Autumn Term 1 2023

Year 3 have settled really well and quickly back into their school routine. They are so eager to learn and are showing that they are active, resilient and independent earners already! What a great start to Key Stage 2! Year 3 have been busy establishing their class rules to ensure they keep themselves safe and always try their very best. We’ve been working hard on setting our ‘Investors in Pupils’ target for this half term and everyone knows the role they need to play to achieve it. This half term the children have decided their target is to keep the class and cloakroom tidy and they’ve chosen as their reward to have a movie day with popcorn! Year 3 a re certainly working as a team to ensure they meet their target. Our topic this half term is ‘The Stone Age’. Please have a look at Year 3’s half term plan so you can see what we will be getting up to in all our curriculum areas. Keep checking out our class page to see our learning journey this year.

Mrs Hodgson

Collective Worship

In Year 3, we have collective worship monitors who help prepare the collective worship table in class. They choose carefully what items they want to have on our table from our collective worship box and discuss what colour cloth they should cover the table and why with support from Mrs Riordan . For example, one child chose a candle to symbolise that Jesus is the light of the world and one child chose a tree to symbolise that we grow in God’s love.

Collective worship is a special time for us all. We all gather together and listen to a reading from the Bible. We listen and respond to God’s word and consider how this relates to our lives. We reflect on how we can learn from the Bible and what choices we should make going forth. Together we like to pray, listen to songs and sit quietly to remember how lucky we are to be part of God’s beautiful creation!

Cafod Harvest Assembly

Maggie from Cafod visited us in school to deliver a whole school assembly to remind us about how we can live in solidarity with those in need in our world, as part of our Live Simply Mission. We reminded ourselves what Cafod stands for: Catholic Agency for Overseas Development and just some of the work that Cafod does to help those in the most need around the globe. We learnt about global emergencies around the world, such as the floods in Pakistan, the drought in areas in Africa meaning no food and other global emergencies which means our neighbours become in need. We will soon be preparing for our Harvest Festival in school where we will be raising food donations and monetary donations to support those in need in our local community, at Wetherby Food Bank and to be able to support those in need around the world, through the work of Cafod.

To find out how you can help with current global emergencies, please click here.

To find out more about Cafod‘s work around Harvest, please watch the video below.

Harvest Liturgy

Year 3 enjoyed taking part in the Harvest Liturgy where the whole school community came together in prayer, song and worship. Over the past week, our Mini Vinnies have been working hard for their Harvest Appeal and we are extremely grateful to all our families and members of our school community for supporting this appeal. We have been overwhelmed with the number of donations, both foods and other items which we have now donated to Wetherby Food Bank and monetary donations which we will be donating to CAFOD, in support of their work to support those in need around the world.

R.E. – The Christian Family

We began our first topic in R.E. by reflected on what it means to be part of a family and part of God’s family. We talked about the ways we live our lives as a Christian and how we help our families. We spoke about how even the smallest gestures can mean so much and shows our family our great love for them. We considered our own unique gifts and talents and thought about how we can show our gratitude and give thanks to God.

We then began to think about baptism. We looked at some of the signs and started to learn about their meaning. We began by talking about the signs of baptism that we could see and talked about what they already knew about these.

The children came up with some great questions in preparation for our visit to church where we will go see Fr Andrew to learn more about baptism. Some of our great questions are:

Why does the priest pour water over the baby’s head?’

Why is it called Holy Water?’

What happens during Baptism?’

How do you make Holy water?’

Is the water special?’

What happens when you are baptised?’

This week we have been to see our new parish priest Fr Andrew to find out about baptism. We began by talking about why we are baptised. The children reflected well that it means that we become part of the Christian family! Fr Andrew explained about baptism by having some children act out a baptism taking place. We had a baby, two parents and two Godparents. They all stood together at the alter first of all.

We then moved over to the baptismal font where the children acted out the next part of baptism. Whilst showing us what the different signs were, Fr Andrew answered any questions that the children had. We were glad to have prepared questions last week too!

We then put all of our learning together and the children wrote about the signs and symbols of baptism.

After that, the children then considered the role of godparents. They considered what it means to be a godparent and the promises that you made to God as a godparents. The children wrote application forms to become godparents to children and the results were incredible. The children showed a great understanding of what this special role means. Below are some examples of the children’s responses.

3 words to describe what being a godparent means to you:

Caring, honour, loving

What will you teach your godchild about God?

I will teach my godchild stories from the Bible. 

I will teach my godchild how to share. 

I will teach my godchild that they are loved.

What promise will you make to your new Godchild? 

I promise to always love them.

I promise to teach them about the Bible.

English – Stone Age Boy

We are using the book Stone Age Boy to link with our History theme on the Stone Age as a focus for our writing. We began by looking at the front cover and discussing with our talk partners what we thought it was about and made predictions about the text. We read some of the book and discussed whether our predictions were correct. Following on from this, we wrote questions we wanted to ask Stone Age boy and his friend Om that he met in the story. We went into the woods to retell the story. We made sure all of our questions finished with a question mark and added some of these to our English working wall. We then hot seated Stone Age boy and his friend Om. We asked them our questions and found out how they felt.

Year 3 then wrote about the character’s feelings. We used pictures from the text to help us. We wrote in the first person and used emojis to show the characters feelings. We made sure we are developing our skills of being active, resilient learners by using our my try dictionaries, the working wall and our target cards.

Next, Year 3 looked at the features of diaries and worked with a partner to identify them. We highlighted the features in them looking at different diary entries, we drew on sticky knowledge we remembered about diary writing too from Key Stage 1.Following this, the children learnt about expanded noun phrases.  During our whole class guided reading lessons, the children looked for expanded noun phrases in the text. They worked with a partner to do this. Afterwards, Year 3 had edit some boring sentences about Stone Age boy’s adventure by including expanded noun phrases in them. We added these to our English working wall.

We reflected on what diaries needed to include and wrote some top tips about what we had learnt about the features of diaries.

Once Year 3 felt secure knowing what diary entries should include, they began to plan a diary entry as if they were Stone Age boy/girl. Following this, Year 3 contributed to shared writing and wrote the start of the diary. They carefully followed the top tips to ensure they included everything. Year 3 made sure they had their writing targets out too once they started their own diary entries.

Maths

Kirfs-Key Instant Recall Facts

Year 3 have been enjoying recalling numbers from the 2x’s tables and practising the 3x’s tables. The children enjoyed being active learners and dancing to BBC super movers, whilst saying these multiplication facts. To build fluency ,Year 3 played times table tennis to bat the multiples of 2 and 3, whilst working with a partner. We practice our KIRF targets daily.

Place Value

Year 3 are really enjoying their maths learning, developing their independence and being active learners. They are using lots of different maths resources to think about place value and how numbers can be represented using them. The children worked in partners to make 2 and 3 digit numbers they had to read the numbers and say how many ones, ten and hundreds the whole number represented. They chose the resources independently to represent the value.

Chess Taster Session

The KS2 children had the opportunity to take part in a chess taster session where they could have a go at playing the pawn game or those who felt confident, could play a proper game of chess against their opponents. Chess is a great game that promotes intellectual skills such as problem solving, logical thinking, pattern recognition and concentration. All the children showed their resilience as they tried different tactics to win and had to think about what their opponent’s moves would be and how their own actions would have certain consequences in the games. The chess session really brought the children together through the game they could all quickly and easily access as well as enjoy!

Science

Rocks and Soils

We began our topic by thinking about what we know about Rocks and Soils and what we want to know. The children had to think of a question that they could investigate themselves; this was very tricky! They came up with some great questions such as;

‘Are all rocks the same?

‘Where do rocks come from?’

‘What is soil made from?’

‘What colour is granite’

Year 3 explored the school grounds to look for different rocks. They discussed whether they were made made or natural. The children worked scientifically to observe the rocks looking their appearance, seeing what colour they were, size, shape and whether they had crystals, grains or layers.

Next ,Year 3 observed the rocks closely to identify them. They drew the rocks and labelled their appearance along with the names of the rocks such as slate, granite, chalk and marble.

The children really enjoyed completing a word search to find subject specific vocabulary about Rock and Soils. Following this, the children then looked up the meaning of words that they didn’t know to deepen their understanding of the vocabulary. This linked to their prior learning in KS1 about materials and thinking about the properties of them. We added this scientific vocabulary to our working wall.

Following this, Year 3 continued to investigate how various rocks differ from one another by investigating their hardness and whether they float or sink in water.  In small groups the children worked scientifically to investigate this. We discussed how they could do this. Some children suggested scratching the rocks with their finger nail or with another rock. The class tested granite, sandstone, marble, chalk, limestone and slate. Once the class tested their rocks they looked a their results to discuss which was the hardest and softest. We then discussed the use of soft rocks, such as chalk, for writing with and hard rocks, such as granite, for work tops in kitchens. The class concluded that they had been working scientifically to observe and classify rocks.

Meanwood Valley Farm Trip

Year 3 had a fantastic trip to Meanwood Valley Farm where we learnt all about different types of rocks such as granite, slate, sandstone, limestone and coal. We walked back through time to find out when these rocks formed and how. We discussed the everyday uses of rocks. Year 3 carried out lots of fun experiments to test the properties of these rocks to see how hard they were and whether they are acidic by dropping vinegar onto them. We found out that limestone fizzed when we dropped small amount of vinegar onto it. We also made our own soil and investigated the components of it. We found out that soil is made from rock and contains water, air, minerals and organic matter such as dead leaves, twigs and animals. We also learnt that soil takes a long time to form.

Art 

Stone Age Pottery

We have begun our learning journey for this half term and the children have been learning about 3D sculptures. We talked about what sculptures are and came up with the following definition.

Sculptures are 3D shapes that have height, length and weight.

Form refers to 3D sculptures. Form can be modelled, carved or built from materials such as clay, wood, stone, glass and paper.

We talked about famous sculptures from around the world and used this definition to help us to decide whether they are a sculpture or not.

In preparation for our pot making, we did some research first. We looked at Stone Age pottery on the internet, picked our designs and decided what we would like. The children then sketched their designs and made their first version to practise their skills. They learnt new skills of rolling out the coils, ensuring they were even and attaching them with the base. The children then evaluated what went well and how, when they make their final pots, they will improve their final product.

The children then evaluated their techniques. They considered what went well and what they will do next time to improve their skills. The children then used this when making their own pots. They used coiling, scoring, slip and blending techniques to create an effective Stone Age pot! The children loved it!

Our next stage was to evaluate our learning in Art. The children considered which techniques they had used and what they think went well and what they will work on when they use their clay skills again in the future. 

Computing

Sketches School

Year 3 have been using Sketch school on the iPads to practise using the drawing tools. They drew a self portrait to show how they are feeling about being back at school and in Year 3. Year 3 really enjoyed exploring  this app and how it works.

Scratch

The class have been using Scratch to create their own sprites and code them to move in different directions. Some children added their own backgrounds, text  and sound to enhance their story boards.

The Stone Age

Year 3 launched their launched their topic on the Stone Age with asking questions that they wanted to find out.  They enjoyed looking through the library box of books about this time period. They used these books to help them write their questions. We added some to our History working wall.

The children asked when the Stone Age was so we travelled back in time using an interactive timeline in school. Year 3 launched their topic on the Stone Age with a fun filled, fact packed workshop all about the Stone Age. The children were transported back in time to think about this time period in History. They had to make a timeline of different historical periods and place when the Stone Age was. The children make links to their prior learning about Florence Nightingale, the Great Fire of London and transport in the Victorian times to predict what life was during the Stone Age and when it was.

Year 3 absolutely loved being an archaeologist for the day. They discovered mysterious objects as they conducted their own archaeological excavations and uncovered ‘hidden’ artefacts, some of which were 4,000 years old! Using a trowel, brush and magnifying glass, Year 3 worked in pairs to dig up, clean and study artefacts before placing them on a time Line.

Year 3 then found out more facts about life in the Stone Age as they handled a range of real and replica tools made of natural materials such as bone, antler, flint, wood, animal skin, plants, clay and bronze. They had an amazing day!

The children completed a word search about the Stone Age. We also do lots of vocabulary work in guided reading to develop our understanding of words. Using the word search, the children then used colour coding (traffic light system) to show if they have heard the word and confident with the meaning, heard the word but not sure about the meaning, or they have never heard the word before. At this point, iPads are used to clarify meaning and build confidence with the words. Each child is at a different stage in this journey but it’s a really useful way to build vocabulary understanding.

We also have a worthy word wall on our History wall which we add to when we learn new vocabulary directly from the word search or from our shared reading. Words like prehistoric, Paleolithic era, Mesololithic era, Neolithic era and gatherer have been added so far which are words directly as a result of our discussions around the word search and guided reading sessions.

MFL – French

In our French learning journey, we have begun by revising our numbers up to 10. The children began by learning a song which helps us to remember this. They love listening and repeating the words and it is really helping them to accurately pronounce the numbers. Here is the song that we have been using which has really supported the children to remember this sticky knowledge.

To really help us with this learning, the children have been taking part in some Burn2Learn. We did part in some ‘Number Aerobics’ where the children heard a number called in French then they had to change their bodies to be in the shape of these numbers. They also went on a number hunt where they had to use their knowledge of French numbers as instructions. They grew so much in confidence that they are ready to move onto the next stage of their learning journey and learn some greater numbers now!

We then moved onto counting up to 20. The children applied their French learning in some Maths. We began with a Burn2Learn where the children have to turn around, quickly add up the amount of fingers shown on theirs and their partners hands and call out the number in French. Fastest wins! They then applied it within some calculations too.

Music

In music, we have begun to use batons in our music lessons. We make music out of everything! We learnt that to use a baton we hit them together to make a noise.

We have been following rhythms from our music teacher. We have been copying the rhythms that she has said. This takes focus and concentration. To build up on our rhythm skills, we also began to play a game of music imposter. This is a game where we have to work out who is playing a rhythm differently.

We then moved onto look at different notes. We opened up our booklets where we could see some graphic scores.  We had to read the notes and copy them.. We read different bars then combined them to make one piece of music. We then worked collaboratively with a partner to that we could play the music together. Then, to make it tricky, we had to work as a whole table, read the music, and play at exactly the same time. This takes some good focus, concentration to read the notes and teamwork!

The children have then moved on to composing their own music and writing graphic scores for their compositions. They worked together as a team to create their compositions and to then play in unison. The next stage of their learning journey is to perform their final performances.

P.E.

In PE, we have been practising completing a mini circuit of exercises. We encouraged our partners to try their best as they took part. We had practise some sit ups and hold a plank, all of which tested our core strength. We had lots of fun at the same time whilst completing these exercises.

Year 3 carried on working on their resilience and speed, however with the added difficulty now of having to handle their hockey sticks and dribble between various goals. They had to also play as a team with carrying out accurate goal shots to score as many points as possible!

In PE, we have been learning different throwing techniques and practicing how to catch accurately. We played lots of mini games to practice these skills and discussed what sports they would be useful in. The children were fantastic at playing fairly with their partner and catching/throwing the resources sensibly.

With Mrs Powell, our PE Partner coach, we have been looking at different ways to travel. We found so many different ways to move. We took part in lots of races to practice our movements and took it in turns with our partners. We practiced side stepping, skipping, hopping and running and had lots of fun doing it! We also had to work as a team to maintain control of the ball, whilst we walked from one side of the field to the other. We enjoyed playing different team games to build our problem solving skills and resilience when faced with challenges.

PSHE

It’s good to be me

Year 3 have been thinking about all their special talents and makes them unique. We also thought about our friends and what special qualities they have. We wrote kind words about each person in our class on a blank ginger bread man. The children then read all the positive comments about themselves. Year 3 really are a lovely class and have so much to celebrate about themselves. We sang the song above to celebrate this!

British Values- Democracy

We have been learning about British Values and democracy. The children then had a vote and chose their School Council representatives. We discussed the importance of voting fairly. All children voted and we now have two reps! They will be busy attending meetings soon to discuss firstly the ways Year 3 want to improve our school.

Class Worry Monster

We have also introduced our new class worry monster who Year 3 have named Nom Nom. Nom Nom is there for all children to share their worries. Year 3 do this by either speaking to Nom Nom or writing their worry on a small card and letting Nom Nom eat the worry. This means that the worry no longer has to take up space in their mind anymore and Nom Nom can deal with it. Year 3 decided the adult in class would look at the worries that Nom Nom eats and it would also give the children the opportunity to speak to an adult about their worry too.

Pants are Private

This week we have recapped the NSPCC’s message of Pants are Private. The Children were reminded of Pantasaurus’ important message in his song ‘Pants are private‘. We then worked on making some posters to demonstrate our understanding of the five pants rules.

Dyslexia Awareness Week

To start of this important week, we had a whole school assembly to explore what it is like to have dyslexia. The children were very understanding and explored different things that dyslexic people might find tricky and many other things that they can be really good and successful at. We celebrated that we are all the same but we are all different.  The theme of this awareness week for Dyslexia was ‘Breaking through Barriers’. This theme allowed us to reflect on the barriers that those living with dyslexia may face and also focusing on how individuals have continued to succeed and break through these obstacles. We looked at some famous people that the children recognised prove this too! The children reflected at the end of the assembly that they had grown in confidence with understanding what dyslexia is, the challenges that people with dyslexia may face, but also what amazing talents they have!

In class we also learnt more about dyslexia and explored famous people that we know of that have dyslexia. The children have been able to identify many successful dyslexic people and we reflected on their talents.