Year 3 - Miss Taggart

Welcome to Year 3!

PE is on a Monday and the children can wear their PE kit all day.

Water bottles should be brought into school every day.

Reading books and diaries should be brought into school every day. Books will be changed weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Please sign your child’s diary when you have listened to them read and aim to read at least 3 times a week. 

Please return homework on Thursday. 

Dates for your Diary

• Weekly swimming sessions commence Thursday 15th January 

                                        Autumn 2 

 Science 

This half-term we explored the three main types of rocks—igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic—and carried out experiments to compare their properties, including hardness, texture, and how they let water through. The children loved sorting rocks into groups and discovering what makes each one special.

Next, we investigated soil and its different layers, learning what soil is made from, including rocks, sand, and organic matter. We even talked about how fossils are formed and how rocks can change over millions of years.

Through these hands-on activities, the children practised important scientific skills, such as observing carefully, recording findings, and making comparisons. It has been wonderful to see their curiosity and enthusiasm for the world beneath their feet!

Art

This half term in Art, Y3 have been exploring the work of the artist Kelvin Okafor, a hyper-realistic portrait artist. We were inspired by his detailed drawings and excited to try this style ourselves. We began by practising how to create tone and texture using a range of drawing techniques and learned how different pencils can produce different effects. After this, we created our own portraits in the style of hyper-realism, using everything we had learned and working from a photograph we took of ourselves as a reference. The children had lots of fun deciding which emotion to express in their photograph and thinking carefully about how they could show this through their  portrait. Y3 worked incredibly hard on their drawings and produced some fantastic, detailed portraits that they should be very proud of!

Stone Age Workshop 

This half-term we have been looking at the Stone Age, Iron age and Bronze Age. WE began our studies with by being transported back to the Stone Age via a fun workshop. The children began by discussing how the Stone Age developed and changed across the different time periods with the instructor.  We  then had an opportunity to use methods that early humans would have used to create fire. Despite the wet weather, the children were able to light their own fire which was a fantastic experience. They finished their session off by looking at real life replicas of the tools, weapons and clothing that would have been a part of everyday life for early humans. 

Following on from this fantastic experience, in English we wrote a detailed recount of the day in the form of a diary using a multitude of features that we have been focusing on over the half-term. 

                                       Autumn 1

Our Broomhouse Farm Trip

We had a fantastic trip to Broom House Farm this autumn. We explored the farm, looked for signs of autumn and picked apples in the orchard. After lunch we were very brave and went on the forest adventure, which included a zip line, toboggans and walking the plank! It was a really fantastic trip and we look forward to returning in spring and learning how the farm has changed with the seasons. 

DT: Pneumatic Systems

In DT, we learned all about pneumatic systems. Inspired by the story The Fox and the Star (which we read in English) we created a toy fox. The children created a fox that used a pneumatic system to open and close the mouth. We were really impressed by how inventive the children were with both the design and devlopment of the foxes. Well done Year 3! 

Science: Food Groups

In science we learned about the different food groups, as part of our animals unit. During the lesson we looked at food labels on packaging. We discussed the design of the food lables, what information we could learn from them and whether we liked the design or not. We then looked more closely at the labels and the nutritional information they displayed. Next, we designed our own healthy pizza wrap , using our knowledge of the food groups and aiming to get a healthy balance of the different groups. We then created our pizzas, cooked them and, best of all, sampled our creations!