Our Guided Reading Books for the year:

Welcome to Year 3! 

I am Miss Course, your Year 3 teacher. 

My email address is: scourse@educ.somerset.gov.uk please email if you have any worries or concerns and I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

This year we have Mrs Stolliday, Mrs Keen, Mrs Hayward and Miss Cooper as our super hero TA's and Mrs Page teaching us on a Thursday. 

We are kicking off year 3 with the Romans! I love this topic and hope that you will too.

We are linking this learning with our English writing an adventure story based on 'Escape From Pompeii by Christina Balit.' This story is set in Pompeii in 79AD during the Roman period. 

As mathematicians, we are consolidating our place value skills from KS1 and developing them to using 3 digit numbers. 

As scientists, we are learning our our human body specifically at our skeleton and then nutrients it needs. We begin with learning about creation in RE and follow the story of 'Jonah and the Whale' and the meaning behind this story told to us by God. 

Homework in year 3,

• Homework is handed out on a Friday and expected back the following Wednesday.
• Spellings are given out on a Friday and are tested the following Friday.
• Children are expected to read 5 times per week at home. Evidence of this should be recorded in their blue reading records with the date, the name of the book, who they read with (or independent reading) and any words that your child found difficult to read. The children will have reading time in school as well so we ask that the children label home or school when recording reading.
• If you have any problems with the homework please come and speak to me in the mornings or afterschool. You can always email if more convenient.
• I will put the spellings on each Friday so you can check on here if you lose them. 

Little reminders 

• Swimming on Monday 
• PE on a Tuesday 
• Boys Football and dance are on a Wednesday (afterschool)
• Girls football on a Thursday (afterschool)
• It is really important that the children remember to bring their reading books and records into school each day and then take them home at the end of the day. We are trying hard to encourage the children to do this as independently as they can. 

Reading Challenge - 8.11.21

As you know, we are encouraging children to read at home as often as they can. We are starting a reading incentive where the children colour in a square on a grid every time they have read at home. They will be in table groups and a target will be set for them to achieve by the end of the week. If they complete their target, as a group, they will get an extra raffle ticket in the box on Friday. The target will be set for the group of children and be manageable - the main idea is to encourage the children to take responsibility for reading at home and to build a love for reading. This does not need to be more than 2 pages each time they read, it is about reading regularly not reading for a long time. We would encourage the children reading on book bands to do this with an adult and free readers to be reading with an adult at least once a week. Thank you for your ongoing support in Year 3 :o) 

Spellings (sent home on 1.10.21)

There               there               there

their                their                their

they’re             they’re            they’re

to                     to                     to

too                   too                  too

two                  two                  two

here                here                here         

hear                hear                 hear                            

                       where              where

                            wear                wear

                                                        quiet

                                                       quite

Spellings (sent home on 24.9.21)

because            because             because

after                after                 after

told                  told                   told     

went                went                   went

every                every                 every

everybody        everybody          everybody

again                again                  again       

people              people                people                       

                        whole                 whole

                        water                water   

                                                 friend

                                                beautiful

The children are choosing Group 1, 2 or 3 themselves for now. 

Welcome back to school Year 3! 

We have had a really positive start to the new year and the children have taken to the new rules and changes in our school so well - I am very proud of them! 

We have had lots of time to talk through the news rules and routines and talk about how we feel in school and the children have been very open and thoughtful throughout 

The children and families will naturally feel a little unsure at the moment and with less contact please feel welcome to email in, even if you feel it is only little, it means we can keep an eye on things in school and reassure you. 

We have been talking in school regularly and the message we are focusing on as a class (because we are a new class unit and because we've been away from each other for a long time) the main thing is to always be kind! 

Our Topic this term is 'Our Town, Our School'

We will look at a journey through time in Burnham-on-sea. 

                                                         1. Burnham-on-sea Train Station 

                                                         2. The sisters opening St Joseph's School.

                                                         3. Burnham-on-sea and WW1

                                                         4. Frank Foley 

We have begun to think about anything we may already know and I know some of the children have asked you questions at home about Burnham history - this is great and has encouraged the children to be excited and enthusiastic about our topic. We have time lined when these events happened and put this into context thinking about BC and AD and other events in history we will look at over our time in KS2. 

Welcome to our last week of term! 

I have been extremely proud of all your commitment to home learning and that I am still having emails in with work :o) 

This week you have some fun activities to choose from to explore and then some fun maths and English work if you would like to give them ago. 

Make sure you take photos of you doing the activities and send them in 

Remember you have sports day activity ideas too and your transition work for Mrs Orledge. 

Enjoy your last week of Year 3 

A message for all of Year 3. 

I would like to say a massive thank you for the video you created for me! It was fantastic and really made me smile and have a little tear in my eye! I miss you all very much and look forward to seeing you all again soon! It was so lovely to see all your smiley faces. It really was a huge surprise that meant a lot! Thank you 

Thank you to parents, thank you so very much!

I have uploaded the video so you can all see the final product - well done Year 3.

Welcome back to the summer term! 

I hope you have had a lovely Easter and made the most of the lovely weather in your gardens  I know this is not the normal start to the summer term and it will be feeling a little strange but let's give this home learning a good try! 

So from now on there will be English and maths for you each day, an R.E activity each week and then we have created a topic web with ideas that you can do at home all linked to our new topic - Groovy Greeks. You can use the ideas or create your own project linked to the Ancient Greeks. Be as creative as you wish but please be kind to you and your families and do what you can - these are strange times and some days will be easier than others. 

As always I really enjoy seeing your emails with the work you have done so please keep sending them in 

Keep smiling and keep safe! Sending virtual high fives out to you all! 

Miss Course  

Thank you!! 

Thank you very much for all your amazing hard work being sent in. I am really enjoying seeing your work that you are doing at home. I have had pictures of fantastic skeletons, lovely RE posters that share how we should behave during lent, lots of maths work on time and some neat writing using apostrophes!! I've even had an amazing video clip of a new dance using our uptown funk dance moves - very impressed!

Please continue sending in your work for me to see! 

I am putting additional things  on the website for you to try if you would like to but remember lots of breaks and snacks to keep you going! 

Keep up the hard work Year 3, missing all your smiley faces each morning! 

Stay Safe! 

Miss Course 

Photo challenge!!! 

Year 3, it seems like ages since everyone has seen each other! I am challenging you to send in photos of the best thing you have been up to in your homes over the last week and half. I will then display them on our page so you can all see each other! Make the photos as fun as you can but remember I am going to put them on the website so you need to be happy with that :o) 

This can also link to our ICT where we uploaded photos of teeth into our word document. See if you can remember how to do this on a word document and then get mum and dad to send it in. 

Have fun! 

Live wildlife chat with Steve Backshaw at 9.30am

This morning at 9.30am Steve Backshaw is doing a live wildlife chat on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, answering questions on wildlife, conservation, geography and exploration.  Maybe you and your parents would be interested to take a look, you could ask about climate change and the rainforest. Look for #SteveBackshawWildlifeChat  - you must do this with a parent

29.11.19
Here are this weeks spellings: 

Group 1                Group 2 

Monday                 January

Tuesday                February

Wednesday           March

Thursday              April

Friday                   May

Saturday              June

Sunday                 July

                             August

                             September 

                             October 

                             November 

                             December 
 

The children can choose group one or two. If children focus on 5 spellings then please learn the weekdays. 
These are not year 3 spellings but we regularly get them wrong and need to know them especially some of the more challenging months. We will test them on Thursday 5th December. Get practising year 3 :o)

15.11.19

This week our spellings are:

cry                   cry                   cry

cried                cried                cried

try                   try                   try

trying               trying               trying  

tried                tried                tried

happy               happy               happy  

happier            happier            happier

happiest           happiest           happiest                      

                        silly                  silly

                        siliest               silliest

                                                carrying

                                                carried

These will be tested on Friday 22nd November 2019.

24.10.19

Next term our topic is a history topic about: The Saxons. 

I have shared this with the children and said if they would like to research this over the half term they can but again this is not an expectation.

Good links: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxsbcdm

https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/anglo-saxons

We have had a fantastic term learning about the Rainforest and climate change. 

We will be displaying our work on climate change in Burnham - on - sea Library. This will go up Thursday 14th November so will be available to see from Friday 15th November. The children have worked very hard on their non-chronological reports on climate change as well as other activities around this topic.  

Have a wonderful half term and we will see you fresh and ready to start again on Tuesday 5th of November :o) 

24.10.19

Great spellings this week! Well done year 3, we are doing fantastic with our spellings each week and are trying hard to apply them in our writing. 

This weeks spellings are: 

knew                 knew                 knew

blew                 blew                 blew    

threw               threw               threw

knew                 knew                 knew    

know                 know                know

saw                   saw                   saw

went                 went                 went

throw               throw               throw                          

                        caught              caught

                        thought            thought

                                                taught

                                                spoke

These will be tested on Friday 8th November. I have given them to the children now so they can practise but they are not expected to do them over the half term. 

21.10.19

We are learning to write non-chronological reports in year 3. We are writing our reports on climate change which the children are really enthusiastic about. To support the children we have been looking at WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) I thought it might be useful to put the link on here so you can follow this up at home. There are WAGOLLs for all the different genres we look at over the year so a good website to have. Here is the link: https://www.literacywagoll.com 

18.10.19

This weeks spellings:

helps                helps                helps

helped              helped              helped 

helping             helping             helping

help                  help                 help     

drop                drop                  drop

drops                drops               drops

dropped            dropped           dropped

dropping           dropping           dropping                        

                        cries                 cries

                        crying               crying  

                                                increases

                                                increased

I was really impressed with the improvement on spellings this week, almost all children improved on their spelling results from the previous week. Well done year 3.  Lets have a big push this week to have the best results we can for the final week before half term :o)

4.10.19

This weeks spellings:

dear                 dear                 dear

hear                 hear                 hear    

heat                 heat                 heat

heard               heard              heard  

heart               heart               heart

earth                earth                earth

early                early                early

learn                learn                learn       

                        breath              breath

                        breathe            breathe

                                                appear

                                                disappear

If there are any problem or questions about spellings please let me know.

Our topic this term is all about rainforests.

We will be exploring where the rainforests are in the world and the climate and weather we see in the rainforest. We will explore the animals that live in the rainforest and what layer they like the best. We will also look into climate change and how this affects the our world.

Spellings for this week (16.11.18)

Part                                Part                     Part

Party                              Party                   Party

Parties                           Parties                Parties

Partied                           Partied                Partied

Apart                              Apart                  Apart

Partner                          Partner                Partner

Depart                           Depart                 Depart

Departed                       Departed             Departed

                                      Departing            Departing

                                      Particular            Particular

                                                                 Particularly 

Our picture with 'The Poppy of Honour' is on Burnham-on-sea.com. Year 3, we are famous!!! 😃 

Here is the link:

https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/news/photos-mayor-is-among-the-visitors-to-poppy-of-honour-as-it-comes-to-burnham-on-sea/ 

Our current topic: 

World War 1. 

We will be learning about World War 1 , who was involved and the reasons the war began. We began this topic with a walk to 'The Poppy of Honour' at the Royal British Legion shop in Victoria street. The 'Poppy of Honour' came to Burnham for the day and we were very lucky to have the opportunity to visit and learn from this . We will then have an exciting WW1 Wow day on Friday. Both these events will hopefully kick start our topic and get the children engaged and intrigued to learn more about the topic. 

We will be celebrating 100 years since WW1 through many ways - searching and understanding information using the internet, drama, art and writing. We will then create a display at Burnham Library to help visitors to the library learn a little more information about such an important event in our history. 

Our current Topic 

'Stone age to Bronze age.'

The children have been exploring 'The Stone age leading into the Bronze age' through lots of different activities. They have really enjoyed art where they have made stone age houses and explored cave paintings. We have learnt lots of new information such as what prehistoric means and how we know about the time periods where we have no recordings. We have learnt about using clues we have about the time periods and how we think the Stone age people lived and how this is very different to our lives now. 

Homework

In year 3,

• Homework is handed out on a Friday and expected back the following Wednesday.
• Spellings are given out on a Friday and are tested the following Friday.
• Children are expected to read at least 3 times per week at home. Evidence of this should be recorded in their blue reading records with the date, the name of the book, who they read with (or independent reading) and any words that your child found difficult to read. The children will have reading time in school as well so we ask that the children label home or school when recording reading.
• If you have any problems with the homework please come and speak to me in the mornings or afterschool. You can always email if more convenient.

Helpful Links 

Here are some helpful websites for learning times tables at home.

https://ttrockstars.com/login  

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/times-tables/coconut-multiples

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma13tabl-game-tables-grid-find

Important Dates: 

Retreat Day - Friday 18th May 2018

Remember tomorrow is our retreat day to Weston-Super-Mare. You need to wear school uniform but can wear trainers. Please bring school shoes and bucket and spades if you have them at home. It's going to be lovely weather so remember sun cream and hats. See you tomorrow.

Groovy Greeks

Ancient Greeks... We are learning about Greek Myths, we have read lots of Myths and learnt about the features of these. Creating our own mythical creature was a highlight of this project and we had lots of fun discussing what our creatures will look like and the powers it has. We also thought about our Hero or Heroine of the story. 

The children used some fantastic descriptive language to describe the battles their heroes and mythical creatures had, we have some amazing imaginations. I hope you enjoy reading some of them. 

We are now learning about Poems. We have explored the features of poems and the skills we include in them such as similes, alliteration, noun phrases and more. We are learning this so we can write our own poems to enter into a whole school competition. We will pick the best in the class and they will go forward to compete with the other Catholic schools in the area. We are basing ours on the poem 'In the magic box.' We will adapt the poem to make it our own about 'God's Wonderful world.' I am sure with the talent in our class we will go through to be strong competitors in the competition. 

We have learnt about the Gods and Goddesses and the stories behind them. We also learnt about Greece, where this is on a map and the capital city Athens. The children began to compare Athens as the capital city and Sparta and thought about where we would prefer to go. We used I pads and laptops to research using search engines and Siri. We have designed and created Greek pots - they are amazing!! The children spent a long time making them just like the pots they researched. The children loved this and put so much effort into making them. 

Dancing is something the children really enjoy doing and we have had the amazing opportunity of a dance teacher coming in and teaching us a dance based on 'Theseus and the Minotaur' and then 'Medusa.' The children performed these dances using their memories and showed great rhythm and concentration. I had the pleasure of observing the children learn and perform the dances and seeing them in a different context was a great experience. Your children are very talented :o) 

In maths we have been learning about fractions. The children started this learning journey with a slightly negative vibe however, we now really enjoy fractions and the children are going from strength to strength. We have learnt about the denominator and numerator and the meanings of these. We have learnt about unit fractions and how we can add and subtract fractions with the same denominators. We have learnt to compare and order fractions and are getting there with equivalent fractions. The children have enjoyed problem solving and reasoning with fractions using skittles and following recipes using fractions.

We have started TT Rockstars and the children are doing so well with this, every child in the class have improved on their speed to answer the questions and their enthusiasm has been fantastic. 

In R.E we have been learning about Pentecost through the story of Philip and the Ethiopian. The children have learnt the story and made links between the story and how Christians behave. The children have learnt the fruits of the spirits and again made links between them and bible stories as well as how we behave in school and at home. We thought about questions we would ask Philip and the Ethiopian.