Year 3

Curriculum Overview

Meet the Teacher 2020

Meet the Staff

Termly News

Trips and Events

Letters

Home Learning

Year Group Spelling List

Gallery

Year 3 Curriculum Overview

Please click on the links below to access the latest newsletter and topic web.

Year 3 Newsletter Spring 2021

Year 3 Topic Web Spring 2021

Year 3 Newsletter Autumn 2020

Year 3 Topic Web Autumn 2020

Poetry Slam 2021

Autumn Term 2020

What a wonderful start to Year 3, the children have made this term. 

This Autumn, we have thoroughly enjoyed spending time getting to know all of our children, setting expectations, introducing our topic and strengthening our team building skills as well as, of course, introducing them to the wonderful world of Westfields Junior School!

Through our ‘Explore London’ geography topic, we have learnt about the human and physical features of our capital city. We have linked this knowledge with our English work and wrote poems about the firework display in London including referencing specific landmarks.

In Science, we have explored amazing animals during which we learnt all about skeletons and their functions, how muscles work and healthy living. Also, we have experimented with designing our own animals, drawing their skeletons and deciding what joints would be needed to enable movement.

Within our wider curriculum, during PE sessions, we have learnt the basic passing skills for netball and applied these.  In PSHE, we will have focused on ‘Relationships’ to develop their understanding of how to develop and maintain positive relationships with family and friends. Our MyHappyMind time, has highlighted the importance of knowing when our brain works the best.  We have also practised happy breathing to help us have mindful moments.  Our Harvest Assembly this year needed to be virtual! We created, performed and recorded two fantastic poems and a Harvest prayer.

Looking ahead, we are very excited about designing our own shadow puppets later this term and promise to share our final products when they are complete.

Spring Term 2020

Throughout the Spring Term, we immersed ourselves in our History topic of the Stone Age to Iron Age which also supported our English skills! We looked at a range of exciting texts such as ‘The Wild Girl’ by Chris Wormell and ‘How To Wash A Woolly Mammoth’ by Michelle Robinson and Kate Hindley.  Using these texts, we wrote our own survival guides for the Stone Age and stories about the adventures of a woolly mammoth.

In Maths, we have focused on developing our understanding of measurement and explored different formal and informal strategies to multiply and divide. We set a range of challenges each lesson and developed the children’s ability to reason and explain their answers. Alongside these areas of study, we continued to focus on key mathematical facts including times tables and conversions as well as mathematical vocabulary.

We enjoyed sharing our musical skills with a performance to parents and family members on the African drums! We demonstrated our knowledge about the different sounds this instrument can make and how to play a variety of rhythms on our own and as part of a group.

Our Year 3 Visit Butser Ancient Farm, was certainly a highlight of the term.  We travelled back to Ancient Britain and experienced it all with great enthusiasm! We had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a range of activities such as chalk carving where the pupils carved a picture on a lump of chalk with a sharpened flint or carved it into a representative shape, just as prehistoric people did. We also learnt the skills of wattling with hazel rods to create a fence and as a frame for the walls of a house. The children explored a range of life size model dwellings and sat as a year group in the roundhouse, discovering what people of these ancient times ate, how they made fire, how they survived and where they slept. It was a wonderful experience!

Autumn Term 2019

In the Autumn Term, Year 3 quickly settled into life at Westfields Junior School. Through our ‘Explore London’ topic, we have learnt about the human and physical features of our capital city. We have linked this knowledge with our English work and wrote poems about the firework display in London including referencing specific landmarks.

 Additionally, in English, we have thoroughly enjoyed writing non-chronological reports using the ‘Book of Bones’ as our stimulus. The children chose an underwater creature then wrote riddles and a non-chronological report that included generalisers, sub-headings and technical language. During this term, Year 3 have also begun to apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction to the expanded column method.  In Science, we explored amazing animals; we learnt all about skeletons and their functions, how muscles work and healthy living. Within the wider curriculum, we have designed, created and evaluated our own shadow puppets. We were very proud of our outcomes from our first DT project. Of course, we also all enjoyed our amazing Christmas production of ‘I’m Gonna Shine’ where we learnt our lines, prepared our props and sung our hearts out!

Summer Term 2019

Dressed in their dazzling costumes (including a walking talking pyramid!), Year 3 travelled back in time to Ancient Egypt. Throughout the day, all of the children had the opportunity to investigate the importance of the River Nile for the survival of Egyptians, learnt how the Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics to communicate and designed a necklace fit for a Pharaoh! We were thoroughly amazed by everybody’s efforts with their impressive Egyptian costumes, even the staff! We had a fantastic Creative Day which immersed the children in practical activities to develop their historical understanding.  Activities included making a hieroglyph bookmark and designing an Egyptian pectoral for our necklace.

Spring Term 2019

Year 3 Visit Butser Ancient Farm, Year 3 travelled back to Ancient Britain and experienced it all with great enthusiasm! Butser is one of the most interesting archaeological sites in the UK; it is a real working farm that is used as an open-air research laboratory to explore life in the Stone Age to Iron Age. We had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a range of activities such as chalk carving where the pupils carved a picture on a lump of chalk with a sharpened flint or carved it into a representative shape, just as prehistoric people did. We also learnt the skills of wattling with hazel rods to create a fence and as a frame for the walls of a house. The children explored a range of life size model dwellings and sat as a year group in the roundhouse, discovering what people of these ancient times ate, how they made fire, how they survived and where they slept. It was a wonderful experience (and for the first time since I have been at WJS…with no rain)!

Autumn Term 2018

In the Autumn Term, Year 3 has quickly settled into life at Westfield’s Junior School. Through our ‘Explore London’ topic, we have learnt about the human and physical features of our capital city. We have used this knowledge to write a persuasive letter to Gru from the film Minions to encourage him to visit London. Additionally, in English, we have thoroughly enjoyed writing non-chronological reports about house elves and basilisks that included generalisers, sub-headings and technical language. During this term, Year 3 have also begun to apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction to the expanded column method.  Within the wider curriculum, we have designed, created and evaluated our own shadow puppets for a small child. We were very proud of our outcomes from our first DT project. Of course, we also all enjoyed our amazing Christmas production of ‘Countdown to Christmas’ where we learnt our lines, prepared our props and sung our hearts out!

For the following trips and events, further details will be communicated to parents in due course.

September 2020

04.09.20                   Year 3 Transition Afternoon (3HC 12.45-2.45pm, 3MP 1.00-3.00pm, 3CC 1.15-3.15pm)

07.09.20                   First day of term

14.09.20                   Whole School Reading Matters Week

15.09.20                   Virtual PAWS Welcome Meeting

17.09.20                   Cardwell & Simmons individual pupil photos

18.09.20                   Year 3 Virtual ‘Meet the Teacher Meeting’ live on website

October 2020

05.10.20                   Walktober (Walk to School Week)

08.10.20                   Year 3 PAWS Film Night

09.10.20                   Cardwell & Simmons (for children absent on 17.09.20)

16.10.20                   Christmas Card Order Deadline

23.10.20                   PAWS Mufti Day

 November 2020    

04.11.20                   Whole School Flu Immunisations

11.11.20                   PAWS Virtual Committee Meeting (7.00-8.00pm)

13.11.20                   Time to Shine – be bright non-uniform day and road safety

16-20.11.20             Anti-Bullying Week (Theme – United Against Bullying/16^th Odd Socks Day)

16-20.11.20             Road Safety Week

25.11.20                  Parents Evening (3.45-6.45pm)

26.11.20                   Parents Evening (3.45-6.45pm)

 December 2020                                    

03.12.20                  PAWS Christmas Pop-Up Shop

10.12.20 – tbc          Year 3 Christmas Production

15.12.20                   Year 3 & 4 Christmas Lunch

18.12.20                   Last day of term

January 2021                                         

04.01.21                   Inset Day

05.01.21                   First day of term

14.01.21                   Virtual Year 3 & 4 Parents Maths Workshop – tbc

 February 2021

1/2/3.02.21             Auditions for Westfields Has Talent

04.02.21                   Year 3 PAWS Film Night (3.15-5.00pm)

09.02.21                   Safer Internet Day

12.02.21                   PAWS Mufti Day

12.02.21                   Westfields Has Talent

 25.02.21                   Virtual Year 3 Stone Age Experience Creative Day – please refer to letter emailed 12/02/21

 March 2021           

04.03.21                   World Book Day – dress up

09.03.21                   Year 3 & 4 Virtual Parent SPaG Workshop – tbc

22.03.21                   Bags2School Collection

wc 22.03.21             Potted Sports

26.03.21                   Whole School Poetry Slam (World Poetry Day – 21^st March)

30.03.21                   PAWS Easter Raffle

31.03.21                  3MP Radio Show

31.03.21                  Last day of term (3.15pm)

 April 2021

01.04.21                   Inset Day

23.04.21                   3CC Class Assembly

26.04.21                   Virtual Parents Evening (3.45-6.45pm)

28.04.21                   Virtual Parents Evening (3.45-6.45pm)

 May 2021                Year 3 Local Area Walk – tbc                               

05.05.21                   PAWS Virtual Committee Meeting (7.00-8.00pm)

06.05.21

14.05.21                   Inter-house Debating Challenge

20.05.21                   Year 3 Egyptian Creative Day

20.05.21                   PAWS Film Night – tbc

28.05.21                   Inset day

 June 2021

11.06.21                   PAWS Quiz Night hosted by WJS

July 2021                                                

02.07.21                   3HC Class Assembly and 3CC Radio Show

06.07.21                   Sports Day

07.07.21                   Celebration Evening (3.30-5.30pm )

13.07.21                   Reserve Sports Day

15.07.21                   School Summer Disco (Year 3 and 4 is from 5.00 – 6.15pm) – tbc

16.07.21                   Year 5 Business Fair (3.15-4.15pm) All Welcome – tbc

23.07.21                   Last day of term 

Whole school letters and newsletters can be found under the Parents tab (link to whole school letters)

Year Group Spelling List

The National Curriculum set out the spelling rules and patterns as well as spelling lists children in each year group need to learn. To help you spell these words, we set weekly spellings for you to learn and we provide spelling booklets which contains all your weekly spellings for the year.

Each week, you will learn a set number of spellings that follow a spelling rule or pattern and then you will have additional words which are words children in your year group should to be able to spell. To help you with your spellings, your teacher will teach you the rules and patterns and in your booklets, there is space for you to carry out the ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’ strategy at home. This will help you learn your spellings; you can also practise rainbow writing (writing out your spellings on top of each other in different colours, spell them out to an adult, be tested by an adult, write sentences with the spelling word in and you can also make mnemonics e.g. because – big elephants can’t always use small exits.

You will be tested on a Monday and on Tuesday, after your teacher has checked your spellings, you will tick the words you have spelt correctly in this booklet so you can keep a record of your progress. At the end of each half term, you will have a spelling test of selected words from the previous half term to see what you can remember!

Remember…Practise makes perfect!

Spelling Booklets will be handed out at the beginning of the academic year and need to be in school every Monday and Tuesday. If they are lost, please see your classteacher. You will need to bring 50p in for a replacement booklet.

Spelling Booklets