Welcome to Life at KPS for Year 3

Mrs Clarke and Mrs Athwal warmly welcome you to Year 3.

The aim of this page is to highlight some of the fantastic learning that has been happening in Year 3, this page will be updated monthly, with photographs and information about the learning we have completed during the month.

We hope you enjoy looking through these updates and do discuss your child’s learning with them to celebrate their success. We look forward to any suggestions you may have to make your child’s learning a pleasant experience.

February 2022

Art

This month, we have continued to work on our Stone Age cart wheels.  We have moulded and shaped our first draft of wheels from clay.  It took a lot of skill to ensure that there were no cracks in our wheels and that they were relatively the same size.  We then reflected on our first set of wheels to find out what could be improved and what we would do differently the next time.  Finally, we had our second attempt at making our wheels again.  Next month we will put our axle, wheel and cart together to create our model for the Natural History Museum.

Computing

We took part in Safer Internet Day and learned how to stay safe online.  We discussed as a group what is acceptable behaviour online and the warning signs of danger online as well.  We also learned the SMART acronym to help us to remember how to be safe whilst online.  We created posters which will help our friends and school to follow the online safety rules.  We talked about how when we are at home playing on our computers by ourselves, we will know what to do and how to ask for help when we are not sure about E-safety.  Children also learnt that they can talk to parents, teachers and older siblings – someone that they can trust when they need help.

English

We have continued to look at the features of a diary entry and created success criteria to help us write our recount of events. We have particularly focused on writing short burst writing where the children have written to engage the reader.  We used Alan Peat sentences in our writing to describe a calm/ peaceful as well as dangerous setting. We also learnt to use effective vocabulary to help the readers create an image in their mind. In our writing, we have focused on using expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, conjunctions, prepositions and idioms.

History

We continued to learn about the hunter gatherers during the Stone Age era. The children have created a timeline and beginning to understand how natural features of a place can change over the years and that where they live now would be very different from thousands of years ago. In this topic, the children have been looking at how tools have evolved from rocks and flints to what we have in our modern history. The children are starting to understand and compare their own experience to people in the past e.g. Ug, the boy from Stone Age.

Maths

The children have been learning about measurements. We started the topic by learning to measure lengths correctly using different measuring tools. Children are also taught that a length of an object can be measured using standard and non-standard measurement. The children also found out the importance of measuring accurately and how this is related and vital in the real world. We also learnt to find the perimeter of a 2D shape. In the lessons, they also learnt to use clues from the diagram to find a missing measurement and use the information to calculate the perimeter.

Music

The children have continued to link their music learning to their topic of the Stone age

They have learnt to sing the song ‘We will rock you Stone age’ and ‘Ug Stomp’.

In addition, they have learnt to read simple notation and rhythms related to words about how the stone aged people lived, written their own and have played them using drums, wooden agogos, metal agogos and guiros.

Panjabi

In Year 3 this term we are learning 4 sets of Panjabi letters and revising our previous knowledge by reading Mukta and beginning to identify the sound of Kanna in words. For speaking and listening our main focus has been on directions. To make our learning interesting children have been using various interactive resources such as flash cards and pictures. For Directions we will be learning words in Panjabi and then we will use a gesture to consolidate their learning. Afterwards they did the role play by giving instructions to each other. We are also learning about Chali Mukte (Forty Liberators) in Panjabi.

Physical Education

In PE, children in Year 3 have been continuing with learning to play Dodgeball! They have been practising the skills needed to play the sport by taking part in target practice games and drills designed to improve awareness. Dodgeball is a team sport in which you have to move out of the way of balls being thrown at you from the opposition team. If a ball hits your body you are out and your team wins the game when all the players on the opposition team are out. Children will be working on quick footwork skills and teamwork to improve on their game play.  These skills are transferable to many other team and individual sports and we will be discussing this in our lessons.

PSHE

We have continued with our topic of Dreams and Goals.  Particularly looking at how we can identify our own strengths and make us special.  For some of us, this was quite difficult so we had a brainstorm session where we spent time telling each other what was special about them.

During our PSHE lesson, we also looked at Safer Internet Day and why it is important to stay safe online.  We discussed various different scenarios of how problems can occur online and who we would speak to if we are in trouble.  During our lesson, we made posters to remind ourselves how to stay safe and SMART whilst accessing the internet.

Religious Education

1^st Feb was Chinese New Year and we looked at this in detail during RE.  We located China on a world map and also the neighbouring countries.  We then learned how to count in Chinese and had a go at writing from 1 to 10.  During our lessons we also discussed the story of the Kitchen God and the significance to the Chinese people.  In our Food Tech room we made stir fry using noodles, vegetables and soya sauce – and it was delicious!  We found chopping the onions a bit tricky but we were masters by the end of it.

Science

This month, we have continued to learn all about rocks and particularly looked more closely at soil and fossils.  We learned how soils are made from rocks and identified the different layers of soil in the Earth.  We conducted a ‘soil testing’ investigation where we put sand, soil, sand, clay and small pebbles in a jar and mixed it with water.  We then gave it a good mix and let the mixture settle and watched over time how the different layers settled.  Finally, we explored and learned how to identify different types of fossils and found out how they are formed.

Sikh Studies

This month children have been learning about the special people who are role models in doing Seva. They have been learning about five different people who are famous in Sikh history for their Seva they have done that have helped others in the world.

The pupils have learnt about Bhai Kannaiya Ji, Bhagat Puran Singh Ji, Mata Khivi Ji, Baba Moti Ram Mehra Ji and Divan Todar Mal Ji. The wrote about what Seva they did and any facts about them too. Then children went on to think of questions they would ask these people if they were alive today.