Bishopsteignton Primary School

3rd - 7th July

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This week, children in Years 3 and 4 have worked exceptionally hard on creating a brochure advertising an attraction in the local area. Children effectively researched their attraction of choice, before then using Microsoft Publisher to create a tri-fold brochure. We hope this will inform the children's review writing next week. 

In Maths, children have moved on from multiplication to solving division problems using an appropriate method. Lots of children are finding this tricky but are persevering. Next week will see the introduction of more focused tutorial groups to help children develop this skill.

In Science, children made some observations of soil using magnifying glasses, and learned about the characteristics of four different soil types; sandy soil, peaty soil, chalky soil and heavy clay soil.

Thank you to all those who attended parent's evenings. We hope you found them helpful.  

26th - 30th June

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This week got off to a brilliant start as we watched the Year 5 and 6 dress rehearsal of their production 'Super Stan'. The children thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the staff. A big well done to Inventors and Pioneers!

We have begun a sequence on review writing. Children have looked at the features of a good formal review and have spent much of the week researching a place they have visited in preparation for their own review writing. 

In Maths, we have continued in multiplicative reasoning, looking particularly at the formal written methods of multiplication and applying these to real life problems. Next week, we hope to progress on to formal written methods of division and using the inverse operation to solve missing number problems. 

The Year 3's and 4's have also learned what fossils are, and how they are formed. Next week, we hope to look at soil and begin to recognise that it consists of rocks and organic matter.

We look forward to discussing your child's learning at this week's parent's evenings. Please make sure you have booked an appointment with your child's class teacher.

19th - 23rd June

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Another eventful week in Discoverers and Voyagers this week! 

Wednesday saw us enjoy an art day together. We have been exploring Impressionism and its features and have looked closely at Claude Monet's work, an example of an Impressionist artist. This week, children put what they know about this art type and produced their own paintings depicting local landmarks.

On Thursday, the Year 3's enjoyed a guided walk around Dartmoor. A special treat was Haytor Quarry, where children identified granite, Claude Monet's favourite plant, the lily-pad and handled baby frogs! 

Of course on Friday, we welcomed you to our Curriculum Celebration, where children showcased much of what they have learned this term. It was so lovely to see children taking such pride and enthusiasm in their work. We hope you enjoyed it as much as the children did.

Normal service will resume next week when we begin our new Literacy topic of review writing and multiplication in Maths.

5th - 9th June

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We have had another busy week in Years 3 and 4. We have continued with our 'Great Outdoors' topic since the half term, looking particularly at Teignmouth and the surrounding area. Children have been planning their very own adventure story based in Teignmouth. Many of the town's iconic landmarks feature and we very much look forward to reading them! 

In Maths, children have been looking at all things fractions! They have found fractions of shapes, numbers, equivalent fractions and have added and subtracted fractions with the same denominator. This week we are going to apply this knowledge to help us understand decimals, particularly tenths and hundredths.

We have continued looking at rocks in Science and have been writing instructions for a group of builders on the materials required to build a house. Children have demonstrated their knowledge of rock types, their properties and their uses. 

We thoroughly enjoyed sports day and were thrilled to have the best of the weather. Congratulations to all those who took part.

We are very excited for the village festival next week and have been practicing the songs in preparation. We look forward to seeing you there.

22nd - 26th May

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What an exciting week! Discoverers and Voyagers completed their character descriptions of Gangsta Granny. They have also been working hard to refine their proof-reading skills to ensure their writing is the best it can be. Mrs Glynn and Mrs Webber have enjoyed reading them very much. 

We have also been looking at solving missing number problems using the inverse operation, and also began solving problems using a calendar in Maths this week. The children found this tricky to begin with, but persevered!

We continued investigating the properties of different rock types this week. We focused particularly on the permeability of different rocks and began by predicting which rock will absorb the most water. Children then proceeded to use a pipette to pour water onto each rock and observed what happened next. We found that slate and marble were the least permeable as they each had a pool of water on their surface. Voyagers also began using their knowledge of different rock types to instruct builders on how to build a house! 

Discoverers had their forest school day this week. They tried their hand at tool work, printing, den making, traversing, clay modelling and obstacle course making! We were so fortunate to have such beautiful weather and thoroughly enjoyed the day. A massive thank you to FOBS for funding such a lovely day. We look forward to seeing how activities such as these could be integrated into our curriculum. 

We have drawn our Rainforest topic to a close this week. Discoverers have made rainforest layer flip books to demonstrate their knowledge of the biome and both classes have been adding to their topic displays. We look forward to starting another Great Outdoors Topic next half term. 

We have also continued practicing for Sports Day! We look forward to sharing it with you next term.

Have a lovely, restful half term. See you in June! 

15th-19th May

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Another brilliant week of learning in Years 3 and 4! We have started a sequence of lessons on the infamous 'Gangsta Granny' written by David Walliams. We have been reading the book in class, and children have used the text to create adjectives, similes and metaphors to describe Granny's appearance and personality. We have looked at the requirements of a character description and have also practised using a thesaurus to 'upgrade' our adjectives. We hope that this preparatory work will pay off in our writing next week. 

In Maths, children have been practising adding and subtracting money, which has required converting pounds to pence and solving word problems. Some children have even tried their hand at party planning! We moved on to missing number problems towards the end of the week, and hope to continue this next week. 

We have had GREAT fun in Science this week, investigating the durability of rocks. Children used sandpaper to wear down the rocks and identify the rocks which generated the most dust. We used our findings to suggest appropriate uses for each rock type. 

We have also been preparing for next term's Sports Day! All will be revealed...

8th - 12th May

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We have had another fantastic week in Years 3 and 4. 

We started the week by responding to feedback and reflecting upon our targets generated through our non-chronological report writing. We then shared our reports across classes, which was a lovely way of peer assessing. We then moved on to punctuating direct speech using 'Gimme 5!' Why not test your child at home and see what they can remember! We were very impressed with how quickly children grasped this, as it is a very difficult skill to master! 

We have emphasised the importance of estimating using rounding this week as a way of checking our answers. Children have really got the hang of this and love discovering how close they were to their original estimate. Some fantastic discussions have taken place particularly concerning how we can make our estimates more accurate. We have practiced this skill with addition and subtraction calculations and have even progressed to word problems!

We have continued in our learning about the rainforest, looking particularly at each of the layers, the ways in which the rainforest is being destroyed, and how it can be protected. Athletics has also continued. This week, children have been looking at how to jump for distance. 

Next week, we will be beginning a sequence on character descriptions in Literacy and rocks in Science!

1st - 5th May

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Children have worked hard on their non-chronological reports this week, and have tried hard to include a combination of subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, our SPaG focus. We have learned such a lot about a variety of rainforest animals in the process. Children will be involved in the editing process on Monday, before sharing eachother's work and moving on to our new Literacy topic. 

The children have made great progress in their abilities to tell the time and solve real life time problems. While the Year 4's were away, the Year 3's revisited adding and subtracting money. 

We have continued learning about rainforests this week and the Year 3's have spent time looking at the work of Henri Rousseau, who is famous for depicting jungle scenes. We had a go at creating our own versions using water colours and computer programs. d a try at 

The children also had an extra assembly this week, led by the RNLI, who came to advise children on how to stay safe on the beach this summer. Thomas O volunteered to give them a helping hand and had a try at lifeguarding for himself!

We hope the Year 4's enjoyed their residential and are well rested over the weekend!  

See you on Monday!              

24th - 28th April

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Children have continued in their research of rainforest animals, which has not only facilitated their non-chronological report writing. It has also enabled children to think scientifically about how certain animals are affected by both man-made and natural environmental changes. The children's reports are looking good and we look forward to sharing them with you soon. 

Children have also worked hard practising how to tell the time on an analogue clock. As well as this, we have begun converting to 12 and 24 hour digital time and have applied our knowledge to solving problems.

Athletics has continued in P.E. and this week, children practised their running technique and participated in several relay races. Now the weather is so much more dry, we are enjoying P.E. and outdoor learning outside. The Voyagers had a fantastic time at forest school. Photos soon!

Our topic and ICT projects have also continued. We have been learning about lines of latitude and longitude as well as the layers of the rainforest. 

We hope you have a fantastic bank holiday and wish the Year 4's lots of fun on their residential next week!

18th - 21st April

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Years 3 and 4 have had a fantastic start to the term. We have begun our topic on the Great Outdoors by looking particularly at the rainforest. We have used Lynne Cherry's 'The Great Kapok Tree' to spark discussion about the animals that inhabit the rainforest. Children will be undertaking their own research about a rainforest animal of their choice to inform the non-chronological reports that they will be writing. So far, we have looked carefully at what a good non-chronological report looks like and the features it includes. As well as this, we have made actions to it to help us remember! (See images below).

Alongside the non-chronological reports, children have begun creating a comic strip depicting the conversation shared between the animals and wood cutter in 'The Great Kapok Tree'. Not only will this develop our ICT skills, it will also help us refine our use of speech marks and different sentence types. We hope to be able to share these with you on the website soon. 

In Science, we are finishing our topic on 'All Living Things' by looking at how environments, particularly rainforests, can change and the impact this has on the animals and plants that inhabit them. We look forward to beginning our next topic on rocks, soon.

In Maths, we have begun a sequence on time and converting time from analogue to digital 12 and 24 hour clocks. Children have made a good start. 

We have also enjoyed athletics in P.E. this week, as part of our preparations for our athletics festival and sports day!

27th - 31st March

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During our last week of term, we shared much of our learning with eachother. We read eachother's persuasive letters and peer-marked them using 'two stars and a wish'. Following this, children participated in a slow-write, where they produced fantastic setting descriptions based on the Easter Wonderland found in this year's ALDI advert. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFzkuDvdaX0

In Maths, we moved on to reading co-ordinates and explaining translations of shapes. The children were quick to grasp this concept using the "along the corridor and then up the stairs" method and enjoyed playing related games on the last day. 

In Science, children identified and named a variety of living things in their local environment of the school site! We had great fun turning over leaves and stones and found a whole host of different minibeasts. The children then thought carefully about how these microhabitats could change and the impact this can have on those living things inhabiting them.

We look forward to more learning adventures next term and hope you have a restful Easter. 

20th - 24th March

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We had a fantastic start to the week as parents came to share in our Celebration of Learning. We very much enjoyed having visitors in our classes, finding out all that we have been up to over the past term. 

Literacy has seen the continuation of our letter writing this week. Children have come up with some fantastic arguments for persuasive letters of their own. Letters range from persuading Mum and Dad to have another baby, to persuading Miss Martin to plan more baking days to persuading Mr Killoran to allow no school uniform! As you can imagine, we are very excited to see the finished products. 

In Maths, we have continued our exploration of geometric reasoning, focusing particularly on finding the perimeter of shapes. We have also revised what we have learned this term as a way of finding what we need to practice in the summer term. 

Science has seen the continuation of classifying and grouping animals and, as ever, we have been adding to our Topic work. The Discoverers particularly enjoyed learning about the Black Death! We have found some very interesting facts. 

On Friday, we had a fantastic day celebrating and raising money for Red Nose Day. We performed brilliantly in a handball festival, with Teign house winning overall. We enjoyed having a giggle at Mr Killoran's (lack of) beard and producing Mothers Day cards in preparation for this weekend. 

We look forward to this coming week before a well earned rest!

13th - 17th March

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Discoverers and Voyagers had a very traumatic start to the week having received a letter from a Mr Boggington informing the children of his plans to build a pickled onion factory on the school field! As you can imagine, the children were outraged and had many valid reasons against Mr Boggington's proposals. Children worked effectively together to write letters to persuade Mr Boggington to reconsider his plans. The children did such a fantastic job. Even Mr Boggington was impressed! As a result, you will be pleased to hear that there will be no pickled onion factory built on the school site! Children have applied what they have learned to create persuasive letters on a topic of their choice. We look forward to reading the results. 

In Maths, we have begun a sequence on shape. We have had lots of fun consolidating our understanding of triangles and angle types and have extended our knowledge of types of line. We look forward to continuing this week. 

In Science, we had fun classifying animals, looking particularly at dichotomous keys. We started with the 'yes', 'no' game and then created our own questions to help identify a variety of different animals.

Monday of next week will allow us to share all that we have been doing this past term. We look forward to seeing you. 

6th - 10th March

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In Literacy this week, children reflected on and improved their Magic Box poems. They also went on to publish these using a word processor. They look very professional! We have been so impressed with the creativity and imagination with which children have written their poems. We look forward to sharing them with you in our Celebration of Learning later this month. We also began our new topic of persuasive writing. We looked at what the children already knew about the powers of persuasion by writing a letter to Mr Killoran, persuading him to make the school day shorter! Children came up with some brilliant reasons for this!

Maths has seen the continuation of our work on multiplicative reasoning, division in particular. Most children are now able to solve division problems with remainders using either the number-line or bus stop method. Next week, we will be solving missing number problems before moving on to our new topic of geometric reasoning. 

In Science, we have continued looking at living things, particularly at how they are grouped. Children had a variety of animal cards and grouped them in as many ways as possible. We discovered that there are many animals which fit into more than one group. We then practiced using a Carroll Diagram to classify animals independently. 

P.E. has seen the introduction of our new topic, Basketball, which is enabling children to transfer many of their Handball skills to a new sport. 

As ever, we have been continuing in our Topic work. The Voyagers have been looking into Henry VIII's love life and his many, many wives! Children have shown a great deal of interest in this and have produced some fantastic posters. Discoverers have been looking at historic methods of defense, particularly those of castles and knights. Again, we look forward to sharing what we have learned with you at our Curriculum Celebration. 

27th February - 3rd March

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This week, the children have planned and written their own Magic Box poems. We have been so impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm the children have shown. Their poems are fantastic! We look forward to sharing these with you when we have reflected on and improved them. 

In Maths, we have been learning how to divide using chunking on a number line. We are very pleased with the way the children have persevered and improved their understanding. Next week, we will practice this method with remainders and will be applying it to solving problems in context.

We began our new topic in Science this week; living things. We looked at the characteristics of living things using the mnemonic MRS NERG. See if your child can tell you what each of the letters stand for! Next week, we will begin to look at the ways in which living things can be grouped and classified. 

In P.E. this week, our handball topic came to a close as the Year 4's represented us at a very cold and windy tournament at TCS. Our teams did us proud, coming 3rd and 4th out of 8 teams, just missing out on the finals! A big well done to those children who took part.

Also this week, the year 3's participated in the spring music festival at TCS. They tried out some gospel singing and then performed to a large audience of parents in the evening. Another well done to the children involved. You did a super job. While this was taking place, the Year 4's were having fun back at school as part of World Book Day. They dressed in their pyjamas for the day and took part in activities based on Drew Daywalt's 'The Day the Crayons Quit'.

20th- 24th February

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We have spent lots of time sharing our Literacy and Topic work with eachother and Yr 5 and 6. This was a very valuable experience, which enabled us to learn from our peers.
In Literacy this term, we will be writing some poetry based on Kit Wright's 'Magic Box'. This week, the children have started to explore the poem and have had a go at making changes to it, in order to make it more their own. Next week, the children will be planning and writing their very own Magic Box poem. We look forward to reading them.
In Maths, we have been practicing our multiplication methods, particularly the grid and expanded method. Children are grasping these concepts well and we hope to move on to division next week.
We rounded off our 'states of matter' topic in Science by looking at the roles of evaporation and condensation in the water cycle. We look forward to commencing our topic on living things next week.

6th - 10th February

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This week we have been VERY busy. Both classes have finished their underwater fantasy stories and have had opportunity to mark their own and a peer's according to a checklist of 'What A Good One Looks Like (WAGOLL)'. Some of their stories are absolutely fantastic. We can't wait to share them with Years 5 and 6 after half term!

In Maths, we have been looking at decimal numbers, ordering and comparing them. Some of the pictures below are of children using dice to create numbers of their own, before comparing them to see whose number was largest. 

Science has involved designing and setting up a simple enquiry investigating the effect of temperature on evaporation rates. The children thought carefully about how the investigation could be made fair, what we would keep the same and what we would change. The children decided to put 100ml of water outside, 100ml of water inside at room temperature and another 100ml of water on top of the class radiator. We marked the water level using a marker pen and waited a day to see what would happen. We discovered that evaporation rates are highest when the temperature is increased and that condensation occurs at colder temperatures. 

Sadly, our topics of the Celts and the Romans came to end this week. The Discoverers had chance to present posters, they have been working on, to the rest of the class and the Voyagers enjoyed a Roman feast and chariot parade at the end of the week! We have thoroughly enjoyed this topic but look forward to exploring our new topics of the Middle Ages and the Tudors after half term.  

30th January - 3rd February

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This week has seen the continuation of our underwater fantasy story writing. We have looked at examples of good stories and some of us have used music to assist with this. Voyagers put the story to music using instruments in the school hall and Discoverers have used underwater music to stimulate their imaginations. Children have focused primarily on their story openings, character and setting descriptions. So far, we have been very impressed! We are looking forward to getting these finished and being able to share with one another at the end of next week. 

Children have also continued their work on fractions, looking particularly at ordering and comparing as well as adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. We have been dealing with some tricky concepts, which the children have grasped well. We will continue this and look at decimal equivalents next week. 

Both classes have made a start designing their topic projects. The Voyagers have been studying Roman chariots and the Discoverers have been investigating Celtic Roundhouses. We hope to be able to start making soon! Both classes have also looked at particular aspects of Roman/Celtic life and have worked in groups to research and produce a factual poster about transport, religion, everyday life and attack and defence. The children have discovered some very interesting facts. 

The Year 3s have also been learning songs in preparation for the Spring Music Festival at TCS on Thursday 2nd March. The children have made a good start but lots more practice is needed. We will be sending home some song words to learn in preparation for this. 

23rd - 27th January

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On Monday of this week, the Year 3's and Year 4's across both classes shared their autobiographies with one another. The children enjoyed reading eachother's work and offering feedback in the form of 'two stars and a wish'. This was a valuable experience for children who had opportunity to think about what they could include in their writing next time. Also in Literacy this week, we began our new story-writing topic based on the award winning picture book, Flotsam by David Wiesner. Children have explored the book and the text-type of a story. Children are now preparing to write by producing story plans and word mats. We are looking forward to reading their stories!

In Maths, we have begun a sequence of work on fractions. We began the sequence by looking at a photo of a delicious cake and listing all the ways in which it could possibly relate to Maths. Some interesting ideas were shared! This week, we will be finding fractions of numbers, adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator and comparing and ordering. 

In Science, we have continued our work on States of Matter, looking particularly at the processes of evaporation and condensation. We made observations of cold and boiling hot water in glasses to help our understanding. The children then went on to create posters explaining each of the processes. 

Our topic has also continued this week. Discoverers enjoyed acting as archaeologists and discovering how artefacts found can give clues and develop our understanding of what life was like in the Iron Age. We concluded that life was very different to how it is now and most of us probably wouldn't want to have lived during those times.

16th - 20th January

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On Wednesday of this week, the Year 3's participated in the Handball Festival at TCS, with a handful of other schools. The leaders were fantastic and organised a wide range of games and activities to engage the children with. The children were excellently behaved and got thoroughly stuck in! Below, you will find some action shots from our sunny afternoon, along with photographs of a Science investigation that both classes conducted; looking at states of matter and how they change. The children made some brilliant predictions and we drew some interesting conclusions.

Children have also continued with their autobiographies this week. They have planned their writing using the timelines they created last week and have begun writing. All children have offered feedback to their peers and have responded to this and feedback from their teacher. Children will have opportunity to share their masterpieces with children from the other class next week. We can't wait!

In Maths, children have been working on their column subtraction. We have applied these skills to calculating the answers to word problems using the acronym; RUCSAC. Make sure you ask your child what it stands for! Next week, we will be brushing up on place value.

9th-13th January

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In Maths have been improving our addition methods, looking particularly at the column method. We have gone on to solve missing number problems. Some of us have even managed to move on to adding six digit numbers!

This week also saw the introduction of our new topic; "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words". The children have been asking some fantastic questions as we explored images for our work in History and Literacy. Some of the images we have used so far can be seen below.

Our new Science topic has also started. Children have been learning about the properties of solids, liquids and gases and have classified objects according to these properties. We have even practiced behaving like particles of solids, liquids and gases in the playground! Some fantastic questions have been raised, particularly with regard to those items that have properties of more than one state.

In P.E., we have started learning the skills needed for Handball. We have particularly enjoyed developing our passing and dribbling techniques. We hope to be able to bring you some photos and news from the Year 3's Handball Festival next week.

Thank you to those of you who kindly brought in photos. The children thoroughly enjoyed sharing them with their friends and teachers and have each made a timeline to aid in their autobiographical writing. We can't wait to see what the children produce!