We are historians!
This half term, we are historians.
We’re learning about Ancient Greece.
To kickstart our history topic, we have been learning about chronology and learning the order of time periods in history.
Year 3 placed some time periods of British history into chronological order on a timeline. Then, we added Ancient Greece to our timeline to compare what was happening elsewhere in the world with Britain. Ask your child if they can remember this learning!
The vocabulary that we are learning this half term is:
- period: a phase in time
- civilisation: a period of human development that is considered most advanced
- golden-age: a time when an activity or society is at its best
- government: the group of people responsible for ruling a country
- monarchy: a type of government ruled by a king or queen
- democracy: a type of government where the people living there make decisions
- oligarchy: a type of government where a small group of people make the decisions
- Parthenon: an important temple in Athens built during the Ancient Greek golden-age
Reading
Hello!
I have been so impressed with Year 4’s reading records over the last couple of weeks. Not only have they all remembered to bring them in each Friday but the activities they have completed, have been done to a fantastic standard!
Have a look at this example:
If you are ever unsure of how to complete the set activity, have a look at the front of the reading record and it will explain each one in detail.
It’s so important that the children complete these activities to show yourselves and us at school that they are understanding their books and even more importantly, enjoying their reading!
Keep it up Year 4!
What have we been up to this week?
From pirates in the small world area to fire officers putting out fires in our outdoor area, we’ve had another fantastic week. The children are really starting to show us their interests when exploring in the areas.
We also had a go at drawing our faces. We used mirrors to look closely at the details on our faces. When you come into the classroom, see if you can spot your child’s self-portrait.
Chilli challenges
This week, we’ve introduced the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six green chilli challenges in different areas. The children will be encouraged to complete the challenges and tick them off on their chilli challenge card (see below). There will also be some red chilli challenges. These challenges are to extend their learning further. When your child completes a challenge, they will explain or show what they’ve done to an adult and the adult will tick the challenge off on their card.
Here’s some of the chilli challenges in action…
Literacy
This week, our focus story has been The Great Big Book of Families by Hoffman Mary. After reading the book, we talked about our families and why they are important. We even had a go at drawing our families!
Maths
This week, we’ve focussed on perceptual subitising (recognising the number of objects without counting) up to 3. We’ve been learning how to use our fast eyes when looking at small sets of objects.
Phonics
This week, we’ve learnt more phase 2 phonemes: i, n, m and d. We’ve been trying really hard to pronounce the phonemes correctly.
Has your child come home saying some ‘fancy’ phonics words?
If so, please don’t be alarmed! We use these words every day in phonics and we want the children to use them too.
Here are the words we’ve been using so far…
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound you can hear in a word. For example, ‘sat’ has three phonemes: ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’.
Grapheme: a ‘symbol’ of a phoneme –it’s a letter or group of letters representing a sound and we use the letter names for this.
Blending: merging the separate sounds (phonemes) in a word – this is a vital skill for reading. For example, the three phonemes m-a-t are blended to make mat.
Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a ‘learn at home’ phonics sheets. The sheets link to our current phonics learning and will be sent home each Friday. 
Home-Link Challenge
Reminders
- The cold weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
- Join us on Tuesday 27 September at 6 pm for our Early reading Zoom. This session will provide you with some information regarding the teaching of reading in Reception and how you can support their reading journey at home. You should have received the Zoom link in an email. If you’ve not received this, please contact the school office.
Great Fire of London
Our topic this term is the Great Fire of London. We have been learning lots of interesting facts about the fire and some of the reasons why it was so devastating for the people of London. Why not ask your child what they can remember about the fire so far.
We have also been learning a recount of the fire in our English lessons. We have devised some actions to go with the words and are using a story map to help us remember when we are retelling.
I wonder if your child could have a go at telling you the recount at home using the story map below.
Autumn term after-school clubs
Some of our after-school clubs will be restarting next week and they will run until week commencing 05 December. Please note some clubs begin after half term when building work at school has been completed.
Places can be booked via Gateway.
Our physical activity clubs continue to be heavily subsidised through the investment of our PE and Sport Premium.
Each club has a limit on the maximum number of children who can attend. As numbers are limited we ask that you limit your child to one club initially. If there are clubs with remaining places, we will then offer these as a second club.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the clubs or the booking system.
History Topic – The Great Fire of London
We have started our topic and we are learning all about The Great Fire of London. We are using a book, Vlad and the Great Fire of London, to stimulate our learning. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
We have started by talking about the topic vocabulary, which you can see below. Help your child at home by exploring the information on the BBC bitesize website.
Poem of the week
In Year 1 we are reading a different poem every week. We read it every day just before lunch time and we have really enjoyed joining in when we get to know it. So far we have read two poems by Michael Rosen and the children are very excited to hear next week’s poem about a boy with bananas in his ears!
Each poem we read is then put in our poetry scrapbook which is available for children to read in the reading corner. I have loved hearing children reading our special poems to themselves.
This week we even watched Michael Rosen himself perform our poem of the week – I am hungry. You can listen too if you click the link here.
I would love to hear about any poetry you have been reading at home too.
Transition: Week 2
We’ve had a wonderful week welcoming groups 2 and 3 into Reception. It’s been great to see a full classroom full of busy learners! We’ve been so impressed with how well all the children have settled.
Every morning, your child will come into the classroom and do their morning jobs. Our cloakroom is only small and can get very crowded on a morning! To reduce the amount of people in the cloakroom, please encourage your child to do these jobs independently.
Snacks and water…
Please make sure your child’s water bottle only contains plain water.
Every day, school will provide a healthy fruit or vegetable. If your child would prefer to bring their own snack, please ensure this contains only fruit and/or vegetables. Snacks from home will stay in the children’s bookbags.
If your child is having grapes for their snack, please ensure that the grapes are cut lengthways.
Parent Partners
Alongside our themes, we try to plan other areas of learning according to the children’s interests. To help us do this, we need YOU! Throughout the year, it would be great if you could send photos of any ‘WOW’ moments or new interests your child has at home. You can bring these moments into school or send them to moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.
PE
PE starts next Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit.
Me and my family
Next week, we’ll be thinking about families. This is our first theme for this half-term. During this theme, we’ll be getting to know each other, share photographs of our families and make historical links by looking at photographs of families from the past.
Home-Link Challenge
Reminders
Monday 19 September – School is closed.
Tuesday 27 September – Early reading Zoom at 6pm.
I hope you all have a happy and healthy weekend.
Library Books!
Hi everyone,
Our library day will be on a Thursday this year.
This is a chance for your child to take out two books from our library.
Children can have a maximum of two books out at any time and must bring them back if they want to change them!
Happy reading!
Mr Wain
History – Ancient Greece
This week, Year have dived deep into their new topic about Ancient Greece.
First, we looked at the geography of Greece and made fact files about the country using atlases and iPads.
- Hemisphere: Northern
- Continent: Europe
- Capital city: Athens
We then looked at placing Ancient Greece into our timeline. We worked on putting all the time periods and ages into chronological order and adding in Ancient Greece. It happened at the same time as the Iron Age in British history.
Have a look at our timelines that we made! We did a fantastic job even when trying to cut proportionate pieces.
Have a challenge at home and try to remember the chronological order of each time period!