Welcome to Year 3

Mr Watts

Year 3 Class Teacher

Mrs Cally-Sly

Year 3 Teaching Assistant

Miss Carnall

Year 3 Teaching Assistant

Life in Year 3

Hello and welcome to the Year 3 page!

In Year 3, the children are beginning their journey through Key Stage 2. A very warm welcome from me (Mr Watts), Mrs Cally-Sly and Miss Carnall.

Please read on to find out more information about the children's time in our classroom and what exciting things we have planned...

Important dates for your diary:

- 16.10.23: Castlefort Bake-Off
- 26.10.23: Halloween Disco

- 27.10.23: Break up for half-term

- 06.11.23: Castlefort Open Evening

- 13.11.23: Anti-Bullying Week

- 24.11.23: Non-uniform day

- 01.12.23: Christmas Fayre

- 14.12.23: Christmas Lunch

- 15.12.23: Christmas performance

- 19.12.23: Christmas party

- 21.12.23: Christmas jumper day; Break up for Christmas

Maths

Following the White Rose Scheme, children learn about fractions, statistics, measures (including time) and number and place value. To support the children in Year 3, please ensure they are completing their apps at home (Times Table Rockstars and Doodle Maths) and also try to test your child on reading the time on various clocks, ready for our topic on this during the summer term.

English

Here are the key texts we explore over the course of the year:

In Year 3, there are many opportunities to explore several new ideas such as forming compound and complex sentences in our work and we begin to edit and improve our ideas more independently. The children are taught the features of story writing, report writing and persuasive letter writing along with many other genres. As well as regular handwriting practice, children also have a weekly spelling test every Monday with new spellings set on a Wednesday. 

Science

Our science topics cover physical processes, life processes and living things and chemical processes. The topic titles are listed below...

• Rocks and Soils (chemical processes)
• The Power of Forces (physical processes)
• Can You See Me? (physical processes)
• How Does Your Garden Grow (life processes and living things)
• Animals and Humans (life processes and living things)

Science takes place on a Monday afternoon where children enjoy a range of practical investigations and explore how to work scientifically. They also undertake four yearly 'Our Changing World' investigations where we explore how the seasons and world around us change several features of our environment.

Topic

Topic is taught on a Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon. The children explore the following topics throughout the year, exploring world history, geography and any opportunities for art and design projects.

Our six topics are listed below...

• Tribal Tales (Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age)
• Tremors (volcanoes, earthquakes and Pompeii study)
• Gods and Mortals (Ancient Greeks)
• Extreme Weather (floods, hurricanes)
• The Maya Civilisation (The Ancient Maya civilisation)
• Location, Location, Location (rivers and local area study)

French

French is taught on a Monday afternoon where children explore basic French greetings, numbers, naming countries, describing their age and where they live and also write a pen letter to a foreign friend! Later in the year, they begin to explore how to label masculine and feminine objects and start telling the time!

Music

Year 3 benefit from the our resident expert musician Mrs Simcox on a Tuesday afternoon. They learn to sing, look at musical notation, the history of various musical genres and learn about some significant composers from history.

PE

Children need to bring their full PE kit in for their PE lessons on a Thursday and Friday afternoon. Mr Forbes teaches the children on a Thursday afternoon and they are currently learning the rules of Tag Rugby! Meanwhile Mr Watts is teaching them tennis. On these days, children will leave school wearing their PE kit.

Interventions

From time to time, children will benefit from interventions (often led by Mrs Cally-Sly or Miss Carnall) during registration and assembly times. This is so that we can work through any misconceptions the children have and build on their learning and current knowledge. 

Homework

At Castlefort, we set homework via Spelling Shed (to support the learning of the children's weekly spellings), TT Rockstars (to support learning of times tables) and Doodle Maths to support the children's learning of Maths. This greatly improves the children's fast recall of key spelling and maths patterns and improves their chances of moving swiftly onto new methods during their Key Stage 2 journey.

Homework expectations:

- To complete 6 games on Spelling Shed

- To complete 10 minutes on Doodle Maths (4x a week)

- To complete 15 games on TT Rockstars (these games are pre-set). 

Reading is also extremely important and children are expected to read 4x a week at home. Your child must bring their reading book and record into school everyday and the Y3 staff will be reading with your child regularly in school too.

Rewards and Sanctions in Year 3

This year, we will be continuing the whole school “Good to be Green” behaviour scheme which the children are now very familiar with. Children start every day on green as this signifies a new start and a new chance to do well. Yellow cards act as warning cards for poor behaviour and subsequently red cards if this is persistent.

A huge incentive for our children are our Castle Coins! Children can earn coins for completing all out of school learning tasks, good behaviour, contributing in class, excellent work in books, as well as arriving to school on time. The Emporium (our amazing shop) is now open and ready for the children to spend their coins!

Good behaviour and positive attitudes towards learning never go unnoticed in Year 3 as children can win certificates such as the Star Pupil Award, Star Writer Award and Reading Award in our celebration assembly on a Friday morning. 

USEFUL WEBSITE LINKS:

https://ttrockstars.com/   (TT Rockstars)

https://doodlelearning.com/    (Doodle Maths)

https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb/     (Spelling Shed)

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ (For ICT help and information for children)

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/dynamo (For English, Maths and Science games)

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordmaster (Sentence level work for Year 3 and 4)

http://www.nrich.maths.org.uk/ (For anyone wanting a holiday Maths Challenge!)

http://easyscienceforkids.com/human-body/

http://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/stories/a-e/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory

http://www.maths.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround