Class page
Hi and welcome to Year 3!
The class teacher is Miss Harris.
Autumn term 2023
English
We are starting starting the term with recapping some of the grammar learned in Year 2 - different types of sentences: statements, commands, exclamations and questions, and the use of full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks. We will also recap nouns, verbs and adjectives and what what a noun phrase is. We will then focus on how to join clauses within a sentence, with coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. We will also be looking at the correct uses of commas and apostrophes. Our first poem for this Year is the Jabberwocky - a nonsense poem by Lewis Carol. Our main text for Autumn 1 is Fantastic Mr Fox, by Roald Dahl, and whilst reading this story the children will learn skills in formal letter writing, and learn how to write in a similar style, though our Talk4Write strategy.
VIPERS guided reading and phonics
Each morning Year 3 take part in either Read Write Inc. phonics lessons, to help the children learn their sounds, or whole-class guided reading sessions, where they learn the skills of comprehending a text. Our current book in guided reading is 'The Sheep Pig' by Dick-King Smith. In these sessions we learn to explore:
Vocabulary
Inference
Prediction
Explanation
Retrieval
Summarising
The children answer questions based on these reading skills about the given text.
Maths
In the first half term, we are starting the term by exploring Place Value. We will then start to work on our skills in Addition and Subtraction, using both mental and formal written methods of calculation. Following this, in the second half term will be a stretch of learning on Multiplication and Division. We teach and learn maths through the 'White Rose' programme. We will be using practical resources such as Base 10 and Place Value counters to help us along the way. You can support your child by regularly testing them on their Year 2 times tables (2s, 5s, 10s), and helping them to learn their new Year 3 times tables (3s, 4s, 8s).
Science
We are learning about 'Animals Including Humans: Food and Our Bodies' for our first half term, in which the children will learn about diet and nutriition, and how this is important for our bodies, along with the functions of the skeleton and its different appearances in living creatures. We will also learn about the muscular system. In the run up to Christmas, we will be exploring 'Rocks, Soils and Fossils', in which we will compare and contrasts different rocks and their properties; learn how different rocks are formed and their uses in everyday life; what fossils are and how they are formed; and the varieties of soil types and how soil is formed.
Geography
For this first half term, Year 3 will be learning about our local study of 'Egger', in Hexham. This unit ranges in content from identifying different types of wood, to employment types, Egger's role in employment and its mitigation of environmental impacts of its running, to using map skills and plotting routes travelled.
History
In the second Autumn half term, we will start history lessons exploring the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age- an exciting insight into life before the modern day human.
PE
Year 3's PE session this term is on a Wednesday morning, straight after registration, with Mrs Williamson. They will be learning skills for and playing invasion games. Kits need to remain in school until the end of the half term, when they can be taken home.
Swimming
Swimming forms Year 3's second PE session of the week - this takes place on a Tuesday afternoon at Wentworth Leisure centre. On a Tuesday the pupils have a slightly earlier lunch and get ready to walk straight down to the swimming pool. Please ensure your child always brings a costume/trunks, a towel and goggles for their swimming lessons. Swimming kits can be taken home to be washed after each session.
Tuesday afternoons each week are my PPA non-contact times so the children will be escorted to the pool, supervised and walked back by Mrs Love and Miss Walton. Mrs Love will teach their weekly PSHE lessons following their return to school.
Forest school
In Autumn 2 (after the half term break), Year 3 will attend forest school for 45-60 minutes across 5 weeks.
Homework
Children will receive a homework wallet and also a purple home handwriting book. Spellings set for practising will be posted on class dojo. Please encourage your child to complete their homework as it helps a great deal to reinforce recent learning and new skills.
Please do ask if you have any questions or queries about ways to support your child.
Miss Harris
Class teacher
TT Rockstars
Times Tables Rock Stars (ttrockstars.com)
The times tables that the children are required to know by the end of Year 3 are:
2x, 5x, 10x, 3x, 4x, 8x.
To log in to TT Rockstars at home, simply type it into Google and click on the link. Go to Login (4th option along the top) and click on School pupils. It will then prompt you for the school name, then it will ask you for username and you need to select pin (not password) and enter pin. The children have this information inside their reading records.