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Year 3 Otters

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Mr Gillard

PE Days - This half-term, Year 3 will have PE on Monday and Friday.

Home Learning:

Maths: Please practise times tables by completing the next workout in times tables books. (10mins)

English: Revisit the rules of using 'a' or 'an' using this assigned Purple Mash 2Do. (10mins)

Spelling: Please practise spelling words using the assigned lists using -ally word endings. These are usually added to adjectives ending in -ic. Can you remember the exception? (10mins)


Class Read: The Accidental Secret Agent by Tom McLaughlin

The Accidental Secret Agent | Tom McLaughlin

Can Elle be trusted to help complete the mission?  Where is Dr. Brainiov being held?  Do you think Kevin will want to go back to his normal life again?

15.3.24 - Super Scientists!

Year 3 have been hard at work this week, completing various check ups to monitor progress in reading, writing and maths. It has been tough, however, the whole class are very proud of their achievements and enjoyed the chance to show off what they know after half the school year has been completed. In other areas we have been using our close observation skills to explore stems of plants and see what their characteristics tell us about their role in a plant's growth, as well as continuing our work on email by practising mindful communication while emailing both teachers and children!

8.3.24 - We Love Books!

This week, Year 3 celebrated World Book Day with a lovely reading afternoon. After completing a tricky reading mystery, we took some time to share some of our favourite books and sort them by genre. We discovered that Year 3 currently adore graphic novels and comics of all styles and some of the children explored the genre for the first time, excited to see the new titles added to the library. In other subjects, we have started to design and describe spy gadgets in English, we have continued converting and comparing masses in maths, and we also made beautiful maps of the rivers and mountains of Europe in our geography. Well done Year 3!

1.3.24 - Perfect Puns and Monster Mayhem!

This week Year 3 have been writing their news reports on the Spy Fox story. We have particularly enjoyed the opporTUNAty to use as many fish puns as we could in order to FINish our stories with an entertaining flourish. COD you remember some fishy jokes to try out at home? We have also finished our fractions unit in maths. Everyone has made excellent progress on this and we are so proud of our achievements. In other subjects we also had a great time exploring email using Purple Mash and talking about rules for kind communications and, of course, designing some amazing moving monsters in DT. Well done Year 3!

23.2.24 - Appropriate Apostrophes and Exciting Engineering

This week Year 3 made a great return to school and have hit the ground running, excited to find out all about our new units of learning. We have been planning news reports on the daring exploits of Spy Fox, continuing our work on ordering and comparing fractions and also started a new design and technology unit looking at pneumatic systems! We also have taken some time to revisit our use of apostrophes in writing, with daily apostrophe challenges. Wow! 

9.2.24 - Wonderful Wool Washers!

This week our tired group of Year 3s have soldiered on to finish our instruction writing on How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth! The children were very proud of their writing and particularly their command of imperative verbs and time conjunctions. Well done everyone! We also finished our unit on perimeter and smashed out post assessment to show how our understanding has grown. At the end of the week, we took time to explore Monet's waterlilly paintings and tried to create our own in the style of our art unit artist, Sonia Delaunay. Well done Year 3!

2.2.24 - Stone Age Mysteries and Instruction Conundrums!

This week, Year 3 have continued their journey through Britain's prehistory and were fascinated to be hands-on with some unique artefacts in their history lesson. We compared these to what we use today, considered their purpose and what prehistoric period we felt that they belonged to. We have also continued our work on instruction writing, composing some very strange instruction puzzles to test each other's close reading. The children are all excited about creating their own instructional texts next week! We have also been continuing to explore measurement in maths and changes of state in science. Well done Year 3!

26.1.24 - Messy Mammoths and Marvellous Measuring

Year 3 have had an amazing week, finishing off our Stone Age diaries and starting to work on instruction writing using the book, How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth. In maths, we have been looking at equivalent measures and trying to compare measurements that have been recorded in different units. We have also had time to continue our compositions in our music lesson. The children really wanted to share their work so far. Try and sing along at home!

19.1.24  - Viscosity Investigators and Touch Typists

This week Year 3 have been showing off their scientific skills by investigating the different qualities we have observed in solids, liquids and gases. We have compared liquids by their viscosity and explored why some may run and pour more easily than others. We have also continued our Stone Age Boy writing unit by considering what happens 'past the endpapers' and continuing the journey for both Om and the boy. In music we have been creating out own compositions and playing them together and we have also been working on our touch typing skills in computing, learning to position our hands correctly at the keyboard, adopt a comfortable posture and avoid hunting and pecking! Well done Year 3!

12.1.24 - Welcome back!

Well done on completing your first full week back! It has been a busy, productive week but Year 3 have hit the ground running! This week we have begun a new English unit, working on Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura. We have been exploring how the titular boy felt about his journey and writing diaries in role as both him and his friend Om. In other subject areas we have also started new a science unit, classifying materials as solids, liquids or gases and have been continuing our journey through new multiplication methods. Well done Year 3. It has been a super week!

15.12.23 - Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thank you so much for a wonderful term Year 3. You have all shown resilience, persistence and great effort throughout the term in adapting and growing to meet those challenging Year 3 expectations. I am confident that you are all ready for a well-deserved rest and I am excited about getting going again in January! Thank you so much for all of your lovely cards and gifts. They are not expected but are always appreciated. Please have a lovely, restful and happy holiday break (with lots of reading!) and a happy new year!

8.12.23 - Talking Turkeys and Dragon Discoveries

This week Year 3 have been putting the finishing touches to a variety of projects we have worked on during the half term. We have used coding skills to finish our interactive scenes on Code Chimps. We have documented our dragon discoveries with super non-chronological reports and we have successfully navigated our multiplication assessments in maths! We have even returned to the world of performance poetry to celebrate the life of Benjamin Zephaniah by revisiting his Christmas poem, Talking Turkeys. We also had time to build some super photo frames that the children were very proud of. Well done Year 3! 

1.12.23 - Interactive Scenes and Mastering Measurements

Year 3 have continued all their recent hard work as we slowly approach the end of term! This week we have been checking our progress on maths, reading and writing targets. There has been a lot of new learning and Year 3 have done a great job of showing the progress that they have made during the term. In other areas, we have started our final project in computing, making interactive scenes using the coding skills we have been developing. We also created a fun science experiment to test our key idea of larger bones needing stronger muscles by measuring people in our class to check the length of our legs and charting it against how far we could jump. Well done Year 3!

24.11.23 - Dragon Initiates and Marvellous Multipliers

This week, year 3 have been working on retelling the events of How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on the young Vikings going through their initiation. We acted out the story, trying to pinpoint the emotions experienced by the young trainees, before rewriting chapter 2 in first person as either the hapless and hopeless Hiccup, or the awful bully Snotlout.  We have also finalised the designs for our photo frames, looking forward to our prototype builds in the next couple of weeks! In maths, we have also been working heavily on our multiplication tables, particularly on 4s and 8s and building our quick recall every day. Well done Year 3!

17.11.23 - Imagining Dragons and Bone Breakers

Wow! What a busy week! This week we have been embracing Anti-Bullying Week for 2023. We have discussed a number of ideas around this theme, including who we can talk to about social worries we may have, which communities we feel part of, the ways we are all different and even using drama to practise identifying and showing our feelings. We also had time for a pyjama day (thank you for all of your donations!) and also were able to create some descriptions of our own dragons, as well as a great experiment to discover how strong our bones really are!

10.11.23 - Mallodile Madness and Crafty Creators

This week, Year 3 have been busy wrapping up our Marshmallows writing unit. It has been a firm favourite and it has been wonderful to read their retelling of the story, using amazing sentence openers, powerful adjectives and super punctuation. In maths, we have also concluded our addition and subtraction unit and moved on to looking at multiplication and division. In science, we have been sorting and classifying vertebrates and invertebrates and we had great fun taking on a design and technology construction challenge, using paper and limited tools to create freestanding structures! Wow!

3.11.23 - Determined Designers

Year 3 have made a strong start to the second half of this term, returning to school full of energy in spite of the gloomy weather! The children have been really excited by all of our new topics, especially our 'Marshmallows' writing where we have been designing unusual creatures and writing paragraphs about their diet and appearance. In science, we have begun our look at animal skeletons and have attempted to classify vertebrates and invertebrates. In maths we are continuing to work on new methods for problem solving, addition and subtraction and it has been great to see all the hard work children have put into this. We have also been examining free-standing structures and trying to think critically about design elements which help them to stand. Well done Year 3!

20.10.23 - Amazing Artists and Super Subtractors

Well done Year 3! You have all made it to the end of your first half term in your new class. It has been a new challenge for you all and we have shown great resilience throughout in order to keep going, even when things are really tough. You should all be very proud of yourselves! This week we have been finishing our Lost Words poetry, by describing how the words returned to us after being missing. This drew on all our grammar and language skills that we have been working on and we were delighted with the result. In maths, we have been facing down challenging new methods for subtraction with exchanges. We will continue to work on this after half term until we are all super slick subtracters! We have concluded our history work by finally concluding what the real reason for The Mary Rose sinking may have been, and we even had time to create some amazing Keith Haring artwork and reflecting on our work to consider what we want to improve next time. Well done Year 3!

11.10.23 - The Mary Rose Experience!

Year 3 had an amazing time visiting The Mary Rose this week. They loved seeing the size and scale of the ship, as well as all the artefacts that we had been reading about in our history lessons. We were most curious about the ship's armoury and the vast collection of weapons, which showed how many people must have been aboard when it sank. We also experienced a super workshop about life on the ship and had the chance to dress up in Tudor clothing. Wow! I am sure that Year 3 will all be in need of a good rest after their exertions. Have a wonderful weekend!

6.10.23 - Programming, Poetry and... Christmas Cards?!

This week, Year 3 have produced and performed some amazing poems, based on No Word of a Lie by Jackie Kay. We thought of all the most creative lies to tell about ourselves and used the repeating line from the poem to structure our wonderful creative language. Wow! We have also been continuing to add and subtract 1s, 10s and hundreds and are starting to develop our favoured methods for problem solving in maths. This is an ongoing process but Year 3 have really used their resilience to keep pushing on. Well done! We have also spent time in the computer suite this week, working on coding and particularly on variables which we have used to create Microbit dice and even a code which we could play rock, paper, scissors against! We also used our art time to make some amazing Christmas cards which we are very excited to share. It has been a super week Year 3 and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

29.9.23 - Drumming, Rapping, Snipping and Sticking

This week Year 3 have been continuing their journey through performance poetry by looking at the work of a wide variety of poets. A particular favourite was Gran, Can You Rap by Jack Ousbey, which the children did brilliantly to perform as a whole class while using a selection of drums to tap out the beat and keep us all in time. Amazing! In maths, we have finished our unit on place value and have moved onto learning lots of new methods for addition and subtraction. We also had time to continue our work on the theme of colour in art, cutting up lots of old magazines and using the coloured sections we found to create collages!

22.9.23 - Keith Haring and Eager Editing

Year 3 have been amazing artists this week, creating their own fabulous Keith Haring-inspired sketches. We talked about how to use contrasting, vibrant colours to make our figures pop off the page, as well as how to turn bodies into books, dogs and even disco balls! We have also been stretching our creative muscles in our writing, with the conclusion of our stunning Black Hat stories, chock-full of rhyme and alitteration. In maths we have continued our work on place value, comparing and ordering numbers, as well as counting in 50s. Wow! Well done Year 3! We even had time to create some of our own poetry, making acrostic poems to celebrate the upcoming harvest festival.

15.9.23 - Black Hat Creatures and Sunny Sketching

This week, Year 3 have been enjoying the lovely weather and getting themselves into their stretch zone with all their new learning! In English, we have been continuing our work on The Black Hat, writing expanded noun phrases, similes and powerful adjectives to describe a variety of unusual creatures. In maths, we are continuing place value and learning lots of new problem-solving methods! We have even had time to get outside and do some sketching of the interesting parts of our school building, in order to develop our art skills. Well done Year 3!

8.9.23 - Our New Class

The Year 3s have been absolute stars this week as they settle in to the new routines and expectations of their new class. We have been working out to times table songs daily, getting into good learning habits in handwriting and have begun using our brand new White Rose maths books! We also created some great 'bags of words' for The Black Hat, which is our new English text. We have also been very busy establishing our expectations of our own learning and of each other. Please see the bottom of this page for our class charter and e-safety charters for you to review!

Welcome to Year 3!

Welcome back! My name is Mr Gillard and I will be the Year 3 teacher for the school year 2023/2024. More information will follow but here are some important notes to start with.

Children should have their own pencil case and water bottle to use at school. Pencil cases must contain: writing pencils, rubber, 30cm ruler, glue stick, scissors, pencil sharpener which catches the shavings, white-board pen, red biro, highlighter, colouring resources (small selection for everyday work). These have been shared in our transition passports. If yours has gone missing, a copy is available at the bottom of this page.

If you have completed the Summer Reading Challenge, remember to bring in your certificate to claim your first 10 house points of the year. 

PE Days for the Autumn Term will be Monday and Friday. Children must come dressed in PE kit on these days. Please ensure that jogging trousers / leggings and hoodies are worn in case of chilly weather. Children may wear shorts underneath.

Year 3 Meet the Teacher meeting will be held on Wednesday 6th of September at 2:40 p.m. If you are unable to attend, all information will be shared on the class webpage.

Useful websites:

                      Purple Mash                    Spelling Shed                     BBC Bitesize                 Times Table Songs - 2,5,10  3,6,7,8,9,11,12  

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