Year 3 & 4 Class information page 2024 - 2025

Mrs Hughes

Mr Fuller

Mrs Hooper

Mr Dixon

Welcome to Year 3 and 4

The teachers in Year 3 and 4 are: Mr Fuller, Mr Dixon, Mrs Hooper and Mrs Hughes.

Welcome to the Summer term, we are looking forward to a term of fun and learning.

Our topic for the Summer term is 'Ancient Egypt'

This is a history topic where we will learn about what life was like for the Ancient Egyptians.

Here are some useful websites that you could use if you would like to find out more...

Ancient Egypt - KS2 History - BBC Bitesize

10 Facts About Ancient Egypt | National Geographic Kids

World History: Ancient Egypt for Kids

Our Literacy lessons for this half term will be based on a book called 'Zeraffa Giraffa' by Dianne Hofmeyr.

Blurb:

This is the astonishing true story of Zeraffa, a giraffe who was sent as a gift from Egypt to France in 1826. A young boy, Atir, takes care of Zeraffa on her epic journey and the sailors sing songs as she gazes down at them. In France, Atir leads her through the countryside, and thousands of people marvel at Zeraffa. Paris falls in love with Zeraffa. The King builds her a special house in the Jardin des Plantes. On warm nights, the young princess visits, while Atir whispers stories to Zeraffa of a hot land far away. The amazing story by an award-winning author of a giraffe’s extraordinary voyage from Africa to Paris

Throughout these lessons we will be learning how to:

Use a varied and rich vocabulary. E.g. Bounding joyfully down the stairs, she rushed into the garden.

Use punctuation correctly (Full stops, capital letters, commas in a list, exclamation and question marks) E.g. The sea is rough but Atir will protect you.
Use headings and sub-headings e.g. The Park and Gardens

Use the past and present tense correctly including the progressive form e.g. Zeraffa was gazing through her long eyelashes at the people waving on the banks.

Use a variety of conjunctions (when, because, after, while) e.g. When they had sailed through the night, they finally arrived in Marseilles.

In Maths, we will be focusing on:

Year 3: Time, shape and statistics.

Year 4: Money, time and shape.

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'Once you learn to read, you will be forever free'

Reading is at the heart of the our curriculum, we want every child to discover the joy of reading for pleasure.

We expect every child to read at home at least 4 times per week, this does not have to be a school reading book it can be anything that your child enjoys reading.

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We also want to promote a love of reading by encouraging parents to read to their children. Cosy up and enjoy a book together!

Click here to see our book recommendations: Book recommendations in Mrs Hughes & Mrs Hooper's Class (padlet.com)

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In our class reading sessions, we will be reading the book 'Egyptian Cinderella' by Shirley Climo.

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Blurb:

This Egyptian spin on the classic Cinderella tale was initially recorded in the first century by a Roman historian and is retold here by folklorist Shirley Climo.

Poor Rhodopis! She has nothing—no mother or father, and no friends. She is a slave, from the far-off country of Greece. Only the beautiful rose-red slippers her master gives her can make Rhodopis smile. So when a falcon swoops down and snatches one of the slippers away, Rhodopis is heartbroken. For how is she to know that the slipper will land in the lap of the great Pharaoh himself? And who would ever guess that the Pharaoh has promised to find the slipper’s owner and make her queen of all Egypt?

During our reading lessons we will continue to develop our VIPERS skills. Remember that VIPERS stands for vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising.

In Science lessons, we will be investigating 'Light and shadows'

We will be:

Recognising that we need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light.
Noticing that light is reflected from surfaces.
Recognising that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect our eyes.
Recognising that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object.
Finding patterns in the way the size of shadows changes.

Homework will be given out on a Thursday and is expected to be handed in on the following Wednesday.

There will be a piece of maths homework and a spelling task.

There will also be learning log task based on our topic to complete every half term.

In addition to this, we expect children to complete tasks on Times table rockstars and also read at least 4x per week.

Spellings

Children are expected to be able to read and spell common exception words, there is a set for years 3&4. The list is attached at the bottom of this page.

Each week the children will have a spelling test, this will be on a Thursday morning. They will be tested on the spellings that are sent home.

In PE this half-term, we will be taking part in Rounders on a Tuesday and Athletics on a Wednesday

Sports day is on Tuesday 17th June.

The children should come to school at the beginning of the week with their PE kit in a small, drawstring bag, which is to be kept in school until Friday when we will send them home for washing. In Key Stage 2, it is an expectation that the children get themselves ready for PE.

Children will usually wear their white shorts and navy PE t-shirt for PE but, while the cooler weather is approaching, they can instead wear tracksuit bottoms or leggings with their PE t-shirt and school sweatshirt or cardigan if they wish to. It is a good idea to have both options in the PE bag - please make sure that you show your children the different items that are in there or even get them to pack it with you!

Please ensure all items are labelled with your child's name.

Coats/bags

Your child will need a coat in school at all times as we will be doing as much as we can outside.

No bags, apart from lunch bags, book bags and PE bags, are needed in school.

Please make sure that all items of clothing, including PE kits, shoes, and coats, have the children's names on the labels. The children may be able to identify their belongings at home, but it is surprising how difficult they find it when they haven't worn something for a while and it looks so similar to everyone else’s!