Year 4/5 - Fireflies

Welcome to Firefly Class
The class teachers are Mr Davis and Mrs Rogers.  The teaching assistants based in Firefly Class are Mrs Hackeson and Mr Venn.
 
What happens when?
  • We have PE on Tuesday and Thursday.
  • Homework is handed in on a Wednesday and the books are returned to children on a Friday. 
  • Spelling is tested regularly, with lessons throughout the week to learn the spelling rule for the week and to apply the rule, usually in the form of a dictation.

Homework

(1) Children need to read daily to themselves, an adult or younger/older family member. Your homework book contains a set of tasks linked to your reading.

(2) Learn the spelling rule for the week and practise using some of the example words given.  We learn a set of rules each week for spelling, rather than a set list.  The rules that we are learning this term are in the document attached, along with the example words.

(3) Practise your times tables.  At least three times a week, use one of the website links here.  In the Summer at the end of Year 4, children across the country will take a Multiplication Check assessment that is almost identical to the one in the link.

Term 4

Our writing this term will focus on narrative story writing, initially based on a video from the Literacy Shed website in which a lighthouse keeper learns how much the local community cares about his job.  Our Maths focus is largely around fractions in both Year 4 and Year 5.

After three terms of learning about Hinduism, for the remainder of the year we turn to Judaism and learn many stories that children will be familiar with from the Christian Old Testament (the Jewish Torah). 

In Geography we learn about the role of Agriculture and our field trip this term will focus on how close we are to the edge of the village and why farming in our area is mainly pastoral. 

In History we look at the rise of Ancient Persia and its clashes with Ancient Greece.

In our first week back, we completed the following two Big Writing Tasks for Opening Worlds:

(1) RE

How do Hindus show their devotion to God during puja?  Why do Hindus love Ganesha?  How do they show their devotion to Ganesha?  How do Hindus like to use the symbol Aum?  How do Hindu women show their devotion to Parvati during Teej?

(2) Geography

What is special about Bisley?  What is special about Cardiff?  How are Cardiff and Bisley similar and how are they different to each other?

 

Term three

Like the rest of the school, we started Term 3 with a focus on Space in Science.  We have learnt about how the moon orbits the Earth, how the Earth orbits the Sun, and about the planets and other objects within our Solar System.  This learning came to a grand finale on Tuesday 16th January with the visit of the Space Dome to the school, and an evening of star gazing and sharing our learning with parents.

For the remainder of this term, we will learn about Forces and Magnets in Science, a unit of learning that will carry on into Term 4.

In History we explore the Indus Valley civilization and make comparisons with the ancient societies in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley that we have already learnt about.  In RE we conclude our learning about Hinduism, with a strong focus on how Hindu's worship.  In Geography we explore settlements and compare the British communities of Oxford and Bisley, a village in the Cotswold hills, just to the north of Bristol.  Our Geography field trip this term will focus on Banwell as a village settlement and we will compare our community with the two that we have learnt about in our Geography lessons, to understand why Banwell is considered to be a village rather than a hamlet or a town.

 

Term two

In term two, our new Opening Worlds project in History, involved learning more about Ancient Egypt, in Geography we learnt about mountains and in RE we learnt more Hindu stories.

In Science, we focused on light and shadows.

Term one 
 
On Friday 20 October 2023, Fireflies class created a village trail, focusing on the skills needed to read and annotate a map.  The trail is below.  We hope you enjoy following it.