Dear pupils, 1. This half term your topic will be on continue to be based around Italy. Literacy: You will have the opportunity to:  develop vocabulary through working on powerful adjectives, verbs and adverbs.  Analysing/annotating and writing free verse.  look at the organisation and key features of instructional texts.  write a diary entry based on the DVD of Lost and Found.  write a non-chronological report about penguins(Use the DVD of The March of the Penguins)  Spelling, punctuation, and grammar activities focusing on collective nouns, silent letters, commas to separate clauses and subordinate clauses. Mathematics: Over the course of this half term, the main areas in Mathematics that we will cover are as follows:  learning times tables and practise doubling/halving,  understanding how to read and write fractions and decimals; recognise two fractions that equal 1 whole, finding fractions of amounts.  revise the four rules addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,  Revise place value of decimal numbers  Converting forms of measurement and reading scales accurately  Reading/drawing/ interpreting bar charts and pictographs  throughout the term, we will be applying our knowledge to solve word problems and puzzles. Design Technology: Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on food technology. This will be linked to our geography topic of Italy and we will be looking at different types of Italian food and make a pizza. Science: In Science, you will be finding out about sound. We will be focusing on how sounds are made, how it travels through materials, pitch and loudness. Geography: Continuing with our work on Italy researching food. Then we will focus on the city of Rome; its monuments, people and customs. I.C.T: Using the internet for research on food/Rome. We will also be creating hyperlinks to specific websites. Dataloggers for our science work on sound. Physical Education: You will need your Games kit on Wednesdays (games skills – outside). If possible, can you leave the PE and Games kits in school every day so that they are not forgotten. Classes 4MC and 4R will do P.E on a Monday and 4M on a Tuesday. Remember to take out earrings and preferably leave watches at home. PLEASE LABEL YOUR KIT WITH YOUR NAME! PPA time: Our Planning, Preparation and Assessment time is on a Wednesday afternoons from 1.15pm3.10pm. You will have Games with Chelsea, Music with Mrs. Morton and English Comprehension, spelling and grammar tasks with Mrs. McKenna. Homework: Homework will be set on a Thursday and is expected in on the following Tuesday. Homework will be based on work covered in class and will consist of either Maths or Literacy work. Spellings will also be sent home and a test will take place the following week. On occasion, you may be asked to conduct some research for future lessons on a particular topic. Children will be expected to read for at least 5 minutes every day. Times tables tests will be carried out regularly in each class. Mrs Reid, Mrs Moore/Mrs Casey & Miss May