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.

November 2021

Art

In DT this term, we have started our textiles project, stitching a bag together for our characters Popoca and Itza.  We first explored the artist Porfirio Guiterrez and learned about how he uses different textiles and techniques to create his traditional Mexican art.  We then did a product analysis where we looked at different examples of bags and how each feature is relevant to that design.  Our next step was to create our own designs of our bag and carefully reflect on each one to choose our final product.  Finally, we will be learning different types of stitches before we start stitching our bags together.

English

This term, the children are learning to write a story to entertain their readers. Based on our Mexico topic and the story “The Princess and the Warrior”, the children have been practising to write sentences about the journey of the princess and the warrior. The children have learnt new Alan Peat sentences in this topic and include a range of conjunctions to extend their ideas/ sentences. To write the story, the children are also learning to use different punctuation to create and effect on their readers: inverted commas, question marks, exclamation marks, commas and apostrophe. We have been using drama to help the children understand the stories and to describe emotions.

Maths

In Maths this term, we have been learning multiplication. The children started by using concrete manipulatives such as dienes and counters to represent 3 digit x 1 digit. The children then moved on the use pictorial representation to record their work. In this topic, the children also learnt to use formal calculation method to find their answers. For this topic, the children have been using their times table knowledge to answer the questions and beginning to solve problems and explain their answers clearly using the correct mathematical language.

Music

I have been very proud of the attitude of the students this term.

The Children have further developed their singing skills, singing a song called the Mexican wave. They have created class rules in order to produce the best group singing that they can, including clear words, keeping to a pulse beat, listening to others and balancing their sound.

As samba music originates from Mexico, the children have begun to follow and clap samba rhythms.

They have begun to create a samba piece using percussion instruments.

Panjabi

In Year 3 the main focus of this term has and will be on Guru Nanak Dev Ji since we are celebrating the Prakash Dehara of Dhan Dhan Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. First, we learnt about the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, followed by Guru Ji’s childhood and the stories surrounding the birth and childhood, we also learnt some key vocabulary from these stories. After this we looked at a story called A Cobra Serves. The first thing we did was learn some key words from the story in Panjabi such as snake and cattle. Then by looking at pictures corresponding the story we constructed sentences. By looking at the pictures in our story and by role play we remembered the order of the story.

Physical Education

This month in PE the children have been linking math to their PE lessons!

Children have been playing Pirates Treasure.  The aim of the game is for each team to collect as much treasure as they can within a set time, then they go back to their team and count how many pieces they have.  The team with the most points wins that round and we start to introduce different values to different pieces of treasure, leaving children to problem solve by planning which pieces are worth more and to add the total value of their treasure to give themselves a grand score.

We also use the balancing skills learnt from our last game to find interesting and creative ways to place the treasure back to its place after each round.

PSHE

This month in PSHE we have started our next Jigsaw piece: Celebrating Differences.  We have talked about what family means to us and who belongs in our family.  In small groups we also discussed the roles and responsibilities of different family members.  We had discussions to see whether we agree or disagree about how roles are distributed.  During anti-bullying week we used role play to explain what bullying is and how it happens.  Following the theme of ‘One kind word’, we designed our own odd socks and chose one kind word which we would personally try to use with our friends.

Religious Education

In RE this month we have started to learn about the story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ. We have also learned about the different parts of the Nativity story to decide what they feel is most significant part of the story for Christians today.  The children have been talking about the significance of Christmas and what it means to each person individually. Children also talked about how religious stories are important and compared this to stories in Sikhism. They are beginning to understand how all religions have their own religious leaders and holy book to teach their followers.

Science

In Science this month we have started our topic of Forces and Magnets.  In our groups we explored and investigated our classroom to find out which forces we use on our day to day basis.  We found out that we use the push, pull and twist in many different ways.  We also found out what air resistance is and we investigated to find out which object will take the shortest time to reach the ground.  We have been discussing what fair test is and also have been making predictions before our investigations.  We have also explored friction and carried out a variety of different tests to see how far a car or ball would travel on different surfaces.

Sikh Studies

This term children have been looking at the meaning of Vand Shakna and stories about Guru Nanak Dev Ji linked to the teaching of sharing with others. Children then looked at how they can practise Vand Shakna in real life.

Children did role plays to look at how they can practise showing Vand Shakna (sharing with others) in real life either at school or home and then write about it with real life examples of how they can practise sharing with others in future.