Firstly thank you to all of you who made it to Parents Evenings – I’m learning to lip read very well due to technical glitches!

First week back after swimming and it’s been a busy one back in the classroom.  Although we missed out on Gymnastics, we did get have a session of cricket with Jonathan which the children enjoyed.

This week the children have watched a short video about Down Syndrome on the theme of ‘With us not for us’ and we wore odd socks to mark the occasion.

We have also started our Art project on the Invisible Artist – we have decided to focus on our History topic which fits in perfectly with the theme of mythology and fairy tales.  We followed tutorials about how to draw a pharaoh, Anubis and Horus and then the children had the opportunity to use some of their own ideas.

In Maths, we’ve learnt how to read the time for minutes past and to the hour.  It’s been a bit tricky but I think we’ve just about got there.  Please practise this skill with them over the weekend.  Next week, the children will do their Spring arithmetic and reasoning & problem solving assessments.

In English, we are really enjoying the wonderful world of the BFG and his antics with the not-so-pleasant giants.  Next week, we’ll get a chance to plan, draft, write our stories to include inverted commas which we have also been working on this week.

In RE, we have learnt about the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.  In History, we learned about the fascinating subject of mummification in Ancient Egypt.

Remember it will be the annual Easter Bonnet Parade next Thursday so get those creative juices flowing this weekend.  On the same theme – please read your ParentMail about the Easter egg raffles.

Think it’s time for umbrellas and wellies this weekend…stay dry and have a lovely weekend!

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics.

Mrs Jeffrey

Hello!

Just a couple of weeks to go until we all have a well-earned Easter break!

We had a great start to British Science Week with Mercedes, our Scientist-in-Residence and some of her Science Club students running a STEM themed Collective Worship on Monday where we learnt about all of the careers available in the worlds of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Don’t forget to enter the British Science Week Poster competition on the theme of Connections and bring your entries into school by next Friday for us to shortlist. Click here for more info:-

https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/poster-competition/

​To celebrate British Science Week and have set Science homework this week.

It was the second and last week of swimming this week and the children have done brilliantly well.  All the swimming instructors have praised not only their progress but their behaviour at the pool.  Swimming is part of the National Curriculum so I’ve been really pleased to see that the children have really embraced the lessons.  They have enjoyed ‘a day out of the office’ – walking with friends and being in the water.  We have watched from the side lines and seen them grow in confidence and getting stronger in their swimming strokes.  Well done everybody!

A reminder that our Parents/Carers Evenings are coming up next Wednesday and Thursday; if you haven’t already done so, please ensure that you book a slot. I look forward to speaking to you all next week.

Just a reminder that we are officially past half way through the academic year so all practises around homework, reading folders and library books should be well embedded.  Homework including comprehension (on alternate weeks) should be completed and handed in by Wednesday.  Incomplete homework will be returned and late homework may not be marked.  Handwriting sheets should be used to practise the spelling words only and not used for sentence writing.  Library books should be returned every Wednesday even if your child wants to keep the book (it will be renewed) and reading folders handed in by Friday so books can be changed and given out on Monday.

For our English lessons, we are meeting wonderful new characters in The BFG and the children are looking forward to creating their own bully or villain for some story writing next week.

During Maths this week, we have finished Multiplication & Division unit and the children have completed an end of unit assessment.  We will be moving onto time as our next topic which will be challenging.  Remember practising the five times tables and common fractions half and quarter will come in handy.

In lieu of a normal Art lesson, ahead of Mothering Sunday, we created cards to celebrate our mothers, aunties, sisters, family friends and any significant older female figures in our lives!

The children had fun with a Drama session led by Mark.

Next week, the children will start an exciting fairy tales, myths and legends art project at school which Ms Allen has organised.  Each piece of art will be judged by a guest judge organised by FOSS. There will be 2 winners in each class whose art will be displayed at the FOSS Secret Artist Event and two winners will also go on a trip to a London art gallery (details to follow).

No Gymnastics lesson next week but we have cricket on Tuesday morning – the rest of the week should look more like the usual timetable.

Homework this week is spellings, comprehension, Mathletics and Science.

Have a super weekend!

It was all about the swimming this week.  The children have been so enthusiastic about swimming and walked (at a fair pace to avoid the wet weather) to the pool and back in good spirits.  Some children have been using the pool noodles & floats in the training pool and holding their breath under water and some children managed to complete 8 lengths of the 25m pool totalling 200m!  We have completed the first week of swimming with just enough energy to have PE with Alistair on Friday.  (They will have Gymnastics on Monday afternoon next Monday.)

In Maths, we have been focussing on using formal methods (bus stop) for short division.  Again, their recall of their times tables is crucial to their understanding of this concept so I cannot re-iterate enough the importance of practising their times tables!  If your child is breezing through their recall of all times tables (up to 12 x 12) then they should be practising using the inverse eg 4 x 5 = 20, so 20 ÷  4 = 5, 20 ÷ 5 = 4.  We will be finishing off this unit next week and moving onto time so an understanding of the 5 x table is really important.

In English, we have been introduced to the new character of the Bloodbottler.  “His foul face was round and squashy looking.  The eyes were tiny black holes.  The nose was small.  But the mouth was huge.”  We had an interesting lesson discussing the stereotype of a bully (male, older, taller, stronger, physically harming someone smaller).  We looked at images of villains from children’s stories and films and discussed stereotypes and challenged ourselves by imagining that Mrs Trunchbull actually spends lots of her time volunteering at an animal centre.  This will lead us to our work next week when we create our own bully/villain.

In RE, we revisited the Ten Commandments and British Values to create two of our own commandments.

We also celebrated International Women’s Day with a presentation on three inspirational women : Jane Goodhall, Mary Anning and Gladys West.

In Science, we are on week two of observing our beans – most of them are showing good signs of root and sprout growth.  The celery investigation continues and we’ll look at the celery stalks next week.

Congratulations to our budding gardeners who were awarded certificates for their daffodils.

Homework this week is spellings (please use the handwriting paper to practise handwriting!) and Mathletics tasks.

After all their physical activity this week, I’m sure the children will be ready for a restful weekend!  Enjoy!

Mrs Jeffrey

During our Maths lessons, we continue with multiplying two digit by one digit using exchange.  Some of us are finding it quite tricky so we’ve decided not to rush these lessons and are spending a little longer on it.

In our English, we are loving reading The BFG and all his gobbledy gook language.

We used VIPERS to answer questions from a chapter and some of us wrote our own questions and got our friends to answer them.  This is a brilliant way of assessing how well we understand the text.  Try it at home!

On Thursday, the whole school was awash with the most amazing World Book Day costumes based on the myths, legends and fairy tales.  We had our very own BFG with very impressive ears and our own Egyptian pharaoh!  All the children are in the photo gallery above – see if you can guess the name of the book or character (apologies for the cropping which is down to the system and not my camera skills…).  We made Dream Jars and did some ‘gobble-funking’ of our own and complied our very own humorous Dahl-esque dictionaries.  To stay on theme, we mixed the day up with some Egyptian myths and the children got plenty of opportunity to read which couldn’t make some of them happier!  After all – who doesn’t love a good book!  On Friday, the children were enraptured by Xanthe’s storytelling about Medusa.  She seemed to cast her own magical spell as they were completely spellbound and captivated by her!  Thank you to Ms Pereira for organising the activities the children have enjoyed this week.

During our Science lesson, we started to look at how water is transported through plants and, in a hands-on investigation, we placed some celery stick in coloured water. We are observing and recording our findings.

In our RE lesson, we learned about Jesus’ Greatest Commandment, and in our History lesson, learned about the discovery of Tutankhamen which we consolidated through a reading comprehension.

Our RHE lesson we learned the difference between fact and opinion and tried to understand different viewpoints.

We finished the week with a Drama lesson with Mark which the children really enjoyed.

It’s a very exciting two weeks ahead with swimming every morning!  Please read previous ParentMail message so you and the children are all ready to go.  Unfortunately due to this swimming, we have been unable to reschedule their PE & Gymnastics lessons.  If this changes, the children should already be dressed in their PE kit so will already be prepared.

Enjoy the blossoms this weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

This week, we attended church for an Ash Wednesday service and remembered the start of Jesus’ journey into the desert.

In English this week, we were busy practising our spellings and putting them into sentences. We also started our new Classic Text Unit where we are studying the fantastic ‘BFG’ by Roald Dahl. We have enjoyed all the rich vocabulary and looking more closely at the dormitory setting and the BFG himself using paired adjectives, alliteration and similes. The children were very creative with their descriptions! NB We also briefly touched upon the current news story about sensitivities around Roald Dahl’s books.

In Maths we continued on with our unit on Multiplication and Division where we worked hard at multiplying two digit by one digit numbers with an exchange. This proved tricky so we had some extra lessons on it and we also completed lots of challenges to consolidate our learning. Any extra practise at home would really benefit the children.

We’ve started our History topic of Ancient Egypt and began by briefly looking at other ancient civilisations (Ancient Sumer, Ancient Greece, Ancient China, Indus Valley and the Roman Empire), when they started and where they were located.  We also learnt that the Ancient Egypt period in history was during the Stone/Iron/Bronze age in Britain.

In Art, we learned about Egyptian art and how the colours are muted and not bright.  First we water washed our paper (we tried using teabags and coffee but without much success so we used watered down paints) before drawing Egyptian inspired art.  Check the photos to see what you think!

In Science, we recapped on previous learning and revised the parts of a flowering plant and what their functions are.  Then we got a chance to plant a broad bean seed into transparent containers so we could monitor and record the growth of the roots.

The World Book Day parade will still go ahead next Thursday the 2^nd of March.

We have sent home a poster for the children to enter a special World Book Day competition if they wish.

The homework this week is spellings and Mathletics.

A note from Mrs Pereira…

Next Friday 3rd March Daunt Books are coming to St Stephens. The book sale will pop up in various locations throughout the day. At morning drop-off the book sale will be located in the Early Years playground for parents to browse. Throughout the day each Key Stage 2 class will visit the sale. If you would like them to purchase a book by one of our visiting myth and fairy tale authors (Xanthe Gresham Knight and HS Norup​) or purchase another book of their choice (there will be many new titles, myths, fairy tales etc..), then please provide them with money on the day. Children will also be provided with £1 book vouchers for World Book Day which they can use at the sale. The book sale will then reappear at the main entrance of the school at the end of the day for any parents who may wish to purchase a book then. As always Daunt Books have agreed to give 20% of their profits back to the school to help with regular restocking of the Library.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

We made it – officially half way through the academic year.  It’s been a bit hectic this week.  Miss Hall started the week with an assembly on Mental Health and the children have been completing mindfulness activities in a booklet throughout the week.

During this week, we completed our mid-term Maths and English assessments and finished our DT projects of electronic posters – where we made simple electrical circuits to create an information poster about volcanoes.

In English, we have planned a story based on The Monster Crisp Guzzler.  I’ve started reading some of their stories featuring their teacher creatures and really enjoyed some of the situations they have written about.

During RE, we have looked at stories of faith from the Bible (Daniel and the Lions & Jesus Calms the Storm), we’ve completed our RHE unit of ‘Keeping Me Safe’.

We finished the week with a Drama session with Mark, which of course, the children really enjoyed.

Homework this week is spellings, Mathletics and comprehension.  I’ve been marking homework this week which has been disappointing – general handwriting/presentation has been untidy and the quality of sentences lacklustre… Please encourage your child to include the grammar focus and take care with their handwriting.  Year 3 (and Year 5) will be trialling a new handwriting scheme next half term.  I hope this will tackle some of those bad habits that the children have slipped into.

Please click on this link and check your ParentMail if your child is interested in entering this art competition.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574451fe37013bd0515647ac/t/6388d1793e498f0edcead03d/1669910910116/School+COmpetition+2023+Flyer.pdf

I know some of you have plans to travel over the half term, whether you’re home or away, have a lovely break!

Mrs Jeffrey

In our English lessons, we carried on with our book of The Monster Crisp Guzzler and the children had lots of fun creating their own creature teachers.  There were lots of creative and original ideas.  I’ll be looking forward to seeing them appear in the end of unit writing.

During Maths, we continued to work on multiplication and division. This week, we have been learning how to multiply two digit number by one digit numbers.

In our Computing lessons – we learned the difference between factual statements, fictional ones and opinions and the children used the Chromebooks for complete statements about plants.  We also had a Coding session on Friday where the children learned about on-line safety and did some coding activities – thanks to Mr Faith for holding the assembly this morning and arranging the day.

Also thanks to Miss Hall who has arranged a number of guests to come into school to talk to the children about their work in health.  Kate, our Year 3 guest is a nurse.

In RHE we learned about how to assess a risk and what we could do to lower the level of risk.

In Geography, we compared volcanic areas to non-volcanic areas and completed an end of unit quiz.

During our RE lesson, we discussed what the Bible teaches about faith and what faith means to us and how we might have it to overcome a challenge.

For our Science lesson, we learned about surfaces that are highly reflective and completed an end of term quiz.

Year 3 will be going swimming after half term – please check your Parentmail next week about more details.

Here is this week’s homework is spellings and Mathletics.

The sun is shining – hurrah – have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

During Maths, we completed our end of unit test on Multiplication and Division Block A and we started our new unit on Multiplication and Division Block B. We practised division by using Base 10 and counters, first with relatively simple calculations, later moving onto ones where we had to exchange sets of tens for ones.

In English we wrote our final piece in our Instructions Unit. We wrote some fantastic pieces of work on how to make not just any cup of tea, but a lovely cup of tea! We started our new unit in English on a fantastic book by Malorie Blackman called ‘The Monster Crisp-Guzzler, which is already a big hit in 3 Lear!

For our Science lesson, we built on our previous workshop with Miss Merderdes and explored various examples of light and shadows them.

In Geography, we used all of our knowledge from our assembly and successfully labelled the features of a volcano.

We enjoyed a spectacular Lunar New Year assembly arranged by parents where we were enchanted by the ribbon dance and the fan dance performed by May. The children had a Chinese themed lunch accompanied by prawn crackers, fortune cookies and chopsticks. We also enjoyed a Tai Chi workshop and lots of Lunar New Year activities in the classroom. Mila also kindly gifted us all a beautiful red envelope with a good luck message. Lots of fun was had!

Another busy week ahead – next Friday we have a guest coming in to talk to the children about their work in health and Coding Day.

Homework this week is spellings, Mathletics and the return of the reading comprehension.

What a week!

We are in the throes of rehearsing for our class assembly and the children have been practising (thank you for supporting them at home!), singing and generally doing themselves proud.  Miss Rachel is working on a musical arrangement which we’re thrilled about.  We’re excited about next Thursday and look forward to seeing you there.  Costumes are being sorted out at school for most of the children’s roles.  If they have been measured up by Miss Joanna or myself, then they just need to wear light (preferably white) t-shirt/top and light (preferably white) leggings/tights or bottoms as the cotton tunics are very thin!  If your child hasn’t been ‘measured up’ at school, they can wear their own clothes.  If you are unsure – please email me and I will clarify!

In our Maths lessons, we continued our work on multiplication and division. In doing this, we worked on multiplication and division problems for the 8 times tables. Next week, we will finish this Multiplication unit and end of unit assessment.

During our English lessons, we continued to work on instruction texts. We created guides on how to catch dragons (with a bit of creative license used as part of the process!) We also answered a reading comprehension based on a set of instructions about how to clean an elephant. We finished the week with a book club listening and discussing different books.  We have a lovely class of bookworms!

In our RE lesson, we looked at whether the Bible has many plots, one overarching plot (known as a ‘metanarrative’) or both.

Homework this week is spellings, Mathletics and learning song words, the poem and assembly lines.

Next week, there is a Science In Residence session with Miss Mercedes.

Message from Miss Hall and Mrs Allen

Red Card to Racism Art Contest

On Monday Miss Hall introduced all the children to the Red Card to Racism Art Contest that is running. Children can make their entries at home and bring them into school to enter into the national competition! Please return all entries to either Miss Hall (Year 5 Blackman) or Mrs Allen (Year 1 McNaughton).

You can find out more about the competition by following this link: ​

School+COmpetition+2023+Flyer.pdf (squarespace.com)

Have a great weekend… just a few days to go before the big performance.

Mrs Jeffrey

As well as practising for our class assembly, we have also managed to get a lot of learning into our week!

During our Maths lessons, we continued to practise our 3 and 4 times tables to work on a range of related number sentences and word problems, as well as division calculations that used inverse operations.

We really enjoyed our English work on instructions this week using a checklist to identify the key features of a text and identified time words and imperative verbs. We sequenced instructions to get to Westfield shopping centre from school.  In our GPS lessons we learned about : word family, prefix, subordinate clause, direct speech, consonant, consonant letter, vowel, vowel letter and inverted commas.

During our RE lesson, we collected various Bibles from classes in the school and had discovered that it is divided into two parts and has 66 books it total.  We also remembered stories from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Instead of our usual RHE lesson, we enjoyed a virtual ‘Life Bus’ visit from Sarah and Harold the Giraffe where we learned about ways we can stay healthy and happy. Thank you for ‘visiting’ us, and an extra-special ‘thank you’ to the wonderful Miss Hall (our RHE coordinator,) who organised the event!

In our Computing lesson, we learned about devices, how they work (unpowered, powered by mains electricity and / or powered by batteries) and the safety precautions we need to take with regards to using them and the electrical charge they may hold.

Your children also got the pleasure of taking their library books home for the first time! Please ensure that they bring them back in on Wednesday for returning / renewal.

We finished the week working on our DT project of designing an electric poster – the children will design an information poster which will contain a light bulb element which could be used in a museum to inform and teach the public about volcanoes.

This week’s homework is Spellings and Mathletics.  No comprehension but children should be learning their lines for their class assembly, song lyrics and poem (all can be found on this page) for Thursday 26^th January.  We’ll send you information costumes next week.

Let’s hope this weekend is dryer than last weekend.

Mrs Jeffrey

Artist Workshops

​As part of enriching our Art learning, we are looking for any parents, carers or even grandparents who are Artists or work in an artistic career, such as architecture, who would be willing to run an Art workshop with the classes. It can be linked to to the curriculum or a stand alone lesson in the year group of your choice. If you would be interested in volunteering your time with us, please get in touch with Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk).

Hello, hello and Happy New Year!  Thank you for the very generous wishes, cards and gifts which have kept me warm, refreshed and smelling like flowers!  And I’ve enjoyed  all the sweet treats as well. I hope you are all refreshed and ready for a busy 2023!

We’ve crammed a lot into our first three days back together!

In English, we reviewed all of the work we completed during the entire Autumn Term. This included finishing off tasks, as some required a bit more time. As well as this, we spent the lesson reflecting upon teacher comments in our books, and making corrections and improvements using our green pens. The following day, we began a  non-fiction unit on Instruction texts. We discussed where we might see instruction texts and how they tend to be laid out so as to make them clear to the reader. We then focused on verbal instructions. We worked in pairs, taking turns to give verbal instructions whilst the other person attempted to draw it from the commands given. We also had a lesson on our new spellings based on the prefix re-. We enjoyed completing a variety of activities based on the prefix.

During our Maths lessons, we practised our 3 times tables by answering a range of number sentence and word problem-related questions.

In Computing we created staircases using repeat commands in a variety of colours on JIT5.

In our Geography lesson, we started our new unit of work on volcanoes, studying some of the more famous examples of them around the world.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics tasks.  Reading folders went home today but in future will only go out on Mondays.  Homework to be handed in by Wednesday.

Please note our class assembly is on *Thursday 26^th January* – we will be working on this over the next two weeks.

Well, Year 3 have finished the term with the same energy as they started the term.  They have had an exciting, activity-packed week, which has included annual Key Stage 2 Christmas Quiz hosted by Mr Faith.

The children have been rehearsing hard this week to prepare for Thursday’s Carol Service.  I’m sure you agree that it was worth it.  I hope you are proud of how beautifully the children sang in the carol service; a big ‘Thank You’ goes out to our wonderful assistant head, Miss Bell, who planned, rehearsed and organised the event, as well as Miss Rachel, who despite being ill, patiently taught and practised the songs with all the children accompanying them on the piano.

Apart from the rehearsing, we have been finishing off end-of-unit assessments so we’re ready for the new term.  I think they enjoyed writing their myths as much as I’ve enjoyed reading them.  More of them are using that all important success criteria to improve their work.  Let’s hope that continues in the new year.

Please note that there is NO HOMEWORK for the Christmas holidays; homework will be given out on the first Friday back (6th January.) However, we have sent your child/ren home with their homework books so they are able to review all of the wonderful homework they have done over the past term – enjoy!

After the uncertainty of the last two Christmases – I hope this year’s celebrations prove to be extra special. I hear some of you have planned to travel and some of you are staying closer to home – whatever your plans – enjoy this special time with family and loved ones.

Thank you all for your support this term (from parent readers, trip helpers and parent visitors) and all the FOSS events this term.  Happy Christmas to you and your families.

Mrs Jeffrey

PS  Miss Tracey, Miss Joanna and I all thank you very much for your good wishes, cards and generous presents!

INSET on 3^rd Jan, children back in on Wednesday 4th January.

Tuesday was packed with culinary activity.  We peeled, cored, chopped, zested, grated, mixed, stirred and potted our Christmas chutney ready for the Saturday fair.  The children worked hard and even managed to clear and clean up afterwards!  They are so proud of their seasonal delight – I do hope you get a chance to sample their labours!

In our English lessons, our GPS lesson focus was on the statutory words from the National Curriculum.  We planned and written our exciting myths using our previous work about settings and mythical beasts.  We are really proud of our stories and are enjoying reading them to the class.

In History, we learned about the Iron Age and will be ready to complete the end of unit assessment next week.

In our RE lesson, we looked at the charity ‘Love In A Box’, and reflected upon the importance of making giving not just receiving and charitable gestures, especially over the Christmas period.  The children remembered previous Christmas projects the school had done such as buying gifts for those less fortunate than ourselves.  We were reminded of this when we had our Christmas sockings on Wednesday – the children were genuinely pleased and grateful for their gifts.  We also discussed what the candles on the Advent wreath symbolised: faith, hope, joy, peace and love.

In our Maths lessons, we moved onto our new unit of work: multiplication and division.  Please ensure that you practise times tables with your children as regularly as possible, as quick recall of them (along with their associated inverse operations) will prove invaluable over the first few weeks of the Spring Term.

During Science, we looked at vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as those living creatures with and without protective shells, doing a sorting activity regarding the same.

In our RHE lesson, we reflected upon the idea of prejudice, and what we can do when people are being bullied.

Please return all library books to school before Christmas.

Please read messages about Christmas Carol Concert next Thursday – children need to wear school uniform complete with school ties and school shoes NOT trainers.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics tasks – keep make sure you are completing the tasks set not choosing other random tasks and quests!

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the fair tomorrow!

Mrs Jeffrey

In our Maths lessons, we finished our unit of work on addition and subtraction by continuing to practise estimation methods (as mentioned last week, please continue to do this at home.) As the week drew to a close, we looked at ways of using inverse operations to double-check answers to addition / subtraction questions. Finally, we completed and reviewed our end-of-unit tests and some challenges.

In our English lessons, our GPS lesson focus was on the words ending in ‘ture’. We also completed a writing task where we first sequenced the events of the story of Daedalus and Icarus, then later wrote in the role of Icarus. We tried out our first ever visual comprehension, The Dragon Slayer, which was a great success and the children thought up of some fantastic questions all on their own which they later shared with their peers. We also wrote about a mythical setting where we used lots of paired adjectives as well as some very interesting similes. We learned about Medusa and Pandora’s Box and acted out a myth where we used this opportunity to get some ideas for our own myths we will be planning and writing next week. Phew what a week in English!

During Science, as part of our work on animals (including humans) we looked at the human skeleton. In doing this, we learned about the two main functions of the skeleton : to keep us upright and to protect our important organs.

In History, we learned about the importance of discovering bronze during the Bronze Age.

During RE, we learned about John the Baptist and the important role he played in preparing Christians for the arrival of Jesus. After reflecting upon his words, we then thought about ways in which we could announce the return of Jesus to modern society, writing ‘emails’ and ‘Tweets’ on paper about the same.

In our Computing lesson, we worked really hard at signing into Google Classroom accounts!

In our RHE lesson, we looked at ways in which we can celebrate our differences.

In Art we finished off our beautiful chalk drawings that we started last week. They were all amazing!

We have sent home the Carol Concert lyrics please practise them at home, as the children have a rehearsal with Ms Bell next week.

Homework this week is spellings, comprehension and Mathletics.

Don’t forget if you have any spare jars with lids at home please can we have them for our produce for the Christmas Fair next week.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

Only four weeks until Christmas and three weeks to the end of our first term together – how time flies especially when we’re having fun!

In our English lessons, we worked with partners creating our own mythical creatures which proved to be a very creative experience.  Then later on in the week, the class enjoyed a ‘hot seating’ activity where the children chose to be the role of either a blacksmith or a tiny knight.

During our Maths lessons, we have been working hard on the concept of exchanging and are now subtracting 2-digit and 3 digit numbers from 3-digit numbers. Using simple estimations to quickly calculate rough answers is a really useful skill, and one I encourage you to practise with your child/ren. An example of this would be: to work out 97 + 49, you could round the numbers to 100 and 50, then add the two together in your head in a straightforward fashion.

Please continue to practise our class poem, as we will be filming a performance of it in the coming weeks – we practised this week in class.

During our Science lesson, we learned how to collate and present data as part of an investigation, using a fictional survey on pet owners’ dog food preferences!

In History, we went on a fact hunt and found out how people lived in the Neolithic period, with a particular focus on Stonehenge.

During RE, we have started the Advent so quite timely with Advent beginning on Sunday.

We also enjoyed a fabulous Art lesson on abstract art focussing on flowers inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics tasks.  Reading books will be change once a week – please make sure they are returned by Friday for books to be changed and handed out on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

What a week!

We started the week with our GPS lesson where we looked at words with the ‘i’ sound spelt with a ‘y’, so everyone is ready for this week’s homework. We had lots of fun working on the Greek myth ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’. We tested our acting skills again this week as we took on the role of one of the main characters in the myth and acted it out. It was just like being at the West End. Next, we created adjective banks to describe the Minotaur. After that, we started writing in the role of Theseus as he filled in his diary entry based on his experience of going down the labyrinth and coming face to face with the Minotaur.

In Maths this week, we have been very busy exchanging in both column addition and column subtraction. Please challenge the children with some calculations at home!

Our Science lesson had a computing link this week. We used the Ipads to research what different animals from around the world eat.

In RE we continued to look at wisdom. We wrote a letter to our future selves offering as much advice as we could in the letters. The children will take the letters home at the end of the year.

In our Art lesson we tried some botanical drawing, the results were amazing!

Yesterday we had a fantastic day at Gunnersbury Park where we attended an amazing workshop all about the Stone Age. We handled a hand axe and flint blades which were actually from that time period as well as seeing a real mammoth tooth.  We were also shown a replica spearhead which had been skilfully put together using animal intestines to tie the spearhead to the shaft of the arrow. Then we braved the bitter cold weather and went outside to test our hunter gatherer skills. We were shown how to spear a buffalo (no animals were injured!) and used animal skins and long sticks to build a shelter. We even got to splat some daub on our wattle to create sturdy fence-like panels. The children had a brilliant time and learned so much. Who would have thought mammoths roamed around West London back in the day!

A huge thank you to the lovely ladies who kindly helped us out on our trip: Amanda, Nina and Taran.

Homework this week – spellings, Mathletics and comprehension.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

PS When we were not hunting and gathering yesterday, we got a chance to dress up in the Fashion Gallery – completely unrelated to the Stone Age!

Week Commencing Monday 7th November 2022

Hello!

That was a particularly busy week!

I’m not sure what David Attenborough would make of our English reports about our imaginary creatures!  The children were really excited about writing their reports and had some great ideas.  This week, they used their own plans and word banks to write clearly sectioned, clearly titled reports.  They are beginning to edit their work – making improvements (correcting spelling, substituting words, adding detail) to make their work even better.  We had all sorts of weird and wonderful animal creations.  It was lovely to see they had remembered their learning from before half term.  We have also finished our class book, Mr Gum by Andy Stanton which the children really enjoyed.  I’m pleased to see different books from the same series being read by the children.

During Maths lessons, both groups have been working on addition and subtraction including the all important idea of ‘bridging’ over 100s and 10s.  We have been using formal methods to add with and without exchanging. Some of the children have found using place value counters or base ten has been helping with their understanding.  We use the term ‘exchanging’ process (not ‘borrowing’).

In our Science lesson, we learned about healthy eating food pyramids and what a well-balanced diet might look like and why it’s important to have one.

In RE – we have started learning about Wisdom using Proverbs from The Bible.  I’m really proud that the children have learnt our year’s Bible verse off by heart.  In Art – we practised shading.

On Friday, we observed two minutes silence for Remembrance Day.

Thank you for attending your (virtual) parents evening meetings. Whilst you haven’t been able to visit our classroom or see their work – I hope you found it as useful as I did.

Homework this week – spellings and Mathletics.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

Hello,

Half term seems so long ago… the children have had a fantastic start to our Autumn 2 term. They have come back and hit the ground running!

We have started a new spelling scheme beginning with ‘ou’ words which make an /ow/ sound. The children have been using sound buttons (you can ask them!) to help them segment and spell the words.  We have also had our first ‘book club’ style session where we have shared our ideas and opinion about books and stories we have read.  It proved really popular with the children and they’re already asking about the next session.  We have also been planning our reports for our end of unit pieces, while also brushing up on our dictionary skills.

In our Maths lessons, aside from being super busy learning our times tables, Miss Kelly’s group have started using column addition. In my group, we have been trying to add and subtract bridging over 10s and 100s.  This has proved quite challenging!  We’ve used base 10 equipment and drawing to help us with the concept.  We will do some more work on this next week – using number lines and partitioning.

During RE, we finished our unit on Sikhism and in Computing we looked at the importance of passwords and how to create a safe password.  In summary, a mixture of upper case and lower case letters, numbers and special characters makes our passwords strong.

In Science, we started our unit on Animals Including Humans, we looked at where we get nutrients from and the importance of a healthy diet.

During History, we started our unit on Prehistoric Britain. We looked at what the term ‘prehistory’ means and how and who uncovers history.

We finished off the week with an Art lesson where we looked at some art from an ‘artist view’ and sketched some still life.

The homework and comprehension can be found below.

There is a change to the spellings so please read the letter below carefully.

The poem to learn for this half term is here:-

MICE by ROSE FYLMAN

I think mice
Are rather nice.

Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven’t any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn’t touch
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice
Are nice.

Don’t forget to check you ParentMail about our upcoming trip and if you haven’t done so already please book in for parents evening.

…. have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

Hello!

We made it!  It’s been a particularly busy start to the year!

This term we have :

• made yummy exotic fruit kebabs & a nutritious vegetable soup
• completed mid-term and end-of-unit assessments on Geography and Science
• ran a cross country race
• visited the Science Museum – thank you to Nicola and Ana
• celebrated Hispanic Day – thank you Ana, Gonzalez & Nick
• celebrated Black Voices Week
• participated in a super Scientist in Residence workshop on Rocks
• finished with Red Card to Racism day
• and learned about the celebration of Diwali – we all definitely need a week’s break!

Celebration of Black Voices Week

We’ve been learning all about Grace Nichols who happens to be one of year 3’s poets!  We’ve enjoyed reading and performing her poetry to our classes.  We composed our own version of Morning using our ideas about what sounds we might hear in the morning and our poems will be displayed in the class.  We also performed/recited Cat Fight which was recorded for prosperity.

During RE, we finished our unit on what Sikhs believe and had an excellent RHE session related to ‘Show Racism The Red Card’.

Please note that there is spellings and Mathletics homework for your child this half term.   There is a link to recorder practise from Miss Rachel.  Remember to keep practising times tables, telling the time and number bonds to 100. Words and times tables to be tested the following Friday, Friday 4th November.   Just a reminder that homework is due in no later than Wednesday of the following week.

I hope you have a wonderful break!  I hear Calcott Manor, Isle of Wight, Suffolk, Dorset, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal and Romania are on the itinerary for year 3.  Wherever you find yourself – enjoy!

Mrs Jeffrey

Week done!

In English, we continued our unit of work on reports by looking at their key features. We also tackled a reading comprehension based around the exemplar text we have been using for this unit, a made-up report on the ‘sneaglegator’ (ask your child about this one!) During our GPS lesson, we practised using the prefix pre-.

During Maths, we worked with adding and subtracting 1-digit numbers from 3-digit ones, first without crossing 10, then later with crossing 10. We also worked hard on spotting patterns and writing directly into our Maths books.

In our Geography lesson, we completed our end of unit assessment, while during RE, we reflected upon the importance of the Amrit ceremony and the importance of the 5 Ks for Sikhs.

The weather was kind to us as we enjoyed an exhilarating afternoon of speed walking (thanks to Mr Schumm) and cross country running on Tuesday afternoon and on Thursday the children were giddy with excitement to be getting a hot-dogs and popcorn for their movie night!

Next week, we will have a workshop with our Scientist-In-Residence who will continue on this term’s topic of Rocks – it promises to be fun and exciting.  On Thursday we will be visiting the Science Museum to watch a 3D film, Antartica.

Some housekeeping points:-

• Please make sure you send your child in with a coat now the weather is more unpredictable but likely to become cooler and wetter.
• Also, please remember that KS2 children do not get fruit from school so please send some fruit in with children – we have a few children who really would like a healthy mid morning snack and we have nothing to give them.
• Children visit the library every Wednesday for their weekly opportunity to change their book. Even if they wish to read the same library book – send it in so it can be scanned out again – then we can see books returned/scanned weekly rather than a non-return.  Do encourage them to choose, read and return a book every week.

Homework this week :

Spellings, comprehension and Mathletics tasks.  Comprehension homework is for all children to complete – please encourage your children to do it.  All children should be completing the comprehension task.

Don’t forget to learn your poem for next week as we will be performing it!

A message from Miss Hall:

On Friday 21st October, we will be holding our annual ‘Red Card to Racism’ day. For those of you unfamiliar, this is an opportunity to show support and raise money for the UK’s largest anti-racism charity. On the day, children can wear their own clothes and we encourage them all to wear something red. If you are able to, we ask that children make a contribution to the charity in the buckets that will be in the playground before school that morning.https://www.theredcard.org/.

A message from Mr Gane:

 Maths Homework

Mathletics is our eco-friendly homework setting system for Maths and children’s weekly work is monitored and assessed in exactly the same manner as traditional written homework.

Homework tasks set on Mathletics are expected to be completed on rough paper, with the final answers then entered in to the device – unless specifically stated, it is NOT mental Maths, so ‘workings out’ are expected/required at home, but not to be handed in. Remember that most questions have an animation that explicitly explains the method, demonstrating each step to solve the problem, if your child needs a reminder of how to complete the task.

Technical Issues

We have checked that your child’s login details are correct, if in doubt do ask the teacher to check again. That means that for any other issues, parents/carers should contact the Mathletics helpline, as it will be an issue with your internet set up at home, or iPad setting or browser or any other number of issues – we can’t help there. See the information below that might help.

Mathletics can be accessed by PC/Mac, iOS and Android devices as well as Windows tablets and Chromebooks – on the laptops at school we find that it works best using either the Microsoft Edge or Chrome browsers. See http://www.3plearning.com/tech/mathletics/ for more details and if you experience difficulty in loading the Mathletics website at home please contact Mathletics ‘LIVE Chat Online’ help or email via https://www.mathletics.com/in/contact/

Only a week to go!  Have a super weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

Hello!

Phew! What a very busy week!

We finished the week with Hispanic Day – the school was awash with colours of Spanish countries – thanks to Ms Pereira for organising the dance workshop (see photos on our school web page) and to our parent volunteers Ana and Gonzalez who read two stories in Spanish to us, one of which was Where the Wild Things Are.  The children also created some art (check out their work on the web based class page) inspired by Chilean artist Roberta Matta – thanks to Nick.  They also learned about Ecuador artist Oswaldo Guyasamin.

On Thursday, we had the excitement of DT day (thank you for sending in the chopping boards and peelers at short notice) where we learnt about seasonal vegetables and used a selection of them to make soup.  Miss Kelly and I decided to be as eco friendly as possible buying vegetables from the local market instead of choosing plastic wrapped produce from a shop.  We also composted our peelings.  Some of the children were not so thrilled about making the soup so it was a relief that we managed to convert a few children to liking/enjoying it.  Quoting one child, ‘It looks yucky on the outside but it’s actually yummy!’

During English, we started our unit of work on reports by looking at their key features, working in partners to create posters that showed examples of the different features found in non-fiction texts, including headings, subheadings, captions, diagrams, photographs, facts, contents pages, indexes and glossaries. During our separate GPS lesson, we focused on proper dictionary use.

In Maths, after completing our unit of work on place value and have completed our end of topic assessment.  We will be using these to inform us about possible changes in the Maths groups starting after half term

During our RE lesson, we looked at the forming of the Khalsa, a pivotal time in the history of Sikhism.  We learnt that khalsa means the ‘pure ones’.

In Geography, we have used fact cards and atlases to find out more about countries and cities.

In Science, we have been learning about different uses of rock and discussed where rocks can be found in and around school and our homes & gardens.

Homework – spellings and Mathletics this week.

Weather forecast looks promising for the weekend – whatever your plans – enjoy!

We had another busy week here in 3 Nichols!

During English, we planned and started to write our own detailed descriptive pieces from a ‘bug’s eye’ view. As part of the writing process, next week we will be sure to re-read our work with a view to improving it, a key part of the Year 3 English Writing curriculum.  Their plans are full of great ideas so I’m in for a good read next week!

In Maths, we continued our work on number and place value. We built upon last week’s work, finding 1, 10 or 100 more or less than given numbers. We then compared and sequenced numbers up to 1000 and developed our understanding of the terms ‘ascending’ and ‘descending’.

In our RE lesson, we learned about Guru Nanak and his importance to Sikhs. As a whole class, we thought about leaders and discussed their qualities (confidence, loyalty, kindness, generosity, being a good decision maker etc;). We learned that main leader of the Sikh faith is Guru Nanak. The terms ‘guru’ (teacher) and Sikh (‘learner’) were then explained. We then learned about the early life of Guru Nanak, focussing on his teaching on equality and his experience of going to bathe and being with God for three days when he was 30 years old. We used the ‘Diamond Nine’ format in small groups to order the qualities of a leader.

In our Computing lesson, we started to learn about the importance of online safety practices; using the SMART acronym as a jumping-off point. We created eye-catching posters about online safety following the SMART principles. The children created some beautiful posters.

In Science, we carried out an experiment with our partners to see if we could find the most hard-wearing rock from our collection of rocks in the classroom. Lots of fun was had!

In our Geography lessons, we worked with our partners to find out specific information about our chosen continents, and the capital cities of various countries around the world.

Next week promises to be more fun with DT on Thursday and Hispanic Day on Friday!  We are certainly going to be busy bees!

Homework this week is spellings, comprehension and Mathletics.

Remember the umbrella and the raincoat this weekend – have a good one!

Mrs Jeffrey

…only means we are busier than ever!

In our RE lesson this week about Sikhism, we learnt about the ‘Ik Onkar’ symbol, which means ‘there is only one God’. After doing this, we designed our own symbols that included our beliefs and ideas.  There were some interesting ideas…

During English, we planned and started to write our own detailed descriptive pieces from a ‘bug’s eye’ view. As part of the writing process, next week we will be sure to re-read our work with a view to improving it by including paired adjectives, adverbs and the odd fronted adverbial, a key part of the Year 3 English Writing curriculum.

In Maths, we continued our work on number and place value. We built upon last week’s work focussing on numbers to 1000. We compared, sequenced and partitioned numbers up to 1000. We also tried out best to write the numbers in words.  All is going well!

In Science, we grouped rocks according to their characteristics.  The children had the opportunity of handling real rock specimens which they enjoyed and it didn’t take too long for them to discover they could use the chalk to doodle on the slate.  We ended the lesson with a Just Dance We Will Rock You which was followed by a very clever film of babies on roller skates miming to the same song!  Genius!

​During Geography, we located countries on a world map using atlases.

This week’s homework can be found below – please use the handwriting sheet to practise the spellings. There is no comprehension this week!

Don’t forget to check your ParentMail about our trip next month!

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

We’re all settling in to the year quickly and have been busy.  We have democratically voted for our class school councillors, prayer group, librarians and Year 6 House Captains!

This week’s homework is spellings practise (using the handwriting sheet attached inside the homework book), reading comprehension – Monkey Business, Mathletics tasks and times tables practise which should be shown in the back of the book.  We are aware that some children could not find Mathletics tasks last week – we’ll try again this week.  Please let your class teacher know if you experience problems this week.

During Maths, we built upon last week’s work, using number lines for numbers up to 100. We have also made practical use of our newly-refined number and place value skills by starting to solve number and place value-related partitioning problems.

During English, we continued to use Dick King-Smith’s ‘The Omnibombulator’ as a reference text for our work on stories with familiar settings. Next week, we will plan and start to write our very own descriptive pieces from a ‘bug’s eye’ view. As part of the writing process, next week we will be sure to re-read our work with a view to improving it, a key part of the Year 3 English Writing curriculum.

During Geography, we identified and located continents on a world map and enjoyed singing the continents song we learnt in Year 2.

In our RE lesson, we designed a wisdom poster based on Year 3’s value of ‘Wisdom’.

During Science, we started work on rocks and started to learn about natural and human-made rocks, and the differences between them.

In our Computing lesson, we started to learn about the importance of online safety practices signing a contract and tried using our own logins for the first time!  We also had a chance to look at the school library system, Reading Cloud.  Each child will have their individual Reading Cloud login in their homework book.  As part of their homework, they can try logging in and creating their own avatar!

We finished the week with quite a noisy DT session making fruit skewers.  We started the lesson by discussing seasonal fruit & vegetables and looking at world map to see where food comes from.  We had a discussion about why corn, potatoes and cauliflowers are relatively cheap in this country (because they grow well in temperate climates such as the UK) and why tropical fruit can be expensive to buy in this country.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

PS Remember we have a cricket session on Tuesday and PE/Gymnastics next Thursday so please send your children in their PE kit.