English
This half term, Year 3 have learnt about the Ancient Egyptians in History and have used this as a great opportunity to produce a piece of descriptive writing. First, we read the text ‘The Egyptian Cinderella’ and then planned and wrote about a new character that we thought would be a good addition to the text.
Using the same theme: Ancient Egyptians, we looked at Non-Chronological reports and focussed on Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. We used child friendly websites such as History for Kids and Primary Homework Help to research Ancient Egyptian religions, then planned and wrote our non-chronological reports. We also used our History knowledge to add glossaries as well as fun facts.
Maths
In Year 3 we have been working hard on multiplication and division this half term. We have done some recap and revision from Year 2 on multiplication as repeated addition and using arrays to represent X. We have started learning our times tables in earnest, starting with 2s, 5s and 10s, progressing to 4s then 8s. Keep up the TT rockstars practice over Christmas Year 3s!
Art & DT
In art this half term, the children have exercised their sketching skills by applying last half term’s work on texture, line and tone, when sketching Egyptian artefacts. They also moulded their own cartouche, etched their name in hieroglyphs and painted then glazed them.
At the end of the half term, the children made Egyptian bread to taste test at home. The recipe was adapted from one found on the tomb of Ramses III and involved creating a snail shape, boiling then baking the bread. It smelt delicious!
RE
The children started the term by consolidating their knowledge of practises in Christianity and how Christians believe God would want them to live. We had some very philosophical debates! They were then introduced to the religion Hinduism and learnt where and when Hindus pray and what their shrine at home may look like. The children sketched the parts of a puja and learnt what they represented. They were fascinated by the idea of many representations of a Brahman and the incorporation of animal body parts, just like our learning about religion in Ancient Egypt!
Computing
This half term we carried on our unit on ‘Connecting Computers’. We learnt about different digital devices and compared digital apps and programs to their real-life equivalents such as word-processing and Paint software. We learnt about how computers are connected and networks and had a lot of fun being a ‘virtual’ network, where we passed messages from one device (person) to another through other devices (people). We learnt how a network switch makes this task more efficient. The latter half of this term, we focused on improving our word processing skills and used our instruction writing about How to mummify a body to demonstrate our progress with word processing!
In Music
The children have enjoyed continuing their learning from Year 2 with the ocarina. They learnt different notes and this culminated in learning how to play Good King Wenceslas. Some children even performed this is our Christmas carol performance.
The children were very keen to take part in the Christmas performance for their grown ups. Each class learnt two different Christmas songs and then we had a grand finale of ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ using sign language.
In MFL, children have been learning how to count to 20 in Spanish, to ask how old someone is and to answer with their age. They have continued to practise holding simple conversations using the vocabulary they have learned. The children were encouraged to think about diversity and celebrate what makes them special including all of the different languages spoken by pupils in Year 3. Children looked at some Spanish Christmas traditions and compared this with their own celebrations. Feliz Navidad!
In Science, the children have been learning about light sources and their necessity in our everyday lives. They have completed many investigations including classification of light sources and reflective materials. They also investigated patterns in shadows when manipulating the light source and then with their shadow theatres. The children also thought about the reflection of light rays in plane, convex and concave mirrors and observed the changes in the image dependent upon the type of mirror.
PE
This half term, in Year 3, we have been learning about balance and flight in Gymnastics, as well as our social skills. We have been building up our jumping skills, then balancing by ourselves then with a partner. We progressed to small then large apparatus, including our wall climbing frame. We learnt to praise each other’s ideas and routines, identifying how well we worked in a group.
Geography
In Year 3, we spent the first half of the Autumn term going ‘Around the World’, revising our Year 2 knowledge on continents and oceans, before learning about places in the UK. We learnt about different settlements such as cities, towns and villages. We compared two cities (Norwich and Birmingham) plus extended our maps skills by learning about grid references.
In the second half term, our main focus was history, but we learnt about where Egypt was on a map and located seas, deserts and major cities and landmarks.
History
In Year 3 Ancient Egypt has fascinated us. We have learnt about famous landmarks by mapping them using a key from our prior learning in Geography, including the Great Sphinx and The Valley of the Kings, and discussed the reason for their proximity to the River Nile. We mapped the construction of human features using a timeline of the period of Ancient Egypt. We were lucky enough to have a wonderful visit from ‘Portals to the Past’ to inspire us at the start of the topic (see Year 3 tab on the website for more info). The idea of Mummification was a revelation to the children but they re-enacted it with gusto! We even followed an adapted recipe found on the Pharaoh Ramses III tomb for Egyptian bread.