Spring 2

This half term has been our Stone Age topic! We have dived into the past to learn about some of Britains earliest people. We discovered the role archeologists play in learning about the past, find out more about prehistoric animals and learnt what life was like in the Stone Age. The children have become experts on the topic and showcased their knowledge with a non-chronological report. In Art, the children created their own cave paintings and even tea-stained the paper to give the effect of a cave wall.

In English, we continued our Stone Age topic and read Stone Age Boy. The children practised summarising and predicting and continued to develop their skills with descriptive writing. They were able to retell the story in the form of diaries written from the perspectives of different characters.

Autumn 2

Through History and Geography we used our topic of Robin Hood to facilitate our learning. As Robin Hood was our local history study, we looked at many different ways to incorporate him in our learning: looking at trade during the time of Robin Hood including taxes and the lifestyle of people during medieval times; we looked at the geography of Sherwood forest and compared how it has changed and reduced over time; we formed our own opinions on whether Robin Hood was good or bad and had a debate on this topic.

In Art, we studied the work of Andy Goldsworthy and how he used natural resources to create sculptures in the wild that followed similar patterns. Year 3 then designed and created their pw sculptures in teams, at school.

In Maths, we continued to develop our understanding of place value and then began to look at addition and subtraction including adding and taking away using the column method. We used concrete materials, pictorial representation, and then looked at the abstract method to progress our learning.

In English this half term, we have been studying a retelling of Robin Hood. We have been doing lots of work to create descriptive writing including building expanded noun phrases and using the senses. The children have written rich setting descriptions and emotive letters. In reading, we have done lots of character work, using our inference skills to make deductions about characters thoughts, feelings and motives.

Art and Design

In Art and Design, we have been exploring the work of Vincent Van Gogh and how he used colours in his self-portraits to express his mood. We began practising our skills of sketching a self-portrait before creating our final piece. We also developed our skill of mixing colours, mixing primary colours to make secondary colours and then adding black or white to make these into tertiary colours. When we had developed our skills, we mixed the colours necessary for our portrait including the colour we felt best reflected our mood. 

Maths

In Maths, we investigated the different ways we could make two-digit numbers using only 3 digit cards. We then explored only making numbers between a given start and end range. Using the computers, we have been able to practise our times table skills on Times Tables Rockstars! 

Science

In Science, we have been experimenting with shadows! We have thought about how shadows are formed, experimented with making shadows as well as changing the size of them. Who knew shadows could be so interesting?

Autumn Topic 1: Should we be afraid of the dark?

Our new Learning Journey topic is all about light, dark and shadows.

We will be learning all about how light travels and how opaque objects stop the light to create a shadow. We will do an experiment to look at which materials are opaque, transparent and translucent. Also, we will use torches to find out why footballers have 4 shadows in a night match.

English

In our English lessons, we started the topic by reading 'Orion and the Dark' by Emma Yarlett. From this book, we will be creating character descriptions of the characters Orion and the Dark and develop our use of adjectives and adverbs for descriptions.

We are also reading 'The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark' by Jill Tomlinson! Have you read any of her stories? Have a look in our Year 3 book corners as they are one of our recommended Year 3 reads!

Autumn Term 1 – Maths

This half term, we will be looking at place value, recapping our knowledge from Year 2 and reapplying it to our Year 3 learning. We will begin by looking at 2 digit numbers and moving onto 3 digit numbers.

We are excited to launch our 'Year 3 50 Recommended Reads'. We have got lots of exciting books in our book corners, just waiting to be read. I wonder which will be our favourite?!

Welcome to Year 3!

We would like to welcome all of the children starting in Year 3 this year in both 

Mrs Barringer's Class and Miss Carter's Class. Mrs Barringer, Miss Carter, Miss Cook, Mrs Gorman and Miss Newton are so excited to be teaching you this year!

Please find below some useful information you may wish to know about Year 3.

Every Day

We have Maths, English, Reading, Spelling and story time.

Afternoon Sessions

We learn through Our Learning Journey curriculum. This includes subjects such as Computing, Geography, History, Science, Music, Art and Design & Technology. We also have weekly PSHRE lessons, where we explore the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. We have two sessions of P.E. a week, one lesson of R.E and one lesson of French.

P.E.

The day of our P.E. sessions will be on a Wednesday this year. Children are expected to be wearing their P.E. kit to school for the day. 

Tests

On Friday we have a spelling test. Every half term we will do an overall spelling test of the Year 3/4 common exception words, along with a KIRFs test, which is a Maths test based on the Year 3 curriculum.

Homework

Children learn best and make the most progress when school and home work in partnership together. To support your child with this, we will be setting weekly spelling and times tables homework. This will focus very much on the skills and knowledge your child needs to progress successfully in Year Three. Along with this, we will send home a KIRF pack and the Year 3/4 common exception words every half term for your child to learn and practise.

We also expect children to read regularly at home. When your child has read, please write a note in their reading diary. When they have read their book a couple of times, then they are welcome to change it.

Times table homework will be set via TTRockstars this year, your child will be given a log in to access this from home. Each week the children will be expected to practise their times table knowledge on a weekly basis and will be rewarded with Dojo points for doing so.

Celebration Assemblies

We hold a celebration assembly each Friday afternoom for Year 3. This provides an opportunity to celebrate success and share achievements with their class and staff. This will then be shared via Class Dojo for parents and carers. After the assembly, your child’s star will be displayed in the entrance corridor.

Home Learning Packs:

Please find below the home-learning for the weeks ahead. These will be updated weekly. There are a variety of activities to include the multiple aspects of learning we would be covering in our curriculum under normal circumstances. The Maths is focused on progressing through the curriculum, following White Rose, as we do in school, whereas the English is building on reading and writing skills, following the planning we would be using in-class under normal circumstances.

This should be in addition to and not to replace your already existing schedule, so please carry on with your TTRockstars practising times tables; Joe Wicks P.E - keeping fit and active; code.org where you can develop programming skills; and some of the other activities you have already been completing. Aim to incorporate these packs into your weekly routine. The English and Maths is designed to be worked on daily, as we would do in-class. 

As mentioned, this is designed to last the week, so please don't feel pressured to complete it all at once. Feel free to print these out at home, or contact the school to pick up a copy. Alternatively, you can use any plain or lined paper to hand to complete the majority of the activities, so don't feel pressured to print or collect everything. We would love to see examples of great work, so keep posting on Class Dojo Portfolios. Finally, should you or your child have any questions, feel free to get in touch with the Year 3 team via Class Dojo.

Easter Activities

Here are some activities to keep you busy over Easter! These are ideas for you to choose from and so that you can have some fun. 

Home Learning for week commencing 30.03.20

English Home Learning

Here are the last few pages of that we read of The Flower by John Light. 
Create a prediction for the end of the story. 
To do this you could write it as a story, record your prediction or create a picture of the ending. 

In a few days I will share the ending with you! 

Let's get moving with Joe Wicks every morning Monday to Friday at 9:00 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6r99N3kXME&feature=youtu.be

Home Learning

Children in Year 3 all have access to the following websites to support their home learning:

https://code.org/

https://ttrockstars.com/

https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk/

We have been using these videos to support the children in learning their 3, 4 and 8 times tables:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XzfQUXqiYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QU_E0u-tP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_BJjR9rdwA

Thank you for your continued support.

Spring 2 - How does the planet look after us?

This half term we are investigating plants! We are looking at what plants need to grow, the parts of plants and how they help with plant reproduction. We have conducted an experiment to see what plants need to grow by trying to grow seeds in different conditions.

This topic links with the book we are studying in English this half term: The Flower by John Light.

Rand Farm

Both classes have had a wonderful time on our residential trip! From cleaning out the pigs to cooking our own lunch, the children took part in many exciting experiences living on the farm for 2 days. They represented our school brilliantly and did Priestsic proud with their manners and hard work. It will be a memory we will never forget!

Stone Age Day!

We had a super day being archaeologists, creating our own museum with artefacts we had dug up. We also put artefacts back together, discussed where they may have come from or been used for and how old they might be. In the afternoon, we were able create our own pots, either a thumb pot or coil pot, in the same style as the Stone Age people would have made. Also, we made our own bracelets, weaved fur, created spears and made flour from barely. What an amazing day it was!

English

In our English lessons, we started reading 'Stone Age Boy' by Satoshi Kitamura. From this book, we created a setting description of the Stone Age camp and developed our use of expanded noun phrases.

Maths

In Maths, we have begun using Times Table Rockstars to help us learn our times tables. Each child has been given a log in and we have loved seeing how each of us have been progressing using the site.

Here is a link: https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

If you have misplaced your login, please come and see us, we will be happy to replace it!

Happy Rocking! 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We really enjoyed our Christmas dinner and loved wearing our Christmas jumpers to raise money.

Sherwood Forest

This half term, we have been learning about Robin Hood and his Merry Men. As part of this, we went to Sherwood Forest to see where he may have lived. We have also been looking at the artist Andy Goldsworthy and created our own pieces inspired by him!

Autumn Half Term 2 - Maths

This half term, our Maths topic is Multiplication and Division.

Our KIRFs test this half term is also multiply and divide by 3.

Why not have a look at some of these websites to help you to practise your 3 times table!

https://gb.education.com/games/time/

http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/clock2/clockwordsres.html

http://flash.topmarks.co.uk/5262

https://www.splashmath.com/time-games

Autumn Topic 2: Are you attractive enough?

Our new Learning Journey topic is all about magnets and forces.

We have really enjoyed looking at magnets and have done lots of different experiments to discover more about magnets. We looked at which magnets are the strongest, which metals are magnetic and how to move a car across a table using the forces of magnets.