Blog 2
Dear Year 3 parents,
I hope your week has been as great as our learning week in Year 3. The children have continued to be settled, calm and productive. I’m really impressed with the way they have got to know each other and how well they are interacting to maximise our learning.
This week in Year 3, we have begun our full set of subjects. In spelling, we took some time to review digraph and trigraph phonemes and next week we will begin the Year 3 Supersonic Phonic Friends programme with words that use the ‘u’ sound but spelt with ‘ou’, such as ‘touch’.
In writing, we have been exploring the difference between four different types of noun – common nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns and partitive nouns. We have begun to link this to prehistoric creatures, as part of our build up to a written outcome of a non-chronological report about prehistoric creatures.
Place value has been our focus in maths and we have been reviewing the value of each digit in numbers up to 100, locating numbers on number lines and partitioning numbers.
The five key food groups has been our focus in science and we have enjoyed sorting foods into: proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils, dairy and finally fruit and vegetables. We’ve thought about how balanced our intake of food is each day across the five food groups.
Each Friday now, the children will come home with their homework folder. Inside will be a piece of maths homework which enables learners to review the objectives we have covered during the week. It also gives you, as parents, an overview of what we have been covering and how well your child can apply this at home. Also in the folder will be a task which gives learners the opportunity to review the spellings that we have been learning during the week. This will support them in embedding these spellings patterns. This week, in the folder, you will find the ‘ou’ parent poster which gives you information about the spelling pattern we are about to study over the next two weeks. The homework can be completed at your own convenience and then brought back into school for me to review and feedback. If the homework folder can be back in school by Wednesday at the latest, that would be great. There will be provision of homework each week for you to make use of with your child as best suits you.
In a slight timetable change, our library slot will now be on a Tuesday rather than the Thursday currently given on the timetable in your child’s reading diary. We have brought home our first library book this week (on Thursday) and will now change them each Tuesday.
Thank you for all the reading that has been happening at home already. This really supports reading progress and I love to see the comments you make. Please do use the reading reward scheme at the back of the diary to log each time you read. If your child was at Hornbill School in Year 2, please continue the reward scheme from where you finished at the end of term.
A reminder that swimming begins on Friday 12th September, as explained in previous communication. Wednesday is our regular weekly PE day when children should come to school wearing their PE kit for the day. Please note that hoop earrings aren’t suitable to wear at school, especially for PE sessions.
As we begin our Stone Age to Iron Age theme, I would like to invite you to a parent and child session on Thursday 11th September between 1000hrs and 1120hrs in our Seahorse Classrooms. During this session you will be able to work alongside your child to complete some challenges that will get us really exploring what life would have involved way back in the Stone Age. If you are able to join us for this session, please sign in at the school reception from where you will be escorted to the classrooms. It would be great to see you.
With many thanks and best wishes,
Mrs Joanna Brown
Blog 1 – Welcome to Year 3
Dear Year 3 parents,
Welcome to Year 3!
We’ve had a busy first few days in our class and it’s been a pleasure to work with your children and to get to know them. I have been very impressed by the courtesy, great listening skills, clear communication, curiosity and creativity displayed. Hopefully the children have enjoyed the time to get used to our learning environment, to their new teacher and to each other.
Today, the children are bringing home their reading folders with their reading diary and a first reading book. For those children new to our school, I have listened to them read to gauge the right starting point in their Year 3 book band reading journey. The book they are bringing home is an initial starting point and, as I get to know them better and assess them more formally, the level may change. If you have any information about the book level they were reading in their previous school at the end of Year 2, please do share this with me. Those children who were in Year 2 at Hornbill School are continuing with their reading band journey as established last year.
Please do read as often as possible at home, recording your reading together in the diary. Each time they read at home with you, our Year 3 learners will earn a house point. There is also a reading rewards system at the back of the diary. Please do initial in the grids at the back each time you read so that your children can earn their reading rewards. Book bags should come into school every day please.
Inside the front of the diary, you’ll also find a copy of our class timetable. We will be beginning to follow this from Monday. Please note the following dates in terms of our PE lessons:
Every Wednesday – PE with Mr Sherwin
Friday 5th September. – PE instead of swimming
Friday 12th September and all Fridays afterwards – swimming
On days when we have PE, learners come to school wearing their PE kit for the day. On swimming days, the children should wear their swim kit under their uniform, remembering to have a towel and underwear to change into after swimming.
I look forward to working with all our Year 3 families this year. We have many wonderful learning experiences to look forward to. Please do come and talk with me at any time to ask questions or to pass on new information.
Best wishes,
Mrs Brown