Welcome back to MPJS! We all hope that you have had a wonderful break over the Christmas and now the children are back to working hard in their classes.

Please see below for a brief overview of what the chidlren will be learning this term:

 

English

Year 4's English will start with a focus on the book, 'Leon and the Place Between'. As part of this unit, children will read the book in parts and take part in activities to prepare them for writing their own short adventure story in the style of the author, Angela McAllister. 

Maths

In Year 3, pupils develop their mathematical understanding through a range of interconnected units. They strengthen fluency in multiplication and division, including the use of column multiplication, and apply this knowledge to solving problems. Work on fractions, money, statistics and time builds pupils’ ability to interpret, calculate and reason, helping them to make sense of numbers and data in real-life contexts.

In maths in Year 4, children will focus on area and length and perimeter before moving onto fractions, decimals and time. The children will access a wide range of activities including fluency questions focusing on key skills and more complex reasoning and problem solving questions which require deeper thinking. Mastery maths activities will also be available.

RE

In RE, the children will be looking through the lens of Theology, focusing on Gospel in Christianity. This includes explaining what the Gospels are, discovering what a disciple is, learning The Lord's Prayer and thinking about the kind of world that Jesus would have wanted. On the lead up to Easter, the children will learn about faith founders in Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. Towards the end of the term, the children will visit All Saints Church to take part in activities related to Easter. 

Guided Reading

During our Guided Reading sessions, some children will be reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. Children will discuss the text and develop reading comprehension skills by focussing on six key areas : Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarise (VIPERS)

PE

Our outdoor PE will continue to focus on Invasion Games. Starting with Basketball, children will learn to dribble, pass and receive, mark and create shooting opportunities. After half term we move to Dodgeball, children will learn to change direction, throw and catch with accuracy and shoot. Indoor PE will start with Gymnastics focussing on levels and direction. Children will create sequences on the floor and the apparatus with a partner and in small groups. After half term we will move to a Dance unit on The Aztecs. Children will perform basic movements to music, and build a themed dance focusing on the Aztec day calendar symbols and an Aztec tribal themed dance. 

Geography

Pupils begin by revisiting their Key Stage 1 work on local weather before being introduced to climate in the United Kingdom. They explore how climate varies across the UK and why this occurs. Learning then extends to global climate, where pupils use geographical skills to identify and locate the world’s main climate zones. The enquiry concludes with a focus on biomes, examining how climate shapes landscapes, plants and animals, through in-depth studies of the Amazon rainforest and the Atacama Desert in South America.

History

Pupils build on earlier learning by developing key historical disciplinary skills, including chronology, evidence, cause and consequence, and change and continuity. They use a range of sources to ask questions about the past, evaluate reliability, and construct informed interpretations. Across different periods and societies, pupils learn to place events in context and to explain how and why the past has been shaped, helping them to develop a deeper and more critical understanding of history.

Art

In Art we will be focussing on tone, texture and proportion with a goal of creating realistic drawings. In particular, the children will be using lines and marks in different ways to represent dark and light areas (tone), show texture in a collage as well as, comparing the sizes of different objects to draw them in proportion.

DT

DT, this term, is all about designing wearable technology. During the unit, the children will investigate technology that you can wear like smartwatches. Eventually, they will learn how to use code to design and program a device.

Music

In Music, this term we will be looking at the Japanese blossom festival of Hanami before moving onto investigating Haiku poetry; selecting instruments and sounds which match the vocabulary. Eventually, the children will work as a group to create and perform a piece of music.

French

French has year-group specific objectives so is taught in year groups. Our Y3s will continue their work by learning colours, how to express opinions, numbers, and how to talk about and desribe themselves. Our Y4s will continue their work by revising numbers and opinions, talking about their favourite foods and learning to describe objects and people based on their visual appearance using colours and body parts.

Science

This term in Lower Key Stage 2 Science, pupils will be learning about light. They will develop an understanding of what a light source is and that darkness is the absence of light. Children will explore how light from the Sun can be harmful and learn how to protect themselves from it. They will also investigate how shadows are formed, how different materials affect shadows, and how the size of a shadow changes as an object is moved further away from a light source. 

Spellings

During the spring term, children across Lower Key Stage 2 (execpt for those who attend daily targetted phonics sessions) will develop accurate spelling through learning and applying a range of key rules and patterns. They focus on word endings such as -ture, -sion, -ssion, -tion and -cian, alongside secure use of the suffix -ous in its different forms, including changes to root words. Pupils also consolidate these patterns and practise using the possessive apostrophe with plural words, building confidence and accuracy in their written work.