Year 3 became scientific magicians yesterday when we made a paper clip float in mid-air. You can see by our expressions how amazed we were. We were then able to explain that it was the force of magnetism that was causing this and not magic, Miss Lenney thought that this was the magical part of the lesson!!!

In Year 3, this month, we have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This is a brilliant book and Year 3 have really enjoyed it.

The story is about Charlie, who is one of five lucky Golden Ticket winners. These fortunate children get to tour the wonderfully exciting and definitely strange Chocolate Factory belonging to Mr, Willy Wonka, the greatest sweet maker in the world. Not all the children leave the Chocolate Factory in the same way that they entered!!!

It’s a book full of wonders and fun, we think that you would really enjoy it, so it is Year 3’s book recommendation of the month.

We are really proud of Lennon and his efforts to raise money for the RNLI. Lennon would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who contributed their 5p. We had donations ranging from a full jar to 10p from children’s dinner money. Well done everyone, together you raised £67.92

First of all, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas, I was very lucky to receive some wonderful gifts and cards  from the children and I want to say a huge thank you for your kindness. I also wanted to say how proud I was of the whole class, who asked that rather than being given a Christmas card, they would rather I donated the money to a charity, I was very happy to do this on their behalf, and so a donation was made to RNLI, the charity that Lennon has championed this term.

Spring term is always very exciting, with the children well settled into KS2 we can now set our sights high and aim to make great progress in all areas of work. We will be studying the great Roald Dahl this term, leading up to the new film version of The BFG in the summer, We will be exploring different text types, both fiction and non-fiction, using Roald Dahl’s amazing creations as our stimulus. Our book for this half term is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so keep an eye out for those Golden Tickets!

We will begin our maths work with a “Week of Inspirational Maths”  where we are going to look at attitudes to maths, as well as engaging in different investigations. As you may have seen on the tv, times tables are once again in the news, as ever we will be reflecting our school’s belief in the importance of mastering these building blocks of mathematics. We will be exploring different methods and approaches in class, bur keep singing those tables songs from the Internet.

The Spring term’s topic is entitled “Eureka” and we will be finding out about a local hero, George Stephenson. as we follow the development of the railways in Britain. Who knows, we may even discover an inventor in our own class!

As you can see this is a busy term with lots to look forward to, as always, if you have any queries or concerns please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm.

A. Lenney

Year 3 were very lucky to take part in a workshop run by the “Queen of Rangoli”, international artist Ranbir Kaur. We had a fantastic day designing and then creating Rangoli patterns. We found out that these patterns are used as part of the festival of Diwali.

Welcome to Year 3. I am pleased to say that the children have all settled into Key Stage 2 very successfully, We have spent our time learning lots of new routines and getting used to the Year 3 classroom. Last week we were able to think about a very special event in our country, that of the Queen becoming our longest reigning monarch. Year 3 took the opportunity to think about being British, who and what made us proud, Mo Farrah was at the top of a lot of people’s list and this made seeing him in the Great North Run really thrilling for a lot of the class. Our portraits of the Queen are on display in Key Stage 2 if you would like to come and see them.

I hope that the rest of this year will prove to be as exciting as the start, we have already enjoyed a visit to the Salvation Army in Jarrow to help them celebrate their centenary, The children were all fantastic and they behaved beautifully, I was very proud of them all, We were able to learn about how the Salvation Army has a tradition of helping those in need.

Our topic this term is The Stone Age, we will be finding out about this amazing time in history and, who knows, maybe solving the mystery of Stone Henge. This will be linked to our English work when we study books including Stone Age Boy, There’s a pebble in my pocket and How to wash a woolly mammoth. We will be trying our hand at writing stories, letters and instructions.

We will be concentrating on number work at the start of our maths work, looking at the importance of a good understanding of place value, as well as developing addition and subtraction skills. I will be sending out information about methods and how to help your child in the coming weeks. However a great start would be to help your child with their 2 and 3 times tables.

Our RE work this term is to find out about Hinduism and I am thrilled to say we have arranged for an artist to come and work with the children looking at Rangoli patterns,

PE, this term, is on Monday and Thursday. Keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks as I hope to share the children’s progress in learning tricks, lifts and “flying” in these sessions.

These are just a few of the highlights of the first term in Year 3. I hope that you are as excited by it as I am. The change from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 can be quite daunting  and so if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you

A Lenney