25th September 2020
Wow, where have the last three weeks gone? We are now well into our first half-term and year 3 are proving themselves to be very courageous and adaptable learners. All three classes have adjusted well to being back in school and we are really impressed by their commitment to challenging themselves in their learning.
Continuing from last week’s focus on ‘The Iliad’, in English this week we have been following the adventures of Odysseus as he travels home in Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’.
Early in the week we made progress in sequencing events in a story, reading the story of Odysseus and the cyclops, before moving on to discuss synonyms and antonyms the following day. We used the words we came up with to write expanded noun phrases, which was our grammar focus for the week. Everybody enjoyed coming up with adjectives to add to their sentences, making them more detailed and exciting. We were able to apply these skills to a description of the sirens, other monsters that Odysseus came into contact with on his journey. An extra challenge was to include a simile in our writing – it was a real treat to read these!
Our spelling focus was on homophones and near homophones. Our words were meat, meet, berry, bury, peace, piece, break, brake, saw and sore. Keep practicing!
In Maths, we began the week by reasoning and problem solving about 2 and 3 digit numbers. For example, we looked at part-whole models as a visual aid to help us partition numbers e.g. 189 can be split into 100, 80 and 9. In the following lesson we then applied this knowledge of 3 digit numbers by using symbols like >, < and = to compare them e.g. 150 is greater than 100, so 150 > 100.
We were then able to use our extended knowledge of place value to start counting in 10s and 100s. We then looked at identifying the next and previous multiple of 10 or 100, for example a number like 150, where the previous multiple of 10 is 140 and the next is 160. This made it easier for us to use number lines in today’s Maths, where we estimated the position of numbers on a number line.
In our guided reading sessions we explored the Greek myth of Arachne, discussing what the moral of the story is and how we can apply it to our own experiences. In topic we took inspiration from Athenian pottery to design our own Greek vases on paper – next week we are going to realise our ideas in clay!
In PSHE we discussed greed, linking our conversations to a scene from The Odyssey and discussing how the characters could show generosity instead. In science we looked first at identifying what makes a good investigative question. We liked questions like “how does a plant grow?” and “what makes a good umbrella?” because these questions can be scientifically tested or measured. We used a selection of materials to experiment and generate our own scientific questions in groups. Some of our favourite ideas were “do any metals bend?” and “what makes a lightbulb brighter”?
Another exciting and varied week with lots of learning. Well done everyone!
NEXT WEEK
English: We will be continuing with ‘The Odyssey’, this time focusing on the part of the story where Odysseus encounters the Scylla. Our grammar focus will be exciting sentence starters. We will be using this version by Real Reads: http://realreads.co.uk/the-odyssey/
Maths: Building on what we learnt on Friday, we will be developing our understanding of number lines from 0 to 1000.
REMINDERS
- Water bottles and healthy snacks to come in each day.
- Our family boards our coming together wonderfully – please send a photo in if you haven’t already so that everyone in the class is included!
- PE – please start to bring warm clothes in for outside PE.
We wish you all a restful and enjoyable weekend.
Year 3 Team
