Welcome back after half term!
We have a very busy half term planned and look forward to what
is ahead.
We are going on our trip to Celtic Harmony this Friday 26th
February. Thank you so much to all the
parents who volunteered to help on the day.
Unfortunately we do not have room for all of you fantastic volunteers on
the coach, and those parents who are helping on this trip have been
informed. We will have another trip in
the summer term for anyone who was unable to help on this one!
A few reminders:
Celtic Harmony is a Celtic Iron Age village where the
children will experience life as a Celt.
Activities will include weaving, farming and a warrior talk. The children will also experience Celtic
‘woad’ painting. Please inform the class
teacher if your child is allergic to/unable to have their face painted. A coach has been booked and will leave and
return within the normal school day.
Children will need a packed lunch and a drink.
PLEASE
NOTE:
In
the past, some children have not worn enough layers to keep warm. As this trip is taking place in February and
will be entirely outside, we cannot emphasise the importance of this
enough. Even if it does not seem cold
here in the morning, it can be very exposed and windy on the site. Whilst the children will still be expected to
wear their school jumper for the trip, they may wear any other warm layers
(e.g. tights/leggings/thermals under jeans/joggers. Vests and long sleeved top under red school jumper
etc.). The site will also be extremely
muddy and children must wear old shoes or wellington boots. The warmest coat/waterproof you have is a
must as are a hat, scarf and gloves. Please ensure all items are named.
After parents evening it became clear that many parents were
requesting homework/guidance on support that can be done at home. It is our school policy that we do not send
homework home in Year 3 and that the focus should be on reading and times
tables. We appreciate your comments and
feedback on this and have looked into how we can provide you with guidance on support
that can be done at home. We hope you
find the following information helpful.
HISTORY
This half term we are continuing with our history topic ‘The
Stone Age to The Iron Age and The Romans’.
After Friday’s trip, we also have Legion XIIII coming in to school on
Monday 21st March (please refer to letter dated 08.01.16).
DT
Thank you for the shoeboxes, finding 90 shoeboxes without your
support from home is a tough job and we appreciate your help with this!
3W – have started their boxes now - please continue to send
boxes in.
3F – will be completing their DT projects in the next two weeks
and do not require anymore boxes.
3D – completed theirs before Mrs Dench left
ART
This term in art we look at pattern. It is linked with our history topic and
concludes with the children making their own Roman shield. Another plea; if you have any cereal boxes
that could be sent in we would really appreciate it! We can make 2 shields from each cereal box so
are looking for 45! (Thank you to those
who have already sent these in!)
SCIENCE
In science, we are moving on to looking at electricity. The children will make circuits and
investigate switches, bulbs and buzzers!
COMPUTING
We continue our work on databases with the children creating
their own in the coming weeks!
(Please note: last term
we focussed on touch-typing and the children developing their use of word
processing skills. It would be great for
the children to keep up with this at home as touch-typing is easily
forgotten! Please follow this link to
find resources to support you with this.)
BBC Dance Mat typing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr
SPELLING
We had lots of comments about spelling at parent’s evening and
we hope you find the following information helpful.
We will continue our spelling scheme that we are doing in
school. To reiterate, the children learn
a new rule on a Monday, have independent practice time every day throughout the
week and are tested, with a dictation, on a Friday. This half term we are introducing rules that
are specific to any grammar we are learning in school. If you wish to practise with and/or test your
child please use the example words found listed below.
Our spelling rules this half term are as follows;
|
Week
|
Week
beginning
|
Rule
|
Example
words
|
|
1
|
22.02.16
|
Flossy Zack
After one short vowel, double the Flossy Zack
letters (ff, ll, ss, zz, ck)
Last term
we focussed more on ff and ll so will do ss, zz and ck more this term.
|
ff
off, puff,
stiffness, stuffy, gruff, scuffed.
ll
spell,
tell, will, dwell, shall, thrill, bell, hill, pull, tell.
ss
dress,
cross, express, address, miss, press, possess.
zz
buzz,
whizzing, fizzed, snazzy, fizzing, jazzy.
ck
back, neck,
check, attack, block, clock, quickly, picked.
|
|
2
|
29.02.16
|
Apostrophes
For possession – the apostrophe is placed after
the plural form of the word; -s is not added if the plural already ends in
–s, but is added if the plural does
not end in –s (i.e. is an irregular plural – e.g. children’s).
For contraction – when words/two words are
abbreviated.
|
Possession
– singular nouns
Megan’s,
child’s, man’s, boy’s, dog’s, girl’s, teacher’s.
– regular plurals
girls’,
boys’, babies’, cats’.
– irregular plurals
children’s,
mice’s, men’s.
Contraction
can’t,
didn’t, we’ll, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll, they’re, isn’t, we’ve, haven’t,
won’t.
|
|
3
|
07.03.16
|
tch
After one short vowel, use the Witch in the
Ditch!
All words
with tch in them – not always at the end!
|
itchy,
matches, pitcher, watch, patchy, scratch, match, sketchbook, catch,
watchable, stretch, stitch
|
|
4
|
14.03.16
|
ar, er, or
words containing these sounds
|
popular,
regular, particular, peculiar, argue, darted, artist
perhaps,
certain, interest, exercise, remember, consider
forward,
ordinary, escort, important, decorate, ordering
|
|
5
|
21.03.16
|
The suffix
–ly
The suffix –ly is added to an adjective to form
an adverb. The suffix –ly starts with
a consonant letter, so is added straight on to most root words.
Exceptions
1.
If the root word ends in –y with a consonant letter before
it, the y is changed to i, but only if the root word has more than one
syllable.
2. If the root word ends in
–le, the –le is changed to –ly.
3. If the root word ends
with –ic, -ally is added rather than just –ly, except in publicly.
4. The words truly, duly and
wholly are exceptions.
|
sadly,
completely, slowly, quickly, partly, excellently, usually, finally, comically
1.
happy – happily
angry
– angrily
2. gentle – gently
simple
– simply
humble
– humbly
noble
– nobly
3. basic – basically
frantic
– frantically
dramatic
- dramatically
|
As well as the information above you may wish to look at the
following links.
First 100 high frequency words - http://www.highfrequencywords.org/first-100-high-frequency-word-list-precursive.html
Next 200 high frequency words - http://www.highfrequencywords.org/next-200-high-frequency-word-list-precursive.html
Word list – Years 3 and 4 (National Curriculum) - https://year4mt.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/screen-shot-2014-10-19-at-19-23-57.png
In addition, the 100 spellings listed below are the words all
children should be able to spell by the
end of year 4 under the National Curriculum. Please help your child to learn these words
if they cannot already spell them.
|
accident (ally)
|
|
disappear
|
|
interest
|
|
pressure
|
|
|
actual (ly)
|
|
early
|
|
island
|
|
probably
|
|
|
address
|
|
earth
|
|
knowledge
|
|
promise
|
|
|
answer
|
|
eight / eighth
|
|
learn
|
|
purpose
|
|
|
appear
|
|
enough
|
|
length
|
|
quarter
|
|
|
arrive
|
|
exercise
|
|
library
|
|
question
|
|
|
believe
|
|
experience
|
|
material
|
|
recent
|
|
|
bicycle
|
|
experiment
|
|
medicine
|
|
regular
|
|
|
breath
|
|
extreme
|
|
mention
|
|
reign
|
|
|
breathe
|
|
famous
|
|
minute
|
|
remember
|
|
|
build
|
|
favourite
|
|
natural
|
|
sentence
|
|
|
busy /business
|
|
February
|
|
naughty
|
|
separate
|
|
|
calendar
|
|
forward (s)
|
|
notice
|
|
special
|
|
|
caught
|
|
fruit
|
|
occasion (ally)
|
|
straight
|
|
|
centre
|
|
grammar
|
|
often
|
|
strange
|
|
|
century
|
|
group
|
|
opposite
|
|
strength
|
|
|
certain
|
|
guard
|
|
ordinary
|
|
suppose
|
|
|
circle
|
|
guide
|
|
particular
|
|
surprise
|
|
|
complete
|
|
heard
|
|
peculiar
|
|
therefore
|
|
|
consider
|
|
heart
|
|
perhaps
|
|
though / although
|
|
|
continue
|
|
height
|
|
popular
|
|
thought
|
|
|
decide
|
|
history
|
|
position
|
|
through
|
|
|
describe
|
|
imagine
|
|
possess (ion)
|
|
various
|
|
|
different
|
|
increase
|
|
possible
|
|
weight
|
|
|
difficult
|
|
important
|
|
potatoes
|
|
woman / women
|
|
ENGLISH
Here is an overview of our English topics this half term.
|
1
|
22/02/16
|
Non-Chronological Reports
|
Copying up reports to go in topic books.
Editing and Improving for final neat copy
|
|
2
|
29/02/16
|
Grammar focus
|
Apostrophes for possession and
abbreviation
|
|
3
|
07/03/16
|
Play scripts
|
Reading Week, lots of plays and discussion
about features. Compare to a story
|
|
4
|
14/03/16
|
Play scripts
|
Writing a play script
|
|
5
|
21/03/16
|
Poetry
|
Raps, rhymes and rhythms.
|
|
6
|
28/03/16
|
Poetry
|
Raps, rhymes and rhythms.
|
Please continue reading with your child as well as completing
at least one reading activity every week.
MATHS
Here is an overview of our Maths topics this half term
|
1
|
22/02/16
|
Time
|
Please support your child with telling the
time on both analogue and digital clocks
|
|
2
|
29/02/16
|
Time
|
Please support your child with telling the
time on both analogue and digital clocks
|
|
3
|
07/03/16
|
Number
|
Focus on using number and developing
number knowledge.
Finding multiples, times by 10, divide by
10, etc.
|
|
4
|
14/03/16
|
Fractions
|
Of shape.
Equivalencies.
On a 0 to 1 numberline.
Of amounts.
|
|
5
|
21/03/16
|
Numberlines and money
|
Finding the difference on a
numberline. Links to money problems
and finding change.
|
|
6
|
28/03/16
|
Numberlines and money
|
Finding the difference on a
numberline. Links to money problems
and finding change.
|
Please continue to practise times tables with your child. We will re-blog the 144 grids for you to use
at home.
Hopefully you will find this (very long) blog helpful!
Thank you again for your continued support.
Miss Ferry, Miss Taylor, Mrs Withers and Mrs Kerr
