Welcome to Year 3!!!

The Year 3 team:

3 Crystal  - Miss Higginbotham (You can call me Miss H) 

3 Lion -  Mrs Smith

with Mrs Bedford, Mrs Brookes and Miss Connolly

Important information:

Our PE days are Monday and Thursday. Please remove earrings for these days or send in a small pot if children can take them out themselves. Plasters are not allowed instead of removal and we are not permitted to take them out for children.

Bring a water bottle with a sports top each day.

Reading diaries and reading books should be in school every day.

Reading book change day will be Thursday. (This may change.)

Spellings will be set weekly on Doodle (usually on a Friday). The children should aspire to remain in the green zone by working on the little but often principle. We expect them to complete maths and spelling weekly. Rewards will be given for staying in the green zone as well as a bonus award for 1000 stars. 

English

Instruction writing will be our first text this half term. We will be learning how to look after a guinea pig and learn the conventions of instructional writing. After that, we will be looking at poetry.

We are reading Ellie and the Cat Planet Omar- Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian and The Boy With Wings by Lenny Henry this term. Some of our book talk sessions will be based around these books. Children have their reading scheme book and may also borrow a book from the library. Book change for reading scheme books will be on a Thursday to begin with. We encourage the children to record their own reading in their Reading Diary - pages read and short reviews would be lovely to see. We also encourage adults to record in this diary when hearing children read.

Our Reading River is our reading rewards system in Year 3. Children will move along the river each day they read at home. Rewards will be given to those children whose reading diary is signed by an adult to acknowledge that this reading at home has taken place. Five signatures from the weekend to the Friday are what we are looking for.

We are progressing through our KS2 spelling scheme as well as picking up on any gaps in phonics.

Maths

We are continuing with our learning about Length this half term. Our maths understanding starts with practical apparatus before children move onto drawing or writing. Problem solving and explaining their reasoning is an important part of showing mathematical understanding.

Following length and perimeter, we will be working with fractions- comparing and ordering them and finding equivalent fractions (we will continue to learn about fractions in the summer term), then off to do some more work with measures, but this time with Mass and capacity.

To support in maths, please work on number bonds and times tables, specifically 2,3,4,5,8 and 10. We are also challenging the children to learn their square numbers this year. Using money and telling the time are also valuable activities that can be practised at home. Pizza or cake cutting can easily reinforce our work on dividing equally and fractions.

Our RE will focus on the idea of salvation- and our question will be- Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?. In PSHE, we will be thinking about our community. We will discuss what our community is, and how to make everyone feel welcomed and valued within it.

In Science, we will be studying the different states of matter, introducing the terminology of solid, liquid and gas as well as boiling, freezing, condensation and evaporation. We will engage in roleplay, experiments and observations to make predictions and draw conclusions. Through DT, we aim to plan and build bridges.

In one of our PE units, children will develop and improve techniques with cricket. Our other PE unit is yoga. 
Our geography topic this term asks "Why are there so many canals in our region?". We will be looking at how canals arrived in Stourbridge and the huge impact they had on trading and industry. We will be off for a field trip to experience life on the canal first hand, as well as using maps and primary resources to help us to compare how they have left a permanent mark on our landscape.