Welcome back, and welcome to the Home Guide for the second half of the summer term. Thank you for all your support with the children’s learning so far this year. This home guide will take us up to the end of the school year. As usual, the Home Guide includes information about:

Literacy: 

Spellings for this half term, see tab on left hand side - please go through these with your child. Children will have a spelling test each Friday. Weekly guided reading sessions continue and we strongly urge that you encourage your child to read every night; whether it is to an adult, to themselves or listening to an adult read aloud. After all, better readers make better writers! We also include details about the topics we are covering in class, and again, for your reference, a list of the high frequency spelling words that all children in Key Stage 2 are expected to know.

Maths: 

Please see maths tab for information. We are also including a list of multiplication and division tables for your reference. We will continue to have a ‘big push’ on learning multiplication and division facts this term, so any help you can give your child in this respect would be much appreciated.

Plus: Information and ideas about the other subjects studied this half term, to help reinforce your child’s learning at home.

General information:

Snack - the government does not fund a free snack for KS2 children. During morning play, children are allowed to eat a healthy snack that you may provide for them each morning.

Water - please provide children with water bottles to enable them to have a drink during lessons. These can be refilled during playtimes or at home, and must be taken home weekly to be washed.

Timings – please ensure that your child is ready, in their class line, at 8.45am promptly each morning; to avoid being marked in late when the register is taken or missing the Early Morning Activities that take place throughout the school.

Literacy Topics:

Below are the topics that we will be covering this half-term in class, and some fun educational activities for parents and children to enjoy at home.

Poetry: Language Play

In this unit we will be looking at a range of poems that play on language, including acrostics, rhyme/half-rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, riddles/ tongue twisters and free verse. The children will be given opportunities to perform some of these poems, considering volume, pace, expression, actions and the use of different voices. They will also learn to discuss these poems, explaining what they like about them by referring to particular techniques, phrases and themes. We will look particularly at alliteration and onomatopoeia; in both cases learning and understanding how to use language to create specific effects.

Activities:

• Get some poetry books from the library and encourage your child to ‘perform’ one poem a day.
• Have a ‘poem of the week’ which your child could perform to the family at the weekend.
• Spend time looking at the techniques/styles/forms of various poems, and try to write some poetry together, using the original as a template.
• Discuss the use of alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia, adjectives and powerful words used in poems to create effect.
• Ask your child to say what they like or dislike about different poems, giving reasons for their opinions.
 

Plays and Dialogues

In this unit we will read and discuss play scripts and dialogue within stories, identifying the different characters and voices by using dramatised reading and performance. The children will learn to identify the features and conventions of written dialogue and demonstrate this in their own writing. We will also compare plays and the original text they have been based on. Finally, they will write and perform a script based on a narrative story of their own creation.

• When reading a book with your child, focus on the characters. Discuss their different characteristics – what makes a character likable, mean, unhappy, a hero, villain, etc.? Ask your child to describe their favourite character and build up a bank of character profile descriptions.
• Use different voices for the different characters within a story, and encourage your child to do the same when they read aloud to you.
• Identify the punctuation used to mark speech and dialogue in stories and encourage your child to use punctuation correctly when writing their own.
• Brainstorm lists of words to use to describe how a character is speaking to avoid overuse of the word ‘said’.
• Find simple playscripts in the library and discuss how the script is laid out. If possible, compare the playscript to the original story.
 

Science

Our final topic is Light and Shadows. The children will learn that shadows are formed when light from a source is blocked; how to recognise that shadows are similar in shape to the objects forming them; how a shadow caused by sunlight changes over the course of a day; how to make predictions about the shadows formed by different objects or materials; and to generally make careful/scientific observations and measurements of shadows and light.

Useful Websites for use at home:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/light_shadows.shtml

http://wsgfl2.westsussex.gov.uk/aplaws/intergames/science/v5_ShadowsOfTime_2.swf

Key Science Vocabulary:

transparent
translucent
opaque
light
shadows
block
direction
shortest
highest
travel

History:

This half-term we will be finishing our learning about  the Anglo-Saxons, and then going onto the Vikings. In this unit children will continue to explore the idea that people from other societies have been coming to Britain for a long time. The children will find out how Viking explorers, traders, and raiders extended their culture around different parts of the world and then, over a period of decades, eventually settled in Britain.

All of this will fit into the general timeline that we have worked on this year beginning at the Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC, moving through to their departure and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, and then the subsequent settlement and partial take-over by the Vikings.

PSHE: This half term’s SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) topic will be Changes, in order to prepare the children for the end of this academic year, and to the transition to Year 4. If you would like, you could review with your child some positive examples of changes they have experienced in their own lives up until now, to help them realise that change can be tough, but is usually good in the end.

DT: Viking Longships - more to follow

Music: The children will continue to have a weekly music lesson with Mr Morris every Wednesday. The children must bring their recorders for this lesson!

Dance: The lessons with Ms Robbins will be on Tuesdays. Children must have the proper kit – black cycling shorts and t-shirt, or a leotard. Long trousers are not permitted for dance. Please make sure that long hair is tied back.

P.E.: The children will continue to have a weekly P.E. lesson with Morris Tolaram and this will be on Mondays. Again, children must have a kit that they change into: short or tracksuit trousers, t-shirt and trainers. Long hair must, again, be tied back.

A strict policy is in place for P.E. kits in KS2 and children may be excluded from P.E. if they do not have the correct clothes.
 

Thank you once again for all your support over this very busy but exciting year!

Emily Domaingue             Laura Lane                 Felicity Gray

Welcome back, and welcome to the home guide for the first half of the summer term. Thank you for all your support with the children’s learning so far this year. This home guide will take us up to the summer half-term holiday. As usual, the Home Guide includes information about:.  

Literacy:

Spellings for this half term - please go through these with your child. Children will have a spelling test each Friday. Weekly guided reading sessions continue and we strongly urge that you encourage your child to read every night; whether it is to an adult, to themselves or listening to an adult read aloud. After all, better readers make better writers! We also include details about the topics we are covering in class, and again, for your reference, a list of the high frequency spelling words that all children in Key Stage 2 will be expected to know.

Maths:

A list of topics which we have already covered – if you wish, you can revise these with your child. We are also including a list of multiplication and division tables for your reference. We will continue to have a ‘big push’ on learning multiplication and division facts this term, so any help you can give your child in this respect would be much appreciated.

Plus: Information and ideas about the other subjects studied this half term, to help reinforce your child’s learning at home.

General information:

Snacks - the government does not fund a free snack for KS2 children. During morning play, children are allowed to eat a healthy snack that you may provide for them each morning.

Water - please provide children with water bottles to enable them to stay hydrated during lessons. These can be refilled during playtimes or at home, and must be taken home weekly to be washed.

Timings – please ensure that your child is ready, in their class line, at 8.45 am promptly each morning, to avoid being marked in late when the register is taken or missing the Early Morning Activities that take place throughout the school.

Year 3 - Literacy Topics:

Below are the topics that we will be covering this half-term in class, and some fun educational activities for parents and children to enjoy at home.

Non-Fiction: Authors and Letters

We did not have time to do this topic last half term as it was so short, therefore we will start the term with this.

Non-Fiction: Information Texts/Persuasive Writing & Grammar

In this unit, we will research a topic, develop various viewpoints on that topic and then decide how to present the information effectively in order to persuade a chosen audience. The unit will involve presenting arguments orally and in writing.  We aim to develop the children’s ability to debate effectively. They will work to produce a written speech and letter on our chosen topic and deliver it in a persuasive and engaging way.

Home Activities for the Family:

• Have a debate with your child about a topic which is important to your child, such as 'how much tv should a child watch?' or 'What is a suitable bedtime for a year 3 child?'  Each choose a different point of view and debate against each other.

• Discuss the adverts your child may see on television. Ask him/her what makes the advert persuasive. Ask your child to describe an advert. Does it make him/her want to buy the product being advertised? Why/why not?

• Collect some adverts from magazines with your child which they can bring in to school and discuss.

• Help your child to understand the difference between formal and informal language.

We will continue with weekly spelling and grammar lessons.

Science 

We will be starting our new topic Helping Plants Grow Well –in perfect time for our delayed Spring season!  In this unit, the children will learn about what plants need to help them grow well, and why it is important that they do.  They will learn that plants provide food for us, and about the different parts of plants that we can eat.  The children will plan and carry out an experiment to see whether plants need leaves to help them grow, and will investigate how a plant takes up water.  The children will also look at how plant growth is affected by temperature, light and water.

Useful Science Websites:

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/phase4_20030801/Wales/Science/Keystage2/Lifeprocessesan/Anonlinesoilexp/Introduction/default.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/plants_grow.shtml
 

Vocabulary:

Fruit
Leaf
Plant
Root
Stem
Tap root
Temperature
Trunk
Seed

Other words to describe physical characteristics of plants e.g. yellow, pale, thin, spindly, etc.

History: 

Following on from our topic on the Romans, the children will now learn about the Anglo-Saxons.  The children love our history topics and to build on their enthusiasm you might like to visit the British Museum (Room 41) to view Anglo-Saxon artefacts.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/europe/room_41_europe_ad_300-1100.aspx

http://www.britishmuseum.org/learning/schools_and_teachers/primary/anglo-saxons_and_vikings.aspx

PSHE: This half-term’s SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) topic will be Relationships. We will be learning how to make amends, how to be responsible and how to have healthy and productive relationships with our families and friends.

We will also begin the Year 3 ‘Sex and Gender Education’ unit that we were unable to fit in last term. We’ll start by reviewing our past work from Year 2, and then move on to understanding where babies come from and how they are made.

ART/Design and Technology:

We will begin a unit on 'changing places'.  We will explore sculpture in public places thinking about the use of shape, form, colour and pattern to make a model of a sculpture

which could be put into a site around the school or in the local area.

ICT: We will continue to use PC and Apple Mac computers and I-Pads to explore the different ways of presenting the children’s work; and use the Internet as a research and learning tool.

Music: The children will continue to have a weekly music lesson with Mr Morris every Wednesday.

Dance: The lessons with Ms Robbins will continue on Tuesdays. Children must have the proper kit – black cycling shorts and t-shirt, or a leotard. Long trousers are not permitted for dance. Please make sure that long hair is tied back.

P.E.: The children will continue to have a weekly P.E. lesson with Morris Tolaram and this will be on Mondays. Again, children must have a kit that they change into: short or tracksuit trousers, t-shirt and trainers. Long hair must, again, be tied back .

N.B. A strict policy is in place for P.E. kits in KS2. Children may be excluded from P.E. if they do not have the correct clothes or be made to lose some of their Golden Time on Fridays.

As ever, thank you for your support!

Emily Domaingue        Laura Lane           Felicity Gray