Week beginning: 12.09.2022

This week in year 4 we looked at the difference between Stone Age Hunter Gatherers and Stone Age farmers in history. We presented what we had learnt into a clear, neat table. We learnt about the 3 different periods of the Stone Age - Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic and the differences between the people who lived at this time.

In PSHE this week we were thinking about our school community. We had a class discussion about various people who help us with our learning in schools. We these had a debate to discuss who we thought were the most important people helping us with our learning - some of us thought it was the headteacher and other thought it was School Council members! At the end of the lesson, we help up the role cards, and as a class we put ourselves into the order of most to least helpful. However, we did decide everyone was really important!

In writing this week we have started our Stone Age stories, so far, we have writing the introduction, build up and problem. In our problem paragraphs we are being attacked by a Stone Age animal! Next week we will be finishing our stories and then top copying it to make it as neat as possible. 

Week beginning: 05.09.2022

It has been so lovely having the children back at school this week! Miss Roberts, Miss Cartwright and Mrs James have been so impressed wit how fantastically the children have settled back into school routines.

We were transported back to Stone Age Britain on our Hook Day this week because they were some of the earliest inventors! We learnt about how Stone Age people invented paint and made use of the resources they had around them. We were inspired by this, so we created our own painted out of natural materials such as berries and chalks. We used these paints to create our very own cave paintings!

We've been learning about how Stone Age people survived. We learnt that they had to hunt for their food using tools they had made themselves. We created our own papier mache Stone Age axes this week! It took a lot of patience and determination to create the shape of the axe using newspaper and we got to paint them to make them look more realistic.

In English lessons next week, we are starting our first piece of writing in Year 4! We will be writing a Stone Age story! To help inspire use and get our creative thinking started, we got to use Now Press Play! We listened to a story where we ended up back in the Stone Age where we had to battle a mammoth and explore caves! We had to use our best acting skills!

Week beginning: 11.07.2022

Wow! How did we get to this point of the year so quickly? Our final full week of learning in Year 3 and it's been a busy and hot one! 

In Computing, we have been learning how to create stop frame animations. In groups, we have made our settings and our characters and we are going to begin filming our animations using our story boards to help us sequence the events. 

In maths, we have been working on mass. We can order different masses from lightest to heaviest and can use greater than, less that and equal to symbols to compare mass. 

Check back next week to see some of our finished stop frame animations! 

Week beginning: 04.07.2022

This week in Year 3 has been full of sports activities. On Tuesday, we had our Sports Day where we all took part in lots of different races. We all tried our best and are so proud of ourselves for taking part. 

Carrying on with sports week, we then held a Hockey world cup tournament where we split into the different countries and played in teams against one another. The finalists, England and New Zealand, took part in a very tense final and New Zealand were victorious! 

We also spent a whole day learning about the artist Georgia O'Keefe and having a go at painting our own versions of her work. We tried hard to include techniques that she had used into our own pieces to make them amazing. In the morning, we created lots of beautiful double page spreads all about Georgia O'Keefe and to inform people of why she is famous. 

Finally, we wrote our adverts, trying to persuade the readers to visit the amazing city of Mexico. We worked hard to include a catchy title, second and third person, powerful adjectives, and expanded noun phrases. It was a challenge to include rhetorical questions, but we used our imaginations and came up with some great ideas. 

Week beginning: 27.06.2022

This week, Year 3 have been completing our PSHE Sex and relationships week.

We have learnt how our bodies change on the outside and the inside as we go through puberty so we are able to have children when we are older if we would like to. We learnt the scientific names for our body parts and were incredibly sensible to only use them in the context of our learning. We also learnt about how our bodies change from getting taller to growing hair on our bodies. 

Finally, we discussed what a baby needs to grow and survive and created some wonderful posters this week with our partners to inform people of this. 

In maths, we have been continuing our work on time, learning about am and pm times as well as reading time on a 24-hour clock. We then moved on to look at duration of time using timelines to help us identify the duration of an event.

In writing, we have enjoyed being hooked into our new writing genre where we are going to persuade our reader to come to Mexico for a holiday. We looked at some examples of written and video adverts and identified rhetorical questions, expanded noun phrases and the use of 2^nd person to talk directly to the reader. 

Week beginning: 20.06.2022

What a super week of Mexico and Mayans learning. As part of our DT project, we made tacos - a traditional Mexican food. We had to decide what ingredients we should include to ensure it was a balanced meal and tasted delicious. We practised skills such as chopping, mixing and grating and worked in teams to make our tacos. They were delicious! Here are some photos of our taco Thursday fun!

In maths, we are getting speedy and accurate at telling the time.  Ask us what the time is and see how accurate we are! 

We wrote a series of diary entries from the perspective of Tom from our class book ‘The Boy Who Biked The World’ in English. We remembered to write in the first person, the past tense and to use a range of time connectives. 

Next week we are looking forward to meeting our Year 4 class teachers and seeing our new classrooms. 

Week beginning: 13.06.2022

This week in Year 3, we have started our new unit of Time in maths. It has been really great to use our previous knowledge from Year 2 to help us solve questions on time and use clocks in class too. We have worked hard to tell the time this week.

In writing, we have been continuing to read our class text, The Boy who Biked the World, and have been planning our own diary entry to share Tom's adventures. We have been focussing on using expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and writing using the past tense. 

We had lots of fun in our Science lesson where we bought in some cardboard boxes to do an experiment with light. We had to make a hole in the box and put a torch through to see that darkness can become light when we shine a torch through something. It was great fun and we enjoyed writing about it afterwards to share our findings.

It has also been assessment week so we have all worked our very best in our final Year 3 assessments. 

Week beginning: 06.06.2022

This week, Year 3 have started our new class text 'The Boy Who Biked The World'. We have started reading about Tom's journey from the southern point of South America (Patagonia) all the way north through South America and North America all the way to Alaska. We've enjoyed hearing about him meeting penguins and imagined that there was a terrible rock fall as he was cycling in the Andes mountains. From this, we created our own monologue to imagine we were Tom and what we might do next. 

We have also really enjoyed our science lesson this week where we were investigating which materials were magnets. We understood very quickly that only metals were magnetic but not all metals. When we tested a selection of materials, we noticed that foil is not magnetic whereas a split pin and a sharpener are. 

Additionally, we have enjoyed our music lessons this week where we have been listening and evaluating the song 'Let your Spirit Fly'. We then researched a little bit more about the genre of music this was and finally got to create short pieces of music using the glockenspiel chimes which we loved. 

Week beginning: 23.05.2022

This week in year 3, we have shown perseverance within our maths lessons. We have been solving some tricky questions on fractions but have worked hard to try our best, even when we found it difficult.

We had lots of fun in our art lesson this week. We created our final piece which we planned last week. They were inspired by the famous artist, Georgia O'Keefe, and we used brush techniques that we had learnt about to make our paintings even more eye-catching.

In writing this week, we spent time and effort on editing our writing and making improvements to it. We have loved rewriting the story of Coco and some of us even attempted to use an alternative ending.

Finally, we had a very exciting day on Friday to celebrate the Queen's platinum jubilee. We learnt all about the royal family and what a jubilee is. Then we made some flags to take to our picnic which we had the pleasure of sharing with the Infants. In the afternoon, we created a collage of the Queen's head. We also took part in a parade where we all made crowns to show off and practiced our royal wave! It was a great celebration.

Week beginning: 16.05.2022

Wow – what a busy week in Year 3!

In maths, we have been continuing our work on fractions. We used Base 10 equipment to help us find fractions of amounts and know how to order fractions and decimals on a number line too.

In English, we have been working hard to write our own narrative based on Coco. Some of our super expanded noun phrases that we included in our stories were “a quaint, picturesque town”, “a brave, determined boy” and “a scruffy, strange stray dog”. We are getting to grips with understanding the editing and redrafting process in order to produce the best final piece of writing that we can.

On Wednesday afternoon, we visited the nature garden in order to collect natural materials to create a piece of art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Here are some of our masterpieces!

Week beginning: 09.05.2022

This week, Year 3 have been learning about the physical geography of Mexico. Did you know that the tallest mountain in Mexico is called Pico de Orizaba and the longest river is the Rio Grande?

We learnt about some of the features of a mountain range such as the tree line, snow line, base, summit and slope as well as some of the features of a river such as the source, meanders and the mouth. 

We labelled these on an image and then explained what they were. 

Additionally, in our English lessons this week, we have been delving more deeply into Coco, to understand the meaning of words and how they have an impact on the reader. We are going to use some of this fantastic vocabulary in our writing our own versions of Coco when we begin. Some of us have just started writing today. Take a look at our plans and first drafts!

Week beginning: 02.05.2022

This week in year 3, we have delved deeper into our Mexico and Mayans topic by starting to watch the film Coco and writing our ideas about the film into our books. We have learnt even more facts about the Day of the Dead, a Mexican celebration where they celebrate the lives of the people they have lost. We have loved seeing the vibrant colours and the fun times they have during the celebration.

In maths, we have been carrying on with our new topic of fractions. It has been great to use our previous knowledge and apply it to what we are learning now.

We had so much fun in art this week! We used clay to create something which related to our Mexico and Mayans topic. A few examples included a Mayan temple, a football to represent Mexico's most popular sport and a marigold for the day of the dead celebrations.

Week beginning: 25.04.2022

Wow! What a fun-filled week we have had in Year 3!

On Wednesday, we had a visit from author Joshua Seigal. We were lucky enough to watch Joshua perform some of his poetry and we even joined in with some silly actions to help us remember them. After, each Year 3 class had a personal poetry workshop with Joshua and we created some fantastic poems about Mexico.  

We had lots of fun using ‘Now Press Play’ and interactively learning more about The Mayans. We listened to our headphones and acted out the Mayan roleplay. Here are some photos of us getting stuck in! 

Finally, in English we have been watching the film ‘Coco’ and exploring the characters for inspiration for our writing. We are putting lots of hard work and effort into our extended writing so check back for some our finished stories soon! 

Week beginning: 18.04.2022

It's been lovely to welcome Year 3 back after the Easter break and we have wasted no time getting stuck into our new topic: Mexico and Mayans.

We started the week with our hook day where we learned about Frida Kahlo and created our own self portraits in her colourful style. We also learnt about Dias de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) and created our own bright, colourful masks to wear.

In maths this week, we have been looking at perimeter and we spent some time on the playground measuring each side of the shape before adding all the sides together to find the perimeter. 

Finally, in geography, we located Mexico on a map of the world and identified some capital cities in North and South America as well as looking at the physical and human features of Mexico such as Copper Canyon and the Metropolitan Cathedral. 

Week beginning: 28.03.2022

In our final week of term, Year 3 have been extremely busy! After finishing our class text 'The Boy at the Back of the Class', we have been writing a letter to the Queen to persuade her to keep the 'gates' open so that the parents of refugee, Ahmet, are able to make it into the country to be with him. There was some absolutely fantastic writing produced and we are sure that the Queen would be easily persuaded by some of the brilliant language used. 

Additionally, we all had great fun and learnt a lot in our Roots to Food cooking during the week. Darren taught us how to safely cut with a knife to make a chicken bhuna masala which was delicious!

Finally, we have loved spending some time sharing our homework this week and over the last few weeks. It always amazes us teachers, just how creative the children and their families are. As part of our empowerment topic, we have had many castles created as well as world maps labelled with empowered people's countries of birth, acrostic poems about empowered people and some incredible facts and newspapers about them. 

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and we can't wait to see you in the summer term for our brand-new topic: Mexico and Mayans!

Week beginning: 21.03.2022

This week, we have been busy piecing skeletons together. In our science lessons this week, we have been understanding the functions of the human skeleton - to protect our vital organs, support our bodies and help us to move. We looked at the names of some of our bones and then had to work together to put a skeleton back together and label the bones. 

Additionally, we have finished our class text, 'The Boy at the Back of the Class'. We have loved this book so much across the year group and been very disappointed when we had to leave the chapter on a cliff-hanger. In the book, the narrator (Alexa) and her friends welcome a new boy from Syria and desperately want to help him when they realise that he does not know where his parents are. They write a letter to the Queen and even get themselves on TV by trying to get their letter to her to help keep the 'gates open' so Ahmet's family can make it to them. 

This week, we have started to consider our next piece of writing, a persuasive letter to the Queen. We can't wait to share some with you next week!

Week beginning: 14.03.2022

This week, we have had a very practical, interactive week. 

Year 3 began their new maths topic of 'statistics' this week. We created tally charts based on a question we wanted to find out and then surveyed the class before interpreting our data. We then created pictograms using this data in the following lesson. 

We have created photo frames in DT lessons this week and will continue to finish them next week. To create these, we first needed to design what our product would look like and what materials would be best to ensure it was stable, sturdy and could stand up on its own. 

Following this, we measured pieces of wood precisely and then used a saw to cute each piece. Year 3 demonstrated how grown up they were by listening to all the safety briefings thoroughly and using the equipment with care. 

We then had to use glue guns to glue the frame together and place it on a backing to allow a photo to be attached and then created our unique stands to hold the frames up on their own. 

Week beginning: 07.03.2022

This week, Year 3 have had assessment week. Every pupil in the year group has worked so hard to complete their assessments and have tried their hardest throughout. We are incredibly proud of all the children. 

We have also completed our first science lesson on our new topic of 'Animals including Humans'. We looked at the different food groups and why we need them to keep healthy. For example, did you know that we need carbohydrates to give us energy and we need protein to help our bodies grow strong and repair any cuts and grazes on our skin. 

This week, we have also completed our poems from Ahmet who is a refugee boy from Syria who has come to live in London. We wrote the second half of our poem based on his positive experiences now he is in London. 

Week beginning: 28.02.2022

This week, Year 3 have had so much fun! We have completed lots of activities for World Book Day including watching some videos of famous authors and a special performance of Matilda from the West End Musical. We have also completed a quiz for the Masked Reader where we had to work out which adults in the school were reading a chapter of their favourite book whilst hidden behind a mask. 

We all made bookmarks during World Book Day which were laminated, and we have these to take home or use in our books at school. 

We loved dressing up and it was amazing to see such varied and interesting costumes across the year group. 

Earlier this week, on Shrove Tuesday, we competed in a pancake flipping contest to raise money for the PTA. We had so much fun, watching each other and counting how many flips each person managed to add to their house total. Thank you to the PTA for organising such a fun event for us!

We finished off the week with a visit from author Guy Bass who spoke about his books and his inspiration for writing. 

Week beginning: 21.02.2022

Year 3 have had a very busy first week back at school after half term. 

We have been writing poems using our class text 'The Boy at the Back of the Class'. We have imagined that we are Ahmet, living in Syria during its most dangerous times and written shape or free verse poetry to describe the terrible scenes that he might have experienced. 

There have been some absolutely outstanding poems written, especially as this is the first piece of poetry we have written at KHJS. 

Additionally, we have been using the coding skills we learnt with Scratch last half term and enjoyed using the Lego spike boxes to programme the hub, motors and sensors. We then had a go at building Kiki the dog and we hope to be able to programme her in the coming weeks. 

Week beginning: 07.02.2022

This week, Year 3 have been working so hard as usual! We have had the challenge of using the formal method of multiplication to multiply 2-digit numbers by a 1-digit number. We have been extremely proud of the perseverance Year 3 have shown with this method. 

Additionally, we started our next unit of writing by looking at different styles of poetry and having a go at writing our own. 

We also had an assembly this week on Children’s mental health. After this, we created balloons and named those that support us around it.

Finally, we have really enjoyed creating our own maze games on Scratch this week. After learning all the skills we would need, we were able to use this to create our own game from 'scratch' on Scratch!

Week beginning: 31.01.2022

This week, Year 3 have had a busy week. In our PE lessons, we have applied the skills we have learnt over the term so far to gymnastics, tag rugby and football and worked well as a team to compete and share equipment.

In our RE lessons, we have been learning about the 5 Pillars of Islam that Muslims believe they need to follow. These include: making donations to charity to help those less fortunate; fasting during Ramadan to become more spiritual and praying five times a day.

We have been absolutely loving our class text 'The Boy at the Back of the Class'. We get so excited to read it each week and can't bear it when a chapter is left on a cliff-hanger, and we must wait until the next day! In the story, the boy spent his day trying to find a pomegranate to give to his new friend Ahmet. We were curious about this strange fruit so we got the chance to feel one and taste some seeds, just like the narrator and Ahmet did in the story. They were delicious!

Week beginning: 24.01.2022

This week, Year 3 have been completing our piece of writing about Queen Elizabeth I. We have written autobiographies from her point of view using the first person as well as a whole range of punctuation and sentences. We used all the work we did during our sentence staking lessons to feel confident adding our success criteria into our independent writing. 

The end result: some incredible writing!! We have been so proud of every member of Year 3 for their incredible writing about 'Good Queen Bess'.

We also have continued our topic of Rocks in science. This week, we have been classifying rocks by feeling them and scratching them to see if they are hard or soft and using pipettes and water to test whether they were permeable or impermeable. 

Finally, we have been working really hard in maths this week on our 4 and 8 times tables using practical resources and focusing on our reasoning skills to prove how we know an answer.

Week beginning: 17.01.2022

This week in year 3, we have been researching and writing facts all about Queen Elizabeth I. We have been using adverbs, complex and compound sentences and personal pronouns in our writing to make it more interesting. It has been really great to find out lots about Queen Elizabeth I and include it into our writing.

In PSHE this week, we looked at healthy foods and what healthier choices we could make in our lives. As a class, we made a meal plan for a day of foods that we could eat to keep us healthy. This included foods such as fruit, yoghurt, protein etc.

We have spent lots of time this week focussing on multiplication and division. We've worked hard to understand what the inverse means and being able to use it to solve questions.

We had an exciting time in Science where we learnt about 3 different types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. We were able to write a few sentences about each type.

Week beginning: 10.01.2022

Happy New Year!

We welcomed Year 3 back to school last Thursday with our hook day. Our new topic is Empowerment and our key question is: 

How will YOU change the world?

We created our own crowns and sat on the majestic throne that appeared in our Year 3 area as well as read a story about Malala Yousafzai and how she went from a victim to being empowered to stand up for girls' rights to an education. 

This week, we have learnt about King Henry VIII and how he changed religion in this country just so he could marry another wife and have a son to be the next king. We've really enjoyed learning about Henry VIII and his 6 wives. After doing some research about him, we did some hot seating where one of us pretended to be Henry VIII and the others asked him questions. We are now in the process of writing a biography about him. 

In science, we have started our new topic of rocks. We spent some time looking at rocks, touching and describing the characteristics of rocks such as: basalt, granite, sandstone and marble. Who knew there were so many different types of rock!

Week beginning: 13.12.2021

This week, Year 3 have been so busy preparing a wonderful festive hamper to bring home today. 

We have been painting and glazing the salt dough decorations that we made last week, decorating our shortbread biscuits, making photo frames, creating Christmas cards and making Christingles. 

We had a Christingle assembly in our classes with the Christingles that we made and learnt that each part of the Christingle represents a belief that Christians have for example: the red ribbon represents the blood of Jesus Christ and the orange represents the world.

We had the most wonderful morning on Thursday visiting the reindeer (Comet and Blitzen) who came into school and we had our photo taken with them. We have added the photos to our handmade photo frames and included them in our hamper. 

We hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas with your loved ones and we can't wait to see you all again next year!

Merry Christmas!

Week beginning: 06.12.2021

This week in Year 3, we have been looking in more detail at the fractured fairytale, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. We have been using a new way of writing and have learnt how to chot, which is a combination of chatting and jotting to think of ideas and write them down. It has been great fun and we have produced some great sentences from it all about the story.

We have started our Christmas activities this week and started by making our salt dough Christmas tree decorations. We started by mixing the flour, salt and water together into a dough, then used cutters for the round shape and finally, we carved snowflake designs onto the front of them. It will be even more exciting next week when we can glaze and paint them. We also made our shortbread cookies this week and are looking forward to decorating them next week too.

In maths this week, we have started to look at multiplication and division. It has been great to see what we already know and expand our knowledge. We have been using practical resources to help us.

On Friday, we wrote our own stories all about our adventures with a snowman who comes to life. We had great fun coming up with ideas for it and produced some amazing stories.

Week beginning: 29.11.2021

This week, we have been completing our final pieces of work and reflection on our Explorers topic for this term.

Year 3 have reflected on and discussed the different types of land that can be explored, studied famous explorers and consider what else there is still to explore. We discussed that the depths of the oceans and outer space has not been fully explored by anyone which led us to question whether there was life on other planets and if so, what might these people and this land look like?

We drew some pictures to imagine an alien planet and the type of land it might have such as deserts, forests or even lava rivers!

We have also finished our music topic creating a piece of music linked to the rainforest. We focused on tempo in our compositions and considered how the music might change from soft and slow as we were travelling down the Amazon River, to much faster as a piranha or other deadly animals raced towards us!

To finish our week, we explored some fractured fairytales such as CinderEdna, Jack and the Baked Beanstalk and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. We created some drama by retelling the final fairytale in groups, focusing on our clear speaking voices and staying in character.

Week beginning: 22.11.2021

This week in Year 3, we have been focussing on expanding our knowledge of how to describe characters. We have been watching a bit of the film Ice Age each day to observe the characters which has helped us develop more ways to use descriptive writing. We have been using lots of interesting adjectives in our writing and even tried to include some expanded noun phrases. 

In maths this week, we have been learning how to add two 3-digit numbers using the column addition method. Even though it has been tricky, we worked really hard using Numicon to help us understand how two 3-digit numbers can be added together. 

In 3CC and 3NH, we went on a walk this week where we learnt more about the local area of Benfleet. We went to St Mary's Church where we learnt about all the different things you can find within it. We also had a checklist where we had to find the landmarks and decide whether they had human or physical features. We had a great time and can't wait for 3KW to enjoy their walk soon.

In music this week, we created our own piece of music using Glockenspiels. It was fun to have the freedom of creating a piece of music that we liked and then to perform it to the rest of the class. 

Week beginning: 15.11.2021

This week, we finished our study of the ancient Greeks by creating clay pots. We used different techniques to ensure our pots stayed together and included a pattern inspired by the Ancient Greek pots we had looked at.

We also looked at the influence the Ancient Greeks have had on our lives such as democracy and sports. Did you know the Ancient Greeks created the very first Olympic Games?

Later in the week, we moved on to our study of the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. As we prepared for our local area walk, we learned a bit more about the Battle of Benfleet when the Vikings fought the Anglo-Saxons for the land.

Week beginning: 08.11.2021

This week in year 3 has been extremely exciting because we had our Greek Day. We started with some fun activities in the morning such as: playing a Greek board came called Petteia, taking part in a quiz all about Greece, trying to piece together a puzzle and a workshop on democracy. In the afternoon, we learnt all about the armour and weapons that would have been used. To end our amazing Greek Day, we took part in a Greek Olympics where two teams, Athens and Spartans, competed against each other. We all dressed up and it was a wonderful day for everyone!

In maths this week, we did some practical investigations which meant that we had to use envelopes and figure out the combinations of numbers which might be in them. We used Numicon and other practical resources to help us figure out the answers.

At the beginning of the week, we finished off our DT cushions that we had designed for an explorer. We used skills such as sewing, cutting and even using a glue gun. They all look great and we can't wait to bring them home to show our adults!

Week beginning: 01.11.2021

We have had a week jam-packed with exciting activities in Year 3. In design technology, we have created cushions for some of our characters lost in the rainforests to help them sleep. We learnt sewing skills and carefully used hot glue guns in order to complete our cushions. 

In writing, we have learnt about climate change and understood a little bit about COP26 and the events happening in Glasgow this week that are helping to save the planet. We wrote our own persuasive texts to help persuade people to do their part to tackle climate change focusing on rhetorical questions and adverbs. 

On Friday, we had a lot of fun welcoming some of our family members in for a Now Press Play workshop. We had a lot of fun while also exploring feelings in certain situations. 

Week beginning: 18.10.2021

This week in Year 3, we have been continuing our amazing learning all about the Amazon Rainforest. We created some beautiful double page spreads to showcase all of our knowledge. In reading this week, we read some Disney songs from Moana and The Jungle Book and discussed their meanings. 

In Maths, we were looking at adding and subtracting 1 digit numbers from 3 digit numbers. We used physical equipment to help us figure out the answers to the questions. 

We spent some time this week in PSHE thinking about our goals in life and why we aim for them. We also discussed why we have rules in our world and what life would be like if there weren't any and we decided that the world would be very chaotic without them! 

For Science this week, we predicted what was the best condition for growing cress seeds. We decided that plants need water, light, warmth and nutrients to grow healthily. Then we sowed some cress seeds in a cup with cotton wool and water. We are very excited to see what the results will be after half term!

Week beginning: 11.10.2021 

This week, Year 3 have been continuing to write our draft versions of an information text. We have drafted four paragraphs about the rainforest: Introduction, the Amazon River, Rainforest Animals and then a specific paragraph about either a sloth or scarlet macaw to go alongside the sketches we drew last week. 

Additionally, we have continued to read our class text 'The Explorer' and learnt that 'Abacaxi' means pineapple in Portuguese. The children found some pineapples to eat and then an orphaned baby sloth which they named Abacaxi. 

In science, we have been beginning to learn about the different parts of a plant and their functions ready to complete some investigations about the best ways for them to grow next week. 

Week beginning: 04.10.2021 

Throughout this week in year 3, we have combined writing, geography and art to explore more facts about the Amazon rainforest. We have used our amazing research skills on our chromebooks to discover more facts about the rainforest. We used Geography to help us find out how many countries the Amazon rainforest covers and we were shocked to find out that it covers 8 countries! All these facts helped us to write some incredible pieces of informative writing which included lots of compound sentences and complex sentences. In art, we got creative by watching a video to help us sketch a sloth and a macaw.

In maths, we began looking at addition and subtraction. We have been using lots of resources like place value counters and grids to help us to add and subtract hundreds, tens and ones.

Finally, we had a wonderful time enjoying the travelling book fair. It was lovely to see lots of our parents come in to choose some great books and read with us. 

Week beginning: 27.09.2021 

As we delve further into our topic of 'Explorers', this week we have been creating a rainforest collage using a range of materials. We began by exploring different collages and what makes them effective before practising a variety of collage techniques such as twisting, scrunching and rolling. Once we had explored these, we considered the design for our rainforest and worked collaboratively to create a final product.

Additionally, this week, we have continued to read our class text 'The Explorer'. This week, we read a chapter together and answered lots of questions based on our understanding of key vocabulary. 

Finally, we have published our pieces of descriptive writing about the rainforest. We read carefully though our drafts before publishing our final versions using stencils and hand-drawn images in order to make our pieces look professional. 

Week beginning: 20.09.2021 

This week in Year 3, we have had so much fun learning about the beauty of rainforests!

In our writing lessons, we have been using expanded noun phrases, full stops, commas and capital letters to describe waterfalls, rivers, trees and many animals that live in rainforests such as sloths, parrots and elephants.

In our science lessons, we have been questioning whether children with longer legs run faster than children with shorter legs. To test this question, we used our measuring skills to see who had the longest legs and raced each other across our playground and had a lot of fun doing so!

In maths, we have been ordering and comparing numbers up to a thousand. We used lots of different resources such as place value counters, multi-link cubes and place value charts when doing so.

Week beginning: 13.09.2021 

Year 3 have had a great week this week and have settled really well into their lessons. For most of this week, they have got stuck into their writing where we have started writing our first drafts of our rainforest descriptions. In order to immerse ourselves in the writing, we engaged with Now Press Play which uses portable headphones to listen to a story and act it out. We have been using some beautiful expanded noun phrases and worked really hard to include capital letters and full stops. We also enjoyed meeting so many parents and carers this week during our meet the teacher event and the children were able to showcase the work they had produced so far.

In maths this week, we have continued working on place value using pictures in the questions to help with our answers. We have been completing our times table challenge aiming towards the bronze award by completing all the calculations on the page – there has been some fantastically high scores already!

Week beginning: 06.09.2021 

Year 3 have enjoyed our first full week at the junior school. On Tuesday, we had our hook day where we used our imagination to explore a range of different terrains including saving each other when they were 'trapped in a ravine' in Antarctica and escaping down the Amazon river on a 'raft' after spotting some terrifying creatures. During the day, we also learnt the points of a compass and used these to locate specific items on a map. 

This week, we have also started to plan a piece of descriptive writing about a rainforest and created some fantastic expanded noun phrases based on pictures, videos and sounds we were exposed to.