Our final literacy unit of the half term has been performance poetry. We have looked at a number of poets and performances by Joe Coelho, Ian Bland and, always popular, Michael Rosen. Some of the children have produced images that were invoked by the performances and we all went on to perform the cautionary poem "Don't Forget Your Capital Letters and Full Stops!" by Ian Bland. Really successful and enjoyable sessions. The Year 4 Team :)

Year 6 Half-Term Homework Reading The aim in year 6 is to strengthen fluency, increase vocabulary, and build confidence through regular practice. Reading at home as well at school helps progress and encourages consistent reading habits. Your support at home is greatly appreciated. Spellings 5-for-5 spelling, punctuation and grammar learning books. 5 questions for 5 days over half-term.  Here are some different ways you can practise the spellings -  Maths KS2 SATs Daily Maths practice. A daily practice each day over the half-term. Mrs Campbell and Miss Rushen 😊

Some children have now moved on to learning level 6 sounds and tricky words in phonics. Please see attached those that we have learnt so far this half term. We will soon be moving on to level 6 Rhino Reader books once we have taught a few more of the sounds in the books. We cannot wait to find out what the books are about! Your fluency books that are sent home will always be a level lower than where your child is actually learning to read, as this is meant to be for fluency and a nice, easy read. You can have a go at reading and spelling some of these words at home.

This afternoon the children used Chrome Music Lab to explore music and technology.  They used the mouse pad to create different patterns, experimenting with shapes, movements and sounds to compose their own unique pieces of music. This activity supported their ICT skills by developing mouse control, coordination and confidence in using digital tools, while also encouraging creativity, experimentation and musical expression. It was great fun, if you want to have a go at home have a look at the website we used.  https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Kandinsky/ 

 As we approach the final week of the term, the children have had amazing week despite being tired.  Our phonics focus has been the following: We would like to thank you for your continued support with the Phonics Book. In Maths, we are using a counting stick to begin each lesson. We focus on accurate counting forward and backward, counting on from a given number and describing where in the number line we can find a certain number. Our focus this week has been on the Number 4. We have explored how 4 can be represented in many arrangements. The children use spatial language to describe how it is made, such as 2 blocks on the bottom and 2 blocks on top. We then used multilink in pairs to make our own representations and describe it using taught vocabulary. Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg has been our focus text for the week. The children recited the story as the skeletons went through the dark dark street, to the dark dark park and onto the dark dark swings! We chose Dem B...

 It's been all go here! We've explored food chains, written Japanese poetry, started a new maths section and had a jelly earthquake. Our Haikus Recapping subtraction and place value Our state of the art Earthquake simulator and seismograph station testing the structural integrity of spaghetti and play dough. The Year 4 Team :)

This afternoon in Year 4, we had great fun talking about the power of earthquakes. We spoke about and looked at different structures linked to earthquakes. Then, we had a go at building our own using different materials. We tested these using jelly! It was great fun!