Squirrel Class
Class teacher’s welcome
Welcome to Squirrel class! In Year 3, the children begin their journey through Key Stage 2. Throughout the year, we will help the children to grow and develop socially and academically, build their independence and continue to foster their love of learning.
End of Autumn Term update – what a brilliant first term! The class have settled so well (inc. a new squirrel who has entered the drey!), made fantastic progress in their learning and are on track for a great year.
This page will be updated fully over the Christmas holidays ready for the start of the Spring Term.
Mrs Ed-dakhissi and Mr Pickering
Some of the latest photos from Squirrel class, including our latest Home Learning Projects linked to History (Iron Age and Bronze Age) and Science (human and animal skeletons).
In computing, the class have been busy creating short stop-motion animations – making their skeletons dance! If we can solve some technical issues, we’ll put links to the animations as soon as we can!
[Links not yet live] 1: Abi, Ellis and Ivy; 2: Alfie, Chris and Evie; 3: Emily, Freddie and Rosie; 4: Gabriele, Harry and Cora; 5: Maria, Eleanor and Amos; 6: Ethan, Frankie and Nick; 7: Quinn and Lucy; 8: Eva and Rory; 9: Sam and Sophia; 10: Georgia and Sophie; 11: Ruby and Theo; 12: Jack, Marnie and Trudy
Curriculum news
Well done to all the children for their fabulous singing and reading at the Carols by Candlelight service on Tuesday 17 December – see a couple of short videos here!
At a glance – Autumn 2
- Maths: Multiplication and division
- English: Wolf’s Secret (fiction), Wolf encyclopaedia (non-fiction), The Sound Collector (poetry)
- Science: Animals including humans – nutrition, skeletons and muscles
- History: What were the key changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age?
- Computing: (Stop-frame) Animation
- PSHE: Valuing Differences
- Music: Singing Techniques
- Art: Drawing / Textiles (weaving)
Home Learning
All children are encouraged to complete a home learning project to build on their class History and/or Science learning.
Ideas include…
- Design a new board game based on the Iron Age or Bronze Age or both.
- Create an Iron Age ‘style’ artefact. This could be (but not limited to) a broach, a piece of jewellery, helmet or shield.
- Make a model of a skeleton and label the parts.
- Create a simple model showing how muscles and bones work together. Use straws for bones and rubber bands or string to show muscles. Make the ‘arm’ bend by pulling the rubber bands.
- Build a small model of an Iron Age tribe house with natural materials. Use straw or papier mâché for the roof and sticks for the frame.
These projects are designed to run alongside the learning for a half-term and should be handed in on or before Friday 13th December.
Spelling
At All Saints’ Primary School, we follow the Read, Write Inc. spelling scheme in Key Stage 2. To start Year 3, we are recapping units from the Year 2 programme.
| Week | Focus | Example Words |
| 2nd September | The r sound spelt wr | wrong, wrestle, wrist, wrap, write |
| 9th September | The r sound spelt wr | wreck, wrinkle, wriggle, wren |
| 16th September | Adding the suffixes -er or -est (1) | faster, slowest, louder, largest, braver |
| 23rd September | Special Focus 1 (Red words) and Special Focus 2 (Homophones) | 1: many, some, should, come, any, would
2: there/their, nose/knows, for/four |
| 30th September | Adding the suffixes -er or -est (2) | happier, silliest, funnier, finest, wiser, nicest, slimier, trickiest |
| 7th October | Adding the suffixes -er or -est (3) | bigger, slimmest, hotter, saddest, wetter, fittest, maddest |
| 14th October | The ee sound spelt ey | key, donkey, chimney, turkey, trolley, money, honey, jockey |
| 21st October | Adding the suffix -ness (1) | Kindness, sadness, illness, weakness, darkness, foolishness |
| Half-term | – | – |
| 4th November | Adding the suffix -ness (2) | dizziness, silliness, cheekiness, madness |
| 11th November | Words ending in -le | rattle, simple, middle, triangle, giggle, bubble, handle, battle, little, table |
| 18th November | Special Focus 3 (Words ending -il and words where s makes the zh sound ) and Special Focus 4 (Homophones) | 3: fossil, council, evil, peril, nostril; measure, treasure, usual, television
4: seen/scene, wait/weight, hole/whole, sighed/side, new/knew |
| 25th November | Words ending in -el | camel, tunnel, towel, travel, jewel, label, angel, cancel, level |
| 2nd December | Words ending in -al | magical, plural, vocal, tropical, animal, capital, medical, signal, festival |
| 9th December | Adding the suffix -ful | joyful, cheerful, thankful, wonderful, hopeful, painful, colourful, thoughtful |
| 16th December | Special focus 5 (ir sound spelt or after w) | 5: worm, world, work, worth, worst, password, workshop |
In addition, children in Y3 and Y4 are beginning to learn a specific word list (as set out in the National Curriculum, English Appendix 1) that can be found in the centre of the school reading record or accessed here.
Dates for the diary
PE days: Wednesday (Mr Megson), Friday (Mr Pickering)
Autumn 2: Y3/4 Christmas Carol Service – Tuesday 17th December (6-7pm)
Autumn 2: Y3 Christmas Parties (Monday 16th December), Whole School Christmas Lunch (Tuesday 17th December)
Spring 1: Forest School (3 sessions)
Spring 2: Visit to Abbey House Museum, Leeds (History: Victorian Britain)
Summer 1: Visit to Harlow Carr (Science: Plants)
Summer Term: Schools’ Linking Project with Copthorne Primary School
Links to support learning
Reading
Please encourage your child to read daily for a minimum of 10 minutes. At least 3 reading sessions per week should be recorded in the school Reading Record. Children should all have a school reading book (that can be changed regularly) but should be encouraged to read other material as well.
Read more about English in Y3 in the National Curriculum Programmes of Study
Maths
Times Table Rock Stars (login on inside front cover of Reading Record) – Y3 introduces 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables, as well as building on 2, 5 and 10 (from Y2)
Written methods for addition, subtraction and multiplication are taught as in the pictures below.
Read more about maths in Y3 in the National Curriculum Programmes of Study
Just for fun!