Meerkats | Marcham C of E Primary School

The Meerkat Spring Class Newsletter

Class teachers
Mr Josh Clack (Monday, Tuesday, Wed (am), Thursday, Friday)
Mrs V. Hutchinson (Wednesday pm)
Teaching Assistant
Mrs Nicola Pilbrow

Dear Parent and Carers,
Welcome back to another jam packed term at Marcham School. The past two weeks of mince pie eating, opening presents, visiting family and endless celebrations have flown by and we are now into a new decade! And with every New Year, there are a host of new and exciting opportunities that you won’t want to miss.

This term, the Meerkat class are delving into the lives of the marvellous Mayans, an ancient civilisation that still survives to this day in parts of Central America. The class will be becoming explorers, following the clues left by King Pakal to find his hidden treasure. On this trek, the children will learn about Ancient Mayan temples, make ceremonial masks, analyse ancient artefacts and journey though perilous forests to learn about this fascinating period of ancient history.

This term, PE will take place on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. It is your child's responsibility to ensure that their named PE kit is kept in school throughout the week (as additional lessons may take place) and taken home at weekends to be washed. If your child does not have their PE kit in school, they may have to use PE kits provided for them to ensure that they are complying with statutory requirements. Children should not wear jewellery in school, apart from stud earrings (which we advise should not be worn on PE days) and watches.

Homework for the class will be set on a Wednesday, to be returned the following Tuesday, unless specified otherwise. Every week, I will send out a SpellingShed homework that aims to practice our weekly spellings, as well as revise patterns and rules so that the children become more confident spellers. I will also be setting TimesTableRockStars homework to help motivate the children to learn their multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12. This is especially important, as this year sees the introduction of a statutory times table assessment for all year 4 students around the country. To help with this, here is a list of games and activities that you can use with your children at home:

-   TimesTableRockStars (works for adults too!)
-   Flash cards
-   Hitthebutton (app or for free using the internet on an iPad or laptop).
-   Board Games
-   Chanting/counting
-   Songs (Mr Demaio on Youtube is a personal favourite of mine)
-   Sticking tricky facts around the house
-   Beat the clock ( I can supply you with Speed Maths sheets to take home if required)

Similar to last term, I am once again promoting the ‘Top 100 Books List’, a collection of the ‘best’ books to read in year 3 and 4. The members of KS2 and the PTA have been searching high and low to provide the school with as many copies as possible, so it would be appreciated that the books are cared for when they are taken home. It is essential that you listen to your child read 4-5 times a week to help build their reading speed, fluency, their use of vocabulary and improve their writing and spelling. I will be keeping a log of the books that the class are reading, as well as sending home a reading record bookmark for an adult to sign. These can then be exchanged for house points and raffle tickets in the classroom. Each bookmark is then entered into the Book Raffle at the end of term where one person gets the chance to win a new book!
As always, if you have any questions or wish to speak to me, please let the office know so that we can arrange an appointment. Thank you for your support. Kind regards,
Mr Clack

Key Dates:
Homework: Due – every Tuesday and set every Wednesday
P.E days – Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

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