Year 3 Blog

Reading 

This term, the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The story follows a giant metal creature who mysteriously appears in a small town, creating a suspenseful plot that kept them eager to read more. The book provided opportunities for children to develop their reading fluency and expression. They particularly enjoyed role-playing different characters, which helped them understand their thoughts, feelings, and actions more deeply. The book is rich in vocabulary, which allowed children to expand their understanding of new words in context. They also had opportunities to visualise key scenes in the story and strengthen their sequencing and summarising skills.

Writing

In English, this term, we began our unit of a ‘losing tale’ by reading a book called ‘Grandpa’s teeth’. The children enjoyed the mystery of the story and found the illustrations very amusing! Throughout the unit we explored a range of grammatical features including, Using noun phrases to create settings using all of the senses, using conjunctions, including to form subordinate clauses and Introducing speech punctuation (inverted commas). Children then thought about and started to plan their own losing tale story. They came up with some great ideas including, The Gruffalo that lost his horns, the fairy that lost her wings and many more. It was fabulous to see the children include the grammatical features we had learnt into their final piece of writing.

The next unit we moved onto was a ‘recount’. We read the book called ‘ The Iron Man ’The children have enjoyed transferring their knowledge from our reading lessons into English. We have covered a range of grammatical features in this unit including, using paragraphs, expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions, simple and progressive tenses, object and subject, and the past perfect tense. The final piece of writing for this unit is a Newspaper article on Iron man. Children will be able to use their imaginations and come up with creative headlines whilst recounting the events of the Iron man in an article format. 

Maths 

We have just wrapped up our unit on multiplying and dividing, the children have learned a range of strategies for multiplying one and two digit numbers together as well as dividing them. We even started to learn how to account for remainders in division for the first time which is always tricky but they did really well! We have now just started our unit on Length and Perimeter which the children have been enjoying so far. Measuring all sorts of objects around the classroom and discussion which unit of measurement would be best suited for measuring certain objects. We’re going to continue to build on this fantastic work into the next half term. We have lots of practical lessons planned, including measuring each other to find out who is the tallest, who is the smallest, and whose height falls in the middle of our class.

Science 

This half term, we have finished our unit on animals and nutrition. Children have enjoyed exploring the bones and muscles in the human body as well as different animal skeletons. We explored how skeletons vary between animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, endoskeletons and exoskeletons, and the advantages and disadvantages of each type of skeleton. Nutrition was next on our list! We learnt about what nutrition is and where it comes from before moving onto different food groups and the effects they have on our body. Children enjoyed creating a 3D plate showing the balance of different food groups that generates a nutritious meal. For the final weeks of term, we have moved onto a new unit called ‘Light and Shadows’. Children will be exploring light sources and where they come from, how light travels, keeping our skin safe from the sun and how shadows are formed.

Value

This term, we have focused on empathy. The children have been encouraged to use kind hands and kind words when out on the playground at break and lunch. We are helping the children to think about the feelings of others, what to do if somebody is upset and how a small act of kindness can quickly be spread throughout the classroom and then the school. We are looking forward to our lesson on mental health and how this can help us to consider that the actions we take can affect the people around us.

PSHE 

In PSHE, children will continue exploring their dreams and goals. They will learn about the importance of setting personal targets and the challenges they may face along the way. Through discussions and activities, they will develop an understanding of perseverance—how to stay motivated and overcome obstacles when things get difficult. Children will also explore strategies for seeking help when needed, recognising that support from others can be key to achieving their goals. They will learn about different jobs and career aspirations, helping them to think about their own ambitions for the future.

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, children completed a variety of activities to develop their emotional well-being and resilience. 

English

In English, this term, we began with a poetry unit, ‘Wish A Spell’ by Brian Moses.
The children were inspired and eager to write their own versions after reading and analysing the poem. During this unit, they revised commands, noun phrases, possessive apostrophes, and were introduced to the use of ‘a’ and ‘an’. For their final write, the children thought about their own wishes and came up with interesting ingredients they would need for their wishes to come true.

We have also studied an explanation text based on the film ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.
Within this unit, the children learned about time conjunctions, cause and effect conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs. They also explored the purpose and importance of headings, sub-headings, and paragraphs, and applied these when writing their own texts. For their final hot write, the children had the opportunity to choose their own mythical creature or animal to train. They were encouraged to use the new skills they had learned in their writing. Have a read of some great and unique explanation texts below!

Reading

During this term in reading, we have been looking at a non-fiction text and some poetry. We started by exploring The Big Book of the UK. The children enjoyed discovering different facts about towns and cities across the UK.  They had the opportunity to practice their skimming, scanning, and retrieval skills. One of the favourite facts the children found was that in the UK, more than 100 million cups of tea are drunk each day!

We then moved on to a book called Poetry Pie. This book was full of funny poems that the children enjoyed exploring. We spent some time looking at rhyming couplets, as well as fluency and expression. The children enjoyed performing poems in groups for the class and had the chance to recreate a poem called Lame Excuses. They had a lot of fun coming up with excuses to tell a teacher as to why they hadn’t read their reading book.

Maths

In Maths this term, the children have been focusing on multiplication and division, with an emphasis on their 3s, 4s, and 8 times tables. The children have been able to demonstrate how things are grouped. For example, “How many cupcakes are on the plate? There are 4 cupcakes on 3 plates. How many cupcakes are there altogether?” (4 x 3 = 12). The children have enjoyed using pop songs to help them learn their times tables, and I’m sure they would love to sing them to you! By looking at addition and subtraction it has allowed children to consolidate their learning of the basics and transfer their knowledge into learning and understanding their times tables. We are going to continue to build on their knowledge of multiplication and division after half term. In the Spring term, we will be looking at Length and Perimeter, Fractions and Mass and Capacity. 

Science

In science, we have been learning all about skeletons. In our first lesson, we explored what the human skeleton looks like and its structure. In the second lesson, we focused on the function of the human skeleton and how it supports and protects our body. In lesson three, we investigated how bones and muscles work together to help us move. Next, we will be looking at how skeletons are different in different animals and exploring what nutrition is and where it comes from. The children have enjoyed discovering how our skeleton is essential to our everyday life!

Art

During art, we focused on tonal shading. The children enjoyed learning about the shade scale and exploring how light affects the shades on objects. We went outside for one of our lessons, and the children put their skills to the test by drawing and shading a tree. We then explored still life images of fruit and vegetables, and the children practiced shading with colour. The final part of the unit was drawing a portrait, where the children explored proportion and lighting.

RE

This term in RE, Year 3 has been studying places of worship. The children have learned about the importance of different places of worship for different religions. They created posters on how to behave in a place of worship and specifically what happens at a mosque, church, and synagogue. We look forward to learning about humanity next term.

Value

This term, we have focused on independence. The children have been encouraged to start tasks independently in class and use their prior knowledge to solve problems on their own. They have started to show that they are independent learners by sourcing math resources to support their understanding and using a dictionary to assist them with their writing.

Welcome to year 3’s first blog of the year!

We have been very busy over the past two months, and there are lots of exciting things we want to share with you. We all had a great start to the year and have been working really hard since then. Take a look below at some of the excellent work and fun activities we’ve all been involved in. This half term, our value has been resilience. At the beginning of the term, the children had 10 lessons on resilience and how they can incorporate this value into their day-to-day school life.

English

We covered two topics during this half-term. A persuasive piece of writing and a narrative. Our persuasive piece was based on the book ‘The day the Crayons Quit’. Children enjoyed this unit and worked hard on their final piece of writing which was to write the crayons a letter persuading them to come back. During this unit, we looked at persuasive language, subordinating conjunctions and introduced paragraphs. Our narrative piece is based on the book ‘Journey’ this story allows the children to be imaginative and explore descriptive language. Children have particularly enjoyed creating their own world behind a magical door.

Maths

In Maths this term, the children have been looking at Place Value, the children have been able to show how many hundreds, tens and ones a number has and can use this information to solve problems. By starting with place value, it has allowed children to consolidate their learning of the basics and put the skills they are being taught into practice especially when trying trickier questions. These skills can then be transferred when we start the second topic of Addition and Subtraction. The children are learning how to add and subtract two-digit numbers away from three-digit numbers, whilst also making connections between numbers, for example; If we know that 4 + 6 = 10, we know that 40 + 60 = 100.

We are going to continue to build on our knowledge of Addition and Subtraction after half term as well as looking at Multiplication and Division and using our knowledge of times tables. It would be great to see children having a go at practicing their 2’s, 5’s and 10 times tables over the half term and even trying their 3’s, 4’s and 8’s to make sure we hit the ground running after the break.

Reading

In reading this term, we began by exploring the captivating and touching story Gorilla by Anthony Browne. The book follows Hannah, a young girl who feels lonely and neglected by her busy father. On her birthday, she receives a toy gorilla, but during the night, something magical happens. The gorilla comes to life, taking her on a journey filled with adventure. Throughout our lessons, we focused on key reading skills such as prediction, inference, and sequencing. The children also enjoyed writing in role as the characters, engaging in drama and role play to deepen their understanding of the story.

We are now reading Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd-Stanton. The story is about a young boy named Arthur, an unlikely hero, who embarks on a thrilling quest to save his village from the monstrous wolf, Fenrir. We are continuing to build on our reading skills.

Science

In Science this term,  we have been learning about the different types of rocks. We have learnt about what rocks are. We discussed that there are three different types of rocks (metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary). The children completed an experiment to see if different types of rocks were permeable or impermeable.  For example, some children identified slate as being impermeable because it does not allow water to pass through. We then spoke about why slate is a good material for roofing. We are going to be looking at fossils and how archaeologists find different artefacts in the soil. The children will be digging for fossils using tools (cocktail sticks) to see if they can find any artefacts (chocolate chips) in our dig sites (cookie). After half term, we will be looking into what the human skeleton looks like, what is the function of the human skeleton and how our bones and muscles work together.

History

In our history lessons, we are focusing on the Stone Age. We began by exploring prehistoric Britain and discovering what life was like during this time. The children have engaged in a variety of hands-on activities, such as creating their own Neolithic settlements inspired by the famous site of Skara Brae. We also conducted a scavenger hunt to find the differences between the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Children have also  examined evidence to learn about the possible uses of Stonehenge, and discussed some of the mysteries of this iconic monument.

Thank you

Miss Khan, Miss Hull and Miss Connolly

Welcome back to Spring Term

Welcome back to Spring Term in Year 5. We have been so impressed with how well the children have settled back into school and their willingness to learn and take on new challenges. The children have already made so much progress with their learning.  We hope you enjoy reading about some of their successes below.

Miss Khan, Miss Mason, Mr Clarke and Mrs Gibson

English

In English lessons, we have been learning about explanation texts. We started by watching some short videos from ‘Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions’. Wallace wrote us a letter challenging us to create our very own invention and explain how it works.

The children needed to explore a range of explanation texts and pick out the key features of them. We noticed that they all use the following:

• A heading, subheadings and paragraphs to organise the text
• A diagram or ‘blueprint’
• Use of brackets to add detail
• Technical vocabulary
• Cause and effect conjunctions
• Present tense
• Relative clauses

We spent time learning about each of these features before designing and writing about our own inventions. The children really enjoyed this topic and had some excellent invention ideas such as a machine that can do your homework or cook you breakfast in the morning. We hope you enjoy seeing a few of the final explanation texts the children created.

For the rest of this half term the children are going to be exploring a ‘beat the baddie’ text which is based on Beowulf. This is an exciting unit with plenty of action for the children to write about!

Reading

In Reading, we started by exploring the poetry book ‘Overheard in a Tower Block.’  It is a collection of poems written by Joseph Coelho. The poet describes his childhood experiences growing up in London. He shares the joys and the hardships he experienced as well as of those around him. During this unit, children enjoyed engaging in booktalk, visualising, comparing and contrasting poems as well as performing poetry.

Children are currently reading the book ‘The Promise’ by Laura Carlin. It is a picture book which focuses on imagery and has a deep moral story. Within this unit, children will learn some of the following skills:

• Responding to illustrations
• Making predictions
• Visualising
• Reading with fluency and expression
• Exploring characters
• Hot seating in the role of the character and freeze framing
• Conscience alley
• Retrieval practice
• Writing in role as the character
• Exploring themes

Science

In Science, we are learning about the different types of forces. We began by revisiting pulling, pushing and twisting forces. Children have planned their own investigations to show their understanding of different forces acting on objects such as gravity, friction,  air resistance and water resistance. Have a look at some examples below:

Maths

In maths this term, we started with a multiplication and division unit. We looked at how to multiply two digit numbers with up to four digit numbers. The topic started with us learning how to use the column method and we applied our new learning to solve multi-step problems. We then learnt how to effectively divide numbers up to four digits. We are now currently on our second unit of fractions. We have started using fractions as operators and we are learning how to find a fraction of a quantity. Children have really enjoyed representing numbers in different ways and learning how to simplify fractions to make the questions easier to understand.

History

At the start of the term, we finished our unit on Anglo-Saxons. We are now currently learning about the Vikings. The unit started with how the Vikings invaded England. We then moved on to exploring how they traded and changed the structure of England. The children have really enjoyed looking at Viking longships and learning about how Vikings would store hoards of objects that they had raided from other civilizations. 

Reading and Writing

In Reading, we have explored the books ‘Pax’ and ‘The Amazing Night Sky Atlas’. We are currently reading ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson. Children have really enjoyed acting out parts of the stories, hot seating characters and creating posters to show their understanding. 

In English, we started the year with abstract poetry. We wrote our own version of the poem  ‘The River’ by Pie Corbett. We then moved on to creating the opening and build-up of a suspense story and writing a letter to advise. We are currently studying and understanding the structure of a discussion text. The children have really enjoyed taking part in debates and setting up a mock court trial as well as finding slime around the classroom or outside, creating the question: do aliens exist?

Maths

In Maths, we started the year with place value. The children learnt how to manipulate base ten numbers using concrete, pictorial and abstract representations.  We then moved onto addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division where we got to expand our understanding of different methods to help us calculate problems. We are currently working on a fractions unit. The children have been using practical resources to represent fractions and are starting to solve multi-step questions. We have also been learning about what equivalence means and how fractions can look very different. Children have learnt to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers confidently. 

Science 

We started the year with a unit on space. The children have loved learning about the solar system and have participated in practical activities such as going outdoors to represent the planets in orbit. We have also looked at the phases of the moon and used playdough to represent the different phases. We have just started a new unit on forces where the children have used physical resources and objects to represent the different forces.

Black History Month

During Black History Month, Year 5 looked at Arthur Wharton. During the week, we looked at why Arthur Wharton was an important historical figure as the first professional black footballer.  He broke down many barriers for future sports figures. To showcase our learning, we created fact files using PurpleMash, wrote a poem and created artwork based on his life and achievements.

Music

In music, we have been learning the guitar. It has been amazing to watch the children progress from playing single notes, to learning to read music and play notes on the fretboard. Children are beginning to develop a keen sense of pulse and their rhythmic fluency. 

Design Technology

In DT, we continued to develop our understanding of space. The children have enjoyed creating their own moon buggy. They researched existing designs and examined the key features needed to make an effective buggy. Using their research, they designed their own buggy, made changes and compared their designs with other children in the class. Finally, children created their moon buggies using a range of materials and evaluated it against the success criteria. 

Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on:

• In English we are continuing with our unit on discussion texts and will then move onto playscripts.
• In maths we are going to continue our unit on fractions until Christmas. Then we will move onto multiplication and division after Christmas.
• In history we are going to start our unit on Vikings.
• In French we are continuing our work on naming and understanding different animals.
• In PSHE we are continuing our unit on celebrating differences.

Spring Term

Wow! What a busy first half term we have had! The children returned to school after Christmas with enthusiasm and a real drive to hit the ground running. We kick started the term with a visit from Thomas Kitching and the Young’uns with whom we learnt about Luton’s heritage and wrote a song together. Please keep an eye out on Twitter and the school website where their final piece of music will be posted. Have a look at all the wonderful things that we have been getting up to in our classes.

English

In English this term, Year 5 have been learning how to write an effective action scene. Our model text is based on the book, Beowulf, by Michael Morpurgo. Within this unit, we have focused on specific writing features that we can use to make our own action scene writing. Some of the features we have focused on are:

• Repeated ED verbs– “they wrestled, yanked, heaved and lunged.”
• Sentences of three (to move the action forward)- “He tore his teeth into blood-stained hair and, with a splintering crack of a bone, ripped flesh from the creatures side.”
• Adverbials of action– “As he turned for more prey…” “held him fast by the arm.”
• Prepositions to introduce the action– “Up from his lair and through the shadows..”
• Carefully place adjectives– “ like a crazed animal” “ Grendel’s hideous skull”
• Long and short sentences – “He aimed. Fired.” “And so, finally, splattered and stained with blood, our hero stood, and at his feet, a gruesome carcass lay.”

We have learnt the meaning of new words found in our model text. These include: carcass, splintering, lair, moorland, thirsting, frenzied, seized, gnashing, inferno, thrashing

At the end of this unit the children will write their own action scenes. We are looking forward to seeing their creations!

Maths

In maths, children are currently on the topic of multiplication and division. They have worked incredibly hard to understand long multiplication using the area model and column method. They began by multiplying numbers by a single digit and gradually moved on to multiplying 4-digit numbers by double digits. The children were very thorough and worked methodically to solve calculations. Over the next few days, they will learn to solve long division using the bus stop method. Children will be supported with a range of concrete and pictorial representations to aid their understanding. Have a look at some of the fantastic work below.

PSHE

Within the Jigsaw lessons, children are working together to identify some of their dreams and goals for the future. They began by creating a dream jar- filling it with all their hopes for the future. Over the next few weeks, children will be exploring different professions and looking closely at different roles and responsibilities people have. They will understand the importance of different jobs and how they contribute to society. They will also be researching careers they are interested in and identifying the steps required to achieve those. Have a look at some of their dreams and goals below.

Reading- The Promise

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our reading comprehension lessons this half term. We have been studying the picture book called “The Promise.” The children have been building on their ability to have discussions and debates; justifying their thoughts with evidence from the text. They have learnt to empathise with character through the use of dramatical techniques like role play, hot seating, conscience alley, role on the wall and writing in role. The children have discussed the many themes and key messages that the author has tried to convey. They have looked at how language informs illustrations and how they illustrations change throughout the story, as well as the impact this has on the reader.

Topic- The Monarchy

This term we will be studying the monarchy. The children have enjoyed learning about the many different monarchs that have led our country since Alfred the Great. We have learnt how to plot key events on a timeline as well as learnt what the order of succession means. We have looked at some key figures and the impact they had during their reign, including: Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. The children will also be planning King Charles’ coronation! Have a look at some of the beautiful art work that children made for our class displays! Do you recognise any of these royal objects?

Computing 

In Computing, Linden, Beech and Hawthorn Class have been exploring what is meant by E-safety to gain a greater understanding of the impact that sharing digital content can have. Each class created digital comic strips to highlight how to stay safe online- take a look at the examples below:

We have also spent time identifying the advantages and disadvantages of altering an image digitally as well as the purposes and reasons for doing this. The children used a fun program on Purple Mash called 2Paint A Picture to manipulate their images. You can see some great examples again below: