Years Three and FourMeet the team 2014

Understanding how your child learns

Overview of meeting:• Meet the team• Topic overview• A typical day• Spellings• Reading• Writing• Times tables• Maths• Homework

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Year 3 Timetable

Year 4 Timetable

Topic OverviewsYear 3 Year 4

Autumn 1 Ourselves The Human Body

Autumn 2 Festivals and Celebrations(Wells Cathedral)

The Victorians(Cold Harbour Mill)

Spring 1 Romans(The Roman Baths)

The Egyptians

Spring 2 Kenya Jungles(The Natural History Museum)

Summer 1 Rocks and Coasts(Portland Bill)

China

Summer 2 Think Global(whole School initiative)

Think Global(whole School initiative)

Spellings- Children will have spellings to learn weekly. They need to learn

the spelling rule so that they can apply it to words that they have not learnt. In addition to the taught rule, children will also be given tricky words that they need to learn.

- The new spelling scheme is based on expected outcomes highlighted in the new curriculum.

E.G. PluralsRule: for nouns ending in y, drop the y add ies

baby babieslorry lorries

poppy poppiesjelly jellies

Tricky Words thought, through, enough

Spellings

Spellings• These will be tested in written form in the Spelling book, so

parents can pick up where they have gone wrong• The importance must be placed upon understanding the unit

and word pattern, not a numerical score at the end of the testIdeas for helping your child learn their spellings: -Write out – look, say, cover, write check-Writing out in sand, flour etc. Using magnetic letters, letter blocks.-Verbalise and repeat.Look for words within words e.g. bus – in business, Mnemonics e.g because: big elephants can’t always use small entrances

- Here or hear: We hear with our ear

Reading- Reading is an invaluable activity which stimulates imagination– whether its- being read to (mostly emerging readers) or reading to parents and anyone else at home. - Reading for pleasure – could be reading the newspaper, Internet, magazine or chapter book. Reading records must be used for highlighting books read that do not come from school.- Finding something that interests – it doesn’t matter if they read just the same author as this initiates their enthusiasm for it. - Bug Club – all children are allocated books online through this system. It is vital for enhancing children’s fluency and comprehension. It is a fantastic interactive medium for them to read through. Many books also support their phonic ability and level. Please also record Bug Club reading within your child’s reading record.

Guided ReadingThis a group activity the children do at least 4 times a week where the children are reading with other children at the same level as themselves. Adult led activitiesThe children spend one of those sessions with an adult guiding them through a text and answering questions – the next session is then a follow up task based on that textReading comprehensions They also will work on reading comprehensions – sometimes independently and sometimes adult led. Group readingThe children have a book as a group where they read around the group reading out loud. There are examples for you to look at to see what your children work on during the week.

Helping your child to readThe best way to develop reading skills is to share books with your child, regularly listen to them read, sometimes reading to or with them, but also discussing books read in increasing depth.

To become good readers children need to develop skills in seven areas:

1) Decoding2) Recalling information from the text - Describe what happened at /

when3) Inference e.g What does the main character feel at this point in the story? How do you know?4) Structure and organisation e.g. Why is the page laid out in this way? 5) Language e.g. Which words has the author used to make the writing sound informal (chatty) / formal?6) Purpose e.g. What is the author’s opinion about …?7) Making links e.g What other stories have similar openings?

Please refer to the website for a list of possible questions for each area

WritingThe focus on writing this year will not focus so much on writing different types of text, but on practise the skills of writing. VCOP is a key way to helping the children to improve their writing. V – vocabularyC – connectivesO – openersP - punctuation

Writing

Up-levelling sentencesThe children will be given sentences to improve using VCOP.For example:The boy ran. This simple sentence could be improved:Feeling very scared, the boy ran quickly down the dark alley.

WritingThe girl skipped. Level 2 The pretty girl skipped into the park because it was sunny.The dog barked. Level 3The energetic dog, that was covered in black and white spots, barked ferocious at the small cat that had stolen his lunch.The boy stopped.Level 4 Without warning, Benny stopped and screamed at the frail, grey man bent over his gate, “I know you stole my ball and I want it back!”

Writing Assessment• The children are assessed in their writing every 2-3

weeks. • Some assessments are ‘Warm Writes’. These are

pieces of writing based on the type of writing they have been working on in the class. Others are Writing Challenges which are unseen tasks done by all the children throughout the school. This is marked and the children are given a level and targets.

• They then attend a feedback group with all the children in the school who have achieved the same level as themselves.

Literacy Challenge

• A wide knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is essential for equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word.

• Literacy Challenges are taught to revise and develop skills which they use in English and across the curriculum.

• These may be next steps identified through marking, writing assessments, class discussions or target setting.

Times tablesIt is expected that by the end of Year 4 children know their times tables up to 12 x 12.

Children need to be able to recall them quickly and not in order. Tables play a fundamental role in lots different mathematical areas.

Strategies- By rote. Repetition is key for improving speed of recall.- Grids- Games e.g. bingo, shoot the sheriff- Look for patterns e.g doubling 4x, reverse and inverse e.g. 6 x 5

= 30 so 30 divide by 6 is 5, 5 x 6 is 30, place value e.g. if you know 6 x 8 = 48, then 60 x 8 = 480 and 0.6 x 8 = 4.8

MathsThe children have a daily Maths lesson. In the mornings they all do a Maths Challenge, which revises and recaps work they have done during Maths lessons. The 4 operations:AdditionSubtractionMultiplicationDivision

Maths• The four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and

division. • In Years 3 and 4 we use the formal column method of addition and

subtraction as this is the most efficient.Addition23 + 32 = H T U 2 3 + 3 2 5 5

3 4 5 345 + 231 2 3 6 5 8 1

Subtraction

We use a number line for those children still needing this practise and then move onto the column method.67 - 25 = 476 – 167 = H T U H T U

6 7 4 7 6 2 5 1 6 7 4 2 3 0 9

MultiplicationWe use a grid for multiplication. This way we can see where we are making any mistakes. It is important that the children understand the value of the digits they are working with.

23 x 5 = x 5 20 100 100 + 15 = 115 3 15

Division

We use a number line for division until the children are confident enough to use the bus stop for dividing by 1 digit:We use the bus stop method for dividing by 1-digit:

678 ÷ 3 =

HomeworkHow to support your child:Weekly Every week children should be practising their times table facts, spellings and reading at least 3 times a week.

TermlyEvery term the children will be given a project linked to their class topic. There will often be more than one option and this project is (ideally) completed over the whole term. We want the children to be as creative as they can and enjoy working on their project. When they are returned to school they will be shared with the class.