Meet our Classes
20th September, 2011
Dear Parents,
Autumn Term Curriculum Letter for Year 3
Welcome back to the new school year! I hope you had a good break this summer and I look forward to meeting and getting to know you over the year. Here is some information about routines and expectations in year 3:
- Weekly spelling lists are sent home on Thursday. The children are tested the following Thursday. Children are asked to choose up to six spellings and create a sentence including the word. These sentences are to be handed in by Thursday.
- Homework is set on Friday, to be returned by Wednesday. Homework instructions are given on a piece of paper which is stuck in the children’s Homework books. Work needs to be presented neatly in Berol type pens (if a pen license is obtained at school) or pencil, no biros!
- As well as learning spellings and completing any homework given, the children are expected to read 5 evenings a week at home, keeping a record of their reading in their personal organisers. For longer books only write which page number has been reached, it is not necessary to include a comment each day. Free readers need to complete a book review when their book is completed; this is counted as one evening’s reading and the new book will be started the following night. Book reviews are a piece of school work which should be written neatly, giving the same care and attention to spelling and punctuation as class work.
- PE kit is needed on Tuesday and Wednesday plus for any clubs your child attends.
- Please can you ensure your child’s uniform and PE kit are labelled – we end up with a selection of unmarked jumpers and cardigans at the end of every day!
- Art aprons are needed every Monday– these can be an old shirt etc. but need to cover up school uniform to protect it. They also need to be labelled, please.
All children at Holy Trinity are fortunate to have a range of specialist teaching throughout the curriculum.
Adults involved with Year 3
Class Teacher – Mrs H Sherwood
Teaching Assistant – Mrs S Mogridge
Art Teacher – Mrs N Matthews
French Teacher – Mr D Norris
ICT – Mr R Panchal
Music Teacher – Mr I Bornman
PE Teacher – Mr J O’Connor
RE Teacher – Mrs M Henton
Science Teacher – Mrs M Henton
This term’s curriculum will consist of the following:
English:
In fiction we will be studying stories that are set in familiar settings. The children will read stories from a range of authors allowing them to understand the genre and participate in discussions and drama. The children will then write their own stories with a focus on the setting.
In poetry the children will have the opportunity to read, listen to and to write shape poems, calligrams and Language play poems. Shape poems and calligrams represent the poem visually, for example, a poem about a spiral would be written in a spiral formation.
Finally, our non fiction focus will be reading and writing reports. This will tie in a range of other subjects, such as ICT and our class topic of Ancient Egpytians.
Maths:
Key objectives for Year 3 this term are:
- Add or subtract mentally combinations of 1-digit and 2-digit numbers.
- Partition three–digit numbers into multiples of 100, 10 and 1 in different ways.
- Derive and recall multiplication facts for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 times-tables and the corresponding division facts.
- Relate 2-D shapes and 3-D solids to drawings of them; describe, visualise, classify, draw and make the shapes.
- Solve one–step and two–step problems involving numbers, money or measures, including time, choosing and carrying out appropriate calculations.
- Tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes.
- Use written methods to multiply and divide two–digit numbers (e.g. 13 × 3, 50 ÷ 4) and round remainders up or down, depending on the context.
- Times tables required to be learnt by year 3 are 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x and 10x. The division facts should also be known.
Science:
For the first half of term we will be looking at ‘Light and Shadows’. Then during the second half of the term we will be focusing on ‘Magnets and springs’. The children will have the opportunity to look into their uses in different objects and carry out various investigations.
Foundation Subjects:
Our topic this term is the Ancient Egyptians. This topic will encompass all of the Foundation subjects (including RE, Geography, DT, Art, PE, Music and ICT) in a far more cross-curricular, natural and child-friendly manner. The topic is thoroughly planned, meaning that all of the relevant objectives and aims are covered, though not in clear-cut subject ‘boxes’. This is called the ‘Creative Learning Journey’ and is, in fact, far more like the topic based work we all did at primary school. The main benefit is that children can see the relevance of their learning and get really interested and involved with the topic work. We have already had a visit by Cleopatra VII who really stimulated the children’s imaginations and are going to watch ‘The Horrible Histories’ theatre production of ‘The Awful Egyptians’
in October. A review by another teacher states that the show is:- “Entertaining and educational, with a lot of information, greatly increasing children’s interest in history. It left a strong impression and was much talked about after. The children wished every history lesson could be as fun!”
The main RE focus this term will be on Sacred texts and wisdom, linking with different religions.
Mr Norris will start to teach all children French for half an hour a week as per the National Curriculum guidelines.
I WOULD LIKE TO STRESS HOW IMPORTANT IT IS THAT THE PERSONAL ORGANISER IS IN SCHOOL EVERY DAY. Important notices/messages can be given on any day. I will be checking them on Fridays.
Thank you for your support in all matters and please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs H Sherwood
Click here for a print version of this letter (PDF) |
