We would like the children to dress up like Greeks on the 6 th October 2015 and bring a special pack lunch using Greek ingredients - see separate letter on our class blog for more details. History – By studying Ancient Greece the children will learn about Greek life and achievements and their influence on the Western world. We will start by asking the question ‘who were the Ancient Greeks?’ then go on to study the Greek Gods, democracy in Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Olympics and the Trojan War. The highlight of our history learning will be our Glorious Greeks Workshop day on the 6th October when the ‘Makers of History’ team visit us for the day. English – children will continue to be given opportunity to practice and develop their joined handwriting style every morning during registration. The children will continue to develop their understanding of the correct use of grammar and punctuation alongside weekly spelling activities and tests. During the first half of the term the children will be studying Greek myths and legends before creating their own. Then they will be learning about playscripts and writing their own to perform. During the second half of term they will be writing reports and then information texts through creative activities based around our theme. Reading will have a high focus this year with us taking part in the Fabulous Book Awards once again, guided reading sessions and class novels such as the ‘Zues’ series by John Dougherty and ‘The Fire Thief’ by Terry Deary. N.B English homework will be given out on a Thursday and should be completed by the followoing Wednesday. Maths – During the first half term we will be focusing on : number and place value, addition and subtraction, shapes and their properties. This will include: learning about negative numbers, interpreting and using them in context; counting forwards or backwards in steps of powers of 10, reading writing ordering, comparing and rounding numbers beyond 1000 for Y4, up to 1,000,000 for Y5 and up to 10,000,000 for Y6; learning to use written columnar methods efficiently to add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits and use rounding to estimate and check answers. Children will learn to recognise, describe and build simple 3-D shapes, including making nets. Y6’s will learn to illustrate and name parts of circles, including radius, diameter and circumference and know that the diameter is twice the radius After half term we will be focusing on: multiplication and division, angles, coordinates, area and perimeter. This will include: identifying angles at a point and one whole turn (total 360o),angles at a point on a straight line and ½ a turn (total 180o) and other multiples of 90o; comparing and classifying geometric shapes based on their properties and sizes and finding unknown angles in 2D polygons; calculating and comparing the area of rectilinear shapes(Y4) squares(Y5), rectangles (Y5), parallelograms(Y6) and triangles(Y6) ( including using standard units, square centimetres (cm2) and square metres (m2) and estimate the area of irregular shapes. NB Maths homework will be given out on a Tuesday and should be completed by the following Monday. Maths – During the first half term we will be focusing on : number and place value, addition and subtraction, shapes and their properties. This will include: learning about negative numbers, interpreting and using them in context; counting forwards or backwards in steps of powers of 10, reading writing ordering, comparing and rounding numbers beyond 1000 for Y4, up to 1,000,000 for Y5 and up to 10,000,000 for Y6; learning to use written columnar methods efficiently to add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits and use rounding to estimate and check answers. Children will learn to recognise, describe and build simple 3-D shapes, including making nets. Y6’s will learn to illustrate and name parts of circles, including radius, diameter and circumference and know that the diameter is twice the radius After half term we will be focusing on: multiplication and division, angles, coordinates, area and perimeter. This will include: identifying angles at a point and one whole turn (total 360o),angles at a point on a straight line and ½ a turn (total 180o) and other multiples of 90o; comparing and classifying geometric shapes based on their properties and sizes and finding unknown angles in 2D polygons; calculating and comparing the area of rectilinear shapes(Y4) squares(Y5), rectangles (Y5), parallelograms(Y6) and triangles(Y6) ( including using standard units, square centimetres (cm2) and square metres (m2) and estimate the area of irregular shapes. NB Maths homework will be given out on a Tuesday and should be completed by the following Monday. RE- Our key question for our RE studies this year is : ‘How should we live our lives?’ In the first half of the term we will be focusing on the religion of Islam and we will discuss and research what is expected of a Muslim follower. For the second half of the term we will focus on Christianity and think about why some occasions are sacred to Christians. Geography - We will be studying the geography of Greece as it is today. The children will develop their place knowledge and understanding of the key aspects of human and physical geography of Greece. They will also develop their geographical skills further when studying the climate and doing map work. PE – Gymnastics and Games - PE lessons this term will be on Tuesdays (Gymnastics) and Wednesdays. (Games with a FUNDA coach) Art – Children will learn about different lines. They will look at pictures of Greek vases and discover the different patterns and designs that the Ancient Greeks used in their art work. They will use sketch books to record what they find and try making the patterns themselves. They will then have opportunity to design their own patterns for a paper cut out Greek vase using different black media and Ancient Greek patterns and lines. Children will look at Greek architecture in more detail discovering the difference between doric, ionic and corinthian columns. They will use straws to create and make their own 3D models of Greek columns. We will also look at the friezes on Greek temples, children will develop their skills of moulding and shaping clay to create a clay tile for a Greek frieze. DT – Food - Children will follow a recipe to make their own pitta bread. They will design a healthy sandwich for themselves which uses pitta bread as it’s base. French will be taught on Wednesday afternoons by Mrs McElroy. Mrs Drinkall & Mrs Kemp Computing – children will learn to design programs to accomplish specific tasks or goals and develop systematic strategies that can be used to debug algorithms and programs. Later on in the term they will learn how to create an animation. They will use a storyboard to plan and create their own short animated sequences. Science – this term our learning is based around the theme properties and changes of materials. The children will learn about the properties and uses of materials, solubility, separating mixtures, thermal conductivity, reversible and irreversible changes. They will continue to develop their scientific skills by answering questions through discussion, research and practical investigations. PSHE – We will start the term by considering new beginnings and then move onto the theme ‘getting on and falling out’.