Welcome to Fox class! Our teacher is Mr Roberts, who has been at Bedwell ever since he started teaching, 17 years ago. He particularly likes science, storytelling and sport, and is also our Deputy Headteacher.

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest class newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Ella and Lucas

Home learning ideas:

• All of the maths we’re doing this term is dependent on quick recall of tables facts, so it would be brilliant if you could work on this. 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.  
• There are loads of craft projects linked to the Amazon you could have a go at - to get started, have a look at some of these sites: 
  • www.toucanbox.com/activities/rainforest-crafts-at-home 
  • www.lastchancetopaint.com/ 
  • thecraftyclassroom.com/crafts/rainforest-art-projects-printables/
• The Young Person’s Trust for the Environment site - ypte.org.uk - is packed with easy to grasp information on rainforests and the animals that are found in these regions.
• Keeping fit, happy and healthy is always important. There are links to lots of great resources and workouts to help everyone in the family get active at www.sportengland.org/jointhemovement

Our latest news:

• We’ve been learning Lacrosse, and got to take part in a training session with Great Britain goalkeeper (and European champion) Katie Greenwood.
 
• We loved getting involved in a packed Science Week, which saw us working towards the national CREST Superstar award. We completed challenges including kite making, fingerprints, bridge building, animal workshops and our whole-school Knex Challenge!
 

 
• We got into costume to celebrate this year’s World Book Day. Our task was to dress-up as our favourite storybook character, and we didn’t disappoint, coming as everything from Hermione to Wednesday to Anne Frank!
 

 
• We’ve learnt to code, using the Scratch platform. We’ve programmed our sprites to play simple games, draw complex patterns and tell stories - and we’ve got lots more plans for more complex tasks!
 

 
• We've learnt loads about the Battle of Britain and World War 2, supported by our trip to RAF Hendon and our fantastic World War 2 Day in school. We made gas masks, learnt about pre-decimal money, made cakes using ration-book recipes, filled sandbags and blacked-out windows - all of which helped us to better understand what it would have been like to grow up during World War 2.
 

We have been learning about... 

Explanations - We began the term by exploring explanation writing. We looked at lots of examples of explanations of complex, ingenious inventions and identified the way that these texts are structured and linked together. We focussed in particular on a model text which explained how the SHIELD Helicarrier works, and then used this to inspire our writing. We invented vehicles for some of our favourite characters and explained how they worked.

Viking Myths - In the second half of the term, we’ve been learning all about Vikings. We investigated their history, from early raids to full invasions, battles with Alfred the Great and the partition of England. We learnt about everyday life in Viking Britain (there was more farming than we’d expected, and far fewer helmets with horns sticking out the side). Our English work has also focussed on Norse myths. We have read lots of adventures of Thor, Odin and Loki, enjoying their battles with giants, shape-shifting creatures and magical dwarves. We thought about the way that myths were originally told and passed on in the time before many people could read and write, and we practiced retelling myths we had learnt. 

After that, we worked on writing character descriptions for Norse gods. We collected lots of precise descriptive language, drafted our first versions, edited and improved them, and then presented our final pieces using laptops.

Maths - We really enjoyed learning about measurement, taking part in lots of practical activities as we learnt to read a range of scales and got a better sense of what 1kg or 1 litre 'looks like'.     

This term's topics

English - We’re focussing on persuasive writing in our final English unit of the year. We will be reading and watching lots of adverts, thinking about the techniques that they use to hook us in and then ‘sell’ places and products to us effectively. We will make persuasive presentations of our own, and will then focus in on persuasive letter writing, thinking about the way that writers structure their arguments to make them as effective as possible. All of this will feed into our final extended writing pieces, where we will be arguing to save the rainforest habitats that we have met in our geography topic.

Maths - We will begin the half-term by focussing on statistics, using line graphs, pie charts and tables to represent data and answer questions. We will carry out surveys and tests to collect our own data and then choose the right way to present our findings. We will also learn to find the mean of a data set. After that we will be exploring time, learning to read timetables (a really useful practical skill), as well as calculating with time. We will also make sure that we all know how to read the time accurately from analogue clocks Throughout the term we will also be revising our arithmetic skills, particularly the use of written multiplication, short division and the addition of fractions.

Science - Our final topic of the year will see us investigating electricity. We will extend our understanding of conductors, insulators and batteries, and then learn to draw circuit diagrams using standard symbols. We will also be carrying out lots of practical work, developing our ability to draw conclusions from results and learning about the work of famous scientists like Faraday and Maxwell.

Humanities - We will be learning about rainforest environments this term, discovering what makes them special, where they are found and what it’s like to live there. We will plot rainforests on a variety of maps, linking their locations to the tropics, and will compare them with other environments we know about, such as deserts, mountains and local forests. We will also learn more about the different layers of the rainforest, comparing life on the forest floor with life in the treetop canopy.

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