Welcome to Rabbit class! On Mondays and Tuesdays, we are taught by Mrs Humber, who has been teaching at Bedwell for 17 years and is brilliant at art. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays our teacher is Mrs Rose, who has been teaching at Bedwell for 9 years. She really likes science and storytelling, and is determined to make her lessons as much fun as possible!

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest class newsletter
• Meet our School Councillors, Bibi and Riley 

Home learning ideas:

• We’re working on tables facts 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. 
• Our work on grouping animals relies on us having lots of science knowledge, so talk about creatures you see when you’re out and about - what do they eat? Where do they live? What other living things are they similar to? Don’t worry if this involves some ‘let’s Google that when we get home’ - realising that it’s OK not to know everything is a Learning Superhero skill! 
  
• If you’re looking for an afternoon out, many of our local museums have Anglo-Saxon finds and relics amongst their collections - including Stevenage, Hertford and Ware Museums (all of which are free to enter). Check their websites for more details on visiting.
• 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:

• This term, we have begun having weekly djembe lessons. We have been exploring different rhythms and tempos, using our own djembe drum which originate from West Africa. We have followed instructions, listened carefully and can now play short repeating rhythms - we even tried playing solos this week!
 

 
• This term we have been learning about the incredible Ancient Egyptian civilisation. We rounded it off with a brilliant Egyptian Day!
  
 

 
• We thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in this year's Science Week, which included a Teaching Talons animal workshop, lots of science challenges and our annual Egg Drop competition.    
 

 
• Over the past term we have been reading the David Walliams book Demon Dentist. Although it was a bit creepy at times, we have really enjoyed the story and have been rooting for Alfie and Gabz to triumph over the Tooth Witch. As a result, we were delighted to be able to watch the story on stage at Milton Keynes theatre. The show was amazing and we were blown away by the acting and special effects.

We have been learning about... 

English - In English, we kicked off our persuasive writing unit with a walk around Fairlands Park, looking for signs of pollution. We found lots – and so we finished our unit by writing a letter to Stevenage Council, highlighting the pollution problem and suggesting lots of ways in which the council could help.

Geography - We have been exploring a range of natural disasters. We investigated the effect that they can have on local communities, the reasons why they occur and some of the things that people are doing to try to limit their effects.   

This term's topics

English - This half-term we will be investigating explanation texts. We will discuss the purpose of explanations (showing how or why something works) and identify their key features. We will look at lots of different explanations, comparing the way they are organised and using them to extend our knowledge of technical vocabulary. We will then hone-in on a model text, How Pirates Really Work, and use this to inspire our own writing. We will be working hard to develop our use of causal conjunctions (like so, therefore and because) and adverbials of time to link ideas together, and to use present tense correctly in our independent writing. Throughout the term we will continue to practice our spelling, working on adding the prefix ir– and the suffix –ion to root words.  

Maths - We will be developing our understanding of division, moving from practical methods for sharing things out to visual strategies (using drawings) and then simple written methods. This will also tie-in with our continued work on developing our times table knowledge, as Year 4 get ready for their Multiplication Tables Check in June. After that, we will be returning to fractions, securing our understanding of unit fractions (which all have a ‘1’ on top) and extending into non-unit fractions (all the other fractions that don’t have a ‘1’ on top). We will find fractions of shapes and simple amounts, and will begin to recognise equivalent fractions (groups of fractions that have the same value, like 1/2, 2/4 and 3/6).

Science - We will be investigating the way that living things can be grouped –in particular by what they eat, by where they live and by their family (fish, reptiles, mammals etc.) We will use classification keys to sort and identify living things in the world around us and food chains to show how predators and prey are linked. We will also be thinking about the effect that humans have on our environment.

Humanities - We will continue to develop our understanding of life in Anglo-Saxon Britain. We will be learning more about the areas where the first Anglo-Saxons settled and investigating their culture, food, homes and beliefs. We will explore the impact their arrival had, spreading Christianity and the creating the first English nation. Throughout the topic, we will be using images of ancient artefacts (from coins and small fragments of pottery to huge sites like Sutton Hoo) to support our learning and to help us develop the ability to think like a historian.

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