Learning Focus – Week 6

English

This week, students will be introduced to narratives as a fictional text type, which we are looking forward to exploring in detail over the next few terms. Our focus this week will be on examining the structure of a familiar fairy tale, to gain a deeper understanding of how the characters, setting, and plot are conveyed and developed by the author. In the coming weeks, we will be reading lots of narratives as a class, and exploring other aspects of a good story, such as the author’s word choice and voice, and use of dialogue and descriptive language.

As students are learning about French Knitting this week in our new ‘Maker Space’ in the Art Studio, we will also be looking at the structure and language features of procedural texts – this will come in handy as students learn more crafts from the past over the coming weeks! You may want to have a look around your home to see what procedural texts you can find, and what they have in common – it might be instructions or rules for a game, a recipe, or a manual for a how to assemble a piece of furniture.

Our spelling inquiry will focus on the short ‘a’ sound. Students are encouraged to be on the look out for the different ways of spelling this sound, and make note of words that have it in it, both during shared readings as a whole class, as well as when they are reading independently or with a partner throughout the day.

Maths

Students will continue to practice telling time to the half hour and quarter hour and develop their understanding of place-value and skip counting, and will be introduced to the concept of fractions. Recognising and understanding halves and quarters within a whole will come in handy when we begin to look at traditional quilting patterns from the past and hand sewing in our ‘Maker Space’.