Moonstone Year 4/5

Moonstone Class 2022-2023

Mrs Burns

Welcome back to school!

The children will have PE on Friday mornings.

Please can the children have their kits in from Monday to be kept in school.

Remember to log on to your child's Class Dojo page for daily updates, photos, notices and information.  

November

So far the children have been focusing on descriptive writing and they have been working hard to arrange their sentences to make them more exciting by adding different sentence starters and a range of new and exciting adjectives. 

In maths, the children will be moving onto multiplication and division with a big focus on times tables as this will really help them in all aspects of their maths. 

We have started our new science topic 'Animals Including Humans' and have so far looked into what humans and animals require nutritionally. In the next few weeks, they will have a look at what's inside the body and begin to compare different types of skeletons.

The children will be continuing with their Egypt topic and are going to be exploring Egyptian art, looking at different types of Egyptian music and learning key map reading skills whilst locating Egypt and the River Nile.

October

In English, the children have been enjoying our new class book 'Into The Forest'. They have been busy changing and creating a new narrative and focusing on speech and using inverted commas correctly. Their stories have been inspiring and they have really taken all of the new aspects on board.

In maths, the children have been recapping addition and subtraction. We have been focusing on mental and formal written methods which have been introduced alongside concrete resources to cement their understand and bridge some of the gaps that had been missed the previous year.

We have been finishing off our science topic on 'rocks' and enjoyed carrying out an experiment to help us to identify and categorise them. This involved careful observational skills and predictions about the reaction different rocks would have to water and vinegar.

September

In English, our learning is based on our class book 'Stone Age Boy'. So far they have enjoyed discussing what they already know about the Stone Age and they are looking forward to producing some writing around the themes in the book in the coming weeks.

The first few weeks in maths we will be focusing on place value and making sure the children understand what value each number is representing. We will be using a lot of practical resources to aid learning and make sure they are secure before moving onto addition and subtraction.

Winhills now have a new online virtual school called the Diamond Online. You can find it here: 

www.diamondonline.uk 

This is where all of our lessons and tasks will now be for your child. 

Summer Term Homework

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter break. 

Firstly, there are some changes to home learning; attached is a letter that you should have received by parent mail on Friday outlining the new expectations for home learning.

Secondly, attached is the first of the fortnightly ideas for work. There are a wide range of activities, aimed at both indoors and outdoors learning, with 20 activities allowing for 2 activities per day (plus Maths Whizz, TT rock stars and reading). If you have any questions, please message me via Class Dojo.

Some useful websites for use at home:
Maths:

www.whizz.com (Maths Whizz)

ttrockstars.com (Times Tables Rock Stars)

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ Videos, lessons and worksheets all available (highly recommended!)

numbots.com (same log in as TT Rock Stars)

timestables.me.uk (Times Tables)

English:

https://ukhosted29.renlearn.co.uk/2233616 (accelerated reader)

oxfordowl.co.uk (free ebooks – sign up free)

https://subscribe.firstnews.co.uk/free-downloadable-issue/ online newspaper



https://litfilmfest.com/playlists/ (ideas for writing)

Science:

https://edu.rsc.org/resources/primary (ideas for science)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize (all subjects)

Research

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/

Sports day

Year 3 had a fantastic morning for sports day. They all tried their hardest and put all their effort into every event. They should be very proud!

July

The children have had a big focus on multiplication and times tables over the past few weeks. They have enjoyed playing different games to practice and they are beginning to see huge improvements!

In English the children have been exploring different types of poetry and they are beginning to write their own using a range of poetic features.

Rexroth visit

Year 3 had some visitors from Rexroth Bosch and were learning all about forces. They participated in 3 activities to test how much air pressure is needed to move objects.

Trust sports event

Year 3 were able to participate in a fun filled morning of sports against other schools in the trust. They competed in athletics, cricket and rounders and although they didn't win they thoroughly enjoyed the event.

June

In English, the children have been refreshing their knowledge on complex sentences. They have been busy sorting main and subordinate clauses before switching them round and ensuring they have used the correct punctuation.

Buckingham Palace

The children loved their trip to Buckingham Palace. They got to explore the Royal Mews and The Queen's Gallery and they were so well behaved throughout the day!

The children have been busy dissecting flowers and identifying the different parts of flowering plants. They then discussed the different functions and why they are important for the plant.

The children have been working incredibly hard in maths over the past few weeks and have been focusing on the four operations. They have moved onto larger numbers for division and have enjoyed writing on the tables using place value counters to help their understanding.

May

The children have really enjoyed reading our class book 'Leon and the Place Between'. They have created some brilliant stories and are now planning an alternative story ending.

April

In science the children have been exploring water transportation in plants. They observed how water travels in straight lines in tubes called xylem by using celery that had been sat in food dye.

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to St Neots Museum. We had a guided tour around the town and were shown all of the historical sites before heading back to the museum where we got to have a look at historical artifacts.

Year 3 were very lucky to have an artist come in to teach them all about digital art. They created an Egyptian landscape and architecture using computer software and were focusing on making sure everything was in proportion.

March

Year 3 have been focusing on time. over the weeks they have become more confident and are beginning to tell the time accurately to the nearest minute. We also spent some time practicing our left, right, clockwise and anticlockwise turns outside which was very fun!

In English, the children had a series of lessons to plan an alternative version of our story 'Egyptian Cinderella'.They used a range of comparative conjunctions and fronted adverbials to make their story varied and more exciting to read.

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum. They were lucky enough to have an Egyptian workshop where they could experiment with different brush sizes to create Egyptian shapes on papyrus paper. After this, they had time to explore the Egyptian artefacts in the museum.

February

In science, the children moved onto creating their own scientific experiments to test different questions about magnets. One group created a fishing rod to test whether magnets worked under water!

Moonstone have been learning all about fractions and how to add and subtract them. They have really got the hang of finding a fraction of a number.

January

Year 3 have hit the ground running and been recapping their place value knowledge before moving on to our new fraction topic.

Our new topic in science is forces and magnets. We have started the topic by investigating how cars move along different surfaces.

Moonstone and Sapphire class learning about pushing and pulling forces.

December

In maths the children have been learning all about perimeter. They have been calculating the perimeter of simple and rectilinear shapes and even carried out an investigation which they really enjoyed!

Year 3 have been creating festive poems. They have looked at spine, acrostic and when poems and have used lots of adjectives and descriptive language to bring them to life.

The children all ready for their Christmas performance.

November

In maths we have moved onto multiplication and division, the children have been working hard to make links between the two operations and are beggining to solve reasoning problems based around what they have learnt.

In English we have been creating our own stories based around our class book 'Bedtime for Monsters'. The children have been focusing on adverbial phrases and descriptive language to bring their story to life.

The children have really enjoyed learning about animals and humans in science. We have done experiments to test muscle endurance and learnt all about the human skeleton. We even created our own skeletons.

October

In maths we have be learning about addition and subtraction by using the column method. We have learnt how to exchange and made sure our columns were lined up correctly.

Year 3 have been working extremely hard in the ICE Zone. The children have learnt about the battle of Bosworth, the changes in the church and Henry VIII. They have also been designing and making fantastic dolls in the I.C.E Zone. 

The children have developed their  computer skills by learning about scratch. They have designed the backgrounds, changed the sprites and programmed the sprites to move and speak. They also showed fantastic teamwork and shared the laptops beautifully. 

In science we investigated the permeability of soil and explained our findings. We found that the soil with larger rocks was more permeable because the water had more air and space to run through. The children were fantastic scientists and made sure their tests were fair. We have also been looking at fossils and how they are formed. We even created our own!

September 2018

In the first week back at school, we spent time getting to know each other and our new teacher.

We had a special 'History off the page' Tudor Day (see photos below) where we all dressed up and learnt about how the Tudors lived.

Welcome to Moonstone Class

2017-2018

In Year 3, we are all good friends and get on well with each other. We love learning and like to do our very best work every day. Our teacher is Miss Smith and Mrs Street helps us too.

September 2017

In the first week back at school, we spent time getting to know each other and our new teacher especially on a special 'History off the page' Roman Day when we all dressed up and learnt about how the Romans lived at the time of their invasion of Britain. We took turns at making clay pots and charms, creating medicines and perfumes, writing with ink we had made ourselves and making mosaics with tiles. In the afternoon, we took part in a Roman feast, reclining on our sides while served 'wine', bread, cheese and grapes by slave girls. Our entertainment was watching drama, poetry, dancing and the military formations performed by some soldiers.

We have continued learning about the Romans in our ICE zone sessions and are especially enjoying designing and making our own shields.

In the classroom, our Maths work has been focused on place value. We have been learning: the value of each digit in three and four digit numbers; how to compare and order numbers; how to add or subtract one, ten or a hundred; and how to write numbers in numerals and in words.

In English we have thoroughly enjoyed watching a film called 'Baboon on the Moon' and using our excellent inference skills to work out why he is on the moon. At first, we thought that the baboon would be scary but he soon tugged at our heart strings and gained our sympathy. We have already written character descriptions of him and retold the whole story so, next, we are going to try to imagine what has happened in his past.

https://vimeo.com/58445945 

In Maths, we have used lots of practical apparatus to help develop our number knowledge when learning about place value and addition.

October 2017

In English, we have now finished writing stories about the 'Baboon on the Moon' and have moved onto using our brilliant ICE zone learning to help us write non-chronological reports on the theme of the Romans.

In Science, we are learning about nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet as part of a healthy lifestyle. The children helped to sort Miss Smith's huge bag of shopping into the different food groups before learning how proteins, dairy products, carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables help the human body to grow.

After lots of work on addition, the children are great at solving all sorts of calculations so, after half term, we will move onto subtraction.

They have also completed writing their non-chronological reports on The Romans and on Healthy Lifestyles.

November 2017

Since coming back to school after half-term, we have been working really hard and Miss Smith is very impressed at the progress that the children have all made since September.

In Maths, we are working on subtraction by practising different strategies including taking away, counting back and even counting on a small number of steps to find the difference. We are getting really good at  mentally taking away units, multiples of 10 and multiples of 100, even in word problems.

In our English lessons, we have started reading a book called 'The Diary of a Killer Cat' by Anne Fine. We have made predictions about what we think may happen and have been using our inference skills to answer some really in-depth questions. In our grammar lessons we have been revising verb tenses and plurals as well as the names of the different word classes.

As part of our Science learning on 'Animals including Humans', we have begun to learn about the human skeleton. We now know the special names of some of the 206 bones and about the skeleton's three functions (protection, support and movement).

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their very first DLPT Sports Tournament taking part in football, netball and dodgeball matches against three other schools. They made everyone very proud by working hard, demonstrating fantastic team work and having lots of fun. As a added bonus, they were thrilled to finish 2nd overall. They have written letters to Mr Franco to say thank you for doing such a good job of organising everything. .

December 2017

December is always a very busy time in school with lots of practising for the Key Stage 2 carol concert as well as working hard in all subjects and making end of unit assessments. Year 3 have done themselves proud in every way! Below are some photos of some great learners.

January 2018

Happy New Year

Since coming back to school after the Christmas holidays, there have been a few changes to the Year 3 timetable. On Thursday mornings, Mr Suali teaches Indian drumming, dance and singing. Everyone is really enjoying the sessions.

In the first full week of January, the whole of KS2 held a Science Day with the children being split into 4 groups and taking part in four different Biology activities. These are photos of children investigating how their heartbeat changes before, during and after exercise.

Our new English topic for this term is very exciting as we are going to be learning about a book called 'Arthur and the Golden rope' which is set in a Viking land filled with magical objects, powerful gods and mythical beasts. Already, we have lots of thoughts and questions based on the detailed illustration from the endpapers.

This is Sasha who is a 'reading dog' and comes to visit us some Wednesday afternoons. She is very sweet-natured, loves being stroked and listens really well when we take it in turns to read to her.

In Science, we have been learning about light and have carried out investigations to find out whether materials are transparent, translucent or opaque. We have also used mirrors to explore reflections and wrote some great accounts of our observations.

We used all sorts of materials from our scrap shed to build large Viking ships on the playground. We had to co-operate with others and follow our designs to build ships large enough to sit in and sing our Viking chants. It was so much fun and the experience will help us when we come to write diary accounts of Viking voyages across the sea from Norway to Britain.

February 2018

Year 3 had a fantastic time learning all about Viking life from our special Viking visitor. He used a  'human timeline' to help the children learn about when it was that the Vikings came to England and he showed them a selection of replica Viking weapons while explaining about many aspects of life. The children used clay to create their own carved runestones and learnt to play two different Viking board games including Hnefatafl. The children also took part in some role play where they pretended to be villagers hiding their valuables before the Vikings raided and tried to find them!

March 2018

Year 3 have had another very few weeks learning about fractions in Maths. At first, they thought this might be very difficult but cutting up cakes, pancakes and pizzas helped to make it much more fun! The children have learnt to compare, order, add and subtract fractions with the same denominator as well as learning about some equivalent fractions. They can now use division to find a fraction of a number and can solve all sorts of fraction problems too.

It was a lovely sunny day when we walked 4 times around the school field to raise money for charity through the Sport Relief Mile.

April 2018

This has been a really exciting month in moonstone class. The children have launched themselves into an exciting new ICE zone topic...South America. Already, the children have started researching different countries in the continent to write their own fact files full of information about the language, population, currency and flag as well as some of the physical and man-made features of the country.

In the ICE zone, a rainforest - complete with sounds - seems to have grown up overnight and is inspiring the children to write 'spine' poems about rainforest animals. First of all, we chose five nouns to be the spine of our animal poem and then added description before and after each noun to make the poem interesting.

Sloth

Soft, fluffy fur all over his round body

Jet black eyes surrounded in fur

Circular, shiny nose as dark as night

Razor sharp, curved claws for gripping branches

Cute sloth climbing and creeping as slow as a snail.

Jaguar

Triangular ears listening for the sound of swaying leaves

Yellowy green eyes focused on his prey

Long, stripy tail swishing from side to side

Beautiful, soft fur patterned for camouflage

Scary, fierce jaguar hunting in the Amazon Rainforest.

May 2018

Year 3 are really enjoying their Science and Geography topic this half term. They are learning all about 'Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Rocks and Soil' and have written some excellent explanations of how mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes are created. They have also learnt how to sort rocks into different groups.

This half term, in addition to PE with Mr Franco, Moonstone class have had cricket coaching and also weekly outdoor activities with an instructor from Grafham Water Centre. They have so enjoyed taking part in team building, map reading and orienteering that the teachers and TAs have started including similar activities into the outside ICE zone learning.

Every week, one Maths lesson is based around investigations and problem solving. These challenges also require good team and partner work!

June 2018

Now that the children have learnt how fossils are actually formed, they have had fun making some replica fossils using plaster of paris and small plastic animals. Everyone was actually very surprised that the process was successful and are planning to write instructions so that other children could make their own 'fossils'.

Huge congratulations to Year 3 who made everyone proud at their DLPT sports morning. Although they didn't win, they showed fantastic attitude, enthusiasm and team work. Best of all, they had lots of fun taking part in netball, rounders and multi-skills!

Year 3 have loved learning about the history of the Earth and have spent time exploring timelines and story books which present the facts in a fun way.

July 2018

To link with their Science work on plants and with their ICE zone Geography learning about the Amazonian Rainforest, Year 3 visited Kew Gardens for the day. Despite the very high temperatures, they all had a brilliant time and were stunned by incredible plants and trees. Particular highlights were the slightly scary 'Treetop Walkway', the hot and humid tropical house where they saw bananas and coffee growing, the stunning 'Hive' which had flashing lights to mirror the communications of bees in a real hive and also the amazing cacti in the Princess of Wales glasshouse. The children even saw tropical fish and a real iguana but Miss Smith's favourite was the Lily House with its beautiful flowers and enormous lily pads.

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Moonstone Class 2016-2017

Miss Brock

Summer Term

This week Year 3 and Year 5, researched, planned and wrote their own childrens book, then the children read their stories to the Reception children.

Year 3 and 5 worked hard and really well as a team to ensure their book was ready for copying and binding. The Reception children seemed to thoroughly enjoy the stories.

Moonstone class have been extremely busy in their English lessons by learning three different poems for the St Noets poetry festival. The children have learnt the poems off by heart and with actions. In year 3 all the children have innovated their own poem in the style of the 'Scissors' by Allan Ahlberg. On Friday the children performed the three learnt poems in front of the other schools from the St Neots area.

In Maths the children have met the 'Angle Family'. We have been learning the different names and types of angles there are. All the children took part in an angles investigation and hunt. We explored the classroom and outside for all the different angles we could find. The children enjoyed learning and exploring the different types of lines, showing how to make the lines with their bodies.

In Science Moonstone class have just started a new topic of 'Forces and Magnets'. So far the children have learnt different types of forces, what a force is and what friction is!