Dear Parents/carers,

This half term, our topic work will focus on history as we study life in ancient Egypt. We will learn about the geography of ancient Egypt and study a chronological timeline of the period. We will learn about everyday  such as mummification and burial customs, how the river Nile was important and famous landmarks built during the time period such as the great Pyramids of Giza. The children will also have an opportunity to learn about one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs, Tutankhamun. As part of this topic the children will have an opportunity to explore life in Egypt through design and technology and art, the children will be making their own Canopic jars using clay. As a reminder the children are taking part in an Egyptian day on Thursday the 10^th of November, newsletters can be found on Dojo.

In English the children will be focusing on the books ‘The story of Tutankhamun’ by Patricia Cleveland-Peck and ‘The time-slip scarab’ by Pie Corbett. The children will be using the book ‘The story of Tutankhamun’ to write their own non-chronological reports, a set of instructions, newspaper reports and write a biographical report. In the second half of this half term, the children will use the story ‘The time-slip scarab’ by Pie Corbett to learn how to write their own time-slip adventure stories, using the text to generate initial story and language ideas. The children will use images of ancient Egyptian artefacts to inspire their writing and expand their knowledge of this period in history.

Towards the end of the term the children will be learning about poetry and have the opportunity to create their own Christmas poems. The children will explore a range of poetry including Shape, calligrams, haikus and cinquains.

In mathematics, the children are focusing on addition and subtraction before moving onto multiplication. Year 3 will focus on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, whilst recapping the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Whereas, year 4 will focus on 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables, whilst having regular opportunity to practice all times tables ready for a statutory times table check in the summer term. All children have a times tables log in so that they can practice times tables at home, this log in can be found in the back of the children’s reading diaries. From the start of the half term all children will be set times tables on the website, it is expected that children should practise their times tables weekly with it recommended that year 4s practise their times tables at least twice a week to ensure progress and sufficient practice for the times table checks.

In our Science sessions, we will be learning about Food Chains and webs. The children will learn about different types of food chains and types of animals. The children will learn about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and they will have opportunities to discuss and create their own food chains.

In R.E. this term the children will be learning about ‘What is it like to follow God?’ by studying stories from the Old Testament and focusing on a particular group of people, the ‘children of Israel- known as the People of God : their relationship with Him and the impact of this. At the end of the term leading up to Christmas the children will have a unit of work, Christmas light, which will explore the true meaning of Christmas for Christians.

Class 3’s weekly P.E. sessions will continue to be led by Mr. Wathall on Wednesday afternoons with swimming on  Tuesday afternoons.

This term in music the children will take part in a unit of work titled ‘Keep in the beat’ which will develop their knowledge of how some musical elements can be used together (e.g. tempo,

dynamics) to compose descriptive music. In computing the children will be editing photos and will learn that digital images can be changed and describe effect of such changes. They will develop their ICT skills by using technology such as crop, adjusting brightness and contrast to alter the composition of an image. The children will also be developing their knowledge of coding through programming.

Homework will be given out each Friday, homework should be handed in by Friday morning. We also recommend that you read regularly with your child at home (at least three times a week) and record in their reading diary. I will be checking homework diaries every Friday as to check your child’s reading against our reading reward criteria. More information of the reading challenge can be found in either your child’s homework diary or on class Dojo.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly via Dojo about any concerns you might have about your child’s progress or well-being; I am more than happy to help.

Kind regards,

Miss Woodhouse