Year 3/4

Welcome to Year 3/4!

In Year 3/4, we are curious, responsible and motivated learners. We seek to develop our independence and are always determined to work to the best of our ability. We show kindness and respect to our peers and friends as we support each other in our learning journeys. We are developing our learning powers and honing the ability to reflect and persevere in all that we do.

Our Class Teacher is Miss Price.

Our Learning Assistants are Mrs Coley, Mrs Lightfoot and Mrs Smith.

Autumn 1

For our first half term in Year 3/4, our topic asks us, 'Would you prefer to live in the Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age'? We will be answering this question through a range of cross-curricular lessons, as well as an exciting trip to Sarehole Mill in Birmingham, for a 'Prehistoric Birmingham' Workshop Day! In English and other lessons, we will explore a range of texts linked to this topic, including 'The First Drawing', 'Secrets of Stonehenge' and 'Stone Age Boy'.

For our first English sequence of learning we will be writing part of a story. We will begin with a study of 'Mr Big' by Ed Vere. Working to unpick what makes a story, we will analyse the structure of a story and the grammatical components required to make it interesting. We will revisit nouns, adjectives and verbs. We will look for examples of prepositional phrases and begin to identify how paragraphs are used. We will aim to extend the depth of our writing by using a range of conjunctions to join clauses. By the end of this sequence, we will aim to write part of our own story which changes and adapts small elements of Vere's text to make it our own. We will follow this with a non-fiction sequence on letter writing using the same text.

In Maths, we will begin by revisiting and further developing our knowledge of place value. For our Year Fours, this means extending our number knowledge to 10,000 and to 1,000 for our Year Threes. We will work to embed key foundational fluency skills in counting, number recognition, composition and formation. We will develop our skills in partitioning and flexible partitioning of 3 and 4-digit numbers. We will also develop our use of number lines to plot and estimate values. We will use our understanding of place value to order and compare numbers. Across all of these objectives, we will continue to rehearse and hone our reasoning and problem-solving skills by developing our ability to articulate our understanding of key concepts using mathematical vocabulary.

In Science, we will begin the term by exploring how to group and classify living things. We will develop our scientific vocabulary to include the names for groups of plants and animals. We will consider how Carl Linnaeus developed strategies for identifying and classifying species of plants and animals by their common characteristics. We will develop our own ability to identify these characteristics in living things and group/sort them accordingly. Using this knowledge, we will produce our own classification keys. We will conclude the half term with investigation, enabling us to develop our skills in data collection and analysis.

In History, we will be considering the changes that happened in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. We will consider how long ago 'prehistory' was and investigate the lives of prehistoric populations. We will develop an understanding of how and why life and trade changed throughout this period.

We will begin our Art learning this term by reading 'The First Drawing' by Mordicai Gerstein. This will support our learning about prehistoric cave artworks. We will develop simple line drawings with pencils and charcoal. We will have the opportunity to further these skills on our visit to Sarehole Mill.

In Music, we are exploring how to create pieces of music using body percussion on the theme of rainforests. In Computing, we will discuss the nature of working collaboratively on shared files as well as continuing to develop our coding skills. In PE, we will be developing our football skills with Miss Price on a Wednesday and our gymnastics skills with Mrs Rea on a Friday. In our RE lesson this term, we will begin by exploring what it means to be a Hindu in Britain today.

The children have access to the following platforms to support with learning at home:

EdShed, Times Tables Rockstars, MyMaths and Accelerated Reader (AR).

Children have logins for all these websites in the front of their reading diaries.

Useful links to support Year 3/4 learning:

English and Spelling:

Accelerated Reader (AR) login: Welcome (renaissance-go.com)

EdShed (for weekly spelling practise)

Maths:

Times Tables Rock Stars: Play (ttrockstars.com)

Home - MyMaths

Topmarks (Maths games - the below link to Hit the Button is highly recommended for the Y4 Times Tables Check)

Hit the Button - Quick fire maths practise for 6-11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)