Year 3

Year 3

Dear Parent,

Year 3 will be taught by Miss Thompson and Miss Baker this year.

I am excited and privileged to be part of the Dame Dorothy community. I like to fill my lessons with lots of practical opportunities, hands on learning and good discussions. Our work will all be linked to a curriculum topic and the children will be learning to be more independent in the jump up to KS2. I know we will have a fabulous year in Year 3!

SPAG/Literacy

The teaching of SPAG is an important part in understanding key elements in reading and writing. This term we are looking at clauses, adding expanded noun phrases to our writing and knowing how to punctuate direct speech.

As well as working on our Y3/4 Statutory Spellings, we will be recapping some of the prefixes and suffixes we learned in Year 2.

In handwriting, we will be working on our size of letters, presentation and practising our joined writing.

Reading

This term our class reads will be

Charlotte’s Web

Our weekly reading sessions will focus on fluency, comprehension and oracy.

Ensuring children have the opportunity to explore books that link to their interests is important in developing a love of reading.

Maths

Dame Dorothy Primary School has an exceptional track record in the teaching of mathematical concepts.

Each morning, the children have mental maths to complete. It is important that the children get to school promptly at 8:45am so they don’t miss out on their mental maths.

This term our learning will be focusing on fractions, money and time. The children will use their knowledge to practise fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

Library

Year 3 will be given home reading books weekly. If the children read their home reading book at home in less than one week, they can bring this in and change it more frequently. Miss Thompson and Miss Baker will often have opportunities to read with the children. If the children could make sure their book is read by Wednesday, each week, ready to be changed during our Thursday library session.

Topic

Our topics this term will include plants and animals. Following this, we will learn about Dian Fossey and the impact she had on the world. The children will focus on the subjects of science, geography and history and have opportunities to complete art and DT projects linked with their topic. We will also have many opportunities to take our learning outdoors through practical lessons and educational trips. We will have our final trip to Broom House Farm this term.

ICT

We have the opportunity to use a wide range of ICT resources such as laptops and iPads. In ICT this term, the children will be focusing on Computer Science including Micro:bit coding.

We ensure that the children are aware of how to stay safe when using the internet and how to utilise digital tools to aid their learning.

PE

PE lessons are on a Tuesday afternoon. Please make sure your child comes to school with the correct kit and can remove any earrings and/or jewellery they may be wearing. This term our PE focus is athletics and will be delivered via expert teaching from our PE coaches. Please note, it is essential that your children have suitable footwear for PE sessions. Trainers must be worn. Also, this term, year 3 will attend their first swimming lessons.

Music

Year 3 have biweekly music lessons taught by Mr Kyle. They learn to use musical language, for example tempo, pulse, rhythm and pitch and are encouraged to use this language when talking about the musical examples they listen to from the Model Music Curriculum.  Year 3  will learn to play the recorder and will use other tuned and untuned percussion instruments. They take part in weekly singing lessons, and they are working towards being able to sing a simple round.

Reminders

  • Homework to be brought into school on Monday.
  • PE is Tuesday.
  • Home readers will be changed on Thursday, please return to school in time to be given a new book.
  • Spellings will be sent home on Monday and should be returned for the test on Friday.
  • On Friday, new homework will be given out that will focus on a particular concept that week. It can be on Maths, Handwriting or Spelling.
  • Please encourage your child to read at home and when they read, try to read alongside them, support them with understanding word meanings and ask them some questions about what they have read.
  • Please email me at teacher@damedorothy.org.uk if you have any queries or concerns: I’m happy to help!
  • Don’t forget we post regular updates on Facebook to show you all of our fabulous learning inside the classroom.