Year 3

What happens in Year 3?

Year 3 is the first year that the children will spend in Knaphill Junior School. We are really lucky as we have our own building just for Year 3 to use. The year is full of many fun and exciting events, such as:

• A visit to Butser Ancient Farm to learn about life during the Stone Age

• The opportunity to perform in the festive play at the Holy Trinity Church in December.

• An Ancient Egyptian day when everyone comes to school in Ancient Egyptian clothing and we enjoy taking part in history themed activities.

• Visits from local community leaders, such as Reverend Hopkins.

• Whole-school themed weeks. E.g. Science week and Book week.

• Cooking lessons each half term.

• Informative interactive workshops, such as ‘the life space’, online safety and anti-bullying.

Year Three have six brilliant themes of learning:

Autumn term:

Would you prefer to live in the Stone Age, Iron Age or Bronze Age

Climate Zones (from September 2024)

Spring term:

Why did the Romans settle in Britain?

North America

Summer term:

What did the ancient Egyptians believe?

Rio and South-East Brazil

Day to day guide

Children will need to bring their homework diary, reading folder, reading book and pencil case to school every day. Each morning, they will have the opportunity to change their school reading book if they need to.

WEEKLY OVERVIEW

Each week we upload the Home Learning and the overview for the following week onto Google Classroom. Please check this carefully for important information and messages.

Home Learning

English

All children are provided with a reading wallet. They use this to store their reading books, homework diary and reading bookmark and transport their reading materials to and from home each school day. Please encourage your child to read for 10 minutes each day and where possible, read and discuss a range of texts with your child on a regular basis. Please sign your child’s Homework Diary each week to confirm that daily reading has been done.

Reading for Pleasure Books

Children should be listening to stories that they cannot yet read for themselves and, once they can read, we help them develop the habit of reading widely and often, for pleasure and information. We refer to these as Reading for Pleasure Books. All children regardless of reading level will have a Reading for Pleasure Book.

Colour Band Books

Children who have a colour band book, are responsible for changing their own books and are expected to change them at least once a week. These children will have a bookmark in their reading wallets with prompts you can use to develop your child’s reading. The bookmarks are differentiated to match each reading level.

Additional Reading Provision

Children who need additional phonics support, will be part of Read Write Inc. phonics provision and will bring home a phonetically decodable book (known as a Book Bag Book). These books match the sounds they have been learning in school. They will also have a Read, Write Inc. bookmark that has a list of all the ‘Red Words’ they will meet in these books.

Beyond the Colour Bands

Children who have progressed beyond the colour band books, have a wide selection of books to choose from in the classroom. These choices are overseen by the class teacher to ensure they are of an appropriate level for them.

A meeting for Parents and Guardians is held early in the Autumn term, which explains how we teach reading in year 3 and provides you with the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

Maths

Each week, Maths homework will be set online using MyMaths and will focus on the learning that has happened in class that week. Please assist your child to learn and consolidate the skills they have learnt as much as possible. The children will also be able to practise their multiplication and division facts using their Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) log in. A TTRS tournament is set every fortnight.

Family Learning

Each term, a range of Family Learning activities which focus on the current Theme of Learning will be added to Google Classroom.

Family Learning is an opportunity to explore our Themes of Learning outside of school, as a family. Over the term, the children are able choose activities that they would like to complete at home. These can focus on different themes that the children love and enjoy. For example, some children are really creative and may choose to complete a Family Learning Project from the ‘Expressive Arts’ section. Some children are mathematicians at heart and, therefore, they might complete something from the ‘Maths’ section.

When the children have completed their projects, we love to celebrate them with the class.