Narnia (Year 4 and Year 5)
Welcome to Narnia Class!
Mrs McCorrie is our Year 4/5 teacher. Mrs Bannister works with us from Monday to Thursday and then Mrs Clements volunteers on a Friday morning.
On a Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Organ teaches us RE and SMSC.
Homework
Maths and English homework will alternate each week; it is set on a Friday and due in on the following Friday. It will be sent home in work books. Each week, we will bring home spellings to practise once we have learnt a new spelling rule in school. Our spelling tests will also be on Fridays.
Please help your child with their practise at home. We use spelling shed in school and all Class 4 pupils have log in details glued into their reading record. You can log in here: https://www.edshed.com/en-gb/login
Some pupils will also have a login for Nessy, which provides lots of spelling activities and challenges. Pupils use this within school so are familiar with how to log on: https://learn.nessy.com/account/login#/accountLogin
We greatly encourage regular reading and ask that children read every night and make an entry in their reading record. If this is done independently, it should also be signed by a parent/guardian - this will also ensure that the pupil gets entered into our new whole school reading raffle, with prizes to be won every week! You can also take reading quizzes at home once a book has been finished: https://ukhosted49.renlearn.co.uk/2250969/default.aspx
There will also be one piece of homework for each topic, every 8-10 weeks, which can be found on the topic fact sheet (in the topic section below). We look forward to seeing your creations!
English
In our first English topic, based on the Mayans, we wrote playscripts all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also discussion texts. Then (in our Galapagos themed topic) we have written recounts and non-chronological reports, focusing on the range of wildlife and Charles Darwin's voyage.
We then started our legends and longboats topic, all about the Vikings. We wrote instructions based on the book 'How to train your dragon' by Cressida Cowell. Next, we started reading a fiction book called She Wolf by Dan Smith; we have used ideas from this, along with fantastic vocabulary, to write our own narratives - with lots of suspense!
Our final genre this year is to write a formal letter.
Maths
In maths, we begun the year by looking at the place value of different numbers (ordering, comparing and rounding them). Year 4 looked at 4-digit numbers whilst Year 5 looked at numbers up to 1,000,000.
We then moved onto using the written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division before learning all about length, area and perimeter.
During our fractions unit, we have learnt how to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and add and subtract fractions. Year 5 have then learnt how to find a common denominator to add trickier fractions.
We are also practising our times tables regularly, ready for the statutory Year 4 times tables test; please practise them at home as well. Year 4 pupils should know all of their times tables (up to 12 x 12). There are lots of games and challenges that can be found on www.timestables.co.uk to help get quicker at answering questions. All of KS2 have a login for this website which will record their progress as they complete medals and trophies.
Topic
Our first topic was all about the Mayan civilization. We learnt when this was, who the Mayans were, where they lived and how their letter and number system is different to ours. We also enjoyed learning about the Mayans beliefs of chocolate being a gift from the gods. We enjoyed visiting Cadbury World to find out about the history of chocolate and completed some all-important taste testing!
Our second topic was all about the Galapagos Islands. We have looked at the unique fauna, the details of Charles Darwin's voyage and the problems with plastic pollution that the citizens are facing.
Our next topic was called Legends and Longboats. During this, we learnt all about the Vikings, their justice system and the importance and reliability of artefacts.
Our final topic is a local study all about the Battle of Evesham. View our topic map (below) to see what we will be covering in our key questions. It also provides some homework ideas.
Legends and Longboats topic fact sheet
Battle of Evesham fact sheet - coming soon
Science
Our first science unit this year was all about rocks. We have learnt all about the different types of rocks, how soil is made and how fossils are formed.
In our next unit, we discovered how a sound travels from the source into your ear. We also conducted lots of experiments about sound. For example, looking at the correlation between an object's size and the pitch it produces, discovering what happens to a sound as it travels away from the source and seeing if a louder sound has smaller or larger soundwaves.
We then learnt about the different states of matter. We experimented whether the temperature affects the speed at which evaporation occurs. We also made our own water cycles and presented them to the class.
PE
We are very lucky to have a specialist PE coach working with us each Wednesday, Miss Jones. All pupils will need a PE kit (suitable for all weather conditions) in school every Wednesday and Friday.
Years 4 and 5 have both enjoyed a half term of forest school fun this year (so no longer need to bring in forest school clothing).