Year 3 Curriculum Letter - Summer 1

Dear Parents and Carers,

Year 3 - Curriculum Newsletter

Welcome back to the new term! We hope you find this letter informative, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher if you have any questions relating to the curriculum.

Homework:

Our expectation at Broadford is that every child should do the following every night:

• 15 minutes reading to themselves or an adult and note in the reading record
• 15 minutes practicing spellings
• 15 minutes rehearsing times tables facts (including multiplication and division)

If children would like to attempt an additional challenge, we have a new Learning Challenge for children to complete this half of the Summer Term. All of the activities are based around a significant person, poem or painting relating to our topics. Children do not have to attempt every activity but instead select the activities that they are most interested in and compile a project that reflects the extra time and effort that they have put into their challenge. We hope that children will take their time with the challenge and be proud of the work they produce. They should hand this into their teacher at the end of the half term.

Homework Help:

To assist children with their homework they can use ‘My Maths’. The login for this program is Broadford and the password is triangle. Each child has been given a personal login so they can access tasks that the class teacher has set for them. The children can also ask their class teacher for support or guidance with any project that they may be undertaking.

Spellings:

Spellings will be given out on Mondays. The children should practice their words every evening. The test will take place on Fridays.

Dates for the Diary:

On Thursday 20th April Year 3 will have the exciting opportunity to visit the famous 21st century landmark, The ArcelorMittal Orbit in Stratford as part of the enriching curriculum at Broadford. On Wednesday 26th April, Year 3 have a whole year group sharing assembly. It would be brilliant to see as many parents there as possible to celebrate all of the incredible work the children in Year 3 have done.

Parental help:

It is always extremely valuable to have parents who are able to volunteer to help hear the children read, or support them with their times tables. If you think that you are able to give some time to support the children then it would be warmly welcomed. Once again you will need a current DBS in order to work inside the school.

Curriculum Information

We have included a summary of the topics which the children will be covering this half term. If you have any questions about the topics being covered, please do not hesitate to contact your class teacher.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Claxton Miss Pearson

Summer Term 1
Literacy	Spelling, grammar and punctuation Poetry Recounts Biographies
	Please fill in the reading journal after hearing your child read every night. For a good selection of children books visit your local library. Useful web links- http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy/ http://durham.schooljotter.com/coxhoe/Curriculum+Links/Literacy
Numeracy	Time/ Measurement Problems Solving using all four operations Shape and Space
	Please practice the times tables and number bonds with your children. The school is really focusing on Mental maths this term and it would be of great help if your children could learn them. Useful websites: www.mymaths.co.uk www.mathszone.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html
ICT	Computing and coding
Science	Geology
	You could visit the Science Museum. Admission is free. Located at Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD.
History/ Geography	How did Britain prepare for World War 2?
P.E	Cricket/ Athletics
	Please ensure your child has their P.E kit for the correct day Sequoia - Tuesday Hazel - Tuesday
Music	Percussion
Art/ Design and Technology	Shape and Pattern, Texture, Collage
French	Food, Leisure
P.H.S.E	Our bodies (hygiene)

Willow class star writer

This week, our star writer is the unbelievable Jessica Simpson after she produced an amazing setting and build up for her futuristic story. She ensured she provided a descriptive setting for her reader to feel like they were immersed in the story, as opposed to creating lists. In order to do so, she used a range of adverbials, similes and even metaphors. Additionally, she managed to incorporate humour into her writing. I particularly liked when the teacher in the story told her class that they were the best class in the school (just like Willow!) You can now not only independently write, but also add your own flare. Super Jessica, keep it up :)

Practical Division in Birch Maths

Out of addition, multiplication, subraction and division, it is often division that is the trickiest to wrap your head around! Last week, Birch Maths were attacking the challenge of formal division with the help of multilink. They quickly realised that without knowing your times tables, division can become a rather troublesome challenge!

Nevertheless, after some well-reasoned group work, and a fair few games of rockstar tennis, students were able to break down and conquer some of the word problems that were in front of them, which showed excellent resilience

A growth mindset will be needed for this word problem which is worth 10 house points for the first correct answer!
Imagine that you had 537 match attack cards and 6 friends, all of whom want to play. You decide to share your cards out equally between you and your 6 friends.
A) How many cards would each person receive?
After playing for a while, 2 new friends join you.
B) How many cards would each person have now? Would there be any remainders?
Answer in the comments below!

Pompeii Adventure!

After learning about Pompeii during our topic on Volcanoes, Oliver Stay was so fascinated and intrigued, that he was lucky enough to visit Pompeii! He got to see Mount Vesuvius and the total destruction it left behind when it erupted hundreds of years ago in Pompeii! 
Fortunately, the volcano is now extinct which meant that Oliver could walk all the way up to the Volcano's crater! He mentioned how he wished he had a jacket during his venture up the volcano, as the higher he climbed, the colder it got. 
Hazel class really enjoyed listening to Oliver's journal which he had written during his visit. We also loved looking at all the pictures Oliver took, as well as browsing through the Pompeii book with 'Then' and 'Now' images. Thanks for sharing your amazing experience with us Oliver!

Naughty elephants squirt water...

Yesterday in maths we were aiming to describe movement using the four main cardinal compass points. Of course, Willow maths set were willing to take on a challenge, commencing with round 1: the children tightly shut their eyes and had to turn in the direction called (north, east, south, west). If they turned in the wrong direction, unfortunately they sat. After, we upped the stakes with round two, this time incorporating a greater range of mathematical vocabulary: clockwise, anti-clockwise, 90/180/270/360 degree turns, quarter/half/three-quarter/full rotation turns etc. After experimenting with the language, the children took ownership over the learning in round 3. The children were presented with a quantity of cones, which they had to avoid. One partner was blindfolded, whilst the other gave instructions incorporating their new found language. Check out the video uploaded on Facebook to see.

Fantastic work Willow, keep it up!

Year 3 Spellings 20.03.17

Please find Year 3's spellings for this week below:

School Council visit the Houses of Parliament

The members of the School Council had the amazing opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament last Thursday. The pupils were shown how our country makes new laws and the rules of Parliament were explained to them. We were given our own private tour and even got to sit in the House of Commons to watch an ongoing debate. After our tour, we were allowed to have our very own debate where each member of the School council voted for a new law. We then debated and argued why this new law would/would not benefit the country. It was an extremely informative trip and I can say we all definitely came away having learnt something new!

'Did you know that in the House of Commons, when they all stand up it is because they have something they want to say?' - Ronnie, Year 3.

'The Houses of Parliament are divided into: The House of Lords, The House of Parliament and The Monarch,' - Leo, Year 4.

Willow class star writer

This week in Willow, our star writer without doubt is Laiba Shah. It was no wonder, given the amazing playscript that she produced based on Rumpelstiltskin. Not only did she incorporate amazing speech between her characters, but she also successfully implemented stage directions: showing not telling, perfecting the mannerisms and behaviour of each character and allowing me to visualise being in the courtroom with them. A stunning speech that I can not wait to share with schools across the world. Keep it up Laiba!

Year 3 Spellings W/C 13.03.17

Please find the spellings for this week attached. Please make sure your child practices these for at least 15 minutes every night in order to be prepared for the spelling test on Friday.

	A	B	C	D
WOW	chronological	chronological	chronological	chronological
1	obsolete	these	prey	prey
2	concede	theme	obey	obey
3	sincere	concrete	convey	convey
4	persevere	delete	survey	survey
5	interfere	complete	grey	grey
6	February	February	February	below
7	January	January	January	flow
8	September	September	September	know
9	August	August	August	elbow
10	December	December	December	blow
11	attitude	attitude	attitude
12	accuse	accuse	accuse
13	confuse	confuse	confuse
14	costume	costume	costume
15	assume	assume	assume
16	segments	segments	segments
17	arachnid	arachnid	arachnid
18	venomous	venomous	venomous
19	poisonous	poisonous	poisonous
20	prowling	prowling	prowling