Hello and welcome to our Term 4 curriculum update. With another busy term ahead of us again as begin to prepare our children for their transition to primary 4 within the upper school.

Literacy

Our focus in term 3 was developing our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk about It’ strategies. This will continue to be a focus in Term 4 so the children can discuss and write responses to questions linking to their reading/topic book. Alongside this,  spelling activities where children will continue to work individually and in groups to revisit previous sounds and texts, using their skills and strategies to tackle new and unfamiliar spelling sounds and reading books.

We will continue to focus more on the Romans in term 4 and the children will be finding specific information and working on recognising different parts of texts ‘pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan and locate related key words or facts in texts. Pupils will be continuing to focus on punctuation and why commas and exclamation marks have an impact on how a text is read.

In writing, we will be finishing our narrative story book and start our report writing through the Romans. We will also continue to revisit listening and talking games and activities to help children develop key skills needed in whole class group discussions and sharing information in a topic presentation. Also, Show and Tell will start again in Term 4 to give the children the opportunity to share an  item from home.

Numeracy

In term 3, our focus has been looking at multiplication. The children have been mentally counting in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables.  Within multiplication there has been a variety of hands on activities for the children to use and visually see the pattern of these tables form through using a variety of different materials such as, Numicon pegs and boards, Numicon number lines etc. In term 4 we will be revisiting the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times table to retain our knowledge and use this knowledge to understand the inverse calculation for division which will tie in with fractions.

Beyond Number

In beyond number the focus was, how to tell the time using hours and minutes and will use concrete materials which will promote a deeper understanding so the children know how to use analogue and digital time. In term 4 the focus will be mini topics, which will cover, data handling, angles and area. Children will continue using their ‘Thinking it through’ jotters to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

All children will have the opportunity to be Pupil of the Day again in term 4  and will continue to explore emotions, and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others and learning how to control them. As well as looking at different strategies that we can do to help manage our feelings and control our breathing through ‘Do be Mindful’ activities.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus this term will be athletics, striking and fielding games. Children will continue to use their transferrable skills in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst continuing to develop their knowledge of how we keep in our body healthy with fitness and nutrition.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be ‘Our Lady’ our mother and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and lives of others.

Topic

The children will be participating in activities in different areas of the curriculum including social studies for The Romans and their impact in Scotland. The children will have the opportunity to look at different aspects of Roman Society, Roman Gods and the Roman invasion in Britain. We will look at Roman inventions considered ahead of their time, such as bath houses, under floor pipes for water supplies, heating and sanitation.  In our science topic we will look at materials with a focus on dissolving. Pupils will research dissolving and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water, looking at hot water can impact on substances through changing their state or what they look like.

We hope this will be a successful term 4 and the children have enjoyed their Easter break.

Thank you,

Miss Grimley