Another busy week

Over the last fortnight we have had a really busy time but the year 3 children are rising to the challenges and enjoying themselves. We are well underway with the new school initiative of Times table rock stars. The children are all competent at logging on and are practising hard at home and school. We hope you have enjoyed seeing them practise and get quicker at home. As the children develop in their confidence, we will set different tables and hopefully their speed and accuracy will continue to flourish. It is a really fun way to ensure the children are engaging with the tables. If anyone is having teething problems still, please don't hesitate to come in and ask us for help.

In Maths lessons we have moved on from Place value and we are now working on calculation. We are focusing first on addition and subtraction. The children are being taught lots of different approaches to tackle calculation and they apply the one that best suits them. We are using what we refer to as concrete apparatus, like base 10, pictorial methods like number lines and different models and then we move onto more formal written methods. Why not ask your child how they would answer-

678 + ? = 978 

 or  

567 - ? = 507

In  English we have also changed our text type and we are now working on non-fiction. We have started with instructional texts and last week we rehearsed oral instructions like how to get dressed in the morning, how to get dressed for a football match and how to ride a bike. By practising them first verbal we were able to gain confidence in ensuring we had chronological order, used time connectives and imperative words(bossy verbs). Why not ask your child to recall their instructions to you of how to get dressed in the morning? Then we started looking at a fun text called 'How to Trap a Troll'. We applied the same approach we usually do for writing where we text map our text, box up our plan, apply the grammar we have learnt for the unit and then write our instructions, independently. Can your children remember any of the key ingredients that instructions need? How do they differ from our story writing? 

In Science we are continuing with our Rocks and soils topic and this week we looked at the minerals that are hidden in our foods. We referred to it as Rocks for dinner, which the children found quite funny.  We have attached a quiz that your children might want to have a go at.

Rocks and Soils quiz

 In topic we are continuing to look at the Ancient Egyptians and how they used to live. We also tie this in with Geography and learning about where Egypt is and what type of country it is today. 

This week we were also fortunate enough to have an afternoon of languages. We were thoroughly immersed into experiencing lots of different languages, participated in craft activities and had an engaging school assembly where we all learnt something new. A huge thank you to Madame Baike for making this happen. Why not ask your children what countries Cedar and Rowan studied more closely and can they recall any of the language they learnt?

Thank you for taking the time to read our Blog. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to meeting you all on Tuesday at Parent Consultations.

The Year 3 Team