Author: Mr Wilks

23 September 2011

The homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 28 September.

I know how to stay safe around electricity.

As we have been learning about electricty for the previous two weeks, I thought it would be a good idea for the children to creatively show what they have learnt about staying safe.

Here are some ideas that we came up with as a class when we talked about the homework:

  • A poster highlighting the dangers of electricity.
  • A series of pictures or photographs showing potential hazards.
  • Instructions about how to use electrical items safely.
  • A song or poem about electricity.
  • A letter advising someone how to use electricity safely.

I will eagerly look forward to seeing your creations on Wednesday.


Welcome to Year 3!

Hello and welcome to the Year 3 Class News!

It’s been an excellent start to the year and I’ve been really impressed by the children’s fantastic attitude to their learning. In the Class News this year you’ll find all sorts of information about what we’ve been doing in school.

Below are some information about routines in Year 3.

PE

PE is on Mondays and Fridays. Please make sure that children have suitable outdoor and indoor PE kits.

Reading

Reading this year is a little different to Year 2. The children will read with me once a week in small groups. At the end of this session, the children will be given a target page to get to by the next time they read with me. As the group are all reading the same book it’s really important that they don’t read past the target page! If the children have reached their target page they can read a different book from home or I can arrange for them to take home an additional book from school.  During the week other adults will usually read with the children too. However, it’s really important that the children read at home with an adult as well.

Homework

The routine for homework is the same as in Year 2. It will be given out most Fridays and is expected in the following Wednesday. Children are expected to spend between 30 minutes – 1 hour on their homework. It should only cover one page of their homework book.

Tables and spellings

Tables and spellings are given out on Fridays and will be tested the following Friday. The yellow Learning Lists book has the spellings and tables listed in them. Children can practise for the tests in these books at home. They should be brought back into school each day so the children can practise in school and so that the new lists can be put in on Fridays.

Thanks very much for taking the time to read through the first post of the year. They won’t usually be as long as this one! If you have any questions at all or just want to say hello, please come and find me. If you can’t see me on the playground I’ll probably be in the classroom – just ask at the office for someone to show you where I am!

16 September 2011

For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be investigating the effect of adding ‘ing’ to verbs (actions or ‘doing words’). This week the spellings are all words which you just have to add ‘ing’ to the root word.

The children will be tested on eight out of the ten words. They’ll be tested on Friday 23 September.

1.

help

helping

2.

ask

asking

3.

pull

pulling

4.

jump

jumping

5.

walk

walking

6.

look

looking

7.

start

starting

8.

enjoy

enjoying

9.

conduct

conducting

10.

experiment

experimenting


Goodbye, Year 3

Wow. That went quickly!

I can’t believe where the time has gone. It has been an absolutely brilliant year. The children have shown such an enthusiastic and mature attitude to their learning this year. They are a fun and caring bunch who always want to do their best. I couldn’t have asked for a better class in my first year at Moortown.

The children have all made good progress this year, but I’d like to single out a few people who have made exceptional progress. Jaspreet, Archie and Loraine stand out for the progress that they’ve made in writing. Amit and Sami have made brilliant progress in reading and Bevan and Harry Boulton have both made super progress in maths.

Every week I looked forward to marking the homework books. There are a few children who deserve a special mention for their brilliant and creative efforts this year: Jake, Harry B, Tom, Sara and Koujiro. Well done.

There have been countless highlights this year so I’ll just mention a few:

  • The improvement in Neyah’s writing has been great and it has been fantastic to watch her grow in confidence.
  • The visit to the National Railway Museum was a great trip and all the children really enjoyed it. None more so than Zaki, who revelled in giving me my own personal guided tour!
  • The street dance performances that some of the class were involved in were really impressive. Much respect goes to Sami, who was the only boy in the group.
  • We made alien hand puppets in DT during our space topic and it was great to see most of the children enjoying it although there were one or two who got into a bit of a mess – you know who you are!
  • Harry Boulton and Zaki Qurayshi were great androids in the production – Harry’s android walk was a highlight!
  • We’ve had some really interesting show and tell items this year. My favourite was when Yasmin brought in the shed skin of her brother’s snake!
  • The blissful silence in the space dome!
  • Holly nearly taking my head off with a fierce rounders shot!

Have a fantastic summer and a great year with Mr Redfearn in Year 4.

08 July 2011

The spellings this week are all words that have an ‘ed’ ending. Nouns and verbs practise numbers 1-8. Adjectives and adverbs practise numbers 1-10.

  1. asked
  2. looked
  3. showed
  4. stopped
  5. dragged
  6. explored
  7. touched
  8. travelled
  9. bewildered
  10. abandoned

The spellings will be tested on Friday 15 July.

01 July 2011

The spellings this week are a mixture of ‘ing’ words.

  • Some follow the ‘double up for a short vowel’ sound rule.
  • Some follow the drop the ‘e’ for ‘ing’ rule.
  • Some just need ‘ing’ adding to the word.

The spellings will be tested on Friday 08 July.

1. trail                         trailing

2. crave                      craving

3. love                        loving

4. drop                       dropping

5. admit                     admitting

6. brave                     braving

8. complete              completing


9. decide                   deciding

10. convince              convincing



01 July 2011

The home work this week is Practice Makes Perfect and is due in on Wednesday 06 July.

I can write a poem.

Children can choose to write either a kenning poem, cinquain poem, or adverb poem about a subject of their choice.

We have been writing these types of poems this week in our literacy lessons this week.

Examples of each type of poem are listed below:

Kenning

Kenning poems describe something without giving their name away:

A buzzing beast

A stinging stinger

A buzzing insect

A bug eyed beast

A flappy winged

A colourful monster

A crawling feeder

A flower raider


Adverb

Sadly, the black line slowly winds

Sadly, the cold wind splits the pines

Sadly, the grave site dark and cold

Sadly, the truth – we all grow old.



Cinquain

A cinquain is a five line poem that has a specific number of syllables on each line. The first line has two syllables. The second has four. The third has six. The fourth has eight. The fifth has two.

Friendship
Understanding
Talking, caring, sharing
Taking and giving all at once
Best pals

24 June 2011

The spellings this week are all words which require a letter to be doubled up because of a short vowel sound just before.

For example: hopping. The short ‘o’ (different to the ‘o’ in ‘hope’) sound means that the ‘p’ must be doubled up. (If it was a long ‘o’ sound the word would be hoping and wouldn’t need a double ‘p’.)

Nouns and verbs should practise numbers 1-8. Adjectives and adverbs should practise 1-10.

  1. follow
  2. happy
  3. banning
  4. swimming
  5. batter
  6. spinner
  7. trigger
  8. different
  9. accommodation

Spellings will be tested on Friday 29 June. Practise hard!


24 June 2011

The homework this week is Practice Makes Perfect and is due in on Wednesday 29 June.

I know other words for said.

We are just about to start writing stories in literacy and will be writing speech between characters. Therefore, your child has been tasked with finding as many different words for ‘said’ as possible, for example, shouted, whispered, replied etc. They can use dictionaries, thesauruses, the internet or other sources to find the different words. How they choose to present the information is completely up to your child.

The person who can find the most words will win a prize!