Welcome to Year 3!

Meet The Team

3R - Mrs Rio (class teacher), Mrs Lacey (higher level teaching assistant) and Miss East (teaching assistant).

3J - Miss Jamison (class teacher), Mrs Parry-Jones (teaching assistant) and Mrs Akhtar (teaching assistant).

Mrs Rio is the year 3 and 4 phase leader.

Autumn Term

 English

This term, we will be studying the following books: Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age, The Finger Eater, The Great Kapok Tree and Stone Girl. We will be practising various reading and writing skills based around these books including identifying word classes, writing descriptions, thinking about character feelings and emotions and alterative endings to stories. Grammar, spelling and punctuation will be embedded in these lessons.

In guided reading, the children will study the texts of Tales of Wisdom and Wonder and The Big Book of the UK. We use whole class guided reading which focuses on developing the children's comprehension skills.

Maths

This term we will focus on place value, addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. Within these topics, we will use a range of resources including base 10, place value counters, number squares and bead strings. We will start by recapping our number bonds to 10, 20 and 100 before moving onto our 2, 5, and 10 times tables. Children will use Times Tables Rockstars to practise their times tables at speed.

Science

Our topic for the Autumn term is rocks. The children will be classifying rocks, studying how rocks change over time and will then be moving onto fossil formation and soil types.

History

In history lessons, we will be learning about the Stone Age through to the Iron Age. The children will discover what life was like for the early humans and will learn how life changed over these historical periods.

Geography

In Geography lessons, we will look at oceans around the world, UK landmarks and our local area including local habitats.

Art and DT

In art, the children will be focusing on drawing including using shapes to sketch objects and using shading. In DT, we will cover cooking and nutrition, with a focus on cooking seasonally.

RE

This term the children will be learning about places of worship in various religions. They will have the opportunity to visit a Temple.

PE

The children will be focusing on invasion games and orienteering. PE days for 3J are Monday and Tuesday. PE days for 3R are Monday and Thursday.

PSHE

This term we will be covering the topics of healthy lifestyles, our strengths and goals and keeping safe. We will also be discussing our school values of ambition, confidence, collaboration, resilience and respect.

French

This term, the children will begin to learn basic conversational French including greetings and how to introduce ourselves.

Music

The children will be covering the history of Western Music. This will be taught in the school's music room where children will have access to a range of instruments.

Reading and phonics

When pupils start at Brushwood, their phonics ability will be tested. If they have some gaps in their knowledge, they will continue reading colour banded books and will have phonics interventions to close the gaps. If their knowledge is secure, they will begin on Accelerated Reader which begins testing and progressing comprehension skills. On this scheme, the children choose their own books, read in school and at home and then take an online quiz to test their understanding of the book. For both the colour banded books and then Accelerated Reader books, teachers regularly monitor the progress each child is making and move them up levels appropriately. We ask that pupils read at home each evening with an adult who can record and sign their reading logs. It is important that the children have their books and their reading logs in their bags everyday too.

Number bonds and times tables

The children regularly learn and practise number bonds to 10, 20 and 100 in school. These are really important skills to have as children can apply this knowledge in lots of areas of the maths curriculum. We ask that the children practise these at home as much as possible. These can be done verbally or there is some brilliant games online too. Please visit the following website for games.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=number+bonds+to+10

As well as number bonds, it is important for the children to learn and practise their times tables. In school, we regularly practise the times tables introduced in year 2 (2x tables, 5x tables and 10x tables) before slowly introducing more times tables (4x tables, 8x tables, 3x tables and 6x tables) by learning and practising on a regular basis. It is important that children can count quickly (for example 2, 4, 6, 8) and answer questions (for example 4 x 2 = 8). To show a clear understanding of times tables, we teach the inverse too using division (for example, 8 ÷ 2 = 4). Practising these at home is essential for children to become fluent with their times tables.