Welcome to Moles class! Our teacher is Miss Wood, who is now entering her third year at Bedwell. She brings lots of new ideas with her, and is really keen to make our lessons as active and engaging as possible.

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest school newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Theo and Bonnie

Home learning ideas:

• As always, tables facts will be really important to us this term, so it would be brilliant if you could work on learning these at home. Focus on one table at a time and try:
  • Making-up rhymes to help remember number facts (“4 x 6 is 24, bears growl and lions roar!”) 
  • Looking for numbers in that table in the world around you - on doors, car number plates, in phone numbers or when you’re out shopping. 
  • Writing-out tables with finger paints, chalk or water-on-tarmac, or make them from playdoh. 
  • Chanting, singing, whispering... Say tables out loud together whenever you have the chance. 
• Each week we are set spellings to learn. Click here for guidance on strategies you can use to support your child in learning these at home.  
• Later in the term we will be exploring newspaper reports, so reading and sharing examples at home would be really helpful. Does the report tell you who, what, when and where and why? Why do you think the editor chose to run this story first? What differences can you spot between newspapers?
  
• In geography this half-term we’re learning about the water cycle - there are resources to support this topic on the BBC Bitesize site at www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z3wpp39.  Learning where the world’s water can be found is a really important part of this topic, so break out a map and track down the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans - and for bonus points see how many famous rivers you can find, too.
• We’re learning about plants this half-term, so see how many different types of plant you can spot while you’re out and about. What’s the same (and what’s different) about the flowers, trees, crops and grasses you can see?
• There’s some great advice on talking to children about online safety on the NSPCC website at www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/ We also use lots of resources from the UK Safer Internet Centre: saferinternet.org.uk/ 

Our latest news:

• At the beginning of December, we went to our school trip to Hazard Alley. Through hands-on scenarios - like crossing roads, spotting fire risks, and learning about stranger danger - we discovered how to stay safe in everyday situations. The immersive environment gave us the chance to practise real-life skills in a fun and memorable way, boosting awareness and confidence. It was a day filled with teamwork, laughter, and valuable lessons that will stay with us long after the visit. 
 

 
• We were delighted to be joined by so many of our parents and carers for our Stay and Read event in October. We talked about the reasons why reading regularly at home is so important, explored some of the things we can do to make it an enjoyable experience and shared lots of our favourite books. A big thank you to everyone who made time to join us in class. 
 

 
• Our Year 3/4 Boccia team took part in the Stevenage tournament which took place earlier this term. The event, organised by Stevenage Sporting Futures, saw 9 schools from across town competing in the sport, which is similar to bowls. Our team put in a great performance and won a special ‘Passion’ award for the spirt that they showed throughout the competition. 
 

We have been learning about... 

Art - In art, we combined oil pastels and watercolours to create vibrant aquarium scenes. We used bold black lines to outline our designs and create striking geometric patterns, before adding watercolour to form our background. We had to think about perspective and how things appear bigger in the foreground and smaller as we got to the middle. We then worked on creating sunrises and sunset with oil pastels.

English - We have explored explanation texts this term, learning how to clearly describe how things work. To make our learning meaningful, we designed our own imaginative contraptions based on inventions we thought were needed in the real world. You can read two fantastic examples of our work below: 

The Money Printe, by Bonnie 

Are you fed up with running out of money? The money printer 8200 will print out money in one minute. The printer can print as much money as you want, even one thousand pounds! 

How to Use 

The Money Printer 8200 is easy to operate. First, you click a small orange button and you place a pitch black charger in a charger cable. Then you plug the other end of the charger into the back of the machine. Next, you press the amount of money you want on the screen. After that, the cogs in the machine start to whirr and you pull a lever down which activates the conveyer belt inside the printer. Next, you open a drawer at the bottom of the machine and put paper in it (if needed). Then, to shut the drawer you press a large, blue button on the side of the machine and it will slam shut. When this happens, make sure you mind your fingers! After that, the conveyer belt will pick a piece of paper up from the pile. Next, a stamp at the top of the machine pushes down on the paper and there is a picture on the paper. Finally, the paper comes out of a drawer on the side of the machine. You have your money! 

Safety information 

Make sure you mind your fingers when you open and shut the drawer. Remember to clean your machine every two weeks so it doesn’t break. Make sure that you read the instruction manual carefully. We are sure you will be happy with your purchase. 

Robot On Wheels 121, by Freddie 

Do you want to go ten times faster on the motorway? The Robot On Wheels is so much comfier and more enjoyable than a boring old car. This machine is so comfy that you can fall asleep for a relaxing journey! 

How to Use 

The Robot On Wheels is very comfortable to use! First, you get in the machine and turn it on by pressing the enormous red button. Also turn the handles on the steering wheel to get it started up. Secondly, get the controller and tell it where you want to go then pistons will start to move. After, it will take you wherever you have asked it to go, like Jamaica. Then pull the handle backwards and it will go fast, like 370mph to wherever you want to go. Also, the Robot On Wheels will dance if you want it to! 

Pistons, wheels, cogs and sofas! It’s so simple. The Robot On Wheels 121 will never let you down with its comfiness! 

This term's topics

English - Our next unit is based around a fantastic story called Leon and the Place Between, by Angela McAllister. In this adventure, Leon wants to prove that magic exists and volunteers to take part in a famous magician’s show. He vanishes and is transported to the incredible Place Between… We will use the text to develop our use of dialogue, making sure we punctuate speech correctly, as well as exploring the structure of stories with more complex plots. We will then use all these skills to write our own magical stories. After that, we will be focussing on poetry. We will look in particular at haikus, a form of poem from Japan that has just 17 syllables, split across three lines.

Maths - Our focus this half-term will be on multiplication, division and fractions. We will begin by revising doubling and halving, developing the range of strategies we use so that we can quickly find doubles and halves of any 2-digit (and eventually 3-digit) number. Alongside this we will continue to develop our knowledge of multiplication facts, focussing in particular on the 3x and 4x tables. After that, we will move on to explore fractions. We will begin by finding fractions practically, chopping and sharing out items into halves, thirds, quarters and fifths. We will then us this understanding (alongside our knowledge of tables facts) to help us to find fractions of numbers, quantities and amounts.

Science - We will be investigating the way that plants grow over the next few weeks. We will begin by identifying and describing the function of different parts of flowering plants (including roots, leaves and flowers), and will then explore the different things that plants need in order to grow well. Finally, we will learn about the life cycle of plants, discovering how they make and disperse seeds.

Humanities - Water is all around us and vital to every type of life, and in this topic we will be learning about the way that the Water Cycle means that it is constantly being reused and recycled. We will locate the world’s major oceans, seas and rivers on a variety of maps, and discuss the difference between fresh water and sea water (and why it matters). We will also investigate the impact of water on environments, both shaping landscapes and effecting the growth of many towns and cities.

Take a look at our curriculum map for more information on our topics.