Welcome to Pine Tree Class

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter break and are ready for an exciting term ahead. 

On this page, you will find some useful information about the term ahead and any key messages that you need to be aware of.  If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see our class Twitter feed and instructions for Google Classroom. We love to use Twitter to share some of the excellent things going on in class and will use Google Classroom to support learning at home - spellings, homework and useful documents will be uploaded and made available on there.  If you are on Twitter, please follow @pinetreeclass to see regular updates.

We are set to have a great term and have some really exciting things planned and lots of new things to learn about.  If there are ever any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch, either by popping in or telephoning.  The support you give is essential for your child's progress and the closer we can work together the better it will be for them.

Kind regards

Mr Waters

Curriculum Overview:

Our Maths topics for this term will focus heavily on shape, space and measure with the children working practically throughout their maths lessons. We will continue to revisit the four operations throughout the term through our ‘fast five’ retrieval practice, but it would also be useful to continue to practice these at home as well. Please make good use of TTRS to continue to be secure with times tables from 2-12.

In our English lessons this term, we are continuing to work on our knowledge of punctuation and grammar from across KS2, with a particular focus on being able to extend our sentences through the use of different clauses. All of our writing across the year will be inspired by high quality texts and children's literature and we will be starting the term off with some writing linked to the book ‘Manfish’.  Where the children will be writing a persuasive advert as well as a biography. 

Science

We are scientists!

In our Science lessons this term, children will finish their work on looking at properties and changes in materials before starting their new topic on Living Things and Their Habitats’. In this unit, we will teach the children

about the process of reproduction and the life cycles of plants, mammals, amphibians, insects and birds. They will explore metamorphosis in insects and amphibians, comparing their life cycles. The children will also be extending their biological knowledge of classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.

History/Geography                                                                                      

Geography

This term the children are studying the topic entitled: Would you rather live in North or South America? In this topic, the children will find out about the continents of North and South America, and the countries that form them. They will also look at the landscape and climate of some of the contrasting regions of the Americas and further develop their use of atlases and maps to support their work.

History

In our History lessons, we will be studying the enquiry question 'Why were we victorious in the Battle of Britain?'. During this topic, the children will study the main events of WWII before focusing upon the Battle of Britain and looking more closely at what it was, how the battle was won and why Britain were victorious. Across the topic, children will continue to use and compare different sources of historical knowledge to support their enquiry and learning.

Reading: 

Please make sure that you read for at least 10 minutes everyday.  This can be your school book, own book, newspapers, comics, shopping list etc and record in your planner.

Spellings:

Spellings will be added to Google Classroom on a Friday afternoon and the children will be tested the following Friday.  Spellings will focus on particular spelling rule/pattern each week and we will also be looking at words taken from the statutory word list.  These will be taught and practised throughout the week. 

PE:

The children will have indoor PE on a Monday and outdoor PE on a Thursday.  The children should come to school wearing their PE kits.  PE kits should be a house colour t-shirt, plain black shorts/ joggers/leggings and a plain black jacket/jumper.  Please remember to tie long hair up and make sure no jewellery is worn.

Homework:

Homework will be set on a Friday and this should be returned by the following Friday.  Homework will consist of a maths activity and an English activity linked to the unit of work they are covering in class, so they should be able to complete the activity independently. 

Some useful websites, resources and links:

https://spellingframe.co.uk - Spelling Frame - A great, interactive website to give you chance to practise your spellings in a variety of different ways.

https://ttrockstars.com/ - Times Table Rockstars. Use this website to practise your times tables, battle with your band mates and keep your arithmetic skills up to scratch!