Learning Log

As we are flying towards the end of term there are lots of things to fit in and finish as the weeks go by. This week has been Healthy Eating Week and the children have enjoyed learning more about healthy eating, creating their own healthy lunches and working with Year 6 to create a healthy snack which was sold at the end of the day!

In literacy this week we have been heading towards the end of our book, Oliver and the Seawigs. We explored personification and metaphor to create our own pieces of poetry describing the sea or a beach scene. We came up with some incredible sentences and really understood how to use personification. We also decided to write a letter as Stacey De Lacey to apologise for his actions. We had to get into character and think about what he might say and how he might say it in a letter.

Our maths focus for this week has been on weight. We have already looked at scales and how to read different integers accurately so this week has focused on using this knowledge to solve different problems related to weight. We had to think carefully about what the questions were asking us to do in order to solve them correctly.

Reading:
There has been some fantastic readers this past week with a number of children reading 5 or more times and they have received their raffle ticket. However, there are still some children not bringing book bags in or not reading at all, along with children who are only reading once. Remember that children can also log a book they are reading at home as long as their school book has been read as well. Let's try really hard for the end of this term.

Enjoy your weekend!

Learning Log

The first half of the summer term has come to an end! We have covered so much this half term and everyone has worked incredibly hard.

In literacy this week we have continued with our story and met some new and interesting characters. We were introduced to a mysterious new island that crept up on our main characters. We spent a couple of days working to create a poem about this new island using some fantastic vocabulary. We drew illustrations of the island from the description in the book (there's a blog post on that), we then used these to help us create a fantastic sentence to describe. After that we spent some time perfecting and improving our sentence before we shared them with the class to begin to create a poem. We could then create our own poem! They were amazing! We were also introduced to sea monkeys! We created leaflets on how to care for a sea monkey and came up with some brilliant ideas on how to do that! We have finished the week off by forming an argument giving reasons why Cliff (our island friend) should either grow roots and become a settled island or go to the Shallowed Hallows and enter the competition! What will he choose to do?

Maths this week has been using our knowledge of lines (horizontal, vertical, parallel and perpendicular) to explore and find different lines within 2D shapes. We worked in pairs to investigate 2D shapes and begin to identify the lines within them. After that, we used this understanding to work on our own and answer questions about lines within different 2D shapes - we found this very challenging but didn't give up! Towards the end of the week we have been measuring lines in shapes and comparing them before drawing our own lines and shapes accurately.

Reading:

Again we have seen an improvement with most people's reading this week. We have three girls who are leading the way. The expected number of reads for this half term is 35 (reading 5 times a week for 7 weeks). Unfortunately, there was a large number of children who had read less than 10 times throughout the whole half term! As this is classed as homework these children are not following school homework expectations and are falling behind in their reading as they are not progressing through the home reading levels as expected.
There are 7 weeks remaining after the half term break. It would be great to see every child reading at least 5 times a week every week. Let's see who is going to rise to the challenge and be the best improved!

Enjoy the half term break, fingers crossed for sunshine!

See you in June!

Learning Log

We have had an exciting and jam packed week this week. Dressing up in our fancy wedding clothes on Thursday was a great treat and we all looked fantastic.

In literacy this week we have been continuing our story 'Oliver and the Seawigs'. We were introduced to a new character... a mermaid called Iris! We discussed what we knew about her from the story and created a character profile for her. We then learned about idioms, like "piece of cake", and used them to write about Iris. Also this week we learned what a seawig is. We designed a seawig ready to be made in the afternoon - there are photos of this on the blog for you to see. We also created sarcastic scripts and used our knowledge of dictionaries to create our own dictionary approved explanation.

Our maths focus for this week have been on shape. We started by recapping on 2D shapes and remembering the different properties for these. We then moved on to 3D shapes and began to look at some shapes that haven't been looked at before such as a tetrahedron. We focused on the different 2D shapes that make up the faces of a 3D shape. We then used this knowledge to create nets of a real life 3D shape.

Reading:
We have had a huge improvement on reading this week with lots of children reading five times or more. All these children have got their raffle ticket for this week. At the moment the girls are well in the lead and seemed to consistently reading at least five times or more. Let's see if the boys can catch up with the girls next week. Lots of children have moved up a level so it would be great for those children to be moving their way through their new reading level.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Learning Log

It might have been a short week this week, but that didn't stop us from fitting in lots of exciting things as we started our new topic. We had a fantastic launch day on Tuesday - click here to follow the link to see the photos.

In literacy this week we started by making predictions about the new book that we are looking at. We looked at an illustration of some of the characters and came to come conclusions about what type of characters we think they might be and what the story might be about. We then read the first few pages and discovered they are explorers.

In maths this week we have been looking at positional language with lines. Words like vertical, horizontal, diagonal and parallel. We have been completing different tasks proving that we know what these words mean and can display them correctly.

Reading:
We had a big increase of children reading at least five times this week which was fantastic. Quite a number of children have been moved up to the next reading level, they will not be able to change their books up a level if they don't bring their books in on Tuesday. Let's have everyone bringing their books in on Tuesday ready to change and see who has read the most for this week!

Learning Log

With only one week left until our Celebration Event we have been working hard to make sure all our work is ready for display. A letter has been sent via email about the Celebration Event, if you have not received it please contact your class teacher or the school office.

In literacy this week, following from our planning of a graphic novel, we have begun making our own. We took time to plan out each page so that we knew what our illustrations were going to look like to help us when it came to making the final product. Once we had a good plan in place we were given our blank books and have been creating them using our story and own illustrations!

Our maths focus for this week has been on identifying and understanding equivalent fractions. We have used fraction walls to help us begin to see that some fractions might have a different numerator and denominator but the size of the fraction doesn't change. We are so proud of ourselves for sticking with this and beginning to understand more about fractions.

Reading:

There has been some improvement with the reading this week, although there are still some children who haven't read at all and haven't brought their books back in to get changed. We have been talking about the importance of reading as we were writing our own stories, as the more we read the better our writing will be as we will gain a wider understanding of creating an interesting text to read. Well done for those children who are now regularly reading at least five times! Keep up the good work!

Learning Log

We have had a great week in 3ST this week and have loved the warmer weather.

In literacy we finished the graphic novel 'Arthur and the Golden Rope' and discussed our favourite parts. We then wrote a letter to the author, Joe Todd-Stanton, to see if he could answer any of our questions and we tweeted him a link to our letters. We have been thrilled to get a tweet back saying that he would reply! We then decided that we would used this graphic novel to begin to create our own adventure stories to turn into graphic novels! We have come up with some amazing ideas and are looking forward to getting started on the finished product.

In maths this week we have been looking at comparing and ordering fractions. We used chocolate to help us understand that the larger the denominator the smaller the fraction (click here to see our blog post on that) and the we began comparing them using the <, > and = symbols. Towards the end of the week we started looking at equivalent fractions. We used the fraction wall to help us begin to understand this.

Reading:

There has been a big improvement in reading so far this term and we are really trying to be the best each week - well done! I have reminded the children that even if they are amazing readers they still need to be reading with an adult at home as this helps to improve their fluency with harder texts, gain a better vocabulary and have a wider understanding of text structure. All of this helps them with their writing skills as well.

Have a wonderful weekend, let's hope for more sun!

Learning Log

Welcome back to Summer Term! Our final term in Year 3 and how time has flown already! It sounds like everyone had a fantastic Easter break with lots of stories to share with the class.

In literacy this week we have been coming to the end of our class text, 'Arthur and the Golden Rope'. We had an in depth discussion about the author and illustrator, Joe Todd-Stanton's use of text and illustration and how he tells the story sometimes only through the illustrations. We also compared the different techniques he uses when creating the illustrations. We wrote in role as Arthur to describe the adventure he went on to get the two impossible ingredients that the mighty God Thor had asked for. Towards the end of the week we created our own impossible objects poems and published them - these will be on show during our celebration event at the beginning of May (information to follow).

Our maths focus has stuck with fractions this week as we have looked at adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator within the whole. We now know to check if the denominator is the same and then look at the numerator and either add or subtract as we usually would. We also have looked a fraction wall to help us visualise how fractions come together to create a whole.

We have had lots of exciting afternoons this week creating watercolour paintings of the Northern Lights, investigation fizzy drinks and Mentos eruptions and beginning to make our volcanoes ready for our eruption display!

Reading:
I have been amazed to see the massive improvement in reading for the start of this new term. People who's last reading log entry was in 2017 have now been trying to read every day and it is fantastic. Let's keep up the great work. Remember, book bags with books and reading logs should be in every day but especially Tuesdays as this is the official book changing day. Who will be the best reader of this term?

Learning Log

What a final week we have had! It's been full of celebrations, Easter craft and Sports Relief activities.

In literacy this week we have looked at using a thesaurus to find and improve dramatic verbs for the action section of Arthur's journey across the sea. We then used these to write detailed, dramatic and action packed action sequences making sure that we also used varied sentence openers. Additionally, we wrote a Viking style poem called a Kenning. We had to come up with some great descriptions for the characters we were describing in our poem.

Our maths focus for this week has continued to be on fractions. We have looked at finding unit fractions and recognising the numerator and denominator. We have been finding unit fractions of numbers by using the bar method splitting it into the equal parts and then sharing it out. We discovered that it is similar to division.

Reading:

We have had another great improvement with reading this week and found our top three readers for the term. A huge well done to Poppy, Abigail and Ethan for their amazing effort! Remember, after the Easter Holidays everyone will start back at zero and anyone can be in with the chance to be the top readers for summer. Let's have a big push for the summer term and see if we can be the best class for reading across the school!

Have a wonderful Spring break, let's hope that the weather starts getting better!

Learning Log

It has been another fantastic week in 3ST and we have all been working very hard.

In literacy this week we have been using speech bubbles for what the grumpy townsfolk said to Arthur and then turning these into written dialogue using inverted commas. We then wrote a diary entry in the role of Arthur to explain what had happened and how he was feeling after the big events of the day - there were some fantastic responses! One of the big questions from the text is whether Arthur should go on the adventure to the land of the Viking Gods or not. We held a class debate to say our points about why he should or shouldn't go and then used these ideas to write a letter to Arthur telling him why we thought he should go on the adventure or why he shouldn't go. We came up with some great ideas. Arthur decided to go on the journey so we created a list of things that he might take with him and why he should take those important items and finally predicted what would happen next on his journey to the land of the Viking Gods! Phew!

Our focus in maths this week has been on fractions. Lots of us looked fearful when we heard fractions at the beginning of the week but we have worked hard and are really beginning to show a good understanding. We recapped on what we learned last year and then focused on the numerator and denominator and how they link with the whole. We also looked at how to create whole fractions and counting in tenths. Finally, we began to look at recognise tenths as decimals and how these could be written.

Reading:

There was a HUGE improvement in reading this week and most of the children have been trying hard - Poppy even read seven times in the week! However, there are still some children who either aren't reading at all or are only reading once or twice. Reading is still extremely important for children who are confident readers at this age as it exposes them to a variety of stories and helps to improve their vocabulary, both understanding and allowing them to use it in their own writing. Let's keep up the great effort!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Learning Log

It has been a great week in 3ST and we have been so proud to win the attendance trophy as well - our fingers are crossed that we get to keep it next week as well!

In literacy this week, we wrote our Norse Myths that we had learned last week. We made sure to include interesting vocabulary to make it sound amazing. We then moved on to the next couple of pages in our book where a "monstrous black wolf" attacked the town where Arthur lives! We looked at the author's choice of language and how this paints a picture in the reader's mind. After that we worked together to perform that section of the text using the Reader's Theater technique of focusing on the text and making notes of where to change your voice. We moved on to how the townsfolk might have felt before, during and after the attack. We made a freeze-frame of each section and then used comic strip app to thought track it by adding speech and thought bubbles. This has then helped us gain a better understanding of the attack ready for us to write an article for the local Icelandic newspaper!

Our maths focus for this week has been on money! We have recapped on the different coin values and addressed any misconceptions of coins that don't exist such as 3p and 4p etc. We have solved challenges on which values could be made from certain coins, exploring using a bar chart to order coins and then add up the total amount (more on that can be found by clicking here). Also, we have gained a solid understanding of changing pounds to pence and vice versa although needed to double check that we were writing, for example, 64p in pounds with a 0 for the pounds like £0.64. Finally, we have been adding and subtracting using money and solving problems with this.

Atrix, the wise woman, in the story has told the town that if they travel across the sea to the land of the Viking Gods there was a god who ruled the skies and could relight their fire. As we have already looked at Viking Gods, we decided to explore the Vikings themselves and what we knew about them. We found facts with dates and then created a timeline to show the Viking Era. We found some very interesting facts and some of us had already heard of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Reading:

We are having a huge push with reading now in 3ST as the majority of children are either not reading at all or only reading a couple of times a week! This means that they are missing out on potential prizes and dojos that they could earn. All children should be aiming to read a minimum of 5 reads a week - even just a couple of pages a night will be enough to get their mark, they just need it logging it in their reading journals.

Have a lovely weekend!

Learning Log

We have had another fabulous week in Year 3 with lots of exciting learning and creating and even dressing up for World Book Day (see some photos on the blog or the school website). We also got one of our whole class Dojo awards and had an extra playtime in the afternoon out in the snow!

In literacy this week we looked at script writing. We wrote a script for an advert to encourage people to visit Iceland on holiday. It was great fun looking at all the different things to do in Iceland and then we had to craft our scripts to encourage people to visit. We then recorded these later in the week. We also looked at a character exploration into Arthur and finally started to explore how important story telling is as a the Wise Woman in the book, Atrix, is a story teller. We learned Norse Myths in groups and performed them to Year 2 ready for us to write up the myths on Monday.

Our maths focus for this week has been on bar charts. We have looked at transferring information from a pictogram into a bar chart and then began to make our own as well. We used this skill in one of our topic sessions to create a tally and then bar chart to show which artefact in Professor Brownstone's vault we found most interesting.

It has been a busy week learning more about Iceland and then starting to look at some of the Norse Gods, taking inspiration from the stories we have been learning in literacy.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe in the cold and snow!

Learning Log

Wow! What an amazing first week back it has been! The launch day was a huge success and all the children loved learning about some different countries from around the world.

In literacy this week we have started work on our new text 'Arthur and the Golden Rope' which has been very exciting. We discussed what we thought the story might be about from clues in the endpapers as well as writing a letter to Professor Brownstone asking to be allowed to visit his vault of artefacts. Fingers crossed we get a reply! We also looked at how important books are as we learned that one of Professor Brownstone's most prized possessions were his books.

The maths focus for this week has been on pictograms. We recalled how to read a pictorgram accurately, remembering to check the key carefully. We used the information found in each pictogram to answer questions regarding the information. Finally, we made our own pictograms!

We have really enjoyed taking our topic focus from the text we are reading and have begun learning about Iceland, which is where we think the story is set. As well as this we started to design the artefacts from Professor Brownstone's vault.

It's been a jam packed week and we are looking forward to seeing where our learning journey takes us next week!