Year 3
Spring 1, 2025
Welcome to Year 3!
We hope you had a lovely festive half term break and are ready for more learning in year 3 with lots of new things to learn.
Start time - 8:40am Pick up time - 3:15pm
If you have any questions, concerns or worries, please contact me at year3@cpa.dsat.education and we will do our best to respond as soon as we can.
Key information
Please ensure that your child brings a labelled water bottle to school everyday as well as ensuring that all items of your child's uniform is clearly labelled too. Snacks are not provided in Key Stage 2, please send with your child a healthy fruit snack or cereal bar for break time.
PE is on a Tuesday morning - please send children to school in their PE kits. They will get changed into their school uniform afterwards so please ensure this is in their bags too. Please ensure long hair is tied back and earrings are removed or covered. Covering such as a plaster should be provided from home.
Reading books will be changed on Thursdays, please ensure your child brings their reading book and their reading record to school.
Homework will be sent out on a Thursday and will be due back the following Thursday.
Please click on the link below to find the information shared during our Beginning of Year meeting in September.
Year 3 Beginning of Year meeting information
Curriculum
Here is a summary of what we will be learning in Year 3 during the Spring term:
Writing - historical narrative
Our writing this half-term will be based on the book 'Stone Age Boy' by Satoshi Kitamura. In response to the book, we will be writing a story from the point of view of the boy. In the build up to this, children will complete a range of activities using a variety of skills which include:
Spoken Language
- Listen and respond
• Build vocabulary
• Articulate and justify answers
• Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates
Reading Comprehension
- Read for a range of purposes
• Use dictionaries to check the meaning of words
• Explain meaning of words in context
• Draw inferences (characters feelings, thoughts and motives); justify with evidence
• Predict from details stated and implied
• Identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise
• Retrieve and record information from non-fiction
Writing Composition:
- Plan writing by discussing the structure, vocab and grammar of similar writing
• Discuss and record ideas
• In narratives, create settings, characters and plot
• Use headings and sub-headings to aid presentation
• Group related ideas into paragraphs
• Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency
• Proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
Reading
Our reading sessions this half term will be based around the book 'Iron Man' by Ted Hughes. The blurb reads: The Iron Man is a story so gripping that when you begin to read it aloud, everyone stops to listen, young children and old people alike. And once you know it, you never forget it. A classic is something utterly strange and original and yet as deeply familiar and necessary as your own hands. The Iron Man is like no other story in the world, and fifty years after its publication, we need it as much as ever.
Through daily reading, children will practice their fluency in a variety of ways including teacher led reading, choral, echo, paired and individual reading. In addition, children will complete a variety of activities in response to our reading focussing on the following comprehension skills:
- identifying main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise
- identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
- identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
- identifying how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning
Spelling
Children will be following the Head-Start spelling programme again this year, with a dedicated spelling lesson each day. Please click on the links below to see the spellings we will focus on over the year.
Year 3 Head-Start spellings Autumn term
Year 3 Head-Start spellings Spring term
Year 3 Head-Start spellings Summer term
Children will also be encouraged to spell the year 3/4 common exception words, please click on the link below
Year 3/4 Common Exception Words
The children in Year 3 and 4 will also have the opportunity to enter the upcoming DSAT Spelling Bee competition too - details to follow nearer the time.
Maths - length and perimeter, multiplication and division, time
This half term we will be learning about:
- length and perimeter where we will be estimating, measuring and comparing length in millimeters, centimeters, meters and mixed units; finding the perimeter of 2-D shapes and solving word problems involving length. multiplication and division and time.
- multiplication and division where we will understand multiplication can be done in any order; understand the inverse between multiplication and division; use multiplication and division facts for two, three, four, five and ten and use our knowledge of multiples and factors to solve division problems
- time where we will read analogue times to the nearest minute; understand and correctly use a.m. and p.m. to read, record and order times; read and order times in words, analogue or 12 hr digital formats and measure intervals in seconds and in minutes and seconds.
Each week children take part in a times table challenge where they have 3 minutes to answer questions based on their times table and related division facts. It is important to build times table fluency as speedy recall will enable them to progress. TTRockstars can help with these, further details of TTRS are at the bottom of this page. Click on the following links to view the times table challenges. Bronze Award, Silver award, Gold award, Titanium award, Platinum award, Ultimate Challenge
To further support your children at home, please encourage them to learn their times tables and to practise and remember our Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) for Autumn term. Please click on the following links for Year 3 KIRFs, we are now focussing on Spring 1.
Year 3 Summer KIRFs
Science - forces
This half term, the children will be learning about friction and magnets. Children will learn to
- compare how things move on different surfaces
● notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a
distance
● observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others
● compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are
attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
● describe magnets as having two poles
● predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are
facing.
RE - Christianity
This half term our key enquiry question is 'Could Jesus heal people? Were these miracles or is there some other explanation?'. This focuses on the concept of Incarnation.
Children will learn:
- about Bible stories including the Blind Man and the Paralysed Man
- to retell Bible stories about miracles
- to question whether Jesus really did perform miracles
- to explain what we think happened
PSHE - Living in the wider world - communities
Through a range of speaking, listening and written activities, children will learn:
- what is meant by ‘the rule of law’ [link to British Values]
- the basics of how laws are made and enforced
- the reasons why we need laws and that these are not always the same for everyone (some people need more protection - for example children)
- that the world is not fair and it is our responsibility to help those less fortunate
- to identify our common values (Link to ‘British Values’)
- that we are all part of a wider community of people, who we rely on
- that we have a responsibility to support other people in our community when we are able to
- that we should treat the people in our community with respect
- that biological parents (“Tummy mummy” and “birth dad”) are not always the people that look after a child
- that the people you live with are not always part of your ‘birth family’ (adopted/foster care, carers)
- that we have the power and responsibility to make our communities better places to live
We are continuing to deliver a program to all year groups at school called myHappymind. myHappymind is all based around helping children to understand how their brain works and to support them in developing positive skills and habits to be their very best selves!
We finish our sessions with our school's Let Your Light Shine Prayer, click the link here;
My Happy Mind - Appreciate 
This Module is about children understanding why gratitude matters and how you can develop gratitude as a habit. Gratitude is key to well-being and resilience, and we're all about making it a life-long strategy. Through a variety of weekly activities, children will learn:
Please click on the link below to access an overview of what the program entails.
myHappymind Parent information
History - Romans
Our theme for History this half term is 'What impact did the Roman Empire have on Britain?' Through this theme, we will complete a range of activities to help us learn:
- to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives
- to understand where the Roman Empire began and why
- to understand why the Romans wanted to invade Britain and why Julius Caesar’s invasion in 55-54 BC wasn't successful
- to understand the impact the Roman Empire had by AD 42 and the power of its army
- to construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information
Music - Reggae
This half term we will be learning a reggae style song called 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley. During each lesson children will listen and appraise a piece of reggae music, complete some musical activities and perform. Children will be learning to:
- listen and appraise a piece of R&B music
- identify the style indicators of R&B music
- identify the structure of a song
- use their bodies to find the pulse of a song
- use musical language to discuss songs
- play a musical instrument following musical notation
- perform a song
Computing - Computing Systems and Networks: Emailing
This half term we will be learning to:
- log in and out of email
- send a simple email with a subject plus ‘To’ and ‘From’ in the body of the text
- edit an email
- type in the email address correctly and send the email
- add an attachment to an email
- write an email using positive language, with an awareness of how it will make the recipient feel
- recognise unkind behaviour online and know how to report it
- offer advice to victims of cyberbullying
- recognise when an email may be fake and explain how they know.
Art - Painting
This half term we will be building on children's colour mixing skills of mixing primary into secondary colours using powder paint. The children will learn:
- to explore and evaluate an artists work
- about the work of Albrecht Durer and Michele Clamp
- to use watercolour effectively
- to create a complementary colour wheel
- about composition using a viewfinder
- to plan and make a final piece of work using watercolour
- to evaluate their work using art vocabulary
French - Les Instruments
This half term we will be learning about the four seasons, Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.
In this unit pupils will learn:
- to recognise, recall and spell up to 10 instruments in French with the correct
definite article/determiner - to understand articles/determiners better and that the definite
article/determiner ‘the’ has a plural form in French - to say and write ‘I play an instrument’ in French using the high frequency 1st person regular verb ‘je joue’ (I play) with up to 10 different instruments
Physical Education - Basketball
This half term we will be learning to play a team sport. We will be learning:
- to develop an understanding of the rules of Basketball
- to develop an ability to dribble legally in Basketball
- to develop an ability to pass effectively in Basketball
- to develop an ability to shoot effectively in Basketball
This half term we will also learning about multi-skills. We will be learning:
- to develop agility
- to develop co-ordination
Indoors PE kit
Navy/black shorts and a white polo shirt or t-shirt (N.B. This should be a different polo shirt to any worn as part of the school uniform)
(for gymnastics, a black leotard may also be worn).
Outdoors PE kit
Tracksuits will be allowed for outdoor games in cold weather; these should not be in team colours/fashion brands.
Trainers should be worn which are robust, sturdy and intended for exercise and not fashion.
Home Learning
Maths homework - 1 piece of maths homework will be given out every Thursday to be handed in by the following Thursday.
Reading - Please aim for 15 minutes each day, sign the home reading record books and have them in school for book change on Thursdays. Building on from Key Stage 1, it is expected that children read a minimum of 20 times a month in Key Stage 2, children achieving this and beyond will receive a golden ticket for the half termly prize draw.
Times Table Rock Stars - Click here to play! (This takes you to an external site which we have no control over)
TTRS is an on-line programme to boost fluency and recall in multiplication and division skills. It is available on a range of devices, including mobile phones. You can play online at ttrockstars.com or download the TTRS app. Playing little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of multiplication and division facts. These are critical foundations in maths so we are excited by the impact TTRS will have. Children will earn virtual coins to personalise their rock avatars and move up the rock leaderboard from "New Artist" to "Rock Hero"! In order to get the best out of TTRS children should regularly play for short bursts of time over the week, there are 18 stages to complete! TTRS uses the same log in details your child used for NUMBOTs in Key Stage 1.
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the website, please email me to let us know.
Thank you for your support. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to speak to a member of the Year 3 team.
Mrs Rowe, Mrs Barnes and Mrs Crighton.