Friday 23 June 2017

Assessment week

Well done to all of year 3 for a fantastic week of work. Despite the hot weather, they have carried on showing resilience, perseverance and enthusiasm for the tests this week. All the teachers have really admired how they have simply got on with it with very little fuss, showing great maturity and clearly ready for year four.

This week we have tested the children with two maths papers- arithmetic and reasoning. The reasoning paper looked at all areas of maths from shape and space, missing numbers and handling data.  The arithmetic paper looked purely at the four rules of number and applying their knowledge to calculation.

The reasoning paper
E.g. 393 = ____ + 90 + ____
 or
Can you draw a hexagon with a ruler and a pencil on this squared paper?
or
Can you measure the longest side of this triangle?

The arithmetic paper
of   36    or      456 + 10     or     398 + 1    or      238 + 24
6

In English we tested them on their comprehension, which is divided into three sections - poetry, non fiction and fiction. We chose to tackle the three text types on different days, which we felt was best for the children. We are very pleased with how they have all done, they have obviously been reading lots and have applied their knowledge.

We used this week to write up our stories entitled 'Alien landing' and we are really pleased with the outcomes. The children have paid attention to detail with their punctuation and have considered  their vocabulary choices. Well done year 3.

Lastly we tested them on SPAG, which is broken down into spelling, punctuation and grammar. The spelling was a test of 20 words that are frequently used and the grammar focused on word types like nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, use of tenses and using punctuation correctly.

E.g. Can you put this sentence into the present tense?
Jack went to the shops on Saturday.
or
Can you underline the adverb?
Driving slowly, the car came around the corner.

We also fitted in a jigsaw lesson (social curriculum), circle time, music and PE.

As the children have worked so hard this week we are obviously not setting homework, as we think they deserve a week off from it!

Have a good weekend and thank you for your continued support.
The year 3 team


Sunday 11 June 2017

Welcome back!

This week was a four day so a nice, slow start to the beginning of the second half of the summer term. We saw some sunshine so enjoyed a couple of playtimes on the field in contrast to a couple of wet plays too!
In English we have started a new unit. We are now looking at adventure narrative and the children enjoyed hearing the story of Alien landing. The children are learning to practise following a 5 part story. Why not ask your children if they can tell you what parts there are in a 5 part story? You could also ask them to recite a basic synopsis of the story 'Alien landing' to see if they can recall the main points? On Friday the children wrote their first paragraph to this story trying to include the main points of the story, whilst thinking about the exciting vocabulary they could use, vary their openers and by using a variety of sentence types. Next week we will continue drafting our ideas for the other four parts alongside learning more grammar technique to include to up-level our writing. In addition to this, the children are frequently being encouraged to edit their work as they go along, trying to identify spelling errors, improve punctuation and alter language or structure to make it more of an exciting read.
In Maths in Mrs Mercer's and Mrs Gaines set we have been looking at division, which we will continue this week. We have been practising dividing multiples by 10 and 100.
For example 450 ÷ 10 = 45  or 4500 ÷ 100 = 45.
We then moved onto dividing numbers by one digit, which involved using our tables knowledge.
For example  450 ÷ 9 = 5     We know this because we know that 9 x 5 = 45  or 5 x 9 = 45.
In Mr Clifford's set they have been working on shapes and revising facts about 3d shapes.

In Music we have been practising our songs for this Wednesday. We hope to see many of you there, you are in for a real treat, the year 3's have worked exceptionally hard on their songs.

During our creative curriculum lesson we had a wonderful lesson where the children made lots of discoveries for themselves using books and the Internet to research how the Anglo-Saxons used to live. We discovered facts about what they ate, their clothing and their pastimes. Many of the children were able to recall facts they had learnt from our Big bang visit to St. Albans Abbey, which impressed us all.

This week you could help you child at home by ensuring they know the words for the Music festival on Wednesday, continue to practise their tables as it is sneaking in Maths everyday and to help them learn their spellings.

Next week is assessment week so we would encourage an early night on Sunday and throughout the week to avoid tiredness and to ensure they are all fired up and ready to do their best.

We thank you again for your continued support. A particular thank you to our swimming rota parents this half term, it is really appreciated.

The year 3 team