Wow! Time has flown by, and Year 3 have been super busy! Pankhurst class have been identifying and classifying rocks, practising their multiplication and division as well as being creative raconteurs to retell the story of Jack of the beanstalk (which they have thoroughly enjoyed!). Why not ask them to retell the story?

We have also been learning our Christmas songs ready for the Christmas performance at the end of term. Check out our enrichment blog for links to the songs! Year 3 and 4 are learning songs from the 1960s- ‘Return to sender’ and ‘I wanna hold your hand’. They have been incredibly enthusiastic!

Maths: Multiplication and division

The children have started their new maths unit based on multiplication and division. We have been looking at grouping and sharing. We have also been learning our 3 times table to support us in our division. I can already see many children completing their doodle maths assignments, which has built their confidence in lessons. Please ensure you are completing your doodles little and often with particular focus on the 3, 4 and 8 timestables. As of writing this, we are currently top of the school leaderboard! Well done Year 3!

Literacy: Writing a defeating the monster story

In Literacy, we have retold the story of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ through using a story map (key pictures used to denote parts of the story). We have also learnt how to use inverted commas and interviewed the giant to gain his responses! This week we have taken part in lots of drama activities to gain greater understanding. To do this, we have made phone calls in the role of Jack, the giant, the giant’s wife and Jack’s mum. We have also taken part in freeze frames/hot seating and thought about how characters might think or feel in significant parts of the story. Next week we will be starting to look at the features required within a ‘defeating the monster’ story and begin to plan our own. We’ve also collected fantastic vocabulary and added this to our washing line, so we can begin to use this when we start to innovate and change parts of the story.

Additionally, please ensure your child is reading at home at least 3 x a week and this is recorded in their home school books. Little and often makes the world of difference!

Science: Rocks and soils

The children have been geologists and worked on identifying and classifying different rocks. We have also looked at different properties of rocks such as which rocks are impermeable/permeable. This week, we have started to look at the three main types of rocks- metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary.  We have built quite the collection of rocks from our school grounds too! Towards the end of this half term we will be experiencing two afternoons and working with a member of BGS to consolidate our learning.

 

Geography: Volcanoes and earthquakes
 

In geography, we have continued to focus on extreme weather, but this half-term we are looking at volcanoes and earthquakes. We have looked at tectonic plates and where they can be found around the world, what the key features of a volcano are, what happens when a volcano erupts and the ring of fire! Over the course of next week, we will be looking at how and why people live near volcanoes and earthquakes.