Grange Valley Primary & Nursery School

Welcome to Year 3

Mrs Dolman’s Class

W/B 11.03.24

This week, we celebrated Science week. On Monday we watched a Science assembly full of fun, live experiments, Year 3 then took part in a workshop in the afternoon with mini experiments about light and shadows. The whole school visited the Science Fair with many different science projects entered by many children across school.

Grange Valley also had a special visit from the Royal Institution. This visit was a competition that we won for science week. All children were able to watch the fantastic 'Energy Live' shows led by scientist Usamma.

In PE, we have been putting all of our netball skills learnt over the last few weeks to the test in a mini tournament of house

In Maths we have focused on capacity and measuring with lots of problem solving activities. In English, we continued exciting suspense story ‘Wolves in the Walls.’ We are building up to writing our own suspense stories next week.

To finish off the week the children visited the local library to take part in a ‘I love to read’ session.
Have a great weekend everyone.

W/B 04.03.24

This week in Year 3 we have celebrated the love of reading. On Monday, we enjoyed a pleasure for reading session in class with the children all selecting a new fiction or non fiction book they would like to read from our class library.

On Friday, we celebrated World Book Day 2024, we started off the day inviting our parents into class to enjoy a Bookie Breakfast. The children and their parents completed a book quiz and enjoyed some time reading a story together whilst enjoying some tasting breakfast snacks. Later in the day, we listened to popular author David Walliams reading an extract from one of his famous books 'Gangsta Granny.' The children all came to school in some fantastic character costumes from their favourite stories.

In Geography we looked at comparing life in the Artic and Antarctic Circle. We compared the different in daylight across the year in London and the Artic Circle.

In Maths, we have been learning all about mass, The children have been learning about how to measure objects by reading a scale accurately, working out what the value of the smaller markings are. The children measured the mass in kilograms and grams and could convert it between the different units of measure.

In English, we have listened to the scary story 'The Wolves in the Walls' The children have enjoyed using the text to write within the plot points of the story using similes, prepositions, dialogue and time adverbials in their writing.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Year 3 team

W/B 26.02.24

In English this week, we have been learning about the structure of a non-chronological report. We spent some time researching information all about the history of tea ready to create our own reports.

In Maths, we have been learning about measuring length in cm and mm and converting them. We spent time estimating and measure objects we found around our classroom and then compared the length using mixed units of measure.

In Computing, we have continued our learning about being online detetives. The children have used a browser to solve clues to find locational knowledge answers. We soon realised the importance of using information off websites carefully and understanding that not everything on the internet is correct.

To finish off the week Year 3 went out on a school trip to Ribchester Roman Museum. We had a fantastic day visiting the museum, ruins of a granary and roman bath house. Check out our pictures below.

Have a great weekend everyone.

W/B 19.02.24

This week, we have started our new Math's unit all about length. The children were very busy finding objects around the room to measure the length in cm. The children have continued their math's learning today by measuring each others heights and converting the measurements between m and cm. The children loved the activity and were very good at it. The homework this week will be based on converting m and cm to cm.

In English, we have been researching facts about tea and tea plantations. The children matched the types of tea to where they are found using a map, non fiction texts and prepositional language.

This week in PE, we had our first netball lesson. The children learnt about the foot rule in netball. The children did find this difficult not to run into a space with the ball however with perseverance most grasped the new rule.

In RE, we have started our new unit with an experience lesson. The children learnt the famous song 'What have we done today to make you feel proud?" The children then wrote about moments in their life when they are proud.

In Science, the children have been investigating if any materials can be used as a magnetic shield. The children designed their investigations and write them up using scientific vocabulary and data gathering.

Have a great weekend everyone

W/B 5.02.24

How is the final week of the first spring term is here already! We celebrated Safer Internet Day and Diversity Week.

As this week is diversity week, we listened to the story Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. We talked about the questions this book raised and discussed the importance of acceptance, love, support and equality for everyone. We then created a book review. Most of the class gave the story 4 or 5 stars! On Friday, all the class cam dressed in different colours and performed a meaningful song. Year smashed 'Speechless' from the new Aladdin film.

We are about to start our new English text in class “Cloudy Tea Monkey” but before we do, today we held an experience lesson. The children got to taste various flavoured teas and become tea tasters for the morning. We used our senses to describe the teas and wrote a description for the tea boxes using lots of persuasive language even if some of us didn’t like the flavours!

This week, in our reading sessions we are reading a text about online safety. The children answered questions about the text whilst thinking about the meaning of the story. The impact of sharing pictures and stories about others online can be extremely damaging and upsetting. Think before we send!

To continue our online safety learning, the children joined in a virtual assembly all about GEN AI and how to use it safely. The children loved this lesson and learnt so much about how it works! We created information and safety posters about GEN AI after the virtual assembly. On Thursday, we had our whole school internet safety assembly with Miss Brown. The children shared their class learning from the week and watched a safety rule videos created by some pupils in KS1 and KS2

What an exciting day we had on Wednesday! We got to be computer gamers and designed our own dancing robot game using algorithms and learnt how to debug them. We then shared our games with our friends in class.

To finish off the week we celebrated in style with our silent disco which was a hit with the children and the teachers! The children had a ball dancing away to completely different genres of music!

Have a great half term everyone.

W/B 29.01.24

Well done to everyone for their amazing efforts this week for our celebration of Number Day 2024. The children's created Math's Hat to parade in a whole school assembly. We had so many creative ideas in Year 3. On Friday, the whole school came dressed as a number to celebrate number day.

In English, we have completed our excited narrative ' The True Story of the Three Little Pigs' The children have loved listened to this story and we focused on paragraphs, direct speech, similes, expanded nouns and verbs in our writing. The children thought the story might not have ended where it did so we wrote our own alternative endings to the story.

In Maths, we have been multiplying and dividing a 2 digit number with a 1 digit number using various methods, We then used this knowledge to solve word problems.

In PE this week, we have been continuing to develop our dribbling and passing skills. The children played some 1 on 1 games and then team games to put their skills to the test.

We have so much to look forward to in our final week of term including Diversity Rainbow LGBT+ week, Safer Internet Day and the Silent Disco.

Have a great weekend everyone.

W/B 14.01.24

It was all about the snow this week! Everyone had so much fun making snowmen, snow angels and imaginative play with the snow!

Year 3 took some time out of our busy day to watch an amazing sight right outside of class window! A group of deer enjoying the snow and bouncing around the field at the bottom.
What an amazing school environment we have!

This week, we started our new reading sessions. We focused on the pleasure for reading. The children chose any book from the class library to enjoy in our reading session and we will continue with our whole class reading but started a new exciting text!

In English, we have started our new text “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. The children loved reading statements from different fairytale characters and hot seating as the wolf to portray his innocence in the story! We shall continue tomorrow.

We have been learning about friction in Science. The children conducted an experiment to test how different surfaces affect how a car moves on them. Great investigating, measuring and observing by everyone! We all came to the same conclusion carpet creates the most friction.

In Music, we have been learning about motifs. The children have been learning a song all about the Roman with a repeating pattern and a call and response. After learning the song, we practised the notes on the glockenspiel!

In History, we have been learning about the Roman army including what they wore, the reasons for the invasion on Britain and the fighting formations that they used. We acted out the formations of the turtle, wedge and triple line.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Mrs Dolman, Mrs Larner and Mr McCormick

W/B 08.01.24

Welcome back everyone! It was lovely to see all the children and hear about their exciting Christmas holidays.

This week, we started all of our new wider curriculum subjects. In History, we started to learn about the Romans. We talked about the timings of when the Romans invaded Britain and looked at how we have learnt about them. The children were amazed with the myth of Remulus and Romus and the story behind the start of Early Rome.

In DT, we practised our running stich skills from KS1 and begun learning how to do cross stitch. We was lovely to see the children really challenging themselves to complete such a tricky task.

In Music, we have been learning about motifs and practising singing a Roman themed song with a call and response.

In Science, the children investigated pushes and pulls and how these are forces which need contact to make something move.

Congratulations to Ava who won the whole school Christmas reading challenge!

Have a great weekend everyone

Mrs Dolman, Mrs Larner and Mr Mcormick.

W/B 18.12.23

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Our final week is here and what a fun week it has been. Everyday this week, KS2 have very busy showing all our family and friends our KS2 Christmas performance and what a show it was! Every class really helped set the Christmas mood with a selection of songs from famous Christmas movies. Parents got fully involved to answer the Christmas quiz with some getting very competitive!! Great fun had by all.

On Tuesday, Year 3 got outside in the winter sun for some circuit training, we had the music pumping outside while to improved our fitness, strength and had fun to complete this terms movement to music unit in PE. We made Christmas cards for our loved one and Christmas calendars.

On Wednesday, we had our class Christmas parties with lots of singing, dancing and games. We even had a special visitor to tell Year 3 that everyone was on the good list this year and brought some sweet treats!

On Friday, we celebrated our final Christmas assembly with the whole school and really thought about the meaning and importance of Christmas time.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your families and we will see you in 2024!

Mrs Dolman and Mrs Larner.

W/B 11.12.23

We are in the full spirit of Christmas now!

This week, our practice sessions are in full swing for our exciting Christmas performance. All the children have worked incredibly hard learning their songs and lines in some cases ready to all be put together with other year groups. The children can't wait to perform for their families next week.

Some children have been learning the cornet in their music lessons and this week they performed for the class and showed off their new musical talent and performed 'Jingle Bells' with great confidence.

On Friday, Year 3 visited Heyeswood Residential Home for a special Christmas carol singing session with the residents. It was lovely to see how much everyone enjoyed celebrating Christmas together.

We enjoyed a Christmas puppet show on Thursday, with lots of singing and laughing at the 18 different puppets that created the Christmas story.

In between all our festive activities the children have been working extremely hard completing all out topics for this term. On Thursday, we completed our design and technology unit. The children designed their own vegetable tarts and then got to make them. They looked and tasted yummy! In Science, we carried out investigation based on voluntary and involuntary muscle actions. In Computing, we have been digital illustrators and create illustrations for various t-shirts.

In English, we explored how we write direct speech and looked that the punctuation needed in these sentences. We linked this into the class novel 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.'

We hope you all have a great weekend.

See you next week

Year 3 Team

W/B 4.11.23

It's officially Christmas in Year 3! What a great first Christmas week we have had!

On the 1st day of Christmas, we arrived in school to find our naughty little elf back in class to check up on us all and we of course can now do all our work under the sparkly lights of the Christmas tree.

On the 2nd day of Christmas, We had a visitor this week for our RE lessons as Father Dan came to talk to us all about Advent. We made our own Advent wreath and learned what the candles mean and why Christians celebrate it. We also made a human Christingle in our assembly and discussed what each part means.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, we have enjoyed watching a pantomine production of Cinderella. Lots of laughter, singing and join in with those famous pantomine phrases.

On the 4th day of Christmas, we all got to wear our Christmas jumpers for our special festive dinner with the whole school. It was lots of fun tucking into our Christmas dinner while singing Christmas songs.

On the 5th day of Christmas, we all went on our special whole school trip to Gulliver's World, to watch a Christmas show, have fun on the rides and of course meet Father Christmas himself by jumping on the travel and travelling through the winter wonderland.

What a week!

On top of this we have also started learning all the songs ready for the KS2 Christmas performance. We are so happy with our choice of songs and have loved learning all the words and of course adding in some moves! We can't wait for you all to see it. Please get your tickets early before they go!

In English we have started looking at our new text - "The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe" We have wrote inner thought of the characters, settings descriptions and created new Narnia characters.

In Maths, we are looking at multiplication of 3's and 4's. We have been exploring what equal groups mean, finding the quickest or most effective methods to add amounts by grouping them in 3's or 4's.

Next week will be another fun action pack week.

Have a lovely weekend!

W/B 06.11.23

Welcome back! I hope everything enjoyed their holidays and had a safe and enjoyable Bonfire Night

This week, we celebrated Talk Money Week by encouraging the children to learn about money at home and help them develop the skills they'll need as adults.

We started the week by exploring an explanation text. 'The Street Beneath Our Feet.' We explored the features of these texts and linked them to jigsaw pieces. The children found the different features in a model explanation text.

This week, we have also been busy starting our first Geography lesson. The children looked at globes, atlases and Google Earth to locate the UK. We talked about the difference between Great Britain and the UK. We identified the countries of the UK and it’s surrounding seas. It was fabulous to hear how much the children could recall from Year 1 and Year 2.

We had a great time having our introductory lesson of orienteering. Some children completed the outdoor orienteering challenges while others competed indoor challenges. It was lovely to see how much the children enjoyed this sessions. We will be completing more orienteering sessions in the future.

To celebrate Bonfire Night the children have been consolidating their learning and learning some new autumnal colours in their Spanish lesson. They created chalk and glitter firework pictures and labelled the colours in Spanish.

Some of the children have started Lego Construction Club and having been really enjoying it.

Have a great weekend everyone and see you next week.

W/B 16.10.23

We may be nearing half term but Year 3 have been as busy as ever!

In PE, we have been working together as a group learning about critical thinking. The children needed to move a hoop around a circle without breaking the links and then get their team across a swamp with limited resources and rules to follow. I wonder which teams solved it the quickest?

On Wednesday and Thursday Year 3 created a lovely calming and fabulous learning environment. The children over the last few weeks have been building up to writing their own historical stories based on the text ‘The Stone Age Boy’ We dimmed the lights and listened to the crackling of a fire and imagined we were in the Stone Age whilst writing our stories. The children are including all the writing skills we have learnt into their stories. Repetition, similes, expanded nouns and conjunctions. I can’t wait to read your stories after we finish them tomorrow.

Sadly we had our last session with Rob and Meg from the LFC Foundation. Year 3 have made their care packages for Teardrops to help support the homeless in our community! Well done Year 3! They will be so happy with our donations and support. Teardrops will be in school next Wednesday for the collection.

To end our art unit about prehistoric art, the children worked together to create a large class cave wall painting using all the skills we have learnt.
Positive and negative handprints.
Line drawing
Shading
Using charcoal
Contents of cave paintings ( animals and cave people)
Adding detail to drawing
Scaling up drawings

One more week to go everyone. Have a lovely weekend.

W/B 09.10.23

LFC foundation have been in class this week. The children decorated their support packs, ready to be packed with all the donations we have collected for Teardrops and the homeless.

It was a big week for Year 3. Year 3 have worked incredibly hard to learn lots of Spanish and information about languages to perform to the whole school, teachers and parents a languages assembly. I could not be prouder! You smashed it Year 3! Everyone loved it and other classes learnt so much from you.

We celebrated National Mental Health Day this week. To finish off our very busy day the children watched a video about the importance of looking after our mental health like we do our physical health. The children talked about their happy feelings and worries that they were currently experiencing. To finish the session off we learnt how to do belly breathing to help look after our minds. We also took part in a whole school council session with other classes to discuss mental health.

Our PE session was all about team work and completing challenges together. We talked about the importance of a leader and how that leadership should be shown. The children faced problems which they had to work together to solve.

In Maths, the children used resources to make two 3 digit numbers and explored how they could add them together. We moved this on to practising column addition and renaming.

Have a great weekend everyone!

W/B 02.10.23

On Monday, we had a visit from Father Dan who talked to us about how and why some people choose to serve God. He discussed significant people who are famous for helping and caring for others and asked us to reflect on how we could help others individually and as a class.

We started our new English unit this week but before we started to read 'The Stone Age Boy' the children carried out some research about what it was like in the Mesolithic and Neolithic time. We even had a little Stone Age cave set up in class!

In Art, we will be making own cave paintings but before we create them Year 3 made cave walls to provide the background for their paintings. We used lentils and grains to create a textured background.

This week, PE was all about problem solving and working out how to solve different situations which might come up in team games.

Year 3 have enjoyed watching Year 4’s harvest assembly today! We learnt lots about harvest and listened to some fabulous poem written by Year 4! Well done everyone

Year 3 had another session by the LFC foundation. As Year 3 have chosen to help the homeless we created posters to put around school to raise awareness and made a donations box for the school to allow the community to support our cause.

Have a great weekend everyone!

W/B 25.09.23

How are we at the end of another week again!.

In English, we have completed our instructional writing and the children have completed their final piece of writing using all the knowledge that they have learnt.

In Maths, we have been finding 10/100 more and less than a given 3 digit number and counting on from multiplies of 10's in groups of 2's, 4's and 8's.

In Science, we looked at different purposes for rocks and why they have been chosen! Putting all our previous knowledge to the test.

This week, Year 3 had their third session with LFC Foundation. In groups the children came up with ideas about how they could help the homeless and presented their ideas to the class. Next week some of their ideas will started to be put in place.

In Art, the children explored the environment to find natural objects which could give natural colour pigmentation. Back in class we used this natural colour to make our own paints. from flour and water.

On Wednesday we celebrated European Day of Languages by learning four new songs to help with our Spanish, colours, numbers to 15 and parts of the body. Don't forget we have Year 3's Languages Assembly coming up on 11th October.

Have a great weekend everyone.

See you next week.

W/B 18.09.23

Great week for our fabulous Year 3!

The children in getting into full swing with their new routines and learning units.

In English, we have continued our learning about instructions based on the story 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth' This week we focused on ordering instructions, time adverbials and using coordinating conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions to make our writing more detailed.

In Maths, we have been comparing 3 digit numbers, counting in 50's and finding 10/100 more and 10/100 less than 3 digit number.

In Science, the children carried out an investigation this week, to explore the ideal rock for different purposes based on the rocks properties. The children created predictions based on their learning from last weeks knowledge, designed their experiments and record and evaluated their results. We have some great budding scientists!

The children enjoyed their PE sessions all about communication which involved the children playing various games by thinking of different ways to communicate to solve problems.

This week, Year 3 had their second session with LFC Foundation. The children recapped the meanings of social action words from last week. Year 3 have voted to focus on homelessness so we discussed what homelessness is and what a food bank is? The children drew pictures about what HOME means to them.

We continued our learning about cave paintings in Art. The children used charcoal to add texture to sugar paper and drew and added details to animal sketches which they scaled up from last week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

See you next week.

W/B 10.09.23

Our first full week complete in Year 3!

This week, we have been busy getting into our new class routines and starting our new learning and units in all the subject areas.

In English, we have read the book 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth.' The children first explored different sets of instructions and identified the main features in them. We looked at how to write an intriguing introduction to a set of instructions and how to expand nouns to create a more detail equipment list.

In Maths, we have started our number and place value unit. The children learnt how to count in 100's, counting in 100's, 10s and 1's and then understood the value of the digits in a 3 digit number.

On Monday, we started our new Science unit ‘Rocks.’ The children made observations of different types of rocks based on physical appearance and touch. They can sorted the rocks into different groups and finally could identify the rocks based on a picture.

In Art, we started to explore what prehistoric art looked like. Using images of cave paintings we learnt about what these are and how they were created. We then created our own sketches of animals we find in our environment concentrating on getting the basic shapes correct in our drawings.

We had our first PE lesson of Year 3. The focus was to work as part of a team to complete a series of challenges. We learnt that in team games everyone has a role and a responsibility!

We had Meg and Rob come to visit Year 3 today. They are from LFC foundation #iwill campaign. The children learnt about what social action means and the importance of providing a service to others to create a positive change. We will have a session with LFC foundation every week for the next 6 weeks think about what we can do to support the community.