Year 3
Year Three Class Page
The latest news, home learning, learning and events will be posted on this page.
Friday 8th December 2023
What a brilliant week in year three! In English, we have been planning our own fables, which we will finish writing next week. In Maths, we have done lots of work on column subtraction, including making exchanges. Please see the help sheet for how I teach it in class - hopefully this will help at home. This week, we were joined by two Christmas elves, who wrote us a letter and made themselves at home in our classroom, from reading our books and leaving trails of stickers, to getting tangled up in tinsel! I wonder what they’ll be up to next week…
Thank you for handing in such creative stories - I have enjoyed reading them all!
Please may home learning be handed in on Thursday next week? This is so we can have some festive fun on Friday instead!
Home learning and spellings due THURSDAY 14th
Maths – Written subtraction, page 25
English – learn the lyrics to ‘It was a starry night’ for the KS2 Carol Service. Please see the lyrics attached.
Spellings x 8 – Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelt differently. Please learn the spelling and meaning of these words: blew/blue break/brake here/hear missed/mist.
Please continue to read 5 times per week and record this in your reading record.
Lots happening next week:
Monday – Wear ancient Egyptian costumes / historian clothing
Tuesday – Wear school uniform (not PE Kit). Please wear uniform at the church too, for our KS2 Carol Service, where we will meet between 5:35pm and 5:45pm. I will bring everyone’s instruments with me, so you just need your lovely selves.
Wednesday – Pantomime at Watersmeet theatre (pick up from there at 4:30pm)
Thursday – final Spelling Test and Home Learning DUE for the term
Friday – Please dress festively (and warm) for fun, Christmas activities in school!
I hope you enjoy your weekend!
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 1st December 2023
How is it December already? We have so many wonderful things to look forward to over the last few weeks of term - there's definitely a buzz in the classroom! We have now finished our history learning journey. However, the Ancient Egypt theme continues as we begin to study the River Nile in geography. In RE, we are making comparisons between festivals of light, from Diwali to Hanukkah to Christmas. In Science, we found out that magnets can attract when opposite poles are facing each other and repel when the same poles are facing each other.
Please read the school newsletter to find out what we've been up to in English and Maths.
I have opened up a 'Chat Box' system for the Year 3 children to use when they feel like they want to share a worry or something exciting with me. I care deeply what the children have to say and this way I can monitor how the children are getting on and we can have conversations that don't eat into our learning time. (Our days our so busy!) Please remember, I am always happy to have a chat.
Home Learning due Friday 8th December
Maths – column subtraction (no exchanges)
English – creative writing task, to encourage writing at home. Use one of the pictures to write your own short story.
Reading - Please keep reading 5 times a week and sign the reading record.
Spellings x 6 - Words with the -al ending: actual* / material* / metal / natural* / occasional* / special*
*words from the Y3/4 Statutory Spelling List
Material and metal are the only nouns. The rest of the words are adjectives (words that describe nouns). In class, we practise separating syllables in longer words, like occ - a - sion - al.
Next Week:
Please wear your school PE Kit on Tuesday and Friday. Please bring a coat and other warm accessories every day as the temperatures start to drop.
On Wednesday 6th December, there’s a Christmas jumper day and Christmas lunch. I look forward to spending lunchtime with all the children!
In English, we will plan and write our own fables and in Maths, I will introduce exchanges when using the column method, for example 534 - 217 where 4 subtract 7 cannot be done without borrowing from the tens.
Wrap up warm this weekend! I look forward to seeing you on Monday,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 24th November 2023
What a fun week we've had! On Tuesday, even though we didn't have our planned workshop, we still took part in Ancient Egyptian activities all day, from making 3D landscapes of Egypt and paper plate collars to using clay to create a Rosetta stone. The children's costumes were absolutely brilliant! We will be dressing up again on Monday 11th December, for the workshop we booked.
Recorder lessons in Year 3:
As part of our music curriculum, I have started teaching the class how to play 'Silent Night' on the recorder, which they will be performing in the KS2 Carol Service on 12th December, as well as singing 'It was on a starry night' (found on Youtube). Today, each child took home their named recorder, which has four coloured stickers on and the bag to keep it safe in. Please return the recorder on Monday! It would be fantastic if they could practice even for just 5 minutes a day. Playing an instrument is so important for children's cognitive learning and fine motor skills.
Home Learning due Friday 1st December
Maths - page 26 (The 3, 4 and 8 times tables). Keep revising the 3s and 4s.
English (SPaG) - pages 4 and 5 (Nouns and Adjectives)
Reading - Please keep reading 5 times a week and sign the reading record.
Spellings x 8 - Words with the -le ending: angle / apple / circle / little / middle / people / possible* / sparkle
*from the Y3/4 Statutory Spelling List
Next Week:
Please bring the recorders back to school on Monday for our next rehearsal.
On Tuesday and Friday, please wear PE Kit to school.
On Friday, please bring a bag with party clothes in, if you are attending the disco after school, 3:10-4pm.
In Maths, we will be learning how to use the column method for addition and subtraction over the next 2 weeks.
In English, we have started reading and writing fables (stories that have a moral) such as The Hare and the Tortoise.
It was lovely to meet you all at the parent consultations. Thank you for coming and for all the work you do at home - it makes a huge difference!
Hope you have a super weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 17th November 2023
This week was Anti-Bullying Week. We made a Kind Classroom Agreement, read a story called 'A Wrinkled Heart', and took part in activities in house groups and family groups with the rest of the school.
In Maths this week, we started learning the 3 and 4 times tables for the first time, which included counting in multiples and dividing by 3 and 4. We discovered that multiplying by 4 is the same as multiplying by 2 and then 2 again (or doubling and doubling again). Your child will have taken home a sheet for their home learning, which reflects the work we've done in class. We will have all year to revise the 3, 4 and 8 times tables and will keep on coming back to this in our fluency and daily practice.
We have thoroughly enjoyed reading Fantastic Mr Fox so far in Guided Reading and Story Time. We unpicked little details about each of the characters and pictured the setting in our heads before drawing and labelling it.
Home Learning Due Friday 24th
Maths - The 3 and 4 times tables. Please find attached a copy of the sheet, in case your child wasn't here on Friday.
There are a number of songs available on Youtube to help with times tables. This is the one we've practiced in class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QU_E0u-tP4
English (SPaG) - Apostrophes for Missing Letters (pages 50 and 51)
No Spellings. Instead, please learn your Chromebook password off by heart. It is made up of two letters (your initials) and 6 numbers (the day, month and year you were born). _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
For example, if your name is Jane Doe born on 1st February 2015, your password will be J D 01 02 15.
Next week:
On Tuesday, please dress up for Ancient Egyptian Day - we are all so excited!
On Friday, please wear your PE Kit to school.
I look forward to catching up with you all in our parent consultations.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 10th November
We’ve had another wonderfully busy week in Year Three! In Science, we investigated friction using a toy car and four ramps that represented different surfaces. We increased the height of the ramp until the car was able to move along the whole distance of the ramp. We cheered each time it reached the end! Our results showed that the smooth ‘road’ (card) surface caused the least friction and the rough, bumpy ‘muddy road’ surface caused the most friction.
In Music, we have been learning a song called ‘The Gift of the Nile’. This week, we worked in groups to create our own sequence of music using hieroglyphics. We then performed them to the class using instruments.
In Computing, we made stop-frame animations by drawing images on whiteboards and using the Chromebooks to take pictures. Each picture represented one frame. Please see the video of some of the ones we made!
Home Learning: Due in by Friday 17th November
Please continue to read at least 5 times a week and bring your reading record in on Friday, to get a stamp. Some children are now starting to get their bronze badges!
Maths: page 8, counting in multiples
English (SPaG): pages 58 and 59, inverted commas
Spellings x 9: Please learn the meanings and spellings of these words, with the suffixes ‘er and ‘est’ – happy, happier, happiest, lucky, luckier, luckiest, nice, nicer, nicest
Spelling Rules:
- If the root word ends in ‘y’ change it to ‘i’ = angry, funny, spicy
- If the root word ends in ‘e’ drop it then add the suffix = brave, late, wide,
Next Week: If you have a copy of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ by Roald Dahl, at home, please bring it in to school. We will be reading this in our Guided Reading lessons and during story time over the next few weeks. I have some copies available in school.
Also, any donations of tin foil would be really appreciated. Thank you everyone for the cardboard!
Please continue to wear PE kit to school on Tuesday and Friday.
In English, we will be writing the ending of our ‘Mini Rabbit Not Lost’ narratives, with a focus on dialogue and subordinating conjunctions.
In Maths, we will be learning the 3 and 4 times-tables, including counting in multiples and dividing by 3 and 4. Keep on going with TTRockstars!
Have a great weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Stop-frame Animations
Friday 3rd November 2023
It’s so good to be back and to be welcomed by wonderful children, staff and families! Thank you all for your support, kindness and understanding whilst I haven’t been here. This week, we finished off all our learning journeys and started some new ones. We explored forces in Science and focussed on push, pull and gravity. We enjoyed moving about, finding different ways to represent the forces taking place. In PSHE, we practiced some listening activities. The children are improving with how to work collaboratively, which is really great to see. In their computing lesson with Mrs Taylor, they were introduced to animation and they created their own flip books.
We celebrated Black History Month as a whole school. Year 3 worked on a project based on a very talented musician (one of my favourites!) Ella Fitzgerald. We enjoyed listening and dancing to her songs during our writing sessions. Thank you if you were able to come and see our work today! Please have a look at the photos as well.
Home Learning: Due in by Friday 10th November
Please continue to read at least 5 times a week and bring your reading record in on Friday, to get a stamp. Some of the children are starting to earn their bronze badges!
Maths: Written Addition (page 24)
English (SPaG): Suffixes ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ (pages 72 and 74)
Spellings x 8: Please learn the meanings and spellings of these words, with the suffixes ‘ing’ and ‘ed’
- arrived, carried, enjoyed, hurried
- closing, looking, playing, wasting
Rules: Sometimes change ‘y’ to ‘i’ = carry, hurry Always change ‘e’ to ‘ing’ = close, waste
Next Week: Please wear PE kit to school on Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesdays, we will be doing gymnastics in PE. This will be done in the hall with no shoes or socks on, for health and safety reasons, when using apparatus.
In Maths, we will work on multiplication and have an introduction into the 3 times tables.
In English, we will explore a book called ‘Mini Rabbit Not Lost’ and writing our own descriptive stories based on it.
Have a brilliant weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 20th October 2023
This week has been incredibly busy! Year 3 have all come home with well deserved Above and Beyond stickers as they have been so resilient and kind over the last couple of weeks. On Wednesday we explored ExploRE. A big shout-out to the enthusiastic volunteers from the Watford Schools Trust who made this exploration even more exciting with their diverse range of engaging activities.
In English, we delved into the enchanting world of poetry with Kit Wright's mesmerizing masterpiece, 'The Magic Box'. Inspired by this enchanting piece, they have begun creating their own verses. We look forward to sharing these with you when they are finished.
In guided reading, we were comparing three books all based on the Ancient Egyptians and mummification. We know there are a few children that are desperate to read these.
In Maths, we have been mastering the art of addition using part-whole and number lines to explore adding 1's across 10 and 10's across 100.
Times Tables in Year 3
After half-term, Year 3 will be having 'Times Tables Tuesdays'. They will have some extra time to practice their times tables and will then have a go at completing the 3 minute test. This will be starting from Tuesday 31st onwards and will continue throughout the year. We will also be practicing as normal every day in lessons.
Congratulations to Fletcher for securing the top spot in the Year 3 TTRockstars challenge! Keep honing your skills using TTRockstars over half term if you can.
This is the order of learning times tables in school: (0 and 1) 2, 5, 10, 3, 4, 8, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12.
By the end of Year 3, children are expected to be fluent in the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Being fluent means being able to solve 30 multiplications completely independently in 3 minutes (on average that’s 6 seconds per multiplication). The more tables they become fluent with before next year, the easier their transition will be. I will let you know when your child moves on. Any children who go beyond the levels below will be given additional challenges. Towards the end of Year 4, all children will take the Multiplication Tables Check, which will involve a mix of all times tables.
Levels: 3 minutes per test
Bronze: counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Example: 2, 4, _, 8, _ , 12
Y3 Autumn Term 2 Starting point -> Silver: 2, 5, 10 tables
Gold: 3, 4, 8 tables
Platinum: 6, 7, 9 tables
Diamond: 11 and 12 tables
Emerald: Mixed up tables 1-12
Please see the attachments.
Christmas cards:
Your child's Christmas card design was sent home in their bag today. Please have a look at these and the information included on how to purchase them.
If your child has not handed their homework books in, please do so on the first day back after half term. Mrs Bhanderi will listen to all children reading the first week back to check if they are still on the correct book band.
Enjoy a wonderful half term and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 30th October.
Miss Bhanderi
Request for cardboard in Year 3 before 10th November please
Any collections of flat-pack cardboard, that's fairly easy to cut for children, would be greatly appreciated e.g. cereal boxes. We will be using cardboard for our DT project after half-term. Thank you for your support in advance! :)
Friday 13th October 2023
Hello, I am poorly at the moment but on the mend. I hope to be back as soon as possible. Missing you all and can't wait to see all the fabulous things you have got up to!
Y3 Ancient Egyptian Workshop on Tuesday 21st November - save the date! More details to follow in a letter soon.
Home Learning: Due Friday 20th October
English comprehension - Nature trail poetry
Maths page 22 mental addition
Spellings - revision of CEWs from years 1 and 2 (beautiful, clothes, every, everybody, friend, once, past, said)
Keep reading!
Over the next 3 weeks, please may the children try to complete as much of Maths Progress Test 1 as they can - as independently as possible. There are 4 pages (18,19,20,21). There’s no time limit but try to aim for around 1 minute per mark. We will have a look at these pages in class on Friday 3rd November (the first Friday after half term).
Please encourage your children to practice their times tables using TTRockstars. 5-10 minutes everyday can make a lot of difference. We have been monitoring the children's use in and out of school and have noticed that for many of them they are not focussing and taking a long time over answering questions we know they know the answer to. This means that the game is not generating harder questions and they're are not progressing the way we'd hoped they would.
Next week:
English - reading, performing and writing poetry
Maths - continuing with mental addition strategies and revising the topics we have covered so far (place value, reading scales and rounding)
PE will be on Tuesday and Friday. Please wear PE kit to school.
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 6th October 2023
We enjoyed singing Harvest songs at church and watching the Year 6’s acting. Thank you if you managed to help with the walk back to school - it’s always appreciated!
In Maths, we practised reading scales and identifying appropriate units of measure; for example, using centimetres to measure the length of a pencil and using metres to measure the length of the playground. We worked on including subordinating conjunctions and prepositions in our writing, as we prepare for our final piece next week – writing a set of instructions, based on the book ‘Walk with a wolf’. The children have been excellent when participating with adding atmosphere to the story through their own sounds and actions.
In Science, we wrote a letter to the school cooks, suggesting new ways that they could ensure the school lunches follow the Eatwell Plate. We designed our own balanced, nutritious meals as well, making sure they included all the different food groups.
Home Learning: Due in by Friday 13th October
Please continue to read at least 5 times a week and bring your reading record in on Friday, to get a stamp.
- Maths: Numbers on Scales pages 14 and 15
- English (SPaG): Sentences pages 18 and 19
- Spellings x 8: Please learn the meanings and spellings of these words, containing the long ‘u’ sound: continue*, group*, huge, moon, moose, move, through*, you
*Words from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory Spelling List
Next Week: Lots of fun to be had! Please see the newsletter for more details.
- Sibling school photos will be on Tuesday and individual Year 3 photos will be on Wednesday. Please come to school wearing full school uniform. Please bring PE Kit in a bag on Tuesday.
- On Monday morning, Year 3 will attend a very exciting ‘Healthy Heroes’ workshop, which links to our science topic.
- On Friday, it will be non-uniform day, to raise money for our ExploRE week the following week. No need to bring PE kit but please still wear comfortable shoes for outside.
I hope you all have a great weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 29th September 2023
We have been very busy writing this week! We finished planning and writing our short stories, based on the dragon’s perspective from ‘The paper bag princess’. We also started reading our new text, called ‘Walk with a wolf’ by Janni Howker. In Maths, we worked hard on comparing and ordering numbers, and rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. We will revisit rounding before half-term.
Please see the weekly newsletter for more highlights from Year 3 this week!
We are very pleased to welcome Mrs Taylor to our staff team! She will be supporting Year 3 mostly in the mornings Monday to Thursday. She has really enjoyed getting to know the children this week.
Home Learning: Due Friday 6th October
- Maths – Comparing and Ordering Numbers (pages 10 and 11)
- English – Conjunctions with subordinate clauses (pages 22 and 23)
- Reading records will be checked on Friday. Please read at least 5 times to build fluency and earn a stamp. I’m going to start re-assessing levels over the next couple of weeks. Some books may change.
- Spellings x 8 – Learn the spelling and meaning of these words that contain the ‘long o’ sound: alone, below, bone, home, potato, potatoes*, snow, suppose*
*Words from the Year 3 and 4 Statutory Spelling List
I accidentally included 9 spellings last week, which was well-spotted by some of the children!
Next Week:
PE kit will be needed on Tuesday and Friday as usual.
On Wednesday, we have our Harvest Service at St. Mary's Church at 9am. Children should be dropped to the Church rather than school on this day. Please bring any donations with you to the church.
On Friday, the class will be taking part in a Perform Workshop with Years 1 and 2.
I look forward to seeing you on Monday, for another fabulous week!
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 22nd September 2023
Thank you for coming to the ‘Meet the Teacher’ session – it was lovely to meet you so many of you! All information will be available on this page; please find useful documents below.
In English, we started writing our own narratives from the dragon’s perspective of the story, which we will edit and continue writing next week. Our main focus was to include conjunctions in order to add more information and detail to our writing. In Maths, we worked on adding and subtracting 10 or 100 to numbers. We used dienes and to help us regroup through 100.
In RE, we learnt about the Holy Trinity and created our own artistic representations of it, and we also had our first Spanish lesson this week!
Home Learning: Due in by Friday 29th September
Please continue to read at least 5 times a week and bring your reading record in on Friday, to get a stamp.
- Maths: 10 or 100 more or less page 9 only
- English (SPaG): The ‘ay’ sound page 88 only
- Spellings x 8: Please learn the meanings and spellings of these words, containing the long ‘i’ sound - climb, guide, height, inside, nice, nine, smile, surprise, wise
Every week, I’ll be looking out for the children’s use of these spellings in their writing.
Next Week:
Please wear PE kit to school on Tuesday and Friday.
We will be starting whole-class guided reading lessons from Monday, using the chapter book ‘The owl who was afraid of the dark’. I will be using ‘passport books’ in guided reading lessons because it’s really important that all children get access to the wonderful language used in these books, which may inspire their love for reading and help to develop their vocabulary when writing too.
Wishing you a fantastic weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Spelling
Useful Documents
Friday 15th September 2023
Our first whole week in Year 3 has whizzed by! In English, we wrote descriptions about the main characters from the story ‘The Paper Bag Princess’. We discussed how the story is similar to a classic fairy-tale but definitely has its twists and turns! In Maths, we used equipment to represent 3-digit numbers. We played a game where we regrouped numbers by swapping one ten for ten ones. We also started our topic lessons, including learning about Ancient Egypt.
Home Learning: All home learning will be due in every Friday, but if you wish to hand it in earlier that is great – there’s a box in the classroom for it to stay in safely. On Friday mornings, we will be marking home learning as a whole class.
Please continue to read at least 5 times and get your record signed so you can earn a stamp. If your child is reading a level book, they need to swap this out every Friday. Once your child is on level 12+, they will be reading ‘Passport Books’, which can be swapped for another book at any time during the week, as some of them will take longer than one week to read.
- Maths: pages 6 and 7
- English (SPaG): page 20 only
- Spellings x 8: Please learn the meanings and spellings of these words, containing the long ‘e’ sound - believe, clean, complete, extreme, freeze, increase, three, recent
Next Week:
PE days will be on Tuesday and Friday. Please wear your PE kit to school on both days.
I look forward to meeting you at the ‘Meet the Teacher’ session on Thursday. All information will be made available on this page after the meeting.
Have a brilliant weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 8th September 2023
Hello and welcome to Year Three and Key Stage Two! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer break. We’ve had a lovely start to the school year so far. I am very impressed with how well the class have settled in to their new routines. This week, we created a class display about belonging and being part of a team. We enjoyed getting to know each other through playing games. Today, we had a very fun afternoon in our ‘school family groups’ completing art activities and outdoor ones too!
I listened to all the children read over the last couple of days. Today, they have taken home their reading books. They will take home their reading records on Monday. I will explain more about levels in our ‘Meet the Teacher’ session, but please come and see me if you have any questions before then.
Home Learning:
If your child is interested in becoming a council member, they are welcome to have a think about it over the weekend and tell me by next Friday (15th September). They may wish to write something or make a poster. We have 4 councils and 2 children will be selected for each:
- Eco Council
- Ethos Council
- School Learning Council
- Sports Council
Homework books and spellings will be sent home next Friday.
Next Week:
PE days will be on Tuesday and Friday.
In English, we will be starting to read a book called ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ by Robert Munsch. In Maths, we will focus on place value – representing, partitioning and comparing numbers.
I hope you have a restful weekend.
Miss Bhanderi