The key learning in history for the Roses Class this term can be seen on the image below. A PDF can also be downloaded from the history page of our website and will also be emailed to you : )

11/9/23
WELCOME TO THE ROSES CLASS SEPTEMBER 2023
 
 
Dear Parent,
 
Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely summer break.
We are the class full of wonderful English Roses!
 
This term, Mrs O’Grady is going to teach all day on a Monday and a Tuesday and for two hours every Wednesday.  Mrs Chapman is going to teach for 3.5 hours on a Wednesday and all day on a Thursday and a Friday. 
 
During our first week back we have been finding out about the significance of the English Rose.  We will also be doing lots of Growth Mindset work preparing us to have the best attitude for learning this year, so that we can deal with any thorns along the way and bloom with splendour throughout the year! 
History
For our history Mantle this half term we will become a team of anthropologists and archaeologists. In our dramatic fiction our team finds a stone age cave painting in a Welsh cave (Note – no cave paintings have as yet been found in the UK), later a burial site is also discovered. Our team are commissioned to uncover the story of the people who made these images and left these remains and create a museum exhibit showing their story.
Stepping back into prehistory we will become a tribe of cave dwelling hunter-gatherers, then follow the progress of mankind through the development of agriculture and the technological achievements of the bronze and iron-age. We will retell the story of the doomed ‘Doggerland’ people, who lived in the stretch of land that once joined the UK.  We can guarantee some exciting dramatic events along the way as we find out all and find out what happened to this now submerged land.
In literacy, we will cover a range of fiction and non-fiction reading and writing genres which will be inspired by our Mantle of the Expert commission and our class novel, “Stig of the Dump” by Clive King. Stig is a classic children’s novel about a boy called Barney, who falls through the ground at a nearby chalk pit only to discover a strange boy who wears a rabbit skin and speaks in grunts. This ‘stone age cave boy’ becomes his friend and the two have many adventures together
 
We will be using the novel in class to inspire our literacy work and for homework comprehension tasks. It would be really useful for every child to have their own copy of “Stig of the Dump” to read in school. A brand new copy of it can be purchased through school for the discounted price of £4.99 (RRP £7.99 new on Amazon) Or you may wish to purchase a used copy on Ebay (around £3). ( A letter and order slip will be sent home on Monday) 
 
If you wish school to order a new copy of the book for you please return completed slips and payment to the school office by Wednesday 13th September.
 
Art
Our artwork this term will be inspired by the ancient cave art of the French Lascaux Caves. We are going to use the lovely story book “The First Drawing” by Caldecott Medalist as our inspiration. We will use a variety of tools and mediums to create our own cave walls and cave drawings.  Our DT project, after the half term break, will be to design a hunter gatherer diet. 
 
Science
Mrs O’Grady will be teaching science this term.  Your child will be learning about forces during the first half term.  We are going to find out about pushes and pulls, gravity, air and water resistance and friction.  We will also have fun finding out about magnets.  After half term, we will learn about light.  We will explore different sources of light, find out how light travels and how the human eye works.  We will investigate shadows too. 
 
Geography
In the second half of the autumn term we will be environmentalist studying rivers around the world and working to help protect this essential natural resource.
 
French
We will be teaching French as our modern foreign language from September, and using a fantastic new resource called KAPOW to deliver these lessons. 
 
 
HOMEWORK
 
Reading at home: Regular reading at home and discussions about their book is essential to enable your child to improve their reading fluency and comprehension.
 
We would want your child to be reading at home most evenings. Please ensure you sign your child’s book to show that they have read at home and talked about their book with you at least once a week.
Reading record books will be handed in and checked on a Monday. Mrs Chapman will be holding a ‘catch up’ lunchtime reading session on Friday lunchtimes for any child who has not had their book signed to say they have read. 
 
TT ROCKS HOMEWORK
 
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 TimesTables 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.   
 
PE
Our timetabled PE sessions will be on alternate Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Occasionally we may have extra sessions at other times. 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.
 
 
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know and we will arrange a meeting as soon as possible. We are looking forward to a fantastic term. 
 
Kind Regards
 
Mrs Chapman and Mrs O’Grady
 

Do you want to be entertained and educated about the vicious Viking Raids on Lindisfarne? Would you like to witness the invasion of the Great Heathen Army? Have you ever wondered what made King Alfred great and how the Danelaw was formed?
Well find out now with Roses Class's amazing three part documentary drama. Written and performed by the pupils of Roses Class.....Be warned...some scenes are pretty scary! ( N.B. No pupils were harmed in the filming of these documentaries!!! ) 

This half term, the Roses class are getting in the holiday feel and studying the geography of Llandudno on the Welsh coast. They will become a team commissioned to promote Llandudno as an eco-tourism destination.

Our team of archaeological experts discover a strange Viking burial under a British hillside. They find the remains of a Viking long-boat and inside it the bodies of a man, two women and a baby alongside many grave goods. Could this be the grave of a great Viking king? The team must investigate this mystery and create a documentary about their findings for the BBC...

We have continued learning how to program using scratch, using all the different elements to develop the movement, sound and effects. Alan has been practising his skills at home and has become a mini - teacher, sharing his knowledge across the class. We have made a simple game, making the sprite move across the stage and avoiding the obstacles. 

Today we learnt the compass points and combined them with the weather phrases we have learnt in earlier lessons. We pretended to be weather reporters to practice reading and speaking French. 

The children in Roses have been introduced to a range of weather phrases through mime and pictures. They have listened carefully to pronounce words correctly and begun to recognise their meaning.