Lions’ Class Newsletter
Summer 1 – Australia
Dates for your diary:
P.E will be every Thursday. Please ensure children have weather appropriate kit for these sessions.
Whole School Easter Mass – 17th April @ 9am
Class Trip to Hamerton Zoo – 24th April
Whole School Mass in Church – 29th April @ 9am
Ascension Day Mass – 10th May @ 9am
All homework to be handed in for ‘Class Gallery’ – Thursday 24th May
St Augustine’s Day and last day of Summer Term 1 – Friday 25th May
Numeracy:
As we enter the summer term there will be opportunities for children to now consolidate old learning in addition to covering new topics and objectives. The main focus for this term will be:
- Finding and comparing fractions of amounts.
- Recognise and show, using diagrams, equivalent fractions with small denominators.
- Compare and order unit fractions, and fractions with the same denominators.
- Tell and write the time to the nearest five minutes, including quarter to/past the hour.
- Tell and write the time from an analogue clock, including using Roman Numerals from I to XII.
- To know and understand durations of time including minutes in an hour, hours in a day and number of days in each month.
Literacy:
This termchildren will be learning how to organise and write recounts, both fictional and based on real events. Using our up-coming trip to Hamerton Zoo as a springboard, children will learn how to organise their experiences chronologically and over a series of paragraphs when writing independently. Later on in the term, as a class we will share the story ‘Diary of a Wombat,’ before using this as a stimulus to write our own diary entries relating to our class topic ‘Australia’. Within this genre of writing, children will be consolidating the following objectives: apostrophes for possession and contractions, expanded nouns phrases, writing in paragraphs and subordinating/coordinating conjunctions. In addition to this, children will be introduced to the present perfect tense, noting how this is different to the simple past tense and applying this within their writing.
Supporting children’s developing reading skills, this term children will be focusing on making predictionsabout the development of a story’s plot taking evidence from what has already been read. Our reading lessons will centre on the story Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit’s Bad Habits. If possible, I would kindly ask that if your child has not already read this at home, to keep this as solely a school book. This enables me to accurately assess what your child understands from their independent, unsupported reading.
Science:
With such a short but busy term last term, children will first be completing their science learning about plants for the initial two weeks before moving on to ‘animals including humans,’ when children will cover the following objectives:
- Describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival
- Identify that animals, including humans, need to the right types and amounts of nutrition and that they get nutrition from what they eat.
- Understand that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults.
- Identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.
Topic/Art and Design:
Throughout our Topic and Art lessons, children will be learning about the history of Australia as well how we know it today. Children will learn about the migration of people to Australia since 1788, understanding the timeline of events. They will also be finding out about famous landmarks, using the internet to research them and discover important facts including when they were built and their overall purpose. During their Art sessions, children will learn about Aboriginal art, understanding how Aboriginals created designs and patterns from symbols. Towards the end of the term children will be creating their own papermache mask and designing it in the style of the Aboriginals.
R.E:
Continuing on from last term’s topic about Lent and Easter, this term children will be learning to retell the story of the Ascension, when Jesus returned to heaven to be with God after his resurrection. Children will learn that even though Jesus went back to heaven, he promised his disciples that he would send the gift of the Holy Spirit. We will discuss ways the Holy Spirit helps and guides us and begin to make links to Christians’ beliefs about how the Holy Spirit energises them and supports them to live as followers of Jesus.
Supporting your child at home:
Continue to read with your child at least three times a week. This continues to be important, as the development of accurate word-reading will support children’s developing comprehension. To complement this, you might want to question your child about what they have read e.gWhat do you think (word) means? How do you think (character) felt when …?
This term children will continue with the times tables tests, which will take place each Friday morning. Please continue to support your child in practising the times table they are currently being tested on. The questions children have are both multiplication and division.
Continue to support your child learning their weekly spellings.
This term homework will continue to be a series of mini projects. Children can complete as many tasks as possible but it is expected they complete at least one a week, with three red tasks completed by the end of the half term. Tasks are levelled, with green requiring the least amount of time to complete and red the most. Please can homework be in for Thursday 24th May.
Following the parent questionnaires received after parents’ consultations, some of you highlighted that whilst you liked receiving the class newsletters you would like updates throughout the term also. In response to this I have filled our class page on the school website with the exciting things children have been up to in class, and will continue to update throughout the term. Please let me know what you think .
If, at any point in the year, you wish to arrange an appointment to speak to me about your child, I am contactable by e-mail at or catch me at the end of the day to arrange a mutually convenient time.