Autumn Term 2019

W.C. 2.12.19

Another very busy week in Year 3!

Our English focus has changed this week - we have moved onto instructions! For this, we have been discovering what we need for instructions to be good and clear (as we will be writing some for Stig!). To begin with, we brainstormed what we thought we needed in instructions for them to be effective. For this, we have been spending each lesson focused on each skill. So far, we have covered, imperative verbs, adverbs of time and adverbs of manner. As well as this, we have been exploring the structure including numbered steps and subheadings!

In Maths, we have come to the end of our unit on addition and subtraction. To finish this topic, we have been using checking strategies such as using the inverse and estimating! We are getting more confident on which methods to use and when so that we can work accurately and speedily. We also finished our post-test this week! Next week is all about statistics!!!!

In History, we have been discovering all about the mystery of Stonehenge. First, we did our own research using the computers to answer key questions such as 'what were the uses of Stonehenge?'. We had to look carefully through the information to make sure we understood it clearly. After we had collected our information and went back through it as a group, we created our own information leaflets to inform people all about this Stone Age monument!

In Art, we have finally completed our RE inspired stained glass windows. It has taken us a long time to perfect this by making sure that we carefully select our equipment and use accuracy when completing the mosaic!

In French, we have explored all about colours! We are becoming more confident in expressing ourselves in conversations and are starting to transfer knowledge we have learnt from one lesson to the next!

Excitingly, we also received an email from Santa Claus! He has told us that his elves have made too many presents and so if we managed to get 6 gold cards in the next 2 weeks of term, we will received one of them!!

Don't forget:

• Christmas jumper day is on Wednesday 11th December
• Christmas dinner is on Wednesday 11th December
• Christmas Fayre is on Friday 13th December

W.C. 25.11.19

In our English work, we have been busy writing our adventure stories remembering to include al the key features of a narrative. We had to make sure to use speech, adverbs, prepositions and expanded noun phrases to describe Stig and Barney's journey to a different forest in the quest to get wood, but do they return...?

In Maths, we are still practicing using formal methods for a range of different calculations. We are becoming much more confident in using exchanges in both addition and subtraction but we must remember to include these in our workings out so that we get accurate answers! We have also begun to explore using the inverse to check our answers to make sure that we are calcualting accurately. Our post-test will be next week!

In Science, we have been exploring permeability. We found out that this means that there are pores in rocks which contain air and if they are placed in water, the air is pushed out and replaced by water. We made predictions about which rocks we thought would be permeable and which ones would be impermeable. We discovered that the sedimentary rocks we tested were permeable!

In History, we have been moving onto learning about Stone Age homes and the differences between them. As we know, the Stone Age was a very long time and there were lots of changes from the beginning of the period to the end. To begin with, Stone Age people would have used caves for shelter (although they didn't have much insulation), they then moved onto teepee style homes that used animal skin as the outer layer. After this, there was the creation of rectangular houses that were made with timbers and wattle and daub (which even contained some manure!). At the end of the Stone Age (the neolithic time), we discovered that they had started to decide to settle in one location. This was when villages became more common and houses started to be made from stone! We shall be exploring the Bronze Age next!

W.C. 18.11.19

In English this week, we have been continuing to work on key skills which we would need to use in a narrative. For this, we have focused on building our knowledge for descriptive writing. On Monday, we explored prepositions. We know that these describe the location of an object. We were able to identify and use these in our own sentences. We have also been looking at expanded noun phrases which add more detail to our nouns by adding adjectives. From this, we have been able to design our own forest and describe it all ready to plan our adventure story. We have since started to write our stories describing Stig and Barney's adventure to find a new forest!

In Maths, we have continued to work on addition and subtraction! It has taken us a lot of time this week to practice our new method of column addition. We are beginning to understand which column we begin with (always the smallest value column!) and what to do when we need to exchange. We started this with our practical work using base ten and have since moved on to using the method and making sure the layout is correct.

In Science, we have been learning all about how soils are made. We know that soils are created from rocks and organic matter which can be from decomposing plant life or animal remains. We explored the different layers of soil from top soil to bed rock and could explain the characteristics of each!

In History, we have been continuing to deepen our understanding of Stone Age life and culture. We have been looking at Stone Age settlers hunted for food. We have discovered that the different seasons meant that there were different source of food for them to eat. We also found that hunting could be done throughout the year although it was harder when the animals were hibernating! 

In Music, we have been learning how to play Ocarinas. We discussed the different notes that we could play and what the correct technique is. We know we must not blow too hard or it screams. We were able to play London's Burning at the end of the lesson. 

In Art, we have continued to make our mosaics - these are taking longer than we thought but they do look impressive. We have all tried to make sure that we cover all the spaces but keep our design clear. 

In French, we have been continuing to get used to how to say the names of different body parts. We still get a bit confused between hands and feet! We have been working hard to understand different words for actions that we use in the classroom (and out!). We know how to say to clap our hands, feet and how to put our hands up too! 

W.C. 11.11.19

This week we began by commemorating Remembrance Day and Armistace. Each class undertook a different activity. In Year 3, we looked at images from the 2 World Wars and listened to sounds of air raid sirens and planes taking off from different airfields. From this, we created our own pieces of writing describing what it was like for people during these times. We thought about our 5 senses and how each would be affected. These were fantastic to read!

In English, we have continued to practice direct speech ensuring that we place punctuation correctly. We have created a really great word bank of 'said' words which have helped us to have a variety of different ways people speak! Some of us have also challenged ourselves to use adverbs to add further detail! We changed speech bubbles to direct speech and were even able to correct mistakes. We have also been comprehending more of the story - this time we focused on the start of chapter 3! Barney and Stig are becoming very resourceful, but their next task is to get wood...

In Maths, I have been really impressed with how the children have shown that they can use what they know to work out new problems. We have been continuing to add and subtract with a focus on adding ones and tens. For some of the problems, we didn't have to cross the border but there were some trickier ones where we have to exchange. Our use of base ten drawings and equipment have really helped us to visualise what this looks like. We now know that we don't 'lose' the ones or tens we are exchanging but that their value is now greater!

In Science, we have been doing some research all about Mary Anning. We have been building on what we learnt in Year Two and have learnt about why she was important to the discovery of fossils! Did you know she found the first plesiosaur skeleton?! We also found out that because she was a girl, scientists didn't believe her discoveries - we thought this was very unfair!

In Geography, we have explored a Stone Age settlement. This week we focused on Skara Brae. We used our geography investigator skills to use evidence and work out what we thought the place was used for. We first made a guess about what we thought it was with no evidence. We then looked at different artefacts found in Skara Brae which changed what we thought. We decided that we thought it was a set of home as there were lots of different rooms. We also thought that the people that lived there must have used weapons... We will be finding out what these were for next week!

In Art, we have continued to work on our stained glass inspired mosaics. We have been using little squares of coloured paper to turn our plan into a real design! Because we have to be precise with this and make sure there are no gaps, this is taking us a little while to complete!

W.C. 4.11.19

Welcome back! It has been a tough week in Year 3 with lots of different assessments taking place to see what we know and what we need some extra help with. I was very impressed with how the children got on and showed resilience even though it was a hard and long week!

In English this week, we have focused on finding key features of narratives (stories)! First, we discussed what we thought made a story good. We thought that lots of adjectives, speech, adverbs were important to make it interesting for a reader. We next discussed characters and settings and set off to find them in an extract of Stig of the Dump! We have also begun to look at speech this week. We learnt that it has to have inverted commas, punctuation and include what the person said! To make this trickier, we aren't allowed to use boring said either!

In Maths, we have started our next unit of addition and subtraction. We began with a pre-test to show what we already know and then cracked straight on. This week we have looked at adding hundreds together as well as adding ones onto 3 digit numbers. It's been great to see the children use their place value knowledge still! We can discuss with columns change and explain why too!

In RE, we looked in detail at Christian symbols that we might find in stories as well as in the church. We have become more familiar with what the doves, crosses, fish, bread and wine and other symbols mean. Some of us even made links to our previous RE story of Jesus' baptism and the dove that was sent by God! From this, we have designed our own stained glass inspired Art. We had to choose one symbols and decide on the other patterns and colours we would use. Next week, we will be turning these into mosaics!

In Music, we explored Charanga and our songs that we will be learning. We spent some time listening and appraising 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley. We could explain what we liked and what we didn't like about it. We also found out that it was a type of music called 'reggae'. We also played some of the activities - these helped us to find the rhythm and beat of the song!

We were also extremely lucky on Friday to be joined by the Music Man! We learnt all about the woodwind and brass instruments including the clarinet, flute and trumpet. We discovered the different ways in which air travels around the instruments and how the valves and reeds work too! It was lots of fun!

W.C. 7.10.19

This week in English, we have continued to explore balanced arguments. On Monday, we looked at sorting between facts and opinions including looking at some opinions that were often disguised as facts!!! Next, we turned our focus to how we can expand our sentences using subordinating conjunctions. For this, we learnt a strange saying 'I SAW A WABUB'. This helps us to remember the key subordinating conjunctions to identify and use! To end the week, we have been looking at how we can organise paragraphs around the two different themes of for and against.

In Maths, we have been using our place value knowledge to count in multiples of 4s and 8s. We were able to spot patterns between these times tables and even realised that they are all even products! We have also been recapping our understanding of reading and writing numbers in both words and numerals. We spotted that 'four' and 'forty' have different spellings and that it is important to spell each properly! We have also been revisiting our knowledge of partitioning numbers using calculations and part whole models to represent the value of each digit in the numbers. This is really important for each part of Maths we will be doing this whole year!

In History, we have been exploring more about why the Stone Age was named this. To do this, we explored the tools that Stone Age people used. We found that they would often make their tools using stones and wood as these were the main materials available to them. We learnt how their tools advanced and changed as their society changed too. We learnt about microliths, blades and handaxes!

In RE, we have started to look at the importance of different rituals to Christians. We have looked at the story of Jesus' baptism and discussed why Christians get baptised including what it means to them. We followed the story of John the Baptist and his involvement with Jesus' baptism and the symbols that were seen in the story including the dove sent down by God.

W.C. 30.09.19

In English this week, we have been looking at our new unit of balanced arguments. To begin with, we looked at the key features of the text which included a clear title, an introduction, opinions for and opinions against the argument. We have also been busy working on extending our sentences by using coordinating conjunctions. We have recapped what the job of these is to do and how we can use them within our work. After this, we created our own debate on whether Barney should have gone to the cliffside. Some of us thought it was a good idea for him to do this whilst others thought it was not so wise! We made sure to use our conjunctions to give clear explanations for our opinions. To end the week, we have been busy reading and comprehending chapter 2!

In Maths, we have continued to compare 3 digit numbers and even used this to order our numbers. We learnt some key words of ascending and descending (which mean going up and going down). We also continued to repeat the idea that we look at the highest column first NOT the highest digit! Also, we have been looking at counting in 50s all the way to 1,000 as well as having a quick check about what we knew about changing of columns!

In Geography, we have begun to understand how Britain became an island. We discovered that the last Ice Age had caused lots of land and water to be frozen into ice and glaciers. As the temperatures rose, this increased water levels which led to low lying areas like Doggerland to flood! This was the last landbridge that connected Britain to Europe - when that flooded, we became an island!

In Art, we have finally got around to drawing our cave art inspired pieces. To get an authentic piece, we recreated the cave environment! We weren't allowed chairs and had to draw using our tables as walls... This meant we had to really think about how we sat to create our pictures. 

This week has also been Sleaford week! We have been busy going out in small groups each afternoon and learning all about Sleaford's history. We have gone to Navigation House and learnt about how important the river was to trade in the town. Also this week, we were joined by the local police in Sleaford. We learnt about road safety and how important it is that we use roads properly if we are cyclists, pedestrians or in our cars.

W.C. 23.9.19

This week in English we have been busy writing our setting descriptions all about a Stone Age inspired cave. We made sure to think carefully about what we could see, hear and touch! After writing our first drafts, we carefully edited our work with a partner making sure that we get in all of those key features. Next, we worked on highlighting where we have used our key features in our work. Some of us needed a bit of help locating these but I was impressed to see the children work so hard on this! To end the week, we wrote our final draft up neat. They have been a joy to read!

In Maths, we have been using our place value skills to find 1, 10 and 100 more and less than 3 digit numbers. Most of us found this fairly simple so long as we highlighted which column was changing. There were a few tougher questions where we had to cross boundaries and exchange! I was extremely impressed with how the children took to this and were able to show their previous understanding! To follow this, we have been exploring the symbols <,> and = to compare 2 numbers. First we did this using different physical representations such as base 10 and place value counters and soon we moved onto numbers which were in numerical and written form. We will continue this next week when we look at ordering a series of numbers. 

In ICT, we have working on our programming skills by using the software Scratch. We have been able to design our own sprites and backgrounds by trying out different colours, pen thicknesses and we also had a go at using sound! We managed to link this to our Topic of the Stone Age by showing a caveman with his cave!

We also had our first French lesson this week! It was so much fun learning all of our classroom instructions that we normally use but in a different language! We also discussed how some words are similar to our own but that French has different accents than we use.

On Friday, we had such a good time getting involved with Roald Dahl Day - there were so many great costumes to see! To celebrate this amazing author, we wrote a biography to explain his life and also discussed some dilemmas that Charlie faced in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We were able to think about the positives and negatives to each of Charlie's decisions.

Reminder:

• Parents' Evening is on Wednesday 9th October. Please return your slips as soon as possible for your appointment.

W.C. 16.9.19

In English this week, we have focused heavily on our creative description. We have worked hard on constructing effective similes and using alliteration to help make our writing interesting! We also looked at how we can use adverbs to describe how an action is done. We will continue to work on the different types of adverbs as we go through the year! On Friday, we wrote our plans for our setting descriptions using each of these key features. I can't wait to read the big writes next week!

In Maths, we have spent a long time looking at how to use number lines to represent numbers all the way up to 1,000. Most of us were able to work out which numbers could fit on the number line but a few of us found it harder to represent them ourselves. As some of us were still confused by this, we made our own number line (using the children!) and placed numbers where we thought they would go. We will be coming back to revisit this soon to see how much the children remember!

In Science, we have been exploring the properties of rocks. We first discussed what we meant by properties and discovered that this was what made rocks different to other ones. From this, we began to look at different rocks (igneous and sedimentary). We handled the rocks to test if they were easily breakable, how they were formed and if they were high or low density. We discovered that density is all about how tightly packed the particles in rocks are, not how heavy it is!

In History, we worked on sequencing events on a timeline all about the Stone Age. Most of us were unsure what timeline was but after seeing one and talking about what it showed, we realised that it put dates and events in order. We learnt a really important word called 'chronology' too!

In assembly, we took part in some music! We learnt all about Ella Fitzgerald and her type of singing. We discussed what we did and didn't like about it and gave explanations for why. In PSHE, we discussed what made a school good and who we could turn to if we needed help. It was great to hear the children give so many great answers.

W.C. 9.9.19

We have really been settling back into our routine this week!

In English, we have been looking at our new novel 'Stig of the Dump'. To begin, we looked at making predictions just by using the front covers of the story and then we started reading! We found out that are two main character are called Barney and Stig. We have also been able to show we have good retrieval skills by drawing Stig's cave and showing and labelling the items he had there. To end the week, we began by verbally practicing similes - remembering that these are to compare one thing to another. We will be putting this into practice on Monday!

In Maths, we have completed our pre-test for the unit of Place Value to show what we already know. After this, we looked at counting in hundreds from 0 all the way to 1,000 - some of us could even go further! This week, we have also spent a long time recapping how to represent numbers using place value counters and base ten equipment. This has also helped us to recall the different columns we use and what happens if we have 10 of the same counter! We will be continuing to work on our value of the digits in these numbers next week.

In Science, we started our topic of Rocks and Soils! Using some handy Minecraft reminders, we were able to list some of the rocks that we already knew. To start this unit, we have looked at the three different types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic and discussed how these are formed. To help us do this, we used chocolate! For our igneous rocks, we used melted chocolate to show the magma or lava and waited for it to cool into a block again - just like the rock! For our sedimentary, we used different sizes of chocolated and pressed them into layers and well as using pressure to compact and show the process of cementation.

In History, we created a mindmap to show what we already know about The Stone Age. First, we had a discussion and started to see that some of us have some interesting ideas about this time period already! We will be using these mindmaps to show how much we learn through this topic and will create a second one at the end to show our progress!

In PSHE, we have discussed our goals. We first thought about what we are good at and what makes us special. We then thought about what personal goals we want to achieve by the time we end Year 3. I'm really looking forward to seeing how we get on with this.

Overall, a fantastic first full week back - well done Year 3! 

W.C. 2.9.19

Welcome back! I hope you've all had a restful and fun summer and are ready for the challenge of Year 3!

This week we have been revisiting, recapping and practicing key skills that we need to make us effective learners. To start, we brainstormed what we need to help us learn. We decided that this included listening to others, communicating our thoughts and being respectful to others. In addition to this, we practiced our handwriting, writing using our squares from our Maths books and looking at the importance of dictionaries and thesauruses. We also focused heavily on team work and created a bond between us all!

Important information:

• Homework will be given out on a Monday and must be back in by the following Friday.
• In Year 3, children are expected to read at least 3 times a week (they will get golden time as a reward).
• Those children that are on the spelling programme will be given their spellings on a Monday to practice at home before a test on Friday.