Lotherton Hall trip!

Years 3 and 4 had a fantastic time on our first trip of the year to Lotherton Hall! The aim of this trip was to support our ongoing science learning about animals, their habitats and their bone structures.

Mr Freeman and Mrs Poole were very impressed with the responses from the children during the workshops – children could confidently talk about the following:

• 5 animal groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians)
• characteristics of animals within each group (classifying)
• vertebrates and invertebrates
• animals with skeletons and exoskeletons

Outside of the workshop, the children had chance to explore the wide range of animals at Lotherton. We found some very interesting bird types with unique characteristics and also noticed lots of animal names had originated from Latin roots!

Here are some great pictures from our trip – enjoy!

Our learning journey this week

We have been extremely busy learners this week as the children continue to adapt well to life as key stage 2 pupils.

writing

We are well on the way with our first piece of writing and we’ve managed to complete paragraph one of our Athens recount. The children have made sure to include our R2s:

• adverbs
• prepositions
• past tense

Here are some examples of pupil paragraphs:

Poppy

Adam

Carter

Sophie

Elijah

Help at home:

Discuss and practise adverbs and prepositions as we have learnt them in class. If you’re unsure, use the guide below. Perhaps your child could write sentences with an adverb and a preposition?

Adverb = adds information about a verb

I walked fiercely through the town. 

Preposition = tells you where something is in relation to something else.

The soldier hid behind the market stall.

Our learning journey this week

PE

Year 3 have been learning lots of new skills in our current sport – hockey.

We have been talking a lot about the fundamental movement skills children learn in schools, from reception right up to the end of high school. The simple skills we learn in reception are constantly used and built upon, allowing our bodies to perform more complex skills. Here are the fundamental movement skills below:

This is a slap pass. Our hands should be together, nice and high on the stick.

Here is a drag pass. We need to be nice and low to the ground and drag the stick to make contact with the ball. This will allow us more power.

Here, we are practising dribbling with close control.

In hockey, we are only allowed to use the flat side of the stick. Therefore, we have to use our guider hand to turn the stick.

It’s important to learn techniques to stop the ball, as we are not allowed to use our feet in hockey.

Help at home: 

Have a conversation with your child about these skills in school. Which ones are important when playing hockey? Do we use these skills in other areas of our lives? Does everyone know how to kick a ball like a professional, or is it a skill that needs regular practise and progression?

Writing

We are preparing ourselves for our first piece of writing – a recount walking through Athens in Ancient Greece! The children have been working hard on using verbs and adverbs to make our writing sound better. As a class, we’ve managed to create a huge bank of vocabulary ready to magpie into our writing next week! Here are some sentences made by the children with the adverbs in bold.

Ferociously, the statues protected the colossal temple. – Freddie

Eagles soared elegantly above the majestic temple. – Max

Dark clouds quickly suffocated the sky – whole class

Living and Learning: Rights and Responsibilities

Last week, Year 3 learnt about rights and responsibilities and consolidated this with a group circle time. In circle time, children were asked to share ideas on different rights they have and responsibilities that match. Below are some comments from our discussion:

I have the right to go to school and the responsibility to learn as much as I can.

I have the right to eat and have the responsibility not to waste food.

I have the right to eat and have the responsibility to maintain a balanced diet.

Here are our human rights:

Help at home:

Talk with your child about the rights they have, along with the responsibilities that accompany them. Ensure children understand what rights are (definition below).

Rights are things we are all entitled to in order to help us live.

Our learning journey this week

Topic

This week, Year 3 recapped our knowledge of historical periods using a timeline. The children had to use the clues of dates and pictures and  organise periods of history in chronological order. Pupils remembered lots of facts about some history they’ve already learnt, and posed many new questions about history not yet covered. Here is a timeline showing our work:

Reading records

We have had a fantastic return on reading records so far this term – thanks again for working with your child at home and supporting their reading. The tasks set have been completed to a really high standard!

The vocabulary ninja task has really helped the children discover a new bank of vocabulary – this will really help them in writing our first narrative in the next couple of weeks. Here is an example of a word found at home, that is now on our word wall:

Help at home:

Please keep supporting your child with reading fluency/tasks at home. These tasks are designed to support your child with a range of subjects and upcoming learning. We can’t wait to use some of the vocabulary the children found!

Our learning journey this week

Year 3 have set off on lots of different learning paths this week. Here’s an overview of our learning:

Writing

We have started to recap our knowledge of nouns, proper nouns and verbs. This week, the children have done some sentence-based learning, making sure we can identify nouns and verbs correctly. We’ve been really careful to remember that proper nouns need capital letters! Here’s some learning below (and their creators!).

Our new language has been revealed…

Latin!

This year, our class will follow the story of Minimus the mouse, his family and their lives in Vindolanda. We’re learning Latin to understand the roots of our British language, to help us improve in our grammar skills, and to support other lessons, too (such as our current Ancient Greece history unit).

So far, we’ve learnt how to say hello and goodbye in Latin! Practice these with your child at home – the children were all super excited to learn!

hello (to one person) = salve (sal-way)

hello (to more than one person) = salvete (sal-way-tay)

goodbye (to one person) = vale (wa-lay)

goodbye (to more than one person) = valete (wa-lay-tay)

Reading

We have continued our Greek myth theme this week and done lots of learning around Pandora’s Box. The children had to use their inference skills to draw what they thought flew out the box when Pandora mischievously opened it! Here are some fantastic creations along with their illustrators.

Help at home:

Thanks so much for helping your child read at home and complete their reading records – we had such a good return this first week. Keep practising our three key areas as much as possible: spelling, reading and times tables.

Our new sensory space; The Den

Over the summer, Mrs Freeman has been busy creating a sensory themed room in school.

The Den is a safe space which aims to provide any child with the individualised sensory input they need to self-regulate so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others.

The Den offers a safe space for relaxation, exploration, independence, and social sessions. The resources in The Den can be used to stimulate, soothe, entertain and distract, depending on the child’s requirements.

We would like to say thank you to the school PTA for the contributions towards resources for this room.

We hope users of The Den benefit from the stimulating visual and tactile activities.

Welcome back, Year 3!

Hello! Mr Freeman here welcoming you back to another fantastic year at St James. Year 3 have started extremely well in lots of ways:

• We know our school rules and how to follow them well every day.
• Our effort levels in learning have been superb!
• The children have really enjoyed their new classroom layout and the table points.

Most importantly, the children have had a really happy and healthy return to school. Here’s a brief look at our journey this week:

History

For our first topic unit this year, we are exploring the depths of Ancient Greece! Above is our first class novel, ‘Greek Myths’, by Marcia Williams. The children have really enjoyed listening to these stories and discussing links to our Christian Values. Here are some of the links from the children.

“Arian showed compassion when he let the sailors live who stole his treasure that he earnt from hard work” – Max

“Orpheus showed perseverance to travel a long way to reach the underworld, so that he could get his wife back” – Lillie Jane

Science

Today, we put on our biologists’ uniforms and uncovered our first unit – skeletons, movement and nutrition. We focussed on 5 bones in the human body today (shown above). Some of these bones are there to protect certain parts of our body, and others are used to support our movement.

Help at home:

Please read regularly with your child and sign their reading record. A good strategy would be to read for a short while, every day, to build up fluency. Also, your child has gone home with their Times Tables Rockstars logins (stuck to the back of their reading records. Please encourage your child to practise for at least 5 minutes per day – focus on the 5 times tables this week!

Finally, if you have any questions, please feel free to have a chat with me (Mr Freeman) and I’ll absolutely do my best to help.

Living and Learning: I folllow the school rules.

Our Living and Learning statement for our first week is:

I follow the school rules.

Our three school rules are short and snappy to remember:

We are respectful.

We are ready.

We are safe.

As a class, Year 3 have discussed what the rules mean and how to follow them in school. We know that being respectful covers lots of things, such as listening to others, being kind to everyone and using our manners in school.

Help at home:

Talk about the three school rules with your child. Which is the easiest to follow? Which is the most difficult? Come up with some top tips on how to follow our school rules every day.

Staying safe week

The RNLI – staying safe around water

As part of our staying safe week, we have had a visit from Alan from The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

He gave a brief introduction to the work that The RNLI carry out. In the last 200 years, they have helped to save over 146,000 people from drowning! The RNLI is a registered charity that is able to run through voluntary contributions – it costs £188 million to run the service each year!

Alan spoke to us about how to keep safe when around water (coasts, rivers, canals, swimming pools, baths, paddling pools in the garden).

It only takes a little bit of water to get into trouble.

Willow Y4

Useful advice to stay safe:

• At the beach, swim between the yellow and red flags.
• Stop and think before you enter the water – can you spot any dangers?
• Stay together
• Float on your back like a starfish, with your ears in the water.
• Call 999/112

The children have each been given a Water Smart leaflet to reinforce the important messages they have learnt today.

Help at home – Read and complete the Water Smart leaflet at home. What do the different coloured flags mean? What number should we call if we see someone in danger in the water? What is the best way to float?