Year 3
Welcome to Year 3
Our class teacher is Mr. Traves and Mrs. Nattrass and Miss Donkin (Teaching Assistants) work with our class to help us with our learning.
In Year 3, we have all agreed that we would like to work within a calm, friendly and encouraging learning environment, so we have promised to work hard to ensure that this happens. Everyone has their strengths and everyone has areas to work on, but we will all be there for one another to ensure that we are in the best position to succeed.
We have worked, and will continue to work, towards improving our growth mindset and working to improve our resilience across the curriculum and beyond. Getting something wrong or making a mistake is not an issue and we should have no fear of failure, as every mistake is simply another learning opportunity.
Year 3 Key Information
Classroom Routines
Reading
Reading books are changed regularly. Children let us know when they have finished their current school reading book. Additionally, if children have a book of interest they are reading at home, this can be recorded in their reading record too. We work hard to foster a love for reading. The aim is for all children to read at least three times a week with an adult, and to record this in their record.
Homework
Homework is handed out on a Friday and this needs to be handed in on the Tuesday of the following week. The homework task is explained to the children before they go home on each Friday to make sure that they know what they will need to do. This can range from completing tasks on a given website, completing spelling practise, times table practise and/or topic themed homework.
PE
We value the importance of physical education to maintain a healthy lifestyle, therefore we have 2 weekly PE lessons in year 3. We have PE on a Tuesday and Wednesday.
On a Tuesday each half term, children in either Sharks or Dolphins will have a swimming lesson. On Wednesdays, all children have a session which follows the national curriculum.
Please bring PE kits in on Monday and leave them in for the week so that children are prepared for any eventuality.
Communication
We share learning and resources through ClassDojo. Parents and children are able to post messages, photos and videos and parents can see work and send messages to the class teacher. This is a really strong way of keeping our learning up to date and staying connected with our class. If you have any difficulties accessing ClassDojo, please contact the school office for further support.
Curriculum Areas
English
In our class, we base our reading, writing, punctuation and grammar lessons on ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Philip Pullman, before moving onto ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by CS Lewis. We will explore different genres of writing (including relevant punctuation and grammar activities to support this writing), as well as completing a variety of reading activities.
Here are some websites that the children may be asked to use for homework tasks throughout the course of the year (Passwords are distributed to children in their homework books):
Maths
In our school, we follow the White Rose Maths scheme of work with a focus on deepening our knowledge and understanding through the completion of daily fluency, reasoning and problem-solving activities. We also complete daily Flashback quizzes to help us build confidence and retain our previous knowledge.
Science
In year 3, we concentrate our learning on the following science topics:
- Animals including Humans
- Plants
- Rocks and Fossils
- Light, Forces and Magnets.
- Plants
- Forces and Magnets
History
Our Autumn Term topic is Ancient Greece, where we explore the lives of the people who lived during this time, including looking at Ancient Greek Art, Democracy, the Ancient Olympics, as well as exploring the famed stories of ‘The Battle of Marathon’ and ‘The Trojan War/Horse’.
Geography
In the second half term of the Spring Term we move onto our Geography topic, where we focus on learning about why we have cities. This will include understanding the difference between towns and cities, looking at various capital cities, researching and profiling cities of the North East, and finally becoming a City Planner.
Physical Education
Year 3 have PE on a Wednesday morning with Mr Traves and take part in activities based around the skills necessary in:
- Basketball
- Rugby
- Cricket
- Athletics
- Dance
- Gymnastics
Music
Throughout the year, children listen to a range of music and explore pitch, rhythm, singing and composing. In the second half of year 3, our class learn to play recorders with Mrs Nattrass.
French
PSHE and RSE
Our PSHE lessons are adaptable based on the needs of our class, however, we do also take inspiration from the Jigsaw units of work which are:
- Being Me
- Celebrating Differences
- Dreams and Goals
- Healthy Me
- Relationships
- Changing Me
Computing
We follow the Teach Computing scheme of work to develop our computing knowledge and skills. At the start of every lesson we focus on an aspect of Online Safety to ensure we are confident in staying safe online.
Our Computing units are:
- Computing Systems & Networks
- Data & Information
- Creating Media
- Creating Media
- Programming
- Programming
Art and Design
In Art we follow the Access Art scheme of work to build on our skills and knowledge. We get to use a range of art mediums and resources such as clay, paints and oil pastels to explore our creativity and create a range of individual art pieces.
Our art units are:
- Working with shape and colour
- Gestural drawing with charcoal
- Telling stories though drawing and making
Design Technology
Every other half term, we undertake a DT project in which we evaluate existing designs to get inspiration, and design our own creation before making and evaluating our final product. We focus on a range of skills throughout the year and often link our projects to other areas of the curriculum.
Our DT projects are:
- Healthy and varied diet
- Pneumatics