Year 3 - 25th October

Congratulations to year 3 for their wonderful rainforest assembly. All the children have worked hard leading up to today and we are so proud of everything they've achieved over this term.

Thank you to all the parents that were able to attend our consultations this week. It was a great opportunity to discuss their learning with you. If you still need to meet with us please contact us after half term and we will try to arrange a suitable time. 

To get the children ready and excited about next term's topic their home learning is to do some research about the Arctic and Antarctic. 

We hope you have a restful and enjoyable break and we will see you next term.   

This week in Year 3

This week we will be finishing off our Rainforest leaflets. These contain all of the information that the children have been learning this half term. We will also be practising for our assembly on Friday. Please encourage your child to practice their lines at home.

Last week the children completed a AR quiz and have been given a new AR number. I have a record of these if your child is unsure. Please do take your child to the library when you can and complete quizzes at home.

This week is also our parent consultations. There are still a few spaces left if you haven’t already signed up. Please see a member of Year 3 if you are unable to make the allocated times.

This week's home learning

Home Learning
For this week's home learning, most children have been given some lines to practice for our class assembly which is next Friday 25th October.
Please help your child read and learn their lines so that they can be confident to deliver them on Friday.

Be aware that a few children don't have lines as they have been given a different role in the assembly.

Power Maths
In Power maths, all groups are continuing to work on addition and subtraction. They worked incredibly hard this week and we are very proud of what they are achieving. Even though the children may be answering problems involving  3-digit numbers they will always need to have a strong recall of number bonds to 10.  If your child would benefit from practising you might like to ask them addition problems where the answer is 10 or less than 10 (e.g. 4 + 5 or 6 + 4).  Hit the button can also help children to develop a quicker recall of number bonds within 10   https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button 

Please also encourage your child to access mathletics, time tables rockstars and to read 15 - 20 minutes a day.
 

Filming for our assembly next week

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful masks that have come in for our class assembly next week. They are all amazing and you can tell a lot of thought and effort has gone into them! The other children in the school are going to be so impressed next week when we show them all. 

Tomorrow afternoon we will be filming the video section for our Assembly! The children involved in this part are: Benji, Florence, Jacob, Charlie Bu, Toby, Elliott, Mia, Gracie, Harry C, and Noah M

Could these children please bring a change of clothes to wear for the filming. Could you please bring in some plain dark clothing (ideally black) as we will be using the green screen! If you don’t have any dark clothes then don’t worry. 

If anyone has any fancy dress tails or wings that we could borrow for tomorrow, then they would be a great addition too! We are also on the look out for a plastic axe to borrow for a couple of weeks. If you are able to help us out with these props then could we please have them in school tomorrow morning, ready for filming in the afternoon. 

Thank you for your support with this

Miss Stewart 

Wearing the VR headsets to transport us to the Rainforest!

On Monday we were transported to the Borneo Rainforest. The children wore the Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. I showed them the change in the Rainforest due to deforestation. We also visited a Orangutan conservation centre. This activity helped the children understand the reality of deforestation. 

Today the children started their Bigwrite. Thank you to everyone that supported their child at the weekend to discuss the impact of deforestation and what we could do to reduce it. The children had some fantastic ideas and will have some more time on Thursday to finish these off.

The classroom is a hive of activity as we are beginning to get ready for our assembly (next Friday, the last Friday before half term). Thank you to everyone that has bought in a animal mask, these all look amazing! 

This week in Power Maths

This term, as a school, we are focussing on our new Power Maths scheme and ensuring that all children benefit from this excellent program. 

Staff have been very impressed with how well year 3 have adapted to the new way of working. Power Maths typically involves paired work with the use of physical resources, before moving towards deeper independent practice questions in their own workbooks. 

We are keen to ensure that all children approach maths with a growth mindset and have the belief that they will succeed (with perseverance). We encourage them to embrace mistakes and take them as an opportunity to learn and deepen their knowledge. 

Next week in Power Maths we will be looking at addition and subtraction. To help your child prepare you might want to help them practice / secure their quick recall of number bonds to and within 10 and 20 (e.g. 5+3 is a number bond within 10 whereas 6+4 i s a number bond to 10). 

Hit the button is a good website to help develop quick recall of number bonds.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

I have also set some work for the children on Mathletics.

Please don't hesitate to talk to myself, Mrs Thorpe or Mrs Bernard if you have any questions about Power Maths or would like any additional work to support your child.         

End of Food & Farming fortnight and home learning

Congratulations to the children in Year 3 for their wonderful performance during this morning's harvest assembly. A big thank you to the parents and children that brought in food for our harvest collection which will be donated to Dorchester food bank.

On Thursday the children looked wonderfully wacky with their colourful and inventive hairstyles. I think we must have been quite the sight walking to Maiden Castle farm! The children learnt about what the farm is doing during harvest time and I was impressed with the children's deeper questions to the farmer as they sought to understand the mechanics and workings of the farm. They truly are KS2 children now.

This week Mr Spracklen observed every class during their Power Maths lessons. He was impressed with how well year 3 are embracing the new program. In due course we will hold some parent training on this new scheme but in the meantime we encourage you to continue sharing mathematical problems as they occur in everyday life and encouraging your children to access times tables rockstars and mathletics.

For this week's home learning we would like the children to make an animal mask for their upcoming assembly. Even though the assembly isn't until the 25th October we would still like the masks next week please as there will be filming and rehearsals starting on Wednesday. 
We would also like the children to discuss with you their ideas for a letter they will be writing on Monday about the destruction of the Amazon. An important part of writing is developing ideas and talking about what they write before they even put pencil to paper. Many of the children, rightly have some strong opinions about deforestation which I hope they share with you.

Our day of visitors

Today we had a number of visitors in school. This morning Tom the vet gave us a talk about what he does as a farm vet and how he looks after farm animals.

This afternoon Mrs Stentiford came in and gave us a fascinating talk about Sikhism. We learnt about how practising Sikhs live and what it is like to visit a Gurdwara. Mrs Stentiford spoke about the Khanda and it's meaning. She showed us the pictures from her family history and her own traditions.

At the end of the day the children listened to a talk from Holly Johnson from the 'Simply Vegan' magazine. Where the children learnt what is it to be a vegan and how important it is to eat vegetables.

Thank you so much to all of our visitors today.

Food & Farming Week 2 & Home Learning

Year 3 enjoyed a busy week last week. In addition to our visitors from the Priest house museum, the children also enjoyed an interactive workshop from Prof Stentiford from Cefas. The children got the chance to do some hands on science and animal identification whilst also learning about healthy eating and food sustainability - which links to our topic work next week about threats to the rainforests.

Next week is the second week of our Food and Farming fortnight and we have more fun learning activities and special visitors planned.

Class trips
On Tuesday afternoon the class will be going on a trip to Brace of Butchers and on Thursday afternoon they will be visiting Maiden Castle farm. As the weather has been very wet recently could all children have a pair of wellies, a waterproof coat and a change of trousers on Thursday please.
If you would like to volunteer on either of these trips please let Mrs Thorpe know on Monday.

Thursday is also Wacky Hair for Hospice care so I hope to get some wonderful photographs of the children and staff with their wacky hairstyles and wellies at the farm!


Friday - Harvest Assembly & Autumnfest
Our Food and Farming fortnight will culminate with our Harvest Assemblies and Autumnfest.
Our Harvest assembly will be at 10am on Friday in the hall.
This year we will be taking donations for Dorchester food bank during our harvest.

Autumnfest will be on Friday from 5pm - 7.30pm. Tickets are available now from the office. £5 for a family of four.

Homelearning 
For home learning this week we have asked the children to research foods, materials and medicines that originate from the rainforests of the world. We would also like them think about foods that are grown in Britain.
Please also continue to send in children's autumn and harvest photographs which we will exhibit at the harvest assembly.