Welcome to Maple Class

Things to remember

We have PE on a Tuesday and a Friday - PE kits must be worn on both days!

Our library time is on a Thursday - library books will be issued from the 13th September and need to be brought in every week for changing or renewing.  In year 3 children will also be given an accelerated reading book - these must be brought in to school EVERY day as the children will be reading these books daily at school.  They will be bringing a reading record home as well - please date and sign each time your child reads to you.

New spellings are learnt every week - they will be provided on a Monday and children can practice every day, ready for a spelling test on Friday.  Please try and practice these spellings with your child.

Accelerated Reader Picnic

We have set a class target of reading 850,000 words on Accelerated Reader to earn a reward picnic for the whole class!

Make sure you keep reading with your child so they can move on to new books after successfully completing a quiz.

Work of the Week

Week ending 14th September:

Lewis - well done for your recount of our trip to Africa Alive! You wrote in paragraphs and included some scientific language!

Week ending 21st September:

Madalena  - well done for your flow chart on fossils - in your own words you described the six stages of fossil formation!

Week ending 28th September:

Beatrix - Well done for working really hard on column addition - adding 2 x four digit numbers together with regrouping ones, tens and hundreds - 2 pages of very neat, correct work!

Week ending 5th October:

William - Well done for your literacy work this week - you used a thesaurus to find synonyms for important which you shared with the class as well as using in your work!

Week ending 12th October:

Lauren - Well done for your spellings this week - you have practised and practised and achieved full marks in your test!

Week ending 2nd November:

Sahaj - Well done for writing an amazing character profile of Goddess Aphrodite!  Lots of descriptive language and all in joined handwriting!

Week ending 9th November:

Rio - Well done for writing a  letter home from the trenches in WW1 - it was very powerful and descriptive!

Week ending 16th November:

Viktorija - Well done for writing instructions on how to build a decoy vehicle - your writing has really improved and is now consistently joined. 

Week ending 23th November:

Zainab - Well done for writing a very detailed letter to King Aegeus.  You presented the letter very neatly, using clear paragraphs and lots of topic related vocabulary!

Week ending 14th December:

Jaden: Well done on working really hard on joining your handwriting - it has improved so much since September - keep up the good work!

Week ending 11th January:

Ethan: Well done on working independently, using your sounds to write excellent explanation sentences!

Week ending 18th January:

Zainab: Well done on using amazing vocabulary in your Literacy work this week - it is making your story very exciting!

Week ending 1st February:

Lilly: Well done for your science write up on How strong is a magnet?  Your presentation is very neat and you have used lots of scientific language!

Week ending 15th February:

Kasia: Well done for your Literacy work this week - lovely presentation and your joined handwriting is improving every day!

Week ending 22nd February:

Rio: Well done for your description of The Chocolate Room - you used lots of interesting adjectives to describe how amazing it was!

Week ending 8th March:

Viktorija: Well done for an amazing pencil and charcoal sketch of a piece of fruit!  You even included shading to show the shadow!

Star Readers

Children in Maple Class have started reading accelerated reading books and are doing extremely well!  At the end of each week there is a word count to show how many words the children have read in that week. At the end of our first week our star readers are:

Madalena and Zainab

Week 2: Madalena and Jaxon

Week 3: Jaxon, Zainab and George

Week 4: Jaxon, Madalena and George

Autumn 2:

Week 1: William and Jaxon

Week 2: Zainab and Madalena

Week 3: Junior, William and Jaxon

Week 4: Jaxon and Madalena

Week 5: Madalena and Zainab

Week 6: Jaxon, Madalena and Jaden

Well done to everybody in Maple Class - you have read an amazing 190,545 words in the first term! Keep it up!

Spring Term 2

Week 1:  Jaden, Madalena, Lillie-Rose

Week 2: Madalena, Zainab, Jaxon

Week 3: Zainab, George, William

Week 4: Joshua, Zainab, Madalena

Summer Term 1

This half term we have been looking at the earth beneath our feet in the 'Tremors' topic.

We have been looking at the effects of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis as well as finding out what causes them.

We have looked at what happened in Ancient Rome when Mount Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and have written a fictional recount describing events.

Spring Term 2

We are working on two topics for this half term.

One is Scrumdiddlyumptious! We will tuck in and enjoy a yummy journey of discovery, tasting fantastic fruits and tantalising treats! We will be visiting a local supermarket to see where food comes from.  We'll bring back samples of fruits and vegetables so we can investigate them using our senses.  We'll try different types of bread and even make our own!  In art and design, we'll look closely at fruit and vegetables and sketch what we can see. Our science work will focus on food groups and how food can be altered - will we be able to make bouncing eggs, edible slime and invisible ink?  In Literacy, we will write descriptive passages from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, write instructions for making our own smoothies and create adverts persuading people to buy them!

Our other topic is Tribal Tales where we will travel back to Prehistoric times! We'll learn about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age - what their lives were like and what epic battles did they fight! We will make stone age tools and create our own cave paintings.  In science we will plant grains and learn about plant life cycles. During an exploratory dig we will find all sorts of objects and creatures - what will we discover?  Our trip is to the Time and Tide Museum where we will take part in some exciting Stone Age workshops.  Our Literacy will involve writing a recount, descriptive writing and creating a fact file. 

Our Maths work for this half term will focus on fractions and time. 

Spring Term 1

Our topic for this half term is Mighty Metals where we will explore the scientific world of forces and magnetism, metals and materials.  At a playground, we will explore the forces that help us slide down a slide and swing on a swing.  We will investigate how our toys from home work and look closely at levers and how they lift heavy objects.

In Literacy we will write an adventure story based on The Iron Man, write some instructions for a magnetic game, create a list poem and write an explanation for one of the forces we have encountered.

In Maths we will be working on money, mass, length and volume and investigating bar graphs.

In R.E. we are looking at Christianity, discussing the 40 days of Lent and understanding the importance of Lent to Christians.

Autumn Term 1

Topic

Our first topic in Year 3 is Predator!  In this topic we compare what different animals eat and investigate food chains, thinking about how they always start with a producer and end with an apex predator.  We look at special features of predators and prey and move on to naming parts of a skeleton.  We also investigate foods and how humans get nutrition from their food.

To start our topic off we visited Africa Alive and discovered lots of different predators - from a tiny scorpion to a powerful lion. We watched the bird of prey display and were amazed at the speed of the falcon! 

Science

We carried out an investigation to find out how water moves in a plant - keep checking in to see our results!

Mathematics

In Mathematics we will be counting numbers up to 10000 by using equipment and strategies of ones, tens, hundreds and thousands, reading numbers up to 10000 and writing in numbers and words.  We will be looking at place value and know that the digits of a number have their own values.  

We will be comparing numbers up to 10000 and will be able to arrange in a descending and ascending order.  We will also be able to say which is the greater number and which is the smaller number.

We do also practice our times tables in class, but it would help your child if on the way to and from school, or as you are on a journey or shopping etc, you could encourage them to practice the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.  This will help them when we move on to the 6,7, 8 and 9 times tables later in the year.

Literacy

In Literacy we will be writing a recount - learning how to write in paragraphs and using powerful verbs and time conjunctions.  We will look at how to write an information leaflet and what key features are needed to do this.  We will also be looking at Haiku poems and how to write one.

Autumn Term 2

Our topic for this half term is Gods and Mortals  where we will discover a fantastical world of mythical creatures and heroes! We will explore the land of Ancient and modern day Greece using maps and looking at geographical features.  We will learn about the Gods who reigned from Mount Olympus and what daily life was like for the ancient Greeks.

In Literacy, we will learn how to write a character profile of our favourite God or Goddess, write instructions for a soldier inside the Trojan horse, write a letter to the King of Athens explaining why they shouldn't be fed to the Minotaur and create a character description for their new God or Goddess.

We will also be having a History week from November 5th to November 9th where we, with the whole school, will be looking at WW1 and why this year is particularly important.  As a class, we will be looking at what life was like in the trenches and imagining what it would be like to be a soldier and living in those conditions.  Our literacy activity will be to write a letter to our loved ones at home from the trenches.  We will also be doing art activities based around the poppy. 

In Mathematics, we will learn the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables, multiplication including regrouping and division.