Term 4 Week 2

Another great week has flown by in Walnut Class!

The children looked fabulous on World Book Day! It was amazing to see such a variety of characters in the classroom. Thank you to everyone who supported with this!

In Literacy this week, the children learnt a traditional, African Tale- Anansi and the Impossible as part of our World Book Day celebrations. After hearing the story, they created their own comic strips to summarise it. They made props and resources and confidently retold the story in groups to Pear Class. Well done to all of the Walnuts for retelling the story so well! The Pears were mesmerised!

Through History, we learnt about the history of Leeds Castle; how it was built and why. We discussed in length the Norman Invasion and how this impacted England. We discussed Mott and Bailey castles and how these were changed over time and why. The children were fascinated to find out which royals had resided in Leeds Castle and why.

In Science, the children made observations of their soil sample jars. They looked at the different particles, identifying what they were and made measurements of these. They concluded that at the bottom of their jar, they are likely to find sand particles as these are the heaviest and therefore pulled to the bottom by gravity. At the top of their jars they found organic matter- such as decomposed plants or animals. The children were very put off by this, some groups even had a worm floating at the top of their sample!

In Maths, Year 3 moved onto a unit on fractions. We started the week identifying and representing the denominator, recognising that this number tells us how many equal parts a whole is split into. We identified that for unit fractions, the numerator is always one. The numerator shows the number of parts we have or that are commonly shaded.  We created our own fraction wall and used this to compare fractions, finding out which were greater and which were less. At the end of the week, we looked at the whole, understanding that when the numerator and denominator are the same, a fraction is equivalent to a whole. Year 4 have also been working with fractions, understanding what an improper fraction is and learning how to convert these into a whole with a fraction remaining.

In computing, the children were limited to answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions, in preparation for using yes/no commands when using branching data bases next week. In PE, we started a unit of dance around ‘The Nutcracker’. The children listened to key music pieces from the ballet and started to explore making toy shapes grow and melt with their body. They put these shapes into a small routine, creating their first nutcracker dance at the end of the lesson. As Drosselmeyer, it was great to see so many different toys in my toyshop!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Daniells and Mrs Ali.