Welcome to Year 3!

In Year 3 we have two classes - Alexander and Discovery Class:

DISCOVERY CLASS

Class Teacher: Miss S Amor

Teaching Assistant: Mrs S Brooks (am)

Key Workers: Miss C Parker (am) and Miss M Hadrill (pm)

ALEXANDER CLASS

Class Teacher: Mrs M Stockwell-Thompson

Teaching Assistants: Mrs S Mackey (am)

Monday (Every other week) - PPA Time all day

Mrs D McLeish - Alexander Class

Miss H Rootes - Discovery Class

Term 1  2019/2020

Information coming soon...

This page will be updated by Friday 6th September 2019

Term 6 2018/2019

Walk like and Egyptian...

English 

This term  we will be beginning our new book, The Time-Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess by Julia Jarman. 

• Learning how to write a diary - past tense, first person, date, greeting, introduction, paragraphs, adding interesting and exciting events to draw the reader in.
• Character descriptions - gathering information from the text to understand what Topher may have looked like.
• Settings - using knowledge gathered from the text and in our Topic lessons to understand what it would have been like for Topher travelling back in time to ancient Egypt.
• Using inference to understand what other characters may have felt, been like throughout the book.

All of this will help the children with various writing styles including being able to write 'what may happen next' from any given point in the book.  

Maths

Geometry –  We will be learning about 2D shapes and their properties including angles and describing 3D shapes.  We will cover

• What a right angle is (90°).
• What an acute angle is (less than 90°).
• What an obtuse angle is (greater than 90°).
• A circle is 360°.
• Horizontal and vertical lines of symmetry.
• Parallel and perpendicular lines.
• Describing 2D and 3D shapes.

Measurement: including mass and capacity – Our focus for this element of Maths will be weighing and measure objects and liquids.  In doing this we will be learning about:-

• g (grams)
• kg (kilograms)
• ml (millilitres)
• l (litres)

We will be comparing different weights and amounts of liquids to give the children a good understanding of mass and capacity.

Please continue to help your children with their times tables as we will be focusing on these every Monday morning when we return from swimming.

These are the key times tables to focus on 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 6’s, 8’s and 10’s.  Don’t forget they all have access to Times Table Rock Stars.

History

We will be looking what life was like in ancient Egypt using artefacts and information retrieved through research.  We will also be looking at the importance of the pyramids and why the ancient Egyptians used mummification for the most important people.  The children will also learn about  Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.  We have had some interest in how the ancient Egyptians wrote, so we will look at the art of hieroglyphics.  The children will learn how to write their names and attempt to write a message to their partner to see if they can understand the message.

Science

We will be continuing to learn about plants this term focusing on the importance of pollination, seed reproduction and being able to name the different parts of a flower (stamen, anther, stigma, petals, ovule, ovary, filament, sepal, style, pistil).

Art

We will continue to focus on Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for the first few weeks of this term trying to capture his amazing master piece using oil pastels and a water colour wash to finish it off.  To extend the children's learning on ancient Egyptian we will attempt to create a detailed sketch of a piece of Egyptian jewellery.

RE

This term will continue focusing on the Islam faith with the main focus on Hajj.  This will give a deeper understanding and the importance the pilgrimage to Mecca has for Muslims. 

PE

We will continue to go swimming every Monday morning.  Our outdoor topic for PE this term will be striking and fielding with the emphasis on the skills the children need to play rounder's or cricket.  Skills - catching, throwing, fielding, retrieving the ball and communication with their team.  We will also have an element of athletics to get the children ready for sports day.

Languages

In French we will be learning the names of animals (masculine and feminine) as well as learning how to talk about birthdays including days and months, recapping on numbers from last term.

                                              Term 5 - Blooming Wonderful!

Term 5

This term our new topic is Blooming Wonderful! We are heavily focused on the children learning about plants through Science and other areas of the curriculum. In Art, we are focused on exploring artists through history and relevant to the topic, we are exploring Van Gogh's painting of Sunflowers. We are also exploring Georgia O'Keeffe's work on close-up observational paintings of plants and their petals.

The children will be exploring Islam in their work in R.E and will be learning to make a PowerPoint as part of their Computing learning. We are also exploring Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as part of our Music learning. The children have an exciting term ahead!

English

In our writing this term, we are exploring writing around the story Jim and The Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs. We are focusing on expanding sentences, and varying the way these are structured, We will do this through the use of adverbial phrases and subordinate clauses, both of which give interest and colour to our writing. We will then apply our understanding firstly through a diary entry and then later in the term a newspaper report about what has happened to poor Jim at the Giant’s castle. Alongside this we will continue to work on spellings and presentation, with the hope that more children will be able to achieve their pen licence.

Maths

In our Maths this term, we are studying fractions. This term our focus is on fractions. We are exploring equivalence and comparing fraction sizes. The children have used diagrams, reasoning skills and solved a range of complex problems using their developing knowledge of fractions. This is a particularly complex topic for the children and it is understanding the numerator and denominator aspect that causes initial confusion. We are encouraging the children to note that when the denominator is the same, the larger numerator indicates the larger fraction. 

Maths Fun:

Check your Times Tables knowledge...

Learn your Times Tables

Speed Test

Times Tables Games

Term 4 - Row, Row, Row your boat!

In Term 4, we are exploring Rivers as our main topic. We will also explore the course of a river and the children will learn vocabulary associated with rivers i.e. source, mouth, tributary and meander to name but a few. There are lots of local places you could visit to support the children’s understanding of this topic. The locks at either Allington or Teston would be a great place to start or further afield the children could see how wide the river has got by the time it reaches Rochester. The Riverside Country Park at Lower Rainham is a great place to explore how the river becomes an estuary.

English

In English, we are exploring Tuesday by David Weisner. This book relies heavily on pictures and as such is great for capturing the children’s imaginations and getting them to add in their own details to furnish the story.

We will continue to explore a range of spelling, punctuation and grammar activities alongside our main learning and encourage the children to utilise these features within their storytelling. The children will also continue to edit their work to make valuable improvements to their spellings and vocabulary choices, as well as publishing their work to make improvements to their handwriting and presentation choices.

Maths

In Maths, we will be exploring measures as our new topic. The children will learn to convert between metres, cm, mm and km. They will also learn how to estimate and record accurate measurements. The importance of lining up rulers and other measuring tools from an accurate starting point, will be emphasised to the pupils throughout this unit of learning. Links to real-life contexts and how measuring applies to many aspects of our lives, will make this new unit of mathematics enjoyable and useful for the children.

Computing

The children will be exploring how to create and edit programs using Scratch. The link to the website is below and it is something the children are welcome to explore outside of lessons. They do not need an account but it is useful should they wish to save their work. If they do sign up for an account, it might be useful to write this into their contact books, so that they are able to log in when at school.

SCRATCH WEBSITE - https://scratch.mit.edu/

Term 3 - Illuminations

English

In Term 3, Year 3 are exploring the topic of Illuminations. The children will be looking at the following books “The Dark by Lemony Snicket’ and ‘The Tunnel by Anthony Browne’.

Our particular focus this term will be presentation, handwriting and spelling. We will be expecting very high standards! 

Maths

In Maths we will be starting off with divisions and multiplication; then moving on to Money before touching on Statistics.

Please continue to make use of Times Tables Rockstars, as a good knowledge of multiplication is needed throughout the Maths curriculum and by the end of Year 4 children now need to know all their tables up to 12 x 12.

Topic

Our topic this term is Illuminations. We are going to learn about the importance of light, the dangers of light, find out about shadows and how they are created and investigate surfaces that reflect light.

I know we are all really looking forward to getting into this topic.

Term 2 -Survival

English

In Term 2, Year 3 are exploring the topic of Survival. The children are exploring our new unit of 'Diary entries' and the children will learn to compose their own diary openings. Linked to the topic of Survival, we are exploring the book A Child’s Garden by Michael Foreman, which explores the theme of survival in a war torn country, seen through a child’s eyes. We will explore informal language, language to describe emotions as well as a range of pronouns; the children will learn to write about themselves playing the part of the character i.e.  "I saw the speck of green amongst the rubble. I hoped it would survive."

We will also analyse a newspaper report and learn to structure our own, using titles, sub-headings, images and a range of factual terms.

Maths

In Maths, the children will develop their understanding of three digit numbers initially when adding and subtracting and then later in the term, they will use similar approaches when multiplying and dividing. The children will begin to learn that once there are more than 9 ones in a two or three digit number, this will have an effect on the value of neighbouring digits. Ten ones will cause the ones to become a 0 value and increase the tens column by 1. Likewise, if they need to exchange hundreds for tens or tens for ones in order to have enough they will learn to do this.

Eventually the children will become more secure with column methods such as this:

We are encouraging the children to explain their learning more so written reasoning responses and problem-solving tasks will be part of each Maths lesson.

Topic

In Topic, we are exploring “survival” We will be spending a lot of time looking at different climates throughout the world and exploring how animals and humans have adapted in order to survive in these locations. We will spend a large portion of the term exploring the Arctic and Antarctic, including the accounts of many famous explorers who have travelled to these destinations.   

Term 1 - Ug

English

In Term 1, Year 3 will be exploring the topic of the Stone Age. The children will be exploring a text known as 'The Stone Age Boy' which will be connected to their English learning this term. The children will learn to retell a story and write their own version of the story throughout the term. At the end of the unit, the children will learn to reinvent parts of the text to make an invented version of the story. Year 3 will focus on punctuation such as commas for lists and for clauses, ellipsis for suspense, exclamations and question marks to intrigue the reader and continue with basic punctuation skills such as capital letters and full stops.  The children will also learn to edit their stories and publish final versions of work in neatest handwriting. 

Maths

In Maths, the children will learn to understand place value further. This will mean understanding the value of the digits in 3 digit numbers. The children will begin to learn that once there are more than 9 ones in a two or three digit number, this will have an effect on the value of neighbouring digits. Ten ones will cause the ones to become a 0 value and increase the tens column by 1. This is an important skill for the children to understand throughout their school life. The focus on place value will ensure a greater understanding of addition and subtraction. We are encouraging the children to explain their learning more so written reasoning responses and problem-solving tasks will be part of each Maths lesson. 

Topic

In Topic, we are exploring the Stone Age. The children will learn to order events in chronological order on timelines and explore the terms BC and AD. They will also learn to make comparisons between the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Through Art, we will create cave paintings using chalks, card and shading techniques. We will also explore the Stone Age village of Skara Brae which was discovered in 1850 and is located in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. Year 3 will also learn how to gather historical evidence from clues. 

Test your maths skills with this problem solving game:

https://www.mathplayground.com/candy_challenge_junior.html

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra:

http://listeningadventures.carnegiehall.org/

Poppy Display

All the children in Year 3 and 4 made a poppy to represent the men who fought in the First World War.  Their were 123 children in the block, the same number of men who were educated at Barming Parish School, as it was known at the time, who fought during the war.  

FREE AUDIO BOOK AREA

Listening to stories is an invaluable way to increase understanding of vocabulary as well as developing good listening skills. 

Here are a couple of websites which offer free audio books for children to listen to. This might be instead of reading aloud to a parent or in addition! (It is still important to hear your child read at least every few days).

https://www.storynory.com

https://www.storiestogrowby.org/audio-stories

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00jdlm2

MATHS RESOURCES

Some useful place value websites:

Try one of these to test how accurate you are with those place value skills!

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/place-value-basketball 

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/37/placing_numbers_on_a_number_line

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?a=activity03

https://play.ttrockstars.com/login/26862 

Skara Brae Websites:

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/general-history/skara-brae/

https://www.ks2history.com/skara-brae

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/skara_brae/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/primary/skarabrae/

http://www.northernsights.net/skara-brae/skara-brae.html

Celtic Roundhouse Game:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts/