We will be delving deeper into the life of Queen Victoria and her reign over the British Empire.  In English we will also be continuing our stories inspired by Dickens and then uploading them onto the website link found on our ‘Links’ section.  Later in the week, we will begin a unit on newspapers that will continue until the end of next week.

In Miss Ingram’s math class she will be looking at division.  Her mental math target is: Addition and Subtraction Facts to 20 and Pairs that Total 100.  Mrs Hems and Mrs Barton’s math class will be looking at various aspects of shape and space, including measures, time and coordinates in all four quadrants.  Our mental math target will be: Pairs that Total 100, 200, 300, 400 or 500.

Let’s have a fantastic final two weeks and go for our goals!

We look forward to meeting everyone next Friday for parent consultations!

This week we will continue our work on Charles Dickens. The children have been reading extracts from a range of Dickens’ works, including Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Children have been looking at character, setting, theme, cliffhangers and a range of other writing essentials so that they can begin to develop their own stories weaving in traits found in Dickens’ stories. We will be uploading our stories onto the website link found on our ‘Links’ tab at the top of this page.

We will start to look at Victoria’s life and her reign and the impact she made on the British Empire. We will be further investigating the British Empire and understanding how export and import was affected and developed.

In Miss Ingram’s math class you will be focusing on multiplication and division skills.  Your math target this week is finding pairs that total 20.  In Mrs Hems and Mrs Barton’s class you will be looking at aspects of shape and space, focusing on angles, measuring and drawing using a protractor as well as finding missing angles.  Our math target will be finding pairs that total 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500. 

There are many exciting events happening in the upcoming weeks involving the Olympics. This week, children will have the chance to try their hand at some archery! Also, be prepared for Tuesday January 31st when the Happy Puzzle Company will be coming in to challenge your children with their mathematical thinking skills.  In addition, there will be a family event after school to play math games and enjoy some problem solving activities.

Did you know that it is Charles Dicken’s bicentenary?  This week we will be learning a bit more about the works of Charles Dickens and write our own stories reflecting on the themes from his great works.  It ties in perfectly with our Victorian topic so will follow on from our reading of ‘A Christmas Carol’ last term and continue with some reading of ‘Oliver Twist.’ 

We will continue to learn about the differences between the rich and poor and end our week with our trip to the Reading Museum’s Victorian classroom.  Don’t forget to come dressed the part!

In maths we will have our mental math test on Wednesday afternoon and then we will begin our new target of: Adding and Subtracting near multiples of ten (Using Adjusting),

We are trying out a new homework system for math on a website called: mymaths.co.uk.  It may take a few weeks for all of us to get used to using it, so please bear with us!  Let’s have another terrific week!  Don’t forget to check out our new updated links for maths and our topic work!

This past week the children have really thought about their new goals and targets for the year ahead.  We have thought about what we can do for others, how we can become better learners and also what next steps we should focus on in both math and English.

This week we will delve into the world of the Victorians.  As usual, in English our work will revolve around our topic and we will begin with writing narratives from the point of view of a child working in a cotton mill.  We will also put together a Victorian timeline of the main dates of this period.  Don’t forget that your journal work this weekend was to begin researching what life was like for child labourers and there a a few website links to help you with this.

In math this week, Mrs Hems and Mrs Barton’s class will begin a three week unit looking at percentages, fractions, decimals and ratio.  Miss Ingram’s class will focus on telling time this week.  Both classes will have at least two times table challenges a week as well as a mental math test on a Wednesday afternoon.  Our first mental math focus for this term is rounding decimals and whole numbers. 

We have loads of learning to do this term, so think about those pebbles….what words are on your pebbles?  Put into practice your goals for becoming a better learner! 

Welcome back!  We look forward to working hard to achieve all of our goals this year.  We cannot wait to get started and hope you have all come back prepared to work hard and focus on doing your best!  This week we will be setting new targets and goals for the term and year ahead.  We will be making Epiphany boxes and thinking about how we can change our attitude towards our local community and ensure that we think about what we can do to help impact others.  Also, in English we will be recounting our holdays and then thinking about our next steps in our writing and setting out our targets for this term.  In PSHE we will continue this theme of ‘goals’ and raising our expectations and set ourselves three goals to make sure that we become the best ‘learners’ that we can be. 

It is a New Year full of possibilities!  Let’s raise our expectations of ourselves and each other and see what we can truly achieve!

Thank you for all of your continued support and we would just like to remind you that we are always available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have.  Please make an appointment and we would be happy to see you!

Also a reminder……Please visit our ‘Learning Links’ tab at the top of this page each week to play the new math games and visit the topic links.  We update these links most weeks!