Year 3 Curriclum Bulletin: Healthy Humans

Topic

Our topic this term is 'Healthy Humans' which combines our understanding of the parts of the body with helpful routines and behaviour.  It is an important and fun science-based topic which fuels our English, PE, Maths and DT lessons. It is taught in Year 3 because we hope children can get into good habits early on, and in order to give families the opportunity to share their own advice for good health.

The main outcome for this topic will be a pop-up information book about the body and how to look after it.






Reading

This half-term, children will be continuing their journey towards becoming more fluent and enthusiastic readers. We will be guiding them through higher-level texts, building their enjoyment and giving them confidence to access novels.

We will be building on our Retrieval Skills (locating answers), Inference Skills (working out answers) and Choice Skills (explaining the authors decision making process) by using quick R.I.C. activity starters at the beginning of lessons.

Reading lessons have been restructured into two taught lessons a week, focusing on developing specific reading skills. These will alternate between fiction and non-fiction texts and involve the whole class.  We will still have 'fun reading' sessions once a week, and the opportunity to select books in the class library.

Reading logs are still at the forefront of sharing successes and challenges between school and home. Children benefit from encouragement, questioning and sharing the pleasure of reading together at home, so we welcome notes from parents. We also encourage children to reflect on their reading by using the question prompts on the back of their log to write a comment each time. Time is given in school for the children to record their class reading. Reading logs are checked once a week by the class teacher and we ask that they make 4 entries a week.

Our Class Novels this half term are: 'Waiting for Anya' by Michael Morpurgo and Usborne's 'Understanding Your Body' by Rebecca Treays.



We base our English work around our 'Healthy Humans' theme. We will continue to embed grammar, handwriting and spelling (including spelling conventions and topic vocabulary) skills. We will use the storytelling technique of memorising a similar text, to write a discussion text exploring whether or not packed lunches should be banned from school. We will also combine our Design skills to make an information pop-up book about how to look after the body.


Maths

This term we will extend our knowledge of key number facts, and consolidate our written calculation methods - applying them to various contexts including measures and money. We have already introduced the properties of 2D and 3D shape, and we will be investigating real life statistics from our own exercise achievements.

We try to make sure that, as well as making brains ache, maths is fun and engaging. Central to this is the use of maths games, songs and ICT. Children will often access specific online resources via our Google Classroom which they can access from home.

Logs

Logs are an integral part of Year 3 homework and we ask that children work on a different log for no less than 10 to 15 mins at least x3 a week. We also ensure that children have opportunity within school time to work on their logs. The logs system not only supports key English and Maths skills but allows children to achieve them through a series of small steps which installs confidence and a sense of pride when they achieve the different badges. The Year 3 teaching team do our very best to test children's logs daily, in dedicated curriculum time but often in breaks and lunchtimes. We are always impressed with our children's enthusiasm for their logs and but this can mean that we have children waiting to be tested. We have reminded children that it is not only their Year 3 teachers that can test them, but that any adult in the school.

Home Learning

This year your Year 3 child will bring home a range of home learning tasks from reading comprehension and maths tasks to mini projects. We greatly encourage parental involvement in your child's homework: often a home learning task might be a speaking and listening activity centered around talking to an adult about their learning and researching topics a little deeper. Homework tasks are usually given out on a Wednesday and collected in/discussed/shared on a Monday. There are times - like when children have been on a trip - this might change but we endeavor to ensure that ample notice for any task is given.



PE
Tuesday - Keep-fit (outside)
Thursday-  Gymnastics 'Inside the Body' (inside)

Dates for your Diaries

Friday 11th November - Year 3 trip to Cemetery

Curriculum Bulletin: Year R

People Who Help Us

Topic

• We learn about the real life super heroes that help us every day.
• We read lots of non-fiction books about superheroes and specifically look at the clothing they wear.
• We use our fire station role play area to create signs. This is a nice website with activities to help make Sparkton safer and this one with fire safety videos for children. 
• We talk about which adults are safe to give us medicine.
• We design, make and decorate superhero vehicles from junk modelling materials, here are last year’s vehicles to inspire you.
• We begin writing simple sentences to match superhero vehicles and how they help us by applying our phonics knowledge, hearing and writing main sounds in unknown words and writing taught high-frequency words from memory.

• Last year we had lots of real life superheroes come and join us to talk about what they do for their job, we hope you can help us out this year too, look who came.

Reading

•  We continue to look for the initial sounds in words and sound talk simple cvc words with support.
• We can spot more high frequency/tricky words within sentences and say them from memory. This is a good matching game.

Maths

• We begin to add two sets of objects together and find how many there are all together. Check this activity out for adding two sets together.
• We start to look at different coins and use these to buy superhero vehicles.

On 25th November we will be having a ‘People Who Help Us’ dress up day to end this fun topic, we look forward to seeing the different costumes.

Winter and Christmas

Topic/Reading

• We read the rhyming story ‘The Snowman’ and continue rhyming strings both orally and in writing.
• We read the ‘Nativity’ story and begin sequencing and retelling it in different ways for example with puppets and pictures. This helps us to act in our Christmas Performance, have a look at some of the parts your child could have this year.

• We continue to develop our reading and writing skills. Writing ever increasingly more tricky sentences and labels, using the high frequency words and phonics sounds we have learned. We are also reading harder sentences by applying everything we have learned so far.
• We create winter pictures on the computer program ‘Dazzle’ and begin to type a caption to match.
• We learn about how Christians celebrate Christmas and talk about what different families do.
• Christmas crafts play a big part of our last few weeks at school, we make cards, calendars and decorations for you to cherish at home, if you would like some ideas to do at home over the holidays, have a look at Activity Village.
• We will bake and decorate cookies, ready to eat at our Christmas party. A great way to finish our first full term at school.

Maths

• We begin to subtract numbers by taking sets away. Work out the answer here has good subtraction word problems to solve.
• We use Santa’s presents to describe and compare weights and use our hands and balances as a way of measuring.

Keep an eye on our posters each week for more specific updates and phonics sounds and high frequency/tricky words being taught to each group.

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 6

English

Daily independent reading time - We give our Y6 children daily independent reading time to help them read more. Please help by making sure your child has their reading book with them everyday.

SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

We will be working on:

• Varying sentence structure
• Clauses
• Punctuation needed for the Y6 curriculum

Class Text

• The Ruby in the Smoke (A mystery story of epic proportions; following the heroine Sally Lockheart as she tries to uncover the truth about her family)

Writing

• We will write a survival style information guide about Victorian schools.
• We will study a range of Poetry - writing our own, learning a range off by heart and performing 'Slam poems'.

Maths 

We will be working on:

• Fractions of a whole (including decimals and percentages) 
• Geometry

Science/Geography

We will be learning:

• About Evolution and natural selection
• Darwin's journey aboard 'The Beagle'

ICT

We will be working with:

• Audacity to create Mystery Story podcasts
• Garage Band to create our own music

Homework

Homework will continue to be set on a Thursday and due in the Following Thursday. Children may now receive both English and Maths homework in a week if it is necessary/beneficial.

Reading Logs will also be checked in school on a Thursday. It is very important that these are filled in correctly so teachers can see how much reading, and at what level, is being done outside school hours.

Dates for the Diary:

• Y6 Victorian Fayre - Thursday 17th November 1:45-3:15 (Please come in and support us by buying a cake or our Victorian themed products)
• Y6 French Fashion Show - Friday 4th November. Keep an eye on the blog to see how this goes!
• Y4&6 Christmas Production - Wednesday 14th December 1:45pm and 6.00pm

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 1

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 1

Autumn 2 

• This topic has a history focus. Not only will the children be learning about the toys they all enjoy playing with but they will also be exploring how toys have changed over the years.
• Creating a toy timeline.
• Investigating what toys their parents enjoyed and what their grandparents played with.
• Comparing the features of old and new toys including the design and the materials they are made from including similarities and differences.
• Participating in their own toy adventure.
• Here are some activities to support learning in class.

          

• The children have daily phonics lessons which help them to become more confident readers and writers.
• The children will be having weekly spelling tests and will be given a spelling log of all the words they will be tested on over the year.
• Useful games include phonics play  Deep Sea Phonics
• These are all the sounds the children need to be able to read.

• The children are involved in daily reading activities in school, whether they read individually, in a group or by exploring a text as a class.
• They will be able to identify and recognise characteristics of both fiction and nonfiction books.
• We recommend that the children read at least four times a week and record what they read in their reading log. In return they will receive a house point.
• Don’t forget you can also sign up for free with oxford owl.
• We will be reading and studying the Old Bear stories by Jane Hissy with the children as well as other toy stories.

• The children will continue to use their nuts and bolts when writing. They need to remember that each sentence begins with a capital letter, ends with a full stop and each word separated with a finger space.
• The children will be taught about using different words at the start of sentences.
• There will be opportunities for the children to write for different purposes including: a story map, a recount, a character profile and a poster.

• Consolidating counting forwards and backwards to 20
• Practise counting in 2’s and 10’s forwards and backwards
• Learn the value of different coins game
• Using addition and subtraction in real life situations in the context of money
• Exploring Measure with a focus on height and length.
• Learn the names and properties of 2D and 3D shapes game

Days to remember

• PE is taught every Monday and Thursday. Please make sure a PE kit is in school for these days.
• We have the opportunity to go to the library and change our books every Tuesday.
• Spellings will be tested every Friday.

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 2

Autumn 2: Fire, Fire! 

English: 

• To create a wanted poster about Guy Fawkes. 
• To write a diary entry from the point of view of Samuel Pepys 
• Read firework poems and answer questions about them. 
• Create a firework poem. 
• Design and write a cure for The Plague.
• The writings targets are: to use a comma in a list and to use a noun phrase. 

The class novel will be Charlie and Lola: We completely must go to London. 

Maths:

• To subtract a two-digit number and ones and a two-digit number and tens.
• To subtract mentally a two-digit number from another two-digit number.
• To recognise the relationships between addition and subtraction.
• To recognise the inverse relationships between addition and subtraction and use this to check calculations and work out missing number problems
• To count in twos, fives and tens from 0 and use counting strategies to solve problems
• To recall and use multiplication facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables to solve simple problems. 
• To use the greater than, less than and equal to signs ( > , <, = ) to compare and order numbers. 

Topic:  

• Learn about the history of The Great Fire of London and The Plague. 
• Compare doctors and nurses from The Plague and today. 
• Compare the houses from 1666 and today. 
• Use different art techniques to create a picture representing The Great Fire of London.
• In music the objective is to learn and create chants and rhymes. 
• In PE the children will create and perform a firework dance. 
• In computing the children will learn about algorithms using a program on Discovery Education. 

Homework:

• Homework will continue to be set on a Tuesday whereby you will be informed on the mathematical methods that your child has been taught in school.
• The new spellings sections will be sent home on a Tuesday and the spelling test will be on a Monday. 

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 5

Autumn 2 
Maths 

This term we will be looking at:

• Written methods for multiplication starting with expanded method (click here for an example ) , moving to long multiplication (click here for an example)
• Written methods for division (click here for an example of the bus stop method)
• Revisiting our knowledge of the 4 operations
• Using our number and operation skills to problem solve, thinking about how to select operations and solve problems

It is really important that even if your child already has their Bronze Table Log that they continue to practise as their recall needs to be as quick as possible to assist the mathematical methods we are using.

English

In English we will be working on the following:

• Developing a point of view on an issue to form an argument, debating and writing to persuade
• Writing to inform (creating a fact file) using features including subheadings and headings
• Revising different types of word class to help our sentence work (adjectives, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, determiners, pronouns, nouns, proper nouns) 
• Using speech in our writing and punctuating it correctly
• Revising using an apostrophe to omit (form a contraction) and show possession 
• Identifying the difference between a clause and a phrase 
• Using a comma to separate clauses
• Developing our independent editing skills as part of our writing process, using our ‘Nuts and Bolts’ to help us

Reading
We will be studying the Power of Reading text Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill (linking in with our Fierce Earth topic).

Our class novel and shared text will be Northen Lights, by Philip Pullman.

During our shared reading sessions we will be focusing on building and developing the following reading skills:

• Responding to the text, drawing on reading and research
• Retrieving information from a variety of texts (newspapers, narratives, non-fiction and poetry)
• Identifying and understanding the features of text
• Identifying the intended audience of a text and the purpose of a text (e.g. non-fiction texts are to inform the reader, fiction books are to entertain the reader)
• Reflecting and asking questions around a text

Fierce Earth is a geography based topic, where pupils will learn about the following:

Mountains

• What is a mountain and how are mountains formed?
• Study famous mountains and mountain ranges around the world.
• Study famous explorers and mountain exhibitions.
• To understand why certain plants and animals are best suited to the mountain environment..
• Look at how climate change is impacting on the mountain environment

Volcanoes

• How are volcanoes formed?
• Where in the world are volcanos?
• What does the inside of a volcano look like?
• What happens when a volcano erupts? This includes an explosive investigation! Take a look at last year's BLOG post.

Earthquakes

• What is an earthquake and what are tectonic plates?
• What happens when an earthquake strikes?
• How are people's lives affected living in an earthquake zone?
• How do people try and survive earthquakes?

Key dates for your diary
Monday 12th December- Christmas production (afternoon and evening performance)
Homework will be set weekly on Thursdays to be due in the following Thursday
Reading logs will continue to be checked every Monday. As with last term, we are looking for 4 reading entries a week
PE days will continue to be Mondays and Tuesdays

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 3

Year 3 is already underway and all children have made a brilliant start.

Oakwood Live: Year 3-Yes we can!

Topic



Our topic this term is 'A Long way from Home' which focuses on children's experiences of life in WW2.  It is an important and engaging topic which is taught sensitively and is cross curricular: therefore it is not only taught in history lessons but is incorporated into lots of other subjects such as English, Maths, Science, P.E and Art. It is taught in Year 3 because it is hoped that children will be able to learn first hand from  members of their extended families personal stories of life in WW2. Visitors with any stories to share are always gratefully welcome-just see your child's class teacher.

During this topic Year 3 will represent Oakwood at a Remembrance Day service at Hollybrook cemetery. It is a very moving experience for the children who will lay wreaths as part of the service. Our topic culminates in our V.E celebratory tea dance which family members are invited to join their children for an afternoon of celebratory jitterbugging and wartime fare. Date below. Take a look the the fun we had last year here.



Reading

As in all other year groups, reading is an important focus on Year 3.  As well as still focusing on decoding and reading words on a page, central also to Year 3 is comprehension skills- getting children to infer and read between the lines. There is also a focus on authorial intent-why has the author chosen that word, what does the author want the reader to think, what technique has the author used to draw us in etc. For these reasons we encourage parents to try to find time to read with their children as much as possible-even with more independent readers.

Reading roundabouts happen everyday in Year 3 with children working on different reading skills each day-including a fun read in the book corner and exploring different literature like the children's newspaper First News.

Reading Logs are an important way of evidencing what the children are reading and gives the children a sense of achievement on their reading. Time is always given in school for the children to record their independent and class reading. Reading logs are checked once a week by the class teacher and we ask that they make 4 entries a week.

Our Class Novels this half term are: 'The Twits' by Roald Dahl and Once  by Morris Gleitzman. 



We base our English work around our WW2 theme. As well as continuing to embed key grammatical skills, spelling patterns and ensure fluency of handwriting, we also write our own WW2 diary which is inspired by 'My Secret War Diary, by Flossie Albright: My History of the Second World War 1939-1945 by Marcia Williams .





This term we will be consolidating key number skills from Year 2 and ensuring that all children have a secure written method for addition and subtraction. They will be presented with lots of problem solving opportunities so that  they can apply these key skills and use their mathematical reasoning in different real life situations.  WW2 will also play a part of our maths problems when we solve devilish WW2 inspired word problems, crack secret codes and work out recipe quantities for our WW2 cooking.

We try to make sure that, as well as making brains ache, maths is fun and engaging. Central to this is the use of maths games, songs and ICT. Children will often access specific online resources via our Google Classroom

Logs



Logs are an integral part of Year 3 homework and we ask that children work on a different log for no less than 10 to 15 mins at least x3 a week. We also ensure that children have opportunity within school time to work on their logs. The logs system not only supports key English and Maths skills but allows children to achieve them through a series of small steps which installs confidence and a sense of pride when they achieve the different badges. The Year 3 teaching team do our very best to test children's logs daily, in dedicated curriculum time but often in breaks and lunchtimes. We are always impressed with our children's enthusiasm for their logs and but this can mean that we have children waiting to be tested. We have reminded children that it is not only their Year 3 teachers that can test them, but that any adult in the school.

How we work though and test children on their logs will be exemplified in our upcoming Year 3 and 4 phase afternoon on Monday 10th October.

Home Learning



This year your Year 3 child will bring home a range of home learning tasks from reading comprehension and maths tasks to mini projects. We greatly encourage parental involvement in your child's homework: often a home learning task might be a speaking and listening activity centered around talking to an adult about their learning and researching topics a little deeper. Homework tasks are usually given out on a Wednesday and collected in/discussed/shared on a Monday. There are times - like when children have been on a trip - this might change but we endeavor to ensure that ample notice for any task is given.


PE

Tuesday -Multi-skills (outside)
Thursday- WW2 dancing-Jitterbug and Waltz (inside)

Dates for your Diaries

Tuesday 4th October- 3LD to Testwood Lakes
Wednesday 5th October- 3NM to Testwood Lakes
Thursday 20th October-Year 3 VE Day Tea Dance

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 2

Twisted Tales

English

• To write a recount of the summer holiday
• To become familiar with traditional fairy tales so they can write the story of The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. This will enable the children to write their own twisted tale by the end of the topic
• To write a recipe of Little Red’s cakes for Granny following on from the visit from The Learning Ranger
• To use and recognise four sentence types: command, statement, exclamation and question.

Maths

• To read and write numbers in words.
• To understand place value and be able to partition numbers to then use as an addition and subtraction strategy
• To compare and order numbers using < > = signs
• Count in steps of 2, 3, 5 and 10 from 0 starting at any number, counting both forwards and backwards.

Topic

• To design and make a purposeful product; a basket that Little Red Riding Hood could use.
• To use create an Asian inspired fairy tale setting using newspaper as the background, black paint and one colour.
• To learn The Three Little Pigs blues song, to add instruments to the song and perform.
• The Learning Ranger is the visitor for the topic. The children will be using willow to make leaves for Jack’s beanstalk, cakes for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her granny and a shelter for The Three Little Pigs.

Homework

• We will be setting homework weekly to inform you of the spellings that we expect the children to practise and learn for their spelling test on Monday
• We will also be letting you know about the things your child has been learning to do in that week, so you can practise at home if you would like to.

Days to remember

• Library is Tuesday. Please make sure your child returns their book within two weeks.
• PE is Thursday and Friday. Please make sure your child has a full PE kit in school, including suitable footwear.
• Please ensure your child has their reading log in school so it can be checked weekly by their teacher in guided reading lessons.

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 6

English

Daily independent reading time - We give our Y6 children daily independent reading time to give them an opportunity to read more!

Please make sure children have their reading book with them everyday.


SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

We will be working on:

• Word classes
• Sentence structure
• Punctuation needed for the Y6 curriculum

Class Text

• Street Child (An adventure story set during the Victorian Era)

Writing

• We will complete a range of Street Child inspired writing and drama activities including: Letters, Diaries, debates & role play.
• We will write mystery stories inspired by the animation videos ‘Alma and Road’s End’.

Maths We will be working on:

• Place value including numbers up to the value of 10,000,000
• Rounding numbers to any degree of accuracy
• Multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000
• Using negative numbers
• Dealing with decimals
• Efficient strategies for calculation in all 4 operations

Topic

We will be learning:

• The difference between the lives of the rich and poor
• The life and reign of Queen Victoria
• Electricity and circuit building
• Study of famous Artists and their work

Homework

• Homework will be set for English and Maths on alternate week by your child’s set teacher.
• Homework will be set on a Thursday, and due in the following Thursday
• Reading logs will also be check on a Thursday.

Dates for the Diary:

• Tuesday 27th September - Y6 @ Milestones
• Monday 3rd October - Y6 Victorian day (dress up)
• Thursday 17th November - Y6 Victorian Fayre

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 1

• This half term we will be learning all about our ourselves, especially our five senses.
• We will learn to identify, name and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense. 
• As well as learning that our senses are important, we will also learn about significant people in history that have had problems with their senses such as blindness or deafness. In particular Helen Keller and Louis Braille. 
• During the topic, we will investigate each of our senses through a variety of fun experiments. Take a look at the investigations we did last year.
• In our art lessons we will be using different mediums to create self portraits and pictures of what we like.
• We will be exploring how to use our bodies and voices to create and compose music.

• There will be whole class reading everyday and we will have the opportunity to respond to stories we have listened to. 
• Reading in small groups will happen once a week. The title of the book we have read will be recorded in our reading log. Please make sure these logs are kept in our book bags.  
• We recommend reading at least four times a week at home and recording this in our reading logs. In return we will gain a house point. 
• A really useful reading resource to use at home is Oxford Owl where you can sign up for free. 

Phonics

• Phonics is taught everyday to teach us how to read and spell. 
• During the summer term all of us in Year 1 will be screened on the phonemes in the English language. We will have to read some real words and some pseudonyms (fake words) containing the various phonemes. 
• Some really useful resources for practising phonics at home are:
• Phonics Play 
• Mr Thorne 

Writing

• We will be practising our independent writing skills by writing for different purposes. 
• Each week we will be given different cursive letters to practise to develop our handwriting skills. 
• When we write we must remember our nuts and bolts. 

 


Maths

• We will be focusing this half term on our number skills.
• Skills we will be practising include:
• Counting forwards and backwards to 20.
• Reading writing numbers to 20 in numerals and words. 
• Consolidating mathematical language such as: plus, more, total, add, equals, less than, take away, smaller than, greater than. 
• Ordering numbers to 20.
• Number bonds of numbers within 10.
• Some useful maths games can be found here. 

Days to remember

• PE is taught every Monday and Thursday. Please make sure a PE kit is in school for these days. 
• We have the opportunity to go to the library and change our books on a Tuesday.