Last week, the children scripted and rehearsed their own plays, which they took very seriously and worked really hard to produce some great results. They will be performing these to the class this week, before moving on to planning their own set of instructions, based on the book ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth’, by Michelle Robinson.

In Whole Class reading this week we will be using the song ‘How Far I’ll Go’, from the film Moana.  Songs are always popular, with the children reading the lyrics and having a sing-a-long! We will identify new vocabulary and discuss the meaning of some of the phrases used.

In Maths this week we will continue with flexible partitioning of numbers up to 1,000, and then progress to finding 1, 10 and 100 more or less, and numberlines to 1,000. Times tables will be an ongoing feature, with the children completing a times table challenge each week.

In science this week, we will continue looking at Animals, including humans, investigating muscles and how they impact on support, protection and movement. We will also continue the ‘Time and Place’ unit about Stone Age, this week investigating the significance of the discovery of bronze.

Mrs Banner will be teaching our RE on Friday, and will be continuing with the unit, People of God and what it is like to follow God, making simple links regarding how some Christians choose to live their whole lives in their church community. Mrs Banner will also do a spelling test, computing and elements of the maths curriculum.

Swimming moves to a Tuesday this week, when hopefully we will have the necessary pool staff to move some of the children into the main pool. The progress being made has surprised us all, with the children really working hard to improve their water skills. Maple class have PE on Mondays and each week. they will need full PE kit, swimming costume/trunks, a towel, swimming cap - this is required by the swimming pool, and goggles (although these are optional). There will also be occasions when we do additional PE sessions, so please can the children have their PE kit in school all week.

Reading Records will generally be changed on a Monday and Thursday. We would ask however, that children bring their reading books and Reading Records to school each day and that they aim to read daily, ideally with an adult – details of this can then be recorded in the Reading Record. Homework will be sent home most Tuesdays and will need to be back in school by the following Monday. In year three, the children do need to be more independent in their learning and this includes remembering to put their Reading Records and Home Learning books into the baskets! Obviously, we do remind them, but if you could remind them too, that would be great.

I am always happy to answer any questions you may have, so please do contact me if you have any queries, using the class email address:

maple@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

Best wishes

Mrs Smallcombe and the Maple Team