We’ve had a lovely week in Year 3, despite the wet weather!

In our maths we have continued with addition and subtraction word problems, representing them through bar models and thinking carefully about the calculation we need to do. It has helped the children apply their written methods, including renaming when needed. We have began learning about multiplication by practising the 3 and 4 times tables. These are 2 of our focus times tables for Year 3, so any extra practise at home would be wonderful!

In English we have thought about synonyms and how they can mean similar things but have a different impact in a sentence. We have used a thesaurus to explore synonyms for the words happy, sad and worried. We will continue to use thesaurus’ in our current English work as we build towards writing a diary entry.

In science we have explored how seeds disperse. We looked at seven different ways, with the children making models and presenting each of these to the rest of the class. Ask your child how may ways they can remember.

On Wednesday morning we went to Trinity High School to take part in the invasion games tournament. The children were spilt into three groups and either competed in handball, hockey or football. The children certainly made us proud, they tried their hardest, showed great teamwork and were great ambassadors for Tardebigge.

In Computing, we have started learning about algorithms again. Our mantra is "An algorithm is a set of instructions to achieve an outcome". This week we looked at debugging two different programs, which needed small changes to be made to the code to improve. Some children even managed to adapt and change the rest of the algorithm to make them more interesting!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

Welcome back, we hope you all had wonderful half term breaks. The children have clearly had a great rest and have come back eager to learn.

In English we will be using our class guided reading text ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ to inspire some diary writing. The key skills will be focusing on will be synonyms for feelings and conjunctions. 

In Maths we finished our work on renaming in subtraction. The children were taking a range of numbers away from whole hundreds. It was really impressive to see the perseverance and determination from everyone! We have began Bar Modelling, which is a way of visiually representing problems and calculations to better understand them. It can be tricky, but the children have had a really good go and it will continue to come naturally with practise.

In Music this week, we began listening to 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley, and will focus on Reggae music throughout the term. If you would like to support your child in their Music learning, feel free to play them as much Reggae as you like!

We have had a lovely autumnal Forest School session; the leaves have fallen down and the puddle levels have gone up! We will continue morning sessions for the rest of the term.

Next Wednesday morning we will be visiting Trinity High School for an invasion game tournament (weather permitting). So please can you ensure children have suitable footwear in school and warm coats. We will provide the children with tracksuits. Any questions please come and see us.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett.

Wow hasn’t the last 8 weeks flown by. We have finished this half term by starting to look at renaming in subtraction. This has involved a lot of determination and perseverance from the children! We began by looking at renaming the tens, then moved onto the hundreds too. We have even tried some calculations with renaming in two columns, which were particularly difficult!

In English the children have really impressed us with their non-chronological texts on Toothless. They have thought carefully about the organisational devices, including headings and sub-headings, and their range of nouns and pro-nouns. Once again, we are impressed with the handwriting and presentation in their wonderful redrafted versions!

In science the children have looked closely at the structure of flowers and the role each part plays in pollination and fertilisation. We will continue this after half term.

We have a cold a wet Forest School this Friday, but nothing could dampen the spirits when we were toasting our marshmallows!

We hope you all have a wonderful half term, and look forward to seeing all the children on Tuesday 5th November.

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

It was lovely to meet so many of you on our parents consultation afternoon and evening. It was a pleasure talking about your children’s journey in Year 3 so far. Please do remember we are here at any time should you wish to talk to us.

In maths we have moved on to subtraction and children have been taking ones, tens and hundreds away from 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. We have used a range of methods, including numberlines, using base 10, and eventually using column methods. We haven't yet done any renaming (borrowing), and look forward to that challenge next week!

In English we have continued to learn facts about Toothless (film version). We then used this information to plan and begin writing non-chronological reports about this famous dragon; focusing on organisational features, nouns and pronouns and using commas in lists. In History, the children began learning about one of England's most famous landmarks, Stonehenge. The prehistoric monument was built towards the end of the Stone Age, and was changed many times. It's purpose is still unclear to historians today, but Year made some good inferences on what it could have been used for by ancient Britons!

This week we have continued our art with watercolours. The children applied their skills they have been practicing to the dragons they drew based on Jackie Morris’ drawings. They thought carefully about the amount of water to use, how to blend and how to layer their work. The artwork has turned out wonderfully.

• 
• Water colours in the style of Jackie Morris
•  

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

This week we have really worked hard in Year 3. In our maths we have continued our work on renaming in addition. The children have had to use their growth mindset and persevere as they renamed ones to tens or tens to hundreds. Ask your children to show you at home as the more practice they have, the better. For example:

In English the children showed their understanding of our key features, using organisational devices and a range of nouns and pro-nouns by writing about a wonderful school dog Maisie. We are also moving forward towards writing a non-chronological report on Toothless. Many of the children are already familiar with the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon; we discussed what we already know about him, then watched a video clip to learn more about the character, which the children then wrote about.

On Wednesday we were visited by Jade Clarke, netballer for the Wasps and England visited us. She put the children through their paces with a range of netball skills and then even let the children hold her medals. It was an amazing opportunity and Jade was lovely with all the children.

Forest School this week was mildly damp to say the least... The children got soaked and very muddy, but loved diving into the huge puddles and finding worms in the mud. As it will soon be getting colder, can the children please start bringing gloves and hats to Forest School, as well as a change of clothes to change into incase they get wet or muddy underneath their waterproofs.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett.

This week year 3 have begun exploring non-chronological reports in our English lessons. We looked at range of examples and unpicked the key features. In our first skills lessons we looked at organisational devices such headings, sub-headings and pictures, we though carefully about where these go and their purposes. Our second skill was to use nouns and pronouns appropriately. This is important so that our writing doesn’t become repetitive. Matching the right pronoun to the right noun can be tricky though when there are so many pronouns to use!

In our maths we have continued looking at addition; we have added tens and hundreds to 3 digit numbers, and then added two 3 digit numbers together without any regrouping. The children’s prior knowledge on place value really supported this learning. We moved into addition with renaming (exchanging/borrowing), which was more challenging but very satisfying when the answer is right!

In art this week the children explored water colours, and how to use them effectively, ready to recreate our Jackie Morris dragons. We followed a instructional video, and began to paint an autumnal leaf. The children were amazed at how using such simple colours (yellow, green, orange and red) could create such life like pictures.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

This week Year 3 have moved on from our work on place value and have begun looking at addition and subtraction. We started by looking at the family of facts, for example when we know 5 + 6 = 11, we know 6 + 5 = 11, 11 – 6 = 5 and 11 – 5 = 6, as the facts are commutative. We also started adding ones and tens to a 3 digit number. So far, this has not involved going over (bridging) the next 10, but we will move on to that soon, which will start to get a lot trickier!

In English the children have been putting all their hard work on adjectives and prepositions into writing their descriptions on the Hungarian Horntail. The children have thought carefully about its appearance and actions, using these to inform their powerful paragraphs. After writing their first drafts, the children redrafted using their handwriting pens for the first time and did an amazing job with their presentation!

In Science we have looked at planning our own investigation for the first time. We looked at video clip about a rather special sensitive plant and used this to inform our thinking and questioning. We would like to know in Year 3 ‘does a plant need room to grow?’, hopefully we will find out all about this over the coming weeks. In Forest School, we had a wonderful muddy session, before getting soaked in the downpoor on the way back to school! Despite the soaking, it was fun to experience such extreme weather!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

What a wonderful trip we enjoyed to the Martineau Gardens in Edgbaston on Wednesday. During the trip the children recapped their previous knowledge on parts of the plants and their jobs and began exploring the next stages in their learning of germination and pollination.

We explored their forest school, identifying a range of trees, including: Oak, Yew and Elder. We then looked closely at their leaf structure and the bark through doing wax rubbings and playing a blindfold game.

We also looked at other parts of gardens, which allowed us to taste herbs such as: fennel, chive, mint, sorrel and marjoram and vegetables such as beans, lettuce and kale. We saw tomatoes growing, compost in action and a range of fruit trees including apple, pear, damson, fig, mulberry and cherry.

The staff were really knowledgeable and answered all our questions. It was a really fantastic trip, so thank to Hugh Kenrick Days for funding it.

• Looking at the veins in the leaf.
• Seeing the UV light the bees see when looking for pollen.
• Tasting herbs.
• Smelling herbs.
• Trying vegetables.
• Exploring tomatoes.
• Part 1 of the compost process.
• Part 2 of the compost process.
• Part 3 of the compost process.
• Loving Eucalyptus trees.
• Sketching leaves.
• Wax rubbing bark.
• Not all plants grow in soil.
•  

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Horton

What a wonderful second week we have had in year 3. The children have really shown their growth mindset this week, working hard to demonstrate their knowledge of year 3 objectives.

In maths we have continued looking at numbers up to 1000. This week the children have ordered and compared them, by understanding the value of each digit. We have also practised counting in 50s, and are looking to move under spotting other number patterns next week.

In English the children have continued to work on adjectives for texture, shape and size and prepositions for time and place. They have used them in a short write and identified them in a piece of writing, to support their understanding of the features. Using a description from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the children painted pictures of the Hungarian Horntail (one of the most dangerous breeds of dragon in the Wizarding World!).

In science the children have looked at the job roles of the flower, stem, roots and leaves. Ask your children what they can remember.

In History, we have began our study of the Stone Age, and the class got an experience of what it was like to be hunter-gatherers in Britain thousands of years ago. We will continue to study how life changed for early Britons between the Stone Age and Iron Age throughout this half term.

We will be keeping an eye on the weather forecast for next Wednesday and our trip to the Martineau Gardens, then we will know what clothing we will need to take.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett

Welcome to year 3!

What a wonderful week it has been welcoming our new class. The children have really shown their readiness for year three with their excellent manors and eagerness to learn.

We have begun in maths looking at place value to 1000, starting with hundred. The children have began to create the numbers with physical resources, and write them in words too.

In our English we are looking at description, and how adjectives for shape, size and texture and prepositions for time and place can make description really effective. The children have looked at examples and learnt about the key skills. We looked at an image of one of our focus texts, 'Tell Me A Dragon', and thought of lots and lots of brilliant adjectives! The children then learned about prepositions and started to apply them in sentences.

Plants will be our focus in science. The children began this unit through a range of different plant based activities where the children explored plants, seeds, pictures and words to discuss their prior knowledge and encourage them to ask questions about what they would want to know more about. Our first class trip in less two weeks to the Martineau Gardens will support our learning. In History, we learned about how Historians learn about the past. We studied homes from various times in British history,  and then sequenced them chronologically. The children had to carefully look at the pictures to decide which would be oldest. We then created a class timeline to show how close together in time these different eras were. It turned out the people lived in Stone Age Britain more than 2 million years ago! We will be studying how life in Britain changed between the Stone Age and Iron Age over the next few weeks.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Horton and Mr Bennett.