Back to school!

The children have settled back into the school routine after their half term break. In fact a couple of teachers have approached us saying how they are really impressed by the mature working attitude, organisation and enthusiasm the year 3's have. They may still be the youngest in the school but they are rising to all the challenges that face them. Well done year 3.

We have started a new text type this week in English, it is non chronological reports. The children have written a report about Triceratops using a 5 paragraph box it. Why not ask them what a 'box it' is? Or perhaps ask them to show you their actions for the box it!

In Maths Mrs Mercer and Mrs Gaines set are revisiting place value and number and Mr Clifford's set have been looking at Measurement and time.

The children have moved onto hockey in PE and are enjoying learning the new skills of dribbling and applying it to their game.

In science this week we looked at the joints in our body and then had an end of unit test. Why not ask your child if they can tell you the names of our joints and where they are in the body. Next week we are moving onto the new topic of plants.

We have had a couple of assembly practices this week and hopefully we will have a chance to practice in the hall next week. We are looking forward to performing it for you all on Friday morning.

Please remember that it is Book Day on Thursday. The children have been asked to dress up as book characters and on this day we will have an opportunity in class to write our own stories.

Thank you again for your continued support, we do really appreciate your help with homework, reading records and sending the children to school ready and keen to work.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

The year 3 team

A View From Our Window

Last Monday Year 3 went on a walk in the local area. We took our time to enjoy the local area and spotted the differences between urban and rural areas. We talked about the physical and human features of our trip.

We noticed how the land had been used in different areas - a golf course, Thames Valley Water plant, schools, houses, open areas for dog walking and we even saw a ford (which was being enjoyed by a local dog and it thrilled the children to see him).

 It was a successful trip because it made us stop and think about the World outside our window and back in the classroom it prompted lots of conversation and geographical vocabulary.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents that came on the trip to help us. We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Welcome back it's the Spring term

Year 3 have started off the term really well. They have returned to school ready to learn and are now familiar with the routines and the structure of the day. Well done year 3 for settling back in so seamlessly.

Our first English unit is has been Traditional tales. We focused on a text called the Magic Paintbrush, which is set in China. We have looked at the key features of this text type and then tried to include them during our Big writing session. It was very exciting because for this piece of work the children changed the ending of the original. Why not ask your child how their ending differed from the original story and how they maintained it traditional?

In Maths Mrs Mercer and Mrs Gaines set have been looking at fractions all week and for the next two terms the Friday lesson will be handling data. In Mr Clifford's set they are revisiting place value and addition.

On Monday we were lucky enough to have Mr Bishop teaching us music. He worked with the children on scales and by the end of the session, we all sounded really good. We also sung a song from the Sound of Music and incorporated some percussion but sadly you'll have to wait to see the results at the summer music event.

In Science we have started a new topic called Healthy Bodies. In this unit we will cover nutrition for humans and animals, our muscles and our skeleton. Hopefully we will be able to share some of our learning in our Year 3 Spring assembly which is on Friday 3rd March at 9.10am.

Lastly, we have also started a new creative curriculum topic entitled 'A View From a Window'. It is a geography unit where the children begin to use new vocabulary that refers to the physical and human changes in our environment. We have attached the link to a slide share if you would like to look at the text with your child and talk about it.
http://www.slideshare.net/MrsJuteau/windows-2992791

All that is left to say is thank you so much for your continued support and another thank you, in case anyone missed our note on the door or Christmas Blog, for your extremely kind and thoughtful gifts at Christmas.

Please remember we have an open door policy at Crabtree if there is anything you would like to talk about but it is always best to catch us after school, as we are less rushed then.

Enjoy your weekend
Team year 3

It's Christmas ...

Happy Christmas everyone. Thank you for a wonderful first term, we have all had great fun.

We would also like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you for all the fabulous gifts we received today. It is extremely kind of you all. We are all thrilled with our treats and vouchers, it is really appreciated.

We would like to finish the year with a few photos of the children dressed up and performing 'The Disgruntled Snowman'. (see below)

We hope you all have a magical Christmas. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday 9th January 2017, all ready and raring to do some more learning.

                         The year 3 team

It's show time!

Year 3 have been really busy this week and we are thrilled to say they have risen to the challenges despite being tired. This week we have performed our play- 'The Disgruntled Snowman' to the whole school and year 2 plus siblings. The show was brilliant and we were paid lots of lovely compliments by other children and staff. We are now looking forward to showing it off to family and friends on Monday afternoon and evening. Please see the Crabtree website for times of performances but please can children return back to school tomorrow night at 5.50pm, ready to start at 6pm. A huge thank you for all the efforts with wonderful costumes, the children all really looked the part.

Alongside rehearsing  the play we have squeezed in a Science assessment on rocks and soils, learning about Limericks and in Maths Mr Clifford's class were learning about fractions and Mrs Gaines and Mrs Mercer's set were handling data. A very busy week..

This week the homework we have set is a comprehension task from our year 3 book, it is a poem comprehension to practice what skills we have learnt in class. We also set spellings, which is a revision of past words on the statutory year 3 list.

We would like to say thank you for your continued support with homework, it is really appreciated.

Last week we set a homework on the website mymaths, it is an excellent website that is available to all Crabtree pupils. It is not only for homework that we set, the children can logon at anytime and play games or go through work they might be finding tricky. It has online tutorials that helps refresh their minds and games to consolidate their work. In addition to this, as a school, we also subscribe to DB Primary, which is an online learning platform. It has educational games and is a safe and fun way for the children to communicate with friends online. If you have any problems using either of these, please do not hesitate to ask us for help.


We hope to see many of you tomorrow afternoon or evening. We will endeavour to take some photos and short videos of the performance and hope to Blog some of them.

The year 3 team

Our speed stacking stars!

A group of year 3 went to  Roundwood Park school on Thursday afternoon to represent Crabtree in a speed stacking competition. They all had a wonderful time and were thrilled to come 2nd in the competition. Here are some photos that capture the moment for you all to enjoy.

This week we have started looking at a new text type in English- instructional writing. We wrote about the steps needed to 'Trap a Troll'. Next week we are writing the instructions about how to make a plastic bag kite. We will be including all the grammar we have been taught- time connectives, adverbs, imperatives verbs and the use of a comma in a list. Why not ask your child what each of these mean and how they could include them in their writing?

In Maths Mr Clifford's class started to look at fractions and Mrs Gaines and Mrs Mercer's class continued to look at multiplication and division.

We also handed all the parts out for our plan entitled 'The disgruntled snowman', so we had to mention that word... Christmas, and it is still only November!

As the weather is changing, please can we remind parents and children to ensure they have warm clothes (skins and fleeces) for PE, as it continues to be taught outside whatever the weather.

If possible please can you send your child in with a plastic bag on Friday, or before, this is to hopefully use our well written, clear and comprehensive instructions to make a kite.

How to make a plastic bag kite

Thank you for taking the time to read our Blog, we hope you all had an enjoyable long weekend.

The year 3 team

Assembly was wonderful

Great actions to the gift of the Nile song.

Fabulous costumes at the Pharoah's palace

Tributes to the King

More lively actions

We all had great fun performing it to the school and our parents.

This week we performed our assembly to the school and our parents. Everyone was brilliant. Lines were delivered clearly, songs sung beautifully and lyrics learnt well and the costumes were super too. Thank you for coming to support us.

In addition to a wonderful assembly we have also been very busy in the classroom. We have been looking at the test type of narration and enjoying a book called 'The Hodgeheg'. Within the fortnight we have read the book, thoughtfully discussed the vocabulary of King-Smith and learnt lots of new grammar skills. These skills include- inserting clauses to add detail, using a connective to join two simple sentences, being descriptive by using similies and adding in specch to develop our characters.
The children have thoroughly enjoyed it, here are some samples of some of the work written.

Hallie
Max gazed up at the moon, it looked like a light bulb, then he slipped outside the gate. He listened to the vehicles on the road, the noise was like the world's noisiest party.

Ben
This time he went to see how most hedgehogs kept being hit by those noisy monsters. It was human rush hour so he kept close to the hedge. This was only the start of the adventure.

Tom
Max scurried down the pavement as fast as his sturdy, little legs could carry him. He carelessly walked over the road but a gigantic lorry came thundering along and almost flattened Max underneath its massive, black tyres.

In Maths both classes are continuing to look at multiplication and division. Looking at how to use mental strategies to answer calculations and learning more formal written methods too. Next step fractions!

In Science we have enjoyed the hands on opportunity of our school field being used for a geography enquiry. Last week, a man bought a huge machine onto the field to test the soil. We saw, heard and watched him take samples from the field using a digger. He used a bore to dig a bore hole, about 6 metres deep, and then took the samples away to be tested. We were given a couple of samples to look at - one chalk and one clay. We were able to compare them both and noticed how different they were.
We are looking forward to seeing how the soil type affects what happens to our field.