Living and Learning – Internet Safety
Our theme in Living and Learning for Weeks 5 and 6 of term is being safe online.
Last week, we had a visitor from D:Side come to talk to us about making good choices online to keep ourselves safe, including why games are given certain age ratings and what things might be appropriate for us to see, as well as understanding that people might not be who they say they are online and the importance of only speaking to people we know.
This week, for Safer Internet Day (07.02), we learnt about fake news and how to spot it. We considered which sources are trustworthy and which aren’t. We also talked about what we mean by ‘personal data’, the importance of keeping it private, and how our data can be used by others.
Help at home by discussing these themes with your child and the terms ‘fake news’ and ‘personal data’. 
Maths frame multiplication check
Today, our Y4 children have been practising their times tables using Mathsframe multiplication check. They all did really well! Thank you for all your hard work and effort helping them at home.
It’s good practice to use this version (rather than TTRS) as it resembles the test they will take in the summer.
If you would like extra practice with your child then you can find the website here.
3,4B: we’re geographers (and presenters)
We’ve been loving our current geography topic all about volcanoes.
You might remember we learnt about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) in 2010. Recently, we’ve carried out another case study. This time on Mount Vesuvius (Italy).
We thought about the negative aspects of living near a volcano and found out there’re lots of positives, too: the soil is good for farming, volcanoes bring a lot of tourism and diamonds are often found in volcanic rock which can be mined then sold.
Then, to demonstrate our knowledge we wrote, practised and performed a short news report about our learning. One of us was the presenter and one of us played the part of a local resident who had to justify why they live so close to Vesuvius (an active, deadly volcano!).
Help at home by asking your child why volcanoes are both good and bad.
3,4 A Class News
Last week, we continued our Geography topic by learning about Mount Vesuvius and how volcanoes can impact people positively as well as negatively. We discussed why so many people still live near to the active volcano today and filmed our own ‘news report’ interviews.
In Science, we continued our ‘Rocks, Fossils & Soils’ learning by finding out what soil contains: rock, humus (not the kind you dip carrot sticks in!), air and water. We collected some soil from the school grounds to investigate and discussed whether this soil was sandy, clay or loam.
Help at home by…
- asking your child about their learning
- discussing technical vocabulary such as ‘humus’ and ‘loam’
PE – basketball skills
This half term in PE we are focussing on attacking skills.
Here’s what we’ve been learning:
Attack is offense in Basketball. On offense, there are many different tools available to your team. The goal of the attack is to break through the opponent’s defence and set up an uncontested shot. For this you will need strong fundamentals: dribbling, passing and shooting.
3,4B: we are geographers!
This half-term, we’ve been geographers. Specifically, we’ve been learning about volcanoes. We’ve studied plate tectonics and learnt how volcanoes are formed. We’ve investigated where they are and thought about whether volcanoes are a good or bad thing – the answer isn’t as obvious as it seems.
In particular, we’ve studied two volcanic eruptions in detail: Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 (which you might remember) and Mt Vesuvius in 79AD (which you probably don’t remember – although I’m regularly told how old parents are).
We learnt about the negative aspects of volcanic eruptions: the disruption to travel, the destroying of infrastructure and the loss of life. And, we learnt about the positive aspects of volcanoes: geothermal energy, rich soil for farming and tourism.
Help at home by…
- asking your child about their learning
- researching volcanoes at home
- looking for articles or books about volcanoes
- using Google Earth to look at some volcanoes
A little challenge, can your child…
- tell you some information about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010
- tell you some information about the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD
- explain some of the positive and negative aspects of volcanoes
- tell you where some volcanoes are
A little extra challenge..
- Can your child tell you more about the word volcano and what it means (a clue: it’s Latin!)
3,4 A Class News
It’s been another busy week at Scholes!
In Writing, we wrote up our recounts about a volcanic eruption and the children used some fantastic vocabulary, including some lovely fronted adverbials.
In Maths, we’ve been working on multiplication. Year 4 have been using column multiplication to multiply 3 digit numbers and Year 3 have been partitioning to multiply 2 digit ones, moving onto using the formal method in Week 4.
In Reading, we’ve continued to work on a variety of different skills, including retrieval, inference and choice. It was also great to see some fantastic reading record activities in Book Club on Wednesday.
In Topic, we’ve been learning about how volcanoes are formed and the impact they can have, both positive and negative.
That’s not to mention some really thoughtful contributions in Living and Learning (please see the previous class news post for more detail, the picture below shows everyone working away on their posters), some great ball skills in P.E and some super work on classifying rocks in Science!
Well done 3,4 A on another successful week. I also wanted to say a big well done to all the children who learnt and recited the poem sent home earlier in the term – Catch a Little Rhyme. There were so many who gave it a go!
Please help at home by reading regularly with your child, helping them to practise their spellings and ensuring they continue to practise their times tables on Times Tables Rockstars (in particular, x8 for Year 3 and x9 for Year 4). Thank you for all that you do, your support makes a big difference.
Living and Learning – Being Safe
Our theme in Living and Learning for Weeks 3 and 4 of term is being safe.
In Week 3, we thought about what makes a happy and healthy home. Our objective was to recognise features of a healthy family life and to know when and how to ask for help. We wrote some of these ideas down to create posters.
The children made some great contributions about what things make for a happy home, including having the things you need, feeling comfortable and having someone to care for you.
Help at home by talking more about these themes with your child, encouraging them to share their feelings and emotions and discussing safety at home.
In Week 4, we’ll be talking about the NSPCC and their Speak Out. Stay Safe. programme.
Living and Learning: I know what a drug is
We start the new year with drug education.
- I know what a drug is.
- I know that some drugs are harmful.
This week, we focus on the reasons why we use household products and medicines and the importance of using them safely. Our pupil explore a range of medicine labels and instructions and assess risk in different situations. They identify how to minimise/prevent further risk to help prevent accidents from occurring.
Even young children can begin to develop an understanding of drugs.
Talk to your child about medicines – they’re helpful drugs, but only when used by the right people in the right way. Older children can develop this understanding in terms of other drugs like alcohol – talk about age restrictions and drinking in moderation.
In today’s lesson, we looked at empty medicine packaging with partners. The aim was to find the all the information someone would need before taking the medicine, and how they were labelled.
Living and Learning – Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco
This week in Living and Learning across Years 3 and 4, we have been talking about medicines and how they can help us. We have also talked about the risks and what we can do to reduce the risks, including the importance of following the instructions of a doctor and our adult at home.
Help at home by discussing with your child further how we can be safe with chemicals in our home, whether it relates to medicines, cleaning products or toiletries for example.