Summer term – The Wild Robot

Dear Year 3 parents, Our topic this term is based on the book, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, although we will also be completing our history study of the Stone Age, focusing on changes to life in Britain between the Stone Age and the Iron Age. The Wild Robot story gives us lots of scope to consider and debate conservation issues, the juxtaposition of a manmade machine and a natural environment, map reading, animal habitats, friendship and community. In ICT the children will be using KODU to learn basic programming skills.

English

Each morning, we will continue to enjoy specific vocabulary-related activities which aim to improve the children’s word consciousness and reading skills, along with quick write activities and handwriting. Small groups will be supported to consolidate phonics knowledge and application and sentence construction.

Using The Wild Robot, The Last Bear and high quality related non-fiction texts, we will encouraging the children to enjoy reading for pleasure and as a key tool to support all their learning. In addition, there will be whole class and small group guided reading lessons throughout the week. The children will have lots of opportunities for writing, including narratives based on the Aaron Becker picture book, The Journey, explanation texts and play scripts.

Times Tables

To supplement the learning of times tables in school, I would be pleased if you would support your child to practise times tables at home. All the children have access to Times Tables Rockstars and their login details can be found in their Learning Log. Rapid recall of times tables is fundamental to much of their Maths learning. Expectations are that the children will be fluent in 2X,3X,4X,5X,8X and 10X tables by the end of Year 3. Any others are a welcome bonus!

Spelling

As previously, the spelling lists will be posted onto the class page every Friday, to be tested in their Spelling Books on the next Friday. We will be recording their scores in a table in the back of their learning log. When practising at home, please encourage them to put the words into context in a sentence, to find synonyms and antonyms for the words and to try some of the spelling activities in the document on our class page.

Reading Books

The children can return their home reading books any day of the week. Please continue to read to your child and to listen to them read. Re-reading passages, discussing the text, highlighting interesting or unknown vocabulary, and talking around the subject are all very worthwhile activities. If your child finds decoding tricky, then echo reading is a good strategy. This involves the adult reading a short piece of the text and the child repeating the same passage.

Homework

Homework will continue to be set on a weekly basis, usually on a Thursday. Please ask your child to explain the homework to you – it will be either My Maths or a Learning Log activity. It is important that all children complete the homework. Please email me if your child is experiencing any particular difficulties with the completion of the homework.

PE – the children will be going swimming on a Wednesday afternoon and having cricket coaching on a Friday. Please make sure they have the correct kit for each session including spare socks for the girls if they are wearing tights.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Chaplin