This year we have increased the amount of PE lesson time that children will receive – so your child will have 2 hour sessions of PE every week -one hour on Tuesday afternoon and one hour on Thursday afternoon. There will sometimes be additional opportunities to take part in interschool sporting fixtures on Wednesday afternoons. Please ensure that your child has a full PE kit in school (shorts, t-shirt, trainers, jogging bottoms) every week. PE kits should be brought in on Mondays and taken home for washing on Fridays.

This term we will be stepping back in time to the land of the pharaohs and discover a world of mummies, magic and myths. Though examining archaeological evidence and historical research, we will find out about the building of the great pyramids and the evidence we can discover from hieroglyphics. We will be learning about the lives of ordinary Egyptians, and some of the most famous pharaohs and of course we will be learning about mummification! We will explore the British museum Egyptian exhibitions online and work in our Mantle dramatic fiction as archaeologists discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb and Egyptologists commissioned to create an interactive museum exhibit for the British Museum.

We will be using exciting adventure the novel ‘ The Ancient Egyptian Sleepover’ by Stephen Davies for our Reading Master lessons and to inspire our literacy work, writing diaries of our adventures on a night in the Egyptian exhibition of the British museum, Here’s the blog from the front cover… it’s going to be an exciting read

‘ Mo has won a very special prize: an Ancient Egypt sleepover in a museum. However, he has no clue how dangerous it will turn out to be. With a mystery to solve, hieroglyphic codes to crack and priceless treasure to save, one thing is for sure: Mo will not be getting any sleep tonight!’

It would be great if children could to have their own copy of “‘ The Ancient Egyptian Sleepover’” to read in school. A brand new copy of it can be purchased through school for the discounted price of £5.00. (£5.58 new on Amazon) Or you may wish to purchase a used copy on Ebay which may be slightly cheaper.

Our artwork this term will be inspired by Picasso. Children will be learning about this artist, looking at his work and learning about his style and techniques. They will then be practising drawing and painting their own self-portraits, creating a finished piece using Picasso’s work as inspiration.

Mrs O’Grady will be teaching science this term. Your child will be learning about SOUND during the first half term. We are going to find out about how sounds are made and how they travel through a medium into our ears. We are going to find out about volume and pitch and explore what happens to a sound as it travels over a distance. After half term, we will learn about ELECTRICITY. We will build and explore different types of electrical circuits, find out how switches work and investigate materials to see which ones are conductors and which ones are insulators.

In the second half of the Autumn term we will be environmentalist studying the great River Nile; learning why the Nile is so important and working to help protect this essential natural resource.

We will be learning French as our modern foreign language for the first half term of every term this year and studying music for the second half term.

READING HOMEWORK: Regular reading at home and discussions about their book is essential to enable your child to improve their reading fluency and comprehension.

For this term we have an Ancient Egyptian themed reading challenge. In class we will be building a reading pyramid and children will gain pyramid points every time they read. Every week children who have read the most can be ‘Pharaoh for a day’ and there will be a special reading reward trip to Booka at the end of term for those children working hardest at their reading.

Children will be challenged to read at home and have parents record their reading in reading record their books. We would want your child to be reading at home most evenings. (target 3x a week) Please ensure you sign your child’s book to show that they have read at home and talked about their book with you.

Reading record books will be handed in and checked every Monday. Mrs Chapman will be holding a ‘catch up’ lunchtime reading session on Tuesday lunchtimes for any child who has not had their book signed to say they have read to an adult.

Your child should be regularly practising their times tables at home by doing the TT Rocks games online. TTRocks gets to know your child and pitches the questions so that they are practising the right tables for them. GARAGE is the easiest game and the game that issues the most coins, which they can then spend in the virtual shop. If your child is in Year 4, they should begin to play the SOUNDCHECK game as this replicates the government Times tables test that all Year 4’s sit in May. Playing the SOUNDCHECK game at home will mean that the children won’t be too daunted when faced with it in the summer term. Mrs O’Grady would love the children to challenge her on the ROCKSLAM game too.

Mrs O’Grady will check each week that your child has been online to play the games. Children who have not been online will complete the paper TTRocks sheets during Wednesday lunch times.

Your child will be given spellings to learn every. They will practise the spellings in class each morning, and then take them home for a final practise over the weekend ready for a test on the following Monday.