COURAGEOUS CHAFFINCHES

   Our Class

The teacher in Chaffinch Class is Mrs  Burelli and Mrs George.
The Learning support assistants in Chaffinch Class are Mrs Howell, Mrs Todd and Mrs Catchpole.

Courageous Chaffinch’s is a year 3, 4 and 5 class. Our classroom is a friendly welcoming place which aims to always be inclusive, caring and supportive. It is a rich learning environment,  based on our school values and our Therapeutic Thinking approach in everything we do. 

We have a super selection of books in our class book corner, the children read at school and take these books home every day. The books are appropriate to the pupils reading level and ability. The children have a daily reading record that they, their parents and their teachers can record reading progress within. We enjoy visiting our refurbished, peaceful and well equipped school library too.

Our term 1 whole school values focus is Perseverance.

In English this term we will be focusing on 'Suspense' and the tools a writer needs to build suspense in their story writing, following the Pie Corbett Talk 4 Writing approach. Our model text that the children will be exploring will support the development and understanding of these skills further and will feature here shortly. 

Whole Class Reading

Our daily Guided Reading and VIPERS comprehension lessons will be based on the book '.

The class will also regularly focus on comprehension questions linked to non fiction texts and poetry.

 This terms theme based learning focusses on living in our local area with our Key enquiry question being: How is land used in our local area?

Our  curriculum map is below, showcasing some of the learning our class will be covering during terms 3 and 4;  

curriculum map.pdf

 At Home

We set termly homework which is linked to class learning, the children select two pieces of their choice each term (or more if they wish) from a range of activities, all theme based. In addition to this English and Maths 'Keeping in Touch (KIT) homework is set weekly, which reflects current learning and supports recall of skills recently taught in class by showing last weeks, this weeks and next weeks homework all on one page. KIT homework will be sent home on Thursday and is due back into school the following Tuesday. We expect the children to regularly read at home and practice their times tables multiplication facts too.  

Knowledge organisers:

Knowledge organisers are a great way to pre teach key vocabulary and the learning themes. As well as providing key information. These can support children in lessons as well as aid children in their recall and retrieval of related facts.

Please see this terms Knowledge organiser below:

knowledge organiser natural hazards term 3.pdf

2024 information for parents multiplication tables check pdfa v1 1 copy.pdf

Times Tables

We encourage children to regularly practice their times tables at home, a really good way to prepare for the multiplication check and improve fast memory recall of multiplication facts is by  visiting  the free maths games on the website 'Timestables.co.uk' and selecting the  multiplication check game on the right hand side menu. This game adapts the questions in response to each individuals answers to work at the correct level of development and helps the pupil get use to typing in their answers using the computer keyboard whilst being timed, in the same way as it is for the actual multiplication check in June. We will also continue to send home a copy of your child's 99 club to practice. 

Spellings

Children practice their spellings in class during handwriting sessions as well as through specific teaching of spelling families. Plesae practise spellings sent home with your child/ren little and often works best.

Recommended reading for pleasure books for year 4 and year 5

year 4 reading for plesure booklist .pdf

year 5 reading for pleasure booklist .pdf