Year 3
Key information for parents:
- Year 3 children come into school at 8.40am and enter school through the playground door.
- Year 3 leave school at 3.15 pm through the same door.
- Year 3's PE sessions take place on a Wednesday and a Thursday, children should come to school in their PE kit on these days. If it is non-uniform day on their PE day, children will need to wear appropriate clothes and footwear for their PE lesson.
- Reading books are changed on Tuesdays.
Mrs Hollins, Mrs Hobson and Mrs Southwick-Williams look forward to welcoming you to Year 3.
The Year 3 Classroom
Art - 3D and Sculpture. Today we had lots of fun defining 'sculpture' and exploring the concepts around creating a sculpture. We then starting perfecting our own sculpting skills as we transformed 2D shapes into free standing 3D shapes, using only folding and cutting techniques. These shapes were carefully arranged to create our first sculptures. We then used playground equipment to learn all about positive and negative space. This playground equipment was then our inspiration as we started planning our own playground inspired sculptures - stay tuned to see our final creations in a few days time.
Building Bridges 🌁 Science Week: Parent competition to see who could make a car travel across the longest free standing bridge. The winner was Mr Coulon! 🥇
Year 3 Expedition 🧭 In Geography, the children used Digimaps to look at aerial images of our school. They then used compasses and the eight compass points to plan an expedition around the school grounds. Following this, they used their compasses to follow someone else’s plan from start to finish. Well done everyone!
Using eight compass points to plan a route in PE. 🧭
Year 3 Forest School starting Wednesday 15th April
Science - investigating shadows. Today we used our planning boards to design a pattern seeking enquiry to answer the question: If I change the material of the object what will happen to the darkness of the shadow?
PSHE - stretching, breathing and mindfulness to relax the body and mind
🔴 Red Nose Day 🔴
Our Easter Church Links Day. The children worked together to create a collage of a station of the cross.
📚 WORLD BOOK DAY 📚
Year 3 have had a truly wonderful World Book Day.
The children have really enjoyed exploring the class text ‘Chaos at the Chocolate Factory 🏭 ’, which follows on from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 🍫 🏭.
Following on from this, and using all of their wonderful imagination, the children have spent the day creating their own rooms for the chocolate factory. They have thought of the machines, the products and even who would work inside the rooms. They then designed their own chocolate bar before designing their own creative boxes for them to be packaged in.
Throughout the day, Mrs Gleave has kept us on our toes by challenging us to DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) at any given moment which the children have loved 🥰.
We even ended the day with some lucky Wonka ticket winners! 🎫
We have really shown a love of reading today and the children have been engaged every step of the way. An amazingly bookish day had by all! 📚
EGYPTIAN ART - after staining our pages with tea to make them look like papyrus we decorated them with Egyptian inspired art. The children used a range of media to experiment with tone and texture whilst working within an Egyptian colour palette. We are looking forward to researching this unit in more detail and eventually making our own paper and personalised Egyptian themed scrolls.
MAKING SEASONAL VEGETABLE SOUP 🥣 🥕🥔🥦🧅 Year 3 have had the best morning! The children have mastered the art of peeling and chopping, they measured volume, followed a recipe and used a soup maker to make a delicious seasonal soup - hopefully there will be enough left for our grown ups to try!
ROMAN EXHIBIT Year 3 have really excelled themselves in their homework this half term. They have produced and created some wonderful baked goods, Roman replicas and other creative designs. Well done to everyone!
Super Powers Ready! 🦸♀️ 🦸♂️ Year 3 have been real super heroes in PE these past few weeks. They have created and performed dance routines to combine stretches, holding to the beat of the music and their own creative styles. Some great costumes also added to the final pieces. 💥 🦸♀️ 🦸♂️
trim.BB56CAAA-7198-4705-97B5-3984D92B4C30.MOV
trim.63092BD7-9683-4039-B624-B6BFECB42375.MOV
trim.87661A96-B4A8-4AD7-A561-78041795691D.MOV
trim.2FBE05A3-1A46-443A-AE8C-F2C9398D84E6.MOV
trim.CB19D84B-99D2-4CE6-8838-2F5DD7FE227E.MOV
trim.F74A0BBF-7817-405F-905F-120F0452A238.MOV
trim.4000E957-4F99-4BB3-8102-5CBD49661BE6.MOV
trim.C44C36F5-94B7-4ADD-AE6C-4BABE5E9934E.MOV
MENTAL HEALTH WEEK. We have done lots of activities around mental health this week to encourage children to talk about their feelings and to explore the different places where they feel that they belong. The children took part in a virtual assembly with thousands of other children, have continued to have our regular brain breaks throughout the day and have thought about the people who they feel they belong with. They also explored their sense of belonging by creating their own personal map of places, activities, groups or activities where they feel they belong.
Safer Internet Day - Today we have considered the growing influence that AI has on our everyday lives. The children have discussed how we use AI, the pros and cons of it and how to keep themselves safe when exploring the world of AI.
French Playground Games - we finished our French unit today with a game of La marelle. The children worked in terms to draw their game spaces on the yard and then practised their French vocabulary for counting and turn taking.
Investigating Soil - Have you ever looked at soil under a microscope? It’s fascinating! Today we looked at the composition of 4 different types of soil and identified the different sized grains and sediments within them as well as the variety of organic matter. We couldn’t believe how many job opportunities there were for soil scientists and what an important role they play in society. We also practised our Working Scientifically skills by planning and carrying out a Pattern Seeking enquiry to discover which soil type had the best drainage rate.
123 Number Day! 123 The children have enjoyed exploring number to celebrate Number Day today. They have created their own Number Day Maths t-shirts, completed number puzzles, money word problems and even attempted to budget for a party. They have worked well in teams to complete the challenges. Great work from everyone. Well done Year 3!
Annual calendar - Today we were visited by the lovely team from Market Drayton Arts Festival. They supported the children in producing their competition entries for the month of February in the 2027 calendar. Fingers crossed for Year 3 success 🎨🖌️🖼️
FOSSIL FORMATION - we have really enjoyed learning how cast fossils are made in sedimentary rock. The children became research scientists and used a variety of resources to collect information before producing some fabulous comic strips. We also had great fun making our own cast fossil model from salt dough as well as an amber fossil model from melted wax. It was lovely to see the children extending their learning and bringing in examples of rocks and fossils from home. Who knows, we may have a future palaeontologist in Year 3!
ROMAN ARMY! Year 3 in the wedge formation, ready for battle!
We are Geologists! In science the children were given the challenge to select the best type of rock to use for a kitchen worktop, a roof and a statue. To reach their conclusions the children carried out a hardness test, permeability test and an acid rain test. The children demonstrated super team work skills, made great observations and produced reasoned conclusions backed up by their scientific research 🧪 🥼🧬👩🔬🧑🔬🪨
Seasonal food tasting 🥔🥕🥦🌽 we had great fun carrying out research for our own soup recipe. The children tasted and critiqued potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes and leeks. We were so impressed by the children’s enthusiasm and some definitely discovered some new favourites! We can’t wait to make and taste our soup 😋🍜
🤠 Here are our lovely Year 3 performing their line dances in unison and in canon. Great job everyone!🤠
Yee haw 🤠
Line dancing in unison 🤠
Line dancing in canon 🤠
Year 3 Spring 1 Homework Grid - Romans. All children have been given a copy to bring home.
🤠 Howdy! 🤠 The children have been super stars learning the steps to country and western line dancing. They have been dancing in pairs, unison as a class and also had a go at canon dancing. Look out for videos after next week’s session!
HISTORY: True or false? The children worked together to identify true and false facts about the Romans and their invasions.
🎅 🎄 🎁 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE 🎅 🎄 🎁
Wishing you all a wonderful time over the festive period.
We look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 6th January 2026.
🎅 SANTA!!!! 🎅
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE🎄 🎅 🎁 Year 3 have had a wonderful end to the term - Christmas dinner, card making, games, biscuit decorating and a present wrapping competition!
Entrust Virtual Christmas Sing Along. Super singing for our festive get together. Well done Year 3! 🎅 🎶
Virtual Christmas Sing Along Songs 🎅 🎶
Virtual Christmas Sing Along Song Santa 🎅 🎶
How amazing are we! The children have shown great resilience and creativity this half term whilst mastering the skill of sewing 🧵 How fabulous are our cushions!
We’re going on a rock hunt! The children explored the school grounds to find different types of rock and tried to work out how they got here.
Experimenting with magnets 🧲 Today we explored the non-contact force - magnetism- we learnt lots of new scientific vocabulary: attract, repel, magnetic, non-magnetic, North Pole and South Pole. After making predictions we planned and carried out an enquiry to discover the magnetic properties of a range of everyday materials
What super scientists,👩🔬🧑🔬🧪🥼 Today we have planned and carried out our own enquiry to test the effects of friction on the distance that a vehicle will travel. We identified the enquiry type, the variables, drew a scientific diagram, wrote a method, collected results and produced a conclusion. What a great job,
Dodgeball! Great skills being developed in PE today. Some strong over arm shots and super dodging. Well done Year 3!
Science -Forces and magnetism
Today we began exploring our new unit - Forces and Magnetism. We reminded ourselves that forces are pushes or pulls and then went on to learn about contact forces and how to represent these as force diagrams. As the unit progresses we will explore helpful and unhelpful effects of friction as well as investigating the non-contact force - magnetism.
Be Bright . Be Seen
We have spent time this week talking about how to stay safe when walking outside during the dark winter evenings. The children have investigated fluorescent and reflective materials and made their own dangler to attach to their coats or bags.
Cracking jokes in our final Bounebackability session where the focus was on being resilient. By spending time being busy making others laugh at jokes, we don’t have the time to worry about other things. The children also used these jokes in computing where they sent them via email to each other. In PE, the children have been developing their ball skills, and in History they learned about trade during the Iron Age by playing the game ‘Would you survive?’. A great way to end the half term. Well done Year 3!
📏 Measuring in Maths! 📏 Today the children were measuring using metre sticks.
STONE AGE WORKSHOP
The children have had an incredible day. They started off by meeting Bug who, after they had woken up, hunted them round the hall. After that they, were taught to use a bow and arrow to hunt for their dinner. They then looked at many Stone Age artefacts, before making their very own spears. In the afternoon, the children looked at the bones of animals and tried to work out how they would have been used in the Stone Age times. They finished the day creating their very own cave drawings on slate. What a wonderful experience and exemplary behaviour by all!
Year 3 Stone Age Workshop
🪩 🕺 HOPE HOUSE CHILDREN’S HOSPICES
DANCE FUNDRAISING EVENT 💃 🪩
Dance away, Year 3!
YEAR 3 READING BREAKFAST 18.9.25
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our reading breakfast. The children had a wonderful time, and it was a great opportunity for them to share a book with you in their learning environment.
BOUNCEBACKABILITY: This half term, Year 3 will be taking part in some workshops to help support and explore mental health and well-being.
GUIDED READING: Practicing fluency, expression and intonation.
ART/HISTORY: The children enjoyed recreating cave paintings just like in the Stone Age.
WELCOME TO YEAR 3 Newsletter September 2025
🗺️ 🌍🌍 Geography 🌍🌍🗺️
In Geography, we have started our new topic ‘Are all settlements the same?’
Today we identified cities within the United Kingdom by using an atlas to find where they were located. After that we looked at the different types of settlement which could be found here in the United Kingdom and matched the aerial photographs, description and OS maps together.
Descriptive writing ✏️✍️📝
To start off our new text this week we have given our partner a clear description of a picture. They had to listen to the instructions and draw the picture described.
Shadow Puppets
Whole school church day
🧭🗺️Geography Fieldwork🗺️🧭
Year three planned and completed an expedition to Antarctica. 🧊🇦🇶🗺️🧭
Using Digimaps to show them the Ariel map of our school grounds they created their own and wrote instructions using compass points to guide them to the iceberg.
Everyone had a set of instructions, a compass and an aerial photograph of Hugo Meynell and off they went!
💻👾Micro bits 💻👾
During our DT and computing sessions we learnt how to use a micro bit and how we can programme it to have flashing lights and to make a noise.
As part of our Science topic about ‘Light and Shadows’ we used a light meter to test where the lightest areas of the school were. 🔦💡🕯️
🎾 Tennis 🎾
Year 3 visited the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Stoke today. After taking off our shoes, covering our hair and washing our hands, to show respect in their place of worship, we went into the prayer hall. We were impressed by how fancy and colourful it was. We loved seeing the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, with beautiful covers under a canopy. We sat on the floor and the children asked lots of great questions. We were invited to have Langar, which is food and drink shared by everyone. We learned that some Sikhs go to the gurdwara at 4 am to worship the creator!
Today we were lucky enough to be visited by Valor Ju- Jitsu. The children were taught some pad work as well as self-defense and how to fall to the ground safely. The enjoyment was clear to see from the smiles on the children's faces and we hope that some of them continue to learn this martial art!
🐒🐼🐻🦍🐘🦘🦛Year 3 - We are Zoologists
After introducing the career - zoologist, we watched a video clip showing a typical day in the life of a large mammal zoologist. We found out about how they targeted the animals to help support them when they need medical attention. We then went on a scavenger hunt around school to uncover lots of fascinating facts about different animals.
Year Three parents challenge
Thank you to everyone who came and supported us with the tower building. There was a lot of competitive parents during the morning. Well done to everyone. Some very impressive towers!
🧫🔭🔬⚗️🧬🥼🧪👨🔬Dr Tonge - Interview a scientist. 🧫🔭🔬⚗️🧬🧪👩🔬
Dr Tonge
Following post-doctoral roles at the School of Veterinary Medicine (Nottingham) and the Medical Research Council, Dan worked as a Senior Scientist for the Health Protection Agency and as Senior Executive Officer at Public Health England. During this period, he sat on the agency-wide Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) committee across PHE (now the UK Health and Security Agency). Dan joined Keele in 2015 and manages and/or teaches on a range of UG and PG modules including Clinical Pathology, Clinical Applications of Biomedical Sciences, Advances in Medicine and Research Methodologies. Dan undertakes research in the broad area of molecular sequencing and bioinformatics (now almost exclusively computer-based, he still owns a lab coat) with a focus on increasing our understanding of human health and disease. Outside of his research and teaching roles, Dan serves as the Director of Postgraduate Research, and is the Human Tissue Authority 'Designated Individual' for the HTA research-sector licence held at Keele University.
Questions asked by Year 3.
🌏📕📗📘📙📖📚📒World Book Day 🌎📕📔📒📘📗📙📚📖
