Aspiring Acers
Teacher: Mrs Twist and Miss Delaney
Teaching Assistant: Mrs Luda
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Aspiring Acers and Excellent Elms
Excellent Elms
Teacher: Miss Wiggins
Teaching Assistant: Miss Zareba
Aspiring Acers
Our classrooms are well organised to promote the children’s independence and to ensure the best from all of our children. Both classrooms have working walls for English and Maths to aid the children with their work. We also celebrate children’s fantastic work by displaying it around our classrooms.
Excellent Elms
Aspiring Acers’ School Councillor
Kojo
Aspiring Acers’ Eco Councillor
Leo
Every class has at one school councilor to help share their classes’ views and make changes across the school.
We also have an eco council with a representative from each class. These children meet to discuss ideas about how to make our school more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
Excellent Elms’ School Councillor
Amelia
Excellent Elms Eco Councillor
Tatiana
Aspiring Acers’ Dojo Masters:
Twinkle and Tanvi
Every class has at least 2 Dojo masters. They are role models of excellent behaviour, always showing the FIRSY values of Fascinated, Independent, Respectful, Sociable and You can do it!
Excellent Elms’ Dojo Masters:
Sienna and Marwah
Click on the tabs below to find out more information about each topic. Throughout the year we will also add pictures of memorable experiences and hooks!
Mighty Metals
In this topic we will be learning all about life from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. We will look at evidence found by archaeologists and consider different viewpoints about the past. In Science we will be learning about light and sound. In Art we will be improving our sketching skills and making our own cave paintings. RE lessons will focus on Christian beliefs. During PSHE we are thinking about rules, how we treat others and the special people in our lives. Computing lessons will focus on using data loggers to record sound and light. In MFL we will be learning about how people communicate and starting our very first lessons in Latin.
Our Maths lessons in Year 3 this half term will focus on Place Value and Addition and Subtraction. We will also be regularly practising times tables.
In History we will be learning about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. This will include learning about resistance to Roman rule and Boudicca’s revolt. In Art, we will be further improving our sketching skills, creating our own pictures of Roman emperors. We are really looking forward to our Design and Technology unit which is about food and nutrition. We will be investigating, designing and making focaccia bread. Our computing unit is all about technology in our lives. We will be continuing to investigate Latin, learning about verbs, word order and questions.
In our Maths lessons, Year 3 will be focusing on Addition and Subtraction and Multiplication and Division. Year 4 will be focusing on Area and Multiplication and Division. We will continue to practise our timestables daily.
In this full term unit, we will learn all about the city we live in. We will be conducting a local History study which will focus on the railways and the impact they had on Derby and Great Britain. Our Science unit will be all about plants, including their parts and how they grow. In Geography we will be developing our map skills and doing some field work, surveying traffic in different locations and looking wider at the United Kingdom too. In Art, we will be learning about architecture and improving our skills in printing by learning to monoprint. We will be continuing our learning in Latin, finding out about adjectives and using the main verb at the end of sentences.
In Maths, Year 3 will be completing multiplication and division, length and perimeter, fractions and mass and capacity.
In Year 4 pupils will be looking at multiplication and division, fractions, length and perimeter and decimals.
Focus text:
Hook
Experiences
We will be doing a tour of Derby city centre, looking at significant places, buildings and monuments.
During this half term, we will be comparing human and physical features in Geography. We will be looking at similarities and differences between places including Derbyshire, The Amalfi Coast and the Amazon Rainforest. We are especially looking forward to our fieldwork in the Peak District. In Science we will be learning about living things and their habitats. Our computing unit is focused on multi-media, creating stop-motion animations. We will be continuing our learning in Latin.
Focus Text
Coming soon!
In our History lessons, we will be learning about Ancient Greece. We will be looking at the ancient Greek city states and the impact Greece has on our lives even today. In Art, we will be designing and making a 3D box in clay. Our learning in Design and Technology will be all about levers, linkages and moving parts.
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Reading
Mrs Twist and Miss Wiggins will be reading to us everyday. Our book for this half term are:
The Firework-Makers Daughter – Phillip Pullman
Rooftoppers – Katherine Rundell
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers – Mordicai Gerstein
Way Home – Libby Hathorn
Talk for Writing – Non-Fiction
In our English unit this term we will be completing two non-fiction texts. The first shall be a discussion text using the model text: “Should children do homework?”. We will be arguing reasons for and against if graffiti should be banned, using a range of fronted adverbials and conjunctions to help us.
We will then move onto looking at using letters as a tool for recounting. We will be using the present perfect tense and using the character Lila from the Firework Makers Daughter. We will be writing a letter from her, to her father and improving on the letters she writes in the book!
Poetry
We will also be looking at poetry this half-term. We will be using the poem ‘The Sound Collector’, ‘Thinker’s Rap’ and ‘Slowly’ to inspire us as we write Limericks! We will have the chance to perform our poems in front of our class too!
Our Experiences and Opportunities
We do lots of exciting things throughout the year, this may be part of our topic or additional experiences.
Memorable Experience
December 10th – Geography Field Work – Date TBC
Music
We are really lucky to have specialist music teachers who will be teaching violin to all Year 4 children every Monday for the whole year.
Year 3s will be learning songs following the theme of Bringing us all together. We will be using glockenspiels to aid our learning too!
Memorable experience photos coming soon!
Year 3 will be swimming every Wednesday until February half term. Please ensure your child brings a swimming costume and towel.
PE for Year 4 is on Wednesday.
The children will change for PE in school so please ensure they have their kit ready. They can leave this in school if you like.
Home learning will be sent out every Friday and will need to be returned by Wednesday the following week. Your child is able to complete it at lunchtimes in school if that is needed, just speak to their class teacher.
Useful Links for Learning
English
Albanian
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Latvian
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Slovak
Spanish
Urdu
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Part of the Derby Diocesan Academy Trust (DDAT) family of schools
Registered Address: Unit 3 Top Floor Endcliffe Mount, Deepdale Business Park, Ashford Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire. DE45 1GT
Tel: 0333 3554353, Email: info@ddat.org.uk