Year 3
Hello everyone!
You can follow our exciting journey of learning with us and watch our learning unfold in all our subject areas.
Our amazing team in Year 3 starts with the 31 FANTASTIC children we have, our wonderful TA Mrs Pickford and fabulous teacher Mrs Shaw. It is a pleasure to be part of a great team and we look forward to the Autumn term, which is going to be incredibly fun, definitely exciting and above all, a challenge to make us achieve beyond our dreams.
Here you will find anything and everything you need to know about Year 3, including pictures and explanations of our learning. We are so excited to begin the year and hope that you are as eager as us!
We will begin the school year by exploring the topic:
Small Acts. Big Impacts
We will explore recycling across the globe and the impact plastic pollution is having on our world. As a class, we will explore how other countries are managing the world’s plastic crisis and examine the 5 Rs to sustainability.
Refuse,
Reduce,
Reuse,
Repurpose,
Recycle.
Despite the saddening trends in waste disposal, we can find positive ways to be involved in the cycle of production, consumption, and waste. The 5 R’s can help us distinguish what is truly wasteful and what is not. Each week we will focus on one of the 5 R’s, and collectively find small ways we can make changes that have a positive impact on our environment.
In English, we will examine the books ‘The Promise’ and ‘Lost Words’- focusing on nature, its significance and the impact it has on our daily lives. Also, we will tackle the true story of ‘One Plastic Bag’, based on one woman’s mission to change plastic dilemmas in her home country of Gambia. In Science, we will learn all about plants and the unquestionable importance they have on our environment.
Furthermore, we will follow Greta Thunburg, a 16 year old girl from Sweden on her political act on ‘climate change’ and how her fight for change is impacting the world on a global scale. In Year 3, we will make our own ‘plastic pledge’, and think how we can make small changes to our lives that will eventually lead to a better and brighter future.
Important Things to Remember:
Home/school diaries and reading books: Please bring these in daily.
Diaries will now only be checked once a week on a Monday, if there is an important message you wish for me to read urgently, please make sure your child brings their diary directly to me or write a separate note. Furthermore, please continue to make of note in the diary of when you have heard your child read
P.E: Wednesday and Friday afternoons
Please ensure that your child’s P.E kit is in school at all times as we often have opportunities to participate in physical activities on non P.E days, which kits may be needed for. We send all kits home at the end of each half term.
Swimming: Swimming will take place in the Spring Term and will replace PE on Friday afternoons.
Mid-morning snack: Pupils in KS2 are allowed to bring in a piece of fruit as a mid-morning snack to eat during playtime. Hot tuck is also available for purchase, we ask that children try and bring in the correct change for items they are wishing to buy.
Water Bottles: Keeping hydrated is conducive to good learning. Please encourage your child to bring a named, reusable water bottle to school to drink throughout the day.
Homework
Reading
We ask that children read at least 4 times per week. Please sign your child’s diary to indicate when they have read. On a Friday morning, we will check your child’s diary and stamp the bottom of the page if they have read at least 4 times. This will then gain them a star on the ‘Reading Road to success’ (which can be found in their reading diary). For every week your child reads at least four times, they will take another step along the road. When they eventually get to the bronze finish line, they will receive a certificate. Their next goal is then silver, where they will receive a special book mark, and then Gold. This is the ultimate goal, where they receive a book token.
Spelling
At the beginning of each half term, parents will receive a list of Spelling words which shows which spelling patterns and spelling list words we will be focusing on each week in school. These spellings will then be tested at the end of each half term. After the test, your child will highlight all words they spelt correctly on their spelling lists (in their own reading diaries) and will spend time in school practising any words they struggle with. Please encourage your child to regularly practise their spellings at home.
Maths
At the beginning of each half term, you will be sent the ‘Key Instant Recall Fact’ that your child will be focusing on for that half term. Please encourage your child to practise these at home as well as in school.
Creative Curriculum
Homework books containing optional homework tasks will be sent home at the beginning of each half term; these will all be linked to our topic for this term. We look forward to celebrating the wonderful creations that your children have done at home!
Autumn 1
Small Acts. Big Impacts
WHAT a start to our academic year in Year 3! So many adventures already have taken place. We began by exploring the recycling system in the UK and how much plastic we use in our day to day lives, especially during lunchtimes at school. We created bar charts showing how much plastic we used just in Year 3 during ONE lunchtime. We then discussed how this would look after one week and across the whole school, the statistics were PHENOMENAL!
Next, we ventured across the globe and learnt all about ‘Trash Islands’. They are currently taking over our oceans on an epidemic scale! We learnt all about how trash islands are formed and where they are within our oceans.
SHOCKED by the pure amount of litter in the waters and the effect it is having our sea life we created factual posters on the dangers of plastic pollution sharing the information we had learned.
In English, we dug deep into the text ‘The Promise’. A story of one girls desire to ‘do better’ and improve the circumstances of not only herself but those that surrounded her. She changed her outlook on life and began to make a small difference by planting seeds across her city, bringing with it joy and happiness. In Year 3, we read the text and wrote our own setting descriptions based on the story. We looked at lots of grammatical features and incorporated these into our own writing, leading to us retelling the girls story through our own eyes.
In Maths, we have spent time developing our mathematical knowledge of Place Value with 3 digit numbers and began to explore addition and subtraction using practical, mental and written methods. In addition, we have used our skills to decipher secret codes, unlock problem solving and reason why. Our learning has been challenging BUT we’ve loved every minute!
Furthermore, we transformed into superheroes. Following in the footsteps of Clarke Kent, we became journalists. We wanted to write newspaper articles on how small acts across the local community can help on a global scale.
During guided reading we read the story ‘One Plastic Bag’ about Isatou Ceesay, one woman’s mission in Gambia to rid the village of plastic bags. With her support of her friends within the community they turned plastic into thread and created items to sell at market. They are reusable and helped to deal with the plastic crisis. She now has the full support of her government and is beginning to huge differences in her country!
Year 3 and I were surprised to read that this was A TRUE STORY! So decided as a team that her mission was one to share. But first, we needed to know what a newspaper article contains. We have spent time analysing newspapers, learning about the features and language features that go into writing articles. If her story can touch the lives of children in the UK, we believe we it is up to us to show our support by writing her story and sharing it with our local village. Who knows this could inspire YOU, our readers, to make a difference!
WATCH THIS SPACE newspaper articles to follow after half term!
Spring 1
Spring 1
The Stone Age to the Iron Age
We could not have asked for a better start to 2020 in year 3! Our term started with a fantastic trip to see the Prince and the Pauper at the New Vic theatre, from this we created a BEAUTIFUL piece of writing where we took the role of Prince Edward in the story and stopped the coronation of Tom Canty. We also produced some DETAILED depictions of Tudor timber beamed houses and designed our own heraldic crests.
We began our main topic with a visit from everyone’s favourite Neanderthal: Caveman Carnwell. He travelled THROUGH TIME for our first topic lesson to begin our journey through the Stone Age towards the Iron age. We started our adventure by looking at how the people of the Stone Age attempted different tasks and how they were some of the first humans to use tools. The children made their own EXCITING television adverts to promote and sell a tool; the bow and arrow. We delved deeper and researched the village of Skara Brea. We compared Stone Age homes to our own and the story behind how the village was rediscovered in the mid 1800s. From this, the children created FANTASTIC news reports. Next, the children completed their own research about the Bronze age. They developed their own questions and DISCOVERED the answer using the internet and other resources. Finally, we reached the Iron Age where we created our own FABULOUS fact files about Iron Age hill forts.
A special mention from both myself and Mrs Pickford must go to all the incredible pieces of homework we have seen this half term! It is great to see all the enthusiasm from the children and a chance to let their imagination and creativity shine.
In English and guided reading, we have been EXPLORING and examining the story of the Iron Man by Ted Hughes. A tale of an unexpected friendship between a COLOSSAL iron robot and a young country boy; and the battle for the fate of the world between the Iron Man and the Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon. We have created STRIKING character and setting descriptions, both as a class and individually. This later culminated in a full story rewrite of the book, while adding our own twist with a different ending, all of which have been a JOY to read!
In Maths, we have been focusing heavily on our multiplication and division skills, using our super knowledge of timetables to help us. There have been many new concepts explored this half term, from using the column multiplication method to division problems leaving a remainder. The EFFORT and RESILIENCE shown by the children has been AMAZING, and as a group we have made GREAT progress.
Our artistic flare was shown this half term where we discovered how to create shape, texture and depth while only using a pencil! We did this through shading and trying to draw shapes in 3D. Some of our drawings are so REALISTIC, they look like they could be picked up from the paper!
In science, we have become both a geologist and palaeontologist. We have discovered different types of rock and the ways in which they are created. We then followed the FASCINATING journey of a fossil: how it begins as an animal or plant, and then changes into the fossils we see in museums and can find in the outdoors!
It has been a WONDERFUL start to the year and my time here at Forsbrook. A personal thank you to all the children and parents for helping to make the transition a smooth one! We are looking forward to our new topic of VOLCANOS next half term, along with the chance for the thespians among us to shine during our year 3 and 4 production. Spring 2 promises to be very exciting!
Spring 2
In year 3 this half term, we have been learning all about natural disasters and the reasons why they happen. We have looked at the formation of the earth, tectonic plates and why these might cause volcanoes and earthquakes.
In maths, we have concentrated on consolidating our knowledge of multiplication and division along with our times tables and then looked at how data can be presented in different ways such as tally charts and pictograms. We then finished our term off by working with money, which all of the class were fantastic at , well done!
One of my favourite weeks of the year happened in this half term, science week! Light was our topic of choice and we looked, in detail, at how light travels and the dangers the light can pose if we are not careful around it and treat it with respect.
Sadly, we had to cancel our full year 3/4 performance of the Xfactory. However, we were able to WOW the rest of the school when we preformed some of our best songs in assembly and also had them professionally recorded!
Summer 1
It has been a very odd start to the summer term in year 3, where we started our first full half-term of home learning. In summer one our topic was the Romans and it permeated through all the parts of our learning. In English we put ourselves in the shoes of Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of the city of Rome, when we created a biography of their lives. We also dipped our toes into the world of poetry, creating a poem about the life of a Roman soldier, in the style of Josiah Wedgewood. In maths we spent a large part of our time improving our skills with fractions, a tough topic but year 3 have done a fantastic job! Our science topic this term was the all about forces, particularly magnetism. All of our science was completed at home, where we made our own working compasses and designed and built our own magnetised board games. All of the children have worked incredibly hard this half-term, under quite exceptional circumstances, myself and Mrs Pickford could not be more proud of all of you! We would also like to thank all of the parents for all of the hard work you have done during this difficult time. We can’t wait to have everyone back in school so we can enjoy part of our final term of the year together!
Summer 2
In year 3 we have continued our unexpected journey through a very odd final term, with some of the class now being back in school and some continuing their learning from home. Our topic this term was all about William Shakespeare and in English we walked in the footsteps of the great bard by looking closely at a story based on one of his plays, Macbeth. We spent time getting to know each of the characters and settings in the story and then created an extract of a script for a performance. In topic sessions we have created models and plans of Shakespeare’s famous theatre, the globe; looked at where around the world his plays are set and created character studies of some of his characters from other plays. We have worked incredibly hard in maths this term where we have concentrated on our measuring skills, looking at capacity, length and weight, while also working on our skills involving time. In science we have consolidated our knowledge across all of the subject areas for year 3 by conducting some fantastic investigations relating to forces, plants and light, to name but a few. This term we also held our first virtual sports day which was a great success! It has been such a strange time in school but we could not have done it without the amazing children we have in year 3 and the incredibly supportive parents, who have helped us all along the way. I hope everyone has had an amazing time in year three and we wish we could keep you all in September but you will all have a fantastic time in year 4, myself and Mrs Pickford will miss you all greatly but we can’t wait to see all of your smiling faces around school.
