Year 3 @ Mount Street Primary 

Welcome to the Autumn Term in Year 3! Wow what a jam packed term we have for you! We have a whole new curriculum this year and we have lots of exciting new things to discover together.

Our priority will always begin initially with daily reading to improve our fluency and understanding – if you give a child the skill of reading that’s the greatest gift a teacher/parent can give.

CONTACT: 

Please ensure that you are all signed up to class Dojo - here myself and others will be able to keep you informed of what is going on in school. If you need to share information with me - please message me on Dojo if you can't get to see me before or after school. 

Home learning: 

Reading – 10 minutes reading daily. Please talk to your child about what they are reading to check they comprehend the text – They will be checked via Accelerated Reader regularly and cannot move up levels without understanding. We ask that an adult signs the reading diary and it is handed in at least three times per week. This is a whole school focus this year!

Spellings: There will be weekly tests.

Times Tables:  TT Rock Stars daily from home (there will be some opportunity to work on this in school)

Games and PE:

Children will need their PE kit in school all week however, PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. Children MUST have P.E. kit to take part for health and safety reasons.  Children with long hair must have it tied back for PE lessons and stud earrings must be covered with tape that is brought from home or they will need to be removed.

Kit: Trainers, white shirt, blue/black shorts, black trainers or pumps.

In colder weather, a plain tracksuit may be worn outdoors for games.

Please ensure that all items of clothing are named. A small named bag containing your PE kit is all that is necessary as cloakroom space is limited.  Please keep your PE kit in school and we will ensure that it is sent home each half term for washing.

As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do get in touch via Dojo or the school office.  We will always do our best to answer any questions as soon as possible.

Mrs Kelly and Miss Smith

Maths

We will begin the year revisiting Place Value – this time to 100. We are making great progress in our maths learning this term. Recognising the importance of the value of each digit in a three digit number. Then we will progress onto elements of addition and subtraction, and the very beginning of multiplication. We are using a different curriculum structure this term so that we revisit and explore areas of maths repeatedly in a circular structure to ensure that the learning is well embedded (Distance learning). We already focus on mastery so this is a natural progression. We will also touch briefly on time and bring in elements of fractions early too. Multiplication remains a key component to year 3 – ensuring that children can bring multiplications, number facts and number bonds to mind easily to assist them in understanding more challenging mathematic concepts gradually.  

English

We begin the term learning all about similes and poetry – using this exciting grammatical feature to bring our descriptive writing to life! We will follow this up by looking at and learning in more detail how to write instructions – as our focus is the Stone age we will learn the valuable skill of how to wash a woolly mammoth! (Obviously). The term will end with us learning how to write historical fiction – combining all we have found out in our history and science lessons to write a narrative set in Prehistoric times and where the main character finds something wonderful! We are building on our grammar and spelling skills too with weekly additional grammar lessons and spelling weekly focus.

Reading

Our class book tis first half term is a book called Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.

It is a gritty story about a boy who is very special in a stone age mystery. His guide, a young wolf cub leads is safely on his quest. In addition to this we will take part in whole class reading daily and build up our exposure to a wide range of high quality texts

Science

In science, we will be investigating Rocks and Soils to begin the year. We will learn about the properties of a wide range of rocks, how they are formed, where, why and with what. Further to this we will also delve into the world of fossil hunters and how fossils were formed. Throughout our lessons we will use our scientific skills to conduct experiments and discuss our findings.

Art

WOW – our History topic really gives us something to work with here – Palaeolithic art is a wonderful subject and lets the children dig right into history looking at methods, subjects and where art was found. We will be recreating a media piece in the style of Lascaux or Chauvet. We will explore colours and create a collaborative piece of class art.

Computing

In computing, we will be developing our understanding of computer systems and how information is transferred between systems and devices. We will consider small-scale systems as well as large scale systems and explain input, output and process aspects of a variety of real world systems.

French

This is the first term of French for our year 3 children. What an exciting time to be learning a second (third and or fourth) language for some of our children. We will begin with simple greetings and learning good manners and basic skills. We will be looking at French food and places including landmarks.

History

Our whole focus topic this term is prehistoric Britain and where and how people lived at this time. What did they eat and wear? What were homes like and how do we know? We will focus on Palaeolithic times right up to the Iron age. We will think like historians and question how historians find out this information and how reliable some information is.

Geography

We always revise the UK initially – what are the countries of the UK? We will explore the 8 main compass points and look at how the UK is divided. We will also explore differences and similarities across the UK map – looking at physical features of our local areas and also settlements and land uses – which will also filter into our history topic.

Music

This term we are lucky to have our Music teacher, Mr Norman working with the year 3 children and they will each learn how to play a recorder. They will begin to understand the skill of reading music and notes. Our recorder playing skills always progress quickly and we will perform throughout the year.

PE

In our Gym topic this term we will be learning all about jumps and rolls – can we control our core and link movements in a gymnastic style? Looking at simple vaulting and jumping using equipment. We also cover a dance unit this term and we will be following a scheme learning African dance skills. In our outside learning we are beginning to learn about invasion games – starting off with learning about keeping space between us and defending that space. We will practise simple attack and defend skills.

PSHE

Our overarching themes this term are ‘Being me in school’ and ‘Celebrating Difference’.  

Both of these themes give the children lots of opportunity to talk ,share ideas and express their thoughts. We will look at what makes a school a dream or a nightmare and why – what we can do to help others and ourselves. Also we will discuss rewards and consequences – what do we want to see in our world. We will learn more about difference and celebrate family life.

RE

This first half term we will be thinking about the Bible and Christianity. We will learn the term theology and what it means to be a theologian. How do people study belief and interpret the meaning of some of the teachings. We will take a look at the old and the new testament and symbols of Christianity through time. We will progress in the second half of the Autumn term to look at the Christians use of the ‘Trinity’. What they mean by this and how this is expressed through The Bible and religious art.

Useful Information

Home learning

This will be set at the following times:

Maths and English  – Friday to be handed in on the following Friday.

Reading – 10 minutes reading daily. We ask that an adult signs the reading diary and it is handed in at least twice per week.

Times Tables:  TT Rock Stars daily.

Games and PE

Children will need their PE kit in school all week as children  MUST have P.E. kit to take part for health and safety reasons.

Kit:        Trainers, white shirt, blue/black shorts, football/trainer socks.

In colder weather, a plain tracksuit may be worn outdoors for games.

Please ensure that all items of clothing are named. A small named bag containing your PE kit is all that is necessary as cloakroom space is limited.  Please keep your PE kit in school and we will ensure that it is sent home each half term for washing.

E-Safety

As so many of us are spending more and more time online, it is important that the children have a secure knowledge of how to be safe.  We will discuss various issues regarding this each week.  If your child or yourself have any questions linked to their online world, then please do not hesitate to get in touch or have a look at some of the links below.

Class Information : 

• P.E. will be on Wednesday and Friday
• Homework will be given out on a Friday and will be due in on the following Friday.
• Guided reading books will be checked daily. The children are expected to read for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. This will need to be recorded in their books and signed by an adult.
• Please come in to see me if you want to discuss anything.

Useful Links