Year 3 Team: Mrs L Houghton (Class Teacher) : Blog items
Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 5:21pm
..and just like that, it is the end of 2023!
I am sure we can all agree that it has been a wonderful term, full of fun and laughter! We have had so many incredible memories to look back on and so many to look forward to.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your generous, thoughtful gifts, both Miss Dunbavin and I are very grateful. I would also like to thank you for making my first term so special, I can't wait to see you all in the New Year!
If you wish to continue any learning over the holidays, please see Google Classroom for Christmas activities.
From both of us here in Year 3, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2024!
Date: 16th Dec 2023 @ 8:07pm
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What a magical (almost) end to the Autumn Term we have had in Year 3. On Monday, we had our annual schoolwide sing-off. The school was separated into four houses and only had an hour to rehearse the words and dance moves for their given Christmas song. We all reconvened in the hall and sang and danced our hearts out to compete for house sing-off champions.
Christmas dinner was on the menu this week and we certainly filled our boots. We celebrated with our friends and teachers as we sang to Christmas music and wore our Christmas hats and pulled Christmas crackers. The festive celebrations didn’t end there, as we gathered to complete our own TSP Santa Dash. We dashed around the school on the hunt for clues to reveal the name of the reindeer hidden behind each clue. We crossed off the reindeer names associated with the teacher from the list until we were left with only one teacher we thought was hiding a red nose!
Our classroom was filled with glitter and Christmas crafts this week. We enjoyed Christmas party day, dressed in our favourite Christmas jumpers we danced around the classroom, sang along to Christmas songs, and played lots of festive party games.
We completed our ‘big write’ in English, the children worked so hard and took such pride in demonstrating all they had learnt over this term. They included lots of the grammatical features we have learnt this half term. Similes, conjunctions, prepositions and using inverted commas to punctuate the direct speech. Well done Year 3! When we return, we will be focusing on ‘The Stone Age Boy’, which the children are very excited about.
In January, we will be continuing with multiplication and division objectives so any work that you can do on TT Rockstars, Sumdog or Hit the Button (or in your own way) over the Christmas break would be very helpful for when we meet again. There will be additional resources added to Google Classroom if you wish to utilise those.
Have a lovely Christmassy weekend, Year 3!
Reminders:
- School finishes at 1 pm next Tuesday 19th December
- School will resume on Monday 8th January 2024.
Date: 8th Dec 2023 @ 8:28pm
We finished our RE topic “Christmas: God with Us.” The children solidified their learning by using self-assessment to demonstrate their deeper understating of the Christmas Story, the concept of incarnation and how God was present at the birth of Jesus ‘Emmanual’. When we return after Christmas, we will begin our new topic that will deepen the children’s insight into the impact Jesus had/has on people’s lives.
In Maths, we drew on our previous learning of arrays from Year 2 to remind ourselves how we can utilise arrays when using multiplication. We had lots of fun playing our array games with our shoulder partners. We have also been focusing on multiples of 5 and 10 this week.
In Design and Technology, we had lots of fun tasting various vegetables and other ingredients. We discussed the taste and textures and decided which flavours would work best in our seasonal tart. The children then designed a ‘mock-up’ of their tarts using various materials to represent the vegetables, pesto and/or tomato puree and puff pastry. We are excited to get cooking next week.
We have been planning for our ‘big write’ in English this week. The children thoroughly enjoyed our book Winter’s Child and now they have the opportunity to retell the story using their fantasy character in place of Winter’s child. Using similes, time adverbs, prepositions, and noun phrases to help sequence our stories and make them even more fantastical.
In PSHE, we have been focusing on dealing with conflict and bullying. We had some fantastic discussions about how we deal with conflict in different situations. The Year 3 children demonstrated how caring and considerate they were when we talked about bullying and how to handle the situation as both a victim of bullying and an onlooker. Well done Year 3!
Have a super festive weekend!
Date: 2nd Dec 2023 @ 10:34am
In PSHE, we have been ‘Celebrating Difference’ by looking at how every family is unique and special. We discussed how families come in many different forms and the real heart of any family is love.
In P.E. we have been throwing some shapes in our dance lessons. We worked on the concept of ‘mirroring’ which is more difficult than we originally thought. However, we soon realised that by simplifying certain moves, we can actually make them look more effective.
We loved learning about Stonehenge during our History lesson this week. We were intrigued by how the enormous stones from Wales ended up in Salisbury. The children used their amazing imaginations to come up with some suggestions as to why they were arranged in a circle. Next week, we will move along our timeline as we delve into the Bronze Age.
In English, we finished the ‘Winter’s Child.’ We were excited to create our very own character using our newly acquired skills, using a thesaurus to find alternative words to describe our character. We also learned that Winter’s Child was a fantasy book and discussed how the author used similes to portray this.
Step into Christmas! Our Friday we were greeted by a cheeky, little elf on Friday morning who left us a letter saying that he had come to year 3 to spread lots of Christmas cheer and he's promised not to cause too much mischief…we’ll see about that! The children enjoyed decorating Christmas tree decorations for our class tree, and it looks fantastic! The fun didn’t stop there though, as our wonderful Team TSP had organised the ‘Christmas Extravaganza!’ The children visited Father Christmas in his grotto before enjoying fabulous games and winning prizes with all their friends.
Have a magical weekend!
Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 9:38pm
Another amazing, fun-filled week in Year 3!
In RE, this week the children discussed the significance of ‘Emmanual’ and thought about the meaning behind the name ‘God with us.’ We continued to listen to Christmas carols and enjoyed spotting the name Emmanual. The children solidified their learning by creating beautiful Christmas cards that demonstrated their understanding of Emmanual. Next week, we will continue our unit about “Christmas, God with Us” The children will discuss how Jesus has an impact on our lives today.
In English, we have continued our work on Winter’s Child. We had a great discussion about a new character we had been introduced to in the story. The children made accurate predictions based on what they knew from the text. The children were challenged to explain how we knew, and where the evidence was from for our thoughts and to ponder on questions and puzzling elements of the story. Drawing on our retrieval skills used to evidence opinions this week. We also focused on using conjunctions in our sentences and explored placing them at the start of sentences to vary sentence structure. We also had lots of fun coming up with similes using ‘like’ and ‘as’ to describe the winter setting.
In Maths, we have concentrated on estimating, using inverse operations, compliments to 100 and discussing strategies we can use to ensure our working out is accurate. The children are also growing in confidence each day using column addition and column subtraction across 100.
On Tuesday, Active Sefton taught the children 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. The children were able to see 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 been thoroughly enjoying our creepy book ‘The Ice Palace’. The children are on the edge of their seats, and we can’t wait to find out what happens to Ivan on his quest to rescue his brother from the evil Stajik. The children used their dictionary skills to search for new vocabulary they had been introduced to. Year 3 worked hard completing comprehension questions and were able to retrieve key information from the text to clarify their answers.
In History, the children were eager to delve further into evidence from the Stone Age. We looked at the incredible Skara Brae. The children were intrigued to learn about one of Britain’s most fascinating prehistoric villages. We learnt that archaeologists estimate that it was built and occupied over 3000 BC, during the ‘Neolithic era’ or ‘New Stone Age’. The children were able to use a range of different sources to make deductions about the Stone Age way of life by studying evidence of the buildings left behind.
During D&T, we continued learning about seasonal foods and we discussed the terms ‘Import’ and ‘Export.’ We then mastered our cutting skills using a vegetable knife and peeler correctly and safely. We can’t wait to put our new skills to the test over the coming weeks as we prepare to make a seasonal tart.
We hope you have a lovely weekend, and we are looking forward to Monday already!
Date: 17th Nov 2023 @ 8:42pm
What a wonderful week Year 3 has had! So many kind words have been shared during the celebration of Kindness Week. Seeing the children being extremely kind to their peers, teachers, and staff around the school has been wonderful. We had lots of fun visiting the children in KS1 demonstrating how to be kindness role models. We created motivational posters and ended the week by decorating scrumptious kindness biscuits.
In RE this week, the children have been continuing with our topic "Christmas: God with Us." We looked at the Christmas story and focused on understating how and why we prepare for special guests. We had a fantastic discussion with the children talking about times they have been a part of preparing for a celebration. To summarise our learning, the children created a ‘My special guest book’ where they chose someone from the Christmas story and explained what preparations they would make for their guests’ arrival; how the guest would feel and why we have chosen our special guest. Next week, we will look at the Christmas story and the retelling focused on the angels' and the shepherds' point of view and the part they played when Jesus was born.
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 we will return to lessons as before. In English, we will be continuing with Winters Child. During our maths lessons, we will begin looking at multiplication and division.
Have a fantastic weekend Year 3!
Reminders:
- Please remember to bring a healthy snack for the morning break.
- We are learning about the Stone Age in History, if anyone has any interesting topic books at home, that they would like to share with the class please bring them in.
Date: 11th Nov 2023 @ 1:03pm
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We started our week by discussing the significance of Remembrance Day. The children designed some poppies which became a poppy wreath laid on the war memorial. As we created our poppies, it allowed us to pause and reflect and remind ourselves of the importance of this month’s value Justice and everything we have to be grateful for.
In English, we have continued to investigate our new story ‘The Winter’s Child’ and were intrigued by our new creepy, pale character and his mystical abilities. We compared him to our main character Tom, discussing not only how they look but also what their personalities are like. We have also been reading our new book ‘The Ice Palace’ written by Robert Swindells. To help us understand the story, we first had to unpick the language used with the help of our dictionaries, especially the word ‘celandine’, who knew it belonged to the poppy family? Next week we will continue to look at the 'Winter's Child' and will start by writing a letter.
In Maths, we have been working hard to develop our addition and subtraction skills in column form. We have been mastering the skills of borrowing, and working with tricky 3-digit numbers. Next week we will finish our addition and subtraction topic and will move on to multiplication!
In History, we started our exciting new topic Stone Age to Iron Age. This week we began to understand that Britain was once covered in ice and that the earliest settlers were hunter gatherers and lived in caves. The children made deductions about the lifestyle of Stone Age man from images. We also learned that Stone Age man was interested in art and ceremonials.
During Science, we continued to explore simple pushes and pulls. We used our new scientific vocabulary ‘variable’ to plan a fair test to investigate how an object's texture or surface can affect how an object moves. The children will carry out the investigation next week and record the results.
In Design and Technology, we learned that fruits and vegetables grow in different countries based on their climates. Next week, the children will understand that ‘seasonal’ fruits and vegetables are those that grow in a given season and taste best then and that eating seasonal fruit and vegetables has a positive effect on the environment.
The end of the week couldn’t have been better, the premier of the ‘Celebration of Kindness Video’. We loved watching all the year groups, and staff, and this year our fantastic TSP parents even made an appearance! The children cannot wait to dive headfirst into Kindness Week next week.
Have a super weekend Year 3!
Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 8:52pm
What a fabulous and busy first week back we have had in Year 3. We have had so much fun, especially when filming dance clips for our whole school Kindness music video. We have some fantastic dancers in Year 3!
On Monday, we focused on working on our author books. The children were so excited to write their final piece of work from ‘The Seal Surfer’. Adding some fantastic artwork, the finished pieces look super!
For RE this week, we started our unit on Christmas. During this topic, we will be asking the question: How does the presence of Jesus impact on people's lives. The children discussed ways in which Christians believe that God us with us.
In English, 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 put our new spelling rule to the test using ‘a’ and ‘an’ correctly.
In Maths, 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.
In Guided Reading, we have begun our new text ‘Ice Palace’ and this week we have been clarifying new vocabulary by using our laptops to help us find and understand the meanings.
In Science, we started our new topic focusing on Forces and Magnets. During our introductory lesson, the children investigated how we make a variety of different objects move. The children could describe pushes and pulls as a type of force and explain how different objects move using these forces. Next week we will look at whether objects move the same on different surfaces.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend and cannot wait to see you again on Monday.
Reminders
- Please ensure children bring a warm coat to school with them every day.
Date: 20th Oct 2023 @ 8:59pm
What a fantastic final week of half term we have had in Year 3!
In Maths, we continued with our topic on Addition and Subtraction, which we will continue with after half term. We have been working hard on mastering the column addition formula before we move on to exchanging next term.
In Science, we completed our topic of learning about how the systems inside our body works to make a healthy human. This week we focused on understanding that animals, including humans, need the right type of nutrition. We were able to identify the five different food groups and create our balanced nutritional meal. Next term we will be starting our new topic investigating forces and magnets.
In RE, we finished our topic on what it means to be ‘Called by God’. We had a fantastic discussion considering what Prophets of today would speak in favour of or speak out against.
In Geography, we ended our topic by finding out about the human and physical features of a European country and as a class we chose Spain to focus on and used a variety of sources to explore the features of Spain.
During Computing, we had a fantastic conversation on how to stay safe online. We focused closely on 'our online identity' and how it is important to not share any personal information online even down to creating a lookalike avatar. We solidified our learning by creating 'Staying safe online' posters that we have displayed by our laptops in our classroom.
Have a wonderful half term Year 3!
Reminders
Our PE days will remain the same for Autumn 2 taking place on Monday and Friday.
Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 9:25pm
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Another busy week full of learning and having fun in Year 3!
We started our week by designing our very own ‘paper chain family’ for World Mental Health Day in support of the "Hello Yellow" campaign. The ‘paper chain people’ were a reminder to celebrate how unique and special our TSP children are.
In RE this week, we have thought about questions we would ask someone who has been ‘Called by God”. The children came up with fantastic questions and we look forward to getting the chance to put these to them in person after half term.
Our Art lesson was blooming wonderful this week as we got a chance to draw a variety of real flowers. Using our observational skills to first draw small segments of the flower before drawing our beautiful botanical bouquets. We also took the time to identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants.
In science, we looked at animal skeletons. As scientists we asked the question; Do all animals have the same Skeleton? We discovered all animals have a skeleton: however, they don’t all look the same. We were able to group the animals into two different groups – Vertebrates or invertebrates. We also learnt that some animals do not have a skeleton inside their body, they have them on the outside. This is called the exoskeleton. Some animals have no skeleton at all! They have no bones so don’t have as much support or protection as other animals. A very interesting science lesson indeed!
For English, both groups have continued working on up-levelling their sentences. We planned and wrote a diary entry and a narrative using rich vocabulary, a range of conjunctions, prepositions, "a" and "an," and paragraphs. The children have also been sequencing and planning a well-known and using their plans to retell a story in their own words using paragraphs, inverted commas, prepositions, and interesting adjectives.
Today, the children dressed in pyjamas in support of the Alder Hey Children's Hospital. We had a lovely discussion about the incredible work that all the staff at Alder Hey Hospital do every day to help poorly children and their families. Our children are so compassionate and caring and spent the rest of the day asking further questions about how they could further help Alder Hey Childrens Hospital.
Thank you for another wonderful week Year 3!
Reminders:
- Parent Teacher Meetings are next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here we will be discussing how your child has settled into Year 3.
- School finishes next Friday, 20th October, and will return on Monday 30th
- The school disco takes place next Thursday from 3:15pm to 4:15pm, please contact the school office for more details. Children who are attending can bring a change of clothes in a bag that is clearly named.
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 8:06pm
What a wonderful week of learning Year 3 it has been!
In RE this week, we continued our journey on what it means to be ‘Called by God.’ The students watched a video of Jonah and the whale, and then we dissected the story together. We had a wonderful discussion about how Jonah must have felt being called on by God and why Jonah ran away from God. The children identified that the story was about forgiveness and that God’s love is for everyone, even those who make mistakes.
In Geography, we dove deeper into our ‘European Neighbours’ topic. Asking the question; What is the difference between a continent, a country, and a city? We looked at some European capital cities and the children enjoyed recognising key landmarks. The children then got a chance to work in teams, using the laptops to help them pinpoint with Play-Doh on our large world maps which capital city belonged to each country.
During English this week, the children continued to learn how to use inverted commas and make sensible choices for their reported clause following direct speech. For instance, they created choices such as ‘muttered,’ ‘responded and ‘exclaimed.’ We discussed when all of these would be appropriate for our writing, depending on 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 a 100. Next week, the learning will focus on subtracting 1s and 10s and adding and subtracting without exchanging.
In Art, we continued to understand how texture can be created and used to make art. Our Year 3 children created beautiful botanical pictures using the frottage technique that they had previously learnt.
For science, we look at how muscles have different jobs. They help to pump blood around the body, help you lift things and work our bones to help us move. We looked at our biceps and triceps and noticed how each one reacts differently as we bend our arm and straighten our arms.
Have a super weekend Year 3!
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 12:27pm
It has been another fun and productive week in Year 3!
We began the week on a high as we got to experience the construction of the Big Top Circus Tent. With lots of cheering and whooping as the enormous tent went up, it was fantastic to watch. On Tuesday the main circus event itself was spectacular with trapeze artists, jugglers and a fire show.
In RE, we continued learning about what it means to be 'called by God.' Everyone enjoyed watching a video clip and learning about the story of ‘Moses and the Burning Bush.’ We brainstormed as a class how it would feel to be ‘called by God.’ The children were then able to recall the key information from the Bible story. Next week we will be looking at the prophet Jonah and creating a memory board to help retell this Bible story.
In our English lessons, Year 3 have been learning how to use a richer vocabulary and how to draw inferences about characters feelings, thoughts and motives. We also introduced the use of inverted commas to punctuate direct speech. Next week, we will be asking questions to improve our understanding of texts and continue to draw 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. 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 planning and carrying out an investigation based on our key inquiry question; Do bones affect what we can do? The children had a choice of two questions to investigate with a small group. Do people with longer legs jump further? Or, do people with longer arms throw further? The students completed the investigation planning sheet and then completed the investigation as they had planned and recorded their results. Stay tuned for the results!
We are continuing our study of ‘Our European Neighbours’ in geography. This week, the children looked at identifying European countries according to their features. Looking closely at languages, flags and currency to be able to identify the correct European country. Next week, we will be exploring the major capital cities of Europe. If any of you have been to any capital cities within Europe and have any photographs then please send them in to enhance our discussion in our next geography lesson.
On Friday, we went to St Peter’s Church for a Harvest service led by the Year 5 students. We supported Southport Foodbank with our donations and joined Year 5 by singing hymns and offering our gratitude to God, our family and our friends for the things that we are grateful for.
Have a fantastic and restful weekend!
Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 4:16pm
We have had a wonderful week in Year 3.
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 our English reading and writing lesson, we read a poem called Seal by Robert Frost. We found interesting verbs to describe the movement of water as well as highlighting prepositions that we focused on last week. We then created our own list of verbs to describe the movement of different sea animals. Which we will be able to incorporate in to next weeks lesson when we write our own ‘What am I?’ poem.
In Spanish this week, we stuck with our ‘under the sea’ theme and learnt a fantastic and very catchy song about el pez (the fish) and el cangrejo (the crab). We added actions to help us learn and remember our new song.
Place value has continued to be our focus in Maths delving deeper into the value of digits in a three digit number. We also 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 but using the learning curve the children persevered and are feeling more confident.
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 Geography, we are focusing on our topic ‘Our European Neighbours’ and this week we looked at identifying and locating countries in Europe. The children used their laptops to navigate a map of Europe and then identify and label the countries on a map.
In PE, we have now mastered our point and patch balances and have moved on to use a variety of different levels. Exploring balance, shape and jumping on a different level. We certainly have some fantastic gymnasts this year!
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.
Enjoy your weekend, Year 3. See you on Monday!
Date: 15th Sep 2023 @ 4:24pm
What a busy week Year 3 have had!
We celebrated Roald Dahl Day by reading and writing about one of his famous texts, The Twits. We focused primarily on the imagery and language that Dahl used when describing Mr and Mrs Twit. The children listened to extracts from the book and identified the key descriptions of the characters. Using this information, they were then asked to draw the characters. We discussed how Dahl used adjectives to describe the characters and as a class came up with some impressive similes. The children finished by creating a ‘profile’ on Mr Twit, describing his appearance and personality. Then finally, the front cover was revealed!
In Maths, we have been focusing on place value. The children have been looking closely at the hundreds, tens and ones places. Our learning goals focused on partitioning and the representation of different 3-digit numbers using Base-10 pictures. 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 been looking at the book Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This week, we looked at punctuation and grammar, concentrating on full stops and capital letters. We looked carefully at sentence structure and the elements that are required for sentences to read clearly and accurately. The children were then encouraged to improve their own sentences and edit their writing independently. We also introduced prepositions and have looked closely at how to use them within a sentence.
In Science, we have started our new topic on Animals. This week we asked the question; How does our skeleton help us? We identified that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection, and movement. We used our own bodies to label the ‘common bones’ before using the correct terminology; ulna, femur, tibia and fibula.
Ending our week on a high, we were joined by Outline Arts who guided us through an Art workshop, with the aim being to design a moving acrobatic sculpture. These sculptures will become part of our whole school collaborative art display.
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.
Thank you for such a lovely week, Year 3. Have a restful weekend.
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.