Welcome to Year 3

Important Information

English Curriculum

During English sessions we will be focusing on a number of different topics. Our English work will be focussed around a different text each half term, with writing that will accompany each text. Some of the texts that we will be studying are The Tin Forest, The Iron Man, Oliver and the Seawigs and many more. Each book will be read and discussed in detail and English work will be largely based around these different texts and the genres of book.

Presentation- As a whole, children will be encouraged to join their handwriting however the focus is on increasing legibility and working on basic formation of letters.

Comprehension– Children will be looking at a range of texts and answering retrieval, inference and deduction questions based on the short extracts as well as giving evidence to support their answers.

Maths Curriculum

This term the children will focus on developing their understanding of, Multiplication and Division, Fractions, Measure and Geometry.

Children will further their mathematical understanding of these objectives;

Multiplication and Division

• Recall multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4, 8 times tables
• Use written methods for multiplications and division
• Fractions
• Count up and down in tenths
• Find fractions of a set of objects
• Recognise equivalent fractions
• Measure
• Measure, compare, add and subtract: length, mass, volume/capacity
• Measure the perimeter of 2d shapes
• Add and subtract amounts of money to give change
• Tell and write the time from an analogue clock
• Geometry
• Draw and make 2d and 3d shapes
• Recognise angles
• Identify horizontal and vertical lines

Reading Homework

Please ensure all children bring their book bags into class every day, regardless of whether they have read the night before. Reading books will be changed on a Monday and Thursday. We ask children to re-read books to develop fluency. Our library system is computerised and can therefore track the books and frequency of the children’s reading to ensure reading is happening on a regular basis.

Extra Homework

Although no specific maths homework is set, it is expected that the children practise their times tables, particularly 2, 3,4,5,8 and 10. If you need support with any of the above please do not hesitate in contacting a class teacher.

Topics

Art – Experiment with different materials to create a range of effects

Computer – Create an E-book

Music – Crochets and rests within music

MFL – Spanish

PE – Gymnastics

RE – Sikhism, Easter

Science – Rocks, Animals including Humans

Humanities – Extreme weather, Victorians

Music

In Music, Year 3 have been listening to different pieces of music and trying to identify the different instruments used in each piece. This has been a lot of fun as we have also used some of the instruments and made them sound like different animals moving. From the loud banging of the drum, to imitate an elephant stomping through the forest, to a gentle tinkling of the bells to portray a mouse scurrying in the bushes.

English

English in Year 3 has been based around the book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We discussed the size of the Iron Man ‘head shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom’. We decided to measure out the Iron Man’s head and see how many children we could fit into it. We found that we could sit every member of Year 3 in his head. After this, we split into smaller groups and worked as a team to create what we thought the Iron Man’s body parts would be like. There were some very, unique ideas and interpretations of how he looked!

Science

In Science we have been looking at flowering plants and their different parts. We set up and completed an experiment that showed how water travels around the plant in different environments. In addition to this, we have also discussed and acted out how new plants are formed from seeds. The children had a lot of fun playing charades to demonstrate how seeds are dispersed in different ways.

Art – Picasso

Year 3 enjoyed exploring warm and cool colours to create a Picasso inspired artwork. The children used oil pastels to explore the various colours of the colour wheel and created some excellent examples of abstract portraits.

Exploding Volcanoes!

Year 3 have been working hard on understanding how volcanoes are formed and where we can find them in the world. We used plastic bottles and papier mache to create our own volcanoes. To understand how lava flows we completed an experiment using bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, washing liquid and food colouring to demonstrate how eruptions work. The children found out that by adding more bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to the bottle, the eruptions would last longer. Everyone really enjoyed creating the volcanoes and making them explode!