Sycamore Newsletter Term 4 – ‘Evolution and Inheritance’

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Dear Parents,

I hope you have had a lovely half term break! Our topic for term 4 is ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ and we will also be continuing our work on classification and adaptation. We will be doing some research on Charles Darwin and Mary Anning to help us understand some of the science behind evolution. In our guided reading, we will be doing some work on non-fiction texts and understanding how these are structured to create our own in our Literacy lessons. In maths, we will be refreshing our memories on some of the areas we focused on in Term 1, and doing some work with statistics and formulas.

On Thursday 30^th March, we are off to the Natural History Museum in London. A letter including further details will be sent out in a couple of weeks. Thank you to those who have returned the slips and paid.

Please could I remind you that permission slips and payment need to be in by Friday 10^th March.

Reading	Please read with your child regularly, even if it is just one page. Their books and book bags will need to be in everyday for 1:1 reading. You may like to add a positive or helpful comment in their homework diary, but please acknowledge the fact that the book has been read by signing and dating in the comments space. A member of staff will be checking homework diaries on a Friday and children are expected to have read at least 3 times a week with an adult.
Spellings	Spelling tests are every Thursday and your child will be tested on the ten spellings they selected in the previous week (from either the Year 3&4 or 5&6 curriculum spelling lists). Their spelling tests results will be recorded in the back of their books for them to share with you.
Maths	Maths homework will be sent home on a Friday and completed for the following Friday. The homework set will either be based on their learning in class or mental maths questions.
Grammar	Grammar homework will be sent home on a Friday and your child will have 2 weeks to complete this. The homework will be based on the grammar they will be learning within their literacy lessons.

Helping to enrich our topics

It is always great to have items or visitors that support our topic, so if anyone has any experience or items that may help us with any of the work above that we could hear about or borrow, we would love to see and hear about them.

Forest School

Please can you make sure your child has their Forest School kit in school every week. The woods are still fairly muddy so they will need wellies, a change of clothes and some extra layers as it can still feel quite cold. This will need to be in school for every Wednesday.

Reminders

Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle each day with fresh water; ensure all jumpers are labelled and bring a coat for the wet weather.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Miss Hare

Reading at School and at Home

Useful Websites

Questions you could ask your child about their learning this term

Who was Charles Darwin?
Who was Mary Anning?
What does ‘adaptation’ mean?
What have you inherited from your parents?
What are the features of a non-fiction text?