Year 3 

Hello Year 3 Parents,

Welcome to our first newsletter of the new school year! It has been a truly wonderful and inspiring first two weeks back, and we are so proud of how our children have embraced their role as LEO Explorers. 

As LEO Explorers, our children are on a journey to become confident, compassionate, and capable leaders. It's been fantastic to see them jump into their learning with such enthusiasm and curiosity.

English - Writing

Our LEO Explorers have dived into the world of The Stone Age Boy, using it as a brilliant focus text for both reading and writing. They've been revisiting key Year 2 grammar and punctuation skills, such as capital letters, full stops, and expanded noun phrases, to build a strong foundation for their Year 3 learning.

The children have been working on writing detailed character descriptions of a Stone Age Girl, with a particular focus on a "Role on the Wall" activity. This allowed them to explore the character's inner traits (feelings and thoughts) and outer traits (physical appearance) to create some truly fantastic and descriptive expanded noun phrases. The depth of their work has been amazing!

Maths

In Maths, our pupils have shown incredible resilience and a deeper understanding of number by revisiting adding and subtracting within 10 through the NCETM framework. Using the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach, they've been able to make strong connections with their Year 2 learning and move into Year 3 with confidence.

We've introduced new vocabulary like "addend" and "sum," and the children have been thinking like true mathematicians by making generalisations. They discovered that when you change the order of the addends, the sum remains the same. This allowed them to explore balanced equations like 3 + 4 = 4 + 3 and confidently verbalise the reasoning behind their findings. What a brilliant start to the year!

Science

Our budding scientists have started to explore the fascinating world of animals, nutrition, and movement. They've begun their exploration by focusing on the human skeleton and joints. The children loved getting hands-on and exploring their own joints, moving them to understand and differentiate between different types, such as a ball and socket or a hinge joint. Their curiosity and collaborative spirit have made these lessons incredibly engaging and fun.

History

Our journey into the past has officially begun as we start our new History topic on Prehistory! The children have been introduced to the three main ages of prehistory: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. We've discussed what prehistory means—the time before written records—and have started to understand how historians use archaeological evidence to piece together life from this period. Using timelines, the children have been able to visualise how long ago these ages were and their chronological order. This has been a fantastic start to becoming young historians!

We are so excited to see what our LEO Explorers will discover next.

Best wishes,

The Year 3 Team

Children are expected to complete the following: 

• At least 5 reads in their reading diary each week 

• Century is here! A piece of maths and English homework will be set every Thursday with a due date of the following Monday. The homework will appear at the bottom under 'assignments'. The pathway at the top is suggested additional work that can be worked through as and when but is not an expectation to be completed. 

• Times table rock stars does not have to be completed daily, but it is encouraged to practise as much as possible.

Children are not expected to do Century and Times Table Rockstars every evening at home, but little and often is ideal! Thank you for your support :)

Please note, the inside of the reading diaries have changed. There are dates on each page and a 'homework' section on the left hand side but please ignore these. Please see the image below of how to insert the reads into the new reading diaries.