Cressing Primary School

WELCOME TO CLASS 3!

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas break. Happy New Year! The children have had a lovely first term in Year 3 and we look forward to all the different learning experiences in the new year. We particularly enjoyed learning about the Stone Age in History and discovering all the different types of rocks in Science, doing so many different practical activities. Our favourite activities were making volcano models and making milkshakes as part of our instruction writing. Throughout the term, we have been constantly impressed with their enthusiasm and keenness to engage in all the learning, asking intelligent questions and explaining their thinking.

This Term’s Learning

This term in History we will be discovering lots of things about Ancient Egypt, finding out all about this amazing civilisation and all the fascinating things they did. This will link to Art & Design, where we will make canopic jars out of clay. In Science, we are going to continue learning about light then move on to forces and magnets, investigating magnetic materials and explaining how magnets work. In Religious Education, we are going to explore how people make good decisions as part of the philosophy element of the subject. We are also going to reinforce our work on The Trinity.

We are starting our English work with information writing where dragons will be a big focus. After this, we will be exploring Anthony Browne’s book, “The Tunnel” for a journey story. Mathematics will be a continuation of all the key skills plus we are starting to multiply 2-digit numbers by a single digit and start to learn more about fractions.  KEEP PRACTISING YOUR TIMES TABLES IN ANY WAY YOU WISH. Times Tables Rockstars is a good tool which the children enjoy. Mathsframe and Topmarks also have some good games. Even counting in different groups is helpful.

At Home

Please support your child to complete their homework, helping them where necessary. Homework will be given out online for Mathematics and children have logins in their reading diaries to access this homework. Some of the spelling and English homework will continue to be given out on paper.  If you have any questions, please come to speak to us and we will do our best to help.

We really would appreciate you taking time to read with your child. Even 10 minutes practice a day can make a real difference to their progress. Your child does not always have to read a school book. Any reading is beneficial.  Discuss their books with them and encourage them to read magazines, newspapers, poetry and information texts even if this is on the computer.  Please record all reading in the children’s reading diaries.

As your child progresses with their reading, most of the reading teaching in class will be part of guided reading. As children gain confidence with reading, guided reading is a very good way for children to develop reading comprehension skills and for us to guide them with their skills. Discussion which comes out of guided reading is extremely valuable and other peers can act as good role models.

We will always encourage your child to achieve their best and work their hardest and keen trying even when things are tricky. Please reinforce this message at home. Progress is really important and we will always praise efforts and mastering those small steps.

House Keeping

• PE days are still Monday and Thursdays. Some of the sessions may be outside so please make sure your child is prepared for the cold weather.
• Homework will be set on Friday and should be completed by Thursday. Please log in online and ask if you have any questions.
• If you need to contact me, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can. If it is during the school day, I may not get back to you until after school as I do not always check my mail during the school day.
• No pencil cases are needed in Year 3. But the children may use their own pencil cases in the afternoons if we are colouring etc. Our key adults are:

Mrs. Sedgwick – Class teacher

Mr. Chambers– PPA Cover on Monday afternoon

Miss. Schonenberger  – Learning Support Assistant

We all look forward to working with you. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any queries. We are happy to help.

Kind regards,

The Year 3 Team