May 2011DeansfieldPrimary School

TOPICS:

  1. Rainforest and Environmental Change (Science and Geography topics)
  2. RE: Buddhism and Sikhism
  3. Design and Technology and Art: We will be making a collage linked to our Rainforests topic

Maths: We will continue to follow the National Numeracy Strategy covering a wide range of maths each week. We want to emphasise the importance of practising regular mental maths at home; particularly times tables and corresponding division facts.

Literacy: Our book focus this half term is’ Window’ by Jeannie Baker, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Angus Rides the Goods Train by Alan Durant and Chris Riddell. We will continue to teach English using topics such as rainforests and environmental issues to stimulate reading and writing for different purposes as well as learning a range of skills relating to grammar, punctuation and spelling. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the importance of regular reading at home. Reading Journals are expected to be handed in once a week – a minimum of one page.

PE: Swimming stays the same. Sports PE at school is on Wednesday afternoon. . Plain white tops and black shorts and trainers are required. Please send them in on Mondays and keep them here until Friday– this allows for unexpected changes in the timetable.

IT: We will be researching rainforests and using PowerPoint. In addition, we will use laptops in class to support our learning

Music: Our theme is Rainforest Music. We will learn to sing and play a series of songs about the Amazon Rainforest. Children will continue to learn either recorder, flute, clarinet or violin. We will also introduce the guitar and give everyone a ‘taste’.

Homework: We would like children to prepare a project about one or more rainforest creatures which live in one of the world’s rainforests. It should ideally be a combination of writing and art work (2D or 3D). The format could be a book, poster, CD Rom etc. The topic should cover what the animal looks like, what it eats, whether it is endangered and how we can protect them etc. The deadline is the end of June.

School Educational Visits: Year 4 have been extremely fortunate this year to have had so many and varied visits. These have included the National Gallery, Tudor House at Hall Place, Globe Theatre, National Portrait Gallery, Unicorn Theatre (twice!), NationalMaritimeMuseum, HinduTemple, and for 4B, ElthamPalace (and subsequently 6 children to Westminster Abbey). We are sure you will agree that this represents wonderful value for money for the £36 per year we request for parental financial support. Although we do not plan any visits in the summer term, we hope that you will show your financial support when asked, as our plan this year was to top heavy the Autumn and Spring Terms.

Thank you, Mrs Gordon, Mrs Potter and Mr Behan, Year 4 teachers