News from Year 3

What a wonderful week we have had! From Christmas lunch to carol concerts, it has been a busy week in the run up to the Christmas holidays.

In RE, we concluded our learning of Advent focusing on the different visitors Jesus received at the time of his birth, and why these particular people.

We also enjoyed making party hats with Ms McCarthy for our Christmas lunch, which we also relished in our classrooms. Most of us donned our Christmas jumpers for the occasion too!

A big well done to the children who participated in today’s mass with father Francis. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all across the school. Another well done to children’s performances in the KS2 Christmas production, we are so proud of you all!

Also, a big and final thank you for the very generous gifts and cards, we couldn’t thank you all enough for your continued support and gratitude. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year,

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy 🙂

News from Year 3

It has been another busy week in Year 3! At the end of last week, we made sedimentary sandwiches in Science. To help learn about the formation of sedimentary rocks, we made sandwiches with lots of different fillings to represent the different layers that form these rocks. This week, we will be focusing on the formation of igneous rocks using ice, chocolate sauce and sprinkles!

We have really enjoyed practising and filming our parts for the school Christmas play and carol concert. Well done to all the children for putting in such a tremendous effort, I’m sure the final ‘virtual’ product will look smashing!

In Maths, we have moved onto division. We have found it a little tricky but our times table knowledge as helped to support our learning. Don’t forget that there are new times table challenges available on Sum Dog every three to four days, please have a go. This will really help support our division learning!

Have a happy and restful weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

In English this week, we have been getting stuck into our new book ‘Mini Rabbit Not Lost’. We have enjoyed reading a little more of the book each day and writing out versions of the story alongside it. We have also started to focus on using inverted commas (speech marks) to introduce dialogue to our stories.

In Maths, we have focused on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. We have looked closely at the relationship between the 4 and 8 times tables and mental strategies we can use to find the answers quickly. We will also be focusing on division soon so a secure times table knowledge is a must!

In RE, we have started to learn our carols for the Christmas school production and will start practicing our scene next week. We have also started our learning about visitors and why they are important at this time of year. Don’t forget to check our class RE blog for more details about our RE learning this half term.

Don’t forget to check the Google classrooms for this week’s homework.

Have a restful weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

What a busy week it has been in Year 3 this week! We started the week with creating a key worker from recycled materials (thank you very much for your donations!). Our policeman looked instantly recognisable with his high-vis vest but keeping the sculpture standing was the tricky part. With a lot of patience, team work and tape, we were able to create a free standing sculpture of a policeman!

It was also Anti-Bullying Week this week but we focused on being kind and spreading kindness. We started by creating a kindness jar, writing anonymous acts of kindness we had seen in the class. We also wrote something kind about a member of the class. When sharing these reasons for kindness, it made us feel warm and fuzzy, we decided it was best to always be as kind as possible. We also wrote kind notes to ourselves and shared them as a class too.

It was also Faith Week this week, focusing on Sikhism. We started by concentrating on the symbol for Sikhism, a khanda. We then created our own symbols to represent our beliefs and who we are as people. Next, we looked at the inside of a gurdwara and focused on the importance of the Gura Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. Our final lesson involved focusing on langar, the free vegetarian meal served at gurdwaras. We learnt everyone sits on the floor for langar as everyone is equal. This was based on a story of Guru Nanak’s, which we acted out in groups using role play.

It has been such a busy week but we look forward to starting our learning about Advent next week.

Have a restful weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

In English this week, we have been creating our own information texts about aliens. We used our learning of Dr Xargle’s Book of Earth Hounds to help structure and organise our writing. Next week, we will be moving on to a new book called Mini Rabbit Not Lost by John Bond.

In Maths, we have been concluding our addition and subtraction unit by focusing on word problems. To help us solve these word problems, we also used bar modelling which we found tricky at first but mastered towards the end of the week.

In RE this week, it has been Prayer week. We have focused on collective worship and adding to our class prayer wall. We also had the opportunity to share some of our group’s prayers too, which provided the class with a great opportunity for reflection and worship.

Today is Children in Need and to raise money for such a wonderful cause, we donned our spots and stripes for a non-uniform day. The most colourful get up won a mystery prize! Well done to all the children that got involved and our runner up, Lara!

Stay safe and have a restful weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

What a great first week back for Year 3! We have really enjoyed being back in the classroom and starting our learning this half term.

In English, we have carried on looking at the book ‘Dr Xargle’s Book of Earth Hounds’. We have been focusing on different sentences openers and structures to help us write our own information texts about aliens next week.

In Maths, we have continued to focus on using the column method for subtraction. We have developed this method to include two lots of regrouping, which has been tricky. But the children have persevered and are a lot more confident with regrouping multiple times within a calculation.

In PE, we have started focusing on basketball. This week, we have practiced our passing skills, using bounce and chest passes to help pass the ball efficiently and effectively.

Don’t forget we have PE every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so kits will be needed on those days. We also have individual school photographs on Wednesday 11th November.

Stay safe and have a lovely weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

This week, we have started a new text in English. We have been focusing on the story ‘Dr Xargle’s Book of Earth Hounds’, an alien’s guide to dogs. Even though we thought the book was a little strange to start with, we look forward to returning to the story after half term.

In Maths, we have started looking at using the column method for subtraction. We have just started to focus on using regrouping within the written method, which has been a little tricky. Yet, with some hard work and patience, we will soon be experts at it!

To round off our PE learning this half term, we staged a small five a side tournament to put all the skills we had learnt into practice. We really enjoyed the matches and were very competitive! Yet, it’s the taking part that counts.

In History, we used the Chromebooks to research Skara Brae. Skara Brae, on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, is one of the best kept examples of a Stone Age village. It was only discovered by a big storm hitting the coast and revealing the homes underneath mounds of sand. We really enjoyed having the opportunity to use technology to research this special Stone Age monument.

We have had a brilliant half term and look forward to concluding the rest of the term after the half term break. Have a very happy and peaceful break.

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

In our English lessons this week, we have been planning to write a story based on another character’s point of view. Instead of seeing things from the princess’ point of view, we will be writing it from the dragon’s perspective of the story, The Paper Bag Princess.

In Maths this week, we used our learning of formal column addition to support us with subtraction. We have also learned a couple of tricky mental methods to support us with this more formal method

In PE this week, we have developing our shooting skills by playing dribbling and shooting relay games. We also played ‘hot seat’, where players had to take it in turns to shoot and score a goal. If they didn’t score, they entered the hot seat. If the player after them scored a goal, the player in the hot seat was out!

In our History lesson last week, we focused on what Stone Age people ate and their way of life. We turned into archaeologists and studied some poo (Miss Battams had made by hand), dissecting to see if it would reveal clues to Stone Age people’s eating and living habits. It was a great lesson, if not a little yucky!

Have a restful weekend and I look forward to seeing parents next week for parents evening.

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

In our English lessons, we have enjoyed looking more closely at the Paper Bag Princess. We have been looking closely at sentence structure, focusing on coordinating conjunctions and multi clause sentences, using sentences from the story to support us.

Even though Maths has been tricky this week, we have relished the challenge. We have been focusing on using the column method for addition and using regrouping to ‘carry over’ ones to the tens column, and tens to the hundreds column.

In our Science lesson this week, we worked in groups to create a simple magnetic game. We used craft materials such as cereal boxes and tissue paper to make a ‘go fish’ style game. We also used paper clips in some of the hand cut fish to attract to the magnet, secured at the end of our homemade rods, to pull up the fish. We look forward to playing each other’s ‘go fish’ games when they are finished.

We also voted for our school council representatives this week too. Well done to everyone who bravely shared their speeches with us. A big congratulations to Isabella, Jessica and Alex for being our voted Year 3 reps.

Have a restful weekend and don’t forget to check our Google classroom for this week’s homework.

Miss Battams 🙂

News from Year 3

This week, we finished our learning on the story ‘Journey’ and moved onto a new unit. Our new topic is fairy tales, with a focus on book ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ by Robert Munsch. We have started by looking at the ‘ingredients’ to make a traditional fairy tale e.g. a pretty, young princess, a handsome prince. However, our key text is an alternative fairy tale with a twist!

We have now reached the end of our topic of ‘Homes’ in RE. Our next unit is called ‘Promises’, focusing on the different promises made in a Catholics’ life. Make sure you check out our latest RE blog with more information about our new topic.

In PE, we have been learning how to shoot and defend in football. We have also been using our dribbling skills to help us with our shooting and defending skills. By the end of the topic, we hope to hold a tournament of matches to consolidate our skills.

Have a restful week and don’t forget to check our Goggle classroom for this week’s homework,

Miss Battams 🙂