Year 3

Welcome to Year 3!

Welcome to Year 3 in Spring Term 1!

We have a very exciting half term planned for you. Our topic in the Spring term will be ‘Stone Age to Iron Age’. During this topic we will be exploring the big question: ‘How has civilisation changed over time?’

This topic has a History focus and we will be considering: the daily life for people during the Stone Age period, the transition from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, how to put key dates into chronological order and also looking into the famous Skara Brae.

Our trip during this term will take place in Spring 2 and we will also have another topic day in Spring 2 as we continue this topic.

In English we will be...

Looking at adventure stories by reading ‘Charlie’s Magical Chalk’ and through our class text ‘Stig of the Dump’. These are truly fantastic stories that the children will love. They will really help them when they create their own adventure stories by creating villains, problems and resolutions using story planning mountains. Children will also look into Non-Chronological Reports. Children will research Stone Age animals and present their findings in a fact-file. We will also be doing some drama this half term linked to reports. We will study the news and how this is an example of a Non-Chronological report that we see every day. Alongside English, children will have a weekly Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling lesson focusing this half term on Prefixes. Children will also benefit from Handwriting sessions focusing on common exception words/the year 3/4 word list and Guided Reading sessions on a range of interesting texts.

In Maths we will be...

Consolidating our knowledge of place value by revisiting partitioning, ordering and counting on and back in steps. We will ensure that we fully understand tricky fractions by finding fractions of amounts and numbers. We will be rehearsing our multiplication and division facts for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables – please continue to work on these at home too. Children will also study money, recognising the coins/notes, finding totals and calculating change by counting up. Children will revisit their measuring skills and will use these skills to calculate the perimeter of various shapes. We will finally look into 2D/3D shapes and their properties, including angles.

In Science we will be...

Looking into rocks and soils. Children will complete hands on, practical investigations to understand how the 3 main types of rocks are formed and will look into their properties. We will also look into fossils, linking to our Stone Age topic and we will study samples of rocks, fossils and soil types.

Please refer to the attached topic web to see what we are learning across other subjects.

Home Learning Information

Learning log grids will relate to our topic for this term (it covers both Spring 1 and Spring 2) and children can choose to complete 1 task from the grid per week. They should complete the task creatively, presenting their learning in any way they wish.
Maths Home Learning will consist of Times Table tasks as this is a real area of focus as children progress in KS2.
All home learning will be handed out to children every Wednesday and is to be returned on the following Monday. We will remind the children of this. However, it is ultimately the children’s responsibility to hand in their homework.
Each week children will receive a differentiated spelling list of their choice. Children only need to learn one of the lists – Hot (A), Extra Hot (B) or Spicy(C).
Spelling tests will take place on a Monday.
Reading practice is essential in Year 3. Please make sure you hear your child read for at least 5 minutes daily. This can be recorded by a parent or the child in the reading record book which will be checked regularly in class. This book can also be used for any communication with the teaching staff.

General Information

Year 3 will now be in the old reception classroom – we are all very excited! Collection will still take place from the front of the school to ease congestion at the rear of the school.
Our school day starts at 8.45 am with registration at 8.50 a.m. Please ensure that your child is in the classroom in time for registration. Children arriving after 9.00 a.m. will be marked as an unauthorised absence.
P.E. is on Monday (once a fortnight – new provider), Tuesday and Friday afternoons and P.E. kits need to be in school at all times.
We will be visiting Smokey Row on alternate Monday afternoons, whenever possible.
Our Christian value this half-term is 'ENDURANCE' and this links closely to our Growth Mindset learning.