Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed lots of family time together.

Our learning this term:

For the Spring term we will be reading Wonder by RJ Palacio, during our Reading for Meaning lessons. In English, we will start the Spring term by writing a narrative piece based on the short film ‘The Present,’ before moving on to write some non-fiction reports based on a range of animals from around the world.

In Maths this term, children will be focusing upon division, before moving on to look at fractions, decimals and percentages. Our maths lessons will also challenge the children to a wide variety of reasoning and problem-solving questions in preparation for their KS2 assessments.

This half-term we will be learning the following: History (Ancient Maya), Science (animals inc. humans), Geography (map skills) Art (painting and collage), PE (gymnastics), Computing (coding).

Supporting learning at home

Reading – it is of utmost importance that children read regularly at home in order to apply and cement the knowledge they get at school.  The children should be reading their school reading book at least three times a week. We encourage the children to read their own texts in addition to the school reading books to help develop a love of reading. 

It is also important to talk to the children about what they have read, to make sure they understand what they read rather than just decoding it. If you would like some example questions to support your child with this, please just ask. Countless studies have shown that this is the single most important thing that you can do to aid your child’s academic progress. Your comments in their reading diary are also greatly      appreciated!  We will hear the children read their reading book at least once a week, alongside our   reading for meaning sessions and reading comprehension sessions.

Times tables - Please help your child to practise their times tables at home up to 12x12.

Spelling – Your child will have weekly spellings for them to practise. These spellings will help your child during our spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) lessons. As well as practising the spellings please complete the other second sheet where they write the words into a sentence. This ensures that the     children understand the meaning of the words, allowing them to apply them to their writing.   

Please Don’t Forget…

· In the Spring term, we will have PE with Mr Edmonds every Monday and Thursday; please ensure the children have a full school P.E. kit in school so they can take part.

· Please ensure cardigans, jumpers and water bottles are clearly labelled to avoid loss!  

· Healthy/ appropriate snacks can be bought in from home each day, and children can eat them at breaktime.