Year 3 Newsletter September 2015

Welcome to Year 3. We have a busy term ahead. Im sure your child will quickly settle into Year 3 and enjoy the
fun, yet challenging activities. Our whole school focus this half term is Horrible History. During this first half
term we will be studying the following topics.

English
We will begin by studying stories with familiar settings. We will look at story structure and
how to plan a story. We will also look at how stories can be made more interesting by using
adjectival phrases. The following unit will help children develop the skills of report writing.
This unit will be linked to our History topic and ICT unit; We aim to make our own class
book about the Stone Age.

Daily reading is still very important in Key Stage 2, even for fluent readers. Please hear
your child read as often as possible and talk to them about the books they are reading.

Maths
Place value, written addition and subtraction, mental calculation work and problem solving
are the main topics we will be studying this half term. Practical work will include work on
2D shape and length including work on perimeter.
Year 3 will have the opportunity to take part in challenge activities on a weekly basis.
These will encourage children to develop more open ended problem solving. Our first Friday
Challenge will be on place value, look out for photos on our website.

Please continue to help your child learn their tables at home, there will be weekly tests
(see below).

Homework will be set on Friday and is to be completed and returned to school on or before
the following Thursday. Children may be asked to share homework with the class, on the
Friday, depending on the task. Please discuss the homework task with your child. The tasks
given, may involve some research linked to our topic work. Alternatively, it may be additional
maths and literacy exercises.
Spellings A master sheet will be sent home for this half term (please keep this somewhere
safe to refer to). Each Friday, I will give out the list to be learnt for the following week, your child should copy
each spelling, neatly 3 times, to help them learn them. Children will be tested on these words the following Friday.
Times tables This half term we will focus on 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s & 10s. Week 2-2s, week3-3s, week 4-5s, week 5-10s,
week 6-4s and week 7 a mixed tables test. They will be tested weekly on Tuesdays.
Reading should be done at least twice a week at home and recorded in the reading journal, please sign and date
when your child has read to you, messages may also be sent in the same book. Most children will move on to class
readers in Year 3- This means they will be choosing their own books from the class library; these books are
differentiated by colour coding. I will ask children to choose red band books initially.
Children in Year 3 will also have the opportunity to visit the school library and change their school library book
each Thursday afternoon. Please make sure your child brings their library book back to school each Thursday so
they can change it.

History-The Stone Age to Iron Age

The children will be able to develop their chronological awareness of events that happened during this period. They
will be able to create pictures in the style of cave paintings and will look at different homes from the Palaeolithic,
Mesolithic and Neolithic times. They will also be able to find out what people ate and how their diet changed over
time.
Art
Our art work this half term will be linked to our history topic. The children will create their own pictures in the
style of cave paintings, they will also make clay pots.

Computing Combining Text and Graphics

This term the children will learn how to combine text and graphics to produce a report linked to their History
topic. They will also use ICT, as a research tool, to find out information, to answer a variety of topic related
questions.
Science Forces and Magnets
We will be finding out which materials are attracted to magnets and what the strongest kind of magnet is by
carrying out several practical investigations. We will also be learning how to use a newton meter to measure forces
and we will investigate catapults. Our Forest School Day will be on 28 th September and will be linked to our Science
topic this term.

P.E.
Year 3 P.E is on Wednesdays and Fridays this term. Kits must be in school on these days. Long hair must be tied
back and earrings removed for these lessons. Our main focus this term is invasion games. Children should have
pumps in school both sessions, as weather permitting, these sessions will be outside.
R.E, PSHE and French
Mrs. Procter will teach these subjects each Tuesday morning. This term the R.E will focus on Hinduism. In French
the children will develop their ability to use simple greetings and French vocabulary for numbers.

Thank you for your support. Please dont hesitate to contact me if there is anything you wish to discuss
either in person or by phone. You can also contact me via email at s.garner@harris.lancs.sch.uk
I look forward to seeing many of you at meet the teacher night on Friday, session 1 3.30pm-3.50pm or
session 2 at 4.00pm until 4.20pm.
-Mrs. Garner