Firstly, it has been wonderful to see all the children back after the well-deserved Easter Break. All refreshed and ready for the summer term, I guess the sunshine aides to the positive vibe! 
Coming up in Year 3, the ‘Romans’ will inspire half term 4 and 5’s learning. Initially, our English lessons are being led by ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit; this is the story of a young roman boy who describes what happens when Mount Vesuvius erupts in AD 79. Writing a newspaper report about this seems an obvious choice, as the Romans around the year 131 BC first invented newspapers. They were called Acta Diurna, which means ‘daily acts’.  
In Maths, we are continuing to build our knowledge to solve problems involving fractions, firstly recognising halves, quarters, and thirds of shapes then of amounts, before moving onto adding and subtracting fractions. Mathematical vocabulary we are getting to know involve ‘denominator’ (bottom number) and ‘numerator’ (top number). In 3 NM, we have noticed that knowing your times tables helps to solve many of these. So keep up your times table practice!  
In Science, we will be exploring the topic of light. Light enables us to see, we will also explore how light is reflected from surfaces, how shadows are formed and how they change. 
Our P.E focus this term on ‘Rounders and Athletics’, all in preparation for the sports morning at the end of June. We are so excited to hear that our families will be able to join us this year to observe us competing.  
As mentioned before the overall theme of the term is ‘The Romans’, foundations lessons will involve; the invasion of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire and its army and the British resistance led by Boudica. We will learn about the Roman legacy – exploring those things that the Romans brought which affected our subsequent history and even our language. Explore Roman numerals and the calendar we use today, and begin to understand how many aspects of modern life can be traced back in some way to the Romans.  
A heads up for parents, the last curriculum enrichment day of Year 3 (15th July 2022), will involve pupils dressing up as Romans! ​

Science blog – 20.04.22 

It is great to see all of the children back after a lovely Easter break, ready to learn and excited for their new science topics.  

In Year 1 this half term the children will be exploring the topic of Plants. They can look forward to naming and identifying a variety of common wild and garden plants, as well as describing the basic structure of a plant. 

In Year 2 they will also be venturing into the topic of plants. They will build on knowledge from their learning in Year 1, by observing and describing how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants, and what they need to do so. 

Year 3 children will be exploring the topic of light. They will be learning that they need light to see, how light is reflected from surfaces, how shadows are formed and how they change. 

Year 4 will be spending this whole term exploring the topic of states of matter. They will be comparing and grouping materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases. To build on this they will observe that some materials change when they are heated or cooled, and experiment with the temperatures at which this happens. 

In Year 5 this half term the children will be learning about living things and their habitats. They will learn to describe differences in the life cycles of a mammal, amphibian, an insect and a bird. They will also be describing the process of reproduction in some plants and animals, and finding out about the work of naturalists and animal behaviourists. 

​Year 6 will also be learning about living things and their habitats. They will be building on their prior knowledge and describing how living things are classified into groups according to observable characteristics, and based on their similarities and differences; as well as giving reasons for their classifications.  ​

​In English, we have continued with the poetry theme, looking at calligrams to add to our existing skills. These skills were used to create an Easter Acrostic Poem or Shape Poem for an Easter card.  The children used sponges to create a colourful background around a template of a rabbit.  The children really enjoyed this activity and I hope you enjoy the results.
In maths, we moved onto fractions.  The children familiarised themselves with equal and unequal parts, halves, and quarters and have used their division skills to find halves and quarters of measured lines, shapes, and numbers.
In R.E. the children learned the Easter Story and created a comic strip detailing the main events, leading to Jesus’ resurrection. 
Our music lesson was linked to our Geography topic - The Amazon Rainforest.  The children made instruments from old cardboard tubes and straws to mimic the sounds of a bustling rainforest.