West Leigh Juniors Weekly News

Year 3

It has been another fantastic week in Year 3 and the children have all been working incredibly hard across the curriculum. In English, they have continued developing their legends by introducing the problem within their narrative as well as writing resolutions to end their stories effectively. They explored a range of writing techniques to enhance their work, including using paragraphs, fronted adverbials, “show not tell," powerful verbs to engage the reader and similes to add vivid descriptive detail. The children also spent time reviewing and editing their writing to further improve and refine their ideas.  In layered reading lessons, the children continued exploring London Through Time. They compared modern-day London with earlier versions of the city and practised using skimming and scanning skills to locate evidence within the text. They went on to learn how to create mind maps to organise information and support their explanations and justifications.  In maths, the children have been learning about statistics. They interpreted tables and bar charts and enjoyed creating their own charts using class data. They also explored sorting and classifying information using Venn diagrams, focusing on number properties such as multiples of 3 and 4, as well as odd and even numbers.  In science, building on last week’s learning about pollination and fertilisation, the children investigated how seeds are formed. They thoroughly enjoyed closely observing different fruits to identify and compare the seeds inside. The children explored how seeds can vary in size, shape and position, and engaged thoughtfully in discussions about their findings.  A message for next week: We will be starting our DT project. On Friday, the children will complete some research into toys with moving mechanisms. If possible, it would be wonderful if your child could bring in a toy with moving parts, such as a pop-up toy, pulley toy, or wind-up toy. There is no pressure to bring something in, but any contributions would be greatly appreciated!  We hope you all have a lovely and restful weekend. 

PE Days Summer 1

3T

• Indoor PE - Tuesday
• Outdoor PE - Friday

3H

• Indoor PE - Wednesday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

3L

• Indoor PE - Monday
• Outdoor PE - Friday

3M

• Indoor PE - Tuesday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

Swimming

• 3H - Monday
• 3L – Tuesday
• 3T – Wednesday
• 3M – Wednesday

Year 4

We have come to the end of another week where the children have worked diligently and conscientiously.  In English lessons, we have been working on our oracy and how to perform a playscript in readiness for our upcoming Year 4 performances.  The children have also begun their unit on biographies. We began by identifying the features of a range of biographies about Usain Bolt. In addition to this, the children were introduced to our new Layered Reading text, The Butterfly Lion. Once the main character had been established, the children gave reasons and justifications for the characters' actions. In maths, the focus was on fractions and decimals. The children have identified the place value of digits within decimal numbers and have completed addition and subtraction calculations using fractions with the same denominators. Some children have used their knowledge of multiplication and division to calculate equivalent fractions and fractions of amounts. Other children used their knowledge to solve problems involving fractions and decimals. As historians, the children studied the history of the Ferris wheel. They arranged facts and photos into chronological order and created a timeline to show this information. As artists, we have focused on the work of L.S. Lowry and have examined a range of his paintings and their features. In order to create a Lowry painting of their own, the children have looked in detail at the way he represented people, and have mimicked his style to produce some of their own ‘matchstick figures’.