Week Beginning 26.09.16

Science

On Monday the year 3s' started their week with a forces and movement circus. We investigated different experiments to observe forces in action. These included: balancing clowns, shooting straws, snail in a maze, puff jets, and balloon toys.

We enjoyed solving challenges and discussing which type of force was in action and the effects they had. 

Literacy 

In literacy this week, we created a complete newspaper article all about the discovery of our mysterious giant bone. We made sure we included all the important information and answered the important who? what? where? and when? questions. We organised our writing into paragraphs and included lots of time conjunctions and conjunction to add details. We made sure it was all written in the third person and even included quotes.  

Geography 

In geography, we received another  postcard from Uncle Travelling Matt asking for help to research about the main waterways of the U.K. As a result, we have been learning the names of; and locating the main rivers in Great Britain, along with the names of the seas and oceans that surround our island. 

D.T

We started our new design and technology topic this week: Moving Monsters. We explored different pneumatic devices and experimented creating a short movement using two plastic syringes and a length of tubing to make our monster heads appear out of a cave. 

Maths 

This week, we have been learning about addition and subtracting. We have been counting on mentally and using a number line to find number bonds to 100. We have also been learning all about the equals sign in a variety of different calculation. We now feel a lot more confident finding the missing number in balanced equations.   

Congratulations were in order this week, as a member of our class was chosen out of the whole school to be  awarded Sportasaurus for his excellent effort and progression in P.E. We look forward to hearing what sporting activities they both get up to over the coming week. 

Week Beginning 19.09.16

Literacy 

This week we were learning about time conjunctions and adverbials when we had an exciting interruption to our work. Whilst exploring the reflection garden, we found a giant mysterious bone and what looked like some teeth or claws. We spent some time thinking about how they may have got there and what they could be from. We decided to record the event in a mind map and have started writing  newspaper reports to spread the news. 

 Maths

In maths this week, we have working on place value and writing amounts in pounds and pence. We have been doing lots of practical work with coins and converting pence to pounds as well as comparing amounts. 

 Science

Continuing our topic on forces and magnets, we have been experimenting with paper planes. we identified the type of force and discussed the effects of increasing and decreasing forces. We even added an elastic band to the plane to store the energy and release it all at once. We also learnt how to represent different forces with different sized arrows. Experimenting has never been so fun!

In other news... congratulations to Daisy who will be representing our class on the school Eco council and also to Amos for being our new class School Council member. We look forward to hearing all your great ideas and contributions to the wider school family. 

Our first team competition has been released this week; designing a flag for friendship. Every entry counts as so get your designs in by  Wednesday 28th September. 

Finally, well done Ceona for getting wonderful work for the impressive homework booklet, all about dragons, that she brought in this week.

Week Beginning 12.09.16

Literacy

In literacy this week, we have been working on word classes. We have spent lots of time sorting, identifying, researching and playing games based around: nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. 

We have also started our first literacy topic; newspaper reports. We have been discussing the layout, the purpose of the key features, the type of language used and the content. 

Our spelling focus this week has been the prefixes dis- and in-. A prefix can be added to the front of a root word to change its meaning. In these cases it means the opposite. 

For example;    in    +    visible   =   invisible

Look at the spelling sheet sent home this week to learn and memorize more examples. Can you think of any more?

Numeracy 

We have been continuing with our place value work as we made human number lines, placing 3-digit numbers in the correct position. We have also been comparing and ordering numbers. We have also started some addition and subtraction by adding or subtracting 10 and 100 to any number. 

In our maths investigation this week, we used the pentominoes that we generated last week. We discovered that the shapes will tessellate to form a variety of different sized rectangles. 

Geography 

In geography this week, we learnt how to use an Atlas to look for the major capital cities of the U.K. We created a map for Uncle Travelling Matt to help him with his upcoming visit it to the U.K after we received a post card from him asking for our help with his adventures. 

P.E

We have learnt lots of new vocabulary in P.E that will help us with our performing our positions, balances and rolls, as we make up our own gymnastic routines. Ask us to explain or demonstrate some of these terms: pike, straddle, tuck, cannon, unison, match and mirror. 

In other news...

Congratulations to Ceona, Meaghan, James and Olivia being the first in the class to receive the prestigious Pen Licence. They have proved they can write with all their letters in the correct orientation, size and accurately joined. Well done. 

Week Beginning 5.09.16

Welcome parents, carers, friends and family to our Year 2/3 blog. Our class has had a fantastic start to the school year; renewing friendships, sharing summer holiday stories and enjoying lots of new learning opportunities. 

Music

On Monday, the Year 3's were excited to meet Mrs Furnell: our specialist music teacher. We discovered that we have a very musical year group this year, as we worked on keeping a steady beat and holding a rhythm. This is all in preparation for when we start to learn the viola in a few weeks. 

Spanish

Another new lesson for Year 3! We started off our Spanish lessons by learning how to greet people in Spanish. I'm sure if you asked them, your child would be willing to give you a performance of the 'Hola' song we have learnt. 

Maths

In maths this week, we have been tackling place value. We have been writing large numbers using digits and words and partitioning numbers, making sure we know which each digit in a number represents. Times tables sheets will be going home next week, so don't forget to learn those multiplication tables together at home to earn the gold, silver and bronze award stars. We even investigated pentominoes, trying to find all the solution to a problem during our problem solving lesson this week. Ask us to find out more!

Over the next couple of weeks we will be progressing with our place value knowledge and our adding and subtraction strategies. You can find more information about the methods used in the classroom on the school website in the calculation guide. 

Art 

As an introduction to our Fantasy and Adventure theme that will be running this term, we have been working with absorbent and water repellent materials to create a fearsome Hippocrump's eye. We got the inspiration for our work from the poem about the hideous Hippocrump monster by James Reeves. 

It has been lovely to see so many smart, prepared and enthusiastic learners return to school this week. A full, smart school uniform always help a child identify with, and feel proud to part of our school family, so please make sure ALL uniforms are labelled only then can we  ensure the right items go home with the right pupils! We also ask for girls with long hair to tie their hair back for the school day. 

In our class this year, along with myself, we are fortunate to have the talented support of Mrs Pierce, Mrs Higson and Mrs Fitz-Partick. If you have any queries, concerns or questions please feel free to find one of us at the end of the school day. 

We have P.E on Tuesday and Thursday where a full kit will be needed to ensure safe learning. On the days we do not have P.E, we will be running to complete our weekly 5K challenge, so trainers are essential everyday, thank-you. In addition, our swimming day is Wednesday where your child will swim every fortnight.

Thank-you so much for your continued help and support.I look forward to what will surely be,  another exciting and enjoyable year at Necton Primary School.  

Week Beginning 18.07.16

What a wonderful Year! Many thanks to everyone (parents and the wider family, carers , staff  and all children) that has made my first year at Necton Primary School such a fantastic experience. As we say goodbye to some well-loved and valued members of staff, we wish them  the best for their next adventures. 

I could not have asked for a better Year 3 class, your energy and enthusiasm has led to so much fun throughout the year. Enjoy your summer holidays; you have certainly earned it! Play safely and I look forward to seeing you all, and welcoming the new Year 3 class, in September. 

September 2015

July 2016

Week beginning 11.07.16

As we rapidly speed towards the end of term, as usual, it's been non-stop  fun and learning in Year 3 this week. 

Literacy

We have been watching the animation short 'Bert' and identifying the different mood and atmospheres depicted within the film. We used the feelings identified to write emotively. We used lots of specific adjectives, adverbs and verbs; whilst writing a narrative to the film. We also reviewed all the rules for speech marks and made sure we included them  in our work; making sure we had a good balance of both direct and reported speech. 

Numeracy 

We have been looking at graphs and charts, in particular the different styles of pictograms that can be used to display different sets of data. We looked at a wide range of questions that could be answered using the charts. 

D.T 

We had excellent fun making our very own versions of the traditional Spanish omelette. Over the past few weeks we have been taste testing and designing our own recipes. We had a lot of fun preparing all of our ingredients but even more fun taste testing the results of our hard work. We all agreed that they were even tastier than the shop bought traditional varieties we tried at the beginning of the topic. What a success!

A couple of quick reminders for next week... 

Monday is our viola concert starting at 10.00am in the school hall. We look forward to seeing all those that can make it. Also, Tuesday is our last 'Read to Succeed' day so make sure you all have your t-shirts on to celebrate our reading achievements. Finally, Wednesday is the children's last day of the summer term, please could you send your child in with a bag big enough to bring home school books and work that has been on display. Thank-you.   

Week Beginning 8.07.16

As the time flies by in Year 3 we are still working hard and succeeding in areas we found very tricky at the start of the year...

Maths 

We started the week by finishing off our shape unit by building 3.D shapes using straws and pipe cleaners. we labelled them by with their properties using as much mathematical vocabulary as possible. 

We then moved onto another tricky area of maths; we have been tackling telling the time, We've cracked it! We have all decided that we all feel much more confident telling the time to the nearest minute. We have also been calculating time differences using a number line and solving time word problems. Some of us are even telling the time using the 24 hr clock. 

Science 

We all had a fantastic time with lots of observational tasks and experiments on Tuesday, when we had a science day centered around our topic: Rocks and Soils. We learnt about the structure of the Earth and were amazed to find out that we are all floating around on tectonic plates on a moving layer of magma. Wow! 

We looked at a wide variety of semi-precious and common rocks and stones and organized them into different categories. 

We went on rocks hunts around the school when thinking about the uses of rocks and how they help us in day-to-day life. Our favourite part was definitely when we were learning about the three different rock types: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. We made chocolate rocks to help us learn about the different formation processes. 

Looking at them in more detail, we conducted experiments on the durability and permeability of different rocks and used this data to decide what purposes different types of rocks would be good for.  We also looked at fossils and did some close observations of soils and were surprised at the many things that make up the earth below our feet. 

Music 

We now have a date for our music performance,,, Monday the 18th July. The performance starts at 10.00 am sharp (!) so please arrive a few minutes before hand to be seated. We look forward to sharing some songs and tunes that we have been enjoying this academic year.