Happy New Year! Welcome back to Year 3 with Mr Filby & Miss Donaghy with Mrs Whittington
Information about some of our learning in the Summer Term!
| Subject | Learning | How you can help at home |
| English | Our writing this term will be linked to our topics. In the Summer 1 term our topic is called ‘Flow’ – all rivers and the water cycle. We will begin the term by spending the first two weeks writing poetry about water focussing on describing movement and visuals. We will be largely using rhyme, repetition, personification and similes to make our poems exciting and interesting. After that, we will be writing an in-depth explanation text of what a river is and all of its features from the source all the way down to the mouth (end). This writing project will largely focus on using appropriate nouns and pronouns, creating cohesion across sentences and paragraphs, conjunctions to add more detail and technical language. | Reading for at least 30 minutes each day makes a huge difference. Please remember to read to your child and to see you enjoying a good book. Share poems! Even if its a silly short poem you remember from your own school days or (if your child is lucky enough) a actual poetry book, reading poems to each other and memorising phrases is excellent for understanding vocabulary, sentence structure, description and beginning to understand figurative language. Practise looking up words in a dictionary and choosing the relevant meaning. Use a timer and pit your speed against your child (let them win sometimes!) Talk about new and interesting vocabulary that they come across and make sure they understand the meanings. Use a dictionary to look them up. Talk about our topic. Any additional research will make them a better writer! Spelling for this term will be sent home each week and taken from the year 3 and 4 common exceptional words. Click for list of year 3 and 4 common exceptional words. |
| Maths | Fractions (Weeks 1/2): Following on from the last fractions topic, the children will be adding and subtracting fractions, as well as partitioning a whole into different fractions. They will also be finding unit fractions of an amount (e.g. 1/5 of 15 means 15 divided by 5). Money (Weeks 3/4): The children will be working with pounds and pence, converting between the two, adding and subtracting money and finding change in a hypothetical shop scenario. Time (Week 5/6): After learning roman numerals to 12, the children will recap their knowledge of telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes on an analogue clock and then move on to telling the time within the nearest minute. Using AM and PM comes next, followed by time units ranging from years all the way down to seconds. Finally, the children will solve real world problems that use time. | Time: Buy a cheap analogue clock or watch for your child. Discuss how the hour and minute hands move and how this relates to 60 seconds/minutes in a minute/hour and how language like ‘____minutes past/to’ the nearest hour is used to describe time. Also, asking questions like ‘how long is it until/since we…’ encourages them to use a clock as a visual way of counting on/past. Money: Generally, children rarely see actual cash let alone seeing it used in a shop. This can be really beneficial not just so they recognise the steps of how change is calculated/given, but gives it a real-life meaning and thus makes the learning more concrete. If your child is able to go into a shop, pay for something in cash and check their change is correct, they will already be immersed in the learning. They should know their 2, 5 and 10 times tables from year 2. By the end of year 3, they are expected to know 3, 4 and 8s times table and division facts. E.g. 3 x 4 = 12 12 ÷ 3 = 4 Monkfrith encourage them to learn all their tables through the weekly times table challenge. Click for list of times table challenge order. http://tablestest.com/ Times Table Rock Stars is a great way to learn their tables and it records the facts they know and do not know. https://play.ttrockstars.com/ MyMaths.co.uk homework will be set as appropriate but can also be used at anytime to practise anything they have learnt. If you learn best through song: 3x tables https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XzfQUXqiYY 4x tables https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ue9Kux95H0 8x tables https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X620IeUkYE Having an analogue watch and discussing time – how long activities last, what time they being/end |
| Wider Curriculum | Flow: This term’s topic, as mentioned above, is all about the water cycle and rivers. We will be studying the geography of rivers, how they form and how they affect the landscape as well as how historically rivers are used as settlement places and how this, in turn, has affected the cultures and societies around them. We will also be focussing on Hokusai’s stunning ‘The Wave’ painting and recreating it in our own style. Finally, we will also be investigating water and rivers as a source of renewable energy. . | Please talk about the topic and encourage your child to do additional research to help improve their knowledge and feel more confident to contribute in class. |
| Computing | In computing we will be learning about stop frame animation. | Explore stop frame animation using lego or small world and take photographs. There are many apps that can be used to help the children create short movies. |
| Music | This term Mr Filby will be taking each Year 3 class into our music studio each week for lessons in listening, appraising and responding to music. The genres covered will range from drum and bass to classical and many things in between! | Listen to music you love with your children, listen to music they love and encourage them to talk about it. Discussing how tempo, instrumentation and overall forms of pieces of music contribute to emotions would be highly beneficial. If not, simply discussing a favourite part of a song and why you like it will show the children that music is something that can be actively investigated, rather than passively enjoyed! |
| PSHE | We will be following the HEP framework. This term focuses on safe relationships and keeping safe online. The class representative for school council and eco council have been selected. Their half termly meetings will be fed back and discussed back in class. We will continue to use the Zones of Regulation as a tool to discuss emotions. | |
| RE | This term our RE focus is on ‘Religion, Family and the Community’. The religions that they will be focussing on in Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity. The children will study and compare places of worship and will have the opportunity to visit one. | Encourage your children to ask questions and talk about aspects of religion they might find interesting. Remind them that respect is important and perhaps how lucky we are to live in such a multicultural area. |
| PE | The children will have a lesson taught by Non-Stop Action | Ensure the kit is in school, that it is labelled and that it fits. Any laces need to tied by your child. Being active is incredibly important for emotional well-being so walking to school, scooting or cycling is an excellent start and/or end to the school day. The children receive badges every month for walking to school regularly. |
It is an jam-packed half term, with lots learning and fun!
We would appreciate old newspapers and new tissues! Many thanks.