Welcome to Badger class! Our teacher is Miss Wood, who is now entering her second 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 class newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Joe and Phoebe

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 history this term we are learning about the Ancient Egyptians, which provides lots of opportunities for learning beyond the classroom - try investigating the history, and making a picture or model of an Egyptian pyramid. There's lots of information, video and links to get you started available on the BBC Bitesize website.
  
• If you’re looking for something to do one weekend, the British Museum is free to visit and has a large collection of Egyptian statues, mummies and jewellery - find out more at britishmuseum.org.
• We’re learning about teeth and digestion this term, so help your child to improve the way they brush their teeth. The NHS website has advice on doing this at www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-teeth-and-gums/taking-care-of-childrens-teeth/
  

Our latest news:

• We rounded-off the Autumn term with a massive Christmas dinner and our fantastic class parties. A huge thank you to everyone who sent in cakes and party snacks for us to enjoy together.
 

  
• There was lots of competition for places on our Year 3 and 4 Football team at the start of the year, and the squad have done us proud in their first two matches of the season. You can find out more about how they got on here.
  
 

 
• We enjoyed a trip to the cinema to watch Harold and the Purple Crayon as part of this year's Into Film Festival. We all loved Carl the Eagle Lizard!
  
• Earlier in the year  we visited Celtic Harmony Camp in Hertford to support our history topic, which has focussed on life in Ancient Britain. We spent the day travelling from the Stone Age to the Iron Age by completing a series of workshops associated with each period. After an engaging introduction by Finbar (our guide through history) we learnt about Stone Age tools with a demonstration of flint knapping. We then tried this technique ourselves, using it to craft an arrow head. Next up we delved into the Bronze age, learning how they made pottery and crafting our own pot. Finally we moved into the Iron Age, where we milled our own flour and made bread. Before we left we were invited into the Chieftain's round house for Celtic story telling. Finbar was on fine form and even if we had no idea what was going on in some of the stories, we fell about laughing at his crazy antics before heading home!  
 

We have been learning about... 

English - This term, we have been working hard to improve our writing. Most recently, we have been looking at explanation texts and designed some inventions to make everyday life easier. Some of us decided to write about a snack machine, whilst others designed a machine that would do your homework! Check out a brilliant example of our finished pieces below: 

How the Snoozatron works, by Ella

Are you fed up because you’re getting sleepless nights? Well, you are not the first. 75% of people feel the exact same. But now, you don’t have to be like other people in the world because now you will have the Snoozatron! 

How it works: Firstly, pull the lever which is on the right-hand side. Next, a signal is sent to Gromit and wakes him up. Then, some metal arms come out, from under the bed to tuck Wallace in. While that is going on, another arm comes out and drops a teddy next to Wallace. After a while, a music box comes out on a conveyer belt above Wallace’s head. Finally, Gromit comes out of the floor and jumps on a spring, dressed as a sheep. 

Points to note: Every so often, don’t forget to change the music box because it will get very boring very quickly. Every week don’t forget to clean the arms otherwise the arms won’t help you. Also don’t forget to help Gromit off the spring or the next time you want help he will say no! 

It is important to change the machine if you don’t like it. If your machine is broken, contact the number below and they will help you.

Art - In Art we have been exploring colour patterns inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, developing our colour mixing skills and our knowledge of colours that complement and contrast. Recently we have been creating prints based on the work of William Morris, exploring the use of patterns and block colours.  

Geography - We have explored many different natural disasters in our geography topic this term and even had a zoom talk from an earthquake survivor! To support our learning, we have made cardboard volcanoes, built structures to withstand a (minor) earthquake, created tectonic plates and worked as a team to create a large information poster on a natural disaster of our choice. The curiosity and inquisitiveness throughout this topic have been wonderful to see!

This term's topics

English - We will start the term by completing our study of the stories Songbird by Sharon King-Chai and Zeraffa Giraffa by Dianne Hofmeyr. We will be investigating the way that settings and characters are described, and will contrast the endings of the two stories. We will finish this unit of work by writing alternative endings for Zeraffa Giraffa. After that, we will shift to focus on newspaper reports. We will think about the way that they answer the ’Five Ws’ (who, what, when, where, why) and use direct speech to give information and show how people who witnessed the events felt. We will then write our own newspaper reports based on a mystery that we have read about or experienced ourselves.

Maths - We will begin the term by investigating measurement. We will estimate, measure and compare different lengths, masses and capacities, and revise our use of standard metric units (metres, millimetres, litres, kilograms etc.) We will develop our ability to convert between different units (eg. 0.73m = 73cm = 730mm), and will then use these skills to solve measure problems. We will also explore the measurement of time, learning to read clocks and calculate time intervals. Later in the term, we will move on to develop our use of bar charts, pictograms and line graphs to present data. We will identify the difference between discrete and continuous data and use this to decide which type of graph to use.

Science - Teeth are important and we need to look after them - and this term we’ll be finding out why! We will learn to identify incisors, canines and molars and investigate the job that each type of tooth does. We will also compare our teeth with other animals, looking at differences between carnivores and herbivores. Finally, we will discover what causes tooth decay and how we can prevent it.

Humanities - We be exploring life in Ancient Egypt, looking in particular at the role of the Pharaoh in their society. We will learn about the lives of some of the most famous pharaohs, and compare them with modern day kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers. We will also be investigating the variety of gods that the Ancient Egyptians believed in and learning about some of the stories that were told about their adventures, which Egyptians used to explain the world around them. We will find out about the different areas that each god was responsible for, and the way that the Egyptian people worshipped them. Finally, we will investigate what remains of their civilisation and think about the reasons why they are remembered today.

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