3W

Welcome to the Spring Term!  

Welcome Back to our Y3 children and a Happy New Year to all our Y3 families.

We hope you have all enjoyed the break.  We are looking forward to the Spring Term and the learning adventures ahead of us.

Our Topic this term is  "Weather and Climate" and we will be learning about the impact of weather on human habitation in the first half term, and learning about changing climate in the second.

In English, we have spent a term looking at how sentences are made, how we should punctuate them and how we can improve them. This term we will begin to embed our learning through writing in different genres.  We will practise our skills in recounts and then investigate sound, shape and weather poetry (including acrostics, calligrams and alliteration).In the latter part of the first half term, we will work on non-chronological reports.  After Half Term, we will explore myths and persuasive writing.  We will be reading "The Queen’s Nose” by Dick King-Smith as our whole class Guided Reading book. We will have a strong focus on growing our vocabulary with fabulous words and improving our comprehension skills.

In Maths we are working hard on our times tables.  You can help your children by counting in multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 and learning to recite these tables.  We are working with our Tackling Tables cards at school. This term we will continue with 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction, using partitioning for addition and a number line for subtraction.  We will work on single and double digit multiplication and division using number lines.  If you want to support your child and are unsure of how we do these, please come and ask.

We will be continuing our first steps in learning German, so we will learn to ask and answer our names, learn about numbers and eventually learn to talk about the weather, tying in with our Topic work.

In RE we will begin to learn about Islam with Miss Strudwick.

In Science we will continue observing and evidencing changes in the world around us (specifically our school trees) throughout the year. We will also be looking at what humans need to survive and how different climates affect us.  We will study what our bodies are made of and how they work. This will  provide links to our Topic work.

Here are a few notices you may find helpful:

PE days are Tuesdays and Fridays

SWIMMING or FOREST SCHOOL?

On Tuesdays this term 3T will have swimming lessons and 3W will have PE.

On Fridays, 3T will have PE and 3W will have Forest School.

3T please remember costumes, towels and hats in a bag for every Tuesday.  If your child does not have their costume, they will need to stay behind with 3W.

3W please remember wellingtons and a change of clothes for Forest School.  We go out in all weathers so coats and gloves will be important if the weather becomes colder.

Please have indoor and outdoor PE kit in school all week – we rarely miss PE even in poor weather.

If girls are wearing tights through the Winter months, please provide spare socks for plimsolls or trainers as bare feet are uncomfortable in any shoes without them.

Naming belongings

Please help us to help your child by ensuring that all items are named. We have had to give up on some blank items of clothing now and these are in the lost property box.

Water bottles

The children are able to keep water in class and have access to it throughout the day. However, we continue to have damage to books where they been waterlogged in bags. To avoid paying for replacements, please could you wrap water bottles if they share a bag with clothing or paper? Many thanks!

What to hand in and when

Please could Home-School diaries be handed in EVERY morning?

Homework Diaries may be handed in whenever a piece of homework has been completed.

Spelling Activity books need to be returned on THURSDAYS for the new spelling lists to be added.

Reading Books can be changed whenever children return them, but they should be added to the change box in the morning.  They can also be changed by the children during lunch on any day, or after school on Wednesdays.

The children have made a great start to Junior School and we are very proud of them.  We look forward to seeing what they can do next!

Elizabeth Wheeler and Tina Tostevin