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 Hunter is the teaching assistant supported by Mrs Taylor and Mrs Robbins.
During the the year we have many exciting things planned for you to participate in.
During the Autumnr Term we will learn about a range of exciting topics including Countries of the World in geography and the Stone Age in history. In science we will be learning about forces and also rocks. The children will continue to explore key artists and their own cave painting, they will also have the opportunity to design and make a pencil case D&T. In PE the children will take part in gymnastics, games and take part in 4 weeks of Fit Kidz.
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 Year 3's geography and English learning, the children completed research about Australia. They then produced a travel leaflet explaining all the things you can do and see in Australia.
In English and Geography this week the children have been finding out information about different countries. They have researched human and physical features and presented their learning in a variety of ways.
The children were given pictures of the Christmas story to order. As a class, we looked at the correct order and retold the Christmas story. We then heard from three Christians about what Christmas means to them and how they celebrate. We identified the similarities and differences between the three Christians. Finally, we explored why kindness is important to Christians at Christmas.
Year 3 took part in Anti-Bullying week: Choose Respect. On Monday they wore Odd Socks. During our PSHE lesson the children identified whether behaviours were respectful. Finally, they played a Respect board game.
Year 3 took part in a fabulous FitKidz session today. They rotated around 13 different activities which made their hearts pump and muscles ache!
Year 3 were learning about computer connections and networks today. Firstly, they explored their own connections and then became computers and sent messages around the classroom. They compared how efficiently it was sending a message with and without a network switch.
In gymnastics, Year 3 were finding different ways to travel and holding different shapes. They explored different equipment and developed some interesting ways to use it.
Year 3 had a brilliant day at Celtic Harmony learning about the Stone Age. They learnt to hunt and gather, build shelters, watched how fire is made and listened to a fabulous story.
Year 3 completed the first Oracy October challenge which focused on listening skills and asking clarifying questions. They had lots of fun but agreed that just relying on listening skills was very hard.
The children have spent the week exploring play scripts. They have looked at the features and have learnt how to set out speech and write stage directions. They will use these skills next week when they write their own play scripts linked to our history learning.
Year 3 linked their art learning to history this week and focused upon Stone Age cave paintings. They began by exploring cave paintings and then created their own pieces.
Year 3 investigated the potatoes which they grew in Year 2. They were very excited to see how many they had grown. The class then predicted how heavy each potato would be compared to cubes. Finally, they weighed the potatoes using a balance scale.
Year 3 took part in two Inspirational maths lessons: Game of Totals and Three Block Towers. They started each lesson watching an Inspirational Maths video which explored how making mistakes is good for our brains and believing in yourself helps you to grow. The children applied these ideas when they were completing the activities.
Year 3 investigated food groups and healthy pizza ideas. They then designed their own healthy pizzas and made them.
Year 3 had the opportunity to have a Forest School session. They climbed trees, relaxed in the hammock, made soup, built dens and created tree creature art. It was a fabulous session and the children really enjoyed themselves.
The children watched a recording of 'The Magic Box' by Kit Wright. They text-marked the poem and rehearsed it with a partner. Children then presented their performance to the class.
In RE we have been exploring Faith stories which focus on justice and fairness. We watched and discussed the faith stories and then acted them out.
In PSHE we learnt about positive learning attitudes. We sorted statements into positive and negative and reflected on how and why having a positive learning attitude helps us to learn. We then put these to the test whilst completing some tricky challenges.
Year 3 enjoyed a fabulous day learning about the Romans. In the morning, they visited Roman Verulamium museum in St.Albans and took part in a market themed workshop. They then had a tour of the museum and were able to look at the different artefacts. In the afternoon, they returned to school and created their own mosaics.
Year 3 have been working hard in their dance lessons to create a group dance using a prop.
The children found examples of transparent, translucent and opaque objects within the classroom. They explained what each of these means and then used this knowledge to investigate and explain how shadows are formed.
Year 3 have spent this half term learning about deserts around the world. They have learnt what makes an area a desert, the climate and weather of a desert, the features of different deserts, human uses and desertification.
This week Year 3 completed their art unit: observational art. First, they explored different grades of pencils and then began to draw different objects. Year 3 were thrilled to meet Annie O'Brien who brought examples of her GCSE and A-Level art work in and talked to them about her inspirations and the different techniques which she had used.
Tihomir " Her art work was amazing and I now want to be an artist."
Finally, the children explored local artist Sarah Graham's art work and produced a final piece in the same style.
Year 3 have started to explore money in maths. Today they focused on pence. They identified the coins, calculated and compared different amounts. They also discussed which was the most efficient way to add up a handful of coins.
The children had their second lesson in coding today and they learnt how to use different timers. They completed different activities and challenges which used timers.
Year 3 had a fantastic session with Fit Kidz testing their fitness skills using a range of equipment.
Year 3 took part in the Big School Litter Pick organised by Stevenage Borough Council. They helped to pick litter along the cycle path near to school and in Giles Park. They did an excellent job and filled four bags with rubbish.
In RE and World Views the children spent time exploring the Muslim place of worship, a mosque. The children explored photos of mosques around the world, watched a video tour of a mosque which explained the different features. Finally, they had the opportunity to take a virtual tour of a mosque.
Today Year 3 took part in a very informative first aid session run by Sarah. The children learnt how to put a casualty into the recovery position; how to help someone who is choking and how to carry out CPR. The children had an opportunity to rehearse these skills with a partner and using a CPR dummy. The children were very well behaved and engaged fantastically with the session answering and asking questions.
The children were introduced to their artist Andy Warhol and his style of art Pop Art. The children had a go at creating their own.
This week Year 3 explored haiku poetry. They wrote their own on the theme of spring and then presented their finished poems to the class.
The children explored perimeter today in maths. They started the lesson by walking around the perimeter of the playground and then tracing the perimeter of objects within the classroom. Next they built shapes and calculated the perimeter and finally drew shapes and calculated perimeters.
In English the children have been exploring non-chronological texts. Today they spent the lesson researching information about pirates ready to write their own non-fiction text. The children read the information, made notes and organised their notes using sub-headings.
As part of our learning in geography, Year 3 investigated food packets to find where the food had grown. The children used an atlas and then recorded the locations on a world map which showed the different climate zones.
Today, Year 3 continued learning about the features of a PowerPoint presentation. They explored the design tools, added extra slides and inserted media.
Today, the children started to explore traditional tales. They listened to some tales and then had an opportunity to read some with their partner. By the end of the unit of learning the class will have written an alternative version of a well-known traditional tale.
Year 3 have been learning about Desktop Publishing in computing. They have learnt to format text, add images, save and retrieve learning.
In PSHE we explored respectful behaviours. We sorted different behaviours into 'Respectful' and 'Disrespectful' and then played a game which helped us to think more about showing respect.
The children explored different pencil cases. They then designed, sewed and evaluated their pencil cases.
Year 3 have been exploring Advent and made their advent wreaths.
The children are loving our new unit of learning in English which we started last week. The learning is based on the book: Atlas of Adventures and takes the children on a tour of the world. This also links with our geography learning. The children, so far, have written postcards from Paris and London; explored the Northern Lights in Finland and, today, investigated festivals and celebrations in Asia.
As part of our unit of learning on Countries of the World, today we focused on using an atlas to locate capital cities of different countries. We discussed the difference between a continent, a country and a city.
This week Year 3 wrote their own set of instructions. They were inspired by Roald Dahl's The Twits and wrote a set of instructions for a trick which could be played on an unsuspecting person! They thought carefully about the layout and order and included adverbs of time and imperative verbs.
In English, we will be exploring and writing instructions. To help us with this we played different games, following the instructions, and also built using Lego, giving instructions to our partners so that they could build the same model. We identified the imperative verbs and adverbs of time used in an instruction.
The children continued their learning in gymnastics by creating a sequence with matching and contrasting balances.
Year 3 have been learning about fables. They have read and enjoyed the modern fable 'War and Peas'. They retold the story using adverbs of time to help them organise the key events.
The children explored Stone Age cave paintings and then had an opportunity to create their own.
The children were exploring counting in 50s. They investigated the link between counting in 5s and counting in 50s. The children then worked together to devise a game which helped them with learning to count in 50s fluently.
Year 3 enjoyed a fantastic day at Celtic Harmony learning about the Stone Age. They saw fire created, heard a Stone Age story, hunted and gathered, prepared soup and built a shelter.
In science we are investigating forces. This week we explored friction by testing different surfaces within the classroom. We observed and then concluded our findings with our partners.
