Year 3 - Autumn 2 - Week 7
Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:22pm
What a magical end to Autumn Term we have had in Year 3. On Monday, we gathered in the hall with Year 4 for a magical movie afternoon. Then on Wednesday, the children enjoyed scrumptious Christmas Dinner together and even said they were visited by mischievous elves… but we don’t believe them as we didn’t see them! Finally, we spent a wonderful morning in church taking part in a Christmas service lead by Year 4. We thoroughly enjoyed singing all the Christmas songs we have been practising in class.
Congratulations once again to all of our students for having their poetry selected for publication. It is free of charge to have your child's work published; however, there is a fee if you would like to purchase a copy of the poetry collection. I would like to remind you that the last date to electronically give permission for your child's work to be published is 18th December. Please check your e-mails for the invitation and instructions on how to give permission if you have not done so already. (If you have sent your paper permission slip in to me, then it has been mailed to the Young Writers company.)
In Miss Lucas’ English group, we have investigated the features of a fantasy story and explored the modelled text, plus additional examples of fantasy writing. The children then planned their own fantast stories based on a follow up of our key text Winter’s Child. Most children invented new, magical characters and included a portal in their planning. The end of the week was spent writing our wonderful stories, including lots of the grammatical features we have learnt this half term. When we return, we will be focusing on ‘The Stone Age Boy’, which the children are very excited about.
In Mrs McRae's writing group, everyone completed their letters. The children will be bringing home their work today. The objective was to recount their incredible train journey on the Polar Express to the North Pole from the perspective of the main character to their "sister, Sarah." I gave all of my writing group a huge compliment to bring attention to how far they have come this half-term: With this writing task (in comparison to the reports they wrote in November), I noticed a big improvement to the thoughtfulness they gave to word choice, the care they took in spelling words correctly, their ability to write for a longer period of time in one sitting, and their self-editing skills to make sure their sentences were grammatically correct. Please take time to read your child's letter with them so they can show you all of their newfound skills. I am really proud of how far they have come and I cannot wait to see how far they will go in the New Year!
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we continued to develop our understanding of meters, centimetres and millimetres. Then, we learnt how to measure and calculate perimeters of 2D shapes.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group this week, we focused on problem solving skills with an array of Christmas themed addition and subtraction calculations. It was great to review all of our mental and written strategies and consolidate our learning by applying it to maths puzzles and word problems.
In January, both groups will be moving on to multiplication and division objectives so any work that you can do on TT Rockstars or Sumdog (or in your own way) over the Christmas break would be very helpful for when we meet again.
On Tuesday in D.T., everyone finished their pop-up cards and should have brought them home to show you. Thank you to those families who donated old Christmas cards for the children to share. The donations were much appreciated! All of the children had a "Wow moment" when they opened their pop-up cards for the first time and saw their work in 3-D. They are so proud of their designs and their handiwork—and so am I! I saw great design choices during the planning process, but what stood out to me the most was their improvisation skills when they ran into problems, their resilience when the cutting and measuring was difficult, and the helpfulness from those who saw someone struggling and were willing to jump right in and lend a hand.
In History, we have focused on Stonehenge and had a long discussion about why Stonehenge was made. The children thought of many theories and could not believe that heavy stones were somehow moved from Wales to England. Some children believe it was built out of healing stone, others thought it was a place to worship and some thought it could be used as a calendar or a way of telling the time. Some very sophisticated thinking happening in our classroom! We are loving learning about the Stone Age so much, we will continue this unit during the first week back after Christmas.
We completed our Spanish unit of ‘Los Animales’ and assessed ourselves as to whether we feel we can identify animal names in Spanish and say a Spanish phrase. Our next unit will look at Spanish vocabulary linked to musical instruments. Login information for Language Angels can be found on Google Classroom.
This week, we had Computing afternoons, where we developed our abilities to code. The children are improving their skills and can continue to access coding games on Google Classroom.
The week wouldn't have been complete without a Sing-Off. All of the houses competed against each other on Tuesday after only one hour of rehearsing a Christmas song and adding costumes, props and dance moves. The children had a great attitude toward learning something new—and very quickly—and had a lot of fun in the process. The house that won was Matthew with their lively rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer which had the whole school smiling and clapping in delight!
Can you hear the ring of jingle bells? Love Reading 4 Kids have released their mid-December newsletter. There's still time to order your Christmas books; their Christmas Gift Guide is full of festive treats for all ages, and you can also find more ideas for your perfect presents in their round-up of the best fiction and non-fiction books of 2022. https://clicks.lovereading.co.uk/v/clY/cv8IJxCxiIJRC_KQpIAEuy/134004f0
We wish you a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We cannot wait to see everyone when we return in January.
Reminders:
- Spring term begins Wednesday 4th January 2023
- PE days will change to Monday and Thursday
- Children will participate in a music lesson each Friday with a music teacher
- Please remember to return reading books and spelling logs on return in the new year