerator and denominator to explain how many pieces a shape or length needs to be split into and how many of those pieces the fraction is referring to. We have shaded in shapes to show our understanding, written fractions to show what part is shaded and matched these together.
We have began to read a new book in Literacy called 'There's a Pharaoh in our bath'. The children discussed how they would feel if they met a Pharaoh and what questions they might ask them. They also developed their reading skills by reading a text about Pharaohs to find key information to help them write a non-chronological report about Pharaohs. The children wrote excellent descriptions on how the Pharoah Mummy in the book rose up out of the coffin. We considered how the characters in the book might be feeling when they found the coffin and discussed whether we would have opened it or not. They have been learning about for and against arguments so have started considering reasons for and against whether the characters should open the coffin.
We investigated the effect of different surfaces on movement in Science. The children tested cars on four surfaces and measured how far the car travelled each time.
In Music, the children have continued learning bout pentatonic scales and pitch. They even played an interactive xylophone on the whiteboard!
Homework, Mathletics and Spellings have been set. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I am very proud of how well the children have been learning their spellings and can see the great improvement it is making to their writing. Next week's spellings for Year 3 are the next two columns starting with learn and length. Year 2's spellings are the column starting with kind.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 20th February
Oak class have had a busy first week back. We have been learning about Ancient Egyptian Death Masks and the children have used these to design their own versions, which we will be making soon.
In Literacy, we planned and wrote our own endings to the story of Flat Stanley. The children worked in groups to make several predictions for how Stanley could trick the baddie he had been helping. They considered these in detail and together we mapped out the structure for how to write the rest of the story which they wrote independently. I look forward to reading these this weekend!
We have continued learning about Time in Maths. The children were using TV guides and Football statistics to work out how long programmes were on for and how long into the game a goal was scored. Please continue asking your children to work out periods of time as it is something that needs practice. We also learnt how to use stopwatches to record length of time. The children recorded how long it took their partner to do several activities such as star jumps, writing their names and reciting their times tables.
We have started learning about Forces in Science and how objects are moved using a push or pull force. The children worked in groups to create freezeframes of them moving an object and the rest of the class had to work out what they were doing and which force they were using.
In Music they have been busy using a variety of instruments to play along to a version of Old Macdonald. See below for a video of this.
The children are continuing with Dance this half term and improving their coordination by learning routines. They are using their creativity to adapt them into their own routines too.
Mathletics has been set as well as spellings. Year 3 have the next two columns on their word wall starting with island and knowledge. Year 2 have the next column on their word wall starting with find.

Week commencing 6th February
This week we mummified our tomatoes!!! We discussed why the Ancient Egyptians mummified their dead and how they did this. We replicated the process on tomatoes. The children had so much fun cutting open their tomatoes and scooping out all the insides. We then cleaned them using an antibacterial wash to kill all the bacteria. After that we filled them with Natron to preserve. We will leave them for a few weeks and observe what has happened to the tomatoes.
In... Maths we have been learning to tell the time. We revised our o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to and then moved on to looking at telling the time to 5 minute intervals. The children went around the room reading the time on each other's clocks. We practised using clocks to show a range of times and the children could tell me what time I was showing them on my clock. Please ask your children regularly to tell you what the time is to support this learning.
In Literacy, we have been learning how to punctuate speech correctly. We acted out conversations that we thought the characters in the book Flat Stanley might have and practised how to write this up using inverted commas. We have also been looking at different words for said and showing how the characters are feeling. The children have learnt how to TRaMP all over their sentences to improve them by using adverbials to express how, when and why.
We have been learning about the importance of recycling in Science and which materials we can recycle. The children looked at the process of how a plastic bottle is recycled and how it can be made into something new.
This week in PE we used the skills we've been learning to complete a range of activities in a circuit. The children were able to throw beanbags and balls through small hoops as well as accurately throwing them to a target. They managed to knock cones over using a range of balls.
Homework and spellings have been set. These are the next 2 columns for each year group. Please also make sure that Mathletics is done as this is part of the homework. Could the children please also practise their joined handwriting. Their lowercase letters need to sit on the line with the ascenders rising and descenders coming down. Remember we don't join after a b,g,j,p,q,x,y or z in the scheme we are following.
Please ask if you have any questions. Have a great half term!

Week commencing 30th January

Week commencing 23rd January

 

This week in Maths we have been learning how to solve harder multiplication and division questions using written methods such as numberlines and the grid method. The children have also been looking at the relationship between numbers and using number facts to help them solve bigger numbers.
In Literacy, we are continuing to read Flat Stanley and have been learning about how to write non-fiction information texts. We practised our note taking whilst watching ...video clips and reading about life in Ancient Egypt. The children were able to pull out key facts and write their own information text about Ancient Egypt.
We have been looking at timelines in Topic and practising putting dates in order. We have been learning about the key events during Ancient Egyptian times and making our own timelines to show this.
In Science, we have been investigating whether materials are waterproof. The children have been learning to use the correct vocabulary when talking about waterproof or absorbent materials.
We have continued working on our agility in PE and have added the use of balls. We have been practising how to control balls including catching and stopping.
The children brought in their baby photos for us to guess. The children really enjoyed guessing who it was and loved showing their friends photos of them. It was lovely to see so many adorable photos of Oak class so thank you for sending those in! I gave them back out on Wednesday so hopefully they have come home safely.
Homework, Mathletics and Spellings have been set. The spellings are a list of homophones so the children need to be able to know which spelling is needed for different contexts. We have discussed these already but please work with your children so that they know which spelling to use in their writing.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 16th January

 

This week the children have been investigating the commutativity of multiplication and division. They wanted to find out whether it mattered which way round the numbers went in their number sentences and they found out that we cannot divide small numbers by a bigger number! The children used counters to represent arrays and grouped them to work out multiplication sentences. We had great fun dividing our class of 18 into smaller groups to learn about dividin...g and remainders.
In Literacy, we have been looking at the features of a letter and discussing when we need to use formal or informal language. They have written a letter to a character in the Flat Stanley book we are reading to find out some more information about Stanley's upcoming trip.
In PE, we have been working on our agility skills. The children practised moving whilst balancing beanbags on different parts of their bodies. We worked on changing direction and moving beanbags around us.
We have been learning about Ancient Egyptian Gods in our Topic lessons and the children have been learning how to draw a picture on a bigger scale by looking closer at what is in each square of the grid.
Homework and Mathletics have been set. Please make sure that Mathletics is being done as it is part of their homework.

Week commencing 9th January

This week Everyone Health came in to make mini vegetable quiches with the children. They enjoyed making their own food and discussed what their favourite vegetables were. We took part in the Big Schools' Bird Watch yesterday. The children waited quietly and listened out for the birds. They were able to identify lots of birds using the pictures they were given.
In Literacy, we have started reading the story Flat Stanley and the Great Egyptian Grave Robbery. T...he children discussed what they thought would happen in the rest of the story and acted this out in groups. We wrote a character profile about one of the characters using our inference skills to describe their personalities.
In Maths, we have been practising our times tables knowledge and learning doubling rules to help us with the harder ones. The children have been learning how use arrays to show what multiplication is.
We have started our new Science topic on Everyday Materials. The children shared their knowledge on different types of materials and were able to group pictures of objects based on what they are made from. We also looked around the classroom to identify other objects made from each of these materials.
In PE, the children practised their balancing, skipping and throwing skills.
Homework, Spellings and Mathletics have been set. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Week commencing 2nd January

 

Happy New Year! Oak class have had a busy first week back exploring our new topic, Ancient Egypt. We looked at a timeline to see how long ago they lived and discussed what life might have been like back then. We learnt about the Ancient Egypt Creation Story and practised our sequencing skills then retelling the story. The children also developed their comprehension skills by answering questions based on the Creation Story. We learnt that in Ancient Egypt, p...eople wrote on papyrus paper in Hieroglyphics. The children made their own papyrus paper, which was quite messy, and learnt to write their names in Hieroglyphics.
In Maths, we have started learning about multiplication. The children know what the symbol means and have started looking at groupings to work out the answer.
The children have written their New Years Resolutions for 2017. There has been a lot of willingness to improve their work and attitudes towards healthier eating, which was great to hear!
Homework, Spellings and Mathletics have been set. This is due Tuesday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Medium Term Planning Overview - Oak Class Y2/3 Spring 2017

Oak class update Week Commencing 12th December 2016

This week we have been getting excited about Christmas. The class made and decorated their own hats, which looked wonderful! They wore these for our Christmas dinner. Everyone had a great lunch so thank you to Mrs Breed for cooking and for the PTA for the great crackers. The children loved the jokes and all took their cracker gifts home. 
In Maths, the children have been working on their problem solving skills. They questioned each other and discussed what the calculation should be then explained how they could prove the answer was right.
In Literacy, we have been writing Acrostic poems based around Christmas. The children planned and wrote their own poems, including brilliant sentence openers and noun phrases.
As part of our Tudor topic, the children played musical instruments along to Greensleeves, which was written by Henry VIII. We also learnt about the Tudor explorers Columbus and Drake.
We have been doing buddy reading for the children to practise reading and listening to each other. They also helped each other work out the words they didn't recognise and discussed the books they were reading.
In PE, the children had the task of flipping over a sheet they were standing on without any of them coming off. This was very challenging but the children were resilient in keep trying and were very close to solving it.
Just a reminder that Monday is reward day so the children can come in their pajamas and bring a sleeping bag or blanket and a teddy with them.

Week commencing 28th November

This week has been a lovely week as we have been getting excited for Christmas. The school is looking very festive and our Christmas lights switched on after the children wished really hard for it to be Christmas. Our class elf, Buddy, has been up to all sorts and brought the children an advent calendar to share. They have been writing him letters to thank him for this and to find out more information about him. The children have been rehearsing for their play and learning all the sings. They are excited to perform to their families next week.

The children have been using the laptops to research Anne Boleyn in order to find a fact file about her. They are improving their IT skills as well as how to use internet search engines to find information.

We have also been doing some assessments in class. I am very proud of how well the children have got on with these. They were able to sit quietly through the tests and focussed on giving their best. It is great to see what the children have learnt already this year.

Homework has been set. This is due Tuesday. Please ask if you have any questions. Don't forget that Monday is Christingle and the children will need to bring an orange to school with them for us to decorate.

Week commencing 21st November
This week in Literacy we have been writing our own fairytales inspired by those that we already know. The children discussed how fairytales are structured and what generally happens in each part of a story before they planned and wrote their stories. They have been learning to check their writing for grammatical errors and how to make improvements as well as giving each other feedback.
In Maths, the children have been learning about measuring mass/weight. T...hey explored weighing objects on scales; played interactive games reading scales; organised objects from lightest to heaviest; and have been learning to convert between grams and kilograms. We have started looking at problem solving and deciding which information and calculaion we need so we can work out the answer.
We were very lucky to have a specialist art teacher come in to teach the children how to use clay to make a Tudor rose. The children had a great time and followed the instructions well. The Tudor roses look brilliant! We will be painting these at a later date so I will share the photos then.
In Science, the children explored light further by finding out whether light can be reflected and which types of materials reflect light the best. We discussed when and why we would need reflective materials.
In PE, the children have been learning to read a map to complete an orientation task. The children loved following the map to find the necessary numbers and work out the answer. Thank you very much to the Grafham Waters team!
We also discussed the origins of Thanksgiving and how it is celebrated every year. The children all reflected on things they were thankful for and we had some lovely suggestions.
Homework and Mathletics have been set. This is due on Tuesday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Week commencing 10th October

 

Week commencing 3rd October

 

​This week the children used an atlas to locate the countries within the United Kingdom and their capital cities. We also used google maps to explore our local area. The children were able to explain the location of towns and cities to other places using North, South, East and West.

In Literacy, the children have written their own marvellous medicines based on the George's Marvellous Medicine book. We discussed how a recipe is set out and they all used adjectives to describe their concoctions and used imperative verbs to instruct on how to make it.

We explored place value further this week in Maths by completing a range of activities and challenges. The children used their knowledge to give explanations.

In Science, we have started looking at the Skeleton and are learning the scientific names for the bones. The children used pictures of individual bones with the scientific name to help them find which bone it was on their skeleton. We look forward to having Mrs Garland in on Monday to learn even more!

Week commencing 26th September

In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of numbers and using our knowledge of place value to compare numbers using greater than and less than symbols.

We have been finding out about key events during the Tudor times and learning how to order these in chronological order, which has strengthened our knowledge of place value.

On Wednesday, the class enjoyed the Harvest Festival at Church; they sang beautifully and read the poem well.

Homework and Mathletics have been set and are due on Tuesday.

Week commencing 19th September

 

​This week we have been revising our knowledge of place value and partioning numbers up to 1000. The children have been learning the value of each digit within a number and finding ways to represent this with maths equipment or drawing.

In guided reading, we have been discussing our opinions of characters and the children are developing their explanations for their choices.

In Science, we moved onto looking at the basic needs of a human and how we source these needs.

Homework and Mathletics have been set. These are due on Tuesday. A huge well done to Oak class last week as everyone completed their written homework! Please don't forget about Mathletics though as it is still part of their homework and is a great way to consolidate their learning.

Week commencing 12th September​

In Literacy, we have started our unit on George's Marvellous Medicine and the children have been writing character descriptions.

In Maths, we have been learning how to use maths equipment to help our learning and how to tackle problem solving.

Homework and Mathletics have been set, which are due on Tuesday. Please ask if you have any questions. Our class friends, Duke and Duchess, have gone home with the first child this weekend. I am lookng forward to reading all about your adventures.

 

 

 

 

Week commencing 5th September

 

Oak class have had an exciting first week back and have all settled in well. We have been learning about the five food groups and why it is important to have a balanced diet. The children have discussed what they already know about the Tudors and what they want to learn about them in preparation for our Tudor day on Monday. The class has also got our Roald Dahl unit off to a great start by writing wonderful acrostic poems about some of the characters. See below for photos of our exciting day on Thursday den building, learning about owls and making clay masks.

 

Medium Term Planning Overview - Oak Class Y2/3   Autumn 2016