KESTRELS - Years 4 & 5

Welcome to the Kestrel's Class Page!

Our Spring Term Topic Is the Bright Lights,Big City.

This term our topic will be based on Liverpool. We will be looking at authors from Liverpool and literature about Liverpool. We will also be focusing on the buildings and skyline in our art lessons. 

Below you will find information regarding the spring term curriculum. At the bottom of the page, you will find links to Maths games.

Online SPAG and Read Theory Practise

The children have received passwords to access the SPAG and Read Theory practise questions at home. Their passwords will either be stapled to the front inside cover of their homelink books or stapled to the front of the homework sheet that they received at the end of the Spring term. If the children could complete SPAG and Read Theory practise regularly at home, this would really support their progress at school. The tests do not take very long and the programmes enable the tracking of their progress both at school and at home, so you can see how they are getting on.

Thank you 

Some important information:

• Please ensure that your child/children bring in their Home-school link books/Reading Journals to school every day.
• Please encourage your child to read three times a week and record a small summary (independently) in their Reading Journals.
• Physical Education (P.E) will be every Monday afternoon - please ensure your child has their kit in school.
• Swimming is every Tuesday afternoon.
• Homework will be given out on a Friday and is due back in every Thursday (or earlier) if possible.

Other useful information:

• P.E. (Kit needed): Monday 
• Book change: Please encourage your child to bring in their reading books daily - books will be changed when requested during group read sessions.
• Homelink books (Pink books): Please encourage your child to place their homelink book into the basket independently each morning.
• Reading journals (Purple books): Please encourage your child to record their reading themselves and put their journals into the reading journal basket each morning.
• Homework folders: Given out on Fridays - due back every Wednesday or earlier.
• Spelling test: Thursdays - the new practice sheets will be provided on Friday for the following week ahead. The new spelling rule or pattern will be taught on Monday.
• Big maths: Thursdays - the CLIC and Learn It tests are completed in class and sent home on Fridays to practice.

Useful websites:

Below is a list of websites that may be useful when practicing times tables and place value.

When practicing times tables, as well as the websites above, you could play games, sing songs, make up rhymes, or use flash cards. Remember that children should be able to recall facts out of order without working up from 1 x something.

We are currently learning about place value in class. Below is a link to the place value game that children have been playing in class - it may be useful to play this game at home to increase your child's confidence with value and support their learning in class. 

There are a variety of ideas on the internet! You could try typing 'fun ways to learn multiplication tables' or 'fun ways to learn place value' into a search engine. The key to learning times table facts is regular practice in short bursts. For example, on the way home, in the car, or when going up to bed.