Street Tag

Thank you to all the families who have signed up for Street Tag. It is lovely to see so many families being involved.  You may have noticed that the leaderboard reset yesterday (26 September 2024).  We are now in the Street Tag window which runs until 18 November 2024. The school that collects the most Street Tags in this period will receive a prize from Malvern Hills District Council.  There are also individual prizes for families who collect the most Street Tags. If you have not already done so please sign up to the app.  It is completely free and user friendly.

 Let's get Abberley to the top of the leaderboard!

Thank you to all the parents who were able to join us for our phonics workshop on Thursday.  We hope you found the morning useful and gained a little bit of insight into what your child's school day looks like!  The children are doing really well in their phonics and are already beginning to blend sounds to read words.  This week they will be bringing home their first Little Wandle reading book.  The first books in our Little Wandle scheme are wordless.  However, the beautiful illustrations create lots of learning opportunities. For example, discussing new vocabulary, playing I-spy, counting and using positional language, retelling stories and relating the illustrations to their own life experiences.  Once the children are blending confidently, they will move onto worded books which match the phonemes they have been taught.  The reading diary that accompanies this book is for you to comment on reading with your child.  If you would like to record any other favourite stories you have shared with your child in the Reading Diary, we would love to hear about them.  If you have any further questions in relation to phonics or reading, please catch me in the playground before or after school.  From next week we will be changing our book change day to a Thursday.  Please send in your child's Little Wandle reading book, Reading Diary, library book and orange phonics book on a Thursday.

In maths this week, we have been looking at measure.  The children used lots of size related vocabulary to order objects by size and build houses of the appropriate shape and size for our small world animals.   In topic, we used Google Earth to explore an aerial (birds' eye) view of our school.  We then created our own aerial plans of the school.

Please can I ask the children not to bring toys from home to school if possible.  I do appreciate that some children like to bring a comfort item to school and of course, this is not a problem.  If that is the case, please can you ensure the item is small enough to fit in your child's tray.

In a few weeks, we will be starting the "Marvellous Me" box which will provide all the children in the class with the opportunity to bring in some of their favourite or special items to share with the class.

I hope you have a lovely weekend and it stays dry.

This week in English, the children finished writing their product description of their disgusting sandwiches. They had to think carefully about their vocabulary choices to make someone want to eat their disgusting sandwich. We also have been learning about slogans and rhetorical questions.

In maths this week, we have had a big focus on number lines. The children have learnt the difference between number lines and number tracks. Using their knowledge of number, the children have been solving missing numbers and estimating on the number lines, as well as reasoning as to how they know.

In science, we looked into what plants need to be healthy and grow. The children already had good prior knowledge of this and so they were challenged to write instructions on how to care for a plant. They also considered what would happen if a plant had the wrong temperature and too much or too little water and sunlight.

In computing this week, the children have been practising logging on and off with their own usernames and passwords. They have also been practising their mouse and keyboard skills to navigate to Sketchpad. On Sketchpad, they have been creating a pattern using different sized images and colours.

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and a coat suitable for the weather

Thursday & Friday: PE kits

In English at the beginning of the week, the children put together their newly acquired skills to create a missing poster for Varjak Paw. They used possessive apostrophes, expanded noun phrases and a variety of prefixes to describe Varjak's appearance and where he was last seen. They wrote drafts and then designed beautiful and eye-catching posters which will be on display.

At the end of the week the children began to explore and highlight key features of a non-chronological report. They looked at a variety of animal fact files and highlighted features such as the title, subheadings, paragraphs and technical language. This will build into the children writing their own non-chronological report in the weeks to come.

In maths, Y3 have been comparing and ordering numbers up to 1000. The children have been using a place value grid to make sure that the value of each digit is clear and then using inequality signs to show their answers. Y4 have been revisiting their learning about rounding numbers to 10 and we have extended this to rounding to the nearest 100 and 1000.

In science, the children learned about igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. They used their computing skills to research how each of these rocks are formed and to find different examples of each type.

In PSHE, we talked about community and the different roles that people play in the children's lives. The children worked in groups to discuss how these roles helped them in school.

In geography,  we looked at the human features of Antarctica, focussing on who visits and lives there as well as looking at how people adapt to life in a polar climate.

In English, the students have been enhancing their dictionary skills by finding words based on their spelling. They've also embarked on their first writing project of the year: a diary entry from the perspective of August, our main character from the book Wonder. The children have been working diligently to incorporate relevant features and express their creativity.

In maths, we continued our exploration of place value, specifically focusing on rounding numbers up to 10,000,000. Initially, some students found this challenging, but after discovering strategies that work for them, many were able to answer questions with confidence and fluency.

In science, we delved into the concept of natural selection, learning about the speckled moth during the Industrial Revolution. The students examined the changes in the populations of light peppered moths and dark peppered moths and they articulated these changes clearly.

In our design and technology lessons, we have been learning to sew focusing on the running stitch and blanket stitch. The children have had ample practice with these stitches in preparation for creating their stuffed toys. We’ve now created felt templates and look forward to attaching the appendages next week.

Please see below information within the community but independent of the school