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 Carter-Newbon, Mrs El-Hashahar and Mrs Griffiths look forward to seeing you in Year 3.

🎾 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. 🧫🔭🔬⚗️🧬🧪👩‍🔬

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.

🌏📕📗📘📙📖📚📒World Book Day 🌎📕📔📒📘📗📙📚📖

Safer Internet Day 2025

Year three have been thinking about how scams affect other people and what harm they can cause to others.
They started off by watching the live BBC lesson and took part in the ‘Scam Smashers’ game. It taught them that scams can appear when playing games or searching online. They explained that scams can be exciting and tempting but there is nothing real behind them. If something seems too good to be true always ask a trusted adult.

In the afternoon we looked at pop up gremlins and how they can deceive people into thinking something is not what it seems. Following this we gave advice to staff members about how to avoid scammers online.

Roman Day

Today we had an amazing day. We investigated how Romans built their towns. We had the opportunity to build large-scale keystone arches, a hypocaust and a Roman macellum (marketplace) using traditional building techniques for example a post and a lintel.

During the artefact handling session we handled replica and authentic Roman artefacts and match them to their uses; play some Roman games and dress in typical Roman clothes. We loved finding out what each thing was for.

We explored the sites of ancient Rome and the Romans in Britain, using Virtual Reality headsets. Some of the places we visited included Hadrian’s Wall, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Pompeii, the Roman Baths at Aquae Sulis and much more.

Finally we learnt about the evolution of the Roman Army, from the days of Regal Rome up until the Roman Legionary that may have been seen patrolling the upper boundaries of Britain on Hadrian’s Wall.

Number Day

To start off the number day we completed Fizz Buzz with the 5 and 3 times tables, it became very confusing when they changed any number in the times tables with fizz or buzz. Following the maths games they solved Buddy's key challenge.  Buddy lives in a magical forest where he has been visiting schools through a special door in an enchanted tree. He really wanted to visit Hugo Meynell but the door was locked and there was a problem with the key; when Buddy sent the key to us it was broken into ten pieces!

We were given some clues to solve the problems and found the pieces of the key around the classroom. Now the key is put back together we have been able to open the magic door to meet Buddy!

Mental Health Week

Year 3 have spent this week thinking about 'Know yourself, grow yourself'. They thought about how they ensure they support their own mental health by completing activities they enjoy doing now and what they want to achieve in the future. They have listened to a variety of No Outsider stories about how discrimination can be upsetting and how some people can be unkind. We discussed what makes our school amazing and how everyone is welcome. After reading the book 'We're all wonders' we decided on a key message we can share with everyone. 'Look with Kindness and you will find Wonder'. 

Spiritual Development Day 

Today, we all took part in a Spiritual development session. We learnt that it is very difficult to put into words what ‘spirituality’ actually is because it is a personal experience. We discussed how this may differ from person to person and that spirituality is not the same as having a religion or faith.

We used the analogy of a doughnut and used this to think of ourselves as the ring of the doughnut with an invisible hole inside all of us. This hole is filled in order for us to feel whole. It is filled with those things that give our lives meaning and enables us to feel joy, happiness, calmness and to feel at peace🍩 

Take a look at us in action 📸 , we even had a cheeky, mini doughnut to mark the occasion 🌟

English - The Stone Age Boy

This week, year three have made predictions about what they think will happen in the story. Their favourite lesson was using inverted commas. They were asked to write a conversation between two characters using a white board pen. They were all very shocked when they were told to write on the tables. They have been given strict instructions ‘Not to try this at home!’

The Stone Age Day

Soup!! 🥣
 

As part of our DT project looking at seasonal vegetables we created our own soup. 
We discovered fruits and vegetables from each season and looked at the vegetables for Autumn. We learnt how to cut and peel our vegetables before making into them soup. 
 

We made a mushroom soup and a carrot and parsnip soup.  🍄‍🟫🥕🥔

Before the children tried the mushroom soup there were lots of comments stating they didn’t like mushrooms. There were lots of surprised faces when they tried it and decided they actually quite liked it! 
😋😁👍🏻🫶

 

Science 🧲🔭🔬
This week in Science we have been investigating the strength of magnets.

The children were given a selection of magnetic and non magnetic materials and were asked to find out if they were attracted to the magnet. 
When they had determined if they were magnetic they needed to see if the strength was the same when they added in a piece of card between the magnet and the material.

World Mental Health Day

Year 3 have been thinking about how different feelings can affect us. They learnt that you can experience over 400 emotional experiences every day. They talked about how they can keep their minds healthy and what they could do to do this. They also talked about who are their trusted adults to go to if they need help.
Taking care of your mental health is important, year 3 explored the acronym ‘Yellow’ and how it can support their own mental health.
Y - Your feelings matter 
E - Everyone needs support
L- Listen to your body
L - Learn to relax
O - Offer kindness
W - Wiggle and move

Gestural drawing

As part of our gestural drawing for art we have explored drawing by candle light this afternoon. The children investigated what cave paintings were and how they were used as a form of communication during the Stone Age. 
The children went into their caves (under the tables) with their sketch books, a range of drawing material and a battery powered candle. 🕯️✏️📚
They had a fantastic afternoon and the drawing produced were amazing.

Music - ballads

Year 3 have been exploring ballads during this half term. They have listened to and appraised different ballads which include Space Oddity by David Bowie, Winds of Change by Scorpion, Hello by Adele and Run by Leona Lewis. 
They have learnt that a ballad is a story which is through a song and have started to write their own verse to accompany the short video Soar.

Eccleshall Rugby Fest

Year 3 took part in a Rugby Megafest, run by Eccleshall Rugby Club. They had the opportunity to play various games that gave them a taster of the rugby game. This was a fantastic experience for the children to be involved with and there was a real buzz around school.

Year three have made a fantastic start to their life in Key Stage 2. 

In English they have written super sentences which include a verb and a noun and have practised their joins when writing. There seems to be some fierce competition about who will get their pen license first! We will have to wait and see!

Reading and writing numbers to 100 and 100 was that start to the place value unit in maths with presentation being a big focus. They all accepted the challenge and the presentation was fantastic! We were all very impressed. 

Well done Year Three! A fantastic start.

Science.

Year three have been exploring the structure of plants and the use of each part. They started by sketching the plant before labelling and explaining what each part was for and how it kept the plant alive. 
As part of our scientific enquiry we will be testing to see how watering a plant affects its growth. Plant A will be given 20ml of water a day, plant B will be given 10ml and plant C will be given no water at all! Come back in a few weeks to see what happened to the plants! 🌱🪻🪴

Year three were very lucky to have a visit from Yasmin, who is studying plant science at University. 
Yasmin explained that the first land plants were on earth before the dinosaurs - over 500 million years ago!
Year three talked about what plants need to grow and that plants are essential for our lives - for food, oxygen, clothes, paper, medicines and our homes.  
Year three learnt how plants can reproduce and how insects are important to plants. 
The fact of the day - some plants can survive in temperatures as low as -70!!
Thank you Yasmin!

Geography

As part of our new Geography audit ‘Are all settlements the same?’ Year three started to look at countries and counties in the United Kingdom for which they used a map  to identify their location. Their map skills were excellent and they had no problems locating the different places given. 

On our visit to church the children took part in a number of activities including tricky maze problems, word scrambles, colouring as well as a treasure hunt around St John’s in Ashley. 

The children learnt that God is with them always even when they feel uncomfortable, he is by their side giving them courage and reassurance. We’ve also been learning about Jesus ascending into heaven and sending his helper the Holy Spirit to guide us in our daily lives.

The children also located various sacred statues and monuments in and around the church which included the font - used for baptisms, the high altar, the pulpit and where the choir stand to address the congregation. They answered a number of questions to complete the treasure hunt finding out what these important places were and used for. 

Science Week

As part of Science Week we were set the task of finding out which biscuit was the best for dunking in a cup of tea. 

We had three types of biscuit, we had pink wafers, rich tea and chocolate digestives. 

We conducted a survey to find out people's favourite biscuits followed by all children making a prediction about which biscuit would be the best dunker. The votes are in: 16 children said that the rich tea biscuit would be the best, 11 said the chocolate digestive would be the best with 2 saying the pink wafer would be the best. 

We conducted the experiment and counted how many times we could dunk the biscuit before it broke and landed in the cup of tea. We were all amazed by the results!

The rich tea withstood 4 dunks before breaking

The chocolate digestive withstood 6 dunks before breaking 

The pink wafers withstood a huge 84 dunks before breaking!!

PSHE

This week in PSHE we have been thinking about how to be safe online and what that looks like. 

Year three have looked at how to recognise unkind behaviour and know how to report it, how to be a responsible digital citizen and how as an individual they can offer advice to support other people who are victims of cyberbullying.

A scenario was shared and through the use of a decision tree they generated the outcomes which would come from the decisions they made. They all worked well as a team to do this. Some great discussions were had on how to support others who find themselves in that situation. 
Well done Year three! Lots of thoughtful discussions and outcomes. 

Design and Technology

Today year three made an apple crumble. 
After washing their hands and getting all of the equipment they needed they were ready to start making apple crumble. 
They peeled and chopped the apples into small pieces using the skills they learnt when cutting fruit for the Japanese Fruit skewers. Following this they measured the flour, sugar and butter before mixing it to make the crumble topping. 
Everyone sampled the crumble and the majority of children liked it with the crumble to

ping being their favourite🧑‍🍳👩‍🍳🍚⏲️

Japanese Fruit Skewers

In Design and technology year three looked at fruits and vegetables from around the world. They investigated how climate zones affect the growth of different fruits and the type of fruits which grow in the different zones. 🍒🍓🍇🍎🍉🍑🍊🍋🍍🍌🥑🍏🍈🍐🥝🥭🥥🍅🫐

Japanese’s Fruit Skewers are made with watermelon, strawberries, banana and lychees.

Once the fruit was cut up into slices it was thread onto the skewers and coated in plum sauce. 
Some children liked the skewers some did not!