Lilac Class
Teaching Team: Dr. Charles, Ms Swannell and Ms Edmed
lilac@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk
Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year! This term our topic will be the Victorians and we will be reading as a class Berlie Doherty’s Street Child and the sequel Far From Home. Lilac Class will also be reading Victorian poetry about the workhouse, The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear, classics such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Railway Children by E.Nesbit, and You Wouldn’t want to be a Victorian Schoolchild by John Malam. These texts will serve as a basis for our English and topic work. As well as learning about Queen Victoria, Lilac Class will be studying the Industrial Revolution, the development of the railways, medicine, education and life in the workhouse. We will also be learning about Dr Barnardo and what life was like for the children living on the streets of Victorian Britain. We are also aiming to visit The Amelia Scott in Tunbridge Wells for a talk and workshop about the Victorians to develop the work we have covered in class.
In Maths this term, we will be continuing our work about fractions and multiplication and division. We will be learning to solve multiplication and division calculations using formal written methods. We will also be learning how to find the perimeter of shapes and calculating the area of rectangles, compound and irregular shapes.
In Art and DT, Lilac Class will be learning about William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement and other artists of the period. The children will be finding out about Victorian recipes and cooking shortbread using Mrs Beeton’s recipe. We will also be making Victorian samplers using a range of different stitches. In Music, Lilac Class will be singing songs from the musical Oliver! and learning about rhythm and pulse. We will also be listening to and appraising the music of British composers of the 19th century such as Ethel Smyth, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius.
In Science, Lilac Class are going to be looking at the properties of different materials and solutions. We will be conducting experiments to see how certain materials and solutions change when they are heated and cooled and to also find out which materials make good conductors of heat and electricity. We will also be finding out what a reversible and irreversible change means.
In RE, Lilac Class will be explaining connections between the story of Moses and the concepts of freedom and salvation and will also be thinking about salvation in relation to Jesus and what he did to save human beings. PE will still be on Mondays and Thursdays this term. Please ensure that your child brings in their PE kit on those days. Homework will again be set on a Thursday and needs to be completed in the Homework Book by the following Tuesday. The spellings that the children will be given to learn will also be covered in class time. The children, in addition, will be given a weekly Purple Mash activity to complete that reinforces the work we have covered in class. Please see attached a ‘Wider Curriculum Matrix’ for terms 3 and 4. These are optional activities.
Please ensure that an adult at home hears your child read at least three times a week and that the reading record is signed and dated. Reading records need to come into school on Wednesday and Friday and will be checked. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any worries, concerns or questions. Thank you for all your continued support. If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate in contacting me via the class email address: lilac@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk
Kind regards,
Dr Charles