Welcome to Year 3 Rowan Class
On this page, you can read about the staff working with your children, find out what topics are being covered and find useful information for supporting your child at home. These pages will be updated regularly. You will also find photographs of your children at work!
September 2023
Welcome to your new class- we hope you had a lovely break and we are looking forward to a great first term with you all.
Term 5 Update
From Term 5, there will be a change of staffing in Year 5- Mrs Cripps will be teaching Year 5 on a Monday and Tuesday and Mrs Benfield will be teaching Wednesday - Friday.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Wood for his time at Senacre Wood Primary and we wish him every success in his new school.
Term 1 - "The magic Faraway tree" by Enid blyton
The Magic Faraway Tree is the second story in the Faraway Tree series. This book will transport children to multiple lands of fantasy and wonder. It has been chosen as our class text to inspire children to explore their imaginations when writing stories and to develop a love of reading for pleasure.
If you enjoy this book, here are some other suggestions of books you may like to read.
Term 2- "The Iron Man" by Ted Hughes
The Iron Man by Ted Hughes is our class text for term 2.
This text was selected as it is a very different story to our class text in term 1. The first chapter is filled with rich descriptions of the setting that will hopefully inspire some wonderful descriptive writing. The story also has a darker and more serious tone and we will look at how the author achieves this.
If you enjoy this book, here are some other suggestions of books that you may like to read.
The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows.
term 3 - "The pugs of the Frozen north" by phillip Reeve and Sarah mcintyre
Once again, this is a very different story to the one that we have read in previous terms so far this year. It follows the adventure of a boy and a girl racing to be the first people to reach the magical Snow Palace in the Frozen North. This engaging adventure story will hopefully inspire our class to write imaginatively or perhaps develop a love of reading stories of this particular genre.
If you enjoy this book, here are some other suggestions of books that you may like to read.
Term 4 - "The sheep-pig" by dick king smith
This will be our text this term as it is a classic children's book written by a much-loved children's author. The story is about a remarkable pig who is adopted by a farmer and a sheep-dog. Throughout the book we discover more and more about the strength of character shown by the pig who demonstrates some of our school values of curiosity, independence and resilience.
If you enjoy books by this author, here are some other suggestions of books that you may like to read.
term 5 - "danny the champion of the world" by Roald Dahl
We have selected this book so that we can apply our knowledge of character descriptions to more developed texts and compare it to other Roald Dahl books we already know!
If you are a fan of Roald Dahl books but have read lots of them, check out this website for suggestions of other books and authors that you might enjoy.
Term 1
This term we will be learning about three different genres of writing.
By the end of this term, the children will have written a letter, written a persuasive text and a diary entry. The books that we will use to support our learning will be 'The Stone Age Boy' by Satoshi Kitamura and 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth' by Michelle Robinson. We will be focusing on our sentence structure by making sure capital letters and full stops are in the right place and we will be using difference sentence types with exclamation and question marks.
In our spelling lessons, we are following the Read, Write Inc Scheme which has a different focus each week. The children get to practice their new skills in these lessons and transfer them into their writing.
Term 2
In our English lessons this terms, we will be using our class text to support development of our descriptive writing. We will be writing setting description using a range of descriptive techniques and thinking about how we can extend the vocabulary that we use in our writing. In terms of developing our grammar and punctuation, we will begin to use inverted commas to show direct speech.
In some of our English lessons this term, we will also develop our non-fiction writing skills by writing about what we learn about magnets from our science enquiry. This will involve the use of headings, sub-headings and paragraphs.
Term 3
In term 3, our English lessons will be strongly linked to our scientific and geographical enquiries for the term. We will start the new year by writing acrostic poems about our impressions of volcanoes. This forms an introductory unit to our geographical enquiry.
We will then use non-fiction text such as 'The Science of Rocks and Minerals' by Alex Woolf to support our non-chronological reports about what the Earth is made of. We are also using 'The Pebble in my Pocket' by Meredith Hooper to fully appreciate how interesting rocks can be and how creative writing can be drawn from topics such as this one.
We will finish off the term by using a short film called 'Treasure' to inspire our own creative writing and encourage us to think about what we consider to be our own treasure.
term 4
In term 4, our English lessons will be used to support the development of our story writing skills. We will use short stories like 'Into the Forest' by Anthony Browne to consider how we can develop the beginning, middle and end of our stories. We will also develop our use of speech in our stories using the correct punctuation.
Later on in the term, we will be using our geography enquiry to support writing of fictional diary entries for a journey from the North Pole to the South Pole. We will also be thinking how we can use a range of conjunctions in our writing.
term 5
In our English sessions, we start the term with Flotsam- a wordless picture books, to aid our comprehension and prediction skills, moving onto using Danny Champion of the World in our drama and recount writing. The term ends with a study of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream- adapted by Andrew Matthews and a focus on playscripts as a genre.
In our GPS lessons, we are reviewing word classes and looking at using adverbs for time, place and cause.
Term 1 - Place value, Addition & Subtraction
The first term starts with the children learning place value for numbers up to one thousand. They will be able to read, write, order and compare numbers to at least 1000 and determine the value of each digit.
As the term continues, we will be moving onto addition and subtraction. In this unit, the children will be applying their place value knowledge to add and subtract 3-digit numbers using mental methods. We will then move on to using formal written methods and using the inverse to solve missing number problems.
To help at home, the children can practice their skills by logging onto IXL and TTRockstars.
Term 2 - Addition, sutraction, multiplication and division
In term 2, we will continue to develop our addition and subtraction skills by using a formal written method to add and subtract 3-digit numbers. We will also explore how inverse calculations and estimations can help us to be more accurate by checking our addition and subtraction problems.
We will then move on to multiplication and division. We will consider the relationship between multiplication and repeated additions of a number and then begin to notice patterns in our times table answers.
At this stage of the year, it is really important that we are confident with our 2, 5 and 10 times tables as we will also need to know our 3, 4 and 8 times tables by the end of year 3. TTrockstars and IXL are excellent tools to support learning of times tables.
Term 3 - Telling the time/ Multiplication and division continued/ Length and perimeter
In term 3, we consolidate our skills for telling the time. We tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes using an analog clock. (Later in the year, we will tell time to the nearest 5 minutes and tell the time using digital clocks with 24 hour formats.
We continue to develop our multiplication and division skills which eventually leads to learning a formal written method for multiplying 2-digit numbers by a 1-digit number.
In the last part of the term, we focus on measuring length. This includes, millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. We use these skills to convert units of measurements and answer word problems involving measurement. We also introduce perimeter at this stage of the year.
To help at home, the children can practice their skills by logging onto IXL and TTRockstars.
Term 4 Fractions, Capacity and Mass
In term 4, we will begin by recapping our learning of fractions from year 2. We will then move on to understanding numerators and denominators of a fraction. We will learn how changing the numerator or denominator of a fraction can change the size of a fraction. This will then lead to us comparing different fractions and placing them in the correct place on a number line from 0 to 1.
Towards the end of the term, we will be converting grams to kilograms and millilitres to litres when we begin our measurement unit of learning. We will then be solving word problems using these units of measurement.
To help at home, the children can practice their skills by logging onto IXL and TTRockstars.
Term 5 - Fractions and Measurement
This term, we will be returning to our work on fractions. We will start by retrieving our knowledge from the start of Term 4 and we will build on these skills to enable us to find a fraction of an amount.
We will then move on to measurement with a focus on money. To enable us to do this, we will retrieve information from Year 2 and we will then use this knowledge to help us solve addition and subtraction questions involving pounds and pence.
At the end of the term, we will be continuing measure but with a focus on time. By the end of the unit, we will be aiming to read the time to the nearest minute and use the vocabulary am and pm.
Term 1 - What was prehistoric life like for HUMANS?
To answer this question we will be learning about the typical lifestyle of a Stone Age person living in Britain. We will explore examples of Stone Age settlements like Skara Brae and draw conclusions from archaeological evidence that has been recovered. Then we will consider how life may have changed for people during the Stone Age when people began to farm.
Term 2 - What big changes followed the Stone Age?
In term 2, we will follow on from our learning about the Stone Age and consider the other important periods of prehistoric Britain, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
In this historical enquiry, we will compare the different periods of prehistoric Britain and eventually decide which changes were the most significant. We will look at the everyday lives of people during these periods and how their lifestyles might have changed with the introduction and growth of farming in Britain. We will look at what has been discovered at Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeological sites and how these discoveries have helped us to understand what life was like for early Britons.
Term 3 - What is our planet made of?
As part of our geographical enquiry this term, we will begin to look at the Earth's structure. We will learn what causes volcanoes and earthquakes to occur. This includes where we might find volcanoes and why certain places on Earth have more earthquakes than others.
Term 4 - What is the climate of the uk and how does it compare to the rest of the world?
In our second geographical enquiry of the year, we will be using maps and atlases to familiarise ourselves with our location on a regional, national and international level. We will then compare the human and physical geography of two different countries in Europe.
We will also learn about the different climate zones around the world and how they compare with our own climate in the United Kingdom.
Term 5 - What is near our school?
In our final geographical enquiry of the year, we will be studying the human and physical geography of our local area. We will also be developing our understanding of where we are in the world by using, and building on, our knowledge from Key Stage One.
As part of the enquiry, we will conduct fieldwork tasks, in the local area, and we will develop our ability to complete geographical sketches including sketches from a birds eye view.
To combine our knowledge, at the end of the unit, to answer the big question, we will be creating a presentation all about our local area.
Term 1 - What are we made of?
In science lessons this term, we will be learning about the structure of the human body. We will be learning about the different function of bones and understand how muscles in our body work. We will also consider the structure of other animals that do not have skeletons like our own.
Term 2 - What are magnets and how can they be useful?
Term 2 Science lessons will be all about magnets and forces.
We will investigate the force of friction and then explore the properties of magnets. Our experiments will involve finding out which materials are attracted to magnets, discovering the magnetic forces of repulsion and attraction and how these forces relate to the poles of a magnet. We will also think about how magnets are used.
Term 3 - What is our planet made of?
The scientific aspect of our geographical/scientific enquiry this term, is all about rocks. We learn how rocks are made, how they can be used, and consider the different properties of rocks through observations and simple experiments. We consider how every rock has been on its own individual journey. We will also learn how fossils are formed and also think about different soil types.
TERM 4 - wHAT NUTRITION DO ANIMALS AND HUMANS NEED?
For our science lessons in term 4, we will be exploring the nutrirional needs of animals and humans. We will first learn about the different diets of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores in the animal kingdom and construct simple food chains.
We will then switch our focus to the nutritional needs of human beings and explore what a balanced and nutritional diet looks like. We will learn about the different food groups and how each of them provide us with what we need to thrive.
Term 5 - What do the parts of a plant
actually do?
During Term 5, we will be learning about the different parts of the plant and the function that they have to help the plant grow and live. We will also be conducting our own investigations to learn about what a plant needs to grow; this will include observing the plants over time to see how they change.
At the end of the unit, we will demonstrate our learning by clearly explaining the function of each part of the plant.