Lower Key Stage 2

Welcome to the new LKS2 page. This is where you will be able to find lots of useful information about our LKS2 classes at Spurcroft Primary School.

Below you will find the new spellings for both Year 3 and Year 4 for Autumn Term 1.

Mrs Leanne Etherington, Lower Key Stage Two Team Leader

Spring Term 1 Information

Welcome back to a new year and a new term. I hope that you all had an enjoyable break and are looking forward to the new term.

Learning

In English, we are reading the book “The Egyptian Cinderella” by Shirley Climo. We will be using our knowledge learnt in our history lessons to support our understanding of this story and to help us to make predictions. We will be comparing this version with the traditional version of Cinderella, identifying the emotions of the characters, showing our understanding of events and planning and writing our own versions.

In maths, year 3 are continuing to work on multiplication and division. They will use their knowledge from the Autumn term to support their understanding of how to use written methods to multiply and divide larger numbers. They will then move on to learning about money and statistics in a few weeks. Year 4 are also moving on to written methods of multiplication and division before learning about area and fractions further in the term.

In our curriculum lessons, we are learning about what life was like in Ancient Egypt in History; in French we are learning French verbs to describe the things that we can do; in PSHE we will be using our school value of “ambition” when thinking about our goals for now and the future and in RE we are learning about the Christian belief of Jesus’ miracles. Our science unit is “Animals including humans” and we will be learning about diet and how our bodies work.

Mr Egypt workshop

We had our full day workshop from Phillip Harris (Mr Egypt) on Monday 10^th January. This was an exciting way to introduce our new learning about Ancient Egypt and a fantastic opportunity for the children to learn from a real Egyptologist. Please do ask your child about the visit- I’m sure that they will have lots to tell you!

Home learning

Home learning will be sent out on Friday 7^th January. Your child will need to choose one of the activities to compete. Please do encourage them to put their best effort in to their home learning and to hand it in on time. Work and pictures should be handed in with their home learning books. If you are not able to print pictures or you would like to send a power point or video then please email them to either year3@spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk or year4@spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk.

Mymaths tasks will also be set for the term- please complete one task per week. Tasks are set in line with what is being taught in class each week. If pupils find the task hard they will benefit from going back and re-doing that task in future weeks. Please encourage them to start from the first task and to complete them weekly in line with our class work.   

Spellings and times tables

Termly spellings will be sent out on Friday and a selection will be tested each Friday. All the spellings for the term will be sent out together- please break them down in to manageable weekly chunks. The first spelling test will be on Friday 14^th January and your child’s teacher will have chosen a selection from the list. The following Friday, they will be tested on the exact same spellings then the week after they will have some of the same spellings mixed in with new ones. We will then continue to test the same words for 2 weeks at a time before including new ones. We will also continue to test the children on times tables on Fridays.

Reading records

Children need to continue to read a minimum of 5 times a week at home and to have their reading record signed by an adult. They can bring their reading book in at any time to change it themselves. Please do encourage your child to bring their reading record in to school daily if possible as the day when your child will be heard read will differ through the term.

Supporting your child at home

These are ways that you can help your child at home:

Listening to them read and talking about what they have read

Practise times tables

Practising the names of the days of the week, months of the year and how long they are

Encouraging joined up writing

Ensuring that they complete their home learning activities

 If you have any questions about anything involving LKS2, please do not hesitate to come in to see me or speak to your child’s teacher. Thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards,

Mrs Leanne Etherington

LKS2 Team Leader

Our Lower Key Stage Two Classes:

Routines and resources

In LKS2, we start each day with an early morning task. This may be finishing off, spellings, handwriting or a maths or English activity. We then have English and Maths lessons with a zoom assembly and a play time in between.

In the afternoon, we have curriculum lessons such as history and science and guided reading. 

PE lessons are currently on a rotation- please see letters from Mrs Thompson for when it is your child's day for PE.

Year 4 multiplication test

From 2020, the Year 4's will be taking a national multiplication test which will test them on their times tables. The expectation is that they know all their tables up to 12 x 12 and can answer them within 6 seconds.

In preparation for this, all children will be given a login for an online program called Times Tables Rockstars in Year 3. This program supports our learning in school and allows the children to practise their tables and improve their speed in a fun way. The program will be used at school and can also be accessed at home for extra practise. You can access the website via the link below:

https://play.ttrockstars.com/

Messages

If your child is away from school due to displaying any COVID-19 symptoms or for self-isolation reasons please find all the learning your child will need to access on the Distance Learning Page here. https://www.spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk/learning-resources/