Spring Term 2
Welcome back! Keep a look out on this page to see what we have been learning about. This half term Year 3’s topic is called ‘What a wonderful world’. We will be linking our Science and Geography topic.
Collective Worship
In Year 3, we have collective worship monitors who help prepare the collective worship table in class. They dressed the table with the purple cloth to symbolise that it is the start of lent. Year lent 3 revisited what lent is and what it symbolises for Christians. We discussed what we do to prepare for Easter and to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
RE-Called to Change
This half term the children read the bible story of Zacchaeus and the Parable of the Lost Sheep, using role play they reenacted these stories. We hot seated being Zacchaeus and asked him questions about his actions, feelings and why he decided to change his behaviour. We discussed ‘living simply’ and how Zacchaeus made these important changes.The children make links between these important bible stories and the role and the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Year 3 read the story of the Lost Son Luke 15:11-32. In this story In the story, a father has two sons, a younger and an older. The younger son asks the father for his inheritance, and the father grants his son’s request. However, the younger son is prodigal spends his fortune, eventually leaving him with no money. The younger son is forced to return home empty-handed and intends to beg his father to accept him back as a servant. To the son’s surprise, he is not scorned by his father but is welcomed back with celebration and open arms. Envious, the older son refuses to participate in the festivities. The father reminds the older son that one day he will inherit everything, and that they should still celebrate the return of the younger son because he was lost and is now found.
The children acted out this story and freezed framed as how to the younger son felt when he received the money and how the Father felt when he realised his son had left. We also acted out how the Father and son felt at the end of the story when the son returned.
Year 3 discussed how the story of the Lost Son teaches us about God’s forgiveness. They also explained how the father in the story is like our God the Father. This story has a very important message for us to learn from that we too can turn back to God no matter what things we have said or done wrong.
Take a look at our learning journey so far.
Year 3 are deepening their understanding that Jesus called people to change and are currently reflecting on how Jesus calls us to change. Year 3 will be preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation by understanding what this means and reflecting on God’s love and forgiveness.
English
Maths
We’ve been revisiting learning about multiplication and division. We practised recalling 3x’s table facts and used these to recall the 6x’s table facts. Similarly, we practised recalling 4x’s table facts and used these to recall 8x’s table facts. The children have enjoyed lots of different Burn2Learn games, singing songs, dancing and tennis times tables to recall these facts confidently and fluently. Year 3 have been discussing alternative words for multiplying and recognising this as being repeated addition. We have been solving times table problems. Year 3 have a times table key ring attached to their pencil cases which they use to be resourceful and independent learners. Year 3 have recalling and using multiplication facts for the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Following this we have be writing and calculating two digit numbers times one digit numbers, using mental methods and shortly will be progressing onto using the column method to multiply. Year 3 have also been dividing two digit numbers by a one digit number, practising and learning our timetables has really helped us solve these tricky calculations! We did this by grouping arrays to help us divide. We’ve also been stretching our brains to solve some very tricky multiplication and division problems too. The children are fantastic at choosing their own resources like numicon, counters or hundred grid squares to help support them with their learning.
Science
This half term we will be learning about animals and humans. We identified that animals, including humans, need the right types and amounts of nutrition that they cannot make their own food and they get nutrition from what they eat. We completed a burn 2 learn activity where we had to sort various foods into the right food groups. We discussed what the food gives us and why it is important to eat a balanced diet.
Art
In Art Year 3 have been really enjoying following tutorials to draw different animals. They have been experimenting with sketching and using different art pencils to add areas of light and shade. The children loved the tuorials because they could pause them at any time and then continue. The children were really proud of their art work! They used their top tips to evaluate their work and had time after written feedback to make some small improvements where needed.
Computing
This half term, the children in cooperated what they had been learning in Science to create a presentation about what a balanced diet is and the importance of eating a balanced diet. For this, the children used keynote. They enjoyed adding pages, their own text, adding images and experimenting wth different font sizes and colours. Once the children had done this, they then challenged themselves to create links to each page. Using air server, the children shared their work and presented it to the rest of the class. .
Online Safety
At the beginning of each lesson, Year 3 discuss how they can be safe whilst using technology and the internet. This is also taught explicitly throughout the half term. Today, we talked about what we use the internet for and what we should and shouldn’t do online. The children had the chance to discuss this in partners, then in groups and then we had a whole class discussion. Year 3 had all the right answers so we talked about how we can put this into practice in real life situations. We remembered our motto to help us stay safe on the internet which is STOP, BLOCK and TELL!
Geography
In Geography, we have been learning about the world’s continents and oceans. . We identified, named and located the Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. We wrote these onto a map. Next we discussed what a biome is and identified different biomes on our maps. We created our own keys to represent these.
MFL
Year 3 have been really enjoying French lessons! We have been revisiting and polishing up our skills of confidently counting to 20. We have worked really hard to pronounce the words accurately and this takes a lot of thinking about and is a skill that is more trickier than it sounds. Year 3 have loved playing hoop hop, a fun burn 2 learn actvity, to develop these skills and get our hearts racing! As well as counting, we revisited discusssing saying that the weather is like. The weather is so unpredictable at the minute so we’ve had lots to talk about and practise saying correctly.
Music
Year 3 really enjoyed using their bodies to create body percussion. They discussed the word percussion and where they had heard it before. We did a warmup, which is called Clap the Rhythm.We used our hands and bodies for the body percussion.
Clap, clap clap the rhythm clap the rhythm with me.
Pat, pat pat the rhythm pat the rhythm with me.
Pat, pat pat the rhythm, pat the rhythm with me.
Click click click the rhythm, click the rhythm with me.
Click, click click the rhythm click the rhythm with me.
Tap, tap tap the rhythm tap the rhythm with me.
Tap, tap tap the rhythm tap the rhythm with me.
That’s how it sounds.
PE
Year 3 are loving their PE lessons, being back together and playing and learning in their PE lessons is always great to watch! We’ve certainly missed our lessons with Mrs Powell!
This half-term, Year 3 have been learning how to and polishing up thier skills of being able to;
- Participate in team games,
- Throw under-arm,
- Throw over-arm,
- Catch a ball,
- Catch a ball balancing on one leg,
- Catch a ball hopping on one leg!
PSHE
In PSHE, we have been revisiting the important message of Pants are Private. The children discussed what this means and the important message of speaking out and telling a trusted when something is not ok! The children were active in this lesson – we sang our Pantosaurus song and decorated some pants, whilst discussing the important messages of the NSPCC campaign.