Year 3

Year 3 News 2024-2025

Y3 News - Autumn 2

We have had a very busy time in Year 3 over the last half-term and I have loved seeing all of the children engage so enthusiastically in their learning!

In English, the Year 3s began the half term by writing non-chronological reports about dragons. The children created pieces of writing that were a blend of fiction/non-fiction. They used their imaginations to describe these mythical creatures in detail, whilst applying their knowledge of generalisers, adverbs and interesting vocabulary to capture the reader's attention. Next, the children took on the challenge of writing their own wishing stories, based on the Talk 4 Writing text “The King of the Fishes.” This allowed us to have lots of writing opportunities around speech punctuation.

In maths, the children continued to strengthen their understanding of addition and subtraction, whilst consolidating their understanding of place value with numbers up to 1000. The Year 3s explored how to add and subtract across the hundred’s boundary, while applying their understanding to reasoning questions.

In history, we also wrapped up our Stone Age unit. Over the half term, we explored hilltop forts, compared the Stone Age to the Buckingham area and researched inventions of the Iron Age. The children asked great questions as we investigated the mystery of why Stonehenge was built, using their research skills to draw conclusions. The highlight of the half term was definitely our class trip, where we had the opportunity to make fires, create Stone Age drawings and act as archaeologists for the day. 

In Design and Technology, the children created toys that use pneumatic systems. They worked so hard to understand how air pressure can be used to make moving parts and I have been so impressed with their creativity and teamwork!

Lastly, in science, our exploration of rocks and fossils continues into the Spring Term. The children have been learning about the different types of rocks, how they form and how to identify them. This has been a very practical unit, and the children have enjoyed investigating different rocks first-hand! I look forward to seeing where our learning takes us!

It’s been an exciting and productive term and I look forward to seeing what the next half-term brings.

Y3 News - Autumn 1

This half-term has absolutely flown by and I have loved getting to know all of the children.

Inspired by our Talk for Writing text ‘Fowler’s Yard’, we wrote our very own ‘Defeat against the Monster’ tales and as you can imagine, the children's imaginations went wild when creating their own monster! The children used incredible descriptive language, powerful verbs and expanded noun phrases to add detail to their writing. I really enjoyed reading all of their final stories! 

In maths, the children have been developing their knowledge of partitioning, exploring numbers up to 1000 and finding 1, 10 and 100 more or less than a number. Afterwards, we explored adding and subtracting 1, 10 and 100 across the 10s boundary. Our addition and subtraction unit will continue after half term.

During our history lessons, we've been unravelling the mysteries of the first humans within the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. We investigated what life in these different periods was like, as well as using our research skills to investigate why Stonehenge may have built. 

In science, the children learnt the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates and used Venn diagrams to sort them. We also explored the different food groups and investigated what a healthy diet looks like.

In music, the children explored different note lengths and had great fun creating their own musical interpretation of a Viking raid. 

Enjoy the break!

28.03.24

We have had a wonderful half term together and I cannot believe we are already at the end of it! We are so proud of everything the children have achieved this term.

In English, we have been exploring persuasive letters and greatly enjoyed learning our model text “The benefits of a pet walrus!” We then developed our understanding further by looking at the key features, such as modal verbs, rhetorical questions and emotive language. Following that, we wrote our own persuasive letters to Mrs Jones, attempting to persuade her for our very own class pet. We then developed our writing using fronted adverbials, conjunctions and paragraphs to write our own persuasive letters. The children have done incredible jobs and have produced exciting pieces of writing!

We have also thoroughly enjoyed our class text ‘Anisha, accidental detective.’ Through this text, we have been predicting, inferring and retrieving key information and have greatly enjoyed the comic writing style of the author. 

In Maths, we started off the term by exploring length and measure, focusing on the different units and moving on to looking at perimeter. Over the unit, the children worked hard at converting, comparing, adding and subtracting lengths, whilst also applying their understanding to different reasoning problems. More recently, we have been exploring fractions and have enjoyed identifying and ordering them. 

Over the past term, our budding scientists have been diving into the captivating world of forces and magnets. We have learnt about different types of forces and how they affect the world around us. We explored concepts such as pushes, pulls, gravity and friction. We then studied the properties of magnets, as well as conducting our own investigations looking at magnetic materials and how magnets are used in our everyday lives.

In Geography, we have explored where our food comes, firstly looking at foods that are produced in the UK and then those that are produced around the world. We then went across Europe, to look at the warmer climates of Italy and why certain foods grew there. We also had a very fun lesson tasting some of the Italian foods too! In addition to exploring global trade, we have looked at what fair trade means and investigated the advantages and disadvantages of buying locally and importing foods.

The children have blown me away with their sewing talent during our DT unit. Over the unit, they strengthen their cross stitch and applique stitches, leading them on to design and produced incredible final pieces. We definitely have some future designers in the class!

Wishing you all a restful and enjoyable break. 

09.02.24

Year 3 have had a fantastic half-term and we are so proud of the children for all their hard work. Inspired by our Talk for Writing text 'Elf Road', we wrote our very own Warning Tales and as you can imagine, the children's imaginations went wild! The children used incredible descriptive language, powerful verbs and noun phrases to add detail to their writing and this made their stories so interesting to read. In maths, we have been working hard on applying our knowledge of times tables to answer multiplication and division questions. We have now moved onto looking at comparing units of length and have been busy measuring different objects and problem solving. 

In science, we have been exploring Light and have conducted our own investigations on how light travels through different materials and have begun to investigate shadows. The children have shown their scientific understanding through their questioning and have been very keen to share their knowledge! In geography, we have investigated the human and physical features of Europe and have greatly enjoyed using maps to explore further. Our map skills have been strengthened by locating countries, rivers and exploring the climate of different countries. We have compared Buckingham to the Mediterranean area of Lake Garda, enjoying finding similarities and differences between the two places. This week, we also incorporated our maths skills by creating a bar graph of the different landmarks of Europe, we were very surprised to find out how tall the tallest building in Europe was! 

08.12.23

This half-term has whizzed by and it is very nearly time for a well-deserved rest. The children in Y3 have shown our values in abundance this half-term and have been working incredibly hard. In English, they have been writing their own wishing tale based on King of the Fishes. The children spent time learning about fronted adverbials, paragraphs, precise adjectives and similes. In maths, the children have been improving their knowledge and skills with multiplying and dividing. They are practising their times tables for the 2, 4 and 8 times tables.

In RE, the children have been learning about festivals of light, including Diwali, Advent and Hanukkah. The children have learnt about the different meanings behind these festivals, what the light symbolises and the different religions that celebrate them.

In history, the children have been learning all about the Stone Age and this included a trip to Chiltern Open Air Museum. The staff there truly made the children feel as if they were living in the Stone Age and shared so much knowledge with them.

We hope all of the children in Y3 have a lots of fun and rest over the Christmas holidays and we look forward to seeing them in January alongside Mrs Gray, their new teacher.

19.10.23

What a super last fortnight in Year 3. The children have been hard at work writing their final 'defeat the monster' stories and we have seen so much progress in their level of description and use of paragraphs. As one child said, we are true authors now - learning how to edit and improve and fixing any mistakes. In the last week, the children have moved on to their non-chronological unit of work and we have started learning a report all about trolls which has captured their imagination! In maths, the children are getting to grips with adding and subtracting across the tens and hundreds, using a range of strategies. I have certainly seen an increase in resillience and confidence in the classroom. In science, the children have enjoyed learning about the lungs and the important diaphragm muscle. They were quite sad to see 'Skelly' the skeleton go back into the box to take back to the musuem but there will be more exciting resources coming out next term to support their learning in history and science. The children also had a super time practising and performing their black history assembly. What a wonderful performance - the children said their lines so confidently and clearly! I am so proud of you all and have a super half term!

29.09.23

This week, the children have been innovating our model text, creating new monsters in the car yard. The children have shown resilience and skill in their writing and we have been so pleased with their progress. The children are understanding what it is like to be true authors, editing and improving their work as they write. In maths, the children have been practising finding ten more or less/one hundred more or less. In history, the children have loved finding out all about Skara Brae and the significance of the site. They created their own Skara Brae stone age houses and thought about what it would had been like to live there.



In science, the children have learnt the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates and have recorded different animals which fit under each category. They have also created their own healthy eating meal ( 3D!) to help solve the health issues of a client who was eating too much sugar and fat.

22.09.23

This week, the children have continued their amazing work. We have been getting to grips with out class novel, 'The boy who grew dragons' and enjoyed finding out about dragon fruit! We have created a text map for our model text, 'Fowler's Yard' and have been learning how to create character descriptions, learning lots of new vocabulary on the way. In maths, the children have been developing their understanding of place value, by partitioning three digit numbers. In art, the children have been learning all about the early stone age paintings, and have had a go at creating their own charcoal cave paintings. We were amazed by the creative talent of our year 3s!

08.09.23

What an incredible start to the year! The children have just been an absolute joy to teach. They have shown how hardworking and motivated they are and I am very proud of them and how quickly they have settled. We have started reading our class novel, with many giggles about the jokes! We have also started learning our 'Defeat the Monster' model text which is all about a car yard where the metal is crushed. The children were fascinated by this and we managed to find a video of the equipment being used to crush the scrap metal. In maths, the children have recapped their knowledge of partitioning and we have been busy using denes blocks to help us identify tens and ones, as well as find different ways to partition 2 - digit numbers. Well done everyone for a hot but fabulous first week back.