Author: Mr Catherall

What are we learning this half-term?

Short answer: loads of exciting stuff!

If you want a bit more detail, read on…

Topic: Ancient Greece

This half-term, we’ve loads of exciting learning planned. We start our new history topic: Ancient Greece. There’s loads to learn about this incredibly important – and interesting – ancient civilisation (our curriculum statement tells you exactly what we’ll learn).

Amongst other things, we’ll learn some new knowledge: When and where was Ancient Greece? What influence did the gods have on their citizens? What is a democracy? And, the learning I’m most looking forward to, we’ll learn about and then compare two of the main states in Ancient Greece: Athenia and Sparta.

As well as improving our historical knowledge, we’ll continue to practise the key historical skills: time and chronology, using historical sources to gain information and thinking about how people interpret historical events differently.

We’ll also enrich our learning with some art, some design & technology and lots of thinking about the spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of our learning.

If you want to get ahead of the game with your learning, check out BBC Bitesize. 

Writing: 

In writing, we’ll move on to writing with description. We’ll write character descriptions about an encounter with a mythical beast and we’ll have a go at re-writing part of an ancient myth. In our writing, we’ll use lots of adjectives for impact and learn how to use expanded noun phrases.

Reading:

We’ll read some Greek myths, lots of descriptive writing and some poetry to help us practise our reading skills. To supplement this, we’ll have some good old-fashioned story time where we read our class novel: Give Peas a Chance. 

Maths: 

We’ll build on our learning last half-term as we move on to addition and subtraction. We’ve a helpful guide to calculations on our website that can help you practise these skills at home – it shows parents how we teach these skills in school, too (something that cropped up a few times at our recent parent teacher evening).

PE:

Danny from 5 Star Sports will continue to help us improve our games playing skills – all at an appropriate social distance of course. in our other PE lesson, we’ll think about tactics – and, in particular, how to adapt our tactics to beat our opponents.

Living & Learning:

This half-term, we’ll remind ourselves about the importance of manners, think about Anti-Bullying Week and learn about happy and healthy relationships.

As always, we want to hear from you. If you have any questions, or think we can help in any way please get in touch. Because we want to keep everyone safe, our usual playground discussions aren’t ideal. Instead, remember that you can email us anytime…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

Week beginning 19 October 2020

Hi everyone

We’ve one more week until we get a well-earned rest for half-term. We want you to know that we’re super impressed by how great you’ve been this half-term. You’ve returned to school with positivity, resilience and responsibility.

You’ve shown a great attitude towards your home learning, too – keep it up.

Here’s a short video message from Mrs Wadsworth for you to watch before we start.

And, here’s your home learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to addition and subtraction.

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 5 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1: This video lesson about subordinate clauses from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is all about looking ahead to our next history topic. Follow the slides to find out what the history topic is and little bit of information about this famous civilisation.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about living things and their habitats. This week, we’re again focussing on the impact humans have on the planet: in particular, climate change.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Week beginning 19 October 2020

Hi everyone

We’ve one more week until we get a well-earned rest for half-term. We want you to know that we’re super impressed by how great you’ve been this half-term. You’ve returned to school with positivity, resilience and responsibility.

You’ve shown a great attitude towards your home learning, too – keep it up.

Here’s a short video message from Mrs Wadsworth for you to watch before we start.

And, here’s your home learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to addition and subtraction.

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 5 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1: This video lesson about subordinate clauses from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is all about looking ahead to our next history topic. Follow the slides to find out what the history topic is and little bit of information about this famous civilisation.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about living things and their habitats. This week, we’re again focussing on the impact humans have on the planet: in particular, climate change.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

16 October 2020

This week, we’ve been recapping one of our key spelling rules: adding –ed or –ing to change the tense of a verb.

Here’s an example…

infinitive verb present tense past tense
to walk walking walked

First, we’d like you to complete this table. Be careful, there may be some irregular ones to catch you out!

infinitive verb present tense past tense
to jump    
  talking  
to climb    
to pour   poured
  running  
to achieve    
    explained

Then, practise these spellings in different ways, check out the ‘super spelling strategies’ on this week’s spelling post (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4). Children should practise in preparation for a test on Thursday 22  October 2020.

Fancy a challenge? Use these words in sentences. Or, create silly sentences using as many of them as you can – can you use them all?

16 October 2020

This week, our homework links to our Living & Learning statement and is Talk Time: I know that mental health is important.

Increasingly, we hear about the importance of mental health. Talk at home about different ways to help mental health. This might include restricting screen time, getting enough sleep, and taking time – even just five minutes – as a family to relax and recuperate after a busy day.

Homework should be completed by Thursday 22 October 2020 and will be reviewed / celebrated in class.

Our email addresses are below:

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

If your child is in 3,4N or 3,4E please send emails to both teachers.

Week beginning 12 October 2020

Hi everyone

Some of you will be coming back to school this week; others might be staying at home a little longer. Either way, you’re still very much a part of our school community and we can’t wait to hear from you (send us an email – addresses at the bottom of this post).

Well done to all those people who sent in some of their home learning last week. It was super impressive to see that you’ve been able to keep learning whilst at home. This means, when you come back, you’ll be right back up to speed!

Before you get stuck in to your home learning, here’s a quick video message from Mrs McCormick.

And, here’s your learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to place value.

Year 3 children use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 5 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1: This video lesson about fronted adverbials from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is linked to our class novel and is all about looking after our planet. In particular, the focus is on deforestation.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video and complete the task.

Alternatively, if you have the resources, have a go at the art work shown in Mrs McCormick’s video – you might need watercolours. If you don’t have these, you could use coloured pencils instead.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about living things and their habitats. This week, we’re focusing on how changing environments pose dangers to living things.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Please do keep in touch with us.

Our email addresses are…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

Week beginning 12 October 2020

Hi everyone

Some of you will be coming back to school this week; others might be staying at home a little longer. Either way, you’re still very much a part of our school community and we can’t wait to hear from you (send us an email – addresses at the bottom of this post).

Well done to all those people who sent in some of their home learning last week. It was super impressive to see that you’ve been able to keep learning whilst at home. This means, when you come back, you’ll be right back up to speed!

Before you get stuck in to your home learning, here’s a quick video message from Mrs McCormick.

And, here’s your learning for this week…

Maths

Year 4 children use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 5 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1: This video lesson about fronted adverbials from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is linked to our class novel and is all about looking after our planet. In particular, the focus is on deforestation.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video and complete the task.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Alternatively, if you have the resources, have a go at the art work shown in Mrs McCormick’s video – you might need watercolours. If you don’t have these, you could use coloured pencils instead.

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about living things and their habitats. This week, we’re focusing on how changing environments pose dangers to living things.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Please do keep in touch with us.

Our email addresses are…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

09 October 2020

This week, we’d like your child to practise the following spellings in preparation for a spelling test on Friday 09 October 2020.

believe complete extreme relief
breathe appear increase quickly

For some ideas on how to practise spellings in different ways, check out the ‘super spelling strategies’ on this week’s spelling post (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4).

Fancy a challenge? Use these words in sentences. Or, create silly sentences using as many of them as you can – can you use them all?

09 October 2020

I can share my views about health

Each year, we ask you to complete a short health questionnaire.
Your views can help us to become happier and healthier.
Parents/carers: please complete the online survey with your child and comment at the end. Please submit before Thursday 15 October.
If you need a paper copy, please request one from your child’s class teacher. The link will be on your child’s Homework page.

Week beginning 05 October 2020

Hey everyone

I hope you had a nice weekend (shame about the weather!) and you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe. We know it must be a bit tricky being at home but thank you. By staying at home you’re helping to keep everyone safe. So, basically, what you’re doing makes you a hero! Congratulations on being a hero. I heard a rumour that heroes try super hard with their home learning – maybe you could let me know!

Here’s a short video message from me before we get started.

And here’s your home learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to place value.

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 5 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Activity 1: This video lesson about writing instructions from BBC Bitesize links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently. Watch the videos and try the activities. When you get to activity 3 (writing a set of instructions for walking to the South Pole), you can choose to do this. Or, write a set of instructions for how to keep our plant happy and healthy – this is what we’ll be doing in class.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is linked to our class novel and is all about art.

Have a go at this lesson about complementary colours and complete the activities at the end. Don’t worry if you can’t print the colour wheel. Instead, just write down what the complementary colours are.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about living things and their habitats. This week, we’re focusing on how we can classify animals – specifically, vertebrates and invertebrates.

Watch this BBC Bitesize lesson about vertebrates.

Then, this BBC Bitesize lesson about invertebrates.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Please do keep in touch with us.

Our email addresses are…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org