Reading

Linking to our Geography topic, the class text this term is Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. We study the setting, story arc and characters within the text. The book lends itself wonderfully to exploring character and story telling, with much analysis and prediction throughout. We visit the Cheltenham Literature Festival this term for inspiration, enrichment and enjoyment.

Writing

We use our class reader Journey to the River Sea as a basis from which to explore and be inspired by. This term’s focus is on the elements that make an enjoyable and quality narrative - the characters, setting, language and story arc and development. The children write a narrative, descriptions and a non-chronological report this term. Pupils learn and apply their spelling, grammar and punctuation learning to enhance their writing.

Maths

We begin the term securing and building on our knowledge of place value. Later we move on to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division using written methods. The children are taught the long methods of division and multiplication. Later in the term we learn about fractions: simplifying, comparing, adding, subtracting and multiplying.

Science

This term we learn in our topic of Animals Including Humans, we learn about the circulatory system and try to replicate the components of blood in a create way. We learn about what can help and hinder heart health, and how and why this is. As we head into darker evenings, it is appropriate that we learn about light: rays, shadows, refraction and reflection. This later topic is very practical with torches, mirrors and prisms.

Geography

Our topic this term centres around water - rivers of the world and the water cycle. Pupils learn to identify different features of a river’s journey such as oxbow lakes, meanders, deltas etc, and about the landscape around them. They learn about the water cycle, including evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

PSHE

Transitions and new beginnings are our first topics and the children consider school values and their own values in depth. What makes healthy friendships and relationships is also taught.

Art and DT

In DT the children design and build their own periscope to support their learning about reflection and light. In Art we look at the work of Abe Toshiyuki and his depiction of still and flowing water using the medium of watercolour. The children paint their own paintings in his style from their own observations of the rivers and streams locally.

Computing

Pupils create, open, edit, type and save documents honing their word processing skills. They learn to search appropriate and relevant terms and how to find and interpret information found online.

RE and World Views

Pupils learn about the Christian story of Creation and consider how it compares to scientific discoveries and other world views. The children learn about the Gospels in the bible and explore why Christians follow the teachings of Jesus.