St Margaret's CE Primary School

Squirrels Class

Topic - Would I like to emigrate to Australia?

This half term we will be learning about life in Australia, the landscape and some of the history of its people. We will explore where it is the world in terms of which continent & ocean it is surrounded by and what a map of the country is broken into. We will earn about the indigenous people of Australia and create some artwork inspired by theirs. In science, we'll look at the animals there, how they grow and develop, are adapted to the environment to get what hey need to survive and the food chains they depend on. To show our learning in writing, we'll write postcards about a fictional trip we've made to Australia and create persuasive leaflets to tell people about what you can do there.

This half term we will be learning about the Great Fire of London, finding out more about what London was like at the time building on our learning around Guy Fawkes (the gunpowder plot was only 60 years before the fire!) We will explore what is believed how the fire is believed to have started and spread, how we know about these events now and how the fire came to an end before seeing what happened next and the impact it had on the London that we can see today. We will enjoy putting out a (pretend) fire in science setting up a test to see what everyday object is best and getting water on the fire just like the people at the time may have tried. 

Please see the topic web (below) for further information about our learning this term.    

PE & Forest School

PE and Forest School will be with Mr. Jones on Tuesdays. On Fridays PE will be with Mr. Clark.  Please ensure that the children come into school on these days wearing their school PE kit: shorts or tracksuit bottoms (depending on the weather), trainers, school jumper or fleece. Children will need to bring appropriate clothing for forest school to change into as necessary (for this term: a waterproof coat and wellington boots)

Homework  

Homework will be set each Monday for the week ahead. Information, links and resources for the homework are on Google Classroom. Please let me know if you have difficulty accessing any of the information or resources. All the homework set is a chance for the children to reinforce concepts already taught at school and is there to help the children become fluent in recalling and applying their knowledge. 

Maths – The maths homework will be a combination of Numbots, Times Tables Rockstars and Active Learn Games. The Active Learn site links directly to the Power Maths scheme we use to support the application and reinforcement of skills. The children have their own login details for both. Once we have covered multiplication and times tables in school, we will begin to set Time Tables Rock Stars as part of the homework rotation, that will happened during the spring term.

Reading – A 10-15 minute read everyday will help build fluency and reinforce the daily reading at school.
Over the course of the week it is great to read material from a range of sources, including:
- Colour banded books from school (these can be changed daily)
- Library books (changed on Thursdays)
- The children's own books at home
Please send in the yellow reading records in to school each day.

Spelling – We will revisit a set of around 10 current words on Sir Linkalot a few times a week as well as going back to some of the ones we have done before. Checkout google classroom for our current words each week and remember if you have got the hang of them, check your knowledge on the quiz and you can move onto some new ones to learn.