English

We have based our English learning this term around the short animation Alma. The children really enjoyed watching the clip and discussing the genre and themes of the film. We focussed on the atmosphere and tension that is built in the clip and learned how to demonstrate this in our writing with the use of short sentences and figurative language to paint the picture for the reader. We then looked at how we can use a mixture of sentence structures to ensure our writing flows well and the children finished the half term by writing a narrative using two perspectives throughout.

Maths

We started the year looking at the value of numbers up to 10,000,000 and with up to 3 decimal places. The children learned how to use their understanding of these values to compare, order and place these numbers on a number line before learning how to round them.

Being able to round these numbers effectively helped the children when estimating answers as we moved on to our addition, subtraction and multiplication topics. The children’s understanding of the value of digits in these numbers also allowed children to seek out efficient methods for adding, subtracting and multiplying through partitioning numbers or using compensation method. These were all practised during the half term as well as formal written methods with the children able to choose which method would be most efficient.

History

We have started the enquiry of ‘Why did Elizabeth’s Sea dogs make Phillip so angry?’. The children have read all about Elizabeth’s early life leading up to when she became queen including about her father Henry and her siblings. We then created a timeline of the major events during her reign. The children had to research these events before putting them in chronological order. The beginning of Elizabeth’s reign was not easy, and the children have learned about England’s money problems and compared these with the powerful and wealthy Spanish Empire during the time. The children compared maps to identify the colonies which were part of the Empire and were able to deduce why these colonies helped Spain become so rich and powerful.

 

Geography

Our Geography enquiry is ‘What is a river?’. The children have used atlases to identify major rivers across the world and have identified their importance to the environment around them. We have also learned about the stages of the water cycle and how rivers play a vital role in this. The children have then learned about the different parts of a river and how a river changes as it flows from its source to the mouth.

Science

In Science, we have been learning all about the circulatory system. The children have labelled the key parts of the heart and looked at their functions. We have researched the importance of blood and the roles of the different types of blood cells. The children then applied this knowledge to plan and carry out an investigation measuring our heart rate after exercise. The children recorded their results in a table before plotting them on a line graph and writing a conclusion detailing what their results showed.

We have also learned about how our lifestyles including our diet and how much we exercise can impact our health. The children have researched and discussed the benefits of eating a balanced diet and exercising compared with not eating well and not exercising enough.

The children are now learning about how water and nutrients are transported in our bodies.

Computing

The children have been using scratch to code during their computing lessons. They have followed instructions to create a range of games and activities. They have programmed inputs, variables and loops as well as including sensing in their code. We have used a range of sprites and backgrounds- some from the scratch website but some have been uploaded from the internet as well as the children have had ownership in how their games would look.

P.E.

Our P.E. focus has been invasion games this half term with the children learning the skills and tactics needed for rugby. We started off focussing on passing and carrying the ball, using two hands and passing from the hip. We then moved onto one of the key rules: you can’t pass forwards. This took some time for the children to grasp but they were able to figure where they would need to position themselves to be able to support their teammates with the ball. As the children grew in confidence with the skills and the tactics needed, we moved onto small game situations so the children could apply these skills in a competitive environment.

Spanish

The topic in Spanish has been los juegos olimpicos. It has been all about the Olympic games and some of the sports that they play. The children have read and tried to translate the history of the Olympic game sin Spanish using their prior knowledge of vocabulary and using similarities to English to work out the meaning of key words, phrases and sentences. We then focussed on the sports played at the Olympic games and how to say that someone plays it using the verb practicar. The children have shown a good understanding of the use of determiner sin Spanish and how they can indicate whether a noun is masculine or feminine and the have understood that a verb ending can indicate the pronoun of the person it relates to.