Spring 2 - Week 6 

What a great end to term we've had in Meerkat class - we have really enjoyed having Mr Rashid in our   class with us and the children and I wished him every success as he goes back to his main school for his final placement. Mrs Farid will be back with us for the summer term and we are very much looking forward to welcoming her back.

As you no doubt saw we have completed our castles unit for DT - we had a fantastic morning putting them together! 

During our Spanish afternoon we learned some key facts about Spain, made notes and used atlases and then participated in a quiz to test our knowledge. The children seemed to enjoy the churros and we then went on to look at the work of Picasso and create our own self portraits.

Next term our big question is:

Would you drink a cup of water from the Thames?

I have attached both the optional home  learning sheet on our class page,  as well as the curriculum overview so you have an idea of what is coming next for our lovely Meerkats!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your on-going support and wish everyone a lovely break.

With kind regards

Mrs Madden 

Spring 2 - Week 5 

In writing lessons this week we finished our film unit 'The Blue Umbrella' The children have started planning their own love story and I am very excited about reading the finished pieces next week!

In Maths we have continued to look at fractions, ordering both unit and non unit fractions, remembering the rules we need to follow. Next week we will continue with this before moving on to looking at measurement after Easter.

As Geographers the children have chosen a European country to research, they then created a fact file. Together with their learning partners they have created a google slides presentation. These will be presented on Monday.

We also  finished our class book which has gripped us all! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it - next week I'll be reading Georges Marvellous Medicine and after Easter our new class book is going to be Secrets of A Sun King by Emma Carrol.

It was fantastic to see so many of you during our parent meetings, the children are such a lovely bunch and it is so nice to share their successes with you.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Mrs Madden

Spring 2 - Week 4 

Unfortunately I was quite unwell so unable to be in school for much of this week. I know that the children behaved fantastically well and got on with the learning I set for them. I was delighted to be able to return on Friday and  was very impressed with the work the Children had done within maths lessons - we continue to work with fractions over the coming weeks.

On Friday afternoon we started designing our castles in order to make them in the last week.

I was very impressed with the care taken and the thought behind them.

Mrs Madden 

Spring 2 - Week 3 

This week the children have completed their NFER assessments. We have worked through reading papers, Maths papers as well as Spelling and Grammar. Well done to all for being  dedicated and giving their best efforts.

In science we have continued to look at forces and magnets - conducting an experiment to see what items around us are magnetic.

In English we have loved looking at the short film ' The Blue Umbrella' - we have now watched the whole thing and will be writing our very own love story soon!

Mrs Madden 

Spring 2 - Week 2 

As you are aware we had our 'Special Visitors' in school this week. I am incredibly proud of the children and how they conducted themselves throughout this experience. During one lesson we had five extra adults in the room observing and Meerkat class behaved impeccably and really showcased their learning. 

In Geography we focused on different European landmarks, sorting them into physical or human landmarks. We picked our favourites and looked into them in more detail.

In Maths we have been adding and subtracting lengths using the column method to help us. 

In computing we have started to use Google Slides - we will eventually create our own presentation in order to persuade the class which is the best European destination.

The costumes were just fantastic for world book day! We had a lot of fun and completed some lovely reading activities.

Mrs Madden 

Spring 2 Week 1 

What an amazing start to the term - we have had a great week and as ever the children have impressed us with their excellent behaviour and attitude to learning.

We started our new topic and are going to be deciding which European country would be the best holiday destination. Once we have made a collective decision we will investigate this country further and compare with our local area

In maths we are continuing to learn about measurement, equivalent lengths and deciding which unit of measure would be the most appropriate to measure certain items. We will move on to adding and subtracting lengths and then look at perimeter.

During English our budding writers have been enthralled by our film stimulus 'The Blue Umbrella'. We have used music and drama to explore character feelings.

During today's History workshop with Chertsey Museum the children made all of the adults incredibly proud - their respectful handling of ancient artefacts was excellent as were their listening skills. They participated in four activities, a firm favourite being weaving. 

We do hope you have a restful weekend.

Kind regards

The year 3 team.

Spring 1 - Week 5 

The penultimate week of this half term has flown by! Ending of course with a fantastic day celebrating all things number related. I was so impressed with all the amazing costumes and I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures! We spent all of Friday morning completing maths challenges, playing maths games and competing against other schools on TT Rock stars.

Our cave art was a great success, after creating the paper last week the children were able to then use the skills they had learned to create their final piece. 

We excavated our fossils on Monday and the children were able to describe how fossils are formed, next week in our final science lesson of the half term we will be looking at soil.

As Historians the children we able to discuss in detail the significance of the findings at Skara Brae and what we can learn from them. After half term we will be moving forward in time to the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

We hope you have a restful weekend

The Year Three Team 

Spring 1 Week 4

Another great week in Meerkat class - when I asked the children today what their favourite lesson was I had a lovely mixture of responses - one response was all of them! It is so lovely to hear at the end of a busy week.

During English we have started our new unit of writing where we will be learning how to create a leaflet. We have used role play to use persuasive language to great effect and have very much enjoyed learning about Skara Brae.

In Maths we have looked at how to use partitioning to solve division problems, firstly with no exchange. Next week we move on to looking at remainders.

We have greated some 'cave style' paper for our Art lesson, we collected soil,twigs and used natural materials to create our own paint. 

As Scientists we have explored exactly how fossils are formed over millions of years and will be excavating our own fossils on Monday.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Madden 

Spring 1 - Week 3 

Maths this week has been challenging for some so we have gone over some of the key learning and will do the same next week. We have moved on to multiplying 2 digit numbers with one digit numbers. Initially partitioning the numbers then multiply - then adding together. We then moved on to the more formal method of column multiplication. We will have another session to go over this on Monday. Should you have any questions regarding how to support the children with this please do let me know. 

The children have now written their adventure stories and I look forward to reading them this weekend ready for the children to edit and publish on Monday. I am so very impressed with how the children have used simile and onomatopoeia to up-level their writing.

As scientists we have continued to look at rocks and their properties. We have looked at their uses and what they might be used for. Next week we move on to fossils and how they are formed.

In Spanish this half term we are looking at I can statements - feel free to test the children on what they can remember! I wonder if they can tell you in Spanish how to say 'I can listen' and 'I can watch the TV'

We always end the week with Art and this week our artists did an amazing job of using last weeks sketch to scale up and draw the same animal using charcoal. Next week we move on to looking at  different materials to create more Stone Age art.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Spring 1 - Week 2 

Week two saw our budding historians creating a giant timeline in the gym to demonstrate just how long the stone age lasted compared to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, we were impressed that they were able to plot their previous learning on the timeline, such as the Great Fire of London and the Gunpowder plot. They were also able to discuss significant resnt events and decide if they should be put on our timeline too.

During Science lessons this week we have explored different rocks, classifying them and deciding which rock type they are. With the help of our rock song they did a great job.

Our Art focus this half term is Cave art and in our first lesson in the series we drew a picture of a local animal as the Stone age people would have done. Next week we move on to using different materials to draw with.

We hope you have a restful weekend.

The Year 3 Team

Spring 1 - Week 1

What a great start to both a new year and new term. The children have shown a really lovely team spirit in welcoming some new children into the Meerkat family.

We are fully immersed in our new topic - thank you so much for engaging with the children over the festive break - their  home learning has been lovely to look through and it has given them a real foundation for the term ahead.

We have looked initially at the three periods of the stone age during our reading sessions and have started our writing unit based on the book The Stone Age boy. Our class story The Wild Way home is an exciting tale and I am very much looking forward to reading it to the children over the course of this term.

We continue with the 2, 4 and 8 times table both this week and next week with a focus on how to tackle those tricky reasoning questions. We have been singing along to the 8 times table song!

As ever should you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me 

info@chennestone.surrey.sch.uk.

Mrs Madden