Year 3 - Owls
Welcome to our class page
Mrs Wilson, Mr Bowen and Mrs Dodds will use this space to keep you informed about some of the things that Owl Class will be doing during this term. If there is anything that you need to know or would like to ask us, please come and speak to us in the playground, before or after school, or send us a message via the Contact Book, in a separate note or by emailing the office.
News
Our class assembly before half term went well, with our whistle-stop tour around the world keeping everyone up to date with some of the work that we have done so far this term. On Wednesday 6th November, a group of children from the class took part in a Tag-Rugby festival at John Fisher's sports ground. They very much enjoyed the event and represented the school very well. There will be other sporting opportunities over the year and into Year 4 and we will keep you posted. Thank you for all your contributions to the Harvest Festival, which were donated to the local Food Bank.
Curriculum Topics for the Autumn Term
English
All of our English topics will include aspects of reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar. They will each culminate in an extended piece of writing, using the various elements targeted. The various genres covered will be: Fairy tales from around the world; Poetry; Adventure stories; Persuasive writing; Instructions.
Mathematics
Our Maths this term is dominated by understanding the number system and calculating. We have units on Place Value, Addition & Subtraction, Multiplication & Division and Measurement (length, including perimeter).
Science
The science topic this term are: 'Animals including humans', which includes aspects of food, nutrition, skeletons and muscles; and 'Light', which considers sight, reflections and shadows.
Computing
The coding program 'Scratch' will be our main focus, using it to create animations and think about fixing "bugs" in programs.
Topic
Geography will be our main topic area this term and we shall learn about 'Countries of the World', including thinking about the continents and identifying major cities. We shall also work on 'Earning a living' by looking at the different jobs that people may do.
Art & Design
Our work in art this term will include studying the collages of Arcimboldo and the sculptures of Giacometti. Please ensure that your child has a named art apron/shirt in school at all times.
Design Technology
As part of the topic relating to food and cooking, we visited 'Pizza Express' in Cheam on Wednesday 25th September.
Music
We have a new opportunity this year in Year 3 as we shall be having class Ukulele lessons on Monday afternoons.
P.E.
We shall be using the Real PE scheme for some of our lessons, which works on all the fundamental movement skills. We shall also be doing Games and Gym during the term. Our P.E. lessons are timetabled for Tuesday and Wednesday this term. Generally, P.E. kits should stay in school and then go home at half-term for washing. Please ensure that any child with hair long enough to go into her or his face, has sufficient hair-ties and, if girls wear tights to school, they should have socks in their P.E kit. As the weather becomes colder, children can wear tracksuit bottoms but they should always have shorts for use indoors.
R.E.
We shall include studies on Hinduism (Diwali) and Christianity (Christmas) this term.
P.H.S.E.
Our topics are 'Being me in my world' and 'Celebrating differences'.
French
Our French work will include the vocabulary of greetings, classroom instructions and colours.
Home Learning
The learning that children do at home is hugely important and is, of course, an ongoing thing. There are many ways that the work that we do at school can be complemented by various learning tasks at home. Regular reading is vital and, particularly at this age, reading aloud to an adult. Please record this reading in the Contact Book.
The maths 'Fluency Booklets' are for daily practice of basic skills. We will regularly go over some of the activities in the booklets so they should come to school each day but please also talk to the children about the tasks.
Each week we will set activities from the Mathletics website to be completed. Please let us know if you are unable to access the site. We are practising times tables regularly in class and this should continue at home also. The Times Table Rockstars site is an excellent way of doing this.
Spellings will usually be given out on Monday. The usual procedure will be that we will test the children on a group of spellings, usually with a theme to them. They will then take home the list (that will show which ones they got correct and which ones they got wrong) and work on them over the next fortnight, when they will be tested again. We will obviously also look at them in class and aim to use them in context where possible. We have also sent home a sheet with all the words for the term so that parents can see what is coming up. This will also get over the problem of any lost sheets on Mondays!
This week's Spellings - pre-tested and given out on 25/11/19 (due to be tested on Monday 9th December). These words have the prefix 're-', usually meaning "again" or "back" in relation to the root word.
redo
return
replay For any spelling, think: Can you "sound it out"?
refill What are the "tricky bits"?
revisit
replace Write them out. Close your eyes and spell them in your head.
recycle Write them out again but keep checking that you have done it correctly.
reappear
rebuild
reposition
Spellings pre-tested and given out on 18/11/19 (due to be tested Monday 2nd December). These words have the prefix "mis-" that makes an opposite to the root word. There are also three words from the Y3/4 list.
misspell
misplaced
mislaid
mislead
misbehave
misfortune
misunderstand
history
heart
learn
If you have any questions about the spellings, please try to catch Mr Bowen in the playground before or after school or put a note in the Contact Book.