LKS2 Newsletter 25/9/20

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been another busy and fun filled week in LKS2…

Miss Brophy’s Year 3 group have been working very hard. They have been looking at the book ‘Cave baby’ and have designed their own caves in the style of the Cave baby. They have wild bears with top hats and Sabre tooth tigers on hoverboards! They are now using these designs to help with a setting description. In Maths they have worked very hard on counting forwards and backwards in tens and ones, and have then used this knowledge to create numbers using base 10. 

In English this week, we have been looking at a fact file all about fire making in the Stone Age. Children have had great fun in learning how fire changed the lives of the people who lived through this age and writing their own fact-files. As part of this, we have been developing our reading skills with ‘paired reading’ and learning new vocabulary. After using our reading skills to guess at the meaning of new words from clues in the text and wider background knowledge, pupils then showed off their dictionary skills to find the definitions and check if their predictions were accurate.

In PSHE, we read a book called ‘The Dot’. The book is about a little girl called Vashti who thinks she can’t draw. But when she draws a dot on her page, her teacher gives her the confidence to explore her art skills. Vashti ends up drawing more and more dots, and each time they get better and better! We discussed how Vashti’s mindset changed from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, and we all decided that a growth mindset would have a positive impact on our learning. Then we had a go at drawing our very own dot masterpieces!

In Science, we continued learning about rocks. This week, we conducted an investigation into the physical properties of different rocks. We compared their appearance, texture, durability and permeability. We used a range of equipment to do this, including a magnifying glass for observations, and a pipette to drop small amounts of water on to the rocks.

Finally, we have had two fantastic Forest School sessions. We travelled back in time to discover how to make fire in the Stone Age. After being taught the ground rules in terms of safety, pupils were then given a crash course in making fire. Afterwards, all children used a tool, sourced tinder and kindling and tried to create a small fire. It wasn’t easy but there was plenty of resilience and determination on show! On Friday, the children worked in ‘tribes’ to put their learning into practice independently, and fight for survival!

Please note…

From today, children in LKS2 will start bringing books home from the school library. Reading Records are no longer in use, however the expectation is still that children read at least 3 times a week at home. This is very important in order to support their learning in school. Happy reading!

To keep the classrooms well ventilated, we are keeping windows open at all times. As the weather gets colder, we want to make sure children are kept at a comfortable temperature, so please ensure that your child is sent to school with at least a jumper.

Thank you for your continued support, and well done to the children for another week full of learning and smiles!

The LKS2 team 🙂