Year 3

Year 3S are taught by Mrs Stone and 3H by Miss Sanson. They are supported by Katrina and Nicky. They can be contacted via email: year3@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

Summer 2024 Update

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful break with your family and friends and feel refreshed ready for the final term of Year 3. This term is going to be filled with engaging topics where we will be looking at the designer Vivienne Westwood, the Indus Valley civilisation and the wonderful world of plants!

In English, we will be exploring texts such as Firebird and engaging with our final class novel The Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley. We are really looking forward to all the creative writing opportunities these stories are going to give us. In preparation for Year 4, please continue to help develop your child’s love of reading by hearing them read as often as possible and discussing the books and poetry you have read with them. Please ensure you are recording your child’s weekly reading in the Guided Reading section of their Pupil Handbook. As we look at more complex spelling patterns, daily practice of their spellings will also help your child greatly so please make sure you remind and support them with this. Doodle English and Doodle Spell are great ways for your child to practise their spellings and grammar in a fun and engaging way.

In Mathematics, we will be continuing our topic of Fractions for the first part of this term before moving on to Mass and Capacity, Money, Time and many more. It is vital that your child is continuing to learn and revise their times tables and division facts as often as possible. This will allow them to confidently progress in their Maths this term and help prepare them for the Year 4 Times Table check. Your child can continue to practise their times tables using Times Tables Rockstars. We have a 3H vs 3S Battle of the Bands every week. All other maths learning can be consolidated using Doodle Maths. This is an intuitive programme that will set the tasks for you based on areas of strength and development.

Our history-based topic for the first half of the Summer term is How are we influenced by designers? This is where we will be looking at the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and how fashion can be eco-friendly. We are really looking forward to working creatively and looking at the sustainable side of fashion which will culminate in our Punk Day! Throughout the topic, we will look at our role as citizens and reflect on our wider world by looking at the Sustainable Development Goals linked to Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality, Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action. We are also thrilled to be heading to the School of Fashion in May. Our Art lessons will also be linked to our topic of sustainable fashion where we will be creating our own eco-friendly accessory.

In the last half term of the year, we will be studying the Indus Valley and exploring the question: What can we find out about ancient civilisations from what they left behind? We will be looking at how they planned their cities and what it was like living during this time. We have a great interactive museum visit planned to help us bring this topic to life!

In Science, for the last term of Year 3 we will be growing our knowledge on Plants and will learn how to observe changes over time. We will be developing our learning with a trip to Paradise Co-Op, hopefully the sun will be shining! We are really looking forward to our Science topic being so hands-on and collaborative this term! Encouraging your child to question the world around them, make observations, asking them what they predict could happen and why will support their learning in Science.

We are continuing with our recorder lessons this half term. The children have made such brilliant progress so far this year so we hope their enthusiasm and passion continues this term! Please ensure that the recorders are travelling between home and school every week, as without them the children cannot get the full benefit of the specialist Music lessons.

AM Sports will continue to lead our PE lesson each Monday and we are so excited to start our swimming lessons on Tuesdays. We cannot wait to dive in!

Madame Clark will continue to teach French to each class fortnightly - parfait!

We would like to thank you for all the support you have given your child in the Autumn and Spring term. We appreciate your continued participation and we are looking forward to even more engaging learning as we head towards warmer, lighter summer days!

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to email our Year 3 address.

Spring 2024 Update

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful break with your family and friends and feel refreshed ready for a new term of exciting learning in Year 3. This term is going to be filled with engaging topics, lots of opportunities for your talents to shine and we can’t wait to get started!

In English, we will be getting our teeth into our first class chapter book of the year, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. This is a story about a little girl’s pig, Wilbur and his unlikely friendship with a character called Charlotte. We are really looking forward to all the writing opportunities this text is going to give us. We are going to be writing a variety of genres from creative writing to newspaper reports.

We want to encourage a love of independent reading therefore children will be able to take books they have chosen from the class and school library home to read at their leisure. This term, please continue to help develop your child’s love of reading by hearing them read as often as possible and discussing the books you have read with them. Please ensure you are recording your child’s weekly reading in the Guided Reading section of their Pupil Handbook. Daily practice of their spellings will also help your child greatly so please make sure you remind and support them with this. Doodle English and Doodle Spell are great ways for your child to practise their spellings and grammar in a fun and engaging way.

In Mathematics, we will be continuing our topic of Multiplication and Division for the first part of this term. The children have made an excellent start on this topic already. It is vital that your child is learning and revising their times tables and division facts as often as possible. This will allow them to confidently progress in their Maths this term. Your child can continue to practise their times tables using Times Tables Rockstars. We have a 3H vs 3S Battle of the Bands every week - help your class win! We will then be moving on to other exciting areas of learning like Length and Perimeter, Fractions and Mass and Capacity! All other maths learning can be consolidated using Doodle Maths. This is an intuitive programme that will set the tasks for you based on areas of strength and development.

Our first topic for the Spring term is The Windrush Generation. We will be looking at the learning question ‘How has the Windrush Generation influenced British culture?’ and learn about what it was like to be a Windrush passenger and how it has influenced life in Britain today.

Our second topic in the Spring Term is Community where we will be looking into our local area of Earlsfield and discussing the learning question, ‘What makes a good community?’ Using our geographical skills, we will be looking closely at how Earlsfield has changed over time as well as maps of the local area, ending our topic by designing and making our own Afternoon Tea to distribute to the community! Throughout the topic, we will reflect on our wider world by looking at the Sustainable Development Goals linked to Good Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable Cities and Communities.

In Science, we will be shining a light on our new topic of Light and Shadows in Spring 1. We will be using our scientific skills of investigating and exploring by looking at different light sources, how to keep safe in the sun and exploring how shadows change. In Spring 2, we will be starting our topic of Forces and Magnets and looking at whether materials are magnetic or not. We will also be looking at forces and how they occur day to day. We are particularly looking forward to a special visit from the Mclaren Formula One team and celebrating British Science Week!

We are continuing with our recorder lessons this half term. The children have made such brilliant progress so far this year so we hope their enthusiasm and passion continues this term! We are hoping that recorders continue to travel between home and school this term therefore please ensure your child takes good care of their instrument and remembers to bring it to school every Tuesday. AM Sports will continue to lead our PE lessons each Tuesday, with 3H having Gym and 3S doing Tennis on Thursdays and then swapping after half term. Madame Clark will be teaching French to each class fortnightly - magnifique!

Thank you for all the support you have given your child in the Autumn term. We appreciate your continued participation and we are looking forward to even more engaging learning as we head towards brighter days in the Spring!

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to email our Year 3 address.

Key Learning

You can find out about our approach to all our subjects through the curriculum page but the headlines for the year group are below.

Reading

Children can maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding by:

I can continue to read and discuss a wide range of age appropriate fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
I can increase my familiarity with a wide range of books including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions
I can recommend books I have read to my peers, giving reasons for my choices
I can identify and discuss themes and conventions in writing
I can make comparisons within and across books
I can prepare poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience

Children can understand what they read by:

I can check that the book I am reading makes sense and I can discuss my understanding and explore the meaning of words in context
I can ask questions to improve my understanding
I can draw inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence
I can predict what might happen from details stated and implied
I can discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader
I can distinguish between statements of fact and opinion
I can retrieve, record and present information from non-fiction
I can participate in discussions about books building on their own and others' ideas and challenging view courteously

Writing

Writing

By the end of Y3 a child should be able to write down their ideas with a reasonable degree of accuracy and with good sentence punctuation. They are beginning to understand the skills and processes that are essential for writing: that is, thinking aloud to explore and collect ideas drafting, and re-reading to check the meaning is clear. Common words are spelt correctly including exception words and other words that have been learnt.

I can begin to create setting, characters and plot in narrative piece
I am beginning to organise paragraphs around a theme.
I can use simple layout devices in non-fiction texts –e.g. headings and sub-headings to aid presentation.
I can express time, place and cause using conjunctions [for example, when, before, after, while, so, because], adverbs [for example, then, next, soon, therefore], or prepositions [for example, before, after, during, in, because of]
I can use the present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
I am beginning to make deliberate ambitious word choices to add detail
I can use full stops and capital letters (including for proper nouns) question marks and exclamation marks correctly
I am beginning to use inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
I can use commas to separate items in a list.
I am beginning to use subordinate clauses
I can use ‘a’ or ‘an’ correctly
Use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past [for example, He has gone out to play contrasted with He went out to play]
I can form nouns using a range of prefixes [for example super–, anti–, auto–]

Spelling

I can spell some of the year 3 and 4 spelling words correctly

Handwriting

I can use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are left unjoined.

Greater depth (working above the national expected standard)

I can confidently use conjunctions, adverbs or prepositions to express time, place or cause
I can organise paragraphs around a theme
I can use the present tense and past tense correctly and consistently
I can choose ambitious words

Statutory spellings

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

actual

learn

group

heard

arrive

circle

often

build

eight

caught

centre

century

heart

breath

busy

early

continue

decide

island

minute

difficult

earth

consider

enough

perhaps

address

guard

material

recent

guide

forward

fruit

though

notice

quarter

length

library

famous

describe

mention

answer

appear

actually

extreme

February

certain

height

history

imagine

increase

interest

important

Homework

We set homework in Key Stage 2 in the following ways:

Spellings - bring handbook to school as usual
Guided Reading - bring handbook to school as usual
Literacy and Topic - Google Classroom
Talking Homework - Google Classroom
Maths - TTRS (Times Tables Rock Stars) and Mathletics

Students without digital access will get paper copies (need to return book)

You can access our guide to google classrooms or if you have any technical or password issues please email techsupport@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

Days to remember

Day	Activity
Monday	Wear PE Kit to school Spelling test (and new spellings given out) Art lessons
Tuesday	Swimming Lessons. Wera PE Kit to school and bring swimming kit in a labelled bag. Homework turned in on Google Classroom (TTRS and Doodle daily practice included) Times tables practice Recorder brought in to school (to be taken home on the same day)
Wednesday
Thursday	Homework set on Google Classroom
Friday	Pupil Handbooks signed and in school for weekly reflection and sent home
As frequently as possible.	Home reading Doodle (Maths, Tables, English and Spell) Times Table Rockstars

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