Friday 29 June 2018

Good afternoon

Over the last fortnight year 3 have continued to work hard, despite the weather. We have been fortunate enough to be able to go on the field, which has been great to have so much area to play in. This week though, as the temperatures rose, children were allowed to go into the shaded hall at lunch to calmly watch a film, instead of playing in the hat. Thank you to all the parents who have sent their children in with a hat and drinks bottle, it's really beneficial for the children to have both of these during this heatwave.

In English we have started a new unit called 'Take a Book', which is where we read a whole text, discuss it and use it as a prompt for our writing, like a stimulus. We chose a delightful text written by Michael Morpurgo called 'The Morning I met a whale'. The children have really enjoyed the story, which is based on true facts, where a bottle nosed whale gets stranded in the River Thames. The event happened in 2006 and the rescue operation was televised. 

The children wrote a diary from Michael's perspective (the main character in the Morpurgo book); then they wrote a newspaper report from the event and included quotes from onlookers. Later next week, they will write their third text type from this unit in the form of a letter to environmentalists expressing their concerns for the whale population and how it could be helped. 

Thames whale rescue

Thames Whale rescue televised

In Maths we have revised fractions from the beginning, as this was an area that we identified from the assessments that year 3 could revisit and consolidate further. We are pleased to say that they are understanding more about fractions.

Fractions practise

Equivalent fractions

In Science, we have continued looking at light and dark and have enjoyed lots of practical experiments where we have tested torches on different materials and lots more. Hopefully, next week we will get outside, whilst it is still glorious weather and create our own shadows.

We have had lots of fun in computing. We have created our own iMovie's where we planned what we were going to film and say and then recorded it. Next week, we are going to watch and evaluate each others work. I wonder if they'll be an Oscars awarded? 

Reminder for sports day (Tuesday 3rd July):
The children should come to school dressed in their PE Kits please and wearing a T-shirt in their house colour. 
They must all have a sun hat to wear and please apply sun cream in the morning- it is going to be a hot day!
Please note house colours have now changed:

Jupiter – Green

Saturn – Red
Mars – Yellow
Neptune – Blue

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine!

The Year 3 Team 

Saturday 16 June 2018

Here comes the sun!

Over the last two weeks, we have been pleased to see lots of sunshine, as it has made assessments more manageable. Having a test and then a really good run about on the field is a good combination for all.This term we decided to spread the assessments over a longer period of time, which has been beneficial to everyone.

The children have taken a reading comprehension where their skills of inference and deduction were put to the test. This comprises of a non-fiction, fiction and poetry section. The children have been practising these skills all year in class and with the comprehension book that we send home. They are used to comprehensions and everyone tackled it with determination. We also did a grammar and spelling test. The grammar involved the children understanding word class terminology like: adverb, preposition and apostrophe. This is the language they have been using all year, so there were no surprises and the children approached the test with confidence. The spelling we used was a combination of words that we had been sending home all year, so again no surprises and we were pleased with the outcomes.

Lastly, they had three maths papers: an arithmetic paper and 2 reasoning. Arithmetic covers calculation and number and reasoning looks at geometry, statistics, calculation, fractions and measures. The children were brilliant, they read questions carefully (as we had suggested), looked for key vocabulary and then tackled the problem. The children have all been excellent and approached the assessments with maturity and enthusiasm.

In addition to the tests, we have started a new science topic called Light and Shadows, which is going to be a fun and engage unit. We deliberately teach it in the summer term so we can use the sun, so let's hope we haven't underestimated the British weather!

In terms of sport, we are continuing our weekly swimming lesson at Aldwickbury, athletics and this week we had the added bonus of an afternoon of sport: the Crabtree World Cup! The last few matches to see who the winning team is will be played at the summer fete next Saturday.

Enjoy some sunshine and World Cup football and thank you for your continued support.

The Year Three Team