Year 3 & 4 Homework

24 January 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: What is a drug?

This homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement, is a first step in children becoming aware of drugs. There are a few key points you may wish to talk about at home. Children need to be aware that some drugs are helpful, some are harmful, some are legal, some are illegal. Don’t forget to consider that even the legal or helpful ones can be harmful.

Below are some question prompts that could help shape your discussion…

• What is a good definition for a drug?
• What is a drug? What is not a drug?
• Are all drugs bad?
• Why might some people need to take medicines?
• Who can prescribe medicine?
• Who should administer medicine?
• What should you do if you find some medicine?
• Should you take medicine that isn’t yours?

Children should be prepared to discuss what they’ve talked about at home during our homework review next week. This homework should be completed by Thursday 30 January.

17 January 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework:

I can show different ways to make things better.

This homework, which is due on Thursday 24 January, is an opportunity for children to reflect on our living & learning statement for this week: I can make things better.

Children should think about ways to make things better in a variety of different situations and contexts:

• in class

• in a friendship group
• at playtimes
• at home
• with siblings
• out and about (countryside, park)
• the wider environment (recycling)

You could consider…

• Why should we try and make things better?
• How do we do this?
• When should we apologise?
• What is the effect it has on others around us when we make things better?
• Older children might want to consider the benefits of restorative justice.

Don’t forget to be creative! Produce a report or diary; capture photos of making things better; create rules for better games at play times; make a poster about how to say sorry; or, think of your own creative response.

This homework will be celebrated in our weekly homework review.

10 January 2020

The homework this week is practice makes perfect and is due on Thursday 16 January.

This half term, our science topic is “Power it up!”. We will be looking at the uses of electricity and the importance of safety before constructing simple circuits.

Here are nine words from our science topic:

Choose four of the words that you don’t know the definition for. Find the definition and write a sentence using each word. Make sure you are able to explain, in your own words, what the new word means.

06 December 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework, which should be returned by Thursday 12 December.

The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or a spiritual perspective.

I can show what I know and think about something cultural.

We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact.

We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!

However, your child might prefer to do the following:

I can show what I know about a festival.

Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort.  This might have been

• the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
• the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
• the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
• the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
• and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up

There are lots of other festivals and celebrations, which you and your child together might want to reflect on.

We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script).  Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.

Friday 22 November 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: Which charity should our school support?

Next week, a charity will be decided for us to support for the year ahead – for example, when we have a performance, we’ll collect money for this particular charity. What charity does your child think we should support?

You could talk about:

• what a charity is
• why charities are important
• what sort of work they do
• charities that have meaning to your family, to school or the community
• national and international charities and their work

Next week, each class will vote (because in our school we make democratic decisions) for the charity they would like to support to form a shortlist. Then, our recently elected School Council will decide which charity we will support for the next year.

Friday 15 November 2019

Friday 15 November 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework which children should be ready to discuss as part of our homework review on Thursday 21 November.

I know how to STOP bullying.

This homework is a response to our learning this week during anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, each class has had the chance to talk about what bullying is, what the different types of bullying are and how we can STOP it:

• Start
• Telling
• Other
• People

As part of your discussion you may find our school definition of bullying useful, as agreed by our School Councillors:

Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.

As the homework is Creative, you can do anything you want to respond to the statement. Here are a few ideas to help you:

• Create a cartoon strip of a bullying scenario and how it is solved.
• Create an acrostic poem using the word bullying.
• Write your own ‘kindness statements’ for your class.
• Create a scenarios quiz for your class to decide what they would do.

04 October 2019

This week’s homework is Talk Time.

This half term, our Christian value is friendship. Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations, which leave us in a moral dilemma. Talk to somebody about the examples below. What you would do in the same situation? Why are these moral dilemmas?

• You see your friend cheating in a maths test.
• You’ve been invited to two friends’ parties on the same day.
• Someone is saying unkind things about your friend behind their back.

Talk to somebody and make notes so you are ready to feedback in our homework review on Thursday 10 October.

Friday 05 July 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can illustrate happy and healthy choices.

This homework links to our weekly living and learning statement and is something we talk about a lot in our school. Can you encourage your child to make a new healthy choice every day this week? Or think about one new healthy change your child can make? Try to help them make sure the choice is a realistic, achievable one, such as avoiding being on an electronic device after a certain time to help sleep, or adding one extra daily portion of vegetables to their diet each day.

As this is a Creative homework, children could respond in a variety of ways:

• Create a blog, video blog or diary to show the changes we’ve made.
• Create a poster convincing others to make a happy and healthy change.
• Make a cartoon strip in which a character makes a happy and healthy change.
• Write a song, poem or rap that will encourage others to make changes.
• Reflect on change they’ve made and how it made them feel.

There are of course lots of other ways to respond, too.

Children should be ready share, and celebrate, their homework in their class by Thursday 11 July 2019.

Thursday 16 May 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can show what I know about a particular job.  

This homework is in preparation for our themed week which is next week. Throughout the week, we’ll focus on money. One aspect of this is how money is earned. Obviously, our children are a little young to be earning money but it is really important that they have aspirations.

For their homework this week, children should decide on a job (maybe one they want to do or one that a family member has) and find out some useful information about the profession: what a ‘normal’ day looks like, how much you can earn, what qualifications/experience you need, etc.

Children could respond to this creative homework in a range of ways:

• Create a poster
• Make a ‘project board’
• Re-create a ‘day in the life of…’ and document this in pictures
• Make a presentation
• Compare a few different jobs
• Devise a short play to show their peers what the job involves
• Research the salary and decide how they might spend their money
• Write a job application

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Thursday 23 May 2019.

26 April 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can illustrate different emotions.

This homework, which links to our living and learning statement, is an opportunity for children to show that they can recognise, and show, different emotions. As humans, we display a huge-range of emotions. Sometimes, it’s obvious how we’re feeling. Sometimes, it’s trickier for us to show, or recognise, an emotion. This statement allows us to spend time thinking about the different emotions we experience and how we can recognise these accurately in ourselves and others.

Children could respond creatively to this in a range of ways:

• create a piece of art that shows a range of emotions
• take pictures of themselves (or others) displaying different emotions
• write a short-story in which a character shows lots of emotions
• Devise a poem, song or rap about emotions
• Create a comic strip to illustrate different emotions

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Thursday 02 May 2019.