What a busy and exciting week we’ve had in our Year 3 and 4 classroom! Our learning has taken us on a journey around the world, challenged our mathematical thinking, sparked our creativity and even brought a little Halloween spookiness into the classroom!
History and geography collided this week as we explored the fascinating country of South Africa, learning about the system of apartheid and the inspirational life of Nelson Mandela. As part of our LKS2 history curriculum, this learning felt particularly meaningful during October, as we mark Black History Month. We thought carefully about fairness, equality and the courage it takes to stand up for what is right, helping us to understand an important part of South Africa’s history and its impact on the world today.
In maths, we have been developing our confidence with larger numbers, learning to order them by carefully considering the value of each digit. We practised using the less than and greater than symbols to compare numbers and continued to sharpen our written calculation skills through column addition and subtraction. Our regular Fluent in Five activities also gave us plenty of opportunities to flex our mental maths muscles, build fluency and improve our speed and accuracy. Every little step helps us become more confident mathematicians!
English has been busy too, with plenty of opportunities to practise our comprehension skills and develop our understanding of punctuation, spelling and grammar. We have also been working hard on our class performance piece in preparation for next week’s Poetry by Heart. We have been focusing on bringing our poem to life through expression, clarity and confident performance. We can’t wait to share all our hard work!
Our artistic talents have been shining in art, where we put our previously learned pencil skills and techniques to the test. Our challenge was to draw a tower of dice in three dimensions, carefully observing shapes, angles and proportions to make our drawings look realistic. We paid particular attention to shading and considered where the light would fall on our dice, using light and dark tones to create depth and bring our artwork to life. There were some fantastic examples of careful observation and perseverance!
In French, we continued our language-learning journey by exploring more vowel sounds and being introduced to the acute and grave accents. We discovered how these little marks above letters can make a difference to pronunciation, helping us to become more accurate and confident French speakers. Très bien, everyone!
During PSHE, we turned our thoughts to friendship and what it really means to be a good friend. We discussed the qualities that make friendships strong, from kindness and honesty to trust, loyalty and being there for one another. We also considered what might make a good friend become a best friend and reflected on how our own words and actions can help others feel valued, included and supported.
Computing brought us together in a very hands-on way as we explored networks and connections. We transformed our classroom into a human network, having fun passing messages around in different ways. As messages travelled from person to person, we thought carefully about which methods worked best, where things went wrong and why. This practical activity helped us understand how networks allow information to move between connected devices and how important clear, reliable communication can be.
Finally, our music lessons took a wonderfully spooky turn as we were introduced to Night on a Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky. With Halloween just around the corner, this dramatic and atmospheric piece was the perfect choice! We listened carefully to the music, thinking about how the sounds, rhythms and changes in mood helped to create a mysterious and eerie atmosphere. It was a brilliant opportunity to explore how composers use music to tell a story and stir our imaginations.
What a wonderful week of learning, creativity and discovery! From exploring important moments in history and strengthening our mathematical skills to developing our artistic techniques, building friendships and embracing spooky sounds, we have certainly kept our brains busy. We are looking forward to another exciting week, especially as we prepare to share our poetry performance for Poetry by Heart!
