Welcome back to Monkfrith!
Year 3 promises to be a wonderful year with Mr Filby & Miss Donaghy with Mrs Michaels (on Weds)
Please label all your child’s clothes – check it after they’ve been washed, as they have a habit of coming off. We will be encouraging your child to look after their own possessions – so they need to know where they are at the end of the day.
If you missed the Meet the Teacher meeting in week 2, click on the link.
Information about some of our learning in the Autumn Term!
| Subject | Learning | How you can help at home |
| English | Summer 1’s topic is called Rocks Relics and Rumbles. The writing covers shape poems about volcanoes, recounts of our trip to the Natural History Museum, a narrative which retells the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’ (a story about two Roman children who flee the eruption of Mt Vesuvius) and lastly non chronological reports about volcanoes. Summer 2’s topic is called ‘Flow’. We write poems inspired by the work of Valerie Bloom, we write explanation texts which detail the many stages of a river’s journey and ending with a narrative, describing a pine cone’s journey down a river from source to mouth. The children will be taught joined writing 3 times per week. They will have 3 spelling sessions, following ‘No Nonsense’, as well as having a dictation on a Friday – which will check the Year 3/4 spellings sent home for homework | Reading for at least 30 minutes each day makes a huge difference. Please remember to read to your child and to let your child 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) an 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 | The summer term maths syllabus starts by focussing on money, then moving on to time. After that, the children have a unit focussed on shape, then ending the year by focussing on statistics. Throughout, we will be looking at using what we already know and thinking about the links between and across information. Once a week the children will be able to participate in the times table tests in a bid to earn the coveted blue, silver, gold and platinum badges. | 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 is a key skill and even though we don’t work on this until the Summer, it is such an important skill for you to keep going. |
| Wider Curriculum | Both the Rocks Relics and Rumbles topic as well as the Flow topics are very embedded in the science and geography curriculums. Children will be using local, UK and global maps to locate various human and physical features. They will be discussing geology, looking at soil and rocks in detail, discussing their different properties and uses. The inner workings of volcanoes, tectonic plates and the layers of the earth will be covered in detail during summer 1, while the formation, shaping and signifiance of rivers will be covered in detail during the summer 2 topic. | Please talk about the topic and encourage your child to partake in additional research to help improve their knowledge and feel more confident to contribute within the class. |
| Computing | This term, the children are largely working to create their own functioning programs on ‘Scratch’. They will be learning how to construct and debug a program, getting progressively more complex as the weeks go on. | Games like ‘Guess Who’ will encourage your child to create focussed questions. |
| Music | This term Mr Filby will be taking each Year 3 class into our music studio each week for lessons in performing, composing and reading music. This term will see a culmination of t they hhe skills they have developed so far in year 3. | In a low pressure setting, listen to music you love with your children, listen to music they love and encourage them to talk about it. Sing! 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 just passively enjoyed! |
| PSHE | We will be following the HEP framework. This term focuses on ‘Emotions and Feelings’, ‘Peer influence/pressure’ and how we fit into our community. The class representative for school council has been democratically chosen. The class representative will attend meetings, question their peers and bring ideas to the meetings as well as give feedback to the 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 and the Individual’. The religions that we will be focussing on are Islam, Hinduism and Judaism. The children will think about what it means to belong to a religion, as well as looking at symbols and clothing as a means to identify religion. We will be looking at similarities between faiths. | Encourage your child 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 a jam-packed term, with lots of learning and fun!
We would appreciate old newspapers and new tissues!
Many thanks,
Your Year 3 Team