Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
Welcome to Year 3 and the first year of Key Stage 2. Mrs Chumbley is the class teacher and Mrs Masterson is the teaching assistant.
During the the year we have many exciting things planned for you to participate in.
During the Spring Term we will learn about a range of exciting topics including where our food comes from in geography and light and shadows and plants in science. The children will continue to explore key artists and develop their printing skills, they will also have the opportunity to create a moving monster in D&T. In PE the children will explore a range of ball games and participate in swimming lessons.
We provide the support needed for each child to reach their potential as well as enjoy the journey along the way. Children are encouraged to express their individual talents across the curriculum and there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate these achievements.
Please support at home with reading, spellings, times tables and home learning so that children make the best possible progress in all areas of the curriculum.
We all enjoy being in Year 3 and look forward to an exciting term ahead.
As part of our PSHE this week, Year 3 took part in the NSPCC Assembly: Speak Out. Stay Safe. They learnt that abuse is NOT ok, who they can go to for help and about Child Line.
In maths, the children are beginning to explore length and perimeter. Today the children completed an active lesson and measured using m and cm.
This week in science, Year 3 continued to learn about light. They investigated whether light can travel through all objects. They classified objects into three categories: opaque, translucent and transparent.
This week Year 3 have started to explore traditional tales. They listened to a selection and had the opportunity to read other traditional tales with their partner. They then chose their favourite tale and, with a partner, produced a story map to retell the tale.
This week the children evaluated a range of pencil cases before designing and making their own. They impressed us with their hard work and very good sewing skills. Once completed, they evaluated their final products.
In PSHE we explored the British Value of respect. We discussed different respectful and disrespectful scenarios and then played a respect board game.
The children started the lesson using sentence stems to help them answer the questions: What is soil? Where does it come from? What is it made from? They then spent time exploring a soil sample and observing what their sample consisted of. They drew their findings in their books and identified organic and non-organic matter.
As part of our geography learning, we used the internet to research human and physical features of countries around the world. We included details of mountains, rivers, population, tourist attractions, climate zones and language.
In English we are learning about recount writing. For this we are focusing upon news reports. This week we have explored a news report script in guided reading and in English lessons identified the features of a newspaper including how reports answer: who? what? when? where? and why? We will be writing our own newspaper reports based on the book: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
The children had lots of fun using bikes to make healthy smoothies in a healthy eating workshop. They learnt about the importance of eating a 'rainbow' of food. They tasted their smoothies - the blueberry and oat milk was the favourite.
The children had lots of fun taking part in the science and maths day. They built their own balloon buggies using their D&T skills. They then measured how far their buggy would travel. They used their previous learning from forces to choose the most appropriate surface for their buggy to travel on. Some of the buggies travelled for more than a metre.
This week, the children used different media to create their own Stone Age cave painting.
The children explored Stone Age cave paintings during art this week. They recorded their observations, thoughts and comments in their sketch books.
The children have started a new unit of learning which focuses on addition. During this active maths lesson, they explored adding different amounts of ones to a 2-digit number. The children built the number using either place value counters, Base 10 or bead strings. Some of the questions involved the children completing an exchange.
The children were introduced to a website: The Tree Octopus and were asked to explore. They were then informed that the website was actually fake - which shocked the children! They revisited the rules about using reliable sources and checking information before having a chance to create their own fake website.
Year 3 participated in a fantastic day at Celtic Harmony to learn all about life in the Stone Age. They saw fire being created, learnt about Stone Age tools, hunted and gathered, made soup and took part in a trading activity.
The children used a picture of life in the Stone Age. They made deductions as to what life was like in the Stone Age. The children then answered the question: Is it true that Stone Age man was just a simple hunter gatherer?
We learnt all about Jean-Michel Basquiat a famous American artist. We explored his art work and answered a range of questions with our talk partners. We recorded our thoughts and feelings in our sketch books and had a go at recreating sections of our favourite piece.
The children took part in their final yoga session today. They created their own sequence of moves and had an opportunity to focus on their breathing. They have very much enjoyed their yoga sessions.
In order to introduce our new computing unit 'Branching Databases', Year 3 took part in an 'unplugged' lesson. They used 'Yes/No' questions in order to sort different animals and insects.
In science this week, we used owl pellets to investigate bones. We were able to identify the creatures which the owl had eaten. We were amazed to find so many bones, including skulls, in the pellets.
The children had the opportunity to continue to develop their typing accuracy and speed.
Today Year 3 visited the Verulamium museum in St.Albans as part of their learning about the Romans. They had an opportunity to dress up as a Roman and took part in a Roman market role play. They had chance to explore the museum before having a picnic in the park.
The children developed their kneading and chopping skills to make a vegetable soup, a tomato soup and a bread roll. They all enjoyed making and tasting their creations.
Year 3 celebrated the Platinum Jubilee toady. They took part in the whole school picnic and made bunting. They also used their history skills to sort photos into chronological order, complete a timeline of key events in her life and identify changes in Britain since Queen Elizabeth became queen.
The children are working hard learning their dance routine ready for the dance festival. They are dancing to 'Dancing Queen' and are becoming more confident with their moves.
Year 3 have been taking part in FitKidz which enables the to develop their fitness through a serious of different activities. It has been great fun and the children are definitely becoming fitter.
As part of our science learning, the children investigated the fat and sugar contents of a range of everyday food. They began my estimating which food items were the healthiest and then looked at the information on the packet. Children then constructed graphs and used these to form conclusions.
Today, Year 3 completed their first lesson using Turtle Logo. They used a range of commands to move their turtle and draw shapes.
The children explored the art work of local artist Sarah Graham. They tried different pencils, pastels, chalks etc to create different shades tones, lines and patterns. They then created their own observational drawings.
As part of Arts week, the children took part in a drama workshop with Mr Driver. They learnt about facial expressions and how to use their bodies to show different feelings.
Today Year 3 explored perimeter. We used the Forest School area and created perimeters out of natural objects. We used the vocabulary length and width to describe the perimeters created. Back in the classroom, we then created perimeters using cubes and counted the length of the perimeters.
The children used their measuring skills and measured objects around the classroom in cm and mm. They then compared the measurements of the objects using comparison vocabulary.
The children have started their D&T project 'Moving monsters'. The started by investigating everyday objects which use air to work and then they investigated making a simple pneumatic system.
To celebrate World Book Day, Year 3 dressed up as characters from Roald Dahl books. They then explored the 'Dirty Beast' poems and produced artwork based on these. Finally, they presented the poems to the class.
The children started their new art unit today exploring the work of Andy Warhol. They discussed his different pieces and had a chance to create their own versions. They then planned their own design ready for printing next week.
As part of Online safety day, Year 3 created recipes for creating respectful relationships online.
The children explored the art work of Jacob Lawrence. They discussed his art work and answered questions based on different pieces. They explored how feelings can be shown through art and then created a piece of art showing a feeling.
The children have been exploring dividing 2-digit numbers by 1-digit. They used place value counters and a place value grid to help them divide the numbers. For some of the numbers the children had to use their knowledge of exchanging to help them divide.
The children used food packets to identify where food comes from. They first identified the countries and then, using skills from our previous geography learning, identified the continents. We also discussed the different climate zones and linked this to why our food comes from different countries.
This week Year 3 have started to explore traditional tales. They have listened to a range of tales, retold them to a friend and discussed which were their favourite and why. This will all help the children to write their own version of a traditional tale.
The children started the maths and science investigation by drawing a picture of a fish. They then had an opportunity to observe carefully a fish and then draw a picture again. They then planned an investigation to answer the question: Does the material affect how fast the fish will travel? The children predicted, carried out and made conclusions.
The children performed their Christmas song: It's Christmas time t the parents. They were amazing and made us all feel that Christmas time was starting. Well done Year 3.
As a class we explored team work. We discussed what makes a good team and the benefits of being part of a team. We then created different freeze frames to show helpful team work and unhelpful team work. Finally, we discussed how we could work together as a class team and the things which we could achieve.
The children continued their learning about emails and e-safety by taking part in an email e-safety quiz and then making their own quiz.
The children investigated a range of rocks and classified them according to their strength. They used different tests including: finger scratch, coin scratch and a nail scratch. They then considered why rocks were different.
The children worked together to find clues hidden around the classroom about the physical features of the continents of the world. They found out the longest river, the tallest mountain, the smallest country and the largest country.
The children explored and evaluated different pencil cases and then designed their own. The children then sewed and evaluated their own pencil cases.
The children worked scientifically by observing the characteristics of different rocks. They drew pictures and discussed appropriate words to use to describe the rocks.
During 'Grow to Eat, Eat to Grow' week Year 3 explored food groups and healthy diets.
The children took part in the fun run and demonstrated the PRIDE learning behaviours - well done.
As part of Black History month, Year 3 shared the powerful story 'The Undefeated' and then learnt about the amazing life of Mary Seacole.
This week Year 3 completed their learning about playscripts by writing their own. We linked our learning to our history learning by using the book Stone Age Boy as inspiration. Once completed, the children had the opportunity to perform their scripts.
Year 3 had a fantastic day at Celtic Harmony where they extended their learning about the Stone Age. They took part in a range of activities including: den building, hunting and gathering, trading, making soup and watching a fire making demonstration.
The children explored how Stone Age hunter and gatherers became settled farmers. The children were given statements which they had to sort into: stayed the same, small change and big change. The children were asked to justify their decisions.