Our Year 3 Class
A very warm welcome to our Year 3 class page. In Year 3 the children are new to the juniors and sometimes a little nervous, so they need to spend time adjusting to new routines and expectations. The children enjoy the opportunity to develop their skills further and generally settle in really quickly to Key Stage 2. They become confident working both independently and in groups, seeing the huge benefits of sharing their ideas and learning. They especially enjoy Wednesdays because they get to go swimming!
Our Year 3 Class 2024-2025
Class Information
Who's Who
Mrs Evans- Year 3 Teacher
Mrs Jones - HLTA
Miss Winstanley - Inclusion Teaching Assistant
Things to remember
Please remember that homework is due in by WEDNESDAY each week.
P.E. lessons - PE will be on Wednesdays and Fridays . The children will need to come to school in their full PE kits.
Please remember to write your child's name on all of their uniform and sports kits to avoid confusion within class.
It is important that children read regularly at home, we appreciate that it may not always be possible but encourage you to do so. The reading record is now to be completed on a paper record with stamps awarded at the end of each week for 5 reads. We ask for one video on Seesaw every few weeks to be sent as we can give feedback on how you can help your child improve at home.
This half term...... Autumn Term 2 (October-December 2024)
English - The children will continue to follow The Write Stuff approach to our writing. This helps the writing process through The Writing Rainbow, teaching the children how to build sentences using different elements of writing and grammar. Writing is demonstrated and modelled, with rich experience days to support comprehension of their genre.
This half term, lots of our writing is matched to key events during this time. The children will begin by celebrating Remembrance, writing their own poems using similes and alliteration. These are two key Boomtastics on the Writing Rainbow and are valuable writerly techniques! To support the children’s learning on Anti-bullying, they will also write emotive poetry using subordinate clauses. Finally, as our class text is George’s Marvellous Medicine, the children will write a short character description. Using the revolting grandma as a model, they will then look to another Roald Dahl favourite, The BFG, to describe one of the gruesome giants!
Reading - The children will continue to develop their reading skills with a focus on vocabulary. They will spend lots of time reviewing their comprehension questions and building their skills in how to find answers in a text using skimming and scanning skills, as well understanding what a question is asking. Texts will at times be linked across the curriculum, covering topics such as Mountains, Unsung War Heroes and Remembrance. The children will also build their inference skills using picture books and spend a little time focusing on their last class reader; The Wild Robot.
Spellings - We will begin to follow the Read, Write Inc scheme for spelling. The children will review previously taught spelling rules such as —ing -ed suffixes, before developing their understanding of root words and word families by reviewing un- and in- prefixes before learning re- mis- and dis-. It is very important that Year 2 and Year 3 statutory words are practised regularly at home.
Mathematics- Place value and number will continue to be embedded through starter activities and homework as we move on to more difficult addition and subtraction. For this, teaching will follow the Power Maths scheme; we will add and subtract ones, tens and hundreds within 1000, but will be learning how to use column addition and subtraction. Encouraging children to share their methods at home is a great way to further their learning and will help you to support your child at home, particularly as many of the strategies are different from several years ago. We look forward to welcoming parents and carers to a maths workshop where the children can sit alongside their grown ups and show them how they 'do maths'. Children will be exposed to problems and reasoning daily. At home, you can support your child by counting across hundreds, in 1s, 5s or 10s as this often is needed when using number lines. Accessing Top Marks Daily 10 is also a simple and very effective way to support mental skills, and can be set to suit your child's ability.
TT Rockstars remains a key resource for the children both in and out of school and will be set to match current abilities. Lots of children are still securing their 2s and 5s. Times tables will be tested once a week and children will be exposed to 3s and 4s through counting activities. This is the first step to learning a new times table.
Geography - This half term we find out all about mountains. We already know about volcanoes and earthquakes and how they all happen. Now we move onto how mountains are formed and some key features of these giant pieces of the Earth’s crust! The children will continue to develop their map skills by locating the world's seven summits and UK summits and what it's like to live on a mountain, specifically in The Himalayas!
Science - Magnets As a stand alone unit, this is great for investigation and scientific working; the children love it! Beginning with exploring push and pull forces and friction, before moving onto investigate the non-contact force of magnetism. The children discover about a magnet's poles and how they behave and the kinds of materials that are magnetic. They consider some real life uses of magnets before applying their learning by designing a tool to reach something from far away.
RE - In this unit we ask ‘What is the trinity and why is it important for Christians? The children will find out about the baptism of Jesus and where it lies in the story of the Bible. They investigate how Christians show their beliefs about God and the Trinity through artwork before finding out about infant and believers’ baptisms in the church.
Art – we are discovering sculpture and 3D working! Using the work of Anthony Caro as inspiration, the children will learn the difference between 2D and 3D, exploring shapes and negative spaces to ultimately create an abstract sculpture! This unit allows the children’s creativity to flow and encourages them to look at art a little differently! They will also have to think about how to join their 2D shapes to create something that is 3D.
Computing – The children will use the world of Top Trumps to learn all about databases. This is a fun unit which encourages the children to see data in real life. They will be encouraged to use the correct terminology of records, fields and data throughout, whilst comparing paper databases against computerised ones. This is always very timely as there is no better paper database than the Smyth’s catalogue! They then use their own Microsoft account to create a form and filter and sort data. Phew!
French - The children get all descriptive in this unit, recognising and naming colour words aswell as size and shape. They practise this vocabulary by giving and receiving instructions. They then apply it to a piece of artwork in the style of Matisse following French instructions. Finally, just in time for Christmas, they create and describe a festive picture!
Music - The children learn a range of African songs this half term, using these as a medium through which to match pitch, sing in tune, enunciate and sing in a group. They also are challenged with following the conductor! This vocal unit will help the children to learn how to sit and stand correctly when they sing and, all importantly, warm up their voices!
PE - The School Games Value is SELF BELIEF which complements the Heart Smart theme of Don't Forget to Let Love In which teaches the children to value themselves and see that they are worthy of being loved. With close ties to RE learning and Christian values, Heartsmart will enable the children to consider their own well-being and reflect on how they feel inside about themselves.
Our Indoor PE this half term is Dance! The children will explore actions linked to different themes to practise the skills of unison and interacting with a partner. They will need to link actions and use set phrases to remember and repeat actions using counts of 8. We will also share ideas of actions and dynamics to choreograph a dance!
Outdoor PE – Fitness! This exposes the children to different areas of fitness; strength, stamina, agility, speed, balance and coordination. Through various activities the children learn the effect of a good level of fitness on body and mind and be faced with some perseverance challenges too!
Autumn 1 Term NEWS… (September - October 2024)
Our brains have definitely grown this half term! A huge focus for Year 3 has been developing our teamwork skills. We have woven it into as many opportunities as we can; quick active games, partner work, group work, whole class missions like our Star in the Jar rewards. We have also begun to develop our resilience skills, using our PATHS and Heartsmart lessons to understand that mistakes are learning opportunities and not failures. This has been tough for lots of us, and we will continue to work on it.
Along the way this half term, Year 3 have settled into new routines in the juniors and shown that they are working hard to follow the Shine Rules. We very quickly settle into each day ready to learn and have enjoyed using the equipment at break times, as well as Funky Moves Friday! The class have enjoyed learning about volcanoes and discovering about rocks (with the help of Starburst!) and what goes on beneath our feet (with t eh help of playdough!). They have had lots and lots of practical maths lessons to support their new learning on 3-digit numbers and created some wonderful Mr Men characters of their own.
We finished the half term with our Star in the Jar reward of pjs and own clothes, as well as a sneaky trip to the cinema to watch the brand-new Pixar film ‘The Wild Robot’, which brought lots of emotions out! What a tearjerker!
It’s been a very busy half term and I think we are all ready for a well-earned rest, ready to go again for Autumn 2!
