Narnia

Welcome to the Narnia Class

Year 3 and 4

Class Teacher - Miss Houlden
 
Teaching Assistants - Mrs Palmer, Mrs Sharp and Miss Tupper
 
follow us on Twitter: @CaythorpeSchool
 
Our enquiry questions for this term are: 
Humanities - What have we learnt from the Ancient Egyptians?
Science - How humans have impacted the environment?
RE - Where do we belong?
 
“Narnia! It's all in the wardrobe just like I told you!”
― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

English

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. Our learning of English will be consolidated through our topic work.

We will use the strategy of Talk for writing which is based on the principles of how children learn. It enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.
 
Class Reading - We teach the skills of reading through daily whole class reading sessions using high-quality and challenging texts, which are dissected by the class through high-level questioning and discussion. Texts are usually linked to an aspect of the curriculum children are currently learning.

Individual Reading - Reading is a great way to occupy your time and develop your imagination. Children should be reading at least 15 minutes per day and also be sharing a book, ideally at bedtime, with an adult. Once children have read the book, get them to answer questions about the characters and their feelings or even write a book review.

At Caythorpe, we strive to develop a reading for pleasure culture. In Key Stage Two children use the Accelerated Reader Program. A student reads a book, takes an online quiz at school, and gets immediate feedback. Students respond to regular feedback and are motivated to make progress with their reading skills. Children have an opportunity to quiz and change their reading books everyday. However it is helpful if reading diaries are signed to ensure children are reading, engaging and understanding what they read. Please ensure you listen to your child read regularly and sign their reading diaries.

Oxford Owl - Oxford Owl is an award-winning free website. It’s packed with up to date expert advice, top tips and activity ideas so you can support your child’s reading and maths at home in the best possible way. The site also has 250 free eBooks which are also tablet friendly.

Maths

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
  • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
  • can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems
 We believe every child can do maths. At Caythorpe, we follow the White Rose scheme of work. The scheme follows a journey to mastery approach. It would take several years to master addition, so what we do is break the journey down into small steps, spending time carefully considering each. Through intelligent practice and building up experience of different contexts, gradually we move towards mastery where pupils are fluent in the unfamiliar and can apply their skills in any new situation.

Daily arithmetic practise is vital for mathematical fluency. As a school we subscribe to Times Table Rock Stars. We encourage children to play daily accessing using their username and password (available from your class teacher). Become a Rock God or Goddess, challenge your friends to a rock slam and watch out for tournaments set by your class teachers!
 
What to do if your child says "I hate Maths!" A helpful video

PSHCE and Well-Being

Please see below five factsheets for parents and practitioners with the aim of providing information by using trauma awareness about children's and adult's emotional behaviour: You may access the full Rockpool website via the link.
  • This is a link for older children on Flight/Fight and feeling anxious.
  • This is a link  takes you to a really nice video that the whole family can watch – you can even make the ‘Glitter jars’ if you have the right stuff.
 
The following fact sheets have other useful links to helpful videos and activities.

PE

Physical Activity has 3 main benefits. - Reduces level of stress, anxiety and depression - Increases levels of confidence, wellbeing and ‘brain power’ - Strengthens immune system and improves sleep. 

Please can your child keep a named PE kit in school all week (dark shorts and/or jogging bottoms, a white T-shirt and trainers or plimsolls.) If the weather is fine, PE may take place outdoors so please make sure your child has an outdoor kit. Please can you also ensure that all items of school clothing are named to prevent any mix-ups at the end of the day.

Connect with the class with Class Dojo

We have recently began to use Class Dojo to connect with parents and share photos and videos of all of the wonderful things that take place in school. Any parent can connect with their child’s class story and view their child’s reward points. Parents receive an invite to their email address or we can print you a connection code. You can download the Apple App or Android App on your phone or tablet or visit the website.

Useful Links and Online Games to support learning.
 
Stone Age Homework Help - useful facts and timelines for The Stone Age
 
Kids Britannia - Online information for The Stone Age

Rainforest Diaramas - For the creative members of Narnia - Rainforest dioramas are often made from an old shoe box to start with.

Rainforest Animals - Great pictures of some of the wonderful animals which live in the rainforest. The concise facts on some of them is ideal for primary aged children.

Virtual Treehouse - Climb up to our Treehouse to play games and explore the many wonders of the rainforest

Jewels of the Earth - Play this game to see if you can place unique rainforest flora and fauna in their correct forest layers!.

My World - What would your life be like if your backyard was a rainforest? Find out by exploring My World. Students in the community of Paso Caballos in northern Guatemala took snapshots to teach you about their lives. Paso Caballos is part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest stretch of contiguous rainforest north of the Amazon. It's an important habitat for rainforest animals and others that migrate from colder climates to spend winters in tropical forests

ICT Games - A great range of online numeracy and literacy games to practice specific skills.

Viking Quest Game - Go on a Viking Quest - Play the game of 'Viking Quest', which takes you back to AD 793. Can you build a ship, cross the seas, loot a monastery and return home to claim your prize? Your chief has set the challenge, it's up to you to respond.

Victorious Vikings - a useful homework page!

Anglo-Saxon Game - a fun, interactive history game! Flash player is needed to play.

Who were the Anglo-Saxons - Great Homework help here

More Anglo-Saxon facts

Bitesize Science KS2 - Want to know about how our world and all the things in it work? We look at materials, energy, light and sound; and, even observe humans, plants and animals in this section.

Science Clips - explore the science investigations

Homework Help - an excellent site for all matters of homework

Disaster Master - Can you help the heroes make the right choices to manage the disasters?

Helpful volcano facts for homework - primary homework help is always a useful site for fascinating facts and pictures

Find Ancient Egyptian homework help here!

Hieroglyphs - Find out about the Ancient Egyptian writing system.

Making a Mummy - Learn how to make an Ancient Egyptian mummy and how a pharaoh was prepared for their tomb.

Time Travelling - Travel through the time tunnel to find out about he Ancient Egyptians.

Healthy Active Kids - great online games - test your knowledge of how to keep healthy here!

Rainforest Information - useful for homework tasks

The Rainforest Alliance - More useful information and fun games

Play Mummy Maker - Click the link to enter the embalmer's workshop, where you are to prepare the body of Ramose, officer to the king, for burial.The chief embalmer, Kha, will be watching your work closely. Complete your task perfectly, or he will be denied paradise.

Homophones - Practise spelling tricky homophones by playing this game.

Find out more about mummification here!

Homework

Children will be given a homework book in which to complete tasks and every term a set of tasks which your child can select to complete, they can be completed in any order. Our homework challenges are designed to develop and extend your child’s understanding and enjoyment of the topic they are learning about in school. They are cross curricular, covering a range of subjects to enable children to succeed at their own level and demonstrate their own strengths. The Homework challenges will support your child’s learning in school. We share and celebrate children's home learning weekly as a class weekly. A copy of this term's homework tasks can be downloaded below.