Special news What a start to the week!  We hope you all enjoyed your bonus day off!  Well done to everyone for adapting to our new early morning routine  and being so sensible around the school.  Hopefully we will be back to normal next week - no rain dances please! Maple showed themselves to be great ambassadors for the school in welcoming a visitor into our class on Friday. Edward, Emily and Christopher presented wonderful Audiences with… to the class – Well done! Our LKS2 cross-country team are looking forward to their first event next Wednesday – Good luck!

Literacy Lime and Poplar We looked at how a camera is able to capture the atmosphere of the scene. We talked about light, colours, camera angle and sounds. We thought of some excellent descriptions and some of us challenged ourselves by using a thesaurus. Maple We have been continuing to think about how to use all of our senses to help paint a picture with words describing a scene. Some of us have been challenging ourselves to use similes and metaphors in our descriptions.

Mathematics Mrs Gilder and Mrs Williams’ group We have been practising our multiplication tables using some matching cards. Don’t forget to practise these! Children may like to practise their times tables using the following websites: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SumSense/summulti.html http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/meteor/meteor.html We have also been using a variety of manipulatives (counters, unifix etc) and hundreds square to repeat patterns and solve problems. Here are pattern games you many like to play: http://jeux.lulu.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/anglais/algorith/algoriA1.htm# http://jeux.lulu.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/anglais/algorith/algoriB1.htm http://jeux.lulu.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/anglais/algorith/algoriC1.htm Mrs Roche’s group We have been practising our subtraction – particularly taking 2 digit numbers from 2 digit numbers. The children have worked really hard at these to make sure they are secure in the method Mrs Prowle’s group We have been practising our addition using number cards and developing our understanding of column addition. Some of us were adding 4 and 5-digit numbers, including decimals to two places in the context of money. We have also been stretching our investigative muscles in some problem solving activities that test our addition skills. Try this at home: Make three additions using each of the digits 0,2,4,6,7 and 9. Aim for the following targets writing down your additions and totals: a) Add two 3-digit numbers getting as close to 1000 as you can b) Add two 3-digit numbers getting as close to 900 as you can c) Add three 2-digit numbers getting as close to 180 as you can

Science Maple and Poplar We continued our investigations into melting ice this week.  We worked in three groups to see how different factors affect the rate the ice melts. One group studied the effect of temperature, a second explored how the shape of the ice blocks influenced how quickly they melted and the final group used different sized blocks of the same shape to make their comparisons. We talked about fair testing and what our results told us. Y3 recorded their results in a table and Y4 completed a complicated bar graph. Lime We made observations on ice melting and came up with investigations that we are going to carry out next week.  Some of the vocabulary the children have been learning: Solid, liquid, ice, melting, freezing, variable, fair test

Topic Maple The children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own weather forecasts for a tropical rainforest climate.  With their artistic skills they produced lovely maps of Brazil and are currently busy making various weather symbols and preparing their scripts for next week’s lesson during which we will film their forecasts…watch this space! Lime Lime have been creating pictures of rainforest animals.

RE We talked about what we already know about Christianity and Islam. We recorded five facts and a question about each religion on a hand print. Can you find the answers to your questions using the following websites? http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/religion/Islam.htm http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/religion/christian.htm We researched the Life of Mohammed and put some of the key events into chronological order.

MUSIC Over the last couple of weeks we have been learning about ‘pitch’ and ‘duration.’ We have listened to a number of pieces of music and identified the high, low, long and short notes as well as singing songs that demonstrate those elements.  We really enjoyed singing some great rounds in 2 and 4 parts including ‘Hot Cross Buns’, the ‘Canoe Song’ and ‘Hot Potatoes’. Y3 have also had their first taste of recorder playing and learned how to play the note ‘B’

ART We are still working hard on our South American Molas and they’re nearly all finished! We have been surprised at how long they take and spent a long time discussing how it must be even more time-consuming to do it properly with fabric layers! Here are some of the finished designs: