Autumn Newsletter, Year 3

Welcome back to school!  We hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer holiday and that the children are ready for a busy term ahead.  This newsletter outlines the curriculum areas to be covered this term as well as ways you can help us to ensure the children get the most from their time in Year 3.

Literacy

This is an exciting time in your children’s development in literacy; they are beginning to be able to express themselves more fully, both verbally and in writing, and they are now able to access a far wider range of reading material.  Listening to your child read continues to be very important, as does discussing their understanding of the texts they are reading.  We will be giving daily classroom time to reading, as well as handwriting and spelling activities and writing skills will be developed within the context of text studies in English and learning across the broader curriculum.

Maths

This term, we will be looking at number systems with a focus on place value, addition and subtraction. We will be using a variety of equipment to help the children build their practical mathematical skills to support problem solving and calculations. The children will also be developing their mathematical vocabulary to develop reasoning tasks. We also will be building on the children’s existing mental maths skills, with an emphasis on times tables and adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers with increasing speed and accuracy. The children’s learning will be re-enforced with practical work both within the classroom and at home through homework activities.

Please continue to practise the times tables. We will be focusing on the 3, 4, 6 and 8 times table this year, alongside revising the 2, 5 and 10 times tables.

Topic – History/Geography

Our topic learning this term is based around study of Ancient Egypt.  This topic is rich and interesting and provides many opportunities for cross-curricular learning.  We hope to run an ‘Egyptian Day’ later in the term to consolidate learning and give the children the opportunity to immerse themselves in aspects of ancient Egyptian life.  This will entail dressing up as an Egyptian so keep an eye out for opportunities to acquire suitable clothing – we will send you more details on this once they are confirmed.

Science

Throughout the Autumn term we will be looking at the area of Science ‘Light & Shadow’ followed by ‘Forces’. For light and shadow, we will be exploring reflection, the need for light to be able to see and much more. In forces we will look at how things move on different surfaces and the effects of magnets on different material.

French

The children will begin to learn French this year, starting with basic greetings and learning of numbers.  Any practise of foreign languages is helpful for building confidence so please feel free to practise with your child at home if you feel able!

ICT

This year in computing we will be starting off learning how to de-bug using ‘We are bugs’. Running alongside this we will continue to focus on staying safe online.

Art and DT

This term, we will be linking our artwork with our Topic learning and will be exploring the ancient Egyptian style of figure drawing.  We will also be using sketch books to collect initial sketches, rehearsing art skills and developing our ideas and responses to art.

In DT, we will be developing our needlework skills, designing and producing something for Christmas!

RE and PSHE

In RE, we will be considering the importance of rites of passage in a range of religions and exploring the idea of the holy trinity in Christianity.  Our PSHE will focus on relationships within families as well as revieing our understanding of keeping ourselves safe and who we can turn to if we need to.

Music

In Music we will be developing the skills of listening and appraising, musical activities and perform and review.

PE

Swimming begins this term and will take place on a Monday morning.  The pool requires each child to wear a swimming hat to cover longer hair as well as their own swimming costume/trunks. Whilst additional adults accompany the children to the pool, we would appreciate it if you could work with your own children to improve their speed and independence getting changed. The children will need to keep their PE kits in school for PE on a Tuesday afternoon with Mr Snelling.  After half term, swimming will be replaced by an additional PE session on Thursday.  This term they will be working on developing ball skills and hand eye co-ordination initially followed by gymnastics as the weather turns colder.  Each child will need trainers suitable for use on the field as well as the playground and warm outer layers to be worn over their PE shorts and T-shirts.

Homework

In addition to hearing your child read whenever possible, the children will be set spellings to learn each week, ready for a test on Friday; please assist them with look, cover, write, check activities to consolidate their learning.

One piece of additional homework will usually be set each week – either literacy (set on a Monday for the following Monday) or maths (set on a Wednesday for the following Wednesday) on alternate weeks.  Occasionally, additional homework may be set to support classroom learning, although this will be the exception rather than the rule.  Please help your child to ensure that they understand what has been asked of them and to make sure that their work is clearly and neatly completed.

If you have any concerns or issues you would like to discuss regarding your child, please either touch base with us at the classroom door or contact the office to arrange a longer meeting as necessary.

A plea for help

Are you able to spare any of your time to come in and listen to children read or to help us with trips out of school?  If so, please contact us or the office in the next few days so that we can arrange DBS clearance and put together a timetable of support – many thanks.

Mrs Rudkin and Mrs Clutterbuck