Welcome to the Year 3 Blog!
Our teacher is Mr Edgar
Our Learning Support Assistants are Ms Breen, Ms Friel and Ms Vasconcellos and Ms Baptiste.
Spring 1
This half term we are starting some exciting new topics across a range of subjects. We also have some exciting activities such as STEM week and our class assembly to look forward to!
Read below for information all about the half term
English
We will be starting our new class text ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King and our first few weeks of English will be based on this text and creating play scripts based on it.
We will then be continuing with our Prehistoric theme and be creating Non Chronological reports based on our own Prehistoric animals.
Then finally, we will be writing instructions. We will be reading the text ‘How to wash a woolly mammoth’ by Michele Robinson & Kate Hindley.
Maths
The first half of the term will be continuing to learn about multiplication and division and we will be focusing on learning formal methods for both.
Knowing the inverse of the timetables will be incredibly helpful this half term.
Length and perimeter
Our next unit will be on length and perimeter. See the picture below for the strategy to find the perimeter.
RE
We will be starting our first unit of work on a world religion this half term and will be focusing on Judaism. We will be carefully studying the religion, making comparisons to our own beliefs and learning to respect and understand other religions.
Have a look at this BBC bitesize website to learn more.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zh77vk7
Science
Our topic will be rocks for this half term. We will be examining specimens and different soils. We will also be learning a range of vocabulary to make us rock experts. Use the grid below to help with some of the language we will be using.
Computing
Our topic will be ‘We are Presenter’s we will be learning how to use cameras and recording equipment to create videos with commentary, edit and adapt our videos.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zdn3d6f#zqhqqfr
History
The Stone Age is our new topic for History. We will be studying this until Easter. In Spring 2 we will be visiting Gunnersbury Museum for a ‘Survive the Stone Age’ workshop. Until then we will be looking at timelines and important skills and life developments that were essential to Stone Age life.
Geography
The Lake District is our topic for the Spring term. We will be contrasting the Lake District to where we live. We will be focusing on the features of the Lake District, the famous tourism spots and using mapping skills to explore the area on mapping tools.
Music
Our new topic for Music will be focussing on the song ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley. Looking at rhythm and rhyme and then using instruments to recreate parts of the song.
Have a listen to this great song here.
Spanish
We are excited to start our Spanish lessons with Mrs Jensen. This term we will be focusing on colours and opinions.
Here is some of the vocabularly we will need this half term.
Art
Joan Miro and Surrealism is the topic for our art work this half term. We will be learning about Surrealism and how Miro went about creating his masterpieces before creating our own.
To learn more about Miro then have a look at the Tate website here https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joan-miro-1646
RSHE
Dreams and Goals is our topic for the half term. We will be thinking on what our own dreams and goals are and then what our roles in fulfilling others dreams and goals are. We are going to think about how to overcome obstacles that can stand in the way of our achievements.
Spring 1
This half term we are starting some exciting new topics across a range of subjects. We also have some exciting activities such as STEM week to look forward to.
Read below for information all about the half term
English
We will be starting our new class text ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King and our first few weeks of English will be based on this text and creating play scripts based on it.
We will then be continuing with our Prehistoric theme and be creating Non Chronological reports based on our own Prehistoric animals.
Then finally, we will be writing instructions. We will be reading the text ‘How to wash a woolly mammoth’ by Michele Robinson & Kate Hindley.
Maths
The first half of the term will be continuing to learn about multiplication and division and we will be focusing on learning formal methods for both.
Knowing the inverse of the timetables will be incredibly helpful this half term.
Length and perimeter
Our next unit will be on length and perimeter. See the picture below for the strategy to find the perimeter.
RE
We will be starting our first unit of work on a world religion this half term and will be focusing on Judaism. We will be carefully studying the religion, making comparisons to our own beliefs and learning to respect and understand other religions.
Have a look at this BBC bitesize website to learn more.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zh77vk7
Science
Our topic will be rocks for this half term. We will be examining specimens and different soils. We will also be learning a range of vocabulary to make us rock experts. Use the grid below to help with some of the language we will be using.
Computing
Our topic will be ‘We are Presenter’s we will be learning how to use cameras and recording equipment to create videos with commentary, edit and adapt our videos.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zdn3d6f#zqhqqfr
History
The Stone Age is our new topic for History. We will be studying this until Easter. In Spring 2 we will be visiting Gunnersbury Museum for a ‘Survive the Stone Age’ workshop. Until then we will be looking at timelines and important skills and life developments that were essential to Stone Age life.
Geography
The Lake District is our topic for the Spring term. We will be contrasting the Lake District to where we live. We will be focusing on the features of the Lake District, the famous tourism spots and using mapping skills to explore the area on mapping tools.
Music
Our new topic for Music will be focussing on the song ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley. Looking at rhythm and rhyme and then using instruments to recreate parts of the song.
Have a listen to this great song here.
Spanish
We are excited to start our Spanish lessons with Mrs Jensen. This term we will be focusing on colours and opinions.
Here is some of the vocabularly we will need this half term.
Art
Joan Miro and Surrealism is the topic for our art work this half term. We will be learning about Surrealism and how Miro went about creating his masterpieces before creating our own.
To learn more about Miro then have a look at the Tate website here https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joan-miro-1646
RSHE
Dreams and Goals is our topic for the half term. We will be thinking on what our own dreams and goals are and then what our roles in fulfilling others dreams and goals are. We are going to think about how to overcome obstacles that can stand in the way of our achievements.
Autumn 2
This half term we are continuing with some of our interesting areas of learning as well as moving onto some new topics. We will also be preparing for Christmas, Poetry Recital, having out first DT day of the year and going on a trip to the Royal Albert hall.
English
Our main text this half term will be ‘The Firework Makers daughter’ by Philip Pullman. We will be reading and exploring this fantastic adventure tale before producing our own writing on based on the text.
We will also be looking at writing recount texts, continuing our weekly SPaG lessons and spelling tasks.
During this half term we will be focusing on or knowledge of the Year 3 and 4 Statutory Word List. These are the words that the children are expected to know how to read and spell by the end of Year 4. Have a look at the word mat below to help you practise at home.
These words can also be practised on Spelling Frame! https://spellingframe.co.uk/
Maths
In Maths we are focusing on calculations until Christmas. Firstly, we will be continuing our addition and subtraction and learning the formal methods of column addition and subtraction. We will then go onto multiplication and division leading up to formal methods of these too.
RE
We will be studying two units of work this half term.
Remembrance
We will start with a short topic on Remembrance. We will think about why it is important to remember, think about why we wear poppies and the significance of remembering.
A fantastic child friendly video which explores the theme of Remembrance can be found here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/poppies
How do Advent and the Epiphany tell us what Christmas is really about?
This is the question we will be answering in the lead up to Christmas. We will be setting wishes for Advent and discovering why it is such a special time for Christians.
Why not use this kindness Advent Calendar in the lead up to Christmas…
Computing
We are bug fixers – Finding and correcting bugs in programs
We will be building on our knowledge of coding from last half term to be able to correct algorithms and find any problems and create solutions. We will be working on Scratch.
Don’t forget you can access the online version of Scratch and create your own projects here https://scratch.mit.edu/
Science
Can you see me?
Our science topic will be based on Light. We will be exploring light sources and how to make shadows. There will be lots of practical experiments for us to plan and take part in.
Have a look at the key knowledge and vocabulary we will be needing to use below:
The BBC bite size page is a fantastic place to watch videos and explore about Light
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z3nnb9q
History
Our topic of Ancient Egypt will continue till the end of term. We will be continuing to learn all about the cultures and traditions of Ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs that ruled.
Geography
We will continue our learning about the UK. Thinking of the differences between different regions and learning about physical features of the UK.
Spanish
Our Spanish learning will be thinking about introducing ourselves. We have learn how to have a simple conversation and share our likes and dislikes. Now we will be able to add more information about ourselves to our conversations including our names and ages.
RSHE
Our RSHE unit for this half term is celebrating difference. We will be linking this topic with Anti-Bullying week and discussing how we can challenge derogatory language. We will be celebrating what makes us unique, how we can ‘Let our Lights Shine’ and learning to give compliments.
Art
Our Art this half term we will all about Pointillism. We will be looking at famous art works and artists that use pointillism, how pointillism became to be an art movement and creating our own pieces of work using pointillism. We will be learning about George Seurat and his work. What do you think of one of his most famous pieces of art?
Autumn 1
Welcome to Year 3. This autumn term we are starting the year with some fantastic topics. After spending some time settling back into school, renewing our friendships and making new ones with our new friends we are going to be working hard and making a great start to Key Stage 2! As well as our great learning in the classroom, we will also have some great days with some brilliant events in school.
English
To start or English learning we will be looking at some alternative traditional tales from other cultures and periods of history, which link well to our learning in our other subjects. We will be using the text ‘Cinderella of the Nile’ as our inspiration. We will be looking at character development, making comparisons between texts that we know, and writing descriptions. All of this will lead to us writing our own version of an alternative fairy-tale.
Then we will be moving onto looking at writing non-chronological reports. We will be using a variety of texts that have wolves in them to inspire our writing; help us find our facts and help create our reports.
Maths
At the start of the term we will be looking at number and place value. We will be revising our previous knowledge and then building on our understanding of 3 digit and 4 digit numbers. We will be practising counting in different values, including starting to think through some of our times tables.
Don’t forget to login to TT Rock stars to get some fun timetables practise in!
We will then move onto looking at addition and subtraction. We will be beginning to learn formal methods for this calculations and use some problem solving skills when working with word problems.
If you want some daily practise to help your maths skills why not use this ‘Number of the Day’ board!
Science
‘Forces and Magnets’ is the topic we are starting with in science. We will be doing lots of practical experiments to see when we use forces in our daily life. We will then go onto experimenting with magnets, thinking about how magnets can effect objects.
RE
‘What is the Bibles big story and what does it reveal about having faith in God?’
This is our big question for this half term. We will be looking at the bible in detail, learning about the story that runs through the bible, where main events fit into the bible.
What is your favourite bible story?
Can you look in your bible at home and find a story?
What is a verse in the bible?
Computing
We will be using the programme Scratch in our computing lessons to be programmers. We will working on creating our own animations.
Have a look at this website to explore some scratch projects that other people have worked on
https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted
History
Our history topic for this term will be Ancient Egypt. We will be exploring the world of Ancient Egypt and how it effects our lives today. We will be learning about the culture and lives of people in Ancient Egypt – and of course learning about mummification!
Geography
Our topic in geography is ‘The UK’. We will be exploring areas of the UK. Looking at the different countries and their symbols and flags that make the UK. We will be looking at the unique features of the UK.
Where have you been in the UK?
It would be great to get some details/photos/information about places in the UK, which are important to the children. Maybe places they have been on holiday to or you have family that live there, or maybe somewhere else that they have lived. If you have any photos or details about this then please bring it into school or email it to Mr Edgar!
Art
We are going to be starting the years art topics with studying Van Gogh, and specifically his ‘Sunflowers’ art work. We will be studying Van Gogh’s work then learning skills to help us then create our own final pieces of work.
Spanish
Our Spanish topics this half term are ‘greetings’ and ‘classroom instructions’. Have a look at the word mat below to see some of the language we will be using.
PE
In our PE lessons we will be doing Gymnastics and Invasion games. Remember PE lessons are on Mondays and Tuesdays this year. Please bring in your PE kit on both of these days.
RSHE
‘Being Me in My World’
Our RSHE topic to start the term is all about celebrating us! We will be thinking about how to make everyone feel welcome, how to make our school a happy place for everyone.
What a great first half term we have to look forward to!