We are an awesome team of 29!

Class Teacher: Miss Z Rutherford

Teaching Assistant & Mastery Support: Mrs S O'Rourke

Year 3 at St. Peter's

Our Year 3 Journey is a special one - and we are in it together!

Joining Year 3:

When joining Year 3, children will have a wide variety of learning needs which will be catered for through effective teaching and careful differentiation. Initially, the intensity of Year 2 and the SATS will be a distant memory and their needs will centre around the step between the end of their Key Stage 1 journey and the beginning of Key Stage 2 – this can often be challenging and sometimes worrying for a year 3 child; this will be approached with understanding during engaging and inspiring lessons that build the resilience and independence needed during Key Stage 2.

Year 3 Learning:

The Year 3 curriculum is fun and engaging. Over the course of the year children will experience the opportunity to develop in maturity, independence and responsibility. In writing, there will be a focus on creativity and style, and writing for different purposes and audiences. Additionally, children will continue to work on the spelling patterns that they have begun in previous years, but this year there is less of a focus on phonics and more emphasis on understanding and learning the spelling rules, as well as attention to prefixes and suffixes. Mathematics in Year 3 has a large times-tables focus. Quick recall of the required 3, 4, 8 and 50 times-tables (as well as the 2, 5 and 10 times-tables they’ve already learned in Year 1 and 2) is important as they will aid further work. Column addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers will be introduced this year, as well as learning about multiplication and division, and using — and applying — their times-tables knowledge. They will also develop skills with simple fractions of quantities, equivalent fractions, angles, parallel and perpendicular lines, area, perimeter and shape. Year 3 children will be encouraged to use their understanding of the new concepts to solve challenges to deepen their understanding. In addition to academic skills, emotional and social skills will develop and children will have a wider understanding of social and moral issues, and be able to develop empathy for others.

Ready for the next step!

When leaving Year 3, the children would have grown in maturity, empathy and responsibility. By acquiring new academic skills during their Year, they will have sound foundations for continuing their Key Stage 2 journey and moving into Year 4. As well as being academically prepared, children must have the opportunity to approach new challenges and tasks with increasing amounts of independence and be willing to challenge themselves, perhaps even beyond their ‘comfort zone’; this will be achieved through a wide variety of activities, including reasoning and problem solving.

When moving to Year 4, they'll be encouraged to think independently and explore new topics – this will draw on the independence and resilience gained in Year 3. The focus on times tables during their first year in Key Stage 2 will prepare them for when they will be formally tested on the times tables towards the end of the next school year – a good knowledge of these times tables is an important step in their Year 3 careers. Year 3 is a time when stamina and speed become more embedded into a child’s skills and this will also aid them as they travel into the next year group. Children will be able to approach tasks with motivation and focus, applying their new skills to new learning in Year 4.

Take a look at our journey so far...

Thank you for all of your hard work at home, and thank you for sharing your acivities with me! Some of you have been completing set tasks, some of you have been inspired to work on your own activites - brilliant!

Potion creations...

Shadow Fun...

Maths, English and Science at home...

More Creativity...

Our Summer Term 1 Topic:

'Magic and Mayhem'

Our 'Magic and Mayhem' Class Text:

This book is inspirational!

Welcome back to St. Peter's for the second half of the Spring Term!

Our Spring Term 2 Topic:

'Digging Up History'

Thank you to everyone who attended Parents’ Evening – it was lovely to chat with you and discuss your child’s work.

Last term, we worked incredibly hard on our ‘A Cave Man’s Tale’ topic and are now moving on to ‘Digging Up History’ for the rest of the term; we will be looking at the changes in Britain between the Stone Age and the Iron Age, considering how we gather information about prehistoric Britain. Please see our Spring Term (2) timetable and Topic overview below for more information...

Science & Geography:

Last half term, we enjoyed exploring and investigating different types of rocks and had lots of fun testing their permeability, durability and density (and it was a messy job!). This half term, we will be moving on

to exploring forces, including magnets.

Exciting opportunities - P.E:

During our ‘Gymnastic’ unit, we have had the fun and exciting opportunity to join up with Year 5 and use a wide range of equipment, including the wall bars...

We are also feeling lucky because this half term, we have a boxing teacher working with us every Friday; he will be focussing on discipline, respect and self-esteem in sport, as well as physical activity. Please ensure that P.E. kits are in school for Wednesdays and Fridays.

Maths & English:

Our English lessons will continue to be inspired by our topic and also our class text – ‘Stig of the Dump’. We are currently working on writing newspaper reports about Barney and the chalk pit caveman.

In Maths, after a huge focus last half term on arithmetic and calculation skills, we are moving on to developing our reasoning skills through a variety of Golden Key challenges. This week, we have already been exploring scaling problems using cubes and bar models. Next, we will be working on problems that involve money.

Pancake Day!

We had great fun learning more about Shrove Tuesday and then we enjoyed a pancake treat in class! 

In Year 3, we believe that the best learning is inspired by wonderful topics, and

wonderful topics are inspired by magical texts...

Our Spring Term Class Texts:

Reading creates freedom

in your imagination and beyond!

Autumn Term - African Adventures

This half term, we have been working hard on many things inspired by our African Adventures topic...

Writing workshops:

During our writing sessions, we have been learning how to write persuasive letters. First, we wrote to Akimbo - from The Akimbo Adventures - to persuade him not to carry out his risky plan. Following this, we spent time enjoying The Enormous Crocodile story and decided to write a letter to 'stop the croc from trying to eat the children! I was incredibly impressed with how persuasive everybody's letters were!

 

Over the last few days, we have had even more fun with words; we have been creating animal riddles in the style of 'Kennings poems'. After half term, we will continue our focus on animal poetry before moving on to some adventure story writing.

Geography, History & Art:

This half term, we have been using atlases and research to find out more about the geography of Africa. Next, we will be exploring ancient African civilisations and making comparisons with modern life.

We have also been creating some wonderful artwork using pointillism...

Our 'African Adventures'  class texts: