Year 3 Newsletter

Spring term (2) 2015

Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed a nice half term break.
During this half term we will be studying the following topics.

English
We will begin this half term exploring a range of instructions. We will follow instructions
to make chocolate fossils linking with our science work, and write our own instructions on
how to make a wormery! We will look at the various ways instructions are set out. We will
also develop our use of punctuation further, and consolidate our understanding of verbs,
adjectives and nouns as we explore the use of imperative verbs and choosing vocabulary
carefully to best suit our purpose. Finally we will complete a unit on letter writing.

Daily reading is still very important even for fluent readers. Please hear your child read as
often as possible and talk to them about the books they are reading.

Maths
This half term we are going to begin by revising our knowledge of shape, ensuring we can
name and describe common 2D and 3D shapes. We will link this in with the start of our unit
on Packaging in DT as we explore nets of different shaped packets and how to join 2D
shapes to construct a solid shape. We will then move on to looking at position and direction,
handling data and time. We will continue to build on our mental maths skills, working on
building confidence and speed with our recall of multiplication and division facts, as well as
other mental maths skills including doubles and halves and ordering sets of numbers.
Homework will continue to be set on Friday and is to be completed and returned to school on
or before the following Thursday. Children may be asked to share homework with the class,
on the Friday, depending on the task. Please discuss the homework task with your child. The
tasks given may involve some research linked to our topic work. Alternatively it may be
additional maths and literacy exercises.
Spellings As last half term, each Friday your child will get the list to be learnt for the
following week. Your child should copy each spelling neatly 3 times, to help them learn them. Children will be tested
on these words the following Friday.
Times tables This half term we will focus on the 3, 4, 6 and 8 times tables and related division facts as well as
reinforcing 2s, 5s and 10s for those children who need to. They will be tested weekly on Thursdays.
Reading should be done at least twice a week and recorded in the reading journal. Please sign and date when your
child has read. Messages may also be sent in the same book. Most children have moved onto class readers nowThis means they choose their own books from the class library; these books are differentiated by colour coding.
Children will also have the opportunity to visit the school library and change their school library book each Tuesday.
Please make sure your child has their library book in school that day.

Geography
This half term the children will be learning about Weather around the World. They will use globes and atlases to
locate the continents, oceans and the equator, and investigate weather conditions around the world as well as
learning about the effect of weather on human activity.
Music
This half term we will continue to learn to play the recorder. The children made a fabulous start last half term and
can now play a French folk tune using the notes B, A and G. We will continue to develop our understanding of a
variety of musical terms including pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo and timbre as we build up our repertoire of
pieces we can play, alongside listening to a variety of music as we learn about the history of music. We will also be
starting to learn the songs for the Preston Music Festival.
Science
We will continue our topic of Rocks and Soils for this half term. We enjoyed a super day with Mrs Macleod for our
forest school day last half term, and we will build on our findings from that day as we explore different soils
further. We will also learn about fossils, finding out how they are formed and will even have a go at making a fossil
of our own!

P.E.
Year 3 P.E. lessons are on Wednesday and Friday this term. Kits must be in school on these days. Long hair must be
tied back and earrings removed for these lessons. This term we will are learning a dance for the Broughton High
School Festival; further details of which will be sent home on a separate letter. We will also continue to improve
our skills used for invasion games such as Netball. Children should have pumps in school both sessions as, weather
permitting, netball will be outside.
R.E and French
Mrs. Procter will continue to teach these subjects each Thursday morning. In R.E we will explore the idea of
Salvation, and learn about the events leading up to Easter. Our topic in French will be How old are you?

Thank you for your continued support. Please dont hesitate to contact me if there is anything you wish
to discuss before Mrs Garners return to school, or she can be contacted in person, by phone or via email
at s.garner@harris.lancs.sch.uk after her return. Dont forget to visit our class blog to see some of the
things we have been up to!
Kind regards,
Mrs. Holt