Year 3J 2024 - 2025

Spring 2

Welcome back to the second half of the spring term! Yet again it will be jam packed full of lots of great activities for the children to do. 

Our main focus in R.E. is Jewish festivals and family life. Towards the end of the half term we will look more closely at Easter and Holy Week, which is the week leading up to it.

In Maths, we will be focussing on: perimeters, fractions, place value, multiplication and division.  We will also be concentrating on mental addition and subtraction, continuing with the written methods for both of these.  Make sure you are practising your mad minutes at home!

We will be spending the next few weeks in English looking Greek Mythology and Non-Chronological reports. We will also be focusing on grammar as we need to improve our understanding of completing and punctuating sentences.

Our focus in Science this half term will be looking at the life cycle of a Frog and Pond Life.  The children will look at each stage from egg, tadpole, tadpole with legs, froglet, frog. They will transfer the eggs to the school pond and then observe over the term the progress. This in turn will allow the children to research and find out about what other animals, insects live in or around the pond.  

History this term will focus on the Roman invasion and the impact they had on Britain. They will learn the lives, challenges and achievements of the Romans in Britain. This will be further investigated by our Year 3 trip to DEWA Museum in Chester. 

In DT, Children will learn how packaging, in particular for food, is put together. They will then use this to create packaging for the sandwich that they designed and made during the Autumn 2 topic.

PE is on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Please make sure your child has their PE kit in school on these days especially if they have had a club and taken their kit home.

Make sure you are continuing to read with your children every day at home, even if it’s just a few pages. It all helps to contribute towards their wider learning. Spellings and homework will be given out each week on Friday, spellings to be tested the following Friday and homework to be collected on Wednesday.

All the best,

The Year Three Team

Spring 1

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope you have had a relaxing time and are refreshed as we have lots of interesting and exciting things planned over the next few weeks in Year 3

In RE, our topic is “How do festivals and worship show what matters to a Muslim”.  We will be identifying some beliefs about God in Islam, expressed in Surah 1. They will also make clear links between beliefs about God and ibadah (worship) and how this links to prayer, fasting, celebrating and the intention to live out the five pillars of Islam.

Maths will see us continuing with important skills such as place value, recognising 3-digit numbers addition and subtraction as well as multiplication, division facts. Please continue to practise times tables at home as much as possible and encourage your children to access their Times Table Rock Stars accounts as a way of making this fun for them.

In English, we will be exploring fiction stories including imaginary worlds where we will be looking at the book ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. The children will write character descriptions and then write their own version of the story. We will also be looking at Greek myths and legends. This is a very exciting selection of topics as it involves a lot of the children’s creativity and imagination.

Science's focus is on Animals including Humans. We will be looking at food, how we use it and what it does for our bodies and for other animals’ bodies. We will also be looking at skeletons and muscles, why they’re important and why we need them. We will look at the fascinating various types of skeletons and how they differ to our own.

In Geography, we are learning about climates around the world! We will learn about types of climate: temperate, desert, polar and tropical. We will also be creating our own ‘triorama’ of climates!

Our Art topic this term will focus on investigating patterns in textiles and from different times and culture. The theme will be Islamic patterns. We will be looking at the intricacies of these patterns and how they are created. The children will then have a go at developing and creating their own designs using stencilling and print making techniques when creating their own Islamic pattern.

PE remains on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Please make sure your child has their PE kit in school on these days.

Make sure you are continuing to read with your children every day at home, even if it’s just a few pages. It all helps to contribute towards their wider learning. Spellings and homework will be given out each week on Friday, spellings to be tested the following Friday and homework to be collected on Wednesday.

The  Year 3 Team  

Autumn 2

Welcome back to our second Autumn half term! The children are now settled into Key Stage 2 and we hope they are ready for a fast paced half term lasting nearly eight weeks!

In Maths, we will be focussing on Place Value, applying mental strategies to work out calculations for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Please could you make sure the children are practising their times tables at home. They have been given logins for the website/app Times Table Rockstars and they can use this to secure their understanding of this very important knowledge. In class we are focusing on the 4x, 8x and 3x tables, the children should be secure in the 2s, 5s and 10s from Year 2.

In English, we will be exploring Adventures Stories by reading Stone Age Boy and How to Skin a Bear. Moving on from adventure stories, will be looking at poetry and some nonfiction texts concentrating on the format and features of both.

In RE, we will be moving on to our topic ‘What is it like for someone to follow God?’. We will be focusing on the Old Testament people of God and how they lived their lives followed by learning the story of Noah, considering what it was like for him to follow God.

Our new Science topic this term is Light. We will be looking at different kinds of light sources and how they are incorporated into our everyday lives. We will be expanding our knowledge in Science by visiting the Catalyst in Widnes; an exciting trip we are very much looking forward to!  You will have received a letter about this at the end of the previous half term.

We have also begun our History topic, what was life like during the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages? The children will come to know how these 3 periods in History have played an important role in today’s world.  The children will learn how people discovered the metal Bronze and how it was utilised during this era in time. Then moving into the Iron Age and the changes that came about during this time period.

The computing topic is We Are Bug Fixers, we will be looking at how to resolve computing errors known as bugs in programs. In DT, we will be looking at different kinds of sandwich and how they fit into a well-balanced. They will then design, create and evaluate their own sandwich.

Your children will receive spellings to learn every week alongside a weekly piece of homework (taken home on a Friday) relating to that week’s work. Please can you encourage your children to read at home as much as possible. This is vital to their success at school and will benefit them greatly. Even if it is only a small amount every day. There has been a great effort so far on reading but we can still do more! Our main focus for this academic year is the children’s handwriting so could you please make sure the children are continuously practising this when completing their homework.

All the best,

The Year 3 Team

Autumn 1

Welcome back to school and most importantly welcome to Year 3!

We are delighted to be back and excited to be with the children once again. We could not wait to start this new school year! The team this year is Mr Jolly, Mr Bigland, Miss Boland, Mrs Crossley and Mrs White.

A big part of this year will be the transition from Infants to Juniors. There is a big step up in the work and expectations of the children but together we will support them as they settle into a different way of working. We appreciate any support from parents and please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have any concerns regarding your child.

This term in RE will see a focus on God’s creation of the world. During this unit, the children will explore how God made the world, where Creation falls within the ‘Big Story’ and what Christians are doing to make sure they and we look after the beautiful world we were given.  Each RE lesson will contain a time for reflection where the children will be encouraged to consider their thoughts and actions in daily life.

Maths and English will continue just like last year with 1 lesson of each per day. In addition to this, we will spend extra time on handwriting and guided reading. Please can you encourage your children to read at home as much as possible. This is vital to their success at school and will benefit them greatly. Even if it is only a small amount every day.

The Science topic this term is Rocks and Soils –. The children will learn to identify the different types of rocks, how they are used and why.

This half term we will begin with Geography, looking at where we are in the world and how we would go about finding ourselves using a mix of digital and traditional methods.

Computing will see more advanced skills such as programming being taught and will give the children a good experience of how computing works.  The children will be using a programme called ‘Scratch’ to create and develop programmes

The focus this term in Art will be sketching. The children will learn how to cross hatch and stipple in Art. This new skill will help them when they sketch drawings of people.

Your children will receive spellings to learn on a Friday to be tested the following Friday.  There will also be a weekly piece of homework relating to that week’s work sent out on a Friday to be brought back at the latest by Wednesday. We very much appreciate your support in ensuring homework is completed.  Please ensure your child reads with you every night. Not only is this an enjoyable task it also enhances their writing skills.

All the best,

The Year 3 Team

Welcome to 3J

Welcome back to the first term of Year 3!

Please keep an eye on this page for updates throughout the year.