Handwriting and Homework

Dear All

We hope you have all had a good week! Just to let you know that we will be having a big focus on the children's handwriting in all three classes over the next few weeks. We would like the children to show a consistently neat, legible style in all of their books.
A prize will be awarded to one child from each class who demonstrates a commitment to the improvement of their handwriting.

Homework this week is to practice the spellings from the lists that have been sent home with your child on Friday afternoon. We would encourage you to quiz your child on their spellings on a regular basis. The Year 3/4 spellings are located in your child's reading log book. It is a general expectation that your child learns their spellings and times tables along with reading on a daily basis.
Many thanks for supporting your child on their learning journey.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Hurley
Mr Greenfield
Miss Harvey

World Children's Day 2019

Down Hall marked World Children's Day 2019 by completing a range of activities including looking at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 20th November marks the 30 year anniversary of its ratification (approved). It applies to everyone under the age of 18. You are still considered to be a child until then. Rights like: Every Child has the right to life. Governments must do all they can to ensure that children survive and develop to their full potential.

So what's the problem?

Despite the UN agreeing to the rights of every child 30 years ago, their is still a lot of work to be done for children in the UK and all over the world.

• Every year, 5.4 million children die before the age of five. The majority of these deaths are from preventable causes.
• Children face many challenges now that didn’t exist before – such as online bullying, childhood obesity and climate change.
• More countries are in conflict than at any time since the Convention was written and many children are among the millions of refugees from these conflicts.

  We are going to learn about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and child rights in the past and present day. We will also imagine the best possible future for children all over the world. 

Remembrance Day

On Monday 11th November, we held a special assembly to mark Remembrance Day. Mike Davies from the Rayleigh Museum spoke to us about the importance of never forgetting those that gave our lives for us.
It was interesting to hear the last post being played live. We learned that it used to be played when a soldier died. We sat very respectfully and were able to answer some questions.
In Art, we are creating some poetry. Stay tuned for the finished product!
Lest we forget.

UK Parliament Week

In Year 3/4 this week we have been learning all about how the UK Parliament works and the history behind it.

What is UK Parliament Week?

UK Parliament Week is an annual festival that engages people from across the UK with their UK Parliament, explores what it means to them and empowers them to get involved.

The children have all taken part in a wide variety of topics including:Elections and Voting and discussions of what matters to them. We explored the issues of single use plastics, Climate Change and homelessness.

We looked in great detail at Bonfire Night and it's connection to Parliament, focusing on the key facts of the story of the Gunpowder Plot and discussion around the events that occurred and the people involved.

Democracy and The Big Vote
The children were able to set up the hall as a debating chamber. We put ourselves into groups to form out very own political leader with an elected leader. Some of the pupils gave their speech and in the afternoon children had the opportunity to vote for the pary that they thought represented the class topic the best.

The children were able to make a rosette and posters to campaign for their party.

The winning parties were:

Garnet: Heroes of the Earth

Moonstone: The Planet Savers

Opal: Home, No Home

Congratulations. It seems we have some aspiring politician's among us!

Overall, a very enjoyable week had by all!

Sparks and Spooks

Today we were lucky to have Stuart from the Essex Fire Service come and talk to us about about 2 upcoming special events. Halloween and Fireworks Night.
Stuart began by telling the children to be careful when trick of treating. Always have an adult to supervise you and never go into a strangers house. It is also best to not knock on houses that don't have any Halloween decorations as they may not wish to take part in Halloween.
It was also good to hear about the Firework Code and how to stay safe on Bonfire Night. 
Ask your child to explain what they have learned.

Stay safe and happy holidays to you.

Year 3/4 teachers

Queen’s Speech and State Opening of Parliament

On Monday 14th October, we were able to watch the ceremony. It was really great to see the places we had been to on our school trip to Westminster.

We were able to talk about these questions.

1. Where does the word Parliament come from?
2. Who is the Monarch?
3. Who works in the House of Commons?
4. What is special about a Life Peer?

Year 3/4 Homework

As you may be aware, in KS2, we have begun to trial children completing their homework through their Google accounts. A lot of the children's learning in school through not only computing lessons but across the curriculum is via the Google apps. Please bare with us as this is a new way of completing homework not only for the children but also staff and there will be some initial teething problems.

However, in the long run, it should be more beneficial to the children as it will give them instant feedback on the work they complete.

Depending on the homework, it could be completing a form where the children answer questions based on their learning that week; it could be asking the children to create a Google Doc or Google Slide with a particular focus or it could ask the children to access a particular website.

If your child is completing their homework on a tablet or a mobile, it would be easier for them to have access to Google Classroom, Drive, Docs and Slides apps. Once they have logged in, unless it is a shared device, they should not need to log in again. However, if you have a chrome browser they should be able to access everything without installing each app.

Should your child not be able to complete their homework at home, time will be given to children to do so on a device at school.

If you have any problems with accessing Google Classroom or the other apps, please see Miss Hedges directly. Should your child need support with their log in details, your child will need to speak to their class teacher directly if they do not have their details stuck in their Reading diaries.

Stone Age Homework

We are thrilled with the amazing response to this term’s Stone Age Project Homework. We wanted to share these with you. Well done to all of you who have taken such great care with your work. Your creations are brilliant! Remember there are still three weeks of the school term left. So give it a go and enjoy!
From the Year 3/4 Teachers