Living & Learning – But I’m not tired!
This week we have been learning about the importance of sleep. We were surprised to find out that we should be having 10-11 hours of sleep per day to be at our best the next day.
We shared our top tips for a good night’s sleep and learnt a few new ones from our research:
Help at home – encourage your child to keep a diary of how much sleep they are getting. Is it enough? If not, can they try one of the strategies above to help them sleep better?
With thanks from members of St James’ Church
You may remember that we made Holy Week booklets last half term that we shared with parishioners at St James’ Church.
This week we received a thank you card!
‘… At St James’ Church, my husband and I were given the Holy Week booklet you had made. It was so good to see that you knew, from your school lessons, the Easter story.
We kept your booklet and put it with other Easter cards we had received. The three beautiful pictures and your written information about each one was wonderful as well as the cross on the front page …’
I often boast how proud I am of the efforts and work of Year 4 but it’s particularly lovely to share that with people in our wider community.
Well done, Year 4! You made some people’s Easter that little bit more special!
Daily Poem
This week, we’ve enjoyed reading our daily poem I swept the dog by Ken Nesbitt.
Each week, we have a new poem that we read together each day. Reading poetry is a wonderful activity that offers a ton of benefits—both educational and emotional, such as:
- language development
- listening and comprehension skills
- imagination and creativity
- emotional expression
- bonding time
- cultural awareness and empathy.
Help at home: Take some time to enjoy our weekly poem together as part of your child’s homework routine. Do you have any favorite poems you love reading at home? We’d love to hear them—feel free to bring them in and share with the class!
Living and Learning
This week our focus is to ‘recognise the importance of sleep’.
Did you know that at age 10, children are recommended to get around 10 hours of sleep each night. The average person spends 9,582 days of their lifetime asleep.
A good night’s sleep can improve a person’s:
- memory – Overnight, information moves from short-term to long-term memort.
- decision making – Our ability to think and make decisions is improved during sleep.
- concentration and mood – While asleep, activity in the brain improves a person’s focus.
- immune system – The immune system keeps a person healthy.
- body feel full after eating – This means a person who sleeps well is more likely to stay a healhty weight.
- body to grow and repair – During sleep the body repairs its muscles, organs and other cells.
We have been reviewing two different characters and thinking about their sleep patterns. We were able to highlight good and poor quality sleep and say how it might effect a person.
Then we devised our own action plan to help a young person improve their quality of sleep. It was important for us to consider daytime, bedtime and bedroom routines. Children we excellent at suggesting ways to improve these points (for example: less screen time, reading a book, blackout curtains, drinking water throughout the day). Finally, children suggested top tips for better sleep.
Children may be getting poor quality sleep due to worries and concerns. Children know where they can go should they be experiencing this:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This week, we have been reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle.
This book is fantastic as it helped our counting skills and helped us to think about the food that we eat.
We thought about the food the caterpillar ate and decided it was mostly fruit apart from on Saturday.
We know that fruit is good for our bodies, so we decided to make some delicious fruit kebabs to have at snack time. 
“The melon tastes sweet.” Avery
“The strawberry is yummy.” Wyatt
We even made one for Mr Nash! He told us the strawberry was both sweet and sour!
Help at home: Your child could make their very own fruit kebabs out of the fruit they enjoy or maybe even try some new ones! Can they remember the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
Living & Learning – I know the importance of personal hygiene
Earlier this week, we had a detailed discussion about the importance of personal hygiene. The children summarised their key learning beautifully:
Help at home:
Discuss things that you do at home to maintain your personal hygiene. Children could try different hand soaps and different toothpastes to see if they have a favourite!
Arithmetic
This term, together with our weekly spelling test, we’ll complete a short, low-pressure arithmetic test every Friday. This well help us to grow as confident, flexible mathematicians.
Children will complete 15 questions on the 4 operations (+ – x ÷) before reviewing as a class. Papers will be sent home weekly.
Help at home by looking through the paper with your child, working through errors and offering similar questions for additional practice. If you have any questions or need additional support, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Living and Learning: I know the importance of personal hygiene, including handwashing.
Today, Year 3 have been learning about allergies and how these may tie in with personal hygiene. An allergy happens when a person comes into contact with something, such as a food, that their body thinks might be harmful. We discussed some different types of potential allergens, both foods and non-foods. Here are some responses:
Pollen is an allergen because I have hay fever.
People can be allergic to peanuts and have a reaction.
I’m not allergic to anything, but I think I have an intolerance to milk and dairy.
Some medicines make your body have a reaction, but they are meant to make you feel better!
We then learnt about ways to avoid allergens and how to deal with potential reactions. We discussed how washing our hands and keeping our personal hygiene levels high is important when tackling allergies, e.g. washing our hands to avoid spreading allergens that we might’ve handled. It’s really important to wash our hands at lunch times, especially with so many different foods in our packed lunches!
Help at home:
Discuss potential allergens and signs to look out for with allergic reactions. Check some food packaging on your next shopping trip – you should find the most common allergies are in bold!
Welcome Back – Summer 1
We were delighted to welcome the children back to school this week to start our summer term. We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy break.
Here’s a look at what will be going on in our classroom:
English
In English, we’ll write a non-fiction report about a hero from history. We’ll read Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and dive into lots of interesting non-fiction texts.
Maths
In maths, we’ll learn about money, shape, length/height, stats and more!
Phonics – Spelling
We’ll continue our journey to becoming confident spellers…
Science
Science takes us back to plants, this time focusing on bulbs and seeds. We’ll plant some bulbs and observe them over time. We’ll also learn about sustainability and how we, as biologists, can support the wildlife in our environment.
Topic – History
This half term, we’re historians! We’ll learn about some heroes from history and the impact they’ve had on our society.
RE
How and why do some people pray? We’ll explore prayer across a range of world religions, linking to this half term’s Christian value, peace.
Living and Learning
We’ll learn about physical health: hygiene, sleep, diet, physical activity
PE
Throwing. Catching. Games. Exercise. Teamwork. Fun!
Help at home by keeping up the great work. Thanks for your all support so far this year – it’s had a huge impact. Please continue to use NumBots and Times Tables Rockstars, and listen to your child read every day.
History Topic – Heroes
We’ve begun our exciting new History topic: Heroes. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be learning about two inspirational figures: Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen.
To kick things off, we explored the big question:
What is a hero?
Here are some of the lovely ideas the children shared:
“Somebody who’s done something very good.”
“Somebody who helps or saves people.”
“Someone who protects you from danger.”
We also discussed the qualities of a hero and how these connect to our school rules and Christian values. These included:
empathy, passion, caring, kindness, honesty, bravery, respect, helpfulness
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be using and exploring this vocabulary in class.
Help at home: Look at the key vocabulary together to support your child’s understanding.
