Welcome to Year Three – Dragonfly Class
Our Class Teacher is Miss Eggby and our Teaching Assistant is Mrs Matthias
We hope that you find all the information about Year 3 here.
Learning
Spelling and Phonics
Phonics is phased across the school so the class will be split for these lessons. Year 3 will use a mixture of the Jolly Phonics Systematic Phonics programme to teach daily Spelling and Phonics lessons, following into daily SPaG lessons which teaches the Year 3 grammar concepts.
Spellings homework based on the weeks learning will be set each Friday and is to be handed in the following Thursday morning to allow for marking before the weekly test on Friday.
Reading
In Year 3 we have whole class Guided reading three times a week. This gives pupils the opportunity not just to read but to develop skills of fluency, prediction, comprehension and pupil voice when writing book reviews. We focus more on chapter books in whole class guided reading in Year 3, the books will mostly be read by the teacher to the class, with some volunteer readers and paired reading. An activity based on what they have read is completed after. We also encourage a lot of paired and class discussion about the text.
We encourage 10 to 15 minutes of reading at home daily. Even if pupils are confident readers it is important to develop the habit of daily reading.
Writing
Writing is encouraged daily in Year 3 with links to topic work. We use Talk-4-Writing approach to writing. We cover a range of genres which include: adventure stories, trick stories, Myths and Legends, traditional tales, non-chronological reports, poetry, instructions, recounts, diary writing, letter writing and newspaper reports.
Handwriting in Year 3 is set as morning work with the aim of practising joined up handwriting. Pupils are encouraged to use their joined up handwriting during their written work too.
Maths
This year, we have adopted the Ready To Progress Curriculum through the NCETM. Initially, this is designed as a Covid recovery curriculum but will become a long term curriculum focused on the key, and most important, learning outcomes in the Year 3 curriculum. At Weare, we fully embrace the ‘Mastery Approach’ and will continue to follow the White Rose Maths Hub scheme of learning where appropriate, which focuses on establishing mathematical understanding progressing through concrete, pictorial and abstract learning. This helps the children to develop a deeper understanding of the maths they are doing in order to more fluently manipulate numbers and be confident in reasoning and solving problems.
We are very keen to develop numeracy skills and so spend lots of time on mental strategies of addition, subtraction and times tables. Every day, we have an additional 20 minute Mental Maths session which focusses on these aspects of maths. Children complete activities such as number of the day, TT Rockstars, times table activities and some problem solving linking to these mental strategies.
Topic
Each half term we alternate Geography and History topic work. Year 3 topics include: Ancient Egypt, comparing the UK to a modern day European country, rivers, mountains and World War 2. We use a cross-curricular approach as much as we can with these topics and link them with art, D.T, science, writing and music.
Science topics include: animals including humans, forces and magnets, rocks, plants and light.
French
In Year 3 French is taught every Thursday morning with Mr Sage.
Useful Information
Homework
Homework is sent home each Friday consisting of spellings and a piece of work reflecting what we have learnt in the week. Please could it be returned by Thursday morning so that it can be marked.
Home Reading
A decodable Home Reader and a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ book is changed and sent home each Monday.
The Reading for Pleasure book will alternate each week between a classroom book corner book and a school library book. Both books should be in bags every day so they can be used in school. Reading records should be signed each time your child reads, each signature will go towards our class reading challenge.
P.E.
Year 3 have P.E. on Wednesday and Thursday, so please could you send you child dressed in his or her P.E. kit on both these days. Pupils with long hair do need to have their hair tied up for P.E.
Class Dojo
This is great way to communicate. We will endeavour to check for messages twice a day.