Lower Key Stage 2
Welcome to Lower Key Stage Two
Miss Harrison
Year 3 teacher: Miss Karla Harrison
Year 3 teaching assistant: Mrs Jaki Portsmouth & Miss Vicki Lane
Year 4 teacher: Miss Abbie Richardson
Year 4 teaching assistant: Mrs Sue Scott
The Year 3 and 4 staff will be adding content to this page for you to enjoy throughout the year that will link to the subjects we are covering. We hope you have lots of fun exploring our page.
A28 - I have the right to an education.
A29 - My education helps me to develop my personality, talents and abilities.
A31 - I have the right to rest, relax, play and take part in cultural activities.
Log in to Times Tables Rock Stars and practise your multiplication and division skills. Keep checking to see if we have sent you a challenge! Can you beat us?
Spellings
A great way to practise your spellings is by using our spelling learning platform: Spelling Shed. This allows you to practise your spellings in a fun and engaging way.
Click on the link below and start earning points!
In Y3 and Y4, Ed Shed spellings are set on a Thursday and are due the following Wednesday.
Welcome to Year 3
This year our focus author is Enid Blyton. We'll be finding out all about this person, including how many books they've written and the titles of these books. Discover more about Enid Blyton at https://www.enidblyton.co.uk/.
This meets the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 16 (Protection of Privacy) & Article 17 (Access to Information).
Year 3 English
Autumn 1
This half term will be looking at ‘Aesop’ and the fables he wrote in the Ancient Greek period. These are wonderful short stories with a moral or lesson to learn that your child will remember and share for years to come.
If you would like to find out more about Aesop and read some of his famous fables, please visit:
http://read.gov/aesop/index.html
The main skills that we will be consolidating through this unit are using expanded noun phrases effectively and developing a wider range of conjunctions, adverbs and punctuation. We will be using these to write our own fable based on the one we have read.
We will also be exploring non-fiction books and writing non-chronological reports this half term.
Autumn 2
During this half term, we will be reading the book ‘Hair Love’ by Matthew A. Cherry. This is a story about family and being proud of your own individuality.
We will be looking at building our writing skills from last term as we focus on sentence structures, similes and subordinate clauses.
You can also watch a version of the story by following this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28&t=283s
Afternoons in Year 3
This half term, we are learning about:
Autumn 1:
RE- Sacred Places
A12- Respect for children's views
Science- Rock Detectives
A24 - best health
History- Local Study Mining
A17 - access to information
DT- Victorian Mines- mechanisms
A29- talents developed
Computing- Moving Pictures
A29 - talents developed
Science- Amazing Bodies
A24 - best health
French- Greetings
A17 - access to information
Fun activities linked to our afternoon lessons:
RE- Sacred Places
A14 – Right to your own religion
During our RE topic, we will be focusing on sacred places, including special places that mean a lot to them. Additionally, we will be looking in depth at churches and why they are special to Christians. To conclude the unit, we will be looking at Mosques, and what can be found inside this particular place of worship.
Science- Rock Detectives
A24 - best health
During this topic, we will be looking at different types of rocks, different typed of soil and completing experiments to help with our learning.
History- Local Study- Mining
A17 – Access to information
During this history topic, Year 3 will be learning about mining in our local area. The class will have the opportunity to learn about Walsall’s history with mining and how this is different from today. The children will learn about what life was like as a worker while studying the economy and trade for that time.
DT - Pulleys
A29- talents developed
We will be delving back in time to the Victorian period to understand how mineshaft pulleys worked in the coal mines. This will link to our history topic of mining. The children will then make their own model of a Victorian mineshaft pulley system.
Computing- Moving Pictures
A29 - talents developed
This topic, we will be using Purple Mash to create codes and generate a moving picture.
Amazing Bodies
Year 3 will act as biologists and learn what the body needs to stay heathy. We will also learn about the different bones in the human skeleton as well as bones and joints.
Welcome to Year 4
This year our focus author is J.K. Rowling. We'll be finding out all about this author, including how many books they've written and the titles of these books. What can you find out about them? https://www.jkrowling.com/writing/
Why not take a look at our virtual library which includes some of JK Rowling's famous stories. https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1422655051809161217
Fun activities linked to our class read: Harry Potter
Year 4 English
In English, Year 4 will be exploring ‘The Angel of Nitshill Road’ by Anne Fine. The book follows a group of school children who are being bullied by Barry Hunter. However, one day a beautiful girl, dressed all in white, appears in the playground, ready to save the day. This book provides the children with a range of opportunities to explore characters in depth as well as discussing issues surrounding bullying, which will be developed further through our poetry unit at the end of the half term.
The children will practise descriptive and narrative writing using a range of sentence structures, including relative clauses (RC). They will then learn about the features of diary writing and write a diary entry.
Afternoons in Year 4:
This half term, we are learning about:
R.E.- Keeping the 5 pillars of Islam
A14 – Right to your own religion
DT- Seasonality (Food Tech)
A29 – Talents developed
Geography- UK: Food and Farming
A17 – Access to information
Science- Where does all the food go?
A24- Health and health services
Music- Mamma Mia
A31 – Culture & Arts
Computing- Cool Coding
A29 – talents developed
Fun activities linked to our afternoon lessons:
DT- Food Seasonality
A29- Develop talents
In Design Technology, we will be focusing on Food Technology. We will be looking at savoury foods and understanding seasonality.
During this topic, we will discuss the health and safety procedures we need to follow when cooking. We will research different savoury foods; begin to create initial designs; select a final design; and create our own final design.
We will then have the opportunity to evaluate our creations at the end of the topic. This will be completed in a ‘MasterChef’ style presentation looking at the different creations in Year 4.
Geography- Food and Farming
A17- Access to information
We will look at recognising counties best known for the different types of farming; identifying key aspects of physical and human geography; using field work to measure findings; reading UK maps with 4-figure grid references; and completing a focus case study on East Anglia.
At the end of the topic, the children will have a chance to perform their knowledge by creating a presentation as if they were on Country File.
A Day In The Life of a Farmer
Science- Food and Farming in the UK
A24- health, water, food, environment
In Science this term, we will be focusing on our topic ‘Where does all the food go?’ Children will learn all about the digestive system, the different types of teeth and the importance of having a balanced diet. We will be looking at how different drinks can affect our teeth, as well as completing an experiment using egg shells to demonstrate this. There will be many opportunities for the children to perform research to answer questions, allowing them to be very active in leading their own learning.