Welcome to the Dragonflies!

Hello and welcome!

*Meet the Dragonfly grown-ups*

The grown-ups in the Dragonfly class are Mrs Spratt, Mrs Marrows and Mrs Jones.

We love teaching the Dragonflies and we are so proud of their achievements!

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you! 

*Our Christian Value for the term*

Justice

When we focus on Justice, we are making sure that everyone is treated equally and fairly. In the Bible, we are told that justice is about 'opening your mouth for those who can't speak for themselves' (Proverbs). Jesus' ministry speaks of hope for people who are poor and oppressed - some of his strongest critiques are spoken against the mighty and the powerful. How can you make things fair for everyone?Do you treat everyone equally? Have you ever shown courage when making the right but difficult choices?

 *Our Learning this Term*

We love learning in the Dragonflies! This term our topic is 'CASTLES'

Are you the long lost relative of royalty? What would you have in each room of your own castle?

HISTORY

This half term the children will learn about the Magna Carta. They will learn about its history and how it came to be law. The children will create their own Magna Cartas! I wonder what they would make law??

COMPUTING

The children will be exploring Scratch Jr. The children will create simple algorithms to make a character move. They will look at simple debugging by trial and error.

E-SAFETY

Being safe while online is extremely important. If as a parent you would like support on how to keep your child safe while online, please pop and see Mrs Wallis.

 This half term the children will learn about their digital footprint. They will learn about the imprint that is left while using the internet.

GEOGRAPHY

The children will be naming, locating and identifying the four countries and capital cities of the UK. The children will locate a castle in each country with different surrounding features.

ART

The children will explore the technique of weaving. They will learn about an weaving artist and create their own.

MUSIC

The children will listen to a range of recorded music and then create their own live recordings. They will listen to their recording and discuss what they like about what they hear.

SCIENCE

In Science the children will be learning about materials. They will look at the different castles and the materials chosen to build them for that time period. The children will discuss why they may or may not have been the best choice. 

We will also be baking! We will be baking medieval biscuits - yummy!

ENGLISH

In English this half term the children will be writing non-chronological report about castle features to begin the topic. They will read the story of The Steadfast Tin Soldier and sequence, retell and write character descriptions using verbs, adverbs, adjectives and possessive apostrophes.

The children will then write the story in their own words followed by a book review.

Following our trip to the castle, the children will order pictures from the trip, explore the main features of recounts, look at time connectives and then write a recount of castle trip.

Towards the end of the half term, the children will compare The Steadfast Tin Soldier with other traditional tales.

SPaG

This half term we will be focusing on spelling the words: plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would

Grammar: The children will use the co-ordination conjunctions in a compound sentence: using ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘but’. They will use ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘if’, ‘that’ and ‘because’ in a complex sentence. The children will revisit sentences with different forms - statements, questions, exclamation marks, commands.

Spelling: ‘o’ spelt ‘a’ after ‘w’ and ‘qu’ e.g. want, quantity, homophones new/knew, there/their/they’re, adding ‘es’ to verbs and nouns ending in ‘y’ such as carry/carries, the possessive apostrophe for singular nouns such as Megan’s, suffixes ‘ful’, ‘less’, ‘ly’ and words ending in ‘tion’,

MATHS

In maths the children will learn to read the time on a clock to the nearest 5 minutes, compare and sequence intervals of time. They will tell the time to quarter past/to the hour and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times.

The children will learn to recognise, find, name and write fractions 1/3 ,  1/4 ,  2/4 and  3/4 of a length, shape, set of objects or quantity. They will write simple fractions, for example  1/2 of 6 = 3 and recognise the equivalence of  2/4 and  1/2. The children will use standard units to estimate and measure length/height in any direction (m/cm); mass (kg/g); temperature (°C); capacity (litres/ml) to the nearest appropriate unit, using rulers, scales, thermometers and measuring vessels.     

HOMEWORK PROJECT IDEAS

1. Why not research your favourite castle? You could write a fact sheet or write a story about it.

2. Could you use recyclable materials to build your own castle, crown or shield? Could it include a working drawbridge?

3. Who lived in a castle? Create a powerpoint about the different kings and queens who lived in a castle.

These are only suggestions, let your imagination run wild!

If you do any projects at home, please bring them in on the last week of term to show your class. If it is a recording, it could be brought in on a penstick or if it is small enough, talk to your teacher about emailing it to school.

These are just some of the exciting things we will be covering this half term!

As you can see, we have some exciting things planned this half term! If you need any more information, please pop and see us!

*Our Weekly Newsletters*

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