Year 3/4 - Sandpipers
Summer Term 2010
Maths.
This term in Year 3/4 the children have been continuing to make quality informed choices about their learning. The children have covered all aspects of mathematics and have been able to move within the groups so that they are constantly working at a level which is appropriate for them and gives them the possibility of progressing well. The choices that they make, in conjunction with the adults in the class have become increasingly well chosen during the year.
Ukulele Day.
In June, all of the year 3/4 children went the Devon Music Service Mix Festival at Westpoint Showground in Exeter. They were attending to take part in a World Record attempt to have the most ukuleles playing the same piece at the same time. The record currently stands at 851, which was set in London in the summer of 2009. Unfortunately, only 778 people turned up to play, so the record attempt failed, but the children had a fantastic time learning to play Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’. During the day they also took part in a ceilidh workshop and took part in the ‘Big Sing’, joining in with around 5000 others in a giant sing-a-long to 3 songs, including one (La Bamba) where the children learned to salsa, as well.
Quad Kids.
The children also took part in a Quad Kids athletics event at school. The event is part of a national initiative sponsored by UK Athletics. The children all took part in 4 events, 50 m sprint, 400m run, howler throw (rugby ball with flights on the back) and standing long jump. The results can be found on the Devon Quad Kids Website at http://www.quadkids.org/counties/county.aspx?countyID=11&origurl=&type=All results
Spring 2010
In Maths the children in Year 3/4 are continuing to develop their independence in assessing the skills that they have developed and what they need to do in order to make further progress. They work closely, in collaboration with the adults in the classroom in order to do this. All the children will continue to learn skills that they can transfer into many contexts, to help them with their knowledge and understanding of number, calculation, measuring, data handling and shape.
Big Schools’ Birdwatch
We had a fantastic morning watching birds from our classroom windows and recording what we saw. The children have worked really hard on this project researching birds and making feeders and this really paid off on the survey day as we had lots to see. The children have learnt to identify lots of different species of bird and we recorded sparrows, long tailed tits, coal tits, goldfinches and blue tits to name but a few. We will be using all of this data soon in our maths when we start our data handling unit and we have also submitted our results to the RSPB.
We rounded off our hour of bird watching in true bird watching fashion with hot chocolate and biscuits
Music
In Music this term the children are learning to play the ukulele. They will learn to play simple melodies and chords, so that they can accompany their own singing.
Dance
In PE the children are learning the skills needed to play tennis. They are developing their co-ordination with the racket and learning how hard to hit the ball in order to get it to land where they want it to. This will develop into games of short tennis, towards Easter, and culminate in a mini Year 3/4 tournament.
The children are also choreographing their own dances, based on the story of the Mousehole Cat. The performance of these dances will take place at the end of term, in our Dance Festival, when our Comenius partners (from Spain and Italy) are visiting us.