Author: Miss Birch

Virtual author event with Tom Vaughan – Hercules!

This afternoon, Year 3 attended their first virtual author event with Tom Vaughan who is releasing his second book in his series of Hercules: Hercules – A Hero’s Journey (On A School Trip). 

These books are all based on Greek Myths and Greek gods which is linked to our Topic learning this half term! He told us a little bit about the new book and then read us an extract which was full of toilet humour!

At the end of the event, Tom did a quiz where we had to guess the Greek god and their name. Lots of us got Zeus, Athena, Ares and Poseidon. The book is full of the same illustrations.

Help at home: Visit Scholastic to see what other author and illustrator events there are coming up!

https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/scholastic-schools-live?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Scholastic%20Schools%20Live%20Events%20Newsletter%20%20UK%20Teachers%20130924%20Scholastic%20Live&utm_content=Scholastic%20Schools%20Live%20Events%20Newsletter%20%20UK%20Teachers%20130924%20Scholastic%20Live+CID_31bb9543f23a6c7e534cb37e0fa643e0&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Browse%20all%20upcoming%20events

Living and Learning – I follow the school rules.

The first week back to school brings lots of new routines and ways of doing things but there are something that haven’t changed!

Our three school rules:

1. We’re respectful. 
2. We’re ready.
3. We’re safe. 

We reminded ourselves of these rules in Year 3 and what these rules might look like across school. Here’s what we came up with:

How can we be respectful?

  • We can listen to each other.
  • We treat each other fairly.
  • We look after the school and its belongings.
  • We use kind words.

How can we show that we’re ready?

  • We can have eyes on the speaker.
  • We can have empty hands.
  • We can have silent voices when someone is speaking.

How can we be safe in school?

  • We can walk inside and outside when moving from one place to another.
  • We can have kind hands and feet by keeping them to ourselves.
  • We can stay where an adult can see us.

These three school rules are really important for everyone in school, not just the children. They make school a happy and healthy place to be.

Help at home: How can be safe at home or while out somewhere? Discuss what you could do to stay safe and what can be done if you ever feel unsafe!

Reading Records

Reading Records

This week, Year 3 will be sent home with their new and exciting reading records! These records are to help me (Miss Birch) keep track of the children’s reading progress. 

The new reading records key info:

  • Each time one of the children signs out a new book to read from the library, they can make note of these in the book and rate them out of 5 stars.
  • I’ll choose an activity for the whole class to complete on their chosen book each Friday. More information on these activities are inside the record.
  • The children will need to bring in these reading records every Friday for our Book Club lesson where we’ll discuss their books and develop their love of reading.
  • The children’s grown-ups will also need to write a short comment sharing with us the lovely reading their child has been doing at home.
  • It gives the children ownership and responsibility of their reading!

I hope this is all clear and I’m really looking forward to seeing their progress.

Any questions, please ask!

Y3/4 Spelling list for half term 1

In Key Stage 2, instead of asking you to learn a short list of spellings each week, you will be given a longer list (roughly 40 words) that we will focus on in that half-term. Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to learn them all in one week. Instead, we’ll ask you to focus on learning these words over the course of the entire half-term. There’s a few reasons for this:

  1. We want you take responsibility for your own learning and start to figure out how you learn best (there’s some ideas below). Even if that means making some mistakes along the way.
  2. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long-term.
  3. Similarly, lots of research suggests that if you learn something for a week and don’t come back to it you’ll likely forget it anyway
  4. We won’t have a ‘formal’ test each week. Instead, we’ll mix it up. We might ask you to test each other on the words you’ve been learning. We might test the words at random and then you’ll know which words you need to practise more and which words you’re confident with. We might just think about some of the words and share ideas for how we’re going about learning them.
  5. Ultimately, we want this to be about learning – and not just getting them right in a test.

How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all. However you decide to do it is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.

Every Friday, we’ll spend time practising or testing (informally) or discussing all things spelling so be ready (one of our 8 Rs for learning) to join in!

If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.

Half-term 1

This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:

  • alternative ways for writing the ‘ay’ sound
  • alternative ways for writing the ‘ee’ sound
  • ‘double up for a short vowel sound’
  • ‘drop the e for ing’
  • ‘drop the y for an i’
  • adding the suffixes ed, ing
  • homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)

Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.

famous believe accident breathe answer
library passion notice were possess
century address favourite appear here
their weight complete ordinary wear
straight they’re surprise busy increase
session possible there hear where
suppose mission eighth extreme occasion
fraction different attention learn possession

 

Year 3 PE and swimming

Hello!

Year 3 are swimming on Wednesdays this year. This will begin in the second week back on the 11th of September.

For swimming, your child will need to come to school in their PE kit and with these things ready in a bag:

  • a swimming outfit
  • a towel
  • a healthy snack for afterwards e.g. some fruit or veg
  • goggles if needed!

Our other day for PE will be Thursdays. Please could your child come to school wearing their PE kit on this day too! If you’re not sure on the PE kit, please let me know and I can give you the school’s uniform policy.

Thank you!

Miss Birch

Looking forward to this year!

Hello Year 3!

As you know, I’m Miss Birch and I’m going to be your teacher for the next year! I’m really looking forward to working with all of you. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer holiday and are raring to come back. I just know that we’re going to be a fabulous team – bring it on!

Safety Week!

This week is a themed week all about staying safe in lots of different areas of life. We’ve had learning based around safety at home and visitors in talking about safety around water, online, animals and on the road.

Have a look at what we’ve been up to in Year 3:

Water Safety

Rivers and Canals Trust and RNLI spoke to us about safety around different types of water. We must if we or someone else is in trouble:

  • Call for help
  • Do not climb in the water
  • Stay calm
  • Float like a starfish


Offline and Online Safety

The police discussed hate crime – any crime committed against someone because of race, gender, relationships, disability and/or religion. This includes the words we use!  We must treat others how we wish to be treated.

This is the same while we’re online too. Our digital footprints are something we need to think about as these could affect us years later. Not everything that we see online is or true fact so we must be critical users and tell a trusted adult if you’re unsure or you feel unsafe!

Safety at Home

Home should be a safe and comfortable place to be but there are things that can be risky or unsafe. We identified things that could be unsafe and how we can make good choices around them! For example:

The kitchen has things that can be hot (ovens, kettles) or sharp (knives) but when we’re with a trusted adult, they can help us stay safe when we’re helping cook.

We then had visitors in to talk to us about different bacteria (the good and the bad). We saw how bacteria transfers from one thing to another and how to wash our hands thoroughly. Help at home: Sing happy birthday twice while washing your hands!

First Aid

First aid training is super important for the children as they can use this process if something were to happen to someone they are with.
1. Check if they are awake.

2. Call for help!

3. Check if they’re breathing.

4. Call 999.

5. Do CPR – 30 chest press and 2 breaths.

Road Safety

Road safety is essential whether you are walking, cycling or in a moving vehicle! There are many things we can do to keep us and others around us safe.

  • Wear a helmet when cycling or scootering.
  • Wear a seatbelt if there is one available.
  • Stay seated if on the bus.
  • Don’t distract someone who is driving.

Travelling somewhere by being active is a great option. Not only is it better for us, mentally and physically but it’s better for the environment too!

We also had a go at checking speed limits which was harder than it seems. We had to read the speedometer, remember the number plates and note it all down as well.

Animal Safety

Dogs Trust spoke to the children about how to approach and treat dogs because not all dogs can be friendly. They have emotions and feelings like us but they can’t express them like we can. If a dog approaches us we should:

1. Keep our arms crossed.

2. Don’t make eye contact with it.

3. Let it sniff you to get to know you.

4. Ask the owner if you can stroke or touch the dog.

Following these instructions will keep you and the dog safe!

Reading – performance poetry!

Year 3 have been reading a poem recently called ‘Sky In The Pie’ by Roger McGough.

Waiter! There’s a sky in my pie,
Remove at once if you please,
You can keep your incredible sunsets
I ordered mincemeat and cheese.

I can’t stand nightingales singing
Or clouds all burnished with gold,
The whispering breeze is disturbing the peas
And making my chips go all cold.

I don’t care if the chef is an artist
Whose canvases hang in the Tate,
I want two veg and puff pastry
Not the universe heaped on my plate.

Ok I’ll try just a spoonful
I suppose I’ve got nothing to loose…
Mmm the colours quite tickle the pallet
With a blend of delicate hues.

The sun has a custardy flavour
And the clouds are as light as air,
The wind with a chewier texture,
With a hint of cinnamon there?

This sky is simply delicious
Why have I not tried it before?
I can chew my way through to eternity
And still have room left for more.

Having acquired a taste for the cosmos
I shall polish this sunset off soon,
I can’t wait to tuck into the night sky,
Waiter please bring me the moon.

We picked out the tricky vocabulary and discussed the meanings…

  • delicate hues – soft colours
  • Tate – art gallery in London
  • heaped – piled on
  • cosmos – the universe or outer space

We completed a RIC based on the poem too…

Retrieval: answer is in text

Interpret: use clues and knowledge to find the answer

Choice: author’s choice of vocabulary

Finally, we spent some time preparing and performing the poem! What makes a good performance?

  • using expression
  • adding actions
  • intonation & pace
  • eye contact and body language

Some of us even memorised the poem! Here’s just a couple of performances.

Help at home by performing this different poem by Roger McGough:

Sound collector poem

 

Design and Technology: sewing!

This week, we’re sewing together our two pieces of fabric to create our pouch.

One piece is longer than the other so that there is a closing flap for a button or piece of velcro.

We’ve been very resilient and great team players. Lots of us having been helping our friends to tie the knots in their thread and thread their needles.

Here’s some of our work in progress!