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