Class 4

January 2009

Dear parents and carers,

I hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday and is enjoying the crisp, cold start to 2009! The class (and their teacher!) seem rested and are looking forward to what’s in store this term. This letter gives you a brief overview of what is happening in class up until Easter.

In literacy we are looking at fiction genres: specifically horror and ghost stories, science fiction and fantasy writing. Children will write a fairy story in the style of a specific genre, for example a sci-fi version of The Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks as a detective story. Should be fun! We will be taking part in the “Battle of the Poets” – where poems are written and then and performed live over the internet to other schools across the county. As last year we will make a stop-frame animation film to enter into the Cambridgeshire schools Film Festival.

In maths we will be looking at written methods of division. There will be a weekly tables test each Monday. Your child should be aware of which table they are practising. If your child is secure on their times tables to ten, they will be practising multiplying 2-digit numbers by 1-digit ones.

Our Geography lessons after half term will focus on India. There will also be a week’s work on a mystery foreign country for International Week in February – details of which will be in a separate letter.

Our theme in Science is Space. Children will learn about the Earth, Sun and Moon, how big they are, how they move in relation to each other and how this creates days, months and seasons. We will also be keeping a moon diary to track the phases of the moon. Towards the end of term we will look at reversible and irreversible changes.

PE Day is on a Thursday. Please make sure your child has a Park Street polo shirt (available from the office), either shorts or jogging bottoms and a pair of trainers. Please make sure that the jogging bottoms are a clean pair and not the pair that the child have been wearing in the morning as these tend to get mucky at lunch time and are not always suitable for gym work. Increasing numbers of children are turning up to PE with nothing to change into so please make sure your child has the right kit. Children also need a water bottle in school.

In ICT (Information and Communication Technology) we will look at Excel and how to use it to make spreadsheets.

Our RE unit looks at how different people around the world portray Jesus. Children will produce an art work of Jesus using some of the art styles they have seen.

Last term was packed full of school trips. It seemed there was one almost every week! There are several more in the pipeline for this term but we are awaiting confirmation. As always parent help is always welcomed.

Besides myself, Sonia Spinks will be working in the classroom on Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings and all day on Thursdays. Katherine Haslam will teach the whole class Science on a Thursday and teach small groups and sometimes the whole class for maths. Audrey Fisher continues to teach French on a Tuesday, Lesley Chapman teaches Music on a Wednesday and Lucy Netsingha will teach a fortnightly Art lesson.

I set a weekly homework which I will email to children’s Starz accounts at 5pm on Thursday. If you don’t have internet access I will try to give your child the homework as a handout. I will collect the homework the following Tuesday. Spare homework sheets and spare letters are kept in the labelled box that is behind the classroom door. There may be additional spelling homework for children who find spelling tricky. Once a term I set a more challenging project based homework.

Children are allowed to take home reading books from the class bookcase. All children read silently for about half an hour a day in school and while I try to hear as many readers as possible in class, it takes a long time to get round the class, so please continue to hear your child read at home as often as you can.

I am available once a week after school to see parents. Usually this is on Thursdays. Please sign up on the sheet which is in the cloakroom. If you find after school appointments difficult, please pop in or email me on: class4@parkstreet.cambs.sch.uk and we can arrange a more convenient time.

Regards

Marcus Shadbolt