Big Bang!

‘Bird’s Eye View!’ began with a Big Bang Cross Curricular lesson on our very first morning in September. The children used maps to complete a scavenger hunt around the entire school.  At each stage there was a question about something we would be learning during the first half term and a clue to the next location.

English

In English we have been focusing on two texts: ‘Please Mrs Butler’ by Allan Ahlberg and ‘The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone’ by Timothy B. Ering.

We read many of Allan Ahlberg’s poems as inspiration for performances and writing our own versions of his work.  This was an excellent start to the new school year as it allowed us lots of opportunities to discuss different poems and write in many different styles.  Well done Rooks Nest.

Next, we immersed ourselves in ‘The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone’. We took our time to understand the story and identify ambitious vocabulary that the author had used.  Using everything we had learned, we then planned our own stories.  Over a week we completed short bursts of writing, completing a section of our story each day.  We are all SO proud of their first extended piece of writing this year! As well as being able to share these with our families during open afternoon, their final books are currently displayed in the library.

Maths

In maths we have been recapping our knowledge of number and working on place value. We have consolidated our numbers to 1000 (year 3) and 10,000 (year 4), demonstrating partitioning using manipulatives.

We practised using the comparison symbols to compare numbers, also looking at comparing numbers that are represented in different ways.

To end this half term, we spent a few weeks working on addition beginning with using manipulatives and moving towards using formal addition of 3-digit (year 3) and 4-digit numbers (year 4).

Throughout the half term, we have continued building on our problem solving and reasoning skills.

Science

In Science we have learnt a lot about ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’.

We looked at identifying habitats and the animals that live within different habitats.  This led us to creating food chains, thinking about how the energy from what an animal eats is passed along the chain.  We then explored how humans can have both a positive and negative impact on different habitats and the food chains within that habitat.

We moved on to thinking about how animals can be grouped and classified according to their characteristics.  We undertook the tricky task of creating sorting diagrams to help classify animals.

Geography

In Geography we have been learning about the land use in our local area of Therfield.

We have created sketch maps of the both the school and the area around the Village Green to show different information.  We needed to consider the importance of using a key and the purpose of the maps we were creating, whether they were to give directions or to show the land use of an area.

We used atlases to discover the population patterns in England, looking for explanations as to why the population is denser in some areas of England than others.

To finish our unit, we completed an Orienteering Workshop with Adrian, a trained Expedition Leader from Active Outdoor Discovery.  This also supports the Outdoor Adventurous Activity area of the PE curriculum.