Welcome to Year 3!

Hello from Miss Garbutt, Miss Clay, Mrs O'Connor and Mrs Gill.

We are looking forward to a brilliant year finding out about different exciting topics and having lots of fun along the way!

Our new summer topic is Important Places.

P.E

For this half term,  PE will be on Wednesday (swimming) and Friday for 3G and Wednesday and Thursday for 3C. After February half term, 3C will begin their swimming lessons.

Homework

Each week the children will be set maths, topic and spellings. 

The children need to spend approximately 30 minutes on each subject per week.

We also kindly request that the children continue to practise their reading and their times tables each week.

The Important Places topic homework grid for this term is below.

Country Day

Today we have really enjoyed travelling around all of the continents in the world and now our passports are full of stamps. We have been to Europe and had a scavenger hunt for famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower. We then travelled to Africa and wrote some riddles all about the animals we had seen on the Safari. In Australasia we learnt how to do the Haka and then learnt a lot about Antarctica. We have learnt to Samba in South America, made Day of the Dead masks in North America and learnt how to write our names in Mandarin in Asia. We have had so much fun and were really impressed with the children's effort! 

Torches 

For our DT project in Spring Term, we have been learning about how torches are made. We learnt all about the different parts of a torch and why they are so useful. We were then given a design brief for a child who wanted a torch and carefully designed a torch that fitted their criteria. We then worked in teams to build the torch by building the circuit, the casing and then decorating it to fit our designs. The children worked extremely hard and were very proud of their final designs.

Gurdwara Trip

Yesterday, year 3 had a fantastic day visiting the Gurdwara. The children really enjoyed learning more about Sikhism and they impressed us with the facts they already knew. The children got to look around the Gurdwara, see the Sikh holy book and understand its importance, listen to Sikh music and had a look at what they do in the langar hall. The children were respectful and listened extremely well to the people who showed us around. 

World Book Day 

We have had a fantastic World Book Day today, we have shared our favourite stories and characters with the class, re-invented our favourite characters and thought of alternative endings to our favourite book. This afternoon we have enjoyed reading with another child from a different year group in the school. Everyone's costumes looked fantastic, thank you so much for helping with this! 

Egyptian Portraits

Have a look at our final painted portraits for our Egyptian art topic. The children created a wash background to recreate the look of papyrus and then applied their understanding of twisted perspective.

Violin Concert

Since September, 3C have been learning to play the violin. Today they showcased all of their new skills in a fantastic concert. We were blown away by the progress they have made in just six months! Great job 3C, we hope all of the families enjoyed the concert as much as we did. 

Egyptian Day

On Thursday 9th February, Mr Hatch from 'A Taste of History' delivered a brilliant informative and fun Egyptian day! We looked at fascinating artefacts and found out lots about Ancient Egypt in an interactive way. A huge thank you to all parents and families who provided costumes for the children - they looked wonderful!

Egyptian Painting

For art this half term, we are looking at Egyptian tomb paintings. In this week's lesson, the children designed a 'cartouche' for their name. They wrote their name in hieroglyphics in the centre of their designs and carefully painted using watercolours.

Plant Dissection

We are really enjoying our plants science topic this half term. In yesterday's lesson, we dissected plants looking at the different parts. 

Cryptography Challenge

To begin our Ancient Egypt topic, the children were set a challenge to solve the hieroglyphic code. They had to hunt for the hieroglyphics outside to find which letters they represent. They were then set additional challenges to write words in hieroglyphics. A very exciting way to start our new topic!

Christmas Biscuits - 3G

We have had great fun this year testing, designing and finally making Christmas biscuits! Naturally, the children had to eat their biscuits so they are able to evaluate them next week...

Mrs O'Connor - our very own (but far younger) Prue Leath - provided advice and assistance to our biscuit bakers. 

A fab finale to a great unit of work.

Christmas Biscuits - 3C

This term in DT we have been designing our own Christmas Biscuits. Firstly, we investigated biscuits by looking at and tasting a variety of biscuits to decide what made them appealing and decided which we liked the best. We then adapted a basic recipe by thinking of a number of design ideas with different flavoured doughs and with different decorations, After this we designed our final biscuits and created a budget for our design. Today we made our final designs. The pupils worked hard in the kitchen to make the dough, shape, cut out and bake their biscuits. They then decorated their biscuits using their design. The children were so sensible and made sure that their biscuits looked fantastic. I think you would agree that we have a class of star bakers!

Visit to Himley Road Methodist Church

This week we walked to Himley Road Methodist Church to hear all about the Christmas story. We journeyed back in time to discover what it was like for Mary when she was visited by an angel, how the shepherds felt when they were surprised by an angel and why the wise men chose the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. We also learnt about why the birth of Jesus was such a significant event. Whilst we were there we also enjoyed completing different crafts all about the Christmas story. We all had a wonderful time learning about the meaning behind Christmas time. 

RE

In RE this term we have been learning all about different faiths and beliefs. So far we have learnt all about Sikhism and last week we learnt about the term "atheist". We discussed how people who are atheist know what is right and wrong. This week we have had a visit from Pastor Pete Wright to learn all about Christianity and what people who are Christians believe. The children really enjoyed hearing about what he does for a job and what Christians believe.

Electricity!

In science, our current topic is electricity and we are really enjoying it! We have already found out about where electricity comes from, the dangers and how to make a complete circuit using equipment. This week, I set the children the challenge to create a switch for the simple circuits. We discussed the importance of switches and why they are needed. Have a look at our brilliant attempts below. The children showed brilliant collaboration, perseverance and problem-solving in this lesson.

Children in Need

What an incredible day! The children had the most wonderful day setting up their stalls, selling and buying. The buzz around school was brilliant and we were so proud of how the children conducted themselves. I can see some future business men and women in the making! A huge thank you to the amazing parents and families who have worked so hard behind the scenes to make this day really memorable. We couldn't do it without you.

Subtraction

Miss Garbutt's maths group have been working on subtraction this week. Using the base ten resources, the children have worked on subtracting practically and 'exchanging' tens for ones and hundreds for tens where required. We will be moving onto column subtraction next.

Stone Age Cave Drawings

To end our unit, the children created paired drawings and then we created a whole class artwork. They had a brilliant time and produced fantastic pieces of art.

Gymnastics 

3G have finished their gymnastics unit with some fabulous performances linking together everything they have learnt.

Music - Violins 

This term, 3C have begun to learn how to play the violin. They have been working extremely hard to learn how to correctly look after their violin, the correct ways to hold the violin and the bow, the different notes and have even begun to play a short piece of music called "Trick or Treat". We are very proud of how mature they have been and their determination to learn to play this difficult instrument. We think we have a class of violinists in the making!

Kingswood Trip

On Monday, Year 3 visited Kingswood to experience life in the Stone Age. We had a brilliant day discovering new facts about the era, building dens, cooking bread over an open fire, gathering food, moving heavy rocks using logs and using Stone Age weapons. 

Gymnastics

This term, Year 3 have been doing gymnastics. They have looked at point and patch balances and rolls. They have created and performed sequences using different equipment, considering the transitions carefully. The children have shown real maturity with their peer assessments of each other's performances. A big thank you to Ronnie and Emily who have taken these photos.

Sketching and Cross Hatching

As part of our Stone Age art unit, we learnt how to cross hatch this week. We then applied our skills to sketching the skeleton of a woolly mammoth. Year 3 are definitely a year group of artists! Prepare to be blown away...

Maths - Partitioning

In Miss Clay's maths group, the children have been working hard at partitioning 3-digit numbers. 

Stone Age Jewellery

We have had a brilliant time so far in Year 3. This term, we are learning all about the Stone Age. We discovered that people from the Stone Age made jewellery out of teeth. Using clay, created our own teeth necklaces.

English Resources:

Maths Resources: