Summer 1 Term

We’ve been working really hard in our maths lessons and are very impressed with the progress the children have made in developing their knowledge across the 3s, 4s and 8 times tables. They have been learning strategies to find answers to multiplication and related division questions. These strategies include using arrays, bar models, number lines and grouping.  We have also been learning about unit and non-unit fractions as amounts, ordering numbers up to 1,000.

In history we’ve been learning about the lives of the Ancient Egyptians, including the importance of the River Nile. The children are looking forward to learning more about them, especially mummification!

In English, staying with our Egyptian theme, we’ve been inspired in our writing by Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx.  Here we’ve written setting descriptions; using adjectives to describe, prepositions, as well as recapping how to use pronouns and a and an accurately.

We are continuing to practise our reading fluency in school and are pleased with the progress children have made in being able to read more quickly and find information in a text.  Ensuring your child is also practising their reading at home 5 times a week is still important in regards to developing these skills. Reading with your child helps to develop their reading fluency; increase their vocabulary; improves self-esteem and aids them in accessing the curriculum with greater independence while at school.  We also ask that children continue to use Times Tables Rock Stars to rehearse quickly answering times tables questions in preparation for the multiplication check (MTC) in year 4. Additionally, we ask that children practise their weekly spellings, using the Spelling Shed app at home.

We had a fantastic trip to Butser Farm. We were so lucky with the weather. We started the day by meeting our guide Aidan who was a lot of fun to work with. He gave us a talk about the Romans that was very animated and had all the children joining in and laughing lots. We then had a tour of the Roman Villa and the Round houses, talking about what it was like living in those times. Next, we made some beautiful rings out of copper wire, which took patience and resilience. We had a big picnic for lunch all together. It was lovely to hear the children reflecting on their morning and how much fun they were having. After lunch, we took part in a cordage activity, where we turned straw into cord. Our final activity of the day was fire lighting. The children explored different methods of making fire and were very excited when making sparks. At the end of the trip, Aidan thanked the children for being so engaged and well behaved. He said he felt he’d had a day with friends, rather than a day of work.

Spring 2 Term

Year 3 have been working hard this term. In class we have been trying to show the school values of, aspiration, inclusion, independence, respect and resilience. The class have all been trying to improve their presentation in their Maths and English books.

Since our last update, within English we have written a report based on the book Meet The Ancient Romans. The children created reports about being a Roman soldier after completing their own research. They were able to create paragraphs, use fronted adverbials and create very informative reports. We are now starting our unit on The Lighthouse. The children will be revising a variety of sentence types and applying these to a narrative. We look forward to reading their final pieces.

In Guided reading, we have been reading the book Sona Sharma Looking after Planet Earth. The children have enjoyed discussing the events in the story and debating whether her choices were right.

Within maths, we have learnt methods for addition and subtraction, including crossing tens and hundreds. The children found this tricky to begin with but soon found their way and have impressed us with their resilience.

This half term our Geography topic has been about Antarctica. We have investigated the physical and human features and especially enjoyed watching a video about Antarctica and the different types of ice.

Within Science this half term we will be studying plants and what they need to live. We have recapped the parts of a plant and their roles with helping a plant to grow. The children are looking forward to the experiments and investigations within this unit.

Within RE we have explored the Easter story and the Paschal Candle. The children were all able to label the features of the Paschal candle and discuss why it was important to Christians.

Spring 1 Term

Year 3 have had a very busy start to 2025 and continue to work hard.

We have recently been seeing huge improvements in the quality of the children’s writing and they have been thinking carefully about their writing while exploring the text ‘Escape from Pompeii,’ by Christina Balit. They found out about the famous volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, before writing a letter from the characters from the story as they escaped the doomed city of Pompeii. Within guided reading, we have been enjoying reading various books about the Ancient Romans. The children have spent time developing their reading fluency and been practising retrieving information from the text using skimming and scanning.

Within maths, we started off the year by learning how to tell the time to the nearest minute using analogue clocks. We have since moved on to re-cap our place value knowledge on numbers up to 3-digits. Furthermore, we have practised measuring units of length (in millimetres, centimetres and metres) and mass (in grams and kilograms) before applying our understanding of this to problems involving the addition and subtraction of measurements.

This month we have started a new history topic that we are all enjoying, based on the ancient Romans. We are working towards finding out why the Romans chose to invade and settle in Britain. So far, we have found out what it was like to live in ancient Rome, the significance of the Roman Empire and how the Celts responded to Roman invasion.

Within science this half term we are focussing on the scientific discipline of chemistry, and within our topic are exploring solids, liquids and gases. The children have explored the properties of different materials and determined whether they are a solid, liquid of gas. Additionally, they have carried out an experiment, studying the viscosity of different liquids.

In art we have been examining abstract sculptures and have practised creating 3D structures using 2D shapes. While doing this, we explored how we could join our shapes using folds, tabs and slits. We will be using a lot of card during this unit so please feel free to carry on donating thin cardboard boxes such as cereal boxes over the coming weeks.

We have also been developing our understanding of the French language; learning how to count to 10 and the names of common colours. We are now learning the names of different musical instruments.

Finally, for our PE lessons we have been exploring movements that relate to the theme of machines and have watched videos of gears, levers and pulleys to help inspire these. The children have started choreographing their own routine and will look to add to this over the coming weeks. We have also been learning the skills of dribbling and passing in hockey.

So much already covered and a lot more to go! We look forward to sharing with you all of the children’s hard work in the future.