Welcome to Year 3's Learning Page
Here, you will find out about all our magnificent learning and educational escapades!
We will be gathering knowledge on a diverse range of topics, producing creative and engaging pieces writing, securing our times tables and delving deeper into the world of problem solving!
At the bottom of the page there are some handy documents for you to view to give you a little more detail on our termly and yearly plans!
Term 6 Overview
Term 6 Newsletter
Literacy
This term we will be learning all about ‘The Mother of Trees’ Wangari Maathai who started the greenbelt movement and helped plant over 30 million trees in Kenya. Following this we will be looking at contrasting conservation stories and planning a conservation of our own. Finally we will learn all about fictional blogger Hope Jones who is helping to save the world by reducing plastic.
Maths
This term we will be looking at a range of different topics in maths. We will start the beginning of term looking at fractions and time. Then, we will look at money and understand how to add money and find change. We will then spend the last few weeks investigating different shapes and delving into statistics.
Science
This term we will be continuing to learn about plants. We will be conducting experiments to investigate the conditions needed for growth and the way in which water is transported. We will also be doing some gardening with Glynn and planting our own vegetables and salad for the school kitchen to use. We will then monitor our plants as they grow.
Geography
Focusing on human geography and a local fieldwork study (looking at land use e.g. green spaces, wildlife sanctuaries etc.
We will also be using fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, inlcuding sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.
Term 6 Spelling
What we have been up to in Term 5
Bristol Museum
We had a workshop where we have gained knowledge about Amelia Edwards and her links with Bristol and her study of Egyptian archaeology. We also developed our critical thinking skills through handling real replica artefacts and matching them correctly with locations in Egypt. Then, we had time to go through the Ancient Egypt exhibit where we did some sketching or had a go at Mr Lee's Quiz.
WOW Day: Ancient Egyptian
We kicked off the start of Term 5 by dressing up in clothes inspired by the Ancient Egyptians. Our day was packed full of Ancient Egypt themed activities including: cartouche making, learning about hieroglyphics and the process of mummification and collar making.
We are so excited to be learning all about the Egyptians in term 5!
In literacy this term, we will be looking at Egyptian myths, legends and traditional tales. Our author of the term is Shirley Climo. We will be looking at one of her books, The Egyptian Cinderella, as a stimulus for children to have a go at writing their own tales. We will also be writing information texts about the Ancient Egyptians.
In maths this term we will be revisiting our written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will be using the grid method for multiplication and the bus stop method for division and applying these methods in different contexts. We will also be learning to tell the time (both analogue and digital) and learn to read Roman Numerals.
Science
This term the children will be learning about plants. We will learn to identify and describe the function of different parts of the plants and explore what is needed for plants to grow. We will also be learning about the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
Term 5 Spellings
Term 4 Events
Storytelling Day - We loved learning all about the story 'The Last Wolf'. We really dug deep into the choices of words that the author, Mini grey, has used to convey the importance of wildlife preservation. We got into character and explored feelings through role-play and thought-tracking. In the afternoon, we used the story as an inspiration to create collages that portrayed the impact of deforestation as well as plastic waste to our oceans. We also used the book cover of The last wolf as a prompt to make our own book cover of our version of The Last Wolf.
Windmill Hill City Farm
Literacy - We had a magical time creating and writing our own medicine recipes. We used out-of-this-world ingredients to really capture Roald Dahl's marvellous medicine. We got to try some of the revolting ingredients too (freshly dug worms, fish eyeballs, reptile scales and many more).
STEM Week - We could not have been more lucky to have parent volunteers who took the time off to talk about their jobs in the STEM field. Needless to say, the children were very engaged and inspired. Here are some of the talks we had this term (Hydroponics, X-rays, Carbon fibers, Forces and many more ...
Our Spelling for this term
Literacy
The author for this term will be Zanib Mian and our key texts will be George’s Marvellous Medicine and Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl. In our writing we will be creating some of our own revolting recipes, inventing stories and also fact files.
Measurement (Maths)
This term 4, we will be adding and subtracting different measurements as well as amounts of money, both in £ and p. We will also be creating and recognising 2D shapes and 3D shapes.
Geography
In Geography, we will be learning about where all our food comes from and how climate affect where the food is grown. We will also investigate where does the UK export food go and what does the term Fairtrade means as well as how does it relate to global food trade.
Our trip to St. Mary Redcliffe Church
Our visit to St Ambrose Church
Literacy
We will be delving into the world of the Elizabethan’s through our key texts, poetry and plays. The children will practise skills relating to creating characters, settings and plots, leading to them writing their own stories. We will be focusing on sentence structure, punctuation and editing for our curricular target. We will also be writing non-fiction texts about The Globe Theatre and other parts of Elizabethan life.
Fractions (Maths)
In Maths we will be developing the children’s understanding of fractions as well as continuing our work on place value and multiplication. We will be learning to recognise fractions, use fractions as numbers and show equivalent fractions. The children will be finding fractions of amounts as their curricular target. It would be great if you could continue to practice and learn times table facts and their linked division facts
Science
This term the children will be learning about forces, magnets and springs. We will be learning about magnetic materials and testing different springs.
Just some of the things we have been up to this term 2!
DT Day
To end the Viking topic with a BANG, Year 3 had a DT day where we spent planning and designing a Viking house by looking at 3D shapes and nets. We then moved on to making the Viking house model where we got to used tools such as saws and glue guns. Of course, we’d like to say thank you to the parents who volunteered to spend their time in assisting the children and for helping us gather the materials needed for us to make our model. Finally, we had a chance to reflect and discuss what went well and what we could do next time as part of the evaluation process in Design and Technology.
Folly Farm
On the 2nd and 3rd of November, Year 3 visited Folly Farm and had an exciting and educational day where we had the chance to see and experience Viking life and created lots of crafts.
We had a go at making miniature hurdles/fences using twigs from the hazel trees by bending and weaving thin flexible twigs around more sturdy upright poles. We learnt that Vikings used full size hurdles woven from willow and hazel to form fences which were used to pen animals and to control animal grazing.
After that, we also had a go at making felt from sheep’s wool. We untangled it and cleaned it using combs made from bone, or tougher and more flexible materials. The pieces of felt we made was a great example of a simple way in which wool was used to create useful material.
Diwali Day
On the 10th November,we had our special Diwali celebration. We were busy doing lots of activities such as making garlands, getting henna tattoos, creating masks, decorating biscuits and crown and dressing up! It was then later followed by an afternoon party full of food, drinks and dancing!
In Literacy, we are learning about how to be a viking, retelling the story of Ice Palace, research and writing about a Viking God and writing an instructions on how to build a Viking house.
In maths we will begin the term by recapping our place value skills from term 1. We will then revisit how to do column method for addition and subtraction. Then rest of the term we will be honing our multiplication and division skills. Pushing ourselves to count in jumps of 50 and 100 followed by learning the 4 and 8 times tables.
Science
Science teaches us all about one of the most influential female scientists of our time. Mary Anning. We will be studying different soils and rocks and conducting experiments. We will learn all about different types of fossil and how they are formed. We will also learn about different types of rock.
For the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about how to take care of animals and this week especially, we learnt and wrote about how to look after a bearded dragon. Today, we got to meet Citrus (bearded dragon) and we hope our instructions on how to look after one, is good enough so that we are able keep him in our school.
Explorer Dome: Light and Shadow
This term in Year 3 we have been learning about Light and Shadows. On the 29th September, we were fortunate to have the Explorer Dome visit us. It was a high energy, fun and fabulous experience! We investigated what light is, where it comes from, how it travels and how we see. The dazzling and enlightening display of effects and experiments was made all the more impressive inside the pitch dark of the dome. We tested how light travels by using several mirrors. We got to explore deeper what light really is by observing the light as it passes through a prism and it being separated into a component of colours. We were in awe by the amazing patterns of light and shadows and this only strengthened our knowledge on how shadows are formed.We also learnt new scientific words (opaque, translucent and prism) to add to our vocabulary. Throughout the show, many hands were up ready to give answers or predictions or to volunteer as well as the many “lightbulb” moments the children had. This enlightening and educational experience was a success as this was evident by how the children left the dome still buzzing with excitement throughout the day.
Our literacy focus this term will be all about dragons! We will be learning to write creatively using powerful adjectives, verbs and adverbs. We will be using simile and metaphor to describe magnificent settings and so much more.
In maths we will be looking at place value. Firstly playing lots of exciting games to help the children to remember their knowledge on number. Next we will be comparing numbers based on thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. We will also be revisiting our 2, 3, 5 and 10 times tables.
In science we are going to be investigating the wonderful world of light. We will be finding out all about light sources and tracking our shadows around the playground at different times of the day.
Click on the links to view our TERM 1 Newsletter
Check back here in a few weeks to see photos of our learning journey...