Welcome to the Marvellous Meerkat’s Class Page!

Our teachers are Mrs McArdle (Monday - Wednesday) and Mrs Ratcliffe (Wednesday – Friday). Our wonderful Teaching Assistant is Mrs Hawkins (Monday – Thursday) and our Learning Support Assistant is Mrs Allam.

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.

PE

This Spring Term, we will have PE on Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, we will be exploring stance, shape and movement in our gymnastic lessons. On Thursday, we will learning choreography with our dance teacher Lauren! Children will need to come to school in their PE uniform as outlined in the school’s newsletters.

Homework

Weekly homework and spellings will always be on Seesaw. The homework activities will be uploaded on a Friday and they are to be completed for the following Friday. Please encourage your child to practise their spellings, complete their homework to the best of their ability and read at least three times a week in line with our home/school agreement.