We've got a busy term in Willow class! From Robinwood to Bikeability, we're going to be having lots of fun in between all the hard work we're going to be doing.

English

We're going to be writing postcards as well-known fairy tale villains and also a suspense-filled short narrative with some spooky undertones. Using our sentence stacking lessons, we will learn how to use personification, dashes and colons, a range of sentence openers and the passive voice. We will be focusing on making our writing flow, using different devices for cohesion. We will additionally be looking at a unit named 'Alma,' which will include a video as a stimulus for the children to be able to plan their own exciting (and creepy!) text. 

Maths

This term we'll be covering place value, as well as the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). We'll be briefly recapping our previous learning and then moving on rapidly to master the larger digit calculations, factors and long division. In arithmetic, we'll be honing our mental calculation skills, learning all about BODMAS and how to calculate the mean. 

Reading

Our class text this half term will be Kensuke's Kingdom. It's a great adventure story from Michael Morpurgo in which the main character embarks on a life-changing boat trip with his family that doesn't go as planned. We'll be using this text to practice our retrieval, vocabulary and inference skills and of course, begin working on our exam technique. 

Our biggest focus will be on developing our reading tastes, talking about books we read and enjoy (or not!) and helping each other broaden our reading experiences. Also, look out for the reading scrapbook coming home where our Year 6 are going to be recording their favourite reads!

PE

PE this half term is on Mondays and Fridays. We will be learning how to play tag rugby on a Monday and these lessons will be outside (weather permitting), so children are advised to wear warmer PE kit. On Fridays, we will be learning a new sport for us: handball. 

Geography

For the whole of Autumn term, our topic will be 'What makes Yorkshire great?' and we will be focusing on the physical geography of the Yorkshire dales and how rivers are formed. Much of what we learn will culminate in a river study which will take place on our trip to Malham in the Spring term. 

PSHE

We'll be getting stuck in to the fundamentals of Puberty during our RSE topic this half-term, finding out how our bodies change. 

Music

In music we will be taking part in Ukelele lessons delivered by Artforms instructors each Wednesday afternoon. We'll pick up where we left off with the instrument in Year 2, build on our skills and learn some new songs!

Computing

Using Purple Mash, we will be building on our coding knowledge to design and make our own games. We will be using more complex algorithms and debugging our own programs when they go wrong. 

Science

This half term we are studying electricity: we will be looking at the construction of circuits and explore how voltage impacts on components' looking at circuit symbols and diagrams; looking at resistance and how resistance can affect components and a range of other investigations.