Welcome to Year 3

Useful Documents 

Homework

Year 3 Autumn 2

Dear Parents and Carers,

I wish you a warm welcome back after the holidays, I hope you have had a restful break with your families.  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.

Our topic for this term is 'Healthy Humans'

English

Our focus for English this term will be 'Persuasion letters'.  To start, pupils will listen, read and discuss a range of letters including persuasive letters.  Then pupils will view persuasive adverts.  After that, we will look at the features used and format.  By the end of the unit, pupils will write a persuasive letter to Year 2 pupils.  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.  In Autumn 2, pupils will be developing their knowledge of multiplication and division, focusing on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables.  The pupils will be looking at the relationship between multiplication and division.  They will then learn to apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem solving 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

In Science, we will learn about 'Light and Shadows' (Physics).  We will explore what light is and how we see things.  They will carry out various investigations to understand that we need light to see and that dark is the absence of light, how light is reflected and how shadows are formed.  By the end of the unit, pupils will be able to identify different light sources and explain how shadows can change by the light source and distance.  Children will be expected to work scientifically by setting up simple practical enquiries including comparative and fair tests, making careful observations and using scientific evidence to answer questions.  Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser which will assist them with their weekly quizzes.

Geography

In Geography, pupils will learn about the counties, cities and towns that surround Blackburn.  They will be identifying the key features of their locality as well as the local villages.  There will be an opportunity to carry out some field work whereby the pupils will sketch a key feature in Blackburn.  Finally, they will compare the key features of their local town to that of a small rural village.

Art

In Art, pupils will explore the American sculptor Claes Oldenburg. We are going to look at his work, focusing on his sculptures of food.  We will work in collaboration to replicate some of his work before planning and creating our own textile sculpture.  The final product will be evaluated by themselves and others. 

Physical Education

P.E sessions will take place on a Wednesday afternoon, our unit is Handball a sport from invasion games.  We will also have Blackburn Rovers Football Club coming into school to deliver Give Up Loving Pop (GULP) sessions.  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. 

PSHE

In PSHE, we will be completing a 'Healthy Lifestyles' unit, where pupils will understand what a balanced lifestyle is and recognise how their choices can affect the balance.  Furthermore, well-being will be a main focus throughout the year, pupils will have the opportunity to share and discuss any concerns or worries openly.

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. 

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).