Term 1 

The Otters have had a fantastic start to Year 3.

In Maths, they have been learning all about place value and addition and have even begun to make exchanges with 3-digit numbers!

They have loved learning about Roald Dahl and as a class they have read The BFG, The Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox. They even had a virtual visit to the Roald Dahl museum and took part in an online writing workshop to create their own curious characters.

In History, they have learnt all about the Stone Age and prehistory. They’ve had an opportunity to look at many different artefacts such as the Amesbury Archer and Skara Brae as well as looking into their lifestyles. They are relieved to have supermarkets instead of having to hunt for their meals!

We also celebrated Black History Month. The theme this year was ‘Saluting our Sisters’ so as a class we learnt about different influential Black women and chose which one inspired us most and created a poster about them. We also created work in the vibrant style of artist Alma Thomas. We were also lucky enough to have a virtual zoom with the author of ‘Brilliant Black British History’ who discussed Britain’s history with us and afterwards we learnt about the Empire Windrush and the Windrush generation.

As a school we celebrated St Teresa’s Day, attended mass and learnt all about the Saint of our school and the symbolism of the mosaic dedicated to her in our school entrance.

I would also like to congratulate the Otters on their reading. We have been so impressed with the amount they have been reading. We have had many children entering the weekly raffle and ‘rocketing’ up towards their targets!

Well done Otters. Keep up the amazing work!

Term 2

The Otters have had a fantastic term of learning!

They’ve been learning their 3, 4- and 8-times tables and competing against Year 4 in the battle of the bands.

In English, they have written amazing informative leaflets for the Eco Warriors, including some top tips on how to look after our school. They have also written their own versions of ‘Leon and the place between’ creating some fantastic and imaginative stories.

In Geography, they have learnt all about settlements and looked at all the physical and human features of Ashford comparing present day to the past. They also looked at New Delhi and made comparisons between New Delhi and Ashford.

The children have absolutely loved learning the Ukulele this term. They have learnt ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ and impressed both myself and the teacher with how quickly they have all grasped the notes.

We have looked at how Mary was chosen, the birth of Jesus, the Shepherds and the Three Wise Men.  The children then made beautiful nativity scene pop up cards to reflect the true meaning of Christmas.

They have also learnt all about different types of rocks by conducting different experiments to test their properties.

We hope children and families enjoy a restful and merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you for your continued support,

Year 3 team.

Term 3

This term, the Otters have learnt about the Romans, their invasions, Boudicca and the Roman army and why they were so successful. They also made shields and carried out their own Roman army formations. 

In Geography, they have been learning about natural disasters. They have looked at how both mountains and volcanoes are made and located them in an atlas. They noticed that they are mostly found at tectonic plate boundaries. 

Our class text was 'Cloud Tea Monkeys' and we learnt so much about different tea types (we even did some tea tasting!). We then researched where tea was made, how Fairtrade supports farmers and their communities around the world and used this information to create our own fascinating reports. After this, we looked at the myth of 'Romulus and Remus' and we created our very own ending. 

Our science topic this term was 'Rocks' so we looked at different types of rocks, fossils and how they are made. We also created our very own fossils using bread and jelly babies! Then we looked at different soil types and conducted an experiment about which soil types are the most absorbent. 

We also enjoyed story telling week creating and telling our very own versions of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. 

Term 4

The Otters have been very busy again this term!

We have celebrated Word Book Day and all of the children took part in a vocabulary parade where they dressed up as a different word. We looked at the book ‘The Word Collector’ and spent the whole day completing work around this. We collected vocabulary by walking around the school to find things we could see and hear and found words in our favourite books. We then used all of this to create our very own version of ‘The Word Collector’ and turned into a comic book with our very own illustrations!

We also celebrated Science Day, where we took part in an experiment alongside hundreds of other children in KCSP. Our experiment was to compare how long different biscuits took to disintegrate in water. We would recommend (based on our findings) a Rich Tea Finger!

In English, we looked at Pompeii and wrote newspaper articles to inform others of what happened. We then took the skills we learned to create our very own reports on the Texas Wildfires.  

In Maths we have learnt about fractions, identifying fractions and transferring them onto scales. We then used this knowledge in Mass and Capacity and learnt how to identify what a scale is going up in.

In RE this term our topic was ‘Celebrating the Mass’ and we learnt about all the different parts of mass and their significance – linking the events of the Last Supper to the Offertory and Consecration. We even looked at our Parish Church and discussed the different parts of the church and what they represent.  

We have continued to be Ukulele superstars and have learnt ‘Shivers’ by Ed Sheeran and ‘Shot gun’ by George Ezra and the children continue to WOW me each week with their incredible playing.

We have continued to learn about the Romans and Natural disasters and the children were intrigued to learn about the impact the Romans had on us and the inventions that have shaped us today! Can the children teach you any of their new knowledge?