Welcome to Year 3!
We have had a wonderful start to Year 3 and Key Stage 2 and are really settling in to our new routines.
Religious Education
During this term, Year 3 have been exploring the Creation and Covenant topic of our new scheme, The vine and The Branches. We have been learning about how God created the world and exploring our relationship with God and his world now. We really enjoy our Prayer Time sessions, and love to be prayer leaders, planning the sessions.
Now we are in the season of Advent, understanding that this is a time to prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We created our own beautiful wreath, and all wrote Advent promises to hide within it. Our RE unit is Prophecy and Promise. In this unit, we will discuss what happens during Mass and learn about the message brought to us by the prophet Isaiah. Then we will think about the Annunciation and how this would have made Mary and Joseph feel, and about Advent and how it is a time of preparation. Please click on the pictures to see the next ones.
English
This term we are going to be using Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman to develop our recount and letter writing skills. We will be grouping related ideas into paragraphs; building a varied and rich vocabulary; and using prepositions to express
time, place and cause. After half term we will use ‘Winters Child’ by Angela McAllister to write our own fantasy story based around this book. We will be using conjunctions and adverbs to express, time, place and cause; use a or an according to whether the next word begins with a vowel or consonant; creating characters, settings and plot; and using inverted commas to punctuate direct speech.
We will practise all of these skills in our weekly grammar lessons, and have our weekly spelling test on a Friday. It is really important children practice their spellings regularly at home in any way you like. They have a login for Spelling Shed and we ask them to complete three games a night in Year 3.
Maths
This year we are continuing with Maths – No Problem! This follows the successful Singapore Maths approach but is fully in line with our National Curriculum. We will look at numbers to 1000, addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division.
Each week we will practise a times table and have a test on the following Monday. Initially this will be 2’s, 10’s and 5’s but as the term goes on we will move onto 3’s, 4’s and 8’s. It is really important children practice their times tables regularly at home in any way you like. They have a login for TT Rockstars and we ask them to complete three games a night in Year 3.
History
This term, we have been learning about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. We have learnt about why the Romans invaded Britain, how Boudicca was a fierce leader and why the soldiers made such a strong Army.
The children have been working incredibly hard at home on their projects, here are some of them below. Please click on the images to see the next one. Well done!
Geography
This half term we are using Oddizzi to learn more about climates around the world. Our topic is called ‘Climate Zones’. In this unit we are learning to identify the different lines of latitude and locate different climate zones. We will be comparing different climate zones and looking at patterns in the climate.
Science
In Science our first topic has been Animals, Including Humans. We have loved learning all about the different types of nutrition, the different types of skeleton, and how our muscles and skeletons allow us to move. We know that we are vertebrates, and can name and talk about invertebrates with an exoskeleton or a hydrostatic skeleton. We really enjoyed working scientifically to observe how our muscles move our joints. Please click on the pictures to see the next one.
We have also begun our plants topic, collecting and studying seeds, observing closely in the natural environment for evidence of seed dispersal. We found conkers, acorns, Sycamore seeds and Beech nuts, as well as berries and all sorts of other seeds. We had great fun discussing and observing all the amazing ways plants disperse their seeds. Click on the photo below to see more!
This half term we have begun our topic of Light and have had so much fun using torches and dark dens to explore light and dark! We have learnt about how light travels in straight lines and is reflected off objects. We will be learning about how shadows are formed, and this will be our next homework project – to create shadow puppets, watch this space! Click on the picture below to see more.
Art and Design
We are continuing with our Access Art curriculum this year which encourages the children to take ownership of their work and their books. Last half term we studied gestural drawing using the medium of charcoal. This half term we are working with shape and colour and developing a technique known as ‘painting with scissors’. We are looking at the work of Henri Matisse and are thinking about how he used simply coloured paper and scissors to create effective collages. We will use this technique to create several collages of our own, or varying styles and sizes.
Design and Technology
This term we have created interactive electrical posters designed to be situated in a museum to inform the public about the Romans. We researched information design and learnt how to create an electrical circuit. Excellent work! See our work below, don’t forget to click on the pictures to see more.
Computing
Our units this term are Coding, Online Safety and Spreadsheets. Year 3 will be using the coding software ‘Purple Mash’ in order to make their own computer games. We are always so impressed with their skills!
French
Bonjour! We are loving learning a new language in Year 3! This term we have been learning how to greet one another in French and talk about how we are feeling. We have been having lots of conversations, even using puppets to learn a French song! Click on the image below to see more photos.
This half term we will be learning about colours, shapes and sizes!
Music
Music is every Friday with Mr Conway from Tameside Music Service. In Class 3, children begin to learn how to play a brass instrument. It is very exciting! I can’t wait to hear them perform at Christmas!
PSHE
In Year 3 we love learning about our feelings, relationships and how to stay safe. We are really enjoying using our new scheme, My Happy Mind, to learn about how our brain works and how to improve our wellbeing. We are showing amazing understanding of neuroscience, knowing that our hippocampus, amygdala and pre-frontal cortex all work together to help us make good decisions, and that Happy Breathing can help calm us by returning oxygen to the brain. We are even learning about neurons, neural pathways and neuroplasticity – it’s amazing!
During antibullying week we discussed respect, and took part in some role play exploring how we can show respect, in everyday situations, especially when we have a disagreement with someone.