WRITING:

We will use the See Think Wonder writing framework to develop sentence writing skills. Pupils will be encouraged to use a variety of sentence starters and conjunctions to make their writing more interesting. Some pupils will progress to writing a number of linked sentences to create a paragraph. We will learn to recognise the difference between fact and opinion.

SPELLING & PHONICS:

Children will continue to practise spelling patterns through group activities. Spelling words will be included with homework every second week for them to practise at home using a choice of different writing activities. A Friday morning spelling test will encourage pupils to improve their scores as the term progresses.

READING:

To link with our topic, we will be reading ‘Space Band’ by Tom Fletcher as our class novel. We will focus on comprehension skills and children will be encouraged to learn from the author’s style to develop their own descriptive writing skills.

Pupils will be reading increasingly challenging texts with their reading groups and will take a book home every week for extra practise. This will allow them to develop their reading aloud skills. Some will continue to learn sight words by practising their word walls and others will work with a reading buddy for additional practice to encourage fluency. We will continue to have regular visits to the school library.

LISTENING & TALKING:

Talking and listening skills will be developed through our Space topic. The children will be encouraged to listen to a range of informative texts and videos and use what they have heard to develop their understanding and formulate opinions.

NUMERACY:

Children will continue to build on their understanding of addition and subtraction using the strategies learned in Terms 1 and 2. This term, our focus will move towards multiplication. We will explore a range of strategies to give them the tools to solve multiplication problems.

Times tables will be practised regularly during mental maths sessions and reinforced through homework. Pupils will also develop an understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division.

MATHEMATICS:

Mathematical skills will be developed through links with our topic on Space.

Measuring:

Children will learn to measure length, weight and capacity and decide which type of measurement is most appropriate. We will record measurements using the standard units, including metres, centimetres, kilograms, litres and millilitres. Through hands on activities, we will estimate the length, weight and capacity of everyday objects and then measure them to compare the estimates with actual measurements.

Time:

We will work on the children’s understanding of clocks and will learn to tell the time using both analogue and digital systems. They will practise reading o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to in both formats. As part of our Space topic, we will also explore the hours in a day, the days in a year, as well as the four seasons, and how these are affected by the Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun.

Our focus this term will be on developing fine motor skills and we will practise these through a variety of different ball games including tennis, hockey, football and volleyball. These activities will help develop coordination, balance, control and spatial awareness, as well as practising teamwork skills.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

This term we will focus on kindness and friendship, learning to appreciate that caring, sharing, fairness and kindness are vitally important in building positive relationships. We will build on the three targets of our class charter developed in August, in which we promised to be ready to learn, respectful to others, and safe in our actions in and around school.

Children will learn and practise strategies to help manage their emotions and recognise and respond to emotions demonstrated by their classmates and others in school. We will also continue to learn about children’s rights as part of our Rights Respecting School journey.

This term the children will be Intergalactic Space Explorers as we learn all about Space. Through scientific texts and videos, supported by engaging hands-on activities and experiments, we will investigate the Earth and its place in the Solar System.

We will research the patterns of movement of the sun and moon to support our understanding of how they relate to the length of a day, month and year on Earth. We will learn about some of the key events in history which have contributed to the development of Space travel and meet some of the significant individuals from history who have been important in forming our understanding of our Solar System.

As the characters in our class novel travel through space and encounter alien life forms, we will discuss the validity of different forms of evidence and the extent to which they can be trusted.