Year Three Class Page
The latest news, home learning, learning and events will be posted on this page.
Monday 18th March 2024
Good afternoon, I hope you had a great weekend.
Homework for this week to be handed in on Monday 25th March:
Maths - CGP book pages 16 and 17. With a particular focus on scales for measuring mass.
English - CGP SPaG book pages 36 and 37, concentrating on capital letters.
Friday 15th March 2024
This week, we explored the Easter story in more detail and wrote diary entries from the perspective of Jesus’ mother Mary. We learnt about how some Christians celebrate Easter, whether that’s with their family or church community, and compared it to how we celebrate it. We also wrote Haiku poems about this!
We had some extra special collective worship sessions this week. In our singing worship, I played the violin and will be playing in the Easter service too! On Wednesday, we had a communion with Gary, ate some bread, drank some juice, and sang songs of thanks. We also met up in our house groups to have a meeting about ideas for a school prayer.
On Wednesday 27th March, 6-7pm, we have our Easter service at St Mary’s church. Year 3 will be reading some prayers and performing a song with Year 4, as well as singing lots of other wonderful songs. I look forward to seeing you there!
Spellings (x6)
The suffix ‘-ous’ means ‘full of’: dangerous, delicious, enormous, famous*, generous, nervous
Remember, when a root word ends in ‘-e’ it gets replaced with ‘-ous’, like fame -> famous. See if you can spot the ‘-ous’ words in your reading books!
*from the y3/4 statutory spelling list
Reminders for next week:
Monday 18th March | Please hand in your homework to Mrs Martin and wear a PE kit. |
Tuesday 19th March and Wednesday 20th March | Parent consultations with Miss Bhanderi (please book a slot if you haven’t done already) |
Thursday 21st March | Please wear a PE kit. |
Friday 22nd March | Spelling Test (‘-ous’ suffix spellings) |
In Maths, we will be learning about mass and capacity. In English, we will continue with understanding, performing and writing poetry.
From Miss Bhanderi and Mrs Martin
Monday 11th March 2024
We hope you had a wonderful weekend.
For Homework this week, please can your child complete the following:
English - Reading Comprehension from the CGP book. Continuing with our Guided Reading work on Dick King Smith's Hodgeheg, please complete Page 6-7 'Harriet's Hare'. We encourage you to answer in complete sentences.
Maths - Following our learning on Fractions, please complete the worksheet to concentrate on counting in fractions.
This homework needs to be handed in on Monday 18th March.
Thank you
Friday 8th March 2024
We made a brilliant start to the week with our class trip to the Stone Age Celtic Harmony Camp! Throughout the day, we took part in several activities, involving watching friction fire and flint knapping demonstrations, as well as den building and ‘hunting’ in the woods. I will attach some photos here over the weekend. Thank you to all the adults who helped out and to those that stepped in at the last minute. Also, a big thank you to all of the year 3 parents for assisting with getting the children prepared for the trip with the right clothes and pocket money ect. The leaders at the camp were very impressed with our good behaviour and tidiness!
We also celebrated Book Week and World Book Day this week!. As a whole school, we read a story called ‘Dear Earth’ by Isabel Otter and then took part in different writing activities within our year groups. Year 3 wrote a story and a kenning poem.
Please may you kindly remind children to leave their toys (including slime and fidgets) at home, unless you have spoken with me, Mrs Martin or Mrs Collett about it? I wouldn’t want their belongings to go missing, break, or distract them or others from their learning. I had a discussion with the class explaining that everyone learns differently and some people need to have certain things to make it fairer for them to learn and others don’t. It's a tricky concept to understand at this age, but it's still important. Thank you for your support with this.
Spellings (x6)
We will be learning about when ‘ou’ makes an ‘uh’ sound like in touch.
country / courage / double / enough / touch / young
Can you think of any other words which follow the same pattern? Try to spot those words in the books you are reading at home!
Reminders for next week:
Monday 11th March | Please hand in your homework to Mrs Martin and wear a PE kit. |
Thursday 14th March | Please wear a PE kit. |
Friday 15th March | Spelling Test (when ‘ou’ makes an ‘uh’ sound) |
I hope you have a restful weekend after such a busy week!
From Miss Bhanderi and Mrs Martin
Tuesday 5th March 2024
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Celtic Harmony yesterday. We hope the children were filled to the brim with stories of hunting Woolly Mammoths, visiting roundhouses, making soup and exploring Stone Age tools.
For Homework this week, please could your child complete the following:
Maths - page 33 Equivalent Fractions from the Maths CGP book.
SPAG - please complete pages 70 and 71 of looking at re/anti/sub/super prefixes in the SPaG CGP book.
Reading - Please ensure your child is reading at least 5 times a week, with the Reading Record filled in.
Please can they hand in their work by Monday 11th March.
Friday 1st March 2024
Welcome back from the half-term break! We have lots of exciting activities this term; please check the newsletter for more details. As part of our Art lesson on Tuesday, we looked at the discovery of the Lion Man, a 40,000 year old sculpture of a man with a lion’s head carved out of a Mammoth’s tusk over the course of 400 hours. Fortunately we made our version out of clay, which took considerably less time. On Wednesday, we took part in a TriGolf session and had so much fun playing different putting and driving games!
In RE, we explored how Salvation and Easter fit into The Big Story in the Bible. We started a new unit in Science called ‘Light, Dark, and Shadows’. We discovered that there are more than one type of light source - the sun, torch, fire, light bulbs and others. We think fire and the sun were the most important for people living in the Stone Age.
FUN FACT OF THE WEEK: Interestingly, the moon is not a light source as it actually reflects sunlight!
Spellings (x8)
We are learning about the prefixes ‘re’ (which means again or back) and ‘super’ (which means better or above and beyond):
rebuild / recall / recycle / redo / superglue / superhero / supermarket / superpower
Reminders for next week:
It will be Brilliant Book Week!
Monday 4th March | Celtic Harmony Stone Age trip! Please arrive at school at 8:15am. Please check the letter for more details! |
Tuesday 5th March | Please hand in your homework to Mrs Martin. |
Thursday 7th March | World Book Day - dress up! Please still wear / bring comfortable shoes for PE. |
Friday 8th March | Spelling Test (‘re’ and ‘super’ words) |
I look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning for the trip! Myself, Mrs Martin, Ms Morris, Mrs Maxwell and some lovely parent helpers will all be going with the children.
From Miss Bhanderi and Mrs Martin
Homework 26th February - due in Monday 4th March
Thank you to all children that brought their homework books in today. As mentioned in the email, parent meeting and to the children before half term, the homework timetable has changed. Homework is now set and to be handed back in on a Monday. The children will be shown what their homework is on each Monday.
Please can all homework books be kept in their school bag. We would like to check all of their homework books this week (Tuesday) to make sure they each have the correct ones going forward.
Maths - CGP book - revision of Partitioning - pages 12 and 13.
English - Comprehension book - Nature Trail - pages 8 and 9.
Remember to keep practising your times tables using TTRockstars!
Spring Term 2:
Class trip: Monday 4th March 2024 - Celtic Harmony Stone Age Camp
Topics:
English Writing - Playscripts, 'Brilliant Book Week' (including World Book Day), Poetry
Maths - Fractions, Mass (g/kg) and Capacity (ml/l)
Science - Light and Shadows
RE - Salvation and the Easter Story in Christianity
History - Stone Age to Iron Age
Art - Cave Paintings using oil pastels and charcoal
Music - Jazz
Computing - Branching databases
PSHE - Rights and Respect
PE - Hockey and Racket sports
Friday 16th February 2024
Happy half-term to such a wonderful group of children and families! We have all worked so hard and deserve a break, so there will not be any set home learning this week.
This week, we celebrated our learning by comparing Ancient Egypt to Stone Age Britain and completing some art and writing activities. We had a debate and all decided that the Egyptians were better builders! Thank you if you were able to come to the learning showcase! I have taken photos of the children's work in case you weren't able to come. We also had so much fun making excellent rainforest jars for the St Mary's secret garden, as part of enrichment.
This afternoon, I pre-visited Celtic Harmony's Stone Age Camp and can absolutely confirm that the children will LOVE this trip! Please be prepared that some areas are a little muddy as most of the activities will be outdoors. Luckily, the camp have some fantastic indoor spaces too if the weather is not on our side! There's a place for us to store bags throughout the day.
Thank you for all being supportive and thank you to the children for being so resilient!
Have a brilliant half-term!
From Miss Bhanderi
Friday 9th February 2024
As we approach the end of half-term, we are starting to finish some of our learning journeys. But, the learning still continues. Next week, we will be taking part in a History Class Project to celebrate all the learning we have done so far in Year 3 - I'm so excited for all the fun activities I have planned for us to do in the afternoons! On Thursday, parents/carers are invited in to school from 2.30pm for our Learning Showcase.
In Maths, we have been learning about lengths and measurements. We will continue practicing this as well as perimeter next week. Remember, the 'perimeter' is the distance around the edge of a shape. You can work it out by adding up all of the lengths of each side. If the shape is a square or an equilateral triangle, all the sides will be equal! In English, we have started a new writing unit: playscripts! We will continue this for another week after half-term. By the end of the unit, we will have written our own scripts, including scene descriptions and stage directions. We will be practising our acting and reading skills next week.
Thank you so much for all the jars! We now have enough for one each. It means so much to us and our children - they will have the best experience!
Home learning (due Thursday 15th February)
There will not be any home learning set over the half term, as you have all earned a break!
I sent home an optional spelling home activity, where you can cut up the prefixes and root words and mix them up to create real words. For example 'un' + 'fair' = unfair.
After half-term we will be reading 'The Hodgeheg' by Dick King-Smith in Guided Reading and during story time. I have enough copies for one between two children. If you would like to bring in your own copy, you are more than welcome, but this is not mandatory. There is a free pdf version online if you would like to read it at home: https://www.stmarksprimary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Hodgeheg-by-Dick-King-Smith.152457089-1.pdf
Next week:
PE will be on Tuesday and Friday as normal.
On Thursday, parents/carers are invited in to school from 2.30pm for our Learning Showcase.
Thank you for making sure the children have brought in their reading records and books. I was unwell for the last couple of days unfortunately, but I will check them all next week and make sure they are stamped properly.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Request for jars with lids!
In the last week of spring term 1 we will be making a miniature rainforest in a jar using natural resources from our new secret garden and the school grounds. This is part of our enrichment learning. Please may you bring in a jar with a lid - on or before Friday 9th February? It would be amazing if there were enough for each child. Examples are pasta sauce jars or jam jars - whatever you can reuse from home! If you could donate 1 jar or more that would be so helpful! Thank you in advance!
Friday 2nd February 2024
This week, we used the Chromebooks to research Skara Brae in History and we made Google Slide presentations. We found it interesting how different the homes looked at that time compared to now. In RE, we have been studying how Muslims might get ready carefully and respectfully before prayer - for example by washing themselves and taking their shoes off. In Science, we explored a range of different fossils and had some thoughtful discussions about dinosaurs and discoveries about the past. We also wrote explanations to describe the process of fossilisation.
Home Learning: Spelling / Times Tables reviews will be on Thursday 8th February
Next week:
PE days will be on Tuesday and Friday.
In Maths, we are learning about measurements (mm, cm and m) and perimeter. Try having a practise of measuring lengths at home!
In English, we will be writing our final set of instructions: How to wash a woolly mammoth. Then, we will be moving on to a new unit - writing playscripts!
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 26th January 2024
On Tuesday, we had our DT cooking themed day, when we made our own bread rolls - a special mention and thank you to Mrs Morris and Nicola for supporting us! Please have a look at more of what we got up to on the Weekly Newsletter!
We started reading a new book in English, called ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth’, which is part of our instructions writing unit. We learnt that imperative verbs are rather bossy and tell us what to do! We took some prehistoric animals for a play in the mud outside and then gave them a bath by following the imperative verbs that were said. We had to ‘clean’, ‘scrub’ and ‘soak’ the animals in warm, soapy water using different utensils, such as toothbrushes, cotton buds, and sponges.
This week, we took our topic learning outdoors! In Science, we investigated the characteristics of soil. We found that dark soil was the most common on the school grounds. Dark soil contains the most organic matter (and worms!) which makes it great for growing plants. In History, we became hunter-gatherers and made Stone Age shelters to help us survive in the forest.
Home Learning (due Thursday 1st February)
This week’s home learning will focus on spellings and grammar. On Monday, we will be starting a new unit in Maths called ‘Length and Perimeter’. Please continue using TTRockstars for this week. Your child has taken home an optional ‘Look, Say, Cover…’ sheet, as some have said this might be helpful for practising spellings at home.
It is mostly used when the root word ends in “t” or “te”. If the root word ends in ”e” you will need to drop it, for example, complete becomes completion.
action / completion / invention / mention* / position* / question*
* words taken from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory Spelling List
In our spelling lessons, we have been working on breaking words into chunks or syllables and checking that each sound is represented. For example, when we break ‘happiness’ up as “hap - pi - ness” it helps us to remember and hear that there are two p’s.
Next week:
PE days will be on Tuesday and Friday.
Home learning must be handed in on Thursday, so all children can take part in the feedback and consolidation process. Thank you for everything you do at home - it makes a wonderful difference!
Have a fantastic weekend,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 19th January 2024
This week, we have been working so hard and really getting stuck into our learning journeys! I'm very impressed by all the curious, thoughtful questions! In Science, we explored how soil is formed and drew a diagram showing the different layers of soil (top soil, sub soil and bedrock). We will be starting a new book in English, called 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth'. Our focus over the next couple of weeks will be writing instructions. In Maths, we will continue practising multiplication and division methods for one more week. We used a place value chart and dienes to divide 2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers, and then moved on to drawing methods and solving worded problems.
Home Learning: Due Thursday 25th January 2024
- English (spelling sheet): Create words using the suffixes '-ment' and '-ness'. Remember, most words (but not all) that end in 'y' must be changed to 'i', for example happy -> happiness and busy -> business.
- Maths CGP book: page 27 (Using Times Tables Facts) and page 30 (Solving Calculation Problems)
- Spellings x 6: business* / busy* / equipment / experiment* / happiness / sadness
* taken from the Year 3/4 Statutory Spelling List
- Reading - Please keep reading and signing your record 5 times a week.
Next week:
We have our DT Cooking Day in school on Tuesday! If you have an apron, you may bring it in, but if not don't worry, I have spares. We will be baking bread rolls, learning about what the Stone Age people might have baked, and making shopping budgets and food safety posters. The children will be taking home their bread roll to taste and evaluate!
PE kit will be needed for Friday please.
I hope you all stay warm this weekend!
See you on Monday,
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 12th January 2024
We had a brilliant first whole week back in Year 3! I celebrated my birthday with the children on Monday and they sang beautifully to me. In English, we took a flight to Paris and wrote postcards about our adventures, focussing on sentence construction and punctuation. We also worked in groups to present a broadcast to the rest of the class about the different festivals we 'visited' around the world!
In music, we painted Chinese New Year dragon masks, listened to different pieces of traditional Chinese music, and learnt how to play a pentatonic scale (made up of 5 notes, C D E G A) on the xylophone.
We also planned and carried out a science investigation, testing the permeability of rocks, by putting them in beakers of water and making observations. We learnt that a rock is 'permeable' if water or air can pass through it. As a class, we decided that the more bubbles we could see, the more permeable the rocks were. Chalk was the most!
Home Learning: Due Thursday 18th January 2024
- English Comprehension: 'Sam Wu is Not Afraid of the Dark', pages 2-3 in the CGP book
- Maths: Short Multiplication. Please see the attached question sheets. If you would like a printed copy, I can give them out on Monday. There are 2 versions. One version has no exchanges, which may benefit your child if they would like some help before trying the sheet with exchanges.
- Spellings x 5: accidentally* / actually* / basically / frantically / dramatically
- Reading - Please keep reading and signing your record 5 times a week.
* taken from the Year 3/4 Statutory Spelling List
Next week:
PE will be on Tuesday and Friday, as normal.
Library will be on Thursday, as normal.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Miss Bhanderi
Friday 5th January 2024
Happy New Year! Welcome back to school. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break.
I have been so impressed with how quickly the children have settled back in to the classroom routines. As a whole school, we have focussed on our three school rules this week: Ready, Respectful and Reflective.
In English, we are reading a brilliant book called ‘Atlas of Adventures’. Today, we created passports and took a (pretend) flight to see the Northern lights in Finland, Europe. I very much enjoyed being the pilot! Each time we visit a new place, we will stamp our passports and complete a writing activity. I wonder where we will go next…
We’ve started to learn about the Stone Age in History and about the three types of natural rock in Science (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). As part of our ‘No Outsiders’ scheme, we read a book called ‘We’re Wonders’ which is based on a character called Auggie from the film ‘Wonder’. We discussed what a bystander is and made posters encouraging others to speak out if they see something that isn’t right.
Going forward, Miss Morris will be supporting us in Year 3 in the mornings, in the classroom and with interventions. She is very excited to be with such a lovely group of children and we are just as excited to have her!
I am changing the day for home learning, spelling test and reading records to Thursday from now on. As I usually having planning time on a Friday afternoon, this will help me ensure that everyone is taking home the right books, ect. We will also have our library session every Thursday afternoon.
Home learning: Due Thursday 11th January 2024
Next week:
PE Days will be on Tuesday and Friday as normal.
In English, we will continue reading Atlas of Adventures.
In Guided Reading, we will be reading Stone Age Boy.
In Maths, we will be starting to use the column method to multiply two digit numbers by 1 digit numbers, for example 24 x 2 and 53 x 3.
Have a lovely weekend,
From Miss Bhanderi
Tuesday 19th December 2023
We have finally reached the end of term and the Christmas holidays! Thank you for coming to Year 3's first KS2 Carol Service last week. I am so proud of them; their singing and playing was wonderful and they were very brave.
The children have been so resilient in their first term of Year 3; they have adapted to changes and are already showing fantastic progress in their learning. I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding whilst I have been poorly. The staff at St Mary's have also been brilliant, for stepping in and ensuring the children still have the festive fun they deserve. I heard that Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed the pantomime and class party!
There's no set home learning over the holidays - please enjoy a well-earned break and come back feeling refreshed. Please do continue to keep reading at home and keep practising your times tables on TTRocktars.
Thank you for my Christmas cards, generous gifts and kind words! I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday 4th January 2024. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
From Miss Bhanderi :)
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:
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
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’
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.
*Words from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory Spelling List
Next Week: Lots of fun to be had! Please see the newsletter for more details.
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
*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.
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
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.
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:
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