Year 3 Spring 1

This half term, Year 3 have really enjoyed thinking about their dreams and goals in their Jigsaw lessons (PSHE).  It has been wonderful to hear all of the aspirations they already have for the future. 

We have developed our musical talents in Music through singing and performing ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley.  We learned to perform together and particularly enjoyed coming together as an entire year group to sing.  In addition, we also learned to play accompaniments to the song on the xylophones and glockenspiels. 

Our Science topic this half term was Rocks.  Our adventure started with a walk around school to explore rocks on our school grounds.  After this, we enjoyed many practical lessons such as comparing, sorting and classifying rocks, testing different rocks to see which was the most permeable and exploring which was the hardest rock. 

Times tables knowledge is improving in Year 3 and most children are progressing through the ‘Cracking Times Tables’ levels.  Many of the children continue to use Times Table Rock Stars regularly, which is extremely beneficial.  Keep up the good work, Year 3!

Through our English lessons, we gained an insight into what it is like to be a journalist.  We planned, wrote, edited and published our own newspaper articles based on what really happened to the Three Little Pigs.  How fascinating it was to consider the well-known traditional tale from the Wolf’s viewpoint for the first time!

Autumn Term 2nd Half

This half term, Year 3 have really enjoyed our History topic on ‘Early Settlers’. We were fascinated to learn about what life was like during the Stone Age and enjoyed comparing it to our own lives in the present day. We are extremely excited that we will be building on this learning further in our History lessons after half term.

In Science, we learned about magnets and forces. We carried out many investigations including finding out which materials are magnetic and exploring whether some magnets are stronger than others. We were able to share many examples about the use of magnets in everyday life; our teachers were very impressed!

In PE, we enjoyed learning new skills in our gymnastics lessons. We can now confidently showcase a variety of balances, jumps and rolls.

Through our English lessons, we gained an insight into what it is like to be an author, planning, writing, editing and publishing our own ‘Mini Rabbit’ stories. What fun we had sharing our stories with one another once they were complete!

After learning a range of mental calculation strategies for addition and subtraction in Maths, we began to learn the formal written method for addition. We will continue to learn this, and the written method for subtraction, in the Spring Term. We can’t wait to secure these skills so that we can apply them in different contexts!

In Year 3 Beech and Cedar, the children have enjoyed reading books such as The Paperbag Princess, Dr Xargle’s Book of Earth Hounds and The Boy Who Grew Dragons. They have written some fantastic diary entries, stories and reports in response to these texts. Maths has been lots of fun so far this year; the children are already becoming more confident when using their known facts to calculate new facts (eg: 2 + 7 = 9 so 20 + 70 = 90). In Geography, the children have been finding out all about Europe. They now know the names of many European countries, and some of their capital cities too! Now that the children are in Key Stage 2, they have started to learn French. So far, we have learned about France, rehearsed some basic greetings, starting to count in French and introduced the names of some colours. We look forward to building on this after half term. Science has been an exciting subject for Beech and Cedar class. As part of our ‘Animals including humans’ topic, we have thought carefully about the importance of eating a variety of food from the different food groups. We have also investigated whether people with the longest legs will always jump the furthest. Ask your child about this lesson to discover what we have found out!