Dear Parents and Children,

Welcome to Term 6, a term full of exciting learning opportunities presented in some shorter experiences, and of course, swimming and Sports Day.

Our first learning experience for this term is underway: “The Journey of Life”.  This unit explores how people of faith celebrate important moments in life such as birth, becoming a teenager and marriage.  We will be developing skills such as noticing similarities and differences between faiths and understanding that these illustrate distinctive beliefs within and between religions.  Included in our topic is Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  We will also be learning about safe e-mail communication.

Our next experience is “May the Force Be with You” covering forces and magnets.  Last term we learnt how to write a precise and clear account of an investigation and we will be continuing to refine this skill in this work.  Investigative work will include observing how objects move on different surfaces, how forces can work from a distance, which materials are magnetic and how magnets attract and repel.

“Pebble in My Pocket” is a learning experience which uses a beautiful book of the same name and which tells the story of a pebble, from its origins in a fiery volcano 480 million years ago to a busy, modern landscape.  We will compare and group rocks and learn how to describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.  We will read about the fascinating Mary Anning and write our own versions of her biography.

 

To finish term 6 we have two Whole School Learning Experiences featuring P.E. and Maths.

 

The Library and Reading

Our library is still open and staffed by wonderful volunteer parents every afternoon after school.  It is currently displaying the amazing book characters children made out of cardboard tubes. Please make the most of the opportunity to browse our extensive range of books. On a Thursday after school ‘Story Time’ is run in the library by Mrs Couper, giving the children another opportunity to enjoy good quality texts.  In addition to this, you can come in and help your child complete their MyMaths homework tasks on a laptop.

Home Reading cards are really important: at least once a week your child’s teacher will ask to see the card to give Dojo points for every time an adult has listened to them read.  Adults in school also write on the cards when they have listened to your child read.  Please visit the school website to read more about how to help your child with reading.

Our latest Reading incentive is the One Million Club.  We are tracking how many words your child is reading and rewarding them for meeting certain milestones.  One reading champion in Year 6 has already read over 100,000 words since the May Half Term!  Every time your child achieves 60% or more on a quiz they are allocated the number of words in that book to their personal word count score.  Look at the display near Maple Classroom to see your child’s progress.

PE Kit

It is essential that children have a full P.E. kit in school at all times for our timetabled P.E. sessions and any impromptu sessions we are lucky enough to add in.  Please ensure that your child has trainers in their P.E. Kit and not plimsolls as these do not provide any grip when running on the hardcourt and get wet easily if the meadow is damp. Children need to be responsible, not just for having the kit in school, but also for putting it away after sessions and knowing where it is at all times.  If a child does not have a P.E. kit, they will still have to come outside to the lesson and contribute to the learning and assessment of others skills.  Pupils with long hair should have their hair tied back at all times and earrings must be taken out or protected with tape during P.E. lessons. Teachers are not allowed to take earrings out for children so if they struggle please ensure it is done before they arrive to school that morning. Year 3 and 4 will have P.E. on a Monday. Please note that earrings must be removed for swimming.

Homework

Please help your child to continue to be organised with things they need to bring in everyday: the yellow reading cards, blue spelling books and red times tables books should be taken home every night and returned to school every morning.  Times tables books go home so that you can support your child in their learning of the next times table and you can  see their progress in weekly tests.  Some children may be learning the times tables with their teacher instead of being tested; they will obviously have less tests in their books but you will still be able to see their progress.  Spellings are tested on Wednesdays in Cherry and Sycamore, Thursdays in Poplar, when new words are also stuck in to the front of the blue books; you can see progress in the spelling tests at the back of the books.  You will have noticed that the spelling homework sometimes changes in its format; we are experimenting with different ways of learning spellings and are analysing the impact this has on the children’s ability to remember spellings long-term and use them correctly in their everyday writing.

Year 3 and 4 Stars

Congratulations to all our stars from last term; at times it was very difficult to choose just one star when so many children are working so hard and shining every day.  We are excited to see who our new stars will be this term. A massive congratulations to Lily and India on becoming year 3 and 4’s Stars of Term 5.

Sports Day

Anticipation for Sports day on the 28^th June is already building, especially now we are becoming expert at self-assessment: ask your child if they achieved bronze, silver or gold in their last P.E. lesson!  Please remember that school P.E. kit is required for Sports Day, no alternative sports kits/ football tops etc please.  We will send more information about the day nearer the time.

 

Many thanks from,

Mrs Martin, Miss Wood and Mr Wellstead