Spring Term 2

Welcome back! We hope that you had a great half term break and the children are excited to get started on our new topic on exploring ‘Our Precious Planet!’.

Collective Worship

In Collective Worship, we continue to keep those who are affected by the natural disaster in Turkey and Syria, and we continue to pray for those affected by conflicts in Ukraine and Russia. 

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marked the start of Lent so, on this day, we enjoyed a very special liturgy led by Fr. Andrew and then spent time thinking about our Lenten promises: how we can show loves to God, ourselves and others through fasting, giving and praying. If you would also like to watch the liturgy we shared together in class, please click on the video below.

In Year 3, we have collective worship monitors who help prepare the collective worship table in class. We currently have a purple cloth on our table to signify the start of Lent. We have been discussing in our collective worship what we can do to make a difference during this special time. We have also been writing our own Lenten promises about this.

This week we have been celebrating St Joseph’s Day. The children joined as a whole school in the hall to celebrate mass. We learnt more about Joseph and why he was so special. The children reflected on how God trusted Joseph and how Joseph cared for Jesus on Earth.

RE

Jesus, our Teacher

To begin this topic, the children started by listening to the story of Jesus at the temple. Look at the video we used to hear about this story.

The children have been learning some parables in class too. We learnt that a parable is a heavenly story with an earthly meaning. Please click the links to see some of the parables that we have been learning about.

Year 3 love acting out stories from the bible and it helps them to remember the details of the stories and also the meanings behind them too.

After the children acted out all of these stories, they planned and then wrote their own parables with a variety of lessons to be learnt. We had stories about forgiveness, sharing, loving one another and more! The children really showed that they understood how these stories be applied in their own lives!

English

Poetry

Grace Nichols

This half term, we have begun our learning journey by looking at a great poet, Grace Nichols. We listened and responded to her poem, ‘For Forest’ and considered what the words meant and the purpose behind her poem. We enjoyed performing the poem in small groups

We used this poem inspire us to write our poems about the Rainforests. We used our senses to imagine what would be able to see, hear, smell and touch in a Rainforest. We planned our poems first and considered what expanded noun phrases, adverbs and prepositions we could use in our poetry. We enjoyed writing our final poems and made sure we included our writing targets, so our writing was the very best it could be. Once we had finished our poems, we used our purple punctuation pens to edit for any mistakes. Finally, we enjoyed reading them out loud to the class.

World Book Day

Just before World Book Day, the children had Jane visiting who held a wonderful assembly about how to make the most of Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress. The children were shown the great ways to navigate the library and how to have a go at the reading quizzes when they finished a book of their choice.

Silly Stories Workshop – Author visit

We had another great experience – a Silly Stories workshop by a famous author, Serena Patel. Serena chatted to us about why she wanted to become an author, what inspires her to write and how we can become authors too! Serena gave us the starter to a story and we had to continue it. We worked in pairs and we could draw or write to carry on the story! We had lots of fun ideas and we all loved the visit!

Maths

Multiplication and Division

Year 3 will be recalling and using multiplication facts for the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Following this, we will be writing and calculating two digit numbers multiplied by one digit numbers, using mental methods and progressing onto formal written methods. Year 3 will also learn how to divide two digit numbers by a one digit number, solve missing number problems and solve multiplication and division problems.

We have been enjoying working with a partner to play active times table games.

Money

This half term the children have also begun their learning journey about money. We learnt about what different coins/ notes we have and the children compared their value. The children had some time to familiarise themselves with the coins as we don’t see them as often as we have in the past. We talked about how we often see cards now! 

We also learnt about how many pence are in a pound too. The children focused on converting money so that they could demonstrate their undertanding of this. 

KIRFS

This half term, our KIRF focus begins with our number bonds. The children have been playing games in class to support them with their instant recall and they are feeling the difference these games are having! We are using our growth mindset to think about our successes: are we getting more right? Are we  The children are especially enjoying our quick quizzes on the board to develop our speed!

  Top Marks Daily 10 Quiz

Science

Year 3 will be learning about Animals and Humans. During this half term, the children will identify that humans and some animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement. They will also learn about vertebrates and invertebrates and discuss the differences between them. Children will build on their understanding of why humans and animals need food in order to survive. They will look at the different food groups and the nutrients that they provide.

To identify that humans have skeletons for support, protection and movement

Year 3 enjoyed using pasta to make the shape of human Skelton, they then researched and found pictures of a human skeleton. The class adapted their pictures using the pasta. The children had to think about the main bones e.g. ribs, spine and skull. We discussed why humans have skeletons for support, protection of our internal organs and for movement. We discussed what it would be like if we didn’t have a skeleton.

Year 3 enjoyed working scientifically to investigate:

How does the skull circumference of a girl compare with that of a boy?

We discussed what this question meant initially and the children made their own predications giving their reasons.

 “I think boys will have the largest skulls because some of us are taller.”

 ” I don’t think there will be much difference in the size of our skulls because we are the same age.”

Year 3 then decided how they would investigate this question and what equipment they would need. We also discussed which scientific enquiry skills they would be using to gather their information.

The children practised the key core maths skills of being able to measure to the nearest cm and half cm. They recorded their results and used this information to compare measurements and explain what they found out.

Science Fair

As part of British Science Week, Year 3 and Year 4 hosted a very successful Science Fair! All the children created a science game for their homework which then other children could play. Some children worked independently on their project, others worked in groups and there were lots and lots of fun experiments that the rest of the children from school who came to visit us could try out. The pupils even planned in prizes that could be won! We all had a fantastic time as we showed off our working scientifically skills. After the fair, we had a go and identified the working scientifically skills that we put in practice through our science games. The children raised over £100 to spend on buying new resources!

Computing

Keeping ourselves safe whilst online will remain a priority. Children will continue to explore what it means to be responsible to and respectful of their offline and online communities as a way to learn how to be good digital citizens. The children will revisit understanding that saying unkind things online is the same as saying them in person and this is called cyber bullying, if it is several times on purpose. Year 3 will also be exploring using iMovie to create their own presentations. They will explore the features of using this.

As part of our Computing learning, we reflect on our use of apps and different devices. We had to consider how safe we are online on these programs and how we can do Stop! Block! Tell! to make sure we are always careful.

Here were the key top tips we learned for staying safe online:

• Keep your personal information safeand private (don’t share it with anyone).
• People online are not always who they say they are(don’t become friends with someone online that you haven’t met before in real life and never meet up with anyone you speak to online).
• Ask before you share– think carefully about the photos you post on the internet. You need to have permission before you post photos of other people online.
• Think carefully about the words you use on the internet.
• If you see something you feel uncomfortable with, STOP, BLOCK AND TELL! 
• Always speak to a trusted adult.

DT

This half term, the children will be developing their stitching skills. The children will be working on their running stitch and then designing, creating and evaluating their final design.

Plan

The children enjoyed planning their own felt fish designs. They decided how they would decorate their designs.

Do

The class practised using binca how to sew a running stitch. Once they felt that they knew how to do this they then sewed their chosen designs. The children used felt, sequins and pom poms to decorate their final piece.

Review

The class then evaluated their final sewed fish as to how well they sewed it using a running stitch, whether they had followed their initial chosen designs and how proud they were of them. As you can tell, the children were very proud of their work. We also discussed why it is an important skill to be able to sew.

French

This half term, we are starting our learning journey by answering the questions, ‘Quel temps fait-il? We developed our understanding of french weather and the children focused on their pronunciation of this. 

The children also learnt about the four seasons in France! We learnt that France is very similar to us and has the same seasons. We did make links to our Geography learning though and work out that France can be warmer than us due to it being closer to the equator!

When learning about the seasons, we worked on our pronunciation. We used the following video to help us. 

In Year 3, we love playing ‘4 corners’ to develop our recall of French vocabulary. The children particularly enjoyed it when learning about the seasons!

History

This half term, we are starting our learning journey by learning about the significant explorer Percy Fawcett.

We learnt that he was an archeologist and explorer of the Amazon rainforest. In 1925, during an expedition to find an ancient lost city called Z which he believed was home to an ancient civilization, he disappeared in the Amazon. He explored the Amazon rainforest and was originally sent to the Amazon to map the Rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia. We used drama and hot seating to explore his life.

Year 3 really enjoyed walking back through time, using the time line to place when Percy Fawcett was born, when he was a soldier in World War 1 and when he explored Brazil and the Amazon rainforest. We also plotted when he went missing in 1925 onto the timeline.

In small groups, we discussed who Percy Fawcett was and why he is a significant explorer.

Following on from this, we learnt about the significant British explorer, biologist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. We learnt about his early life, what he has taught us about the planet and the threats it faces due to habitat loss and climate change.

We then considered our key question

What can significant people tell us about changes to habitats over time?

We thought about what we had learnt from Percy Fawcett and what we can learn today from David Attenborough.

Music

To begin the half term, the children have been revising vocabulary linked to songs. This vocabulary includes: structure, introduction, chorus, lyrics, hook and backing vocals. The children enjoyed a B2L activity where they had to find the definitions and match them to the correct word. After we did this, the children completed a KAHOOTS quiz where the children could see how much they had remembered.

The children have also been enjoying listening to our new class song, ‘The Dragon Song’. We began by playing some games to identify the pulse of a song which proved very popular! 

We have then moved onto the next stage of our learning journey. The children are learning about the four different parts of an orchestra. The children were given the task to look at a range of instruments and to simply organise them into 4 groups and then label. The children used lot talking to think about how the instrument is played which supported with organising the instruments. They debated which instrument goes where and did some great listening to one another! After, we went through the different parts of an orchestra. The children were astounded with how well they had done by simply looking carefully at an instrument and considering how it is played!

PE

This half-term the children will develop their understanding that there are different positions and roles and responsibilities in sports. They will practise the skills of throwing for different distances and practise sprinting shorts distances. The children will also have a weekly Rugby session this half term, delivered by Leeds Rhinos. The children will explore the different skills used within this team game.

his half term the children are enjoying Leeds Rhinos Rugby as one of their PE sessions each week. The children have enjoyed learning new skills, such as holding the rugby ball, touching it down, learning dodging and weaving skills and playing tag games.The children each week developed new skills to support them with rugby and other games in PE. They particularly developed their dodging and weaving skills and they loved learning new techniques to trick their opponents!

During this half term, the children have also developed a further understanding of sportsmanship and being a team player. We had to learn about working alongside our team and also accepting when a game didn’t go our way. This can be really a really tricky skill to learn!

PSHE

In PSHE, we will be exploring the British Value ‘Respect and Tolerance’. Following on from learning about Respect and Tolerance pupils learn about valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others. Pupils know that differences and similarities between people arise from a number of factors including family, culture, age, gender, personal interests and belief. We will be linking this to the protected characteristics of race, religion or belief. Finally, we will be thinking about keeping ourselves safe by understanding healthy and unhealthy relationships

Dogs Trust Visit

The children had a great time when we had a visit from Dogs Trust. We became detectives and the children had to evaluate a lot of scenarios when dogs have been handled by different people in different circumstances. The children had to think about what environment the dogs were kept in, who was interacting with them and what were appropriate and inappropriate ways to approach dogs. We also discussed the responsibilities of dog owners. 

Live Simply Bat Boxes Project – Update!