Willow Term 5 Newsletter – ‘Ancient Greece’ – St. Mary the Virgin Church of England School, Hartfield

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Dear Parents,

I hope you had a fabulous Easter break and are feeling refreshed and ready for another term. Our topic for the next two terms is ‘Ancient Greece’. We will be reading ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ by Rick Riordan, and writing our own myths based on a selection of Greek myths and legends. Our topic sessions will teach us all about how the Greeks lived, what they ate and how similar/different they were to us today.

In maths, we are looking at shape, money and revisiting fractions. Fractions can be an area that children find particularly difficult so any extra support at home, and with their My Maths homework, would really benefit them.

Our PE days are Monday and Friday; please ensure your child’s kit is always in school; trainers everyday are essential.

Times Tables

By the end of Year 4, all children should know their times tables up to 12 x 12. We are doing at least one session a week focused on these, but please do practice with your children at home, as much as possible. Times Table Rockstars is a really useful website for this as it tests the children on their tables at their own pace. It will start off ensuring they are secure on their 10s, before moving onto 2s, and then 5s. The children also need to be secure on the inverse calculations – e.g. 100 ÷ 10 = 10.

Termly Project

This project will stretch over the next two terms as we will be continuing our focus on the Ancient Greeks in Term 6. For this project, the children can use their imaginations to create a Greek artefact. This could be a pot with paintings on, a Greek head wreath, a model of a Greek warrior, some Greek food to share with the class or anything else that captures their imagination as we learn more about the culture of the Ancient Greeks. So we can display as many of these as possible, please keep in mind what size the projects are. Models that would fit inside a shoe box are the perfect size as they will fit into the white units that we use to display work.

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.

Reminders

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

Many thanks for your continued support,

Miss Hare and Mrs Fry

Useful Websites

Questions You Could Ask Your Child About Their Learning This Term

Which Gods and Goddesses did the Ancient Greeks believe in?
When did the Ancient Greeks live?
Why do we use paragraphs?
How many teeth does the average grown adult have?
How do you calculate the perimeter of a shape?
Which times tables do you need to practice?
Which of the words below have you learnt the meaning of?

Vocabulary We Will Learn This Term

ancient	democracy	myths	century
AD / BC	chronological	Hercules	Icarus
Daedalus	civilisation	sources	empire
canines	molars	incisors	digestion
stomach	intestines	function	oesophagus