Year 3

Welcome to Year 3 

from

Mrs Ord, Miss Bratton and Mr Henderson

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.

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 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!