Friday 15th March 2024

We’ve been keeping ourselves busy again in Year 3 this week. Not only did the children manage to practise for and put on a fabulous St Patrick’s Day assembly, we have been taking part in Science Week. This included having a lesson taught by a teacher from Nicholas Breakspear, learning about a scientist called Brianna Green and running an investigation to answer the question given to everyone by Mrs Carey: Does having longer legs mean you can run faster? Our findings showed that it was certainly not true.

Following our assembly today, we had a wonderful time making soda bread and enjoyed an extra play for winning the attendance award. We also had an unsuccessful attempt at making our own butter!

Although we’re sure you have your own, here are some pictures of our assembly today. Well done to the children for working so hard and putting on such a great show.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Lines and Mrs McNamara

Home learning

Spellings on spelling shed

Science whole school home learning as detailed in the newsletter

Please also practise the songs for The Way of the Cross here, which will need to be learnt off by heart by the service (Tuesday 26th March).

8th March 2024

We’re not sure we could have fitted more into this week if we tried!

On Monday, we went to Celtic Harmony for our History trip. Year 3 made shelters, hunted mammoths, made soup, listened to a story and saw how flint tools were made. Thank you to Lucas’ mum who was a helper on the trip.

On Tuesday Year 3 joined Year 4 in an e-safety workshop about keeping safe online. They were set challenges to solve and they enjoyed watching their class mates participate in the workshop through acting, answering questions etc.. They came away from the workshop empowered to become digitally resilient.

On Wednesday, along with Year 4, Year 3 attended a parish mass at OLSV as part of their Lenten preparations. Thank you to Noemi and Dafne who took up the offertory gifts.  We also had a visit from Louis’ mum to read her favourite books. The class really enjoyed her storytelling.

Yesterday it was World Book Day. Everyone looked fantastic in their outfits. WBD is a highlight in the school calendar, recognising the power of books. We know that reading is important every day, not just once a year. World Book Day provides an opportunity to come together and share a love of reading, We also watched the live lesson on the BBC like hundreds of schools around the country. Miss Pringle came to Year 3 to read to the class in the afternoon and the children enjoyed seeing her in their classroom too.  Your child has been given a World Book Day token.   The £1 tokens and £1 books give all children the chance to experience choosing and owning a book – for free. So do encourage your child to take their token along to the relative shops to receive their free book.

We also did a book swap this afternoon.  Some members of the class brought in a reading book and got one back in exchange!  The children are keen to do this again…so please send in a reading book that your child no longer wants and your child should come home with another!

Wishing you a restful weekend!

Mrs Lines and Mrs McNamara

Home Learning

Next Friday, Year 3 are doing the St Patrick’s Assembly.  They have been given their parts already and we would like them to practice them.  Also, the class are singing two songs:

Christ Be Beside Me… and May the Road Rise to Greet You.  Please give your child time to learn the lyrics to both songs by clicking on the name of the songs above.

Spelling shed for spellings and grammar task.

TTRs – log on and revise your 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.

Mathletics – complete the tasks set.

Spring 2 Spellings: Spring 2 Spellings

NB: Some children have mentioned that their accounts are working properly.  I have been in touch with Mathletics and they are going to get back to me early next week.  In the meantime, we hope that if your account is working, your child can complete the work set.

1st March 2024

Welcome back!

This week has whizzed by!

We would first like to remind you that we have a class trip planned next Monday 4th March to Celtic Harmony.  Please see the reminder below:

Year 3 Trip – Stone Age Day, Monday 4th March

The children in Year 3 are  on a trip to a Stone Age Day at the Celtic Harmony Camp, as part of their creative topic for this term.  The class will be travelling by coach to the Celtic Harmony Camp, Brickendon (near Hertford), Hertfordshire SG13 8NY and will be experiencing a range of exciting activities including:

  • Watching the Friction Fire lighting display
  • Gathering food in the forest and cooking with prehistoric herbs
  • Building their own woodland shelter.
  • Seeing the flint knapping demonstration, viewing a range of stone tools and hunting the mammoth!

We will be leaving school at 9.15am and expect to return to school before the end of the school day.

We will be outside all day so your child should wear their PE kit, with extra layers to keep warm.  Your child should have a coat, gloves, a hat and scarf. Children can wear thick socks with their wellies/old trainers. Your child will also need to bring a packed lunch, with no glass bottles or fizzy drinks, and no nuts please.

 

This week in Maths the children have been working hard  on subtraction with exchanging 10s for 1s and 100s for 10s.  In English, we have begun our new unit based on the book Flotsam. The children built up their inference and deduction skills by searching though trays filled with flotsam that gave clues about a character.

In RE the class have spent time explaining what they already know about Lent and Holy Week as well as recalling the three practices of Lent. This week we have also launched our RE focus on the Stations of the Cross and Catholic Social Teaching (CST).  Throughout Lent  we will be emphasising a different CST principle each week, employing art as a medium for exploration. Following a launch assembly about this by Miss Donatantonio, the children contemplated the concept of “Care of Creation,” discussing and reflecting upon the painting below:

It was so lovely to hear how the  children responded to this work of art on multiple levels.

 

 

Home Learning:

TTRs Log on and practise your 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.

Sing along times tables songs:  3 times tables

4 times tables

Log onto Mathletics : complete the times tables activity and Maths assessment that has been set.

Spelling shed. New Spelling List can be found here:  Spellings spring 1

A SPaG activity has also been assigned on spellingshed.

UPDATE******************************************
Spelling sheet for this half term found here: Spring 2 Spellings

Apologies for the error in initial uploading.

Friday 16th February 2024

 

 

 

Our final week has been a busy one, filled with some wonderful activities.

On Tuesday we celebrated Mardi Gras and made pancakes. The children showed fantastic cooking skills with the crepe maker.

On Wednesday, along with the rest of Key Stage 2, Year 3 attended the Ash Wednesday mass at OLSV. Thank you to Christian and Leonie who did the offertory so well.  The children were reverent and sang beautifully throughout.

Today, the children shared their Lenten promises in class and attended house meetings about the fundraising we are planning.

It was wonderful to see you all at parents’ evenings this week to celebrate your children’s success and share their targets. We look forward to continuing to work together next half term.

Have a wonderful break

Mrs McNamara and Mrs Lines

 

The children have enjoyed learning a new song about The Stone Age Era. Here are the lyrics below if they wish to perform it to you.  Unfortunately I cannot upload the music on here.

Now the weather’s warmer we don’t have to move around.
It’s the end of hunter gathering, it’s time to settle down.
We’re domesticating animals, we’re cultivating crops,
We’re producing more than we can store, we’re making lots of pots.

Nomadic no more, we’re living in the New Stone Age.
Oh, we’re farmers for sure, we’re living in the New Stone Age.

No more chasing animals, we’re taming them instead.
We’re building sturdy houses for the living and the dead.
We’re learning how to stitch and weave, we’re wearing handmade clothes,
And we look as sharp as the tools we carve from stone and flint and bone.

Nomadic no more, we’re living in the New Stone Age.
Oh, we’re farmers for sure, we’re living in the New Stone Age.

We’re learning how to get on with the neighbours. (Morning! Turned out nice again!)
We’re making rules to help to keep the peace. (Get off my menhir!)
We’re growing so much food we’ve got a surplus. (Mm, delicious einkorn, I’m stuffed!)
So some of us can choose a new career:
Potter! Weaver! Builder! Fighter! Leader! Artist! Priest!

Nomadic no more, we’re living in the New Stone Age.
Oh, we’re farmers for sure, we’re living in the New Stone Age.

We’re harvesting and sowing,
The population’s growing,
We’re giving up to-ing and fro-ing,
We’re staying put instead.

Nomadic no more, we’re living in the New Stone Age.
Oh, we’re farmers for sure, we’re living in the New Stone Age.

No, no, nomadic no more, we’re living in the New Stone Age. 
Oh, we’re farmers for sure, we’re living in the New Stone Age.
Living in the New Stone Age [x3]

Friday 2nd February, 2024

This week in Year 3 the children have been busy with their learning.

In Maths the children have been provided with lots of practical experience of dividing by sharing and grouping.  They looked at how the use of arrays emphasises the link between multiplication and division. They were then supported to develop their understanding of grouping by visualising arrays and have begun to solve worded problems.

In English, Year 3 have begun writing their final piece which is an alternative ending to The Finger Eater. There have been a whole range of ideas on how to stop the troll from doing his nasty habit!

In recorders, the children have been practising the note ‘C’ and revisiting their B-A-G songs.

A highlight for this week was the children’s work in their history topic, The Stone Age.  The focus was looking at  the similarities and differences between the different Stone Age periods.  We looked at musical instruments, hammer stones, pottery and cave paintings and discussed which stone age eras they were part of.  Then the children tried their hand at stone knapping using a bar of soap. In the same way a Stone Age person would knap a flint core into an axe, a bar of soap can be knapped in the same way! The children had great fun doing this!

Click here to see the photos.

In Science we tested the permeability of rocks. By dropping water onto different types of rock, Year 3 were able to observe which ones allowed water to pass through.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara and Mrs Lines

Home Learning:

TTRs please log on and practise your 2, 3, 4, 5and 10 times tables!

Log onto Mathletics and complete the tasks set

Spellingshed

We will be making fossils next week! The children can bring in a shell, or small toy they would like to make a fossil of.

 

Dice Game Challenge Afternoon!

Click here to see what the Key Stage 2 classes were busy doing yesterday afternoon!

Why don’t you click on Dice Games and try some of the dice games yourself?

Maths Dice Games Thursday 1st February, 2024

Dice Games –

  1.  Click here for Dice Games A
  2.  Click here for Dice Games B                  Drop Zone (p 29)  Differences (p9)   Step Adding ( p 18)  *

Equipment Needed:

a partner

Dice (up to 6 dice)

paper or squared paper

Pencil

 

Have Fun!!

Mrs McNamara, Ms Varga and Miss Donatantonio

Friday 26th January 2024

In English, we read to the end of our class text to find out what became of the finger eater after Gudrun put her plan into place. The children wrote letters in role, imagining that they had come into contact with the troll in his new toothless state.

In Maths we have been looking at building arrays to develop or times table knowledge and this week our focus has been on the 3 times tables.  Click here to listen to the song that is helping us to do so!

In Science, we improved our understanding of the rock cycle through sweets. By chopping them to make sediment and then putting them under various pressures and heats, we were able to see how each rock is formed.

The children made some wonderful freezeframes in RE, where they showed the events of Exodus when Moses and his brother gave instructions.

 

In Computing we have continued with our programming work using Scratch and have started to learn about how to start a program in different ways and create a sequence of connected commands.

Have a wonderful weekend

Mrs Lines and Mrs McNamara

Home Learning

Mathletics

Spellings on spelling shed

Big Bird Watch   worksheet

Big Schools’ Birdwatch is back for 2024!  Please help us join thousands of other schools to find out which birds visit your garden. Together, we can make it count. The sheet to assist you recognise the bird is attached.  Happy Bird Watching!!

 

Friday 19th January 2024

Another week in Year 3 has flown by! In our English learning, we have been exploring the characters from The Finger Eater. We have written wanted posters, made predictions, written in role and used the evidence from the text to justify opinions. The children have been fantastic at using conjunctions to develop their ideas and they have been showing off their best handwriting to get a pen licence.

In Maths we have continued with our work on bar graphs learning to interpret graphs and solve multi-step problems.  In RE we have been learning about the story of Exodus which is about how God rescued the Israelites from slavery and made them His special people.  The children have enjoyed learning about this epic story and how Moses lead the people from Egypt.

On Wednesday we had our first swimming lesson of the term and it was a delight to see the joy on the children’s faces as they entered the pool at the Furzefield.  They followed the instructions from the swimming instructors and worked hard at doing front crawl and breast stroke.

     

Wishing you a wonderful weekend

Mrs Lines and Mrs McNamara

Home Learning

Spellings on spelling shed

As part of our new history topic, the children are learning about the Stone Age and we would like them to find out about Skara Brae, a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkneys. From their research, they are to design a poster (no bigger than A4 size) using text and pictures to inform the reader.

Log onto Mathletics to complete the learning activities set

Log onto TTRs and revise your 2, 3, 5 and 10 timestables.

 

Friday 12th January, 2024

Happy New Year!

It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school this week and hear about their Christmas holidays.

The children began this week preparing for a special Epiphany assembly led by Mrs Heymoz.  During our first act of worship  of the new year in class, the children thought about the meaning of Epiphany (The manifestation of Christ).  The children reflected on the Christmas story and the important  guests who went to Bethlehem to visit the baby Jesus.  They learned that the Epiphany is when the three wise men arrived at the stable with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Click here to see the beautiful crowns they designed for the special assembly.

As we begin this new Spring Term, you can click on the curriculum overview tab (Go to the class page) to see the curriculum plan for this term.  A letter about your child’s reading day etc..has been given to your child to take home to you.  Please note that your child’s reading log and book will be sent home next week.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support in reading regularly with your child at home. It is such an essential part of their development as a reader, and you play a crucial role in nurturing their love of reading.

This week, the children started a new maths unit on statistics, learning to interpret and present data using bar charts.  They have worked extremely hard on this area of maths and they will be encouraged to retrieve information from bar charts, interpret and infer.  Also this week the children started their new history topic on Prehistoric Britain and in computing they were introduced to a new programming environment: Scratch.

In English, the children have begun our narrative unit based on Dick King Smith’s ‘The Finger Eater’. They created some performances from chapter one about the troll.

Our science learning is now all about rocks. We have learnt about the three main types (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary)and how they are created.

Next Wednesday is our first swimming session and this is one of our PE sessions.  The remaining session is now on a Thursday instead of a Friday.

If you have any trouble with the attached documents please right click with your mouse/cursor and click on ‘save as’.  Once downloaded click ‘keep’ and the document will show.  

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara and Mrs Lines

PS: Click here for the link for Scratch programming.  Once on the website, click create and enjoy!

 

Home Learning:

Spellings

Mathletics log on and complete the home learning on bar graphs and addition.

TTRs – log on and practise your  times tables.

Spelling shed. The spellings for the next half term can be found here.

Click here to download our Spring Term RHE (Relationship and Health Education) Curriulum.