COURAGEOUS CHAFFINCHES

   Our Class

The teachers in Chaffinch Class are Mrs Livings and Mrs Jeffery.
The Learning support assistant in Chaffinch Class is Mrs Howell.

Courageous Chaffinch’s is a year 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 value mistakes as proof of trying. Our school values are courage, friendship, forgiveness, perseverance, curiosity, respect and love.

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 5 whole school values focus is Friendship.

 In English this term we will be focus on 'Action' and the tools a writer needs to include action in their stories, following the Pie Corbett Talk 4 Writing approach. Our model text that the children will be learning  to develop this understanding further this term is ' The cobbler of Krakow and Smok the dragon'. 

This is the  model text extract we will be using this term:

The Cobbler of Krakow and Smok the Dragon.

In the days when trees could cry and cats could fly, there lived in Poland, beside the Vistula River, an abysmal dragon called Smok.

In the beginning the thoughtless beast feasted on the people’s pets but before long, he turned his attention to grabbing young maidens. Soon it was the turn of the king’s beloved daughter to be fed to the dragon. In despair, he offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who could rid the city of this dreadful beast!

Princes came and Princes went. Some ran as soon as they clapped sight of Smok and others ventured into the darkness, beneath the city, never to be seen again. Rumours of his blazing eyes, impenetrable scales and armoured claws spread like wildfire. In the end, a bashful cobbler called Krak came to the city.
“How will you defeat the dragon without a sword?”, asked the King. Krak smiled shyly but he knew the dragon was no match for him.

Taking a cow’s skin, he carefully filled it with a secret potion, stitched it back together and threw the tainted meal down into Smok’s lair. He retired to a safe distance.

The pulsing sound of wings drew nearer and nearer. Smok swooped down and with one gulp, the carcass was gone. Immediately, his stomach roared like fire, consuming him from within. Without delay, he staggered to the River Vistula and desperately drank. With each mouthful, his stomach began to swell until his scales split and his insides seeped out onto the dry, barren land.

So it was that the cobbler married the princess and became King Krak. Having defeated the dragon, his courage and tenacity were celebrated across the land. From that day forward, the city was renamed Krakow in his honour.

Whole Class Reading

Our daily Guided Reading and VIPERS comprehension lessons will be based on the book ' Song of the Dolphin boy' by Elizabeth Laird. 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?

Please see below our a curriculum map overview, showing some of the learning our class will be covering during terms 5 and 6;  

 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 please. We expect the children to regularly read at home and practice their times tables multiplication facts too.  

Homework Grid Menu – Please complete a minimum of two of these by the end of term and bring them into school to share and celebrate your achievements.

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 help support in lessons as well as aid children in their recall and retrieval of related facts.

Please see this terms Knowledge organiser below:

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, just like it will be during 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. They have a login to Spelling Shed (also in the front of  their home/school reading journals) should they wish to practice these more at home, in a fun interactive way. 

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