Year 3 Blog

Aspire 

In English, we have shown great resilience to write dialogue between two characters from our class book Stitch Head. I was so impressed with the quality of writing and how much effort you have put in. We have also thoroughly enjoyed our class read of Stitch Head this term. 

In Maths, this term we have looked at multiplication and division. We have become more confident and shown more positivity with both and had a particular focus specifically on the 3s, 4s and 8s which the children need to learn by the end of Year 3. 

Inspire 

In Art and Design, our topic has been ‘Drawing Growing Artists’. We learnt the four golden rules of drawing using great creativity in our drawings. We have carefully used different types of pencils and a viewfinder to focus in more detail on our drawings.

In Science, we learnt all about animals including humans. We have looked at the human body, vertebrates and invertebrates, why muscles are used and the three types of skeletons which are endoskeletons, exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons showing curiosity in the living things around us. Did you know that a turtle is both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton?

Teamwork  

In PE, this term we have focused on handball and hockey. We have looked at different types of passes in handball and performing them effectively in a game situation showing brilliant respect. In Hockey, we have started to look dribbling, passing and turns. 

Have a brilliant week off! Don't forget to log onto TTRockstars and keep up the reading! Doing both of these will really help going into Spring 2. You have worked incredibly hard this term, using our school values at all times. We have so much to look forward to next term including the Black Country Museum! 

Mr Arnold  

Aspire  

How quickly the spring term has come and went! Pupils have shown enthusiasm throughout the whole term. The children have shown determination throughout our English topic, where we focused on a brand-new skill and embedded it during our short narrative. The children were extremely proud of their work and were successful in using speech. Resilience was embedded throughout our math’s unit where the children found multiplication rather challenging at first, however with more time and practice they were able to conquer any question. Additionally, the children have shown growth in their times tables recall, particularly in their 3s, 4s and 8s. Please encourage your children to practice their timetables as much as they can on Times Table Rockstars. 

Inspire  

Creativity was embedded throughout our art unit, where we have been creating pieces of artwork with a range of different techniques such as shading. The children have developed their abilities and furthered their technical capabilities. At the end of the art unit, the children created a beautiful final art piece. Enthusiasm was highlighted through our science topic ‘Animals including humans.’ The children enjoyed learning about the different bones and muscles that humans have, along with learning about different herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. Enthusiasm was also portrayed through our R.E topic, where we focused on how fire is symbolic.  

Teamwork 

In our P.E sessions, the children learnt a new topic which was handball. The children enjoyed learning a new game along with the consideration of its rules and techniques. In music, we have thought about our wider community whilst learning about the pentatonic scale and the Chinese New Year. The children worked collaboratively and respectfully with their groups to create a melody using the five notes.  

I hope you all have a restful break, see you soon. 

Miss Bousyf 

Aspire  

The Spring half term has been and gone! Pupils have shown enthusiasm throughout the whole term. In Art we have been creating pieces of artwork with a range of different techniques. The children have improved their abilities and furthered their technical capabilities. The children have also shown resilience during Maths, working on division and particular remainders. 3G have also started learning about length and particularly measure, the children have been determined to succeed. 

Inspire 

In History, the children have been shown positivity throughout their learning about ‘How children’s lives have changed over time.’ I have been very proud to see the children be so mature when talking about how hard it was to be a child during the Victorian and Tudor times. Also, in RE the children have shown enthusiasm looking at how fire is symbolic. The children dug deep into the topic and looked at a range of religions. In PE, the children experienced learning about a new topic called handball. The children enjoyed learning a new game, along with its rules and techniques. 

Teamwork  

In our Outdoor learning lessons, we have been keen to explore the effects of winter and played a multitude of educational based games to develop our teamwork and communication skills.  We had to be considerate of the surrounding environment while we were engaged in our learning. In Music, we have shown discovered more about our wider community whilst learning about the pentatonic scale and the Chinese New year. We learnt about the five notes that encompass the pentatonic scale and created a group performance in which we combined dance and music. 

I hope you all have a great break, see you soon. 

Mr Gunter 

Aspire

This Spring half term has gone by so quickly. The pupils have shown enthusiasm during the whole term. The children have improved their abilities and their technical capabilities. The children have also shown resilience during Maths, working on division and particular remainders. We have also been working on length and perimeter, concentrating on units of measure such as, metres centimetres and millimetres. We have become more resilient when measuring objects, comparing measurements and converting equivalent measurements. 

In English, we have developed our technical writing skills with resilience and determination. We have produced a dialogue between two characters from our class book Stitch Head. Their speech narrative was particularly successful.  I was so impressed with the quality of writing and how much effort pupils have put in. We have also thoroughly enjoyed our class read of Stitch Head this term. 

 In Art we have been looking at growing artists which have inspired our piece of art. Creating our pieces required us to incorporate the skills and techniques shown by these artists. We have successfully produced a beautiful piece of botanical art. 

Inspire 

In History, the children have shown positivity throughout their topic; ‘How children’s lives have changed over time.’ It has been enlightening for the children to see just how much has changed and just how difficult children used to have during Tudor and Victorian times.  Also, in RE pupils have shown a particular enthusiasm looking at how fire is symbolic. We have examined how it is used in a number of religions. 

Teamwork 

 In PE, the children been introduced to a new topic called handball. It has been enjoyable watching them learn and then succeed at a new game along with its rules and expertise.  

 Throughout our outdoor learning sessions, we have been able to explore the effects of winter and link our time outside to our art topic and our animals including Humans science topic. We have created natural crayon rubbing images, as well as finding living creatures and deciding whether they are vertebrates or invertebrates. This required that we be considerate to the environment while being engaged in our learning. 

In Music, we have discovered more about our wider community whilst learning about the pentatonic scale and the Chinese New year. In particular we have learnt about the five specific notes that construct the pentatonic scale. We then wrote and performed a simple pentatonic melody. 

Thank you for your continued support.  I hope you have a great break, and I look forward to the next half term.  

Mrs Thomas. 

Welcome to the new half term! We're excited to share what your children will be learning about this half term. 

English 

In Writing, we will have plenty of opportunities to showcase our fantastic knowledge of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We will be working on the following areas:  

• Word class  

• Dictionary skills  

• Apostrophes  

• Editing skills  

• Spelling and grammar  

• Expanded noun phrases  

• Commas in a list  

We will be starting a brand-new class text Stitch Head. This is a fantastic text by Guy Bass and we are really excited about starting it. Asking your children questions about our class text helps a lot with their speaking, listening and retrieval skills, to see what they can remember as we read this text at school.  

The children will continue to be encouraged to deliver a high standard of presentation and take pride in the development of their writing. Don’t forget to check out X to see some of our incredible writing. 

In our Reading sessions, we'll be unpicking the story of Stitch Head and exploring other intriguing extracts. These texts will provide a great opportunity for discussions and insights. Additionally, we'll focus on essential reading skills such as retrieval, inferring, sequencing, fact versus opinion, and summarising. 

Things to do at home: 

It is still really important that the children continue to read as often as they can, reading a wide range of texts. Don’t forget, you’re never too old for a bedtime story, you can keep reading to your children too and sharing books together. Please continue to update your reading records regularly. Children should be undertaking regular reading practice at home; even as little as a regular five minutes a day can make a huge impact on their learning. 

When writing at home, get your child to read what they have written aloud to you as you both check that what they have written makes sense. You can then discuss ways to improve the writing using our X posts as an inspiration. 

Maths 

In Maths we are continuing to study multiplication and division. We will be scaling number facts by 10, for example using 3 × 4 = 12 then scaling up to 3 × 40 = 120 and 30 × 4 = 120. We will move on to explore the inverse operation with division, for example using 12 ÷ 3 = 4 to derive 120 ÷ 3 = 40.  We will further deepen our understanding by comparing groups of numbers using multiplication and division structures. We will then apply that understanding and solve calculations using the expanded method. We will develop that knowledge further by beginning to solve calculations that may involve exchanging between the tens and ones.  

We will then begin the next topic which is length and perimeter where we will look at a variety of units of measure; millimetres, centimetres and metres before the introduction of perimeter. We will then begin to calculate the perimeter of shapes. This will include the addition and subtraction of lengths, the comparison of lengths as well as equivalent lengths. We will also be  converting units of measure between mm, cm and metres. 

Things to do at home: 

Keep practicing times tables, the rapid recall of those multiplication facts- this really helps with the multiplication and division lessons. Don’t forget to log onto TTRockstars regularly to help with this. 

Taking a lead from our X posts, get your child to teach you how we add and subtract in school using the column method, when they become the teacher, the learning embeds further. 

Science 

In Science, our focus will be on animals, including humans. We will be identifying how animals. Including humans need the right types and amounts of nutrition. This will give us lots of opportunities to discuss with each other where we get our food from and how we cannot make our own food. We will also be learning about animals and human skeletons and muscles and understanding how and why they are important to us.  

Foundation Subjects 

In Art, we will be developing an understanding of shading and drawing techniques to create pieces of botanica inspired artwork. We will be recognising how artists use shapes in their drawings, how we can create tone and texture. We are excited to see their creativity throughout this project and can’t wait to show you their finished pieces. 

In History, we will be learning about how the lives of children has changed throughout time. The children will learn more about how children’s spare time, health and work has changed. It will be a good opportunity to discuss our previous topic from year 2 and our visit to Hartlebury Castle. The pupils will be using a wide range of resources to support them and help them to make inferences about what life would have been like. We will consolidate this with our trip to the Black Country Living Museum in April. You may even have family or friends that can share what childhood was like for them and give your child the chance to ask questions about how the times have changed.  

In RE, we are focusing on symbolism, and the children will explore the use of fire in many ceremonies and how it is used as a symbol of remembrance. In this unit we will examine the significance of carmines involving fire in community traditions and develop an understanding of how fire is used in Hindu, Christianity and Judaism.  

In PSHE, we’ll be finishing our topic all about Health and Wellbeing off by thinking about healthy diets, how to communicate our feelings and breaking down barriers into small goals to help us succeed. We then move onto learning about safety. We are going to learn about how we can help in an emergency and learn how to help if someone has been stung or bitten, followed by a recap on online safety. We will revisit our knowledge on the importance of being kind online. You can help at home too! Why not set some of your own small, achievable goals and think about how you can help your child communicate their feelings?  

In Spanish, we will be concentrating on learning the number from 0-15 in Spanish. This will allow pupils to be able to identify amounts, count and expand their Spanish knowledge. Do not worry if you cannot speak Spanish, we are sure your child will be eager to share what they have learnt with you. 

In PE, we’ll be focusing on handball and hockey. We will be concentrating on developing hand eye co-ordination, communication, agility and our decision-making skills. In particular we will work on passing, dribbling, defending and shooting. 

Here is a remainder of our PE days: 

• 3A – Monday and Thursday 

• 3B -  Monday and Wednesday 

• 3G – Monday and Friday  

• 3T – Monday and Friday 

On the days of P.E. lessons or after school sports clubs, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here. Please ensure that they still have a warm, waterproof coat for lunch and play times on these days too.  

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Learning at Home

All classes are on X (formerly Twitter) so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  Please let us know if a paper copy is required. 

You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as Times Table Rockstars. Times tables will be worked on through our Maths Fluency lessons and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.

Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library. 

Thank you for your continued support in your child’s education. We look forward to an enriching half term filled with exploration and discovery in 2025! 

The Year 3 team  

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter)!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on X.  Click a button below to find your child's class on X.

Aspire 

In English, we have focused on a range of texts and predominantly looked at Varjak Paw using great determination to read our class book.  We have written a diary entry and character description in detail where we showed resilience to write each paragraph with a specific focus. There were some brilliant pieces of writing which shows how hard we have worked in English. 

During Maths, we have become more confident and used decisiveness using a range of methods in addition and subtraction. We have looked at adding and subtracting tens and hundreds columns, 2- and 3-digit numbers and challenged ourselves on worded and missing number problems. 

Inspire 

In Geography, our topic has been volcanoes and why people live there. We have shown great enthusiasm looking at different volcanoes around the world such as Mount Everest and Mount Etna.  Also, we have looked at earthquakes, tsunamis and the positives and negatives of living near a volcano. 

There has been lots of creativity in our Science lessons in our Forces and Magnets topic. We have planned and performed experiments, made predictions about what may happen using our knowledge and logic and even evaluated why such things happen. Also, we made a magnetic compass and designed our own game to consolidate our knowledge. 

Teamwork 

We have shown lots of respect looking at a range of different linkages and levers books in Design and Technology. We have explored a range of books, then designed and made our own book which all look fantastic! Afterwards, we showed great positivity in evaluating our book and others. 

Tri-golf has been our focus in PE lessons and all the time we used brilliant respect and consideration watching others and performing our shots. Again, this was used throughout our Dance lessons where we worked in small groups again using respect and consideration towards the rest of the class. 

Have a brilliant couple of weeks off! Don't forget to log onto TTRockstars and keep up the reading! Doing both of these will really help going into Spring 1. You have worked incredibly hard this term, using our school values at all times. It is great to witness how much you have grown already and the progress you have made.

Have a brilliant Christmas with your family and best wishes for the New Year! 

Mr Arnold

Aspire 

This half term, 3B have gone above and beyond. During English, pupils have shown creativity when writing a diary entry about our class text ‘Varjak Paw’. The children have completed their writing piece using different techniques such as sentence structures, descriptive language and using a range of word classes. Overall, the children were extremely proud to share and read their work to their peers. 3B showed determination throughout our Maths units as we found adding and subtracting numbers with exchange a bit challenging. Nonetheless, the children’s confidence grew through being resilient and having a go at questions that they may have found challenging.  

Inspire 

The children have been extremely creative during our DT lessons, where we are currently creating a book using levers and linkages. The children enjoyed designing their own characters and thinking about how their characters will move. Enthusiasm has also been displayed through our geography topic, where children were eager to learn all about volcanoes and earthquakes.  

Teamwork 

During our science unit ‘forces and magnets,’ the children worked together during our practical investigations. Our favourite science experiment that we have conducted was creating a kite and making it fly using magnets. The children also showed amazing teamwork skills throughout our P.E topic, where they had to build a dance sequence.  

To those celebrating Christmas have a great time and if you are not celebrating enjoy the break! Stay safe and don’t forget to read and test your timetables while you are away! 

Miss Bousyf

Aspire 

The Autumn half term has been a long, but very exciting nonetheless! Pupils have shown creativity and enthusiasm during their dance lessons. We have been replicating a routine and then added our own styles to the dances we performed. It has been great to see the level of enthusiasm throughout the topic. Not only have the children been working hard during their PE lessons they all have endeavoured to improve their timetables. 3G amazingly won the first tournament in style, winning with a large lead! The commitment, determination and competitiveness shown by the children was admirable. I was so proud of the contributions given by the children in their own time! 

Inspire 

In Maths we have been working hard to develop new skills and to adopt new methods to increase our knowledge around addition and subtraction. The children have shown resilience and determination throughout this subject, which again has made me particularly proud. Across the class, there has been an increase in confidence and positivity, independent application, and a broadening of understanding.  In D.T., we have created our own fully functioning books with pages that contain mechanisms. 3G have shown great creativity throughout the topic, designing pages with thought and when problems are encountered, being able to overcome them by proposing solutions. 

Teamwork 

In our R.E. lessons, we have been learning about the importance of water.  We have looked at how water is important to our health, and how it is symbolically used within various religions.  We were considerate when reviewing how water is important to a range of religions.  We have found out that water is spiritually linked to many religions and is found within important stories from the various religious texts. In outdoor learning, we have shown teamwork skills throughout our lessons. We have foraged for components to make an artistic picture using foliage, recreated an earthquake by jumping to mimic the vibrations and searched for signs of autumn within the outdoor learning space that were relevant to the five senses. 

To those celebrating Christmas have a great time and if you are not celebrating enjoy the break! Stay safe and don’t forget to read and test your timetables while your away! Ho ho ho. 

Mr Gunter

Aspire  

What a great term we have had. The excitement of our topics has meant the children have worked tirelessly the whole time. In English, we have been focused on a range of texts with Varjak Paw being our main focus. With consistent determination we have completed our class book, and what a riveting book it has been.  We have based a diary entry and character description around the characters in the book. The children have shown resilience when writing each paragraph with its specific focus. There were some outstanding pieces of writing which only demonstrate each child’s willingness to learn. This has made me extremely proud of them all.  

Inspire 

In Maths we have been developing new skills to adopt new methods and increase our knowledge around addition and subtraction. 3T have shown resilience and determination throughout, which again has made me particularly proud. I have seen a marked increase in confidence, positivity and independence within the application of skills, and a deeper level of understanding. In Geography, our topic has been all about volcanoes and why people live there. The children have shown a great deal of enthusiasm when looking at different volcanoes around the world. We have also, looked at earthquakes, tsunamis and weighed up the positives and negatives of living near a volcano. Science has lent itself to creative lessons during our Forces and Magnets topic. We have organised and carried out experiments, made predictions about what might happen and using our knowledge and scientific reasoning we have been able to evaluate why certain things have happened.  

Teamwork 

3T have shown a great deal of respect when looking at a range of linkages and levers contained within books in Design Technology. We have explored a wide variety of books; we have then designed and made our own book which all look fantastic! Afterwards, we’ve shown great consideration when evaluating our books and other books. 

Our focus in PE lessons these last few weeks has been around dance, working in groups we have been able to perform our very own dance routines based around moves we have been taught.  The class have been very respectful when watching other people perform. 

I wish you all a peaceful couple of weeks off! Don't forget to try and log into TTRockstars and continue with the reading! Both of these activities will really help going into Spring 1.

You have worked exceptionally well this term, always demonstrating our school values. Have a wonderful two weeks with your family and I wish you all the best for the New Year! 

Mrs Thomas

It is so lovely to see our pupils back after the half term break. We hope you had a lovely time. 

We really appreciate any parental support that can be given at home through helping your child with basic number skills (times tables, counting and number bonds) and hearing them read regularly.  

Any important messages and announcements will be emailed to you and can also be found on our school X (Twitter), so please ensure you are following the school account and the relevant class for your child. If you need any support, please let one of us know. 

Over the next half term, we will be learning about: 

English 

In our English lessons we will be continuing to work on the following areas: 

• Sentence structures and types  

• Use of basic punctuation , . ! ? “ 

• Using descriptive language/expanded noun phrases  

• Word classes e.g. nouns, adjectives and adverbs 

• Handwriting — correct letter formation  

Our class text over the next half term is Varjak Paw by SF Said. It is a very interesting text that we are very excited to begin. Varjak Paw is a Mesopotamian Blue cat from a large family that live comfortably inside the Contessa's large, grand house. Yet, when the Gentleman arrives with his odd black cats, Varjak and his grandfather the Elder Paw believe that something strange is going on. 

Please try and ask your children questions about our class text, this helps a lot with their speaking, listening and retrieval skills. 

Maths 

We will continue to revise number and place value, in particular the four operations. We will be learning to: 

• Add and subtract numbers mentally, including: a three-digit number and 1s, a three-digit number and 10s, a three-digit number and 100s 

• Add and subtract numbers with up to 3 digits, using formal written methods of addition and subtraction 

• Estimate the answer to a calculation and use inverse operations to check answers 

• Solve problems, including missing number problems, using number facts, place value, and more complex addition and subtraction 

• Recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables 

• Write and calculate mathematical statements for multiplication and division using the multiplication tables that they know 

• Solve problems, including missing number problems, involving multiplication and division 

Children are expected to know their 3, 4 and 8 times tables by the end of Year 3 and should already be fluent in their 2, 5 and 10 times tables from Year 2. We would be extremely grateful for any practise that can be done at home too. Head to Times Table Rockstars for lots of challenges and battles!

Science 

Our next Science topic is Forces and Magnets. We will be learning to: 

• Compare how things move on different surfaces 

• Notice that some forces need contact between 2 objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance 

• Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others 

• Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials 

• Describe magnets as having 2 poles 

• Predict whether 2 magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing 

Geography – Volcanoes 

• Learning why volcanoes erupt and about the two main types of volcano. 

• Understand how humans classify volcanoes. 

• Mapping volcanoes globally and using digital imagery to explore them. 

Design and Technology – Levers and Linkages

• Understanding how a range of mechanisms create movement 

• Design a product criteria that meets the needs of the user 

• Developing design ideas further 

Computing 

This term we will be learning about Word. We will be looking at the different features of Microsoft Word and familiarising ourselves with the keyboard. These include: Changing the size of the text, adding and inserting pictures, bullet points for a list and inserting tables. 

P.E./Sports: Tri Golf and Dance

On the days of P.E. lessons or after school sports clubs, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here. Please ensure that they still have a warm, waterproof coat for lunch and play times on these days too.  

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

R.E./P.H.S.E. 

We will continue to look at family and relationships in P.H.S.E looking at family relationships and health and well-being.   

In RE, we will be learning about the unit ‘Where do we get our morals from?’ We will be able to: Pupils who are secure will be able to: Explain what morals, rules and guidance are, identify some of the ways people decide what is right and wrong and identify similarities and differences between different religious guidance.

Learning at Home

All classes are on X (formerly Twitter) so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  Please let us know if a paper copy is required. 

You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as Times Table Rockstars. Times tables will be worked on through our Maths Fluency lessons and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.

Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library. 

Winter Disco

Yardley Fundraisers (our PTFA) will be holding a Winter Disco for Years 3 and 4 on the following date:

• Tuesday 3rd December / 5.30pm to 6.45pm

Click here for further information and how to book.

Thank you for your continued support,  

The Year 3 Team

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter)!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on X.  Click a button below to find your child's class on X.

What a brilliant start to life in Year 3! Everyone has settled in so well and this is just only the beginning of our Year 3 journey together.

This term in English has mainly focused around our class text Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have produced some amazing pieces of writing about this.

In Maths, we have consolidated and then developed our place value knowledge. We have also worked on our addition and subtraction.

Science has been fantastic and we've shown a good understanding of rocks and soils. Focusing on their properties and performing tests to assess their properties. We've conducted experiments and evaluated the results.

In Art and Design we enjoyed learning about prehistoric art.  The pupils created their own prehistoric painting on a rough surface.

In History, we have learnt about the Iron, Stone and Bronze Ages and looked at how life was very different to now.

The children have worked hard in P.E. We started off with participating in a range of teambuilding activities which we thoroughly enjoyed and rose to the challenge. This has helped us to understand one of our main school values in teamwork. We have also completed our gymnastics topic - learning different balances, jumps and rolls.

The children should be immensely proud of themselves this term and are all a great asset to the school.

Enjoy half term and don't forget to log into TTRockstars and keep up the reading! Both of which will really help going into Autumn 2!

Mr Arnold and Mrs Joof

What a fantastic start to the year we have had in Year 3! I am so proud of every single one of you, and it is truly amazing to see how far you have all come this half term. 

This half term in English, we revisited lots of different skills, including grammar, punctuation, handwriting, word classes, and sentence types. This assisted us when we created a setting description for our class text, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', where we described Willy Wonka's factory. We embedded a wide range of skills, and the children then moved on to persuasive advertisements, where we used persuasive vocabulary to encourage the reader to buy Willy Wonka's chocolate.

In Maths, we focused on developing our skills in place value and moving on to addition and subtraction. We have found adding and subtracting bigger numbers a bit of a challenge, but we persevered by showing determination and resilience to learning. 

In Science, we have been learning about rocks, soils, and fossils. We consistently demonstrated a desire to learn during the various practical investigations, such as measuring the permeability of rocks and soils. Other experiments that we enjoyed included evaluating the durability and characteristics of rocks. 

Throughout our foundation topics, we explored the prehistoric age, focusing on how people in the Stone Age lived and how this developed in the Iron Age. Our art project focused on the 'prehistoric man' and children had a go at creating their own prehistoric painting on a rough surface.

I am extremely proud of you all and hope you have a restful break.

Miss Bousyf

It's been tough making the transition from Year 2 to Year 3 but we are all progressing. We’ve made massive changes but we all have adapted well, which means things can only get better! We recapped on basic skills to ensure we consolidated.

In English we have covered sentence types, expanded noun phrases, word classes and comprehension amongst other things too. Handwriting and reading are being heavily pushed to get our presentation to a high standard and to further develop our reading ability.

During Maths we have developed our place value knowledge. We've started looking at addition and subtraction learning about some very tricky concepts such as adding 10s and subtracting them across a hundred. We've used concrete apparatus, pictorial methods and represented numbers in different ways. After the break we shall be moving on to column addition and subtraction which should be fun.

In foundation we enjoyed learning about prehistoric art. We tried using a range of mediums and techniques to further develop our skill and ability. The children also took pride in creating a group piece of art with positive and negative prints. In History, we learnt about the iron, stone and bronze age and looked at how life was very different to now. We looked at a range of primary sources and secondary too to give us a better understanding of what life was like.

Science has been fantastic and we've shown a good understanding of rocks and soils. We have performed a number of tests testing durability, permeability and even looked at how soils are made up of a range of layers.

The holiday has arrived and I think everyone deserves a good break. Hopefully we all come back recharged and ready to go!

 P.S. Don't forget that lots of reading and timetables work will really help!

Take care Mr G and 3G!

What a fantastic start to the year!

In English we have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it has given us a wealth of descriptive language which we have then used in our writing. The children have really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and have worked amazingly hard and have produced some excellent writing.

In Maths we began this term by looking back at place value, this includes how we represent numbers and what the value of each would be. Since completing that we have begun to work on addition and subtraction. There is a particular focus on the key methods, especially when crossing the tens. The children have been shown how to exchange one hundred for ten tens, this has made maths more accessible.

In Science, we have been looking at rocks and soils. We have been looking at which rocks; how they are formed and whether some of them are permeable, or impermeable. We also looked at soils we carried out an experiment to monitor a soils permeability, the results gave us enough information that we could decide which soil would be good for a farmer to use.      

We have been focussing on prehistoric art during our Art topic this term. We have researched natural materials that would have been used prehistorically, (grass, berries, flowers, branches and rocks) to show how limited colour was. We then have made our own prehistoric art, we created a background out of couscous and rice, which gave us the texture of a rock face. We completed our art topic by creating a positive and negative hand print. These would have represented a family tree type of prehistoric art work.

During PE we have been learning about gymnastics, we have been practising balances, rolls and jumps, ensuring that they are done safely and confidently. Towards the end we also took some of those moves onto the equipment.  

In our Computing lessons, the children have worked on what digital safety is, what it looks like and who they can talk to regarding any concerns they may have. We have looked at a variety of situations through an animated film. This has raised discussions and a great awareness of digital safety.  

This has been an impressive start to the year, the children have been working extremely hard. I am delighted with the progress we have achieved.

Enjoy your well-deserved break.

Mrs Thomas

It is so lovely to see our pupils back after the 6 weeks holiday. We are really pleased to see you all! 

Year 3 is important for children as it provides the foundation for many of the skills they will learn throughout Key Stage 2.  We really appreciate any parental support that can be given at home through helping your child with basic number skills (times tables, counting and number bonds) and hearing them read regularly.   If you have any questions related to the reopening of school, please see the ‘Noticeboard’ area on the school website. 

This half term we will be learning about: 

English

In our English lessons we will be working on the following areas: 

• Phonics – children will reviewing their phonic knowledge and will continue to develop their sound recognition skills daily  

• Sentence structures and types  

• Use of basic punctuation , . ! ? “ 

• Using descriptive language/expanded noun phrases  

• Word classes e.g. nouns, adjectives and adverbs 

• Handwriting — correct letter formation  

Reading records will be issued to each child over the coming weeks. Children should be undertaking regular reading practise at home; even as little as a regular five minutes a day can make a huge impact on their learning. 

Maths

We will begin by looking at number and place value. We will be learning about: 

• Reading and writing numbers in digits and words  

• Place value and identifying the digits in a 3 digit number  

• Sequencing and ordering numbers  

• Mental and written methods for addition and subtraction, including introducing the column method  

Children are expected to know their 3, 4 and 8 times tables by the end of Year 3 and should already be fluent in their 2, 5 and 10 times tables from Year 2. We would be extremely grateful for any practise that can be done at home too.  

Science

Our first Science topic is Rocks, Fossils and Soils. We will be learning about: 

• How fossils are made  

• How soils are made  

• Looking at the properties of different rocks and investigating them  

• Classifying and testing permeability and durability 

Foundation subjects

• History – Stone Age and Iron Age 

• Art - Prehistoric Painting 

• Geography – Volcanoes 

• Design and Technology – Levers and Linkages      

Computing 

This term we will be learning about Digital safety. We will begin by completing computer safety agreements. Children will learn about posting online and the how to be responsible. They will become more familiar with when to talk to someone if you have a problem online. 

P.E./Sports: Team building and Gymnastics 

On the days of P.E. lessons or after school sports clubs, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here. Please ensure that they still have a warm, waterproof coat for lunch and play times on these days too if necessary.  

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

R.E./P.H.S.E. 

We will be learning about sharing and being generous - linking it to Islam and Christianity. We will also be looking at the festival of Harvest.  

Learning at Home

All classes are on X (formerly Twitter) so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  Please let us know if a paper copy is required. 

You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as Times Table Rockstars. Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.

Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Year 3 Team

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter)!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on X.  Click a button below to find your child's class on X.

What a fantastic year we have had in Year 3! You have shown resilience at all times. Your enthusiasm and determination will be missed and I hope you take these characteristics with you in Year 4.

In Maths, we have been looking at a range of different skills and getting even better at them. We have really enjoyed learning about money, time, shape and statistics. All in which are lifelong skills needed for the future! We have all tried really hard to learn our times tables as well.

This half term in English, we have been using all of our different skills to carry out a range of tasks. We have wrote narratives and instructions linked with our foundation topics. I was so impressed with the quality of writing and how much effort you have put in. We have also thoroughly enjoyed our class read of Stitch Head this term.

In Science, we have developed our working scientifically skills. We carried out a number of investigations, including: effects of exercise on our heart rate, testing different liquids to see which has the stronger magnetic force using paperclips and seeing how powerful and dangerous the sun is. We also researched different scientists which inspired us. Overall, we made sensible predictions, clear observations and interpreted our results.

In Foundation, we loved making a healthy wrap filled with delicious foods and taste testing to see which foods we wanted to add to our wraps. In Geography, we really enjoyed going on a local walk to see how land is used in Yardley and why. As always we have loved our Spanish lessons and been able to ask and talk about different colours. In PE we had so much fun during Sports Day and all the children showed great sportsmanship and were well supported. We have also done really well in football and rounders.

I have really enjoyed teaching all of you. I hope you all have a great summer holiday and I look forward to seeing you in Year 4.

Mr Arnold

The Summer holiday is here! The children have earned a well-deserved rest and make sure they don’t become too excited about being the bigger children in Year 4. Please remind them that their teachers always remember them and always appreciate hearing how they are progressing.

In English, as you always do, encourage your children to read as much as they can. Comics and magazines can be just as good texts as conventional books! We have written narratives and instructions linked with our foundation topics. The children have continued to become more confident with their writing and more confident at identifying the grammatical features they are using. We have also completed our class book, Stitch Head, this term.

In Science, we have focused on the skills which allow us to work scientifically. The children have also carried out a number of investigations. We have investigated and explored: effects of exercise on our heart rate, tested different liquids to see which has the stronger magnetic force, by using paperclips, and seen how powerful and dangerous the sun is. We researched the achievements of different scientists to inspire us. As well as all this, the children have made sensible predictions, recorded their observations and interpreted results.

In our core or foundation lessons, we have looked at settlements and the history of Yardley. It appears the triangle of roads surrounding school and the flats goes back over two hundred years! 3C have made healthy wraps filled with delicious foods and taste testing them too. We have loved our Spanish lessons and been able to ask and talk about different colours. Sports Day was greatly enjoyable and all the children showed great sportsmanship and were well supported. We were even lucky and had the cooler weather! The children have also continued to play football and rounders with Miss Ward and become even more skilful!

Time is always one of the most complicated concepts for children to understand as there are two slightly different digital ways to display it and the original analogue clockfaces to master. The children would appreciate looking at clocks at different times to help them. If you have a watch your child can borrow from you then this always encourages them to be “grown-up” like their adults.

Try and continue to encourage your child to use TT Rockstars too. Purple Mash can be very useful if the children ever run out of things to do. In Maths we have also looked at money and the addition and subtraction of different values.

I have had a very interesting 2024 with you all. I hope you all have a safe summer holiday and remember that however hot it gets that open water like rivers, lakes and canals are best avoided. I want to see everyone back safely in 2024.

Most important of all, have fun!

Mr Reid

Dear 3D,

I cannot believe I am writing this in your final week of Year 3! I have been so lucky to get to know each and every one of you over the past few months. It has been amazing teaching you all of the interesting topics in Year 3 and watching you grow into the wonderful people that you have become this year. It has been a slightly different year to normal with you starting the year off with Mrs Danks and ending the year with me, but as a class you have shown an incredible amount of resilience and perseverance to this change and for that I am so proud of you. 

Your skills in English, Maths and Reading have progressed leaps and bounds this year, particularly your handwriting where most of you are now writing tremendously well. We have had so much fun this year playing different games to help learn your times tables and your progress in this is definitely something to be proud of! I love how much your love for reading has continued to flourish and I hope this continues for all of you as you continue on your learning journey. Finally, we have had some real fun learning all about the different topics across the curriculum. It’s been wonderful to see all of your enthusiasm grow within the topics, especially in the Geography topic this term, after our fieldwork trip. 

I do not doubt that you are all going to love Year 4 and continue to thrive! I’m so excited to hear all about your achievements. Your futures are amazingly bright! Take every chance you get and continue to enjoy learning. 

Have a brilliant summer holiday and I will see you in September. 

Well done 3D!

Miss Trevis

Wow yet again, another half term is over. I can’t believe we’re ending our time together in year 3. 

 I would just like to say a big well done to all pupils in 3T for their continued hard work and motivation over the last few weeks, I am delighted with the progress you have made and I hope you have had as much fun with our topics as I have. I know you are all looking forward to your summer break and equally your return.  

We have been reading Stitch Head, which has a different genre than we are used to and because of that it has raised some very interesting conversations. We have continued to use a range of texts to inspire our writing. We have seen a huge development in punctuation, grammar and spelling. All pupils have continued to master their distinctive writing style and I couldn't be happier with the level of maturity within.  

We are continuing to work on the rapid recall of times tables, we will continue to record our scores every week to ensure that we are continually making steady progress ready for year 4. In Maths, we have also been continuing to strengthen our skills of the four operations alongside identifying 2D and 3D shapes and their properties and beginning to identify and represent data in bar charts.

 Geography this term has seen us go out into the local area to look at and observe the area we live in. We then compared it to an area in New Delhi. There were several comparisons that could be made, along with many differences. Our structural art day saw us combine areas of Maths; shapes, this helped us build sturdy stable structures using knowledge of 3D shapes.

 Science has continued to validate our scientific understanding with us experimenting in greater depth some of the observational exercises we had previously set up to study.    

 Our skills in Music, Spanish, Outdoor Learning, RE and PE will continue next year. Please check out our Twitter for further information on what we have been getting up to. 

I would like to send you all a great big thank you for a fantastic year and for all of your support this year.

I would like to wish you all a wonderful, safe summer.  

Thank you again

Mrs Thomas

We have now begun our final half term of Year 3. It is so lovely to see our pupils back after the break. We hope you had a lovely time.

We thank you for your continued support as Year 3 is a very important year for children as it provides the foundation for many of the skills that they will learn throughout Key Stage 2.

We really appreciate any parental support that can be given at home through helping your child with basic number skills (times tables, counting and number bonds) and hearing them read regularly.

Any important messages and announcements will be emailed to you and can also be found on our school X (Twitter) page, so please ensure you are following the school account and the relevant class for your child. If you need any support, please let one of us know.

Over the next half term, we will be learning about: 

English

In our English lessons we will be working on the following areas: 

• Word class 

• Dictionary skills 

• Apostrophes 

• Editing skills 

• Spelling and grammar 

• Expanded noun phrases 

• Commas in a list 

We will be starting a brand-new class text Stitch Head. This is a fantastic text by Guy Bass and we are really excited about starting it. Asking your children questions about our class text helps a lot with their speaking, listening and retrieval skills, to see what they can remember as we read this text at school. 

Please continue to update your reading records regularly. Children should be undertaking regular reading practise at home; even as little as a regular five minutes a day can make a huge impact on their learning. 

Maths

We will be exploring money! It is always useful to give the children a chance to add real coins as it speeds up their mental calculations: especially if you ‘accidentally’ give them incorrect change. 

We will also be covering work on time, shape and statistics. Time can be a particularly confusing concept for children, and the round analogue clock is often confusing. Minutes to the hour is often worth repeatedly showing them whenever possible. Mr Reid still remembers the face of the kitchen clock which helped him! 

We will also be learning about length and perimeter, fractions, mass and capacity. This will prepare us for our later topics about money, time, shape and statistics. 

Continue to encourage the children to get faster with the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Remind them that Times Table Rockstars is an excellent way to do this. We consolidate these first as if you know 7 x 4 = 28 then they will also know its inverse 4 x 7 = 28! 

Encourage the children to try mentally adding and subtracting two-digit and three-digit numbers. The trick is to use their knowledge of place value to partition the numbers into tens and ones. 34 + 37 might become 60 + 11 and then 70 + 1. When subtracting 37 – 18 might become 37 – 10 – 8 and then 27 – 8. 

Science

Our next Science topic is 'Working Scientifically'. We will be learning to: 

• Research and find out about different scientists. 

• Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes. 

• Recognise different bones in animals. 

• Set up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests 

• Make careful observations and, where appropriate, take accurate measurements using a range of equipment 

• Gather, record, classify and present data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions 

• Use results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions 

Geography

Are all settlements the same? We will be learning to: 

• Locate some cities in the UK. 

• Describe the difference between villages, towns and cities. 

• Identify features on an OS map using the legend. 

• Describe the different types of land use. 

• Follow a route on an OS map. 

• Discuss reasons for the location of human and physical features. 

• Locate some geographical regions in the UK. 

• Identify and begin to offer explanations about changes to features in the local area. 

• Describe the location of New Delhi. 

• Identify some human and physical features in New Delhi. 

• State some similarities and differences between land use and features in New Delhi and the local area. 

 Computing

This term we will be exploring game design using Microsoft PowerPoint and looking at presentations. We will be learning how to: 

• Use and create a hyperlink. 

• Insert new slides. 

• Create an audio. 

• Present our presentation to an audience. 

We will also be looking at Digital Wellbeing helping the children to manage and enjoy their digital lives. 

P.E./Sports: Football/Rounders

On the days of P.E. lessons or after school sports clubs, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here. Please ensure that they still have a warm, waterproof coat for lunch and play times on these days too if necessary.  

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

We will be looking at Economic wellbeing in P.H.S.E. We will be able to: 

• Considering the pros and cons of payment methods. 

• Contemplating budgeting benefits. 

• Planning and calculating within a budget. 

• Discussing attitudes and feelings about money. 

• Reflecting on future careers based on goals. 

• Challenging and understanding workplace stereotypes. 

In RE, we will be learning about being courageous, confident, being hopeful and visionary - linking it to different religions. 

Learning at Home 

All classes are on X (Twitter) so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download this week using the button below.  Please let us know if a paper copy is required.  You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as Times Table Rockstars.

Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.

Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library. 

Thank you for your continued support,

The Year 3 Team

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Don’t forget to follow our classes on Twitter.  Click a button below to find your child's class on Twitter.