Hello! Welcome to the Wonderful World of Glorious Geckos. Here you will find lots of information about who we are!

Our class teacher  is Mr Mateta and our wonderful Teaching Assistant is Mrs Senior.

Geography

As part of our geography learning this term, we will be exploring the East Midlands and Campania, Italy – What are the similarities and differences? We will be further developing our geographical skillset with lots of atlas work, including using Google Earth to understand and recognise physical and human features. During this learning, we will be exploring what tectonic plates are and how volcanoes are formed and why they erupt. Also, we will be making comparisons between the two places towards the end of the unit, including comparisons on land use, settlements and physical features of the areas.

Writing

Historical Fiction will be our focus for the start of the Spring term, and we will be using our class text ‘Escape From Pompeii’ as inspiration for our writing. Our outcome for this unit will be to write as one of the characters from the narrative. Over the course of our lessons, we will be enhancing our writing toolkits and developing our use and understanding of speech, fronted adverbials, standard English and paragraphing.

During the second half of the term, we will be using the text ‘Koji’s Island’ to write an adventure story. We will explore how to build suspense with our vocabulary choices and develop the structure of our writing ensuing that our story follows the correct sequence.

Spellings

Spellings will be tested every Friday and will be accessed from the website Spelling Shed. In addition, all spellings will be sent home via a paper copy and Seesaw too.

Reading

In Reading lessons, we will be focusing on developing our reading skills and linking this with answering questions about a text. We will spend lots of time looking at new vocabulary and thinking about these words in the context of the text. We will answer a range of question types including vocabulary, retrieval and inference.

Maths

During the Spring Term, we will be focusing on developing our multiplication knowledge and improving our recall of multiplication facts up to 12x12. In addition, we will be exploring how division is the inverse of multiplication. We will be looking at patterns in multiples and applying our knowledge to problem solving questions. As we progress in the Spring term, we will be starting to use written methods for division and multiplication in order to complete more complex calculations. We will be learning about perimeter and length towards the end of the first half term and we will be exploring equivalence between measurements.

We will be kick starting the second half term with Fractions. We will be developing our understanding of fractions including placing fractions on a number line, converting between mixed and improper fractions and applying our multiplication and division knowledge to create and recognise equivalent fractions.

Science

In our Science lessons, we will be exploring Human Impact on the Environment. In these lessons, we will be learning about the impact of litter; how materials have changed over time and how microplastics have ended up in our food chain! We will be thinking about our habits and seeing whether we can make improvements in order to better look after our planet.

After the half term, we will be learning about our digestion with our topic ‘Digestion and Food Chains’. In these lessons, we will be developing our understanding about what happens to the food we eat and also what are the functions of our teeth types.

Art

In Art this Spring term, we will be looking at the work of Sonia Delaunay and Orphism. We will be replicating her artistic style to create our own pieces.

Computing

We will be continuing on our journey to become digital citizens with our Computing lessons! This Spring term, we will be focusing on Programming. We will be writing our own algorithms to create shapes and patterns. Also, we will be preserving when it comes to de-bugging! In the second half of the spring term, we will be moving on to ‘Creating Media’ in our Computing lessons. Here, we will be exploring how to record, edit and evaluate our media choices.

RSHE

In RSHE, we will be exploring the topic ‘Caring and Responsibility’ with the children learning about their rights and responsibilities. We will be looking at families and diversity too. After the half term break, we will be exploring the topic ‘Families and Committed Relationships’ looking at relationships and boundaries.

French

In French, we will be immersing ourselves in the topic ‘Je Me Presente’. We will be developing our pronunciation of words in French.

RE

As part of our RE learning this Spring Term, we will be learning about Spiritual Expression.

Physical Education

This Spring Term, we will have PE on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday, we will be doing circuit training lessons. On Wednesday, we will learning Badminton with Seb!   

Music

In our music lessons, we will be looking at musical structures. We will be exploring musical sections that repeat or change to help create the structure, or form, of a piece of music or a song. Also, we will look for patterns in sections of music and songs too.

Homework

There will be two pieces of homework a week, which will be given on a Friday and will be uploaded on Seesaw. Spellings will also be given on a Friday and these will be available on EdShed. Weekly spelling tests will take place every Friday.

Like always, children in Geckos need to read at home at least three times a week. Colour band books and red reading records need to be in school every day.