Welcome to our curriculum update for term 4. It is sure to be a busy term as we begin to prepare our pupils for the transition to the upper school and primary 4.

Literacy

Reading & Comprehension

During term 3 our focus was summarising skills and to develop our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk About It’ strategies. This will continue into term 4 as pupils begin to develop these skills in discussion and formulating written responses.  Pupils will also look at different writing styles, the message the writer is trying to convey and when we are presented with fact or opinion in the texts.

As part of our term 4 topic in science, children will be asked to find specific information and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Pupils will be focussing on punctuation and the use of commas and exclamation marks and the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing. We will revisit speech marks, and how we can use these in our own written tasks.

Writing

In writing, we will be focussing on science-based report writing through our mini science topic on dissolving. This topic was moved from term 3 into term 4, to allow pupils to spend more time on The Romans last term, as this was such a huge topic, more time was given to this to fully engage in the topic outcomes. We will also begin to look at the outcomes for response and persuasive writing, using facts and the pupils own thoughts and opinions on texts to help develop these skills.

Listening & Talking

We will continue with our listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions or when sharing information in a topic presentation activity.  ‘Show and Tell’ will continue throughout term 4, giving pupils the opportunity to share information on an item from home, once per week.

Maths

In term 3, our focus was on fractions and the link between multiplication and division through fact families. We will however, regularly revisit the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables to retain our knowledge of these facts and use this understanding to look at the inverse calculation for division. Our primary focus in maths in term 4, will be mini topics, covering areas such as measurement (length, weight, mass and area) and data handling.

In beyond number, the focus in term 4 will be angles, recognising right angles in shapes and when an angle is bigger or smaller than 90 degrees.  Within this topic we will also look at compass points, and full, half and quarter turns to describe the route of a journey. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any 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, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for fair play, how to support others to manage their emotions using strategies we have already put in place within our classroom setting.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Tuesday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 4 will be athletics and striking and fielding games.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their knowledge of how we keep our body healthy with fitness and nutrition needs too.

R.E

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

Topic

In term 4 the focus of topic will be social studies with a focus on groups and charities in our local community. Pupils will also research dissolving in our science topic and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water, looking at how water can impact on substances and change their appearance/state.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils enjoyed the Easter break and some well-earned rest over the holiday period.

Take care,

Mrs Travers