Year 3 

Hello Year 3 Parents,

We are delighted to share the exciting learning that has taken place over the last two weeks as our LEO Explorers continue to thrive and grow! Their high level of focus and enthusiasm demonstrates the LEO characteristic of resilience as they tackle challenging new concepts. They truly embrace the LEO values of Learning, Excellence, and Opportunity.

Maths

Our mathematical exploration has focused on building vital number sense for Year 3. We have been working hard on finding complements to 100 by effectively using our secure knowledge of number bonds to 10 (e.g., 70+30=100 because 7+3=10). We are continuing to work on securing this skill, as it forms a crucial foundation for future learning. The children also practised counting beyond the 100 boundary in multiples of 10. To help visualise and represent these larger numbers, we have introduced PolyPad—a fantastic online manipulatives app. This tool allows the children to interact with virtual base-ten blocks and other models, demonstrating their critical thinking as they manipulate and explore number relationships.

English - Writing & Reading

Our journey with The Stone Age Boy continued this fortnight, supporting a fantastic cross-curricular link with our History topic!

In Writing, we have moved on to crafting detailed setting descriptions. The children have used their five senses to capture the atmosphere of the Stone Age world. We've been actively building on their descriptive vocabulary, focusing on incorporating adverbs (e.g., swiftly, quietly) alongside their adjectives and expanded noun phrases to bring their writing to life. To prepare for our diary entries, our LEO Explorers used drama freeze frames to physically explore and understand the key emotional and chronological events of the story. By applying these new linguistic and dramatic tools, they are showing great creativity as they now write their character diaries.

In Reading, we have continued to strengthen our comprehension skills, with a focus on learning to summarise key information. This has been incredibly supportive in their writing, as they learned to chunk text and piece the events together in chronological order—a key skill for successfully structuring a diary entry. Our LEO Explorers are proving to be insightful readers and highly capable writers!

Wider Curriculum

Art & Design

In Art, our Explorers have been honing their fine motor skills and artistic expression by exploring mark making techniques using willow charcoal. They have developed an understanding of how to control their medium to create variations in tone (lightness and darkness) and different line thicknesses. This technical skill-building activity allows the children to express their individuality while focusing on precision building towards the focus: gestural charcoal drawings.

Science

Our scientists continued their exploration of  the human skeleton . They have been classifying various bones, learning their scientific names, and engaging in practical investigation by measuring and sorting the data to determine the smallest to largest bones in the body. This hands-on, investigative work helps build their understanding of the human body and develops their research and data handling skills.

We look forward to another two weeks of discovery and learning!

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.