Welcome to our Curriculum Meeting For Parents

1. Welcome to our Curriculum Meeting For Parents Years 3 and 4

2. Overview of the meeting • Organisation of Ruby Class • National Curriculum Expectations in Reading, Writing and Spelling • National Curriculum Expectations in Mathematics

3. LiteracyHow the week is structured • Daily Guided Reading sessions • Individual reading • Daily writing • Spelling lessons 2 and 3 times a week • Daily Grammar input • Regular handwriting • Daily speaking and listening opportunities. • Weekly class novel used as a stimulus for writing and comprehension skills.

4. Genres • Adventure stories • Fantasy stories • Stories from other cultures • Instructions • Persuasive writing • Recounts • Diaries • Non- chronological reports • Play scripts • Letters • Poetry

5. No Nonsense spellings - • Within the programme, learning spellings is built into each 15 minute lesson, (2 or 3 times a week). Within the sessions a range of strategies for learning spellings are introduced and practised. This enables pupils to choose the strategies they find most effective for learning different words. • Children will work in their spelling journals and have ‘Have a go sheets’ in their books.

6. Strategies for learning spellings. • Look, say, cover, write, check • Trace, copy and replicate (and then check) • Segmentation strategy • Quickwrite • Drawing around the word to show the shape

7. Drawing an image around the word Words without vowels

8. Pyramid words - This method of learning words forces you to think of each letter separately.

9. Other methods can include: • Rainbow writing. Using coloured pencils in different ways can help to make parts of words memorable. You could highlight the tricky part s of the word or write the tricky part in a different colour. You could also write each letter in a different colour, or write the word in red, then overlay in orange, yellow and so on • Making up memorable ‘silly sentences’ containing the word • Saying the word in a funny way – for example, pronouncing the ‘silent’ letters in a word • Clapping and counting to identify the syllables in a word.

10. How to support your child at home • Regularly read with your child; school books or anything they are interested in. Take turns to share the reading. Discuss exciting vocabulary. • Have a good dictionary and thesaurus at home to encourage them to look up spellings and synonyms. • Encourage your child to do their neatest handwriting in their homework. • If they are stuck with spellings encourage them to have a go, or remember a strategy they have used at school.

11. MathematicsHow the week is structured • Daily mental maths warm ups and starters. • Weekly times tables tests • Weekly problem solving skills – using and applying. • Weekly target practice

12. Addition • Children should understand that addition is commutative and therefore calculations can be rearranged, e.g. 4 + 13 = 17 is the same as 13 + 4 = 17. • Ensure that children understand the = sign means is the same as, not makes, and that children see calculations where the equals sign is in a different position, e.g. 3 + 2 = 5 and 5 = 3 + 2. • Children should be encouraged to approximate before calculating and check whether their answer is reasonable.

15. Subtraction • Children should understand that subtraction is the removing or taking away one quantity from another (not necessarily the smaller number from the larger one) or finding the difference between two separate quantities. • Children should understand that, unlike addition, subtraction is not commutative. • Ensure that children understand the = sign means is the same as, not makes, and that children see calculations where the equals sign is in a different position, e.g. 9 – 5 = 4 and 4 = 9 – 5. • Children should be encouraged to approximate before calculating and check whether their answer is reasonable.

21. Number – multiplication and division • Children need to understand that multiplication is commutative and use this information to rearrange calculations knowing that 4 x 6 = 24 gives the same answer as 6 x 4 = 24. • Children need to understand that multiplication is repeated addition. • Ensure that children understand the = sign means is the same as, not makes, and that children see calculations where the equals sign is in a different position, e.g. 3 x 5 = 15 and 15 = 3 x 5. • Children should be encouraged to approximate before calculating and check whether their answer is reasonable.

25. Fractions Year 3 Pupils should be taught to:  count up and down in tenths; recognise that tenths arise from dividing an object into 10 equal parts and in dividing one-digit numbers or quantities by 10  recognise, find and write fractions of a discrete set of objects: unit fractions and non-unit fractions with small denominators  recognise and use fractions as numbers: unit fractions and non-unit fractions with small denominators  recognise and show, using diagrams, equivalent fractions with small denominators  add and subtract fractions with the same denominator within one whole (for example, 5/7 +1/7 = 6/7)  compare and order unit fractions, and fractions with the same denominators  solve problems that involve all of the above.

26. Fractions Year 4 Pupils should be taught to:  recognise and show, using diagrams, families of common equivalent fractions  count up and down in hundredths; recognise that hundredths arise when dividing an object by one hundred and dividing tenths by ten.  solve problems involving increasingly harder fractions to calculate quantities, and fractions to divide quantities, including non-unit fractions where the answer is a whole number  add and subtract fractions with the same denominator  recognise and write decimal equivalents of any number of tenths or hundredths  recognise and write decimal equivalents to ¼, ½, ¾  find the effect of dividing a one- or two-digit number by 10 and 100, identifying the value of the digits in the answer as ones, tenths and hundredths  round decimals with one decimal place to the nearest whole number  compare numbers with the same number of decimal places up to two decimal places  solve simple measure and money problems involving fractions and decimals to two decimal places.

27. MeasurementYear 3 Pupils should be taught to: • measure, compare, add and subtract: lengths (m/cm/mm); mass (kg/g); volume/capacity (l/ml) • measure the perimeter of simple 2-D shapes • add and subtract amounts of money to give change, using both £ and p in practical contexts • tell and write the time from an analogue clock, including using Roman numerals from I to XII, and 12-hour and 24-hour clocks • estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute; record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes and hours; use vocabulary such as o’clock, a.m./p.m., morning, afternoon, noon and midnight • know the number of seconds in a minute and the number of days in each month, year and leap year • compare durations of events [for example to calculate the time taken by particular events or tasks].

28. Measurement Year 4 Pupils should be taught to: • convert between different units of measure [for example, kilometre to metre; hour to minute] • measure and calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear figure (including squares) in centimetres and metres • find the area of rectilinear shapes by counting squares • estimate, compare and calculate different measures, including money in pounds and pence

29. Geometry – properties of shapesYear 3 Pupils should be taught to: • draw 2-D shapes and make 3-D shapes using modelling materials; recognise 3-D shapes in different orientations and describe them • recognise angles as a property of shape or a description of a turn • identify right angles, recognise that two right angles make a half-turn, three make three quarters of a turn and four a complete turn; identify whether angles are greater than or less than a right angle • identify horizontal and vertical lines and pairs of perpendicular and parallel lines.

30. Geometry – properties of shapeYear 4 Pupils should be taught to: • describe positions on a 2-D grid as coordinates in the first quadrant • describe movements between positions as translations of a given unit to the left/right and up/down • plot specified points and draw sides to complete a given polygon.

31. StatisticsYear 3 Pupils should be taught to: • interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables • solve one-step and two-step questions [for example, ‘How many more?’ and ‘How many fewer?’] using information presented in scaled bar charts and pictograms and tables.

32. Statistics Year 4 Pupils should be taught to: • interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs. • solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in bar charts, pictograms, tables and other graphs.

33. How to support your child at home • Help your child to practise their times tables tests weekly. • Encourage them to use the websites we use at school for games • http://www.interactive-resources.co.uk/ • Log on – richard Password – durnings • http://www.topmarks.co.uk/ • Use every day situations to support their progress • Ask them the time (both digital and analogue) and encourage them to use a watch • Calculate change when buying goods • Use bus and train time tables to work out length of journey and time of arrival • Look for angles and shapes around the home or examples of different types of lines