Welcome to Year 3

Useful Documents 

Homework

Year 3 Spring 1

Dear Parents and Carers,

I wish you a warm welcome back after the holidays and a very happy new year.  In Year 3, we will revise our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty.  We will continue to use our reward system 'Brookhouse Monsters University' to acknowledge positive behaviour and attitudes that are consistent with our values.  Pupils are aiming to achieve silver, gold or platinum awards.  If your child is in the winning University team, they will celebrate with a reward at the end of the term.

Homework

Please encourage your child to complete their homework each week.  Homework will be collected in on a Wednesday to be marked and returned by Friday.  There will also be online tasks to complete on PurpleMash, SPAG.com, Reading Plus and Times Tables Rockstars.  All children are familiar with using the online learning platforms, therefore your child should be able to login and complete assigned tasks independently.  Furthermore, your child will be given a list of vocabulary to explore on a weekly basis for our Whole Class Reading sessions.  It is important that your child completes this work so they are able to access the text that we will be reading.  You may feel your child is a fluent reader, however it is crucial that you read with your child as much as possible at home to support their phonics and comprehension.

At the top of this page you will find Year 3’s previous and current homework grids, which heavily focuses on reading, spelling and times table practice.  You will also find Year 3’s previous and current knowledge organisers, which will prepare your child for topic quizzes and will take place every week.  We will have a quiz of quizzes at the end of the term to celebrate all the learning taken place across the whole curriculum so far.

Attendance

At Brookhouse, attendance and punctuality are paramount.  Thank you for your support in ensuring that your child attends school every day.  The higher a pupil’s attendance, the more they are likely to learn, and the better they are likely to perform as they progress through school. 

Our topic for this term is 'Rock and Roll'.

English

Our focus for English this term will be 'Story as a Theme'.  The pupils will be immersed into our class novel 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King.  We will look at various adventure narratives, exploring the structure, language and features used in this genre.  The children will analyse the setting, characters and events.  They will then innovate an adventure narrative using the identified features.  After that, the pupils will plan and write their independent adventure narrative based on the Stig of the Dump plot using the skills that they have acquired throughout this unit.  All units will utilise the 'Talk for Writing' strategy of Imitate, Innovate and Invent.

Reading is a priority of ours at Brookhouse therefore Whole Class Reading sessions take place every day, where pupils are expected to read a range of texts and answer questions by predicting, summarising, retrieving, making inference and explaining.  We also have a specific focus on vocabulary.  In school, we will continue to use the online reading resource called 'Reading Plus' and encourage pupils to complete lessons at home.  It is imperative for you to support your child with reading, please use the question stems to check for understanding.  Also, ensure your child is learning their spellings for ten minutes daily.

Maths

In Maths, our aim is to improve maths fluency, reasoning and problem solving.  We do this through concrete, pictorial and abstract models.  This term we will be looking at measurement, focusing on length, mass and volume.  The children will be measuring the length of various objects and converting the measurements into different units of measure for example; meters into centimeters centimeters into millimeters and vice versa.  We be using measuring tapes and meter sticks to measure the length of objects longer than a meter. Once the children are confident at measuring, they will then learn to apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem solving using bar models by utilising the QUACK method (please ask your children what this means).  Please encourage your child to practice their times tables at home, in order to aid them with this, your child can use Times Table Rockstars and the maths area on Purple Mash.  All website links can be located on the Website Star above.

Science

Our topic for this term is 'Rocks and Soils'.  Year 3 will work scientifically to understand what rocks are and how rocks are formed.  They will carry out various investigations to understand how Scientists categorise rocks.  They will become Rock Detectives and compare and contrast different rocks.  At the beginning of each session, we will deliver a quiz to review key learning. Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser which will assist them with their weekly quizzes.

Art

This term we are going to explore Parietal art also known as cave art.  We will explore what materials were used in the Stone Age to create this style of work.  We will then be experimenting with different grades of pencils, charcoal and pastels to create our own parietal art.

PE

P.E sessions will take place on a Thursday afternoon, our unit is Dance - Rock and Roll.  Pupils will create shapes with their body and move in unison and canon.  Please ensure that your child comes into school wearing their full P.E kit.  The kit should include a yellow P.E top with the school's logo matched with black shorts, jogging bottoms or leggings and black pumps or trainers.  Over the top, children will wear their school jumper or cardigan.  All jewellery must be removed, ensure earrings are taken out before the session or covered with plasters. 

In addition, pupils will start their swimming lessons on a Wednesday morning.  Please ensure that your child brings in their swimming kit in a large carrier bag.  This will need to include a large towel, swimming costume or swimming trunks and a swimming cap.  Jewellery is not permitted, therefore remove earrings before Wednesday.

History

In History, children will be learning about the Stone Age.  They will explore the different periods within the Stone Age and learn about the key events that took place during this time.  Pupils will develop their historical enquiry skills by asking questions and investigating how we know about life in the past.  They will also compare life in the Stone Age with life today, gaining an understanding of how people moved around, hunted and gathered food, and cooked their meals.

PSHE

In PSHE, pupils will be completing a Families and Friends unit.  They will learn how images in the media can be adapted, what makes a good friend, and how to build and maintain positive relationships.  In addition, pupils will take part in Character Education lessons focused on cleanliness, fairness and friendliness to support their personal development.  Well-being will also be a key focus throughout the year, with opportunities for pupils to share and discuss any concerns or worries in a safe and supportive environment.

Oracy - Voice 21

As a school we are developing our oracy, learning to talk and learning through talk.  In class, we have created discussion guidelines to aid meaningful discussions.  We will encourage pupils to fully participate by taking on a range of roles and utilising sentence stems to articulate their ideas.  We will provide opportunities for discussion in all areas of the curriculum. 

On Thursday 29th January, I will be delivering a parent meeting with a focus on writing. The meeting will take place in the school library at 8:40am. I look forward to seeing you all there. 

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to discuss these with us at the beginning or end of the school day.  Alternatively, you can arrange an appointment through the school office.

Thank you for your support, from all of the Year 3 team.

Miss Martin (Class Teacher), Mrs Saleem (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) and Mrs Burondkar (Special Support Assistant).