Welcome to Year 3
Wasp and Earwig are our Year 3 classes at the Isle of Ely Primary School. From this page you will be able to read about our curriculum each half term and all the work we get up to in and out of the classroom.
Children have PE on Monday and Thursday. They will need to arrive in their PE kits on these days.
We will also be updating our website with pictures, work and more!
Who works in Year 3:
Miss Lucy Peck Miss Helen Pham
Mrs Amy Wreathall Mr Neil Lloyd
Miss Michelle Reitinger
Our Curriculum:
This half term we will be learning:
Subject |
Unit of Work |
English |
In Talk for Writing we will finish a non-fiction unit on mythical beasts and then go on to learn the story, Mr Big. The children will be using pattern of three, imply using ‘show - not tell’ and using adverbs to show how characters do different things. Our non-fiction unit will be based on the instruction text How to Trap a Troll. |
Maths |
In maths we will be adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers – including with exchanges – using column method. We will also begin to touch on multiplication and division focussing on the 3 times tables. |
Science |
Our science topic is nature’s life cycles. This will include the following topics; a frog’s life cycle, seasonal cycles, a plants life cycle and animal migration. |
History |
In history, we are continuing to study Ancient Greek culture. Pupils will learn about the Greek Gods, the ancient Olympics and the influence of the ancient Greeks today. |
Geography |
In geography, pupils will be focusing on rivers and their basins. They will study local rivers and compare and contrast them with rivers across the world. |
Physical Education |
P.E. will be on a Tuesday with the class teacher and Friday with the sports coaches. Pupils will be focusing on football and gymnastics. |
Religious Education |
In R.E., pupils will continue to focus on Judaism; children will learn about, and visit, a synagogue, learn about Shabbat and Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations. |
Spanish |
In Spanish pupils will be learning the colours, days of the week and the months of the year. |
Personal, Social and Health Education |
Our PSHE this half-term will look at friendships and anti-bullying. |
Design and Technology |
In D&T, pupils will learn about pneumatic toys and construct their own. |
Art |
Our art topic is about texture and shape. |
Computing |
Pupils will be learning about the journey inside a computer. |
Music |
In music pupils will create compositions based around mountains and atmospheric music. |
This is a link to all the common exception word spellings from Year 1 to Year 4 for you to practise with your child at home.
Common Exception Words spelling mat
Many parents asked how to support reading at home. Firstly, read, read, read! Reading to and with your child is always a great thing and helps them progress as well as encouraging them to read to you. If you would like help accessing books, please let us know. When your child reads at home - whatever text it is - you can use the questions here to support their understanding and recall. There are different types of questions to allow them to think about different things e.g. remembering details accurately, inferring what the author or character values, considering the choices authors have made and comparing the text to others they may know.
Knowledge Organisers:
At the Isle of Ely Primary School, we use knowledge organisers as a tool to help our children learn more and remember more and to allow parents and carers to support their children's learning. In our knowledge organisers, you will find essential knowledge, key dates, important vocabulary and key figures. The knowledge organisers can also be used as a fun assessment tool which will help children to see the progress they have made.
Our class text is: The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and our spelling words are below:
Week commencing 27th November 2023
What a busy week! As we approach the end of the first term, the children have worked incredibly hard to complete assessments in reading, punctuation and spelling and in maths. Everyone did well to show what they can do and they will help teachers and children, alike, to target what is learned next. We also studied the origins of the Olympic Games as a religious festival honouring Zeus with music, poetry and competition and learned about some of the major rivers of the continent of North America. We considered our formation and sequences as we worked in groups to plan and perform beach-themed dances in P.E. and cut up some self-portraits into geometric shapes to plan a Cubist self portrait! Have a great weekend.
Week commencing 20th November 2023
The children have been working hard this week. In geography we have continued to explore and learn about rivers around the world. This week we visited Asia and learnt lots about the Yangtze river, the Ob river, the Ganges river and the Indus river. We identified the source and the mouth of these rivers and discussed their importance to the landscape. In maths we began our unit on multiplication and division and recapped equal and unequal groups as well as multiples of 2,5 and 10. The children have continued to be successful and resilient in their mad minutes practise, well done! During English, we have continued to retell the story of Mr Big and focused on grammar, punctuation and spelling correction. This weekend is the Winterfest at the school, we hope to see many of you there. Have a great weekend!
Week commencing 13th November 2023
This week has national been anti-bullying week and the children have been reflecting on our three school rules: Be READY, Be SAFE and Show RESPECT as well as role-playing the power of responding to incidents as a community and avoiding being bystanders using Interrupt, question, educate and echo. We have been applying our recent addition and subtraction learning to solving problems in maths and have published our non-fiction texts on The Kraken. After studying some major European rivers in last week's geography, we turned our attention to the rivers of Africa and have been exploring pencil technique and brushstrokes to create textures in art. Enjoy your weekend.
Week commencing 6th November 2023
We have had another great week in Year 3. The children began the week learning about Greek gods and goddesses in history. They focused on six of them at first and explored what they were believed to be in charge of. In science, we are continuing our work on cycles in nature and began looking at how the change in seasons impacts plants. We used our prior learning of how the sun creates the seasons to explain these changes. In English, the children completed an innovated version of our non-fiction text. They really enjoyed collecting facts about Krakens and using them within their writing, maybe they can share their most interesting fact with you! In maths, the children continued their hard work on column subtraction and addition and began adding and subtracting 3- digit and 2-digit numbers with 2 exchanges.
Next week is also Anti-Bullying week. Please explore the parents and carers page here for more information and resources. The BBC’s Own It page also has a whole suite of links and clips to support your child with online behaviours. Have a great weekend!
Week commencing 30th October 2023
It's been an exciting and busy four days this week. The children have bene working hard when introduced to some new units of learning. Although the Ancient Greece and Judaism units of learning will continue to the end of the term, beginning to learn about rivers and life-cycles as well as analysing Night on a Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky for it's story-telling tools have bene really interesting. See if your child can define what a river is; we tried in class before we began the lesson and although we all know what rivers are it was tricky to do! We've also been working hard to secure our knowledge of how to exchange when subtracting and adding 3-dogot numbers. Stay safe and enjoy the fireworks this weekend.
Week commencing 16th October 2023
Year 3 have had a fantastic and very busy last week of half term. In English, the children began exploring non-fiction texts and created a text map to retell an information text about unicorns. The children learnt about the role of a hook sentence in non-fiction texts and made their own sentences to engage and hook a reader in. In maths, we introduced the column method as a way of adding two numbers, including crossing 10s and 100s, and consolidated subtraction with exchanges in a reasoning and problem-solving lesson. This week was D&T week and Year 3 were tasked with making a cushion. We practised sewing a running stitch and the cross stitch as well as designing our final pieces. The children learnt about applique and added their own applique designs to their cushions. We assembled the cushions and the final products were very impressive. Enjoy your half term!
Week commencing 9th October 2023
As we approach the end of this half term, the children continue to work hard and are showing an impressive attitude to their learning. We have finished our first narrative unit of this year - innovating our own versions of a traditional tale. Ask your child to retell theirs to you. We have been focusing on addition and subtraction in maths questions that need exchanging of ones, tens and hundreds; we used stem sentences like, 'Seventeen tens is the same as one hundred and seven tens.' to help us work through finding the relationships between different place values to solve problems. In art, we have been finishing our study of how artists use line and use tints, tones and shades to create depth by painting Reykjavik's Hallgrímskirkja (inspired by learning and performing a Viking rowing song in music) using only vertical and horizontal lines and gradual variations of warm and cool hues; have a look at some of our examples below. Also included below are our current spelling words. Enjoy your weekend!
Week commencing 2nd October 2023
And so, we come to the end of another busy week. Working with the teachers, the children planned and wrote their first versions of their own traditional tales. Detailed settings using description of what the character can see, hear, feel and smell were a big focus and it was fun to write, and to read, each other's original tales. Moving on from securing our understanding of digit place value, we have begun to add and subtract, paying particular attention to how digits are affected when just adding or subtracting within the ones, tens or hundred parts. Rehearsing number bonds to do this will progress to needing to exchange digits next week. In PSHE, we looked at making prosocial choices and the effect it has. This will lead into learning more about empathy next week. We also had a lot of fun in science simulating the digestive process! The children (and teachers) enjoyed modelling peristalsis and the absorption of nutrients from intestines using mashed up food and a leg of tights! Enjoy your weekend and we look forward to seeing some of you at the parent share session next week.
Week commencing 25th September 2023
This week in English, the children have explored features of The King of the Fishes text including noun phrases, the use of paragraphs and time conjunctions as well as making comparisons between two traditional texts. The children discussed similarities and differences in the format and plot of The King of Fishes and The Gifts of the North Wind. In maths, the children came to the end of the place value unit and began their addition and subtraction unit by revisiting known number bonds to 100. Additionally, we have launched this year's TTRockstars competition and learning - so the children can login and practise; their login in details were sent home today.
Our spelling rule this week was adding the suffixes -es, -er, -ed, -est and -ing to words ending in y (see below). In science, we began learning about the body's process before digestion; the children ate a piece of apple and described to their learning partner the role of their eyes, mouth, teeth and stomach. The art focus of the week was tints, shades and tones and the children did a fantastic job creating their own artwork exploring this by adding white, grey or black to a primary colour.
Week Commencing 18th September 2023
Our new English unit has been our first piece of narrative: The King of the Fishes. The children have begun by learning the language of this traditional ‘wishing’ tale and exploring how important detailed description is when writing a setting to introduce the character and the world in which they live. The children have continued to show confident knowledge of place value in maths by representing, and calculating with, numbers up to 1,000 using number lines and place value grids. In PSHE this week, we have been paying close attention to our school value of ‘Respect’ – which is also one of our three whole-school rules. The children all say they know what it is, how to recognise respectful behaviour and why it is important. We will go on to look at ‘integrity’ next week and explore how, if we value respect, we need to show it even if there’s no one else around to check. For the next few weeks, the headteacher’s award in Friday’s celebration assembly will be given for acts of kindness and respect.
Week Commencing 11th September 2023
This week, we have continued the fantastic start to the year. We published our first piece of writing: a poem about A Magic Box filled with our wonderful, original ideas. It has been great to see the children show off their knowledge of place value in maths and the teachers have had to work hard to challenge everyone. We have begun to learn about OS maps by learning how and why they were first developed and how they are used today and in PSHE, we are continuing to develop our ability to work collaboratively. In history, we have located some important areas in Ancient Greece – like Sparta and Athens and have enjoyed learning to perform an song with actions well (ask us to sing our Viking song!) Have a great weekend.
Week Commencing 4th September 2023
The class have had a fantastic start to the year and have returned to school eager to start their learning! The children have settled in really well and are getting back into our daily routines. We have begun to text map our poem, The Magic Box, in English, and identified writing features within the poem. In maths we have begun learn more about place value using base ten, part-whole models and number lines to represent numbers up to one hundred. In geography, we have learnt about the eight-point compass and in R.E. the children were introduced to Judaism and its foundations. In P.E., we practised balancing. And in science, we learnt about how muscles move our bodies by contracting and relaxing.