Wow what an amazing trip to start our learning about the Bronze Age!

We have had a brilliant trip today at the Ancient Technology Centre in Cranborne. The children were able to retell facts about the Stone Age and Andy and Kael who lead the sessions were so impressed with their level of knowledge and questioning about the Bronze and Iron Age. I was so proud of everyone! 

Even in the chilly conditions everyone got involved in making cord, weaving and looking at the artefacts. The ATC is a beautifully peaceful place with some amazing structures. If you haven't been before I urge you to visit the centre on one of the open days in the Summer. The volunteers at the ATC knew so much about what life would have been like in the Bronze Age and really inspired the class with their activities. It was a great trip to get the children thinking about the Celts and how they would have lived. 

Below are some of the photos that we took today 

The 'earth' house WOW!!!

Kael teaching the children how to make cord by twisting the reeds. 

Spinning wool

Weaving a belt

The immense round house! 

Stone Age axe 

Deer mask

Tomorrow

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our trip to Cranbourne and we are leaving school at 9am sharp. The children are to wear home clothes that are warm please and that you do not mind getting dirty (like the forest school clothes). There has been a lot of rain today so wellies are suggested. Please can the children also bring lunch in a rucksack. They will not need book bags tomorrow. It is going to be a brilliant trip and we will share some pictures with you tomorrow.

In other news, the children have started to write up their stories in neat. These will be in the writing hall of fame over the next week. This afternoon in Science we started to investigate light and how having less light will affect what we can see.

It’s great to see the POW passports being bought in and stamped. You can bring them in whenever you like with a picture or even an emailed picture/ video of your child achieving a milestone. You can then go with your child and let them stamp their book. Please do remember to take them home after.

Week 3 - Home Learning and POW passports

We had an exciting end to the week today with a visit from a child who left the class at the end of Year 2 and moved overseas. The children were very excited to see her and were keen to hear her news. We combined her visit with a class reward for reaching 300 house points. During the last lesson of the week, the children listened to some of their favourite songs and were able to choose their own learning.

Home learning.
For home learning this week we are encouraging the children to think about what they would like to do when they are older and also set targets for the end of year 3 (or sooner). Target setting is a useful skill and it would be helpful if you could help your child set realistic goals that could be measured.
For example:
My goal is to learn my 3 times table by half term.
I'll know I have achieved this if I can answer ten 3 times tables questions without making a mistake.

Timetables will be a focus for both maths groups this term so I would encourage children to choose a timetables goal if they are struggling to think of their own one. Mrs Scott's group will be working on 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Mine and Mrs Thorpe's group will also be working on 3, 4 and 8 times tables. 

POW Passports
On Thursday the children's POW passports came home in a plastic wallet. These are to be stored at home from now on and will be celebrated and presented to your child during their year 4 leavers assembly. For year 3, Mr Spracklen would like passports to be brought into school to check progress the week of Monday 16th March and Monday 6th July 2020.
Please also bring in your child's passport into school when they have met a milestone.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The year 3 team.     
  

Y3- Information

Thank you to everyone that was able to attend the parent information session this morning. During the session I spoke a little about Power Maths. The children are coming home today with a booklet that contains information about the next unit (4) that we will be moving in to tomorrow. As you look through the booklet you will see different titles. The 'Discover' is the set of questions that we share at the beginning of the lesson. The 'share' are the different ways in which we can work out the discover. Then there are a set of 'think together' questions that as a class we guide them through.  We are not asking you to do anything specifically with these booklets with the children. It is more as a support booklet for you to understand what your child is doing at the moment in Power Maths and how you could help them to work out answers on Mathletics. When we blog about Power Maths we will state the lesson we are on. For example tomorrow we are starting lesson 1 and this is in the top right hand corner of the booklet. Mrs Bernard's Maths group will bring home a booklet very soon. 

Parent consultations

The parent consultation appointment sheets are not on the board in the classroom. If you are not able to make any of the times please come and see me (Mrs Thorpe) or leave a message with the Year 3 team. 

AR number change 

All the children will be given a new AR number tomorrow. Please can you check that when they are getting these books out of the library that they are only getting the level they have been given. This level is taken from the 'test' questions that they have answered on Accelerated Reader. Obviously if they are half way through the book then we encourage them to finish it first. 

Trip next week

We are leaving at 9am sharp on Tuesday to go on our trip. Please can you make sure your child has a lunch, drink and warm clothes. Wellies will be the best footwear for the day. If you haven't already completed your slip please can this be done ASAP.

Y3 Rescheduled parent information session and Maths information

This week the children have planned a story where Om (the character from 'The Stone Age Boy') comes to visit the boy in the modern day. They had to plan three things to show and tell her. We started the week by using drama to think of our ideas, before writing them down. Over the last couple of days the children have written these pieces of work. 

In Maths we have been using the bar model. Bar modelling is a strategy used by children to visualise mathematical concepts and solve problems. The bar model method is pictorial – children draw bars to represent objects or quantities. 

Below are some examples of how we use the bar model. 

Sorry about the last minute cancellation of the parent information session. This will now happen this coming Wednesday (22nd) in the hall at 9am. I will be discussing Power Maths in further and explaining about the next unit of work.

Thank you, Mrs Thorpe 

Home learning and reminders - 10th January 2020

Year 3 have settled back into the Spring term wonderfully and we are all pleased with the children's positive and productive attitudes to their learning.

The children are enjoying our new topic, the Stone Age and were excited to hear about our forthcoming visit to Cranbourne Ancient Technology Centre on the 28th January. Letters detailing this trip went home on Thursday so please see a member of the team if your child didn't bring one home as we need a signed permission slip for all children to be able to attend.

In this week's home learning we would like the children to do some research about the Stone Age please. They have been given the following questions to answer: (hard copies were also sent home on Thursday) 
* What type of food did the people from the stone age eat?
* What did the people from the stone age look like?
* Where did they live?
* Were there any changes to their way of living over time?
* What did the people of the Neolithic age start to do / have?
This week, please could the children's home learning be returned by Monday 13th January.

We relaunched Times Table Rockstars with most of the class on Friday and their enjoyment of the program was evident. This engaging online program gives children with a fun way to improve their times tables recall and we are encouraging the class to use this program at home where possible https://ttrockstars.com/
All passwords have been simplified and most children should now be able to easily remember what it is. If you have any difficulties logging on please contact a member of the year 3 team. 

Forthcoming dates:

Forest school on Mondays

Forest school clothes are needed for Slytherin and Hufflepuff this term please.  

Year 3 Parents’ Information session with Ms Thorpe

Wednesday 15th January, 9.00am in the Staff Room. 

Year 3 visit to Cranbourne  (please refer to separate letter for details and return slip) 

Tuesday 28th January 2020

NSPCC PANTS Day (more information to follow)

Monday 3rd February 2020

Parents’ Consultation Sessions - This will be an opportunity to discuss your child’s work.

Tuesday 4th February 5.20pm - 7.50pm and  Wednesday 5th February 3.40pm - 5.30pm.

Monday Forest School groups

Slytherin and Hufflepuff will be doing Forest School on Monday for the next 4 weeks. Please could we have warm layers, coat, trousers, wellingtons etc. 

Also on Monday these two groups will be planting some saplings (the other two groups did this before Christmas). If anybody has a trowel that we could possible lend for the afternoon that would be really helpful. 

Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will be Science and Art with Mrs Bernard in the classroom. 

An exciting start to the new year!

This afternoon the children were put in to their 'tribes'. As a tribe they had to piece together a picture of a stone age artifact and think about what it was made out of, how it was made and what its use was.

We then looked at timetable of events that have happened from the year that they were born back to the Stone Age. An example of a timeline can be seen in the knowledge organisers for this half term on page 12.


The tribes then split up, half of the tribe prepared the 'cave' (paper around the tables) in the classroom, whilst the other half collected natural objects to 'paint' with. The tribes then made their own cave paintings. We spoke about how the paintings used to be about the animals that the tribes hunted. 

We have displayed these brilliant pieces of art work on our walls for you to look at over the next few weeks. 

Y3-Information for Monday

Happy New Year! 

We hope you have had a fantastic festive period. Thank you so much for all of your kind gifts at the end of the last term that was very kind of you all. 

This year we have some exciting learning opportunities starting with our introduction of our new topic on Monday afternoon. Please could ALL of the children bring Forest School clothing on MONDAY (change of trousers, wellingtons and a coat/warm layer you don't mind getting a bit mucky). This will be a one off session (weather depending) for all of the class. The following week Forest school will start for two of the houses (we will let you know which groups next week). 

This term Year 3 will be having the Basketball coach on a Tuesday afternoon instead of PE on a Friday. Please can we have all PE kits in on Tuesday. 

Please could we also ask that all of the children bring their AR books everyday. We will be reading these in our lessons throughout the day. They can change these books  (once they have completed the quiz online) with your help in the morning before school and afterschool. We will also have a time during the week that they are able to visit the library. 

We look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 

The Year 3 team