Smart Zone - Year 3 and 4

  • Mr Matt Birchall

    Class Teacher

  • Mrs Maria Johnstone

    Higher Level Teaching Assistant

  • Mrs Karen Edwards

    Teaching Assistant

  • Mr Guy Wakeham

    Teaching Assistant
Summer 2023
During the Summer Term Smart Zone's topic will be: 'How can we live more sustainably?'
 
As part of this topic the children will be learning about sustainable living, creating minature gardens and discovering about plant growth. The children will be creating persuasive writing about saving the rainforest in addition to generating a blog on how to stay healthy. We will be embarking on a local history study of Helston railway in addition to developing our navigation skills by walking the Loe Bar circuit. The class will also be completing an outdoor first aid training day.
 

Whole Class Reading Text: The Sleeping Sword

Author: Micheal Morpurgo

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 

Rationale:

Good quality guided reading text set in Cornwall with historical links to the legend of King Arthur. Touches on disability and mental health. Writing text types explore other cultures and changes over time in addition to exploring different aspects of grammar, punctuation and writing styles.

Spring 2023
During the Spring Term Smart Zone's topic will be: 'Our Planet'
 
As part of this topic the children will be discovering all about our planet. We will be exploring the climate throughout the world - comparing the UK with weather patterns in South American and Africa. In our science learning we will learning about food chains and food webs. The children will be creating non-chronological reports about wildlife and learning about ocean food chains. They will also be designing and building ocean dioramas.
 

Whole Class Reading Text: The Firework Maker's Daughter

Author: Philip Pullman

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 

Rationale: Philip Pullman has plucked a rare, exotic and totally bewitching idea from thin air and has turned it into the kind of magical adventure that all children dream of, crackling and sparkling with the same thrilling intensity as the fireworks in Lila's dreams…
 
Autumn 2022
During the Autumn Term Smart Zone's topic will be: 'Britain: Stone Age to Iron Age'
 
As part of this topic the children will be learning about how life in Britain changed during the Stone Age to Iron Age time period. Our launch will involve the children being Archaeologists and excavating for Stone Age remains. Smart Zone will be designing and making Stone Age tools and weapons, creating a Neolithic virtual world and making Art objects inspired by this period of British history.
 

Whole Class Reading Text: Stig of the Dump

Author: Clive King

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 Stone Age

Rationale: Classic fictional guided reading text linking well to Stone Age topic. Good quality example of adventure story including humour and social commentary.
 
 
Summer 2022
During the Summer Term Smart Zone's topic will be: 'Where light meets dark!'
 
As part of this topic the children will be learning about light and sound within our Science learning. We will be exploring who were the Anglo-Saxons in History whilst incorporating a study of Europe as part of Geography. We will be exploring shadow Art and Mars by Holst (one of the BBC's 10 pieces). English and Computing will combine with a focus on News Reports.
 

Whole Class Reading Text: The Iron Man

Author: Ted Hughes

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 Where Light meets Dark

Rationale: Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction by the Iron Man and set a trap for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world. This is a compelling and exciting classic story with many excellent opportunities for vocabulary development with Year 3 and 4 children. The writing texts provide links to the light and dark topic enabling both fiction and non-fiction writing opportunities to be explored whilst linking written text to film / animation.

 
Spring 2022
During the Spring Term Smart Zone's topic will be: 'The Romans are coming'.
 
As part of this topic the children will be learning about Ancient Rome which will link into our History Topic and English learning. We will be creating Roman Columns and Aqueducts alongside creating a 3D Roman World using Minecraft and Tocca Buiding APPs. In addition we will be exploring teeth, digestion, earthquakes and volcanoes

Whole Class Reading Text: The Thieves of Ostia

Author: Caroline Lawrence

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 Romans

Rationale: This novel contains a range of stretching vocabulary and grammar that is relevant to these year groups. Flavia Gemina is a natural at solving mysteries. The daughter of a ship's captain living in Ostia, the port of Rome, in AD79, she and her three friends, Jonathan, a Jewish boy (and secretly a Christian); Nubia, an African slave girl; and Lupus, a mute beggar boy, must work together to discover who is beheading the watchdogs that guard people's homes, and why. This book is the first in a series of Roman mystery adventures which vividly bring to life ancient Rome and is an excellent accompaniment to a history topic on the Romans.

 
Autumn 2021
During the AutumnTerm Smart Zone's topic will be: 'Earth Movers'.
 
As part of this topic the children will be learning about the Ancient Egyptians which will link into our History Topic and English learning. We will be looking at Egyptian Cartouches, Necklaces and Pharaohs as part of our Art and DT focus. The 'Earth Mover' theme will continue with coverage  of Rocks and Fossils and Changing State within Science.
 

Whole Class Reading Text: Secrets of a Sun King 

Author: Emma Carroll 

Year Group and Topic: Year 3 and 4 Egyptians 

Rationale: This novel contains a range of stretching vocabulary and grammar that is challenging for this Year group. It is set in the 1920’s and covers wider social historical contexts that include: Racism, class, poverty, women’s rights (voting) and the aftermath of the First World War. The book is stretching, some advisory content regarding spontaneous human combustion in the first chapter and gory content in chapter 7 p77-79. Ideal links to Egyptian topic. 

Welcome to Smart Zone!

We are a year 3 and 4 class who enjoy investigating and exploring our learning environment, growing our independence and developing our life-skills as we make the transition into KS2. We take a practical child-centred approach to our topics, with all children being involved in the planning of learning activities and homework, which support their movement and progression through the National Curriculum.

The main philosophy of our class is about taking control and ownership of our learning. We all have responsibilities and all children are involved in updating and managing our learning environment so that it actively supports the learning journey and incorporates examples of the childrens’ work.

We utilise the outdoor learning environment alongside classroom based focuses. Both of these environments are used to complete group and individual investigations, partner work as well as adult supported activities. We promote making sensible choices about what is right for our learning which includes: making individual choices about where we should sit and how to set up our learning space. To facilitate this, there are a number of ‘break out’ comfy areas for the children to use in addition to tables / chairs and an ICT suite.

 

Pop along and join us on our adventure – you’re more than welcome…

Resources/ website links 

Helpful and interesting websites:
 
 
 
 Image result for TT rock Stars
 
 
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Times Tables Logo
 
 Image result for bbc bitesize ks2
 
 
 
 Image result for natural history logo
 
 
The following websites are about online safety.
 
 Image result for thinkuknow logo         
 Safety Net Kids