Welcome to Year 3!

2022-2023

Key Dates:

Key dates for the Spring 1:

Tuesday 3rd January - Term starts.  Children will need their PE kits as usual for Tuesday afternoon.  Please also remember library books to change.

Wednesday 18th January - Portals to the Past Stone Age Day (see information already emailed).

Thursday 2nd February - Discos (information to be confirmed nearer the time).

All about the Year 3 team

In Year 3, our teachers are Mrs Thomas (Year 3 Team Leader), Miss Maylam, Mrs Chappell and Mrs Hallier. We are also supported by our dedicated Learning Support Assistants (LSAs): Mrs Dodgson, Mrs Martyn, Mr Hunt, Mrs Lomasney, Mrs Loyal, Mrs Percy and Mrs Serreau-Nardi.  They will support us during the day, in and out of the classroom.

PE in Year 3

Each week the children will have two sessions of PE - one outdoor session (Tuesday) and one indoor session (Thursday). The children will be changing in school for PE (rather than coming into school in their PE kit on PE days) so please make sure that PE kits are brought into school on a Monday and they will be sent home at the end of the week for washing. It is important that ALL items are named.

PE kit should consist of a red or white t shirt and black shorts (no football kits thank you).  Black leggings/tracksuit trousers are advisable for colder weather. For more information about PE kits please see our school uniform section.

Home Learning

Each week we will set 3 home learning tasks for the children:

- spellings/phonics patterns to learn and practise for weekly tests

- a maths activity (set on either Times Tables Rockstars, My Maths or Google Classroom - logins to follow...)

- a short reading activity.  Children should be reading every day.

Once a term the children will be given some project homework linked to either science, geography or history.

All homework will be set on a Thursday and will then need to be returned the following Tuesday using Google Classroom.  All logins will be sent home at the beginning of term.  Please speak to your child's class teacher if you are having problems with logging on to TT Rockstars, My Maths or Google Classroom.  

Topic Webs

We will publish our topic webs for each term here so you can keep up-to-date with everything that the children will be covering during the term.

Here is our Autumn term topic web (Spring topic web coming soon...):

What have we been up to this week...

Each week, we will post an update to let you know what we have been up to during the week.

Autumn 2 Week 6 (week beginning 5th December) 

Listen 2 Me Music Concerts

This week, the children have been performing their ukulele pieces they have been working on this term.  The recordings will appear below shortly (we just have to resave them so they are small enough to upload!).

Autumn 2 Week 6 (week beginning 5th December) 

On Monday, Class 1 went on their visit to the QMC Science Centre - they were so well-behaved and really enjoyed all of the investigations with magnets.  Well done Class 1!  Photos below.

Class 3 really enjoyed their visit to QMC on Friday morning - amazing work and behaviour Class 3! Lots of great learning with magnets completed this week.

Autumn 2 Week 5 (week beginning 28th November) 

On Friday, Class 2 were the first class to go to the QMC Science Centre and they were AMAZING!

They worked their way around four different experiments with magnets and we were very impressed with their hard work, attitude and behaviour.  Well done Class 2! 

Class 1 and Class 3 will be going next week and they have a lot to live up to now.  

Please see the photos of Class 2's visit below.  Class 1 and Class 3 photos will be posted after their visits on Monday and Friday.

Autumn 2 Week 4 (week beginning 21st November) 

This week has been 'It's Cool to be Kind' week and we have been focusing on different ways we can be kind to each other.  On Monday, we were very excited to see the Year 2 classes and our Year 2 teachers!  They came over to see us and we worked with the Year 2 children to complete some Pointillism art work together.  We chatted and worked together to create some lovely pictures. There are some photos below (it was quite tricky to take photos without getting the Year 2 faces in!).

Later in the week, we were also visited by the Year 6 children and we played games together.  In class, we also thought about kind things we could say to the members of our class - we wrote these down and gave these out to show how kind we can be.

Well done Year 3!

Autumn 2 Week 2 (week beginning 7th November) 

We have been very busy this week writing our Autumn poems. In our classes and groups, we went outside to explore the woods and gather some vocabulary to help us write all about Autumn.  Mrs Thomas's group wrote their poems in our new outdoor shelter which was very exciting.  Our teachers were very pleased with our work!  Have a look at some of the examples below and we think you will agree that we have some budding poets in Year 3.

Autumn 2 Week 1 (week beginning 31st October) 

We hope everyone had a lovely half term.  It's certainly been another busy week in Year 3.  Following our phonics assessments before half term, we have started working in our new phonics groups this week.  For homework, your child needs to practise their spellings for their new phonics teacher.  We are so pleased with the progress that the children are making!  They are using their sounds and the sound charts to help them with their spellings - this is helping them to be much more independent with their writing in class.  Well done Year 3!

Your child should be bringing home two books to read.  Just a reminder that one of them should be a book that is a decodable book (at their phonics level) to practise reading the sounds that they have been taught in class.  Children should be reading this three times - once to practise decoding, once to develop greater familiarity with the words and a third time for fluency, expression and understanding.  Children on Brown and Grey books will be reading at a level where they should be reading more fluently without the need for extensive decoding of unfamiliar words.  They may not need to read the book three times because they are already lengthy reads but they may need some support to understand the vocabulary they are reading.  The other book they choose from the library should be a sharing book - this is a book that they may not be able to read themselves but you can share with them.  Library visits are on Mondays.  If a child needs to change their book outside this time, it may be possible for a member of staff to take them to do this at some point during the day.

For our English lessons in the first two weeks after half term, we are focusing on poetry.  We have been looking at lots of different types of poems and gathering language ready to write firework and Autumn poetry next week - there is a lot of excitement about this!  Look out for some amazing poetry in next week's update!

Lastly, please can we remind you that PE days in Year 3 are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It is important that children have their kit in school for the week and that it is all named (to reduce the huge amount of lost property we are gathering!).

We hope you have a lovely weekend - enjoy the fireworks if you are visiting any displays!

Autumn 1 Week 7 (week beginning 17th October) 

This week has been Art Week!

The children have been looking at the artist Pablo Picasso.  They have learnt about his life and his style of painting.  Through the week, they have tried different styles of abstract art and cubism, combining different methods to create a portrait.  They are quite impressive!

Autumn 1 Week 5 (week beginning 3rd October) 

Another busy week in Year 3!

On Tuesday, we had our reading café in the hall.  It was lovely to see so many parents join us for a short presentation about how we teach reading in school and then have time to share books with their child.  Thank you so much for coming - the children really enjoyed this! There are some photos below and there is a copy of the presentation at the top of this page if you were unable to attend.  Your child should be coming home with two books from the library.  One of these should be a decodable book which your child should be able to read to you (this will be a Bug Club book or one of our new Read Write Inc phonics book bag books).  The other book will be a 'sharing' book - this may be a book that your child isn't able to read on their own but they have chosen this to share with you at home.  We would like children to be reading as much as possible - five or ten minutes a night at home would be ideal and would help them to make good progress.  If you are finding that their decodable book is too easy/hard, please speak to your child's class teacher and we can adjust their banding level.

On Thursday, Year 3 went on their geography walk to the shops at Brighton Hill - we were fortunate to have great weather!  They followed their maps and made annotations to show some of the things we passed on the way.  We also looked at what facilities there were at Brighton Hill and then had a play before we walked back.  There are some photos below.  This was then followed by our Year 3/4 disco in the evening - needless to say the children were pretty exhausted by Friday!

This week, we have started a new English unit based on a book called 'Big Bear Little Brother' by Carl Norac.  This is such a sweet story of a polar bear who saves a child when he gets separated from his parents.  It talks about similarities and differences and shows how both the bear and the boy protect each other on their little adventure. Next week, the children will be writing a postcard and a diary entry linked to the story.

It's been a busy week and next week looks just as busy - don't forget that we have our harvest assemblies on Wednesday so any donations to support the Basingstoke Foodbank would be gratefully received.  

Just a last note - lost property is mounting up in school.  If your child has lost something, please ask in the office to have a look through the enormous pile!  Please please ensure that all clothing is named - if it is named, it will be reunited with its owner but we are getting an increasing number of items when the children change for PE that are not named.  Thank you.

Autumn 1 Week 4 (week beginning 26th September) 

What a busy week we have had in Year 3!  On Monday, the children were learning about the skeleton and they made their own skeleton pictures using cotton buds.  They are not quite finished yet (quite fiddly to do!) but there are a couple of photos below to show you what they have done so far.

On Wednesday afternoon, we invited parents to come in to school for a meeting all about Year 3 and then to spend some time in the classrooms.  The PowerPoint from the presentation is at the top of this page - if you weren't able to attend, please do have a look and come and talk to us if you have any questions.  There will be some links posted to videos to explain some aspects of our phonics scheme.  In class, the children really enjoyed working with their parents to create some leaf designs using the Pointillism skills they've been learning in art so far this term - great work everyone!  There are some pictures from the afternoon below and some pictures of the fabulous art work created.  A great afternoon.  Thank you for coming!

Next week will continue to keep us busy:

On Tuesday morning at 9am, we will have our Year 3 reading cafe.  Come along and spend some time reading with your child in the hall - coffee and biscuits provided!!  This is always a fantastic event and the children love sharing books with their family members.

On Thursday morning, we will be going on our year group walk to the Brighton Hill shops.  This links to our 'maps' topic - the children will be following their map and drawing on some of the places we pass along the way.  Please make sure that your child has a coat to wear and a fruit/vegetable snack for when we have a little break.  We will be back by lunchtime so children can order lunches in the normal way.

Lots to look forward to!  We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Autumn 1 Week 3 (week beginning 19th September) 

This week, we have started our phonics groups!  There are 5 different groups running at the moment.  We are using a new scheme called 'Read Write Inc'.  The children are identifying sounds to help them read and spell.  You may hear them talk about 'Fred Fingers'.  They can show you what this means!

In our English lessons, we have been continuing with the book 'Tidy' and they have written letters to Pete the Badger to ask him to stop tidying the forest (he ends up tidying so much, he concretes the forest and the animals can't find their homes!).

On Wednesday, we have our Y3 parent event at 2.15pm.  We will have a short meeting in the hall to talk about what Year 3 is like and then you can join your child in class until 3.10pm.  We hope to see you there!

Our reading cafe is on Tuesday 4th October at 9am.  This is a fantastic opportunity to share books with your child in school.

Autumn 1 Week 2 (week beginning 12th September) 

This week, we have been busy settling the children into the routines of Year 3.  They have been reading a book called 'Tidy' by Emily Gravett and finding out about the different characters.  Badger wants the forest to be tidy but he doesn't realise that his actions are actually not helping to tidy up!  The children have been revising how to write questions, statements and commands linked to the story and will be writing a persuasive letter next week.

We have started our first maths unit and the children have been getting used to the way we do maths in the Juniors.  They have been completing some brilliant place value work and have been practising their 2x, 5x and 10x tables too. 

We have started our new unit in geography where the children have been showing their teachers where they think key places are on a UK map (with the first job to get the map the right way up!).  They have also been learning about Pointillism in art and having a go themselves (photos to follow).

It has been a busy week and the children are definitely tired!

Our Google Classroom logins will be ready soon (when the classes have been sorted) so our usual homework routine will start when login details have been sent to parents.  In the meantime, we would like the children to continue to practise their tables on TT Rockstars (please see the homework document above for more information).

Autumn 1 Week 1 (week beginning 5th September) 

This week, we welcomed our new Year 3 children into school!  We are so pleased with the way they have settled into school and started to learn the routines of being in the Juniors - well done Year 3!

Our theme this week has been pirates.  The children have been designing their own pirates and pirate pets, producing some writing to describe them.  They have also been creating their own treasure maps.  On Friday, the children had an opportunity to dress up as a pirate and they took part in a pirate treasure hunt to explore the school grounds a little more (thankfully it didn't rain!).

On Monday, we had a special assembly in the afternoon where the children were 'sorted' into their new houses: Farah, Gershwin, Newton and Rowling.  Each child sat on the chair and the sorting hat told them which house they were in.  The children are now busy collecting house points in their classes and there's certainly been a lot handed out!

This week, we also had our first visit to the library - we crept up the corridor so quietly that Mrs McCauley didn't even know we had arrived! The children were very excited to choose their new books.  Every child should now have a 'Bug Club' book (colour-banded - please note that these colour bands may be different to those used in the Infants).  The children have also taken another book of their own choice.  Our visits to the library will take place on Mondays - all children should have their books in school so they can change or renew them.  Please also make sure that your child has their 'Bug Club' book in school every day.  

Next week, we will be starting our phonics groups.  We are using a new phonics scheme called Read Write Inc so the children will be learning the routines of these new lessons to help them secure their sounds.  We are really promoting reading in school and any reading you can do with your child at home will really benefit them.  Practising reading frequently really helps progress.

Lastly, please keep looking back at the Year 3 page for updates.  Our topic web will be posted shortly and key dates and information will be available on this page.  

It's been a busy week for Year 3 and they have been fantastic.  We hope you have a lovely weekend!