A guide to your child’s learning this half term.

 

‘Rainforests’

 

Spring Term 1 – Year 3 and 4

 

Miss Pattison, Mrs Ridgeway & Miss Bishop-Bingley

 

 

English

This term we will be creating information books about the rainforest, complete with moving parts. Then we will produce a multimedia presentation to explain the dangers of deforestation.

 

Spelling

Each Wednesday your child will be given a new list of ten words to learn. They will be tested on the following Wednesday. The objectives that will be covered this term are:

Words with ‘ou’ as /u/

Prefixes ‘dis’, ‘in’ and ‘mis’

Prefixes ‘ir’ , ‘il’ and ‘im’

Word list 1

Word list 2

 

Reading

Children will be given opportunities to develop their reading as part of their English lessons.

You can help your child at home by-

• Listening to your child read each day.
• Ask your child to talk about the book they are reading and talk around the story (using skills of inference and deduction)

 

Maths

 In maths we will be learning about:

• Addition & Subtraction
• Multiplication and Division
• Fractions

All aspects will be taught in line with the new curriculum with an increased focus on reasoning and problem solving, as well as teaching mental and written methods and strategies.

You can help your child at home by-

• Developing rapid recall of facts
• Practising basic mathematical facts such as doubling and halving common numbers.

 

Geography – Children will learn where rainforests are and what they are like, including the climate. They will discover the plant and animal species that live there, before learning about the causes and effects of deforestation.  

 

Science – children will learn about the parts of a plant and their functions. They will group animals and plants in different ways. They will further develop our understanding of food chains. They will link their learning to the plants and animals of the Amazonian rainforest.

 

PE-/Games – Invasion games and preparation for this year’s dance festival. The theme this year is ‘Bollywood’

 

RE – How do people express their faith through the arts?

 

Music – Aspects of the music curriculum will be taught whist your child learns the songs for the Young Voices concert in January 2020. They will also create pieces of music inspired by the rainforest.

 

French – Growing things – in this unit children will learn the names of some garden vegetables and how to say which they like and dislike. They learn how to describe the life cycle of a plant in French and work on the story of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’.

 

Art – Children will learn about the art of Henri Rousseau and create their own artwork inspired by him.

 

DT – children will design, make and evaluate a rainmaker. There will also be aspects of design technology in English creating the moving parts for the information books. They will also design and create rainforest animals using fruits from the rainforest.

 

Computing – children will learn about effective searching techniques and online safety.  

 

Useful Websites:

 

http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/rainforest.html

https://www.activewild.com/rainforest-facts-for-kids/

http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-rain-forests/

https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/rainforest-habitats

http://www.purplemash.com

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

 

For online safety:

 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

 

 

Homework

 

Birch children will be given one piece of English and one piece of maths work that will either develop or consolidate our learning in class. They should spend at least 20-30 minutes completing it to the best of their ability. They will also get a longer project linked to our topic, which will be due in during the last week of term. They could spend a little bit of time each week, or complete the whole project in one week. Completed work should be handed in every Wednesday and will be returned each Friday.

 

Reminders!

• Named PE kit needs to be in school for Wednesday every week and swimming kit on a Tuesday from 21^st January and for the following 10 weeks.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact staff at school if you have any questions regarding your child’s learning.  Thank you for your continued support!