4th November Weekly Review

Firstly, a huge thank you to so many friends and family who attended our Maple Class Assembly this morning!  It was great to see you all and to have your support. I am very proud of all the children, as I am sure you are too – they were superstars and were clearly proud to present their learning to you.

Our new topic this term is ‘Land, Sea and Sky.’ This week, for their Geography learning, children have used an atlas to locate key bodies of water around the UK and Europe, including: The English Channel, Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea. We will be referring back to this learning as the term progresses, to check that they can retrieve this knowledge! We also discussed what ‘shipping, importing and exporting’ means, why certain types of fruit are not grown in the UK and how they are imported into the UK.

In Maths this week, Year 4 children have been learning about area and how to compare the area of different shapes. Year 3 children have learnt how to count in multiples of four, using arrays to help them. They have also been learning how to read and write numbers up to 1,000 in numerals and words.

Our Literacy learning this week has focused on the story ‘Where the Forest meets the Sea’ in which a boy travels to a rainforest, imagining different sights as he wanders through. Children have learnt about how to use the five senses to include more description in their writing and understand how this helps the reader have a clearer image of the narrative in their mind.

Before half term, we placed egg shells in different liquids including: coke, water, milk, orange juice and vinegar. The children noted their predictions and were able to explain why they thought certain changes would happen. We left the egg shells over the half term week and on our return this week, children have examined the egg shells to report their findings. Children could use scientific vocabulary to explain why a change had taken place. For example, they could tell me “we think the egg shell in vinegar dissolved because vinegar contains acid; the egg shell in milk had no change because milk contains calcium which helps to strengthen enamel and bones.”

For Art learning this week, children have been introduced to the artist Michelle Reader who produces pieces of art using recycled materials.   The children have looked at different pieces of art she has produced and explained what materials they think she has used to create the pieces.  This term, we are fortunate to have an artist visiting us at Park Way to show how ‘chicken wire’ can be used to produce a piece of art  - the children will all participate in this, so this should be an enjoyable, practical learning experience. 

Reminders:

• Please remember to send children into school with their swimming kits on Monday as our swimming lessons resume at Mote Park.
• From next week our PE session will be on a Friday afternoon. Children should wear their PE kit when they come to school please – this consists of: PE shirt of their house colour, tracksuit bottoms/leggings/shorts should be black and trainers should be worn.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Chapman and Miss Harris