Year 3 2020-2021

Dear parents and carers.

Welcome to Year 3.

We hope that your children are getting used to the new routines and are settling back in to school. We are very pleased to be back and it's been lovely getting to know our new classes. 

It is fantastic that everyone is being dropped off and collected on time. Thank you for your help with this. 

We would normally have a meeting face to face to introduce ourselves and tell you what to expect from the year, but this is not possible at the moment, so hopefully this introduction will do that instead. 

The year 3 teachers are: Mrs Lowe and Ms Marks (3ML), Mr Saunders (3JS) and Mrs Matthews (3LM). We are very ably assisted by Miss Porter in 3ML, Miss Araghchinchi  in 3JS and Mrs Khan in 3LM.

PE is on Monday for 3ML and Wednesday for 3JS and 3LM.

Most of our PE will be done outdoors. Please make sure that your child comes to school wearing their PE kit on their PE day.

Your child needs to wear jogging bottoms, shorts or leggings: a t shirt: trainers or plimsolls: a jumper or sweatshirt. 

Please make sure that no earrings are worn on PE days. 

Your child will also need to remember to bring a water bottle with them each day, as the water fountains at school are out of use. They will will be allowed to take their water bottle outside for PE.

In year 3, your child will be learning to swim. We expect swimming lessons to start after half term and we will make sure that we send you more information about when we have more details from Djanogly leisure centre.

Reading books will be sent home and then quarantined when they are brought back to school. Your child will shortly be given a reading diary to bring home. We would appreciate it if you, or someone in your family, writes in it every time your child reads at home. You don't need to write loads - just the date and a signature to show that your child has read will do. We will be doing class reading in school, but have limited time to hear individual readers. It is so important that your child reads at home every day to an adult or older brother or sister. Reading for even just 5 minutes a day makes such a difference to children's progress. 

As well as reading daily, your child will be given 10 spellings every week -  usually on a Monday. They will be expected to learn those spellings and practice them daily at home ready for a spelling test on Friday. The spellings will be linked with sound patterns and the idea is that by learning those spelling patterns, children will be able to use their knowledge to make an educated guess when they try to write a new word which contains the same sounds.

If you know how to write the word 'play' then you can make a good guess at the spelling pattern when you try to write the words 'stay', or 'tray'.

Other homework which links with work taught in school, will also be sent home - such as sentence practice, grammar or maths. Practising skills that are taught at school helps children to retain knowledge and cement those skills, which means they find it easier to apply them in class. For example -  once you know your 2 times table inside and out, you never forget it.  7x2=14 will always be stored in your brain forever! 

We have lots of exciting topics planned for your child this year. Sadly, visits and people who come in to talk to us are on hold for the moment, but we hope your child enjoys what we have planned. 

Our introductory topic for the 1st few weeks is based on the book 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers. It is all about the world around us, caring for the earth and for each other. We thought it was very appropriate for coming back to school in these uncertain times. 

We will also be learning about the musician Stevie Wonder, as our 'Musician of the Month'. If you have access to the internet, you may want to listen to some of his songs on You Tube. 

For the rest of the half term, we will be learning about Rainforests and the animals that live in them. This also links to looking after the planet and the work we have done based on 'Here We Are'. We will be also learning how Christians and Jews celebrate Harvest and we will be harvesting food from the school garden. 

If you have any questions about Year 3, then please email us at admin@forestfields.nottingham.sch.uk. Mark your email FAO and the class name e.g FAO 3ML

We look forward to teaching your child and getting to know you all over the year.

Kind regards

The Year 3 Team.

Reading Fluency

We have been learning to read and recite poems based on the book 'Rumble in the Jungle'.

Home Learning Workbooks

A message to you all from the staff

Click on the link below to see a message from all of us at Forest Fields

https://www.forestfieldsprimary.co.uk/a-message-for-the-children-1/

Art with Mrs Martin

Classroom Secrets Kids

Spanish

Mrs Menzano has sent this link to work she has put on for Spanish.

We hope you'll take a look.

Hasta luego

Daily Lessons

The BBC have launched daily lessons to support each year group. Have a look by following the link below

Oak national academy are also doing 3 lessons each day for each Year group which children can follow along with.

Science

Twig Science Reporter

This week's report is all about renewable and non-renewable energy.

Watch the video and then think about the pros and cons of each.

Which do you think would be the best type of energy and why?

How Do Volcanoes Work?

On this week's Twig Science Reporter you can find out about how volcanoes erupt.

Watch the video and then try drawing a labelled diagram to explain how volcanoes work.

Meet the Scientist

Here is a website where you can meet scientists and engineers and ask them questions about the work they do.

https://pstt.org.uk/resources/curriculum-materials/Science-at-Work/Science-at-Work-Video

Some are people from history like:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel - engineer

Florence Nightingale - nurse

Others are people who work in science or engineering today:

Doctors working during the current crisis

Engineers who have built structures in the UK

Space scientists

You might like to carry out your own research about a famous scientist and prepare a presentation to share with us in school.

Fun Science Activities 

Sphere Science have produced a pack of science activities that you might like to try.

Have fun and remember to take photos of your experiments to show us.

Forest Fields Growing Garden

Just before the school closed, the children in Year 3 planted potatoes in the school garden.

We thought you would like to know how they are getting on so Mr Lee took some photos.

If you want to know more about how potatoes grow, follow this link and watch the film called Earthy Potatoes

.https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/7-11-years/where-food-comes-from/videos/

Potatoes May 2020

While briefly in school last week, I took photos of the potatoes. Look how they have grown!

Hopefully there are lots of tiny potatoes hiding under the soil getting bigger ready for us to dig up soon.

Literacy/English websites

Maths websites

PE

Joe Wicks, (aka The Body Coach) is doing a PE session every day on his You Tube Channel at 9am.

We hope you'll be able to jump about and join in.

Have fun!

Indoor Activities

Other websites you might find useful

Art and Creativity

Music

BBC Ten Pieces has launched a weekly music resource today which includes a Ten Pieces film to watch and enjoy, and a linked creative activity that can be completed by children without any special materials or preparation. A perfect, simple and easy way to keep listening, enjoying and creating music at this time!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/watch-this-do-this-weekly-activities/zjy3382

Art

Spanish

Keep up to speed with what you have learned so far in Spanish.