Welcome to Year 3!
Year 3 is composed of Topaz Class taught by Mr Gibbs and Turquoise Class taught by Ms Proctor and Mr Brown. We also have fantastic teaching assistants, Ms Morris and Ms Graham, who support learning across Year 3.
We encourage children to drink throughout the day. Please send your child in each day with a named water bottle.
Throughout the week we work independently and with a learning partner. These pairings will change throughout the year so that everybody gets the opportunity to work with a variety of classmates.
In Year 3 we love reading and we try to read as much as possible. We encourage parents to read regularly with their children and to record this in their child’s reading diary. Children may also record their own independent reading in their reading diary.
Reading
Some children have colour banded books and others are free readers. A varied choice of home / class reading books are found in the class libraries and the central book band shelves. These books can be changed at least once a week by the class teacher or TA. We expect children to keep their book safely in their book bag when it is not being read and bring their book bags to school every day.
We have an amazing library filled with a variety of books to enthuse all children’s interests. Children have the opportunity to take book out of the library, but we ask that, once they have finished the book, they return it before taking home another!
Children need to bring in their PE kits so they can get changed at school. We require children to wear navy shorts and a white T-shirt. As the weather gets cooler, navy jogging trousers and a navy sweatshirt may be worn. Trainers or plimsolls should also be worn to school. Please make sure children come to school with hair tied back and do not wear earrings.
Our PE days:
Topaz Class – Tuesday (gymnastics) and Friday (outdoor activities)
Turquoise Class – Wednesday (gymnastics) and Friday (outdoor activities)
Year 3’s are encouraged to always be determined to do their best, to take responsibility for their learning and behaviour, and to have fun whilst learning!
Spring 2
English
Over the next few weeks in English, we are going to be learning how to write our own myth. We will be retelling the myth of How Ebo Stole Fire to help us understand the structure of a traditional tale, as well as discover what features are used, with a focus on conjunctions expressing time and cause and adverbs.
We will then be exploring the story of Weslandia, where we will be looking at how to turn the main characters’ civilisation into a brochure, before creating our own civilisation to write our own brochures.
Topic – History
During our exciting history topic this term, Ancient Civilisations, we will be delving into the world of the Ancient Sumerians, Shang Dynasty and the people of the Indus Valley.
We begin by investigating when these ancient civilisations existed and looking at where they fall in a timeline against one another. Following this we will ask ourselves how these civilisations came to be and explore why geography had such a huge impact on their location and existence.
As the term progresses we move on to learning all about how the people of these civilisations lived and the ways in which their lives may have had both similarities and differences to our lives today. By becoming archaeologists, we investigate how we come to know about these civilisations today and the huge variety of clues that we can gather from even just 1 artefact!
Art
During Art this term children will begin by exploring different forms of ancient writing from all three civilisations we are learning about in Topic: Shang Dynasty, Indus Valley and Ancient Sumer.
In response to this, we will delve deeper into deciphering Ancient Sumerian writing and having a go at writing simple words and phrases in cuneiform. We will then be creating a print of a word or phrase of their choice for them to paint over and press onto paper to create a message.
Maths
This half term in Maths children will be completing several units: column addition, 2, 4 and 8 times tables and column subtraction.
We will be learning to understand that we can add any numbers using this method, using the column representation of place value for additive calculation. We will learn how to apply the column method, including layout conventions of the column itself. Eventually, this will lead onto understanding when the digits in any column sums to ten or more, there is a need for regrouping. Later on, we will be linking this knowledge when learning column subtraction.
Following this, we will be learning our 2s, 4s and 8s. We will be exploring the links between the 2s and the 4s, then the 4s and the 8s, then learning how to skip count in both 4s and 8s. Building on this, we will be applying times tables facts to solve both contextual and abstract problems, making links to division throughout.
Useful Information:
Curriculum information for parents Spring 2
Statutory spellings word mat years 3 and 4