Home Learning and Supporting the Curriculum at home

We have attached a selection of Knowledge Organisers for you to use to support your child’s learning at home. These set out clearly what we expect children to learn and remember in that subject. Please use these at home as conversation starters to reinforce and help embed your child’s learning. Please encourage your child to log into TT Rockstars on the Sound Check as often as possible. This will help alongside the dedicated sessions we do in school to boost their fluency at times table recall. Children should be fluent in tables up to 12x12 by the end of Year 4. The Sound Check will be similar to the Year 4 Multiplication Check that all children in Year 4 will undertake in June. You will also have log ins for SumDog and Spelling & Maths Shed. We also use a spelling scheme of work called No Nonsense Spelling that is built on progression of sounds and builds on children’s prior knowledge. Please continue to use Spelling Shed for practice.  

Home learning task - Research into traditional Chinese foods and choose from the following activities: Try to find examples of recipes for Chinese dishes and create a list of the ingredients used-can you make any of these dishes at home to practice following recipes? Create a poster showing types of ingredients used in traditional Chinese recipes. Create your own recipe for a dish, such as egg fried rice or vegetable noodles.

PE— Netball

Sparrows: Tuesday

Starlings: Wednesday

Swifts: Wednesday

Please ensure your child wears a full PE kit on their PE day

School Value

This half term, we are focusing on Teamwork. The children will be encouraged to work in teams, focusing on their communication and collaboration skills. 

British Value

We will be learning about individual liberty. This will link to team work. We will be considering the decisions we can make as individuals, and the effects they may have on others.

Reading

In school, children are encouraged to read daily. They take quizzes on Accelerated Reader (AR) about the books they have read and earn points for this. Children are also expected to log on to AR at home to quiz on the books they read at home. At the end of the half term, we will be giving certificates to every child who reaches their own individual target for points earned. To support passion and progression, we expect children to read daily at home for at least 15 minutes. Please support and encourage your child in this by listening to them read aloud often and talking about what they have read to help develop comprehension skills and develop an inquisitive nature about books. It is also beneficial for children to hear you read aloud to them regularly to help develop and maintain a love for reading. Modelling your own love of reading can really help your child’s reading progress.

Our Curriculum

Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 will enjoy a long and short enquiry each half term.

Long Enquiries

A long enquiry typically lasts five weeks and allows us to teach a subject, such as history, in depth. Clear expectations of what will be learned, is shared with parents and pupils through a Knowledge Organiser.  At the end of the work, we plan to use Enquiry Quizzes on our iPads to see how much each child has remembered.

This half term, the children will be focusing on Design Technology. They will be tasting food in preparation for creating their own Chinese style dishes. Children will learn about some traditional Chinese food and will compare these to traditional English dishes. They will be asked to design, make, and then evaluate their own Chinese style dishes.    Children will learn a variety of cooking techniques such as prepping and cutting vegetables in a safe and hygienic way, and cooking basic items such as rice or noodles.

Short Enquiries

A short enquiry can last anything from 1 – 3 days and adds breadth to our curriculum.

Our Short Enquiry for this half term is Geography and is based on understanding the economic and trade activity of our local ocean. Children will be thinking about the question, ‘What lies beneath?’ in the context of the Brixham fishing trade. Children will learn about how important the fishing trade is for the local economy of Torbay and how fishing brings in money for the local area.

Maths

Maths is taught in separate year groups, so your child may be moving rooms and teachers during maths time. In Year 3 maths, children are learning to use the formal method for multiplication and division of 2 and 3-digit numbers. Please support your child to practice these times tables. In Year 4, children are learning the formal method for multiplication and division, with a focus on commutativity. Please ensure children are practising their multiplication tables up 12x12 daily.

Literacy

Children will be writing a whole narrative based on the story ‘The Snow Globe’. Children will write about an imaginary object that opens up a world of magic. Children will also be writing letters about non-fiction topics in a fun and informative way, based on the text ‘Ask Dr K Fisher’.

Dates to remember

Friday 3rd March—World Book Day celebrations. Children can dress up as their favourite book character for a day of fun reading celebration.

Wednesday 15th March—FOPPS Mother’s Day shop

Monday 20th March—Paignton Zoo trip to further our learning in Science.

Messages

Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries. There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website  https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/

The gates open at 8:40am and children are welcomed in to class at 8:50am. The class teacher is available at the end of the day for any quick queries or messages.

Important:

We have children in school with nut and kiwi allergies. We kindly request that children do not bring any products containing nuts or kiwi into school. Thank you.