Year 3 Team: Ms F Davies (Class Teacher) & Miss L Dunbavin : Blog items
Date: 8th Sep 2023 @ 3:55pm
What a fantastic first week in Year 3! We are so proud of all your achievements this week.
This focused on our class routines, and rules with a special focus on kindness and its importance. To do this, we created posters for our friends, which showed what can do to be kind to each other. These posters were then discussed as a class and were pleasantly surprised that most of the posters have the same ideas! This linked nicely to our school value 'Nurture', agreeing that we should always 'Choose Kind' with not only people in our class but the wider community.
We absolutely loved our first gymnastics lesson which focused on travelling. In groups we created a routine, demonstrating the different ways we can move across the maps, ensuring that we were mirroring out partner. We discussed the importance of pointing our toes in certain positions, and, how we must travel in the same direction, so we don't crash!
In Maths, we put our Place Value skills to the test, connecting our learning back to Year 2, to play a tricky game of 'Snakes and Ladders'. Working in pairs, we had to solve questions, working out the answers, to ensure we moved up the board!
Please make sure you are following our school twitter account, @Year3TSP, where we will share updates throughout the day. Please also see the 'Successful Start' PowerPoint for more information about the coming year!
Date: 14th Jul 2023 @ 3:43pm
The final full week of Year 3 is now complete; we cannot believe how quickly the year has flown by. We are so thrilled with how much the children have flourished and we hope you enjoyed reading your child’s report last week which reflected this!
Here are some highlights from this week:
To start the week, the children enjoyed a visit from Rob from Formby Library who informed the children about this year's Summer Reading Challenge. The children were all very excited when they returned to class with many of them sharing how they hoped to complete the challenge. There are two ways you can take part in the Summer Reading Challenge:
- You can join at Formby Library and take part in person. The librarian will give you a collector folder, stickers, and other special rewards, and help you find books to read.
- Or, take part online by signing up here. Set a reading goal and log your books on your profile. When you reach your goal, you will unlock a virtual badge and certificate.
Please note, the in-person and online challenges are separate. Medals and certificates are only available via the library, for those taking part in the in-person challenge. We hope the children enjoy completing the reading challenge and this will be celebrated when we return to school in September.
On Wednesday, the class enjoyed their trip to the British Music Experience in Liverpool. We started our day by taking a trip through music history starting with Vera Lynn during WW2 right through to Sam Ryder at Eurovision 2022. After lunch, we had the opportunity to tour the museum and visit the interactive music studio – which was greatly enjoyed by all!
In maths, the children created a range of 3D shapes using cotton buds and playdough. This was quite a challenge but the children showed great perseverance to build their models. They also constructed their own bar charts using interlocking cubes based on some in-class surveys.
In art, the children painted in the style of L.S. Lowry and created their own image of Trinity St Peter’s School, focussing on creating depth perception by changing size of buildings and people and by changing the depth of the colours they used. The children were delighted with their finished pieces of artwork.
A week of so many other highlights included the children having a glimpse into their futures as they had the chance to watch the Year 6 leaver’s performance which had everyone in fits of laughter. Well done Year 6!
In preparation for the next academic year, please see the Year 4 Successful Start PowerPoint attached at the end of this blog.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Reminders:
-School finishes for this academic year at 1pm on Wednesday 19th July.
Date: 25th Mar 2023 @ 4:25pm
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This week, we visited church to begin our rehearsals for our upcoming Easter assembly. This links nicely to how we have celebrated Collective Worship, focusing on Jesus’ actions and developed our learning in RE through the Easter story. In RE, we focused on the importance of Maundy Thursday within Holy Week. We learnt that the word ‘Maundy’ means ‘command’ and that Jesus gave a new commandment at the Last Supper to, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
In English, we discovered there are many varieties of giraffe. Giraffes similar to ‘Zeraffa’ can be seen in Chester Zoo! We researched different types of giraffes and recorded similarities and differences on a double mind map. Then, we used our research to form comparative sentences which included conjunctions such as ‘although’.
We also entered another Young Writer’s competition this week, focusing on diary writing. The children used their imaginations to create exciting diary entries. We love seeing our work published in real books!
To celebrate World Poetry Day, we learnt and performed ‘The Dinosaur Rap’ with Mrs Wall. We had a ball (? see what we did there).
In Maths, we started looking at fractions. We reminded ourselves how to work out the numerator and denominator, as well as the difference between a unit fraction and a non-unit fraction. We also learnt that when the numerator is the same, the greater the denominator the smaller the fraction. With Miss Lucas we recapped important place value knowledge such as counting in 4s, 8s and 50s, 10 more and 10 less than a 3 digit number and recording numbers in digits and words.
Our History lesson delved into how the Ancient Egyptians communicated and recorded via the use of hieroglyphics. The children used their inference skills to investigate a piece of evidence just like an archaeologist would and then they had a go at writing secret messages Egyptian style.
Using bar magnets in Science, we learnt that magnets have two poles - a north and a south. The children then investigated whether two magnets would attract or repel each other depending on which poles were facing. We were amazed at how strong the force was when two like poles repelled each other.
In PE, we applied our tennis skills to some friendly matches and we cannot wait to compete again next week.
We have had an even bigger focus on well-being this week, smelling lots of calming essential oils and completing a meditation using chocolate… that’s right CHOCOLATE!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
• RWI Spelling logs to be in school every Wednesday
• Easter Assembly on Friday 31st March at St Peter’s Church
• Songs and lines for our Easter assembly can be found on Google Classroom
• School finishes at 1pm on Friday
Date: 13th Mar 2023 @ 2:34pm
We stepped back in time this week and visited the Ancient Egyptian era during a fascinating workshop led by Jane from History Alive. We have a lot of superb historians in our class who have been amazed by what we can find out about the past.
In Collective Worship, we listened to a bible story about how God is very forgiving and loves us all. We reflected on how we can follow in God’s footsteps. To recognise International Women’s day we read 'Great Women who made History' focusing on Hatshepsut. We thought about the women who mean the most to us and created a poem using exciting adjectives to describe them. We hope you liked receiving them.
This week, we have been busy completing English and Maths quizzes about everything we have learnt so far. Miss Lucas and Mrs Wall have been very impressed by our studious attitudes. In Maths, we also enjoyed competing against each other using our knowledge of place value and written column addition methods. Taking it in turns, we generated a number using the spinner and had to choose where to place it on the board in order to get the biggest number.
We expanded on the Ancient Egyptian workshop in class by focusing on the timeline of Old, Middle and New Ancient Egypt. We also spent time discussing how this timeline goes alongside the Stone Age to Iron Age timeline and we were intrigued to find out the Romans invaded by Ancient Egypt and the Iron Age. This week has encouraged us to ask questions to further our learning and find out more. There are many resources saved to Google Classroom to support with continuing learning about Ancient Egypt at home. In Reading, we have spent time clarifying vocabulary and ensuring we understand the meaning of new words in context. We added new vocabulary to our STAR vocabulary display from our text 'Egyptian Cinderella'.
In Science this week, we grouped together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they was magnetic or not. The children then used magnets to identify other magnetic and non-magnetic materials around the classroom.
In PE, we loved learning a new batting and fielding game with the Sports Leaders from Formby High School. We cannot wait to play this game again next week with Miss Lucas.
Reminders:
- Next Friday is Red Nose Day. Children to wear uniform but can wear a red nose
- Please remember to bring reading books and yellow diaries into school
- Healthy snacks are encouraged for break time
- PE days continue to be Monday and Thursday
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 8:13pm
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What a week we have had in Year 3! A highlight of the week was World Book Day, where all children and staff put an astounding effort into their costumes. The children were fully engaged in our school search to find out which character had escaped from the book. After discussing the clues, the Reading Ambassadors announced our class vote as the lion and guess what …we were correct! We also joined the author, Luke Temple, online to create our very own monster characters.
In Collective Worship, we began to discuss our new focus of ‘Forgiveness’. At first, we struggled to find an exact definition for this word, however after putting all our ideas together we now understand what it truly means. In RE, the children learnt about St David’s day and his miracles.
In English, we focused on our class book ‘Zeraffa Giraffa’, which the children have thoroughly enjoyed. We wrote a letter pretending to be the Pasha of Egypt telling the King of France that we were sending him a special gift and we investigated STAR vocabulary such as ‘felucca’, ‘amulet’ and ‘quills’ to enable us to understand the text better. We also pretended to be the boy in the story, Atir, and wrote a good luck wish to place inside Zeraffa’s amulet. Miss Lucas has been impressed with how the children have been able to use their sound mats to decipher the spellings of words they unsure of.
In Reading, we have started reading ‘Egyptian Cinderella’. First, we shared our expectations about the text, then we wrote down the similarities and differences that we might find in the book compared to the story of Cinderella which we are familiar with.
In Maths, with Mrs Wall, we have focused on multiplication looking at multiples of 10, using related multiplication facts to solve larger calculations and answering reasoning questions about the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables. With Miss Lucas, we have focused on becoming more fluent with our knowledge of the 3 x table.
In Science, the children were introduced to forces and acted out the differences between a push and a pull. We learnt about the force of friction and were able to talk about it with our peers.
In History, we shared what we already know about Ancient Egypt and investigated an image Miss Lucas found on the Internet to see if the evidence was reliable or not. We decided the evidence was not reliable as the picture of an Ancient Egyptian scene showed a tractor, hose pipe and measuring tape. We are really looking forward to our Ancient Egyptian workshop on Monday.
In Music, we are learning our songs in preparation for our upcoming Easter Assembly, which will take place in St Peter’s Church on Friday 31st March. We have also practised our drumming performance, which we cannot wait to perform for you.
This week, we marked Fairtrade Fortnight by discussing how we can have a positive impact on the climate to support the Fairtrade farmers.
In PE, we practised our bounce, hit skills with a partner and then attempted to rally, which we thought was difficult but extremely fun. With Mr Brindley and the Sports Leaders, we completed an OAA orienteering activity searching for clues linked to Mr Brindley’s favourite book.
With so much excitement we are definitely ready for a restful weekend!
Reminders:
- Spelling logs are to be returned to class on a Wednesday
- Ancient Egyptian workshop – Monday 6th March
Date: 20th Jan 2023 @ 5:10pm
During Collective worship, we read the Christian story ‘The Good Samaritan’ and discussed the qualities the Good Samaritan showed. We thought about how we ‘love our neighbour’ and how we can show this more often.
On Tuesday in RE, we considered the question, "What happens when Jesus changes a person's life?" In the Bible, we discovered that when people decided to follow Jesus, then they left everything behind to start a new life with Christ. We looked at St Peter's life and how he lived differently when he became a Disciple. Next week, we will continue to look at people's decisions to follow Jesus and leave their old ways of living behind; however, we will be looking at modern-day saints and how they answered the call of Jesus in today's world.
In Miss Lucas’ English group, we have investigated topic specific and technical vocabulary found in ‘The Stone Age Boy’. We used dictionaries to discover meanings, made links to the word and the topic and finally thought of creative ways to remember what the words mean. We also looked at the features of a non-fiction text, focusing on headings, sub-headings and captions.
In Mrs McRae's English group, everyone continued writing their under-the-sea stories inspired by the folktale The Mitten. For each page of their story, the children must use at least one noun phrase, one conjunction and either an exclamation mark or question mark. As an added challenge for their writing, they have to choose different adjectives and conjunctions for each page (to avoid repetition and to expand vocabulary). Their stories should be finished next week and you will get to see the end product complete with illustrations!
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we have focused on multiplying and dividing by 3. The children were able to represent multiplications by using a bar model, repeated addition, an array and a multiplication sentence. Please continue to practise multiplying and dividing by 3 at home. Next week, we will be moving on to multiplying and dividing by 4.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group, we have been learning about making equal groups by sharing and the 2 times-table (both multiplying and dividing by 2). Please access the games, such as TT Rockstars, on the Virtual Classroom to practise times-tables at home. Once the 2 times-table is mastered (being able to answer any question within 6 seconds), the next steps will be to learn the 5 and 10 times-tables. Next week, we will be focusing on doubling and halving, odd and even numbers and the 10 times-table.
In our reading lessons we have used the skill of ‘skimming’ to retrieve answers to questions in the text. It has been wonderful to discover some children also have this text at home.
We were very lucky this week to have a large box of books arrive for our end-of-the-day story time. Our hardworking Reading Ambassadors chose books for our class and held a presentation to explain their choices. The first book we read from the box was The Moonlight Zoo by Maudie Powell-Tuck. This book has wonderful illustrations with cut-outs that make it fun to predict what will be on the next page. The Moonlight Zoo is about a little girl named Eva who has lost her cat and has to go on a journey to a magical place to find her before dawn. Ask your child what they thought of this story and it may be one you could borrow from the library to read together at home.
During History, we have focused on ‘The Iron Age’ and compared and contrasted life in the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Next Friday, we will transform into Stone Age people and experience some of the daily jobs from prehistory.
In Science this week, we discussed the different light sources we know and learnt how light enters our eyes enabling us to see objects. We participated in an investigation to find out whether shiny or dull surfaces were best at reflecting light. We concluded that shiny surfaces were more effective. Next week, we will move on to investigating shadows!
With Formby High School, we practised our throwing and aiming techniques and thoroughly enjoyed some competitive dodgeball games. With Miss Lucas, we used teamwork to play a game of ‘domes and dishes’, tried to create different alphabet shapes using our bodies and practised our speaking and listening skills to give clear instructions to direct our partner to a location.
Thunder, thunder, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, splash! Drumming was a hit this week as we all got to play different rhythms on the drums. We have been challenged to practise a rhythm at home for next week.
In Art, we used our creative skills to mix our own colours and paint in the style of Vincent Van Gough.
Friday afternoon was full of smiles as we celebrated Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit. Miss Lucas showed the children a video from one of her past pupils whom she taught in Shanghai. In the video, William shared with us lots of information about Chinese New Year and even taught us some Mandarin. Concentration was key when using chopsticks to sample traditional Chinese food. We hope you like the ‘Hong baos’ (red packets) we made for you.
Enjoy the weekend!
Reminders:
- Stone Age Day (Friday 27th January 2023) – Children are allowed to come to school in a Stone Age costume. Please remember to wear a warm layer underneath and wear appropriate footwear.
- Parent-Teacher Meetings will take place in the hall on Wednesday. Please arrive early in order to have time before your appointment to take a look at your child’s books.
- Spelling logs come into school every Wednesday and your child will record new focus words to bring home to learn.
Date: 13th Jan 2023 @ 4:31pm
We have had a very fun week in Year 3!
During Collective Worship this week, the children developed a definition for ‘humility’ and discussed how Jesus served others. Then, they reflected on how they serve others and recorded their ideas on hearts.
In RE, the children began the unit called ‘Jesus, the Man Who Changed Lives’. We looked at three times in the Bible when people met Jesus and how, if at all, they were changed after they heard his message. The children seemed happy with the way Matthew and Zacchaeus changed their ways after meeting Jesus; however, they were confused by the story of 'The Rich Young Man’. They took time to reflect on the things they find important in life and how that list would change if they met Jesus. During the next few weeks, we will be studying more Bible stories where Jesus changed people's lives before and after the resurrection.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group, we continued our learning with multiplication and division by looking at the multiplication symbol (what it means and when to use it), writing multiplication sentences, using arrays and making equal groups by 'grouping' objects together. You may have heard your child talk about the "silver" and "gold" papers in maths. The questions presented at the 'silver' level are what I expect the children to achieve independently and then the 'gold' level includes questions that are meant to provide challenges on the same objective of the day, but may require some support from a teacher. Next week, we will be learning about making equal groups by 'sharing,' the two times table and doubling and halving.
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we are also focusing on multiplication and division. This week we have used the term ‘multiple’ to talk about any number which could fall into the 2, 5 or 10 x table. Then we used our knowledge of the 2, 5 and 10 x table to answer questions or investigated some ‘true or false’ statements. After this, we looked at the different methods of ‘sharing’ and ‘grouping’ when dividing. Next week, we will move on to multiplying and dividing by 3. This would be an excellent time to practises the 3 multiplication tables.
In Mrs McRae's English group, the children have learned what a summary is and how to write one, using The Mitten as our text. Using the characters, setting, and main events of The Mitten, the children created their own version of this folktale. They have changed the setting to the sea, have chosen sea creatures as their characters, and decided on the problem and resolution on their own. After planning their original stories, they have started the writing process. Their work will be in the form of a story book--which will include illustrations--and they will be bringing these home upon completion to share with you.
In Miss Lucas’ English group, we have delved into our new focus text ‘Stone Age Boy’. At different points in the book, we have been discussing whether it is a fiction or a non-fiction book. As a group, we have decided that it falls into the ‘historical fiction’ genre. With a focus on spelling and grammar, we have used comparative ( + er) and superlative (+ est)adjectives within our sentences and matched different prefixes to root words. On Thursday, we learnt how to write a ‘dialogue sandwich’ to make our narrative writing more interesting. The children enhanced their writing by including synonyms for said and adding adverbs. Th children are enjoying applying their history knowledge into their writing lessons.
In our reading sessions, we are enjoying discovering more information about the main character in the story ‘Iron Man’. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to the description used by the author Ted Hughes and have even tried to copy some of his style in our own story writing.
We had a wonderful Thursday afternoon, learning skills for the game of dodgeball with Mr Brindley and Sports Leaders from Formby High School. On a Monday, we will be doing Outdoor and Adventurous activities with Miss Lucas in our PE slot.
On Friday, we met Ms Hughes, who will be teaching us drumming. We impressed her with our listening skills and ability to clap a pulse and a rhythm. We enjoyed clapping the syllables in our names and using this to create a rainfall sound using different dynamics. Next week, we will all be using a drum to begin applying what we have learnt to an instrument.
Have a lovely weekend!
Reminders:
- PE days are Monday and Thursday
- Spelling logs must be in school by Wednesday
- Please check your child's new reading day
- Stone Age dress up day on Friday 27th January 2023
Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 4:40pm
Welcome back and Happy New Year to all! The children have all returned to school full of enthusiasm and learning has been electric this week!
Our Collective Worship this week focused on the Christian celebration of Epiphany. We learnt that the word Epiphany means ‘to appear’ and that the feast is a celebration of the time that Baby Jesus was seen by the visitors who had travelled a long way to see him. The children were extremely interested in how the Wise Men read the stars and constellations to interpret meanings, which involved our own research of well-known constellations.
In Miss Lucas’ writing group, we have been writing amazing fantasy stories based on the much loved book ‘Winter’s Child’. The children worked really hard to include adverbs of time, conjunctions, inverted commas and adventurous vocabulary. We can’t wait for you to read them! Next week, we will start our new focus text ‘Stone Age Boy’, which we know will be a huge hit!
In Mrs McRae's writing group, we have begun reading the folktale The Mitten adapted by Jan Brett. We have collected wintery words and phrases from the text, learned new vocabulary through context clues and identified the setting and characters. Next week, the children will be looking at the main events of the story, summarising the beginning, middle and end, and brainstorming ideas for their own version of The Mitten.
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we have completed our unit on measure by adding and subtracting measurements, which at times challenged us to convert measurements from mm to cm or cm to m. Each week, we will be completing a short multiplication challenge and progress will then be determined by accuracy and timing. If children complete the given challenge accurately within a set time, they will move on to the next challenge the following week. This week we began with multiplication and division questions based on the 2 times table.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group, we started learning about multiplication and division together by looking at how to make equal groups of objects. The children are grasping the concept that "6 x 5" means "six groups of five." If you begin practising multiplication facts at home, then please use the words "equal groups of" and/or "groups of" when explaining this new concept. Next week, we will be learning about the multiplication symbol and how to make arrays.
Our Reading lessons this week focused on the book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’. The children were very engaged as some of them either have the book themselves or were able to watch the animation over the Christmas holidays. The children made predictions and used inference to decipher character’s emotions, relationships and meanings behind their words. They also pondered on some thoughtful quotes from the book and thought about what their answers would be to key questions. Next week, we will begin our new focus text ‘Iron Man’, which the children are looking forward to reading.
In History, we have continued our fascinating topic of Stone Age, were we explored cave art and using our imagination and research of excavations, we produced our own cave art. Next week, we will zone in on the Bronze Age.
In PE, we played competitive hockey games demonstrating skill, agility, teamwork and reaction time. Miss Lucas was impressed with how quickly we grasped the rules of the game.
We have focused on wellbeing this week and the children were able to identify their feelings towards different aspects of their life. We had a wonderful discussion about the mixture of emotions we can feel and thought carefully about which emotion we think we feel the most. Then, the children moved on to thinking how to ensure we can make 2023 a happy year by identifying a number of things that make us happy and talked about how and when we could do these activities more often this year. Some wonderful ideas were; spending time playing with pets, visiting relatives and making our own story books.
We are looking forward to a full week back next week.
Reminders:
- Year 3 PE lessons take place every Monday and Thursday. Please ensure your child arrives at school in their PE kit on these days.
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
Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 3:52pm
We are feeling extremely festive in Year 3 this week. Santa Dash was a huge hit, followed by our Christmas party.
For Collective Worship this week, we were introduced to our new theme of ‘Hope’. We watched the Sainsbury’s 2014 Christmas advert which was about Christmas in 1914, where the war stopped and a game of football took place between countries. Children’s reflections on the meaning of hope were thoughtful and relevant.
In Miss Lucas’ English group, we applied our learnt grammar, sentence structure and punctuation in the form of a letter. We offered advice to Winter’s Child, to encourage him to leave, so Spring could finally arrive. The children then used a ‘success criteria’ to assess their own writing and make improvements. Peer assessment was then used to ensure assessments were accurate and this involved some excellent discussions. One area Miss Lucas has seen great progress in, is our courage to start using paragraphs in our writing.
In Mrs McRae's writing group, we have been working on constructing complex sentences using 'when' and 'because.' Also, using The Polar Express, the children have been writing in character to describe their thoughts and feelings throughout their journey to the North Pole. Next week, we will be writing a letter to tell our 'sister, Sarah' (from the text) about our trip to see Santa Claus and when we received the first gift of Christmas.
This week, children have brought their RWI spelling log books home, which contain 5 words that your child wants to learn to spell this week. Please remember to return log books for Monday, so new words can be added.
As you are aware of now, the poetry competition that everyone entered in the first half-term has been a success! All of our entries have been accepted for publication in an upcoming poetry anthology. Many of you have returned the permission slips or given permission online for your child's work to be published. The deadline for permission slips is 18th December. Please check your e-mails for details how to do this online, or get in touch with any questions concerning this matter.
In Miss Lucas’s Maths group, we reviewed some key questions on our recent assessments, so we could address misconceptions, understand the meaning of questions and share strategies. The children found this lesson very beneficial. We then moved on to our new unit of measure, where we will focus on length and perimeter. One area, we found challenging was converting mm into cm and mm, for example; 58mm is equivalent to 5 cm and 8mm. You can find the questions we looked at this week on Google Classroom, if you wish to review this learning.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group, the children have been using pictures and objects to practise adding and subtracting two 2-digit numbers. We will continue our strategies next week, but apply our skills to solving word problems.
On Tuesday, we began working on our 3-D pop-up Christmas cards in DT. We designed the front cover and the inside. Next week, we will finish decorating the front cover and begin cutting and shaping our cards to make them 'pop-up'! If you have any old Christmas cards that we could reuse, or you have any Christmas stickers, then we would appreciate any donations to decorate our cards.
In Science, we investigated the purpose of a skeleton, named bones in the body and learnt about voluntary and involuntary muscles. The children were able to explain the difference between the types of muscles very well, giving great examples.
Our Spanish is improving week by week and we can now say ‘I am…’ and a given animal in Spanish. There are interactive games the children can access on Language Angels. Login details can be found on Google Classroom.
In Music, we used our skills to attempt to learn how to play ‘Jingle Bells’ on the glockenspiel. The music sheet can be found on Google Classroom for those who wish to continue learning the song.
Our week ended with a fun-filled festive party, full of music, dances and lots of games. Thank you are a wonder afternoon everyone.
We can’t wait for our Christmas Movie Day on Monday!
Reminders:
- RWI Spelling Log Books must be returned for Monday.
- Christmas Dinner Day is on Wednesday.
- KS2 church service is Friday at 9:15am.
- School finishes on Friday at 1pm.
Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 4:10pm
Step into Christmas! We were greeted by a lovely, little elf on Thursday morning who left us a letter saying we needed to guess his name correctly for his magic to begin. On Friday morning, he revealed his name to be ‘Snowy’ and we found him making snow angels! The children really enjoyed making detailed snowflakes and paper chains to decorate our classroom. We also had fun participating in some Christmas karaoke, where we had to read the lyrics on the screen to some of our all-time favourite songs.
We rounded up our focus on 'Peace' in Collective Worship this week by recapping all we have learnt about peace and how we can apply this to our lives. Next week, we will move onto te theme of 'Hope'. We have completed our RE unit on Tuesday. The learning goals were centred around what we do to prepare for special visitors. We also described where we have seen Christ-like behaviour. Since the RE unit is finished for this term, the next two Tuesdays, the children will be completing a DT project. Their learning outcome will be making a 3-D pop-up card. If you have any pop-up books at home, then please take time to analyse how the pages are put together with your children so that they can start imagining how to construct their own pop-up pages.
In Mrs McRae's English group, we have started our new text: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. As a pre-assessment for this letter writing unit, the children all wrote to Santa. Our other activities for this book focused on summarising our reading and sequencing key events in the story. Next week, we will work on using expanded noun phrases and conveying thoughts and feelings in a letter.
In Mrs McRae's Maths group, we have focused on adding two 2-digit numbers together. The children have used pictures of base-10 to find their answers. Please practise adding 2-digit numbers at home whenever you can because this learning goal proved to be very tricky this week. We will move towards subtracting two 2-digit number next week, but we will keep revisiting how to add them, as well.
In Miss Lucas’ English group, we began by writing some very interesting letters to Father Christmas, Mrs Claus or the elves in the North Pole. The children tried to write in paragraphs, including questions and varied sentence types. Then, we revised writing sentences with conjunctions in them. The children were amazed to find out we can move the main clause and the subordinate clause around to vary our sentence types. On Thursday, the children used similes to add detail to one of the pages in the book Winter’s Child. Great use of imaginations! On Friday, we finished the week using 'Conscience Alley' to explore what characters should do next.
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we have completed our unit on addition and subtraction this week. First, we had to make decisions as to whether to use addition or subtraction to solve word problems. The children have recognised their learning using ‘the learning curve’ poster and identified areas for development within addition and subtraction. They decided it would be a good idea to continue practising this further at home and during morning 4 a day time. You can find all taught Maths lessons on Google Classrooms if you wish to review the work with your child.
Both groups have started the Read, Write Inc Spellings programme and log books will be coming home next week with spellings that each individual child has chosen to focus on for the week. The children have expressed how much they are enjoying spelling sessions, which is wonderful news.
On Tuesday, some of the children finished writing their entry for the writing competition and their ideas for their imagined 'Winter Wonderlands' were incredible! Their descriptive choice of vocabulary will definitely transport the judges to a magical land.
In Reading lessons, we are focusing on the Christmas theme by watching Christmas adverts and using our retrieval and inference skills to answer questions about settings, characters and themes.
In Music, the children developed their skills on the glockenspiels by playing songs containing the notes E and D. We are getting much better at playing in time!
In PSHE, we focused on compliments and discussed how we give compliments and receive them. We have also all written a lovely note to someone in the school and posted them in our Positivity Post box. We can’t wait to see smiling faces around the school because of the notes people have received from us.
In PE, we demonstrated our skills in the game of hockey. We were really good at moving around with the ball, focusing on our grip of the hockey stick and keeping the ball in sight. We learnt how to step, push and glide the ball to our partner with greater accuracy.
We continued our love for the Stone Age by discovering Skara Brae in Scotland, which is a preserved Stone Age settlement. We were amazed to find out that bones, grains and even jewellery was found during the excavation. Higher order skills were demonstrated, when the children explained what the evidence told them about life in the Stone Age period. Miss Lucas was extremely impressed.
Our week ended with the exciting ‘Christmas Extravaganza’, where we took part in lots of fun activities such as glitter tattoos, cake decorating, football shootout and guess the elves names!
Have a magical weekend!
Reminders:
- Thursday 8th December is our Santa Dash. The children are allowed to come to school in Mufti, but must be sensible to run in. Children can bring festive accessories or costumes to get changed into and race in.
- Friday 9th December is Christmas Jumper Day.
Date: 25th Nov 2022 @ 6:03pm
Another amazing, fun-filled week in Year 3!
During Collective Worship this week, we focused on how nature can be peaceful and we thought about our peaceful places.
In RE, the children thought about the impact Jesus had on people's lives who he met on Earth. Then, we discussed ways that Jesus has an impact on our lives today and how we live differently because of Him. Next week, we will complete our unit about "Christmas, God with Us" further exploring the impact of Jesus's birth on the world.
In English, with Miss Lucas, we have continued our work on Winter’s Child. We had a great discussion about a new character we have been introduced to in the story. The children made accurate predictions based on what they know from the text. Miss Lucas challenged us to explain how we knew, where the evidence was from for our thoughts and to ponder on questions and puzzling elements of the story. Excellent retrieval skills used to evidence opinions this week. We also focused on the use of conjunctions in our sentences and explored placing them at the start of sentences to vary sentence structure.
In Mrs McRae's writing group, the children have completed their hedgehog reports and will be bringing home their final versions to share with you today. A copy of their work will be in their books at school, but they were so proud of their reports that they wanted to share their good work with you. Next week, we will be starting a new Christmas-themed text.
In Maths, with Miss Lucas, we have concentrated on estimating, using inverse operations, compliments to 100 and discussing strategies we can use to ensure our working out is accurate. Every lesson, there are challenges for the children to complete. These can also be found on Google Classroom, if children want to explore these further at home. Each week, we will focus on our multiplication knowledge and linking this with the corresponding division facts.
In Mrs McRae's maths group, we worked on adding across tens by partitioning numbers. For instance, to add 36 + 9, we started with 36 + 4 to get to the next multiple of ten. After that, we added 40 + 5 to get our answer. It was tricky at first, but the children were more confident with this method by the end of the week. Next week, we will be focusing on adding and subtracting two 2-digit numbers. All of the work the children will be completing will be posted onto their Google Classroom.
Through the Young Writers company, we are entering another writing competition. (The results from the poetry competition will not be revealed until the new year.) The children are planning a descriptive story about entering through a magic door and finding a winter wonderland. We are still in the planning stage; but next week, we will begin writing after creating interesting sentence starters and star vocabulary.
With Dom, from Active Sefton, the children learned all about saturated and unsaturated fats. They sorted foods into the correct categories and found out there are 'good' and 'bad' fats for our bodies. Dom showed what can happen to our arteries over time if we eat too many saturated fats and the children learned that a balanced diet and exercise can help them be the healthiest version of themselves.
In Reading, we have completed our book ‘Blue’ and discussed themes throughout the book and made connections between the beginning and end of the book. We also tracked the character’s emotions throughout the book using an emotion chart. We zoned in further, focusing on wellbeing, by retrieving information from a non-fiction text based on strategies we can use if we find a friend is feeling blue. This was a nice follow up from Kindness Week.
In History, the children were eager to delve further into evidence from the Stone Age. We looked at when farming was introduced and using our thinking hats to make decisions about what elements were big changes, small changes and which feature of life stayed the same when farming was introduced. Lots of speaking and listening opportunities where apparent in this lesson.
In Spanish, we have continued our learning of vocabulary for animals. The children are becoming more confident with the different pronunciations used in the Spanish language.
Thursday and Friday afternoons were focused on our Art unit of work for this half term which focuses on the artist William Morris and his technique of printing. We investigated his work, used his ideas and adapted them to create our own printing tools to create wrapping paper designs just in time for Christmas.
We hope you have a lovely weekend; lots of families are already getting into the Christmas spirit!
We are looking forward to Monday already!
Reminders:
- Next Friday is the Christmas Extravaganza, and therefore, mufti.
- On Wednesday, children will have the opportunity to visit the present room. Please ensure you have requested this on school money.
- Don’t forget the book fair is still on next week.
Date: 18th Nov 2022 @ 7:18pm
Smiles and laughter have warmed our heart this week during Kindness Week. This week, we raised awareness of Kindness Day, Children in Need and Anti-Bullying Week, alongside Road Safety Week. It has been wonderful to see children being extremely kind to their peers, teachers and staff around the school. We had lots of fun baking, creating posters, writing messages expressing love for our family and performing in front of our family members.
During Collective Worship this week, we had a lovely visit from Reverend Mark who helped us to think about the different definitions of the word ‘peace’. We all created our own recipes for peace on the symbol of a dove.
In RE this week, the children assessed their learning from the Harvest Unit and began learning about their new unit: "Christmas, God with Us." During our introduction to this topic, the children learned that Jesus is always present and we discussed ways that we can feel his presence. Moving on to the Christmas story, the retelling focused on the angels' and the shepherds' point of view and the part they played when Jesus was born. To summarise our learning for RE on Tuesday, the children created a poster of pictures, words and phrases surrounding the word "Emmanuel" which means God with us. They listened to a guided meditation to imagine what it would have been like to be in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born to help plan which pictures and words to use.
In most English and Maths lessons this week, the children have been completing their autumn assessments. They have all given their best efforts and demonstrated excellent focus. Next week, Mrs McRae’s groups will return to lessons as before: in English, we will complete our hedgehog reports and in Maths, we will continue our work with addition and subtraction. Next week, Miss Lucas’ group will be continuing our work on Winter’s Child in English and developing our addition and subtraction methods further in Maths.
On Wednesday, we had another educational session with Dom from Active Sefton; this time focusing on the sugar content in some of our most popular drinks. The children were astonished to see the exact amount of sugar in each drink bottle. There were lots of surprised faces and excellent discussions taking place throughout the session. We linked this nicely to our science work all about the body.
On Friday morning, we spent time within our Houses; Mark, Matthew, Luke or John to prepare Christmas crafts ready to be sold on our TSP stall at the Formby Christmas Lights. It was lovely to see the whole school working together and taking care of one another getting into the Christmas spirit.
Have a wonderful weekend. We wonder if anyone will be putting up their Christmas trees?See you on Monday!
Reminders:
- Next week the Read Write Inc Spelling programme will commence
- Please remember to bring a healthy snack for morning break
- We are learning about the Stone Age in History, if anyone has any interesting topic books at home they would like to share with the class please bring them in
Date: 11th Nov 2022 @ 5:04pm
What a busy week we have had in Year 3! It was a precious moment on Friday afternoon as the whole school gathered in the hall to watch the premier of our kindness video. Every face had a beaming smile on it as they watched pupils and staff dancing and having fun.
All of the Year 3 team were extremely proud of the children’s maturity on Friday as we laid our poppy wreath in the church grounds and observed two minutes of silence. Our Collective Worship, linked with Remembrance Day, as we thought about the sacrifices soldiers made to try and regain peace in the world.
In RE this week, the children worked very hard to finish their unit about the Harvest. They discussed why Christians celebrate the Harvest and what this special celebration can teach us about Christian beliefs. Secondly, we researched how the Harvest is celebrated around the world by people of different faiths and none. The children created a poster of four harvest celebrations that they found most interesting. Lastly, to further our learning about other faiths, we read about Sukkot (the Jewish harvest). Everyone designed their version of a sukkah and wrote facts about this celebration. Next week, we will begin our Christmas unit in RE.
In Mrs. McRae's English group, the children have finished reading Hello, Hedgehog, written more facts and even created their own quiz which they used to test their friends at playtime. Our learning outcome for this unit is a non-chronological report. The children planned their paragraphs on Thursday and began writing their reports today. Our learning goals are focusing on the following: using present-tense verbiage, using different sentence starters, using the conjunction "and" and using full stops and question marks correctly.
In Miss Lucas’ English group, the children planned and wrote a diary entry in the role of Tom, who is the young boy in the story ‘Winter’s Child’. The children included lots of grammatical features such as paragraphs, adjectives, time adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions. Dictionaries and thesauruses were used during the editing process.
In Mrs. McRae's Maths group, we have been working on making bonds to ten to add, adding ones, and learning bonds to 100. All of the work from our maths lessons this week can be found on the Google Classroom so if you would like to review our learning goals, then please look on your child's "Classwork" tab. Next week, we will be learning about adding three 1-digit numbers, adding to the next 10 and adding and subtracting across a 10. All of our work for next week will be posted on Google Classroom, too.
In Miss Lucas’ Maths group, we have been using column subtraction, exchanging across the hundreds column. Some problems required us to exchange twice! Then, we looked at adding a 2 digit number to a 3 digit number to solve word problems, with the extra task of setting out the column addition accurately so the digits lined up in the correct columns. Next week, we will be focusing on subtracting a 2 digit number from a 3 digit number and compliments to 100.
We took it back to the 90s in our PE lesson this week, as we completed a circuit full of energetic exercises. We were surprised how fast our hearts were beating and how pink our cheeks were. We discussed the importance of staying hydrated and exercising safely.
In History, we were introduced to our new topic ‘From Stone Age to Iron Age’. We had an incredible discussion about how we have the gained information about the past today. We looked closely at a timeline and investigated by finding clues about the Stone Age period from a picture. The children used excellent retrieval and inference skills to work out what life was like in the Stone Age. We also analysed whether ‘The Flintstones’ cartoon was a true representation of life in Stone Age times and shared reasons as to why the makers of the cartoon added fictional elements for the intended audience. We discussed the need to query whether evidence is true and reliable.
In Spanish, we learnt the names of animals and looked at whether it was a masculine word or a feminine word and applied the given rules.
In Music, we were very excited to play the glockenspiels and learnt the key ‘E’. Next week, we will learn more keys with our aim of being able to play a piece of music on the glockenspiel.
Next week, we have Kindness Week and we cannot wait to celebrate with you.
Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday.
Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 5:30pm
What a fabulous week we have had in Year 3. We have had so much fun, especially when filming dance clips for our whole school Kindness music video. Everyone has shone with their dance moves and we cannot wait for you to see us!
During Collective Worship this week we have been discussing the definition of the word ‘peace’. Children worked in pairs to consider how they would describe the word and we had lots of ideas such as a calm place, being relaxed, no war in the world, getting along with everyone and having harmony.
On Monday, we became artists and worked with line, pattern and colour to create our own vibrant pumpkin pictures using pencil, pen and oil pastels.
For RE this week, we continued learning about Harvest traditions. We used our laptops to research words and phrases that are said at the Harvest church service every year by looking at the hymn titles and lyrics and analysing the Epistle and Gospel readings. Most of the words and phrases the children found in common amongst all of their research related to 'gathering,' 'fruit,' 'grain,' 'thankful' and 'giving praises.'
In Mrs. McRae's English writing group, the children have started a new book called Hello, Hedgehog by Laura Buller. This text is to support our non-chronological report unit. We have been learning about hedgehogs this week so that we could write sentences about them in the present-tense, using different sentence starters, and using the conjunction "and" to add detail.
In Miss Lucas’ English writing group, the children were introduced to our focus text ‘Winter’s Child’. We have been describing the setting using adjectives and prepositions and investigating the relationships between the characters. The children loved using drama techniques to role play a conversation between the characters ‘Tom’ and ‘Mum’. Then, they wrote their conversations down focusing on inverted commas and alternative words for said. Miss Lucas has been very impressed with the effort and focus demonstrated this week.
In Mrs. McRae's maths group, we have been working on number bonds to ten and using those facts to help solve equations with larger numbers. For instance, if we know that 3 + 7 = 10, then we know that 30 + 70 = 100. Our group has also been figuring out what fact families are and how to write number sentences for addition and subtraction fact families.
In Miss Lucas’ maths group, we have focused on column subtraction where exchanges have been needed to enable us to calculate accurately using this method. This week, we concentrated on exchanging across the tens, next week we will move on to exchanging across the hundreds. The children were excited to use ‘Learning by Question’ to review their place value knowledge on their laptops. Some children have even said they are going to practise their maths at home this weekend – dedication at its finest!
In Reading, we have begun our new text ‘Blue’. Blue is a lonely bird, who lives in the deepest, darkest part of the forest and the other birds do not visit him anymore. We considered how different colours can represent our feelings and emotions. We have now been introduced to a new character called ‘Yellow’ and we made some predictions for the storyline.
We were very lucky on Wednesday to have a visit from Dom who works for Active Sefton. He taught us all about the different food groups that make a balanced diet. Dom was very impressed with the adventurous food choices we shared with him!
In Science, we continued to focus on animals and food and designed a menu for an animal. We had to consider whether our animals were a carnivore, a herbivore or an omnivore and then try to include food from the various food groups. We also made bird feeders to hang outside in our playground to feed the birds during the winter months.
TSP’s Sports Ambassadors visited us on Thursday and announced the football teams we will support in the World Cup. Cheers were heard from our classroom as it was revealed that we will be supporting Costa Rica, Germany, Brazil and England!
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend and cannot wait to see you again on Monday.
Reminders
-Donations for poppies can still be brought in next week.
- Please can children ensure they bring a warm coat to school with them every day.
- In the Spring term, we will be learning all about the Egyptians. With this in mind, the Atkinson in Southport are currently holding an exhibition if you would like to visit whilst it is still on.
Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 5:36pm
Congratulations to all of our students (and parents) for finishing their first half-term of the school year!
In RE this week, we began a new unit all about Harvest. Everyone was surprised to learn that the Harvest is mentioned several times throughout the Old Testament and that it has always been a time to give thanks to God for all that He provides. We learned about the different ways the Harvest was celebrated throughout history and asked our learning partners discussion questions. For our next RE lesson, we will be exploring how St. Peter's Church celebrates the Harvest Festival by looking at the readings and hymns used at the service each year.
The topic of conversation in both PSHE and Collective Worship went hand-in-hand because the children had to think about their talents and gifts and who gave them these gifts. They also discussed how they should use what they have been given and why they should be thankful for their natural talents.
In Mrs. McRae's English group this week, the students learned how to plan and write a friendly letter using paragraphs, prepositions, conjunctions, the correct use of "a" and "an," and rich vocabulary. The children pretended to be the main character from our story, Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman, and wrote in his 'voice' to a friend about events from the book.
For Miss Patten's group in English, the children read the book Where the Poppies Now Grow by Hilary Robinson. They worked on building their vocabulary with dictionary work, sequencing the story and using their senses to write a description.
In Mrs. McRae's maths group this week, everyone worked very hard on the formal written method of column addition and subtraction. We began with calculations that did not require adding 'across a ten' and then by the end of the week, we gave it a try and challenged ourselves to see if we could figure out what to do when there are more than nine ones in the ones column. It proved to be a bit tricky, so if you would like to see the work we have done in class and review it at home, then please look at the tasks posted in your student's Google Classroom account.
The children in Miss Patten's maths group have been working on fractions using shapes, multiplication skills and describing position and movement of shapes. They have also taken skills tests to assess their progress over the past half-term.
On Wednesday, the students attended a Martial Arts/Self-Defence Day with Unite Formby. The children enjoyed learning how to defend themselves and showed respect and care for their learning partner during the process.
In art, the children completed their Rangoli patterns using coloured salt and foam sand. Their designs turned out beautifully and have added lovely decoration to our classroom this week.
In science with Miss Patten, the students researched another type of soil and decided on the rules they would follow in order to keep their test fair and consistent (to align with last week's test). They drew the different equipment they used and also completed a science report about their findings, comparing their first soil sample to their second.
For PE, two units were completed this week: gymnastics and netball. During their last lesson of gymnastics, the children learned how to incorporate a hoop into their routines and also added in new balances and travels. The final lesson of netball was today and everyone put their netball skills to the test as they participated in team games.
This week, we completed the 2022 Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon which meant that the children ran a total of 13 laps of the field over three weeks. Every child will receive a commemorative pin badge for all of their hard work.
And finally, I would like to say that it is truly a pleasure to teach all of your children and I sincerely appreciate all that you do at home to support our work in school.
Have a fantastic half-term break!
Reminders:
Spelling books will be coming home in bags on Fridays so please review any misspellings and send your child's red spelling book back in with them the following week.
PE days for Autumn term 2 will be Mondays and Fridays (the same as Autumn term 1).
If you would like to access Miss Lucas's or Mrs. McRae's Virtual Classrooms at home, then you may follow the links below:
Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 12:14am
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We have wrapped-up another week full of learning and having fun in Year 3!
On Monday, we started by designing flags with encouraging messages for World Mental Health Day in support of the "Hello Yellow" campaign. The flags were used to line our 'mindfulness walk' in the afternoon and the children took time to read the cheerful messages.
In RE this week, we have thought about how Prophets are called by God for a mission. People who work for charities such as OM Ships and HMS Mission shared their stories. As a class, we discussed a message we would like to share with the world. Also, we talked about how we can be inspired by others to give our time, love and kindness to others.
Our art lesson has been mesmerizing this week as we researched beautiful Rangoli patterns. Everyone designed their own Rangoli pattern after being inspired by the culture of India. They thought carefully about symmetrical patterns and the use of bright colours. We are making our own medium for next week's artwork out of table salt and paint so that we can bring our designs to life.
In science, we have looked at different types of soils. By being scientists, we can look at the colour, texture and location of soil, which all give clues to the quality of soil. In class, we investigated a 'mystery soil' to see if it was a mix of sand, clay and/or silt.
For English, both groups have continued working on up-levelling their sentences. In Mrs. McRae's group, we planned and wrote a diary entry and a narrative using rich vocabulary, a range of conjunctions, prepositions, "a" and "an," and paragraphs. In Miss Patten's group, the children have been sequencing and planning a well-known and using their plans to retell a story in their own words using paragraphs, inverted commas and interesting adjectives. All of the children have also been working on their spelling, punctuation and grammar skills in the morning during their "SPaG 4-A-Day" time.
Both groups have been working on various maths objectives relating to addition and subtraction. Their classwork is uploaded to Google Classroom; so in order to see what your child is working on specifically, then please look at their maths materials each week. Many of you kindly said that you would like to work on maths at home so the best way to do this would be to view their work on Google Classroom or the Virtual Classroom to find maths games to practise their skills.
Today, the children dressed in pajamas in support of the Alder Hey Children's Hospital. I overheard some children talking to each other at playtime about how they want to donate their money to 'help the babies who are ill in hospital.' We have such thoughtful, kind children in our class who, even during their break times, are thinking of others.
And finally, thank you all for your attendance in this week's parent-teacher meetings. It has been wonderful getting to know your students better through you and to discuss their progress so far in Year 3. I appreciate all that you do at home to support our work in school!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
Our PE days are Mondays and Fridays and will continue to be for Autumn Term 2.
Your child will now bring their spelling book home on a Friday (after their spelling test) so that you can view their progress. After looking over their spelling test, please return their books in their bags the following week.
Date: 7th Oct 2022 @ 5:31am
What a wonderful week of learning and growing in Year 3 it has been!
In RE this week, we went on a learning journey about a great lady’s life: her name was Mary Seacole and besides being a believer of Jesus, she did some fantastic work to help others. The students used various websites to learn more about Seacole and from her actions, inferred how she showed she was a follower of Christ. Ask your child this weekend what they learned about Mary Seacole and what they think it means to be “called by God.”
The children were really impressive during music class this week because they were able to sing using a 2-part harmony! Using our song for this term, Let Your Spirit Fly, everyone got a chance to practise singing the ‘background vocals’ to harmonise with the melody. We added “2-part,” “melody” and “harmony” to our musical Star Vocabulary.
In PSHE, we learned about the importance of connecting with others and calming ourselves for a few minutes of quiet. The children played a game in a large circle and when they heard a statement, such as “I love to draw and paint in my free-time,” then they swapped places with another child in the circle. Whilst swapping over, the students took a mental note of who else they saw in the middle before they sat down. At the end, they discussed what they learned about their classmates and how they could use this knowledge to ‘connect’ with someone new this week. After our fun game outside, we went back into the classroom to practise some calming breathing techniques. The children learned that they could use these techniques whenever they need a quiet moment during the day at school or at home.
During English this week, the children learned how to use inverted commas and make sensible choices for their reported clause following direct speech. For instance, they created choices such as ‘whispered,’ ‘replied’ and ‘exclaimed.’ We discussed when all of these would be appropriate to use in our writing, depending upon how the character was speaking. As for the reading lessons in English, our focus was on the layout of a non-fiction text and answering retrieval questions. We looked at how the author chose to present her headings, subheadings, technical language, and diagrams in The Sea Book. We also used this book to retrieve answers to questions about the information presented.
We finalised our work with number and place value this week in maths as the children completed their number line work and counted in steps of 2s, 5s, 10s and/or 50s. Later in the week, we moved on to addition and subtraction learning goals. Our focus was on finding patterns in number sequences, adding 1s across a 10 and adding 10s across 100. Next week, the learning will focus on subtracting 1s and 10s and adding and subtracting without exchanging.
The class had a wonderful time this week in science as we explored the formation of fossils. There was a great group discussion as we tried to sequence the steps of how a fossil is made and put the order into our ‘own words.’ If you have discovered any fossils and would like to send a photograph of them (or the fossil itself) in to help enhance our science lessons, then please do! The children would love to examine fossils more closely. On Thursday, we also had a Mad Science assembly in the hall all about how sound is made. It was very entertaining and the children were hanging on the scientist’s every word. Ask your child what they enjoyed most about the presentation and check their bag for information about how to join the Mad Science after-school club.
In geography, we continued working on our educational posters about the mountains of India. The children presented their work to other groups and gave feedback to each other about facts that they chose to include and the layout of their work (relating to our learning goals in reading). We began talking about the rivers in India, and next week, the children will complete activities on this topic.
On Monday, the children worked on creating balances and transitions from one balance to the next in PE. This gymnastics lesson ended with a mini-presentation as the children performed in pairs to show the class their ‘show’ of at least three balances and two transitions (different forms of travel). Today, the children furthered their netball skills by learning how to defend an opponent and win the ball. Moreover, we tried to learn more about working collaboratively with others. The children’s teamwork skills have been improving over the term, but this is still an area that we will continue working on as a class; once this skill is sharpened, our PE lessons will run even better and we will have more time for fun games.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
Remember to reserve a time for a Parent-Teacher meeting for either this coming Wednesday or Thursday.
Please access our virtual classroom if you would like to see what the children have been working on in school. This will help you if you are looking for ideas for extra homework to complete (in the areas of maths, spelling, punctuation and grammar, etc.).
Check your child’s bag for information about Mad Science and the new after-school club.
Date: 29th Sep 2022 @ 4:05pm
It has been another fun and productive week in Year 3!
We began the week with a more reflective tone as we went to St Peter's Church for a Harvest service led by the Year 5 students. It was heartwarming to see all of the donations that the children brought in so that they could help others who are in need in our community. Hopefully, this kind act of giving will inspire them as they get older to continue to be charitable and to think of the needs of others. If you were in attendance, then I am sure that you would agree their behaviour and their singing were impeccable!
Our focus in RE this week was the Prophet Jonah. We revisited his story from the Bible and learned about his journey of listening to God's call and his struggle to do what God asked at the beginning. Using key events from his story, the children created a book cover--including a title, an illustration and a blurb--that summarised what would be in a book about his life. Next week, we will be creating and annotating a memory board about Jonah and using this to retell his Bible story.
As we wrapped-up our Collective Worship services for September, we had one last lesson together that taught us about having respect for others. We wrote a poem with ideas for how we can show respect at our school and the children created kind, thoughtful ideas for how they would like to be treated and how they want to behave towards others. In October, our Collective Worship lessons will be all about generosity.
In our English lessons, the students have been learning how to use a richer vocabulary and how to extend their sentences using words they have found in their texts. Next week, we will be asking questions to improve our understanding of texts and drawing inferences from characters' actions and speech.
During maths, the students have been practising flexible partitioning as we approach the end of our place value unit. We are going to finish our last lessons for this unit which will include number line work and estimation. Next week, we will move onto addition and subtraction lessons. Our first few sessions will address adding and subtracting ones, tens and hundreds; any extra practice you can complete at home with this topic will be helpful to our work in class.
In Science this week, the students really enjoyed learning about the three different types of rocks. First, the children all researched features of these rocks using their laptops and recorded what they found independently. Then, we used chocolate to learn about the formation of Igneous rocks and various food cupboard items to make our own Sedimentary rocks. (Please ask your child at home to give you more details about the formation of these rocks and explain what they learned.) Next week, we will be continuing our study of rocks and we will be finding out how fossils are formed.
We are continuing our study of the landscape of India in geography. This week, the children looked at a few of the major mountain ranges in India and created an educational poster that highlighted their significant features. Next week, we will be exploring some of the major rivers in India. If any of you have been to India and have any photographs or stories to share with the class, then please send them in to enhance our discussion in geography lessons.
This week in PE, the children developed more of their gymnastics and netball skills. In gymnastics, they learned about the straight, barrel and forward rolls. In netball, we worked on our movement skills in order to lose a defender. Next week, the children will be learning how to transition smoothly into and out of balances in gymnastics and in netball, they will learn how to defend an opponent and try to win the ball.
And finally, during our D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time, we started a new chapter book which the children are really loving. It's the first in a series called Little Legends by Tom Percival. I've even heard audible laughter which doesn't happen with every class read-aloud! So, if you are looking for a great bedtime story to share together, then you may want to check out this series at the library.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
Please do not bring any football cards into school.
Remember to reserve a time for a Parent-Teacher meeting.
Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 3:24pm
We have had a wonderful week in Year 3.
In Collective Worship, we discussed our monthly values of ‘Dignity and Respect’. We thoroughly enjoyed watching a clip of Rose and Giovanni on Strictly Come Dancing. Rose is deaf and feels the vibration of music. Within the clip, we experience the dance through Rose’s perspective and the music is silenced. The children thought this was amazing and shared their views on how we should respect others and ensure everyone in our community feels included. We celebrated the increasing diversity shown on television today. We also delved more into what ‘genes’ are for Genes for Jeans awareness day.
In RE, we continued learning about what it means to be 'called by God.' Everyone enjoyed watching video clips of the following Prophets from the Old Testament: Moses, Elijah, Samuel, Abraham, Jonah and Isaiah. After each video clip, the children brainstormed questions that they wished they could have asked the Prophets after God spoke to them. Next week, the class will choose a Prophet to study more about and the children will work in groups to create a memory board for their chosen Prophet.
In our Tuesday reading and writing lesson as a whole class, we read poetry and found interesting verbs to describe the movement of water. We then created our own list of verbs to describe the movement of the wind. The children learned about a question-and-answer style poem and used their new vocabulary from their reading lesson to write a poem entitled "What is a breeze?" Over the next few weeks, we will be reading more poetry so that we can enter the Young Writers Poetry Stars Competition in October.
In music this week, the children learned more about their singing posture and breathing from their diaphragm to increase their air supply and enhance their volume. They sounded like a choir when they sang their song, Let Your Spirit Fly! Next week, we will try to sing without reading the lyrics from the screen.
Place value has continued to be our focus in Maths delving deeper into the value of digits in a three digit number. With Miss Lucas the children have been using Base 10 to make 3 digit numbers and learning how zero is a place holder. With Mrs McRae the children have been using the number line to estimate numbers and figuring out the intervals on number lines with missing labels proved to be very tricky.
During our reading lessons we have been focusing on ‘The Sea Book’ which is a non-fiction text. We have investigated the roles of a ‘contents’ page and an ‘index’ page. The children also practised their dictionary skills to see if they could find definitions of words within the text.
In Science, we were introduced to the three types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. In Art, we continued our learning of Indian art by focusing on the art during Indian elephant festival. We then set to work to design our own elephant art using a variety of colour, patterns and features.
Netball has been a highlight of this week, with some phenomenal throwing and catching skills. We have extended our range of passes to now include chest pass, bounce pass and over arm pass. The challenge now is trying to land, pivot and throw in a very short space of time! On Friday, we also joined the fantastic Dame Darcey Bussell for a virtual dance along in support of National Fitness Week. Our dance movers were certainly enough to rival the Strictly Come Dancing dancers.
Enjoy your weekend, Year 3. See you on Monday!
Reminders:
- Our Read-a-thon takes place next Monday and Tuesday, in class.
- Weekly spellings can be found on Google Classroom.
- Children should return their reading book to school every week on their Reading day.
Date: 16th Sep 2022 @ 4:02pm
During collective worship assembly this week, we met Gordon from St Peter’s church and spent some time reflecting on the Queen. We enjoyed learning and singing the hymn ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’. In RE, we began our unit "Called by God." Our aim in this unit is to consider what it means to be called by God and the responses people have made to that call. All of the children thought of ways they are asked to do things in their everyday lives. Many of their answers included chores at home or helping with younger siblings. A new star vocabulary word was introduced, as well: Prophet. Next week, we will be studying about different Prophets from the Old Testament and creating questions we would like to ask them.
In Science, we have begun to explore rocks in our first unit ‘What is a rock?’. This week the children sorted rocks into natural rocks and human-made rocks. The children were excited to share stories about rocks they have found, some even with crystals inside! Next week we will start to group rocks based on appearance and physical properties. In Geography, we used atlases to locate India and discovered interesting facts about the country to begin our ‘Where Is India’ topic. Our Art lesson linked nicely as we observed some Indian art, using view finders to focus in on the details of the paintings. We used our sketching skills to try and replicate some of the patterns and designs into our sketch books.
In PE, we used our creative skills to show a variety of balances in gymnastics. We focused on the difference between a ‘point’ balance and a ‘patch’ balance using different body parts. As well as gymnastics, we are learning skills through netball. We particularly enjoyed learning how to pivot and use chest past.
On Tuesday, we celebrated Roald Dahl Day by reading and writing about one of his most famous texts, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We focused primarily on the imagery that Dahl created when Charlie first entered the Chocolate Room and saw the river of chocolate. Everyone used this scene as inspiration to create their own room that could be found in Willy Wonka's factory and they also spent time making illustrations to match their ideas.
In music this week, the children all enjoyed playing rhythm games to warm-up. It was tricky to keep a beat--especially with a slower tempo--but this is something that we will continue working on this term. We are learning to sing the song Let Your Spirit Fly. Our star vocabulary for music this week included verse, chorus and rest.
In Maths, both groups have been focusing on place value. With Mrs McRae, the children have been looking closely at the hundreds, tens and ones places. Our learning goals focused on partitioning and also representing different 3-digit numbers using Base-10 pictures. With Miss Lucas we have deepened our understanding of tens and ones using base 10, place value charts and the part – part – whole representation. We have represented numbers on a number line and looked at partitioning numbers into tens and ones and then partitioning numbers.
During our writing sessions, the children have looked at the book Seal Surfer. We have focused on punctuation and grammar, making sure our sentences make sense and have capital letters and full stops. The children have been encouraged to improve their sentences and edit their writing.
We hope you have a lovely, restful weekend.
Reminders:
- Please ensure all uniform is labelled, so it can be returned if lost.
- Spelling lists will be found on Google Classroom.
- Reading records and books to come into school each day next week. A reading day will be assigned to your child for the following week.
Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:34pm
Welcome back! It has been wonderful having everyone back together again. We have had an amazing week settling back into school. This week we have been focusing on our SHINE school values through the stimulus ‘Encanto’. The children have been exploring how the characters in the film demonstrate our school’s vision and values. We have focused lots of our work on our gifts and how each and every one of us is special and has hidden gifts that make the world a better place. The children thought of wonderful ideas such as being friendly, being a good listener, being able to cheer others up and being good at inventing games on the playground.
With Mrs McCrae the children have enjoyed PSHE, reading and art activities linked to our school's visions and values—and, to the ‘Encanto’ film. Everyone enjoyed crafting their family trees and choosing unique adjectives for each special person in their family. We also discussed the text ‘The Little Engine that Could’. With the repeated phrase, "I think I can," we were inspired to create our own messages of encouragement which we wrote inside a lift-the-flap style card. These cards will be available to all students throughout the year to access when they find themselves in the 'Learning Curve.' For our reading tasks, everyone was asked questions of how characters and themes in the film could help us to better understand our SHINE message. They showed great maturity and consideration while listening to others' ideas and took time to reflect upon the group's responses.
With Miss Lucas, the children were introduced to their first Spanish lesson of the year where we learnt key vocabulary for the names of people in our family. The children were able to form sentences to identify family members. We also produced some creative writing based on Antonio’s gift. We imagined walking through Antonio’s door and described the room using our senses. In PE, we tried out some yoga poses and focused on our breathing.
‘It has truly been a pleasure to meet all of the Year 3 students this week. All of the children are kind, well-mannered and thoughtful. I am so happy to be able to help Miss Lucas teach this year! Lastly, I would like to say that the children have all shown resiliency and determination in all of their tasks and I am excited to see what the next few weeks will bring!’ - Mrs McRae
A poster containing 100 recommended reads for Year 3 children has been attached to this blog. By providing 100 quality texts at an age appropriate level, this list may be useful when choosing your child's next book. We hope it inspires the children to continue on in their reading journeys whilst further encouraging a lifelong love of books and stories.
We hope you have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday!
Reminder:
-Please remember to provide a healthy snack each day for your child.
-PE days are Monday and Friday
- Reading books and spellings will go home next week
Date: 14th Jul 2022 @ 10:45pm
Where has that year gone?
Our final week in Year 3 has been as exciting as ever, packed full of exciting and investigative learning opportunities. It truly has been a week to remember.
We took full advantage of the weather this week, and where possible, we were outside enjoying the sunshine and playing co-operative games together. Rounders has been a highlight this week and will be firm favourite for future PE lessons. Talking of PE, we loved our final week in the pool ending our Year 3 lessons by having a fun session involving floats, games, and laughter. Roll on next year when we will learn new skills!
To celebrate our fantastic year together, on Wednesday morning we had a golden time session, bringing in our own games to share with our friends. The children have certainly earnt this time, working so hard over the past year to achieve their full potential.
We completed our DT project on Tuesday, creating our own lightboxes using a range of resources as well as circuits! We started by exploring a range of light box designs before carefully crafting our own silhouettes using card and tracing paper. Once our box had been designed and carefully crafted, we used our circuits to make light! We were amazed with how good they looked, don’t believe us? Take a look at our twitter page!
On Thursday we tackled our final computing project of the year, designing and printing our own t-shirts using computing software to create an individual design. It was a lot more complicated than we thought, as we had to consider the cost in making our own t-shirts and the time it took. We decided that at the moment we were not in a position to make our own t-shirt range but discussed the possibility of making them as a possible fund raiser in the future, watch this space!
It is with a sad heart that we have to say goodbye, or in reality, see you later! I know that the children will continue to thrive on their learning journey and will have an incredible year in Year 4 with Miss Mcvey. All that is left to be said is, well done, Year 3, I have had a fantastic year with you, and I wish you all the best for the future. Have a wonderful, restful, and exciting summer! See you soon, Miss Jones!
Date: 6th Jul 2022 @ 12:08pm
What a superb penultimate week of not only the term but the year!
This week we completed our final independent piece of writing for our Author Books, creating a leaflet packed full of information about the 'Jardin des Plantes, Paris'. For this, the children had to use their website and google, to research the park and the different activites and inhabitant you could find in there. After, they planned in detail, the different sections of their leaflet before finally completing them. The leflets are truly incredible packed full of information and vibrant pictures to persuade the reader to not only read on but also visit the park! Well done, Year 3.
In Maths, we finished our topic on Geometry in style, by making a range of 3D shapes using a variety of resources. We then compared them to 2D shapes, discussing their differences and similarites and recognising that lots of 3D shapes, have 2D shapes inside them. We then moved onto our topic on Capacity and Volume. We looked at the different ways of measuring various objects and the units involved. Next week, we will finish this topic by comparng mass and volume in more detail.
In RE, we finished off our topic of Harvest focusing on the Jewish festival, Sukkot. We started by using our bubble maps to descirbe their festival before comparing it to the Christian Havest celebrations. To end this topic we took time to build our or Sukkah's with their very specific requirements.
We finished off our Geography topic about the River Nile, focusing on the uses of the Nile during different periods, ancient and modern. We were shocked to learn that some were used then and now! We loved going on a question hunt when we investigated Alexandira, a famous ancient and modern city!
We finally got to take part in our highly anticipated Sports Day! Year 3 were very excited and loved taking part in the sack race, egg and spoon race but our favouite race has got to be the three legged race, who knew that it could be so tricky! We worked hard to collect points for our school house teams. We are so proud of all their achievements an their excellent sportsmanships showcasing their amazing efforts and determination.
We ended our week focusing on Science, investigating the space race and the countires (and animals) involved. After, we used a variety of resources to make our own Moon Landing Rocket, propelling our mashmallows in the air. It was so much fun and a great way to end the week.
Reminders:
-Recorders will be kept in school and passed onto Year 4, ready for recorder lessons next year. If you wish to take your child's home over the summer then please let staff know via the schol email address.
- This week children will go swimming for the final time in Year 3, these lessons will resume at the start of Year 4.
-School term finishes at 1pm on Friday 15th July.
-Please ensure any school reading books are returned to school, prior to the end of term.
Date: 30th Jun 2022 @ 9:00pm
Where did that week go? All we know is that time flies when you are having fun and my goodness, we have had fun!
In Maths, we continued to explore our topic Geometry. The focus this week has been on angles, developing a understanding of acute and obtuse angles in relation to 90 degrees. We also began measuring and drawing angles of our own using our rulers for accuracy. Finally, we looked at the difference between horizontal and vertical lines. Next week, we will finish our Geometry topic after investigating 2D and 3D shapes before moving onto our final topic of Year 3, Mass and Capacity a truly exciting topic.
In English, we had such fun exploring the incredible merchandise created during Zereffa's trip to Paris, from giraffe style hair to giraffe cakes. We then created our own, some of the merchandise was pretty expensive, so I hope you all have saved up! On Friday, we began to research areas of Paris in preparation for our Author book work, a persuasive leaflet. We carefully unpicked the wesite to find key information such as important dates, prices and sights to see. Next week, we will began our first draft of our Author Books.
Art was an absolute highlight this week, creating our very own paitings in the style of LS Lowry. After exploring his pictures for key features such as buildings, cars and people, we began to sketch. Once we were complete, we started painting, practicing our layering to add detail and texture. Next week we will use a range of mediums to create another version, focusing again on texture and finer detail.
The Great British weather was not our friend on Wednesday and certainly rained on our parade. That did not stop us having great fun, taking on the final SumDog Challenge of the year. The tension is high in school as we all eagerly await he results, I wonder which year will win. We can also see the silver lining with the rain, allowing us all some extra practices in preparation for next week!
Unfotunately this week we had to say goodbye to the wonderful Miss Duffy who sadly had to leave us this week. It is bitter sweet however, as we know wherever she goes she will continue to shine and her next class will be just as lucky as us. Good luck, and keep in touch!
Our school book fair is currently taking place in the school portacabin and is open from 3.05pm to 3.30pm each day after school until next Wednesday 6th July. All purchases made, result in more books for our class libraries! Please do support us if you are able to, and thank you to those of you who have supported this event already. Your support is very much appreciated.
Reminders:
- Sports Day is rescheduled for Wednesday 6th July. Children will need to come to school dressed in their PE kits. Swimming will be cancelled again for this reason.
- Recorder lessons continue every Monday until the end of term
- Friday 15th July – End of term – School closes at 1pm