Welcome to Year 3 

from

Mr Henderson and Miss Roache

Our email address is: year3@kingsleyschool.org.uk

This is checked regularly however, if you need to speak to a member of staff as a matter of urgency, please either speak to a member of the leadership team on the gate on a morning or ring the school office.

If you require any additional information regarding our curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher or a member of the Leadership Team.

Academic Year 2023-2024

Using our word bank vocabulary and some additional synonyms we immersed ourselves in a cooperative activity to practise using our new vocabulary and created some sentences to open a story in an engaging way. We used questions to hook our audience in just like Ted Hughes did at the start of The Iron Man! Stay tuned for our finished story openings...

In Literacy, we explored different vocabulary associated with The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We looked at various metallic objects and explored their appearance and sound to create a word bank. After that, we enjoyed building our own metallic creation that will be used for an exciting story opener. Take a look at our creations.

What were the greatest achievements of the Ancient Greeks?

We explored our next historical enquiry today through enjoying a virtual reality workshop. During the workshop, we identified some of the achievements of the Greeks that still exist in modern day. Did you know the Ancient Greeks invented early forms of plumbing in bathrooms? We explored the Gods and Goddesses, what life was like for different members of society and how the Olympic games began. What a lot of fun we had!

Today we  were faced with a problem whereby we had to make an informed decision using what we know about light. Using various materials we investigated whether they transmitted, reflected or absorbed the most light energy. We verbally explained our justification from investigating the materials and reported our findings to the class using vocabulary from our scientific working wall.

We were asked this question:

Which materials did you use and why?

Today, we learnt how to use sharp knives safely to prepare different fruits and vegetables. We used two techniques called bridge and claw to make sure we were safely chopping and cutting. Then, we made our products to meet a design brief and tasted our soups. Some of us even enjoyed seconds!

In Science, we carried out investigations to try and answer this question: what is soil? We set up our own investigations to try and work out what is in soil and discovered that it has different layers: top soil, sub soil and base rock. After observing changes over time in our experiment, we found out that soil is made up of organic matter (living and also decaying plants and animals), water, air and pieces of rock. Did you know that the decaying plants and creatures in the top layer is known as 'humus'?

Today we began our latest Historical enquiry: what were the greatest achievements of Prehistoric Britain. We experienced what daily life was like during The Stone Age by looking at different methods of making fire and providing shelter. We learnt that nomadic people that lived during this time period had to move around a lot as they were hunter gathers. This meant that when their food supplies like wild boar, deer and fish was running short they had to move on to a more fruitful location. Take a look at us in action!

In Science, we have explored different types of rocks and classified them based on their characteristics. We learnt about: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. We investigated each and formed conclusions based on our findings. Rocks are formed from plants, living things and under extreme pressure underground for a very long period of time.

In Art we have been practising techniques, such as shading, stippling, hatching, cross-hatching, feathering and scumbling. We have also been learning all about biro art. We have looked at examples of biro art, created our own biro art and verbally evaluated our work. Take a look at our fantastic art work below!

In Maths we have been working in groups and practising solving word problems. We have been using bar models to help us solve word problems and we have been trying very hard to show our working out.

In P.E we have been learning all about gymnastics. We have had lots of fun practising a stretch, star and tuck jump.

In Science, we have been learning about why we need skeletons and concluded that it is for support, protection and to help us move. We labelled a big picture model with our existing knowledge and then added the correct technical vocabulary using a fun song called, 'Name Those Bones'. 

As part of anti-bullying week, Year 3 have been learning all about anti-bullying. We have been discussing our feelings, learning how to manage our emotions and we have been learning how to use our voices to help others. Take a look below of some of the fantastic work we have completed as part of anti-bullying week.

In Year 3 we learnt all about Remembrance Day and why we have Remembrance Day. We discussed why the poppy was a symbol of remembrance and coloured in our own poppies while we also listened to The Last Post.

In Year 3 we have had lots of fun in dance. We have listened to a range of music and have thought about and discussed how our bodies might move to the music to keep with the beat. We have listened to both slow and fast paced music. As part of dance we have worked in small groups to create a sequence to a piece of music using a variety of movements. Take a look at our brilliant dancing below!

In Maths we have been learning all about word problems and bar models. As part of our working out we have been practising using bar models to help us find the answer to a variety of word problems. 

We have really been enjoying our inspire time in Year 3. Today we made lanterns linked to Halloween. We had lots of fun doing this! Take a look at some of our Halloween inspired lanterns below!

Today, we discussed how networks are created and replicated our own school network. We found out that messages can be sent through a digital network using a server and a network switch to make it more effective. We now know the importance of a network and enjoyed using role play to show how messages are sent through digital devices.

In Maths we have been learning all about place value, column addition, column subtraction, column addition with renaming and column subtraction with renaming. We have been working very hard on our understanding of these methods and we have been able to use denes (hundreds, tens and ones) to help us to do this.

We have been working very hard in Year 3 to design our own device inventions in Computing. We have been learning all about inputs and outputs and we have been able to choose an input and an output and create our own inventions. We thought of brilliant names for our own inventions. When we created out own inventions we had to think very carefully about the process and what would happen to help our inventions work based on the input and output. Take a look at some of our fantastic inventions below!

In P.E, as part of our Invasion Games, we have been practising our defending and attacking skills in tag rugby as well as thinking about how our bodies move in tag rugby. We have had lots of fun doing this!

In Literacy we have been looking at the features of fiction and non-fiction texts. We enjoyed looking at different fiction and non-fiction texts where we were able to locate the features in the texts.

In PSHE we have been learning all about communities. We have discussed what a community is and how we can all belong to different communities. We have also thought about how communities can be similar and different. As a class we have discussed what communities we would like to belong to in the future. Take a look at some of our brilliant work below!

We have been learning about the parts of a plant in Science. We discussed the meaning of 'tap root' and 'lateral root' as a class. We worked hard to draw our own plant and label the parts of the plant. Take a look at some of our great work below!

In Music we created our own compositions. We drew our music notes and wrote words to remember the beat of the note. We then worked hard to practise the compositions we had created!

In Literacy we have been doing some fantastic work on compound sentences. Take a look at some of our brilliant work below.

We have lots of fun in year 3!

Take a scroll below to see what we've been up to so far, in the 22/23 academic year.

We had an amazing time on our trip to Rossmere Forest School. We made some fantastic Stone Age art, bow and arrows, damper bread and thoroughly enjoyed a fossil hunt.

We have been enjoying the Aboriginal Dreamtime story of The Rainbow Snake. We listened carefully to the story and worked together to sequence the key events. We participated in lots of drama activities to help our understanding of the characters' thoughts, feelings and motives and to predict what might happen next.

PSHE

For this lesson we looked at 'emergency life support skills'. We discussed the importance of calling 999 and requesting the correct emergency service in an emergency. Throughout the lesson we acquired the knowledge and skills to deal with a conscious casualty, an unconscious casualty and a casualty experiencing a serious bleed. At each casualty we made a checklist so that we were aware of the key steps we had to take. The children really enjoyed the activities and practising the recovery position! 

Science

In our lesson we were faced with a problem whereby we had to make an informed decision using what we know about light. A night shift security guard required our assistance to make him some curtains that would help him to get to sleep during the day. We used various materials and investigated whether they transmitted, absorbed or reflected light energy the most. At the end of the lesson we were asked to justify why we had chosen the material for our curtains using our findings from throughout the lesson. 

"The thicker the fabric the more opaque it is." - Elliott

"Our curtains absorbed a lot of light energy which means not as much was transmitted."  - Cole

"Black materials absorb a lot of light energy." - Sofia 

"The material needs to be opaque so that the light can't be transmitted." - Matilda

Coronation celebrations!

On Friday 5th May we celebrated the coronation of King Charles III with a non uniform day and lots of fun activities. 

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PE

During our dance unit we incorporated some drama. Children felt how their bodies reacted to different sounds. We then pretended we were exploring an Egyptian pyramid. It got tense at times but we made it out safely by working as a team!

Science

We have been exploring light and how different materials can be either opaque, transparent or translucent. We also looked at 'light energy' and how this can be absorbed, reflected or transmitted. 

Literacy

We have been reading 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' by Roald Dahl in our Literacy lessons. After reading the first two chapters we took part in a 'hot seating' activity in which we pretended to be either Fantastic Mr. Fox or one of the three farmers. We discussed how the opinions of the characters will be different depending on how they perceive themselves and each other. 

PE

In our gymnastics lessons we have been practising our jumping and rolling skills. We learnt how to position ourselves correctly so our jump is accurate and has a stable landing. We also learnt the importance of rolling if we fall to protect ourselves from injury. 

History

In our Ancient Greek enquiry, we have been investigating the different city states that existed. We came to a conclusion about which one we thought would have been best to live in after comparing different sources. Next, we debated which Greek achievements were most important and ranked them in a pyramid based on our justifications.

We came 2nd place in the tennis tournament!

Well done to our team!

RE

Today, we looked at the Easter story and discussed why this is an important Christian festival. We held a debate to think about how Jesus’ disciples and the people of Jerusalem may have felt when Jesus held a procession through the city. We found out that palm leaves symbolise this part of the Easter story and are still used today to think about this time in Jesus’ life. We followed instructions to create our own palm crosses to mirror how Christians celebrate in churches today.

Computing

We had an 'unplugged' computing lesson and learned about networks. We learned that devices on our local area network (LAN) can connect to other network servers and this is how we get information from the internet. We were mind blown at the amount of connections, wired and wireless, that happen in school and beyond. 

We demonstrated connections using wool, the children told adults where to send the signals and we realised that the router was very busy!

World Book Day

PE

We worked with a tennis coach, developing our skills.

DT

We learned about the bridge and claw and put it into practise when chopping vegetables. We then made a soup matching the design criteria we were given. We tasted and evaluated our soup too. We had a busy day 

Safer Internet Day

As part of Safer Internet Day and Children's Mental Health Week, we created posters showing who we knew we could talk to about any problems we may be having. Both events focused on making connections and having discussions with people we were comfortable talking to. 

Pedestrian Training 

We enjoyed learning about how to cross the road safely during our pedestrian training. Our visitors showed us how to cross from behind a parked car and at a T-junction. We also learnt the importance of looking both ways when crossing. 

DT

In DT we have been designing our own soup based on a criteria. During our lesson we tasted three different flavours of soup and evaluated their appearance, taste, smell and texture. We then rated each soup out of 5 to help us decide what ingredients we want to include in our soup. 

Art

In Art, we have applied our sketching skills to help add detail to a portrait of Ralph Ward Jackson. Take a look at our amazing creations!

We have been learning about nutrients in Science, DT and PSHE. We looked at the 'Eatwell Plate' and labelled it with where we thought the nutrients would go. We then listened to some facts about diet and relabelled our plates. 

We have also looked at food diaries and made practical graphs about daily intakes of fruit and vegetables and fats and sugars.

Elliott then gave a fantastic demonstration of the 'Energy Transfer Model'. He was able to discuss, with the help of his peers, why having carbohydrates for breakfast was the best option and how different activities use different amounts of energy.   

Computing

We really enjoyed making our own shark came on scratch. We followed instructions and were able to debug when our game didn't work properly. 

Check out Emma's gold sticker for her amazing writing! 

In maths, we have been using a column multiplication method.

Art

We have been learning about different sketching techniques like hatching, cross-hatching, feathering, scrumbling and stippling.

Look at us enjoying our reading time together.

Computing

Today, we explored a program called Scratch to find out more about coding. We created the instructions to make our sprite (character) draw when directed. We sequenced the blocks of code using our toolkit. Dylan and Reuben had to fix a bug in their code and showed great resilience to rectify the issue.

Reuben stated, "It was tricky but we did not give up! We liked the masterpiece we created using our code."

Dylan said, "We had a problem however we managed to fix it together."

Literacy

We have been writing informal letters as a piece of school equipment that has been mistreated by the class. The children enjoyed this very much! We worked on apostrophes for contractions, informal tone and paragraphs

Computing

We have started coding, using code.org. The children really enjoyed this and got a certificate at the end for participating in an hour of code.

Local History Week

As part of our Y3 Local History study, we were trying to answer the question: Who helped Hartlepool grow? As part of our enquiry, we invited some local Historians in to share some sources of information. We used these sources to find out more about Ralph Ward Jackson and Sir William Grey and how they helped shape Hartlepool. We enjoyed using our inference skills to form our own predictions of the past using lots of historical artefacts from Victorians times. As a special surprise, we even studied some exhibits from the natural world such as fossils and preserved creatures.

We created Ralph Ward Jackson biographies, in the form of a fact file. Look at our amazing writing!

DT

As part of our DT project we carried out a functionality test to explore which materials and joins are most suitable to help us create a Christmas present holder. We decided stitching was the most appropriate type of join and designed our holders to ensure they were fit for purpose for our intended user. Take a look at us in action!

Look at our fabulous displays!

Science

Look at our plant experiments!

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Interestingly we noticed that the 2 seeds we are watering with 20ml of water are both sprouting!

We also looked at water transport in flowers, using flower dye.

Anti-Bullying week 2022

On Monday November 14th we wore odd socks to celebrate our differences.

We took part in a BBC live assembly exploring what bullying is.

We have acted out scenarios that we have created and discussed the role of a witness, as well as the positive and negative impact a witness. We have lots of activities planned this week.

Remembrance Day

Today we took part in a two minute silence to show respect to the selfless actions of our service men and women who have fought bravely for us. We joined a live assembly with other schools around the UK and heard different stories from people affected by war (hosted by the Royal British Legion).

Francesca: I feel proud of people who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom and I feel very grateful.

Noah: I feel happy that people get the help they need from the charity like me.

Freya: It is important we give up two minutes of our day to appreciate the sacrifices made by people and remember them.

Geography

We used an atlas to compare the features of two different countries. We each individually made notes on our own comparisons then fed this information back to the class and came up with a class list of the comparisons and information we had.

We are learning to sew for our upcoming DT project. We have been practising threading a needle, tying a knot and running stitch

Science

We are exploring conditions for plant growth. We used question stem cards to ask questions: 

Can seeds grow without soil?

Will a seed grow without sunlight?

If a seed has too much/too little water, what will happen?

We set up investigations to answer our questions.

Geography

As part of our Geography topic, we looked at the question - 'Why do people live and work near volcanoes?' We discussed the pros and cons of living and working near a volcano and turned our findings into a fact file on Purple Mash. We included lots of interesting facts and images.

DT

We created volcano sculptures, linking to our geography topic. When we had finished we evaluated our own and each other's.

We love singing!  In Music lesson we have been learning 'Hall of Fame' by The Script and Will.I.Am.  The song helped us think about what we would like to be famous for.  How about you?  What do you want to be famous for?

Geography

We are enjoying using the atlases to complete our passports. Our passports have maps of Europe and we have to locate specific countries, identify their capital city and colour the flag.

RE

We explored some objects linked to the Sikh religion and used our inference skills to suggest what and when they might be used. We really enjoyed this and found it very interesting. The children had lots of questions that we will being to explore.

Music

Today we enjoyed learning about pitch using a percussion instrument called Waka Tubes. Take a look at us in action!

RE

We learned about Sikh beliefs and the main teachings of the 10 Gurus.

Here are some more photo's from our evasive games unit.

Science

We have been exploring different types of seeds and generated our own questions about what we want to learn more about. This has helped us begin to think about what investigations we could set up to help us answer our questions.

We have earned head teachers awards from Mrs Darby for our hard work and amazing progress in such a short time in Year 3

In P.S.H.E we have been discussing cooperation and what this looks like in everyday life. We worked on our teamwork skills to solve puzzles in silence and evaluated what we found difficult and how we could improve. 

We have been exploring different ways to represent numbers and used pictorial representations to add and subtract 1,10 and 100.

We have been playing evasive games in P.E

During our science lesson we went exploring for plants. We found lots and some were in unexpected places. We had lots of questions and will be investigating some of these to answer our questions. 

We have been exploring number bonds using part-whole models and using equipment to help us share our understanding.

In maths we have been exploring place value using the dienes.

We have enjoyed choosing and reading books from the school library.

We have lots of fun in year 3!

Take a scroll below to see what we've been up to so far, in the 21/22 academic year.

Some of our children attended a sports even at Seaton cricket club today.

We had an amazing trip to John Whitehead Park and then went to see Dinosaur World at Billingham Forum. We even got to stroke one of the dinosaurs!

Some of our children went to a tri-golf event and had lots of fun!

Today we were lucky to sit and talk with our school governor Mr Vale. He used to be an engineer before he retired and told us some interesting facts about being an engineer. His favourite part was the drawing! He almost didn't make it as an engineer due to a tragic accident but he didn't let that get in the way of his dreams! He spoke to us about resilience and told us that no matter what, we can be whatever we put our minds to. He was very inspiring and now lots of us want to be future engineers. Thank you Mr Vale!

We have been sending and receiving emails this term and replying to each other. We decided to send emails as the rainbow snake, telling his story informally. We added picture attachments. Here are some examples:

Mental Health Week

Mental health week was such a busy week; we had sports day (which was amazing) and we started our 'Mission to Mars' project. We found time to reflect, luckily! In Literacy, we explored poetry and the power of friendship. We created this class poem to celebrate friendship:

Having you as a friend keeps my mind healthy,

When you’re nervous come and tell me,

If you’re ever feeling blue,

Give a hug to whoever loves you,

A smile to others can go a long way,

And that smile could change someone’s unhappy day,

I will always lend you my ear,

So don’t forget that I am always here,

I will work hard so our friendship never ends,

Our minds would be so unhealthy without good friends!

We created some acrostic poems and some limericks for giggles. We finished the week by removing our shoes and laying on the grass, watching the world go by and looking for shapes in the clouds. We can't wait to do it again!

We had a fabulous sports day and enjoyed having our families in school to watch this year. Brooke was unable to participate this year due to a broken wrist but she did a great job as photographer and videographer!

In DT, we have been exploring strengthening structures using different techniques: laminating, ribbed and corrugation. We explored existing products that use these techniques.

We have been exploring light and shadows using different materials in science this week. We sorted the materials into transparent, translucent and opaque.

We have been practising throwing and catching skills in our games unit of PE, using a rugby ball.

As part of our jubilee celebrations, we enjoyed an afternoon tea in class. In computing, to help us prepare for our party, we used the laptops to research what items we would need, the quantity and costings.

We challenged ourselves to complete a variety of sporting activities within a 70 second time frame in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We were resilient and tried our best to beat our scores each time.

As part of our Jubilee celebrations, we enjoyed playing games on the yard and singing God Save the Queen and other songs with our school choir.

We were lucky enough to be visited by a table tennis coach to try out a taster of this fun sport. We practised some skills and enjoyed playing some games as well.

We have been practising our evasive skills and throwing and catching in relation to tag rugby. Take a look at us in action!

In Maths we have been completing a unit on angles. We went hunting for right angles around school.

In ICT we have been using excel spreadsheets to solve the riddle and find Harry. Some of us were so good that we extended to using formulae in a spreadsheet to work out times table facts for us.

Today, we practised life-saving skills that could help in an emergency situation such as the recovery position, serious bleeding and D.R.S.A.B.C. Take a look at us role playing different scenarios. 

We have been learning the steel pan drums with our music coach.

Well done to the Easter raffle winners in Mrs Ord's class!

We have been exploring the school to find examples of 3D shapes in real life. Look how many we found!

In RE, we have been learning about the importance of Palm Sunday to Christians and the things they do in preparation for Easter Sunday. We made palm crosses out of paper following a tutorial. We found it tricky but we persevered!

As part of our intercultural understanding strand in French and our non-fiction unit in literacy, we created fact files about France. We are very proud of our work and think they look absolutely fabulous!                         

We have been learning about different sounds we can make with our bodies. Please check out this video of us in action! Could you try complete this challenge?

Singing always brightens our day!

We have started playing tuned percussion instruments with our music coach. We thoroughly enjoyed playing the steel pan drums.

Red Nose Day 2022

We took part in a tennis tournament and came 3rd! As you can see, we are very proud.

We enjoyed creating Stone Age art, using pencil and charcoal. We propped our sketch books up against our chairs so that it was like drawing on the cave walls. We had so much fun!

We have been using timelines in History, this half term. In this lesson we  looked at the Stone Age through to the Iron Age and answered questions using the timeline to support us.

The focus of British Science Week this year is growth. We have been exploring the human body and nutrition and finding out how this helps us grow and be healthy.

All medicines are drugs but not all drugs are medicines!

This has been a key message in this unit of PSHE. We have explored the meaning of the word drugs and some of the effects of legal drugs. 

In French, we have been learning how to read and say colours.

We have been learning French greetings. Here are some photos of us practising and some videos below