Year 3/4 Blogpost 04.03.23

Dear Parents,

Wow! What an exciting week here at Down Hall. The Year 3/4 children have been learning all about fractions in Maths. It is great to see our times table programme having an impact on our children's experiences. In English, the children have very much enjoyed the beginning of our unit on Playscripts. We are basing our writing on the movie, Zootropolis. 

World Book Day - Thursday 4th March

Yesterday we celebrated World Book Day at Down Hall! Our aim, as teachers, was to promote a love of reading and it was so lovely to see the children to bring in their favourite book to share in class with each other. It was also fantastic to see children and staff dressing up. Miss Trunchbull AKA Mr Greenfield certainly caused a stir!

Whole School Trip to Barleylands
This week your child will have brought home a letter regarding our whole school trip to Barleylands on Monday 27th March. Please ensure that you have completed the reply slip and returned this to school by Friday 17th March.
Please keep an eye on the newsletter for any further information regarding this trip.

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks - Due Wednesday 8th March
HOMEWORK PAGES
Year 3
English 
Page 6-7
Maths
Page 36-37
Year 4 
English 
Page 12-13
Maths
Page 34-35
Must Do

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important. You will have taken your Reading Record home for your parents to comment on. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly. Please bring your homework books back to school when you are finished so that we can check them. Thank you.

• Please make sure that your child is continuing to read and work on the Year 3 and 4 spellings which can be found in their reading record books. 

• Accelerated Reader - when you are finished your book your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level

• Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenge..

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog and Myon or Big Cat - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.

• Math's - Year 4 will be completing their statutory Multiplication Tables Check in June this year. To this end, please can you ensure your child is regularly accessing and practicing these at: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

If you have any issues or questions, please come and see us at the end of the day - we would love to see you!
Have a great weekend!
Kind regards,
Mrs Hurley, Mr Greenfield & Miss Harvey

Year 3/4 Blogpost 24.02.23

Dear Parents,
We hope you all had a lovely holiday and are looking forward to lots of lovely learning at Down Hall this half term.
Please remember that Parent Teacher Conferences take place MONDAY 27th FEBRUARY and WEDNESDAY 1st March. Therefore,TTRS Club will NOT take place on Monday.
Thanks to those parents who have booked appointments.

TTRS Day
This year, at Down Hall Primary School, we have had a big focus on Times Tables through our Times Table Programme as well as Times Table Rock Stars. These have both helped the children to become more fluent in their times tables. 
On Thursday 9th March, we would like all staff and pupils to take the opportunity to dress up as rock stars for the day. During this day they will take part in a range of maths activities. It would be great to see as many children and staff engage in the TTRS Battle as possible. Prizes for the best dressed rock star (staff and child) will be handed out. Certificates will also be given to the children who achieve the fastest ‘Studio Speed’ in (according to the leaderboard that morning) There is no cost for dressing up. More details will follow…

WORLD BOOK DAY
This year, World Book Day is on Thursday 2nd March. To promote reading within our school community, for this day the children can bring in a favourite book from home which they can share with the other children in their class.
They can also bring in prop which serves as a clue to their favourite book/character or come dressed up as a favourite character too if they so wish. On this day all the children will also receive a £1 World Book Day voucher!

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks - Due Wednesday 1st March
HOMEWORK PAGES
Year 3
English

Page 56-57

Maths

Page 32

Year 4 
English 
Page 58-59

Maths

Page 32

Must Do

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important. You will have taken your Reading Record home for your parents to comment on. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly. Please bring your homework books back to school when you are finished so that we can check them. Thank you.
• Please make sure that your child is continuing to read and work on the Year 3 and 4 spellings which can be found in their reading record books. 

• Accelerated Reader - when you are finished your book your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level
• Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenge..

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog and Myon or Big Cat - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.
• Math's - Year 4 will be completing their statutory Multiplication Tables Check in June this year. To this end, please can you ensure your child is regularly accessing and practicing these at: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

• WIN A FIERY FAMILY ADVENTURE TO GERMANY

  World Book Day® is helping to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon with a truly magical prize. One lucky winner will have the change to go on a 3-day family trip to Soltau in Germany to stay at Heide Park, the theme part that is home to an entire land based around How to Train Your Dragon.https://www.worldbookday.com/howtotrainyourdragon/

Please click on the weblink above for more details.

As always, we are available on our email. However, we are also available if you have any quick questions at the end of the day on the playground. Just give us a wave and we will pop over! 

year3_4@downhallprimary.com

Have a fabulous weekend!

Best wishes

Mrs Hurley, Mr Greenfield & Miss Harvey

Year 3/4 Blogpost 10.02.23

Dear Parents,

We hope you have had a good week and that you are looking forward to the half term break. We cannot believe that we are now halfway through the academic year! It is so exciting to see just how much progress our children have made and the hard work that has gone into getting this far. There has been a small homework task set which is extra to the new pages set. Please relax and enjoy a well deserved rest. The Year 3/4 teachers look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 20th February.

MID-YEAR REPORT

Today your child will come home with their Mid-Year Report. This report focuses fully on areas for development in reading, writing and maths. "What can we do to help my child at home?" is probably the most common question as teachers that we are asked so we have very clearly set out 3 next step targets that we will be focusing on for your child in school for the rest of the year ahead. This will give you a clear understanding of areas for development in each curriculum area and enable you to further support these at home too.

PARENT/TEACHER CONSULTATIONS

These will be taking place in school on Monday 27th February and Wednesday 1st March between 3:30-6:00pm. You can book your slot using your Scopay account - booking will open at 8:00am on Monday 20th February.

PTA COIN RUN

Thanks so much to the wonderful PTA parents for organising today's coin run.

WORLD BOOK DAY

This year, World Book Day is on Thursday 2nd March. To promote reading within our school community, for this day the children can bring in a favourite book from home which they can share with the other children in their class.

They can also bring in prop which serves as a clue to their favourite book/character or come dressed up as a favourite character too if they so wish. On this day all the children will also receive a £1 World Book Day voucher!

HOMEWORK

Year 3
English -  Pg 58-59
Maths - Pg 48-49

Year 4 
English - Pg 60-61
Maths - Pg 52-53

• Accelerated Reader - when you are finished your book your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level

• Times table practice - this week we are learning our 8 times tables. Please practice these as we do in school.

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog and Myon or Big Cat - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.

• Maths - Year 4 will be completing their statutory Multiplication Tables Check in June this year. To this end, please can you ensure your child is regularly accessing and practicing these at: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

• Pick from the menu on the school website

  Click on classes, Year ¾ then Our Projects Year B Spring Term

  https://sites.google.com/downhallprimary.com/year3-4/our-projects/year-b-spring-term?authuser=0

Have a great holiday!
Mrs Hurley, Mr Greenfield & Miss Harvey

Year 3/4 Blogpost 03.02.23

Dear Parents,

We hope you've had a great week and also hope that you are all well! This week in Year 3/4 we have begun looking at our new text, Around the World in Eighty Days. We will be writing our own versions of this story. Our intended audience will be the EYFS children. In maths, we have been looking at perimeter. We were able to go outside; and using a variety of measuring tools, we practiced finding the perimeter of different objects that contained a square or an oblong/rectangle.

Mid Year Targets

On Thursday 9th February, your child will bring home their Mid Year Target Sheets. One of the things we are asked most at Parent/Teacher Consultations is "What can we do at home to support our child?" In order to help inform you, we now share these with you via these target sheets as these will be the key areas that we will focus on during the second half of the year.

It is worth emphasising that these are not reports, you will receive your child's report at the end of the Summer Term. We hope you find the target sheets helpful. They will form the basis of Parent/Teacher Consultations on Monday 27th February and Wednesday 1st March.

This week we are not setting homework in the usual homework books. Please can you complete the work on Perimeter instead? We would also like you to learn the spellings that have been uploaded to Google Classroom. The children have all received paper copies. Many thanks.

Don't forget to keep up all your fantastic efforts with your reading at home - it will make a huge impact on your child's reading development and their learning.

If you have any issues or questions, please come and see us at the end of the day - we would love to see you!

Lots of love,

Mrs Hurley, Mr Greenfield & Miss Harvey

Year 3/4 Blog 27.01.23

 Dear Parents,

Happy Friday everybody! It has been a very busy beginning of the Spring Term in Year 3/4 - we have been continuing to write our biographies to their conclusion in English. In Math's, we have been looking at length Part of our lesson involved measuring our feet and using cm and mm to accurately do so. We also ordered and compared these measurements as seen in the photo below. The children came up with a thought provoking question. Does the tallest person always have the largest foot?

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks - Due Wednesday 1st FebruaryMust Do

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important. You will have taken your Reading Record home for your parents to comment on. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly. Please bring your homework books back to school when you are finished so that we can check them. Thank you.
• Please make sure that your child is continuing to read and work on the Year 3 and 4 spellings which can be found in their reading record books. 

HOMEWORK PAGES

Year 3

English -  Pg 67

Maths - Length questions ONLY

Pg 46-47

Year 4 

English - Pg 67

Maths - Pg 50-51

• Accelerated Reader - when you are finished your book your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level
• Times table practice - this week we are learning our 7/8 times tables. Please practice these as we do in school.

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog and Myon or Big Cat - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.
• Maths - Year 4 will be completing their statutory Multiplication Tables Check in June this year. To this end, please can you ensure your child is regularly accessing and practicing these at: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

This activity exactly mirrors the 'Multiplication Tables Check' that will be given to children at the end of Year 4. They are tested on their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. There are twenty-five questions and children have six seconds to answer each question and three seconds between questions. The questions are generated randomly using the same rules as the 'Multiplication Tables Check' 

Watch this video together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct5cDctLVTI

YEAR 3 - feel free to do this as well!

Have a fantastic weekend,

With love from the Year 3/4 teachers

Year 3/4 Blogpost 20.01.23

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a wonderful week. It flew by! The children are continuing to work really hard on their division in math's. It is great to see all their hard work in learning their times tables now paying off. In English, we are writing our own biographies about Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He is the greatest living explorer of our time. We hope to be able to show you these at some point. 

As you may have noticed, we are taking part in Cross Country in PE.  This week, many children went home covered in mud. Next week, if your child would like to bring in a second pair of (old) trainers to change into, specifically for Cross Country then please feel free to send them in.

On Wednesday 24th, a group of children will be performing in The Primary Dance Festival at The Palace Theatre in Southend.

Lots going on in the next few weeks!

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks - Due Thursday 26th January
Must Do

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important. You will have taken your Reading Record home for your parents to comment on. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly. Please bring your homework books back to school when you are finished so that we can check them. Thank you.
• Please make sure that your child is continuing to read and work on the Year 3 and 4 spellings which can be found in their reading record books. 

HOMEWORK PAGES

Year 3
English 
Page 50-51 - Apostrophes for Missing Letters
Maths 
Page 51 - Time (we haven't covered this in class but I'd like you to have a go with this task. Please ask you parent for help if you need it)

Year 4 
English 
Page 50-51 - Apostrophes for Missing Letters
Maths 
Page 58 - Time (we haven't covered this in class but I'd like you to have a go with this task. Please ask you parent for help if you need it)

• Accelerated Reader - when you are finished your book your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level
• Times table practice - this week we are learning our 6/7 times tables. Please practice these as we do in school.

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog and Myon or Big Cat - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.
• Maths - Year 4 will be completing their statutory Multiplication Tables Check in June this year. To this end, please can you ensure your child is regularly accessing and practicing these at: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
• This activity exactly mirrors the 'Multiplication Tables Check' that will be given to children at the end of Year 4. They are tested on their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. There are twenty-five questions and children have six seconds to answer each question and three seconds between questions. The questions are generated randomly using the same rules as the 'Multiplication Tables Check'.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Hurley, Mr Greenfield & Miss Harvey 💚

Year 3/4 Blog Post Friday 6th January 2023

 Dear Parents,

Welcome to 2023 and a new term at Down Hall Primary School. We hope that you all had a wonderful festive break and are now ready to settle in to the Spring term.

PROJECT

This term we will be looking at the story Around the World in 80 Days. The children will be learning a variety of things such as features of countries, longitude and latitude before beginning to look at different cultures within these countries. If you have any connections at all to any of the countries visited in the story and their culture please let us know as it would be great to have you share your experiences. The countries are as follows:

• France
• Italy
• Egypt
• India
• Singapore
• China
• Japan
• USA

HOMEWORK
Due to it being the first week back and the children only beginning to look at Division, we will not be setting any homework for this week to ensure that they are feeling more confident to complete homework at home. Next week however, we will be writing a biography for Ranulph Fiennes. It would be great if the children could collect any information that they can find and put onto a Google Doc to share with their teacher. 

Must Do

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes at least 3 times a week is super important. You will have taken your Reading Record home for your parents to comment on. These will be collected by teachers and checked from time to time. Please make sure you bring your book back when you are finished and your teacher can change it for you. As soon as you are ready you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3x 100% scores to move up a level.
• High Frequency Words - Learn the words in your Reading Records. Practice spelling them out loud and writing them down.
• Times table practice - this week we are looking at 4's. Please practice these as we do in school.

Can Do

• Continue logging on to TTRS, Sumdog - your logins are stuck in the front cover of your Reading Records.
• Create a shape poem to do with Bonfire Night. It could be in the shape of a firework or a bonfire. Please bring into school to share.

Welcome Back Mrs Hurley

Mrs Hurley will be returning back to school on Monday. We would like to take this moment to thank Mrs O'Connor for all her hard work in Moonstone class.

Have a fantastic weekend and stay safe!

Mr Greenfield and Miss Harvey