The Christmas holidays are finally here!  What a term it was! We have finished the term with the same energy as they started the term.  We’ve completed a 10 week swimming course, visited Ealing Gurdwara and Gunnersbury Park Museum. This morning, they has a chance to paint on textured surfaces (sand and hessian) recreating how painting was done by people in the Stone Age.  They produced some lovely pictures – they turned out much better than I expected.  They finished with an exciting, activity-packed week, which has included the return of our Key Stage 2 Christmas Quiz hosted by Mr Faith.

I hope you enjoyed their beautiful singing in the concert last night.  They were very sweet with their Little Donkey performance.  We enjoyed the story of one of the coconuts – from Morrisons, chainsaw, steak knife, another knife to ice cream scoop to church this week.  We also enjoyed the Church service this morning where we sung our hearts out to some traditional carols and watched a short video of photos from the last year.

Apart from the rehearsing, we have been finishing off some end-of-unit assessments so we’re ready for the new term.

The first term of the academic is always the hardest but your support, understanding and kind words go a long way.  A big thank you for the lovely class card and generous gifts – we are truly blessed.

Maybe it won’t be a Silent Night but we wish you all a peaceful Christmas and all the best for the New Year whether you are staying in London or you’re further afield.  I hear there’s visiting family in Carlisle, skiing in Italy, the mountains of Turkey, Marrakesh, family in France – whatever it is – enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

The children will have a class assembly to look forward to in January – theme to be decided!

Mrs Jeffrey

And with the final throw of the dice – our class had the highest attendance for this week!

In our Maths lessons, we are working on division using both flexible partitioning and the bus stop method.  We will finish this unit and complete end of unit assessments and also the Autumn Maths tests next week (one on arithmetic and one on reasoning and problem solving).  This will inform us of any changes to the Maths groups for the start of the Spring term.

In our English lessons, our GPS lesson focus was on the words ending in double consonants and short vowels. We listened to some of our written myths and also our acrostic seasonal poems.

During RE, we finished our unit of Advent and Epiphany.

On this page you will find both the words and the recordings for the children to practise ahead of next week’s Carol Service.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

In our Maths lessons, we are working hard on multiplication of two digit numbers by one digit numbers using the formal method eg 24 x 4, 35 x 5 – if you get a chance please practise more at time as it has been quite tricky for some of the children.  Also please keep practising the times tables.  In the supported group, we struggled to recall several times tables facts – please encourage them to keep trying.  This is really important especially as we will be working on division next week.

In our English lessons, we used our story plans and drew story maps for our myths.  We’ve also had a lesson on how to edit to improve our first draft.

In Science, we learned about magnets how opposite poles attract and like poles repel.

During RE, we learned about how Christians live the message of Christmas by giving of time, money, food and gifts.  We even had chance to make Christingles.

In our RHE lesson, we celebrated the differences of different families.

You will find the lyrics and the music for songs that the children will need to practise for their Carol Service.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Jeffrey

First Sunday of Advent this weekend and only 3 weeks until the Christmas holidays.  How time flies especially when we’re having fun!

In our English lessons, we’ve started to plan our myth for next week.  We given our hero special powers and thought about a dilemma and a quest to complete.  It’ll be lovely to read their stories next week.

In Maths, we have practised our multiplication and division facts and hopefully becoming more and more fluent with them.

In History, we went to Gunnersbury Park Museum where they took part in a Stone Age workshop. We handled a hand axe and flint blades which were actually from that time period as well as seeing a real mammoth tooth.  We were also shown a replica spearhead which had been skillfully put together using animal intestines to tie the spearhead to the shaft of the arrow.  Then we braved the crisp cold weather and went outside to test our hunter gatherer skills. We were shown how to spear a buffalo (no animals were injured!) and used animal skins and long sticks to build a shelter. We even got to splat some daub on our wattle to create sturdy fence-like panels. The children had a brilliant time and learned so much. We finished off the trip by enjoying some of the galleries on offer at Gunnersbury House, lots of fun was had! Thank you to our parent volunteer for helping out.

In Art, we did a fun quiz on prehistoric art and used charcoal and pastels to scale up animal drawings.

Miss Rachel is organising the Christmas Carol evening and you can find links on this page.

Homework this week is spellings, reading comprehension and Mathletics tasks.

Have a great weekend & enjoy the Christmas Fair.

Mrs Jeffrey

Thank you for making time for Parents Evening – I hope you found it useful.  It’s always good to get feedback from the parents so we can work together to give, provide and support the children the best we can during their time at school.  I will be following up some of the conversations we have had – those ten minutes simply aren’t enough!

We have had Anti Bullying week this week which was kicked off with an assembly given by Miss Bill.  We did a ‘live’ (but so really ‘live’ lesson) from the BBC where the children were encouraged to think about different ways to handle difficult and sensitive situations.  As part of RHE, we also looked at how we should respect differences.

In Maths – we’ve been working on multiplication and division so please keep up the times tables practise.  If your child is confidently recalling their times tables, please encourage them to learn the corresponding division facts.  As discussed at Parents Evening, understanding the times tables is key to telling the time, perimeter and area and of course fractions so practise, practise, practise!

In English, we are loving our topic and have written descriptions of the minotaur and our own beast and setting.  This will form some of our ideas for when we write our own myths.

Sadly, we have had the last of our swimming sessions!  The children will miss trying to spot Porsches and other elite cars.  I’ve been listening to them chatting about cars for several weeks and I still can’t see what all the fuss is about.  We were blessed with weather walking weather – only drizzle on one walk back. The children have all improved their swimming skills over the last 10 lessons and were assessed in the lesson.  By the end of Key Stage 2, they are expected to swim 25 metres unaided.  A few have already exceeded this distance, with many more able to complete this distance and a few who are working well towards this target.  Well done to all the children – we’ll miss the walk with our friends.

In preparation for next week, we started learning a bit about what MPs do and what Parliament is.  We have come up with a few questions for our two class school councillors to ask a MP next week.

Homework this week is spellings, reading comprehension and Mathletics tasks.  I’m just looking ahead to next weeks Maths and suggest that the children practise their 8 times tables – remembering that their 4 times will help them.  I know it say 7s on the homework sheet but 8s will be more useful!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Jeffrey

A busy start to the second part of the Autumn term.

In English, we are excited about our theme of Myths and Legends and have read the story of Theseus and the Minotaur and completed a reading comprehension.  We have also written a descriptive paragraph about the minotaur trying to use paired adjectives and adverbs. We even got to do some role play with Miss Natalie.

In our Maths lessons, we have started multiplication using arrays and drawing pictures to show what multiplication means.  eg four vases of five flowers, two plates of 3 cookies.

During RE, we revisited our year value of wisdom and wrote letters to ourselves which have now been sealed and will be returned to us in the Summer term.

We enjoyed a workshop on the theme of ‘hurtful words’.  The children learnt how we are all individual and how we should embrace cultural identity and unique traits.  They wrote poems on the theme which are on display in the classroom.

On Friday, the school was awash with the colours of flags from South American countries as we celebrated Hispanic Day.  In class, we completed a fact file about Ecuador and did some tortoise art.  We read a story called ‘Galapagos Girl’.  We enjoyed a flamenco assembly and a clapping workshop where the children learned 2 short songs, ‘I love you green’ and ‘Tarara’.  Thank you to Annabel’s Mum who came in and explained how to play’ ‘I spy’ in Spanish and showed us two games – I will label the first one ‘Grab a plate’ and the second ‘Pass the rhythm’.

During History, we started our unit on Prehistoric Britain. We looked at what the term ‘prehistory’ means and how archaeologists carry out different jobs in order to find out how people lived.  We will find out more from our trip at the end of the month to Gunnersbury Park Museum.

Thank you for getting the children into school earlier – our lateness numbers have fallen but could still improve – remember register is at 8:55.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics tasks.  Also there is a poem to read through.

Please find below an art competition drawing sheet.  Entries need to be returned by November 22^nd.

Please remember Open Classroom and Parents Evening next week.  Also the last swimming session next week where the first half of the session will be about water safety and then a free fun session.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

We have finished the first half term with a flourish!  The children have settled in to Year 3 smoothly – bringing in their fruit, swimming kits, PE kits, reading folders, homework & library books on (generally!) the right day.  Well done everybody!

Celebration of Black Voices Week – Reclaiming Narratives

We started the week with a special assembly ‘Hidden Figures’ by Bigfoot Education. The children went on a journey throughout history learning of significant black figures, whose actions have made a positive impact on the world we live in today.  We learned about Mary Prince (abolition of slavery), Paul Stephenson (who took part in Bristol protests so Black and Asian people could be bus drivers), John Blanke, (a trumpet player in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII), Lilian Bader (Navy Corporal) and the first black Roman Emperor Lucius Septimus Severus (played by Mr Schumm).

In Year 3, we’ve been learning all about Claudia Jones – also known as the Mother of Carnivals.  We completed a reading comprehension based on her life and made some colourful face masks.

In English, we learned more about our class poet, Grace Nichols and read & discussed some of her poems.  We also wrote some poems based on food and tried to follow a rhyming pattern.

In Maths, we finished addition and subtraction topics and completed a short assessment.

We have finished our RE topic and our Geography topics.

We will have two more swimming lessons after half term.

There is no official homework but you can use the time to practise spellings, times tables and complete any Mathletics tasks.  Spelling tests are done when there is a gap in the timetable.  Due Year 3 staffing, it has not been possible to timetable tests for a particular day.  The children are tested when they have had the spellings for at least a week.

The office send out an email weekly about school attendance and punctuality – we don’t do very well on the punctuality.  Please remember the school register is taken at 8:55, we go into collective worship at 9:00 so if your child is coming in for 9 – they will be marked in as late.

On a positive note – this term has whizzed by and the children have been a real pleasure to teach.

Whether near or far, home or away – I hope you have a wonderful half term break!

Mrs Jeffrey

We’re racing to half term with another fun packed week!

We had assemblies galore this week.  We joined in the Great Big Live Assembly for Black History Month as an introduction to our learning next week when we focus on the theme of reclaiming the narrative.  Year 3 will be learning about Claudia Jones – also known as the Mother of Carnivals.   On Friday, the school was a sea of red and we started the morning with a Red Card to Racism assembly highlight the importance of inclusivity regardless of race, colour and culture.

In English, we have been reading, discussing and looking at features of food poems.  We’ve had a lesson on similes and metaphors and will try to compose a poem next week using rhyme next week.

In Maths, we have been focussing on adding and subtracting using the language ‘exchange’ and ‘rename’ – if you’re supporting your child with their work – try to use these words rather than ‘borrow’ and ‘carry over’.  It may be a hard habit to break but it might make their learning more straight forward if the language is consistent between school and home.  I also want to add, if your child feels the need to draw out their work using Base 10/place value counters/number lines – please encourage them to do so.

In RE, we learned about the 5^th Guru – Guru Arjun Dev – the first Sikh martyr who legacy includes the Golden Temple at Amritsar.

In Computing, we learned about the journey of an email – there were plenty of house points awarded and the children were thrilled when their names popped up in my inbox!  It really did bring the lesson to life!

In Science, we learned about what different animals eat and the recapped the definitions of herbivore, omnivore and carnivore.

This week, we walked to our 6^th swimming lesson in glorious sunshine!  The instructors are all extremely pleased with how well the children are swimming –  we have 4 more lessons to go but its seems as if starting the swimming in September has paid off in terms of the weather.

Homework this week is spellings, comprehension (please write the answers in the homework book not on sheets) and Mathletics tasks.

Have a restful weekend ahead of a busy week before half term!

Mrs Jeffrey

It was lovely to see some of you at the Quiz Night – what hidden talents, skills and knowledge you have but not as good as the winning teachers team!

In Maths, we have been working on adding and subtracting 10s from three digit numbers.  Some of the children are finding this tricky when it crosses over 100s (eg 521 – 30) so do stay on top of the Mathletics tasks (which have help screens if you need them) which will help them with this concept.  We will make changes to the two Maths group so the support is where it is needed.  I just want to emphasise that ALL the children, regardless of their Maths group, they are taught all the same objectives and will complete the same core tasks.

In English, we enjoyed reading Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat and wrote two class limericks and then had fun trying to write our own.  You’ll see that they can have another attempt as part of their homework this week.  We also took part in a live English lesson organised by The British Library – the children enjoyed listening to the guests on the show and scribbled, sketched and wrote a short story based on themselves and their ‘sparks’ and dreams.  They really enjoyed it and have produced some colourful and imaginative work.  We’ve just started reading some poetry about food which the children are really finding humorous.

The children are writing their own versions of Morning Comes – does this sound familiar?

Morning comes with sun rising

Morning comes cars screeching

Morning comes with babies crying

Morning comes with kids saying ‘I don’t want to go to school!’

Morning comes with cyclists cycling

Morning comes with messy breakfasts

Morning comes with puddles to be avoided

Morning comes with birds singing

Morning comes with people chatting

Morning comes with dogs barking

Morning comes with airplanes flying

Morning comes with bus queues forming

Morning comes with pigeons eating rubbish in the street

Morning comes with bin men picking up rubbish bags

Morning comes with Mr Schumm handing out bagels.

During our RE lesson, we looked at Sikh weddings and learned about their beliefs about marriage.

On Thursday, we celebrated Mental Health Day – the school was awash in bright yellow.  Mr Schumm held an assembly highlighting some themes around mental health.  In class, we reminded ourselves that we should each have three trusted adults in school.  These trusted adults can change and be anybody the children feel they can talk to if they have any concerns.  As an activity, the children worked in pairs and made a badge that reflected how great their friend is.

Homework this week is spellings and Mathletics tasks.  If I have given your child a spelling sheet – this is the work I would like them to do – not the spellings on our web page.

Think it could be dry this weekend but who knows?

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

During English, we read Grace Nichols’ poem Morning Comes.  They enjoyed the theme and will have the opportunity of writing their own version of the poem in the next few weeks.  I’ve already had an eager poet write her own version:

Morning comes

With thunder booming

Morning comes

With engines roaring

Morning comes

With people stomping

Morning comes

With children screaming

Morning comes

With raindrops pouring

Morning comes

With bin men heaving

Morning comes

With wipers wiping

Morning comes

With pet cats miaowing

Morning comes to take me to school.

I wonder if you recognise this as a morning scene in your home…

We also completed a comprehension on how to wash an elephant.  Together as a class we shared ideas about how to catch a dragon and have begun to write our own instructions.  The equipment looks pretty impressive – obsidian shield, diamond encrusted cage, slime and golden swords.  The dragon doesn’t really stand much of a chance!

In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting in 1s and 10s.  Sometimes we have used pictorial representation (Base 10 and Place Value counters) to help us the process.

During our RE lesson, we learned about Guru Nanak – the first of the Sikh gurus.  We remembered that Guru means teacher and Sikh means student.

In Geography, we located capital cities around the world using a world map.

On Wednesday, we had a Harvest Service at church – thank you for the donations.  On Thursday we joined a live Harvest Carnival lesson, hosted by NFU Education.  We discussed what farmers do and where ingredients for a curry patty originate.  It was really interesting.  Did you know it only takes three months for celery to grow and with the help of technology, it takes just 24 hours for celery to go from the field into our shops.  Pretty impressive stuff.

Halfway through our swimming sessions – we have been blessed with dry weather to and from the swimming pool.  I enquired about the temperature of the water and was informed that the big pool is regulated at 27 degrees and the smaller training pool is 31 degrees.  They said they do take regular readings and these temperatures are within range for public swimming pools.

The class is a happy class with an enviable social life – lots of playdates and sports clubs after school.  Just a gentle reminder to please let the office or myself know if there other people are collecting your children – we have incidences where we have parents/carers and teachers searching for children who have already been picked up by other parents/carers and adults.  Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Homework this week is spellings, Mathletics tasks and comprehension.  Please note that Mathletics is part of homework so please make sure your child makes every effort to complete their work.  We will monitor this over the next few weeks.  Children have taken home recorders this week – scroll down to find recorder practise notes.

Weather has turned again but in our favour – enjoy!

Mrs Jeffrey

It was lovely to see so many of you at family supper last night – hope you all enjoyed the delicious food and had a good catch-up with friends.

We also had a great trip to Ealing Gurdwara yesterday and stayed for lunch in the Langar Hall where people, regardless of their religion, can enjoy a vegetarian meal.  Even though the children have just started to learn about Sikhism, they were able to answer some of the questions and also ask many interesting questions including one about what we were having for lunch! 

In English, we have been looking at instruction texts and they have had a go at writing instructions.  Next week, we will be doing comprehension work about washing elephants and writing instructions for washing a dog. 

In Maths, we have finished our first unit of place value and completed an assessment. We will be using these to inform us about possible changes in the Maths groups starting after half term.

In Computing, the children designed their own poster about passwords.

In Geography, they have used maps and atlases to locate countries around the world.

Just a reminder that our library session is on a Thursday.  We have a wonderful library but many of the children forget to bring their books back – please encourage them to remember their books every Thursday.

Swimming is still going well. The children enjoy the walk to and from the pool as much as they enjoy being in the pool especially if they spot a sports car or a cute dog!

Homework – spellings and Mathletics tasks.  We have been short staffed this week so apologies if the homework has not been marked this week. 

Harvest Festival

Please so remember to bring in any non-perishables (pasta, tinned food etc) for our Harvest Festival Church Service next Wednesday.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey 

During English, we did some shared writing where the children worked together to write an opening paragraph and then improved it by adding/removing words, replacing words and generally making sure the sentences were cohesive.  They really enjoyed doing it.  They wrote a short description from a bug’s point of view and some of the children read out their work.  They also planned and started to write our own stories based on The Omnibombulator.  We have working hard on paired adjectives and making our work interesting by using connective and trying to include our homework spellings ‘ou’ words which make an /ow/ sound.

In Maths, we continued our work on number and place value. We built upon last week’s work, finding 1, 10 or 100 more or less than given numbers. We then compared and sequenced numbers up to 1000 and developed our understanding of the terms ‘ascending’ and ‘descending’.

In Science, we learned about balanced diets and what we should eat more of as well as what we should eat less of.  The children have been quite honest answering whether they have a healthy diet or not!

In Geography, we learned about continents of the world.

In Computing, we discussed how to create secure passwords.

The children attended presentations by Year 6 children so they could vote for House Captains.

Please remember homework books and reading folders back in by Tuesday (but house points for early returners) and library books on Thursday.

This week’s homework is spellings, comprehension (please write answers into homework book and not onto the printed sheet) and Mathletics tasks.  Please follow the handwriting guide and use the handwriting sheet provided so we can encourage the children to use ‘tall’ and ‘short’ letters. The children’s spelling groups may change as the term goes on – this will depend on their spelling scores.  Their reading comprehension will be their spelling group ie. blue or green.

Looks as if this weekend is a bit mixed – sunglasses and umbrellas – whatever it brings – enjoy!

Mrs Jeffrey

Next Thursday is a visit to the Gurdwara in Ealing – please email us if you are able to help.

We’re all settling in to the year quickly and have been busy.  We have democratically voted for our class school councillors and prayer group.

This week’s homework is spellings practise (using the handwriting sheet attached inside the homework book – don’t worry about the sound button notations), Mathletics tasks and times table practise (which should be shown at the front of their homework books after their spellings work).  Homework will be on the class webpage on Thursdays and homework is due back in by Tuesday.  Children are encouraged to bring it in sooner for house points!  Reading folders were due to go out on Thursday but the plastic wallets haven’t arrived so we’re hoping they will come in time for reading books to go out early next week.  All the children visited the library and have checked out a book so they will have a book to read over the weekend. You can login from home to check which book they have borrowed or browse remotely. They can login using this URL: https://u003532.microlibrarian.net/

During Maths, we built upon last week’s work, using number lines for numbers up to 100. We have also made practical use of our newly-refined number and place value skills by starting to solve number and place value-related partitioning problems.

During English, we enjoyed Dick King-Smith’s ‘The Omnibombulator’ as a reference text for our work on stories with familiar settings. They were reminded about ‘Success Criteria’ – a checklist they should be using when they work.  Next week, we will plan and start to write our very own descriptive pieces from a ‘bug’s eye’ view. As part of the writing process, next week we will be sure to re-read our work with a view to improving it, a key part of the Year 3 English Writing curriculum.   In our GPS lesson, we jumped straight in with learning how to use a dictionary which is an essential skill. It is the first time that the children have used dictionaries so they found it quite tricky – we are living in a world where we use Google to find out the definition of words and there are fewer dictionaries in our homes.

We are still enjoying the hearing about the antics of Mr Gum and some of us have chosen a book from the series to read in class or the library.

In our RE lesson, we designed a wisdom poster based on Year 3’s value of ‘Wisdom’.

The children enjoyed a session with our Scientist in Residence who did a session on Light and Shadows.

In our Computing lesson, we started to learn about the importance of online safety practices signing a contract and designing a poster using SMART as a reminder of how to stay safe online.

The children enjoyed their swimming lesson and many of them have demonstrated confident swimming strokes whilst some of them are practising swimming skills.

A reminder that our poem for the half term can be found on our class page.

Please practise this with your child/ren on a regular basis ahead of us performing it as a class at the end of the half term.

Who knows what the weather has in store for us this weekend but I expect I’ll be getting out the winter wardrobe – whatever the weather – enjoy!

Mrs Jeffrey

Welcome to the first blog of Year 3!  I hope you have all had a lovely holiday and ready for school.

It has been lovely to see them after the summer holidays.  The children look smart in their uniform – remember hoodies on Monday/Tuesday & Fridays only. They are a picture of health and happiness and a joy to have in class. We have enjoyed hearing news about our holidays to from Berkshire to Whitstable, Corfu to Switzerland, watching sports, road trips and lazing around on beaches and jumping into swimming pools.  Turkey proved to be a popular destination this year.

We’re all settling in to the year quickly and have been busy.  We have democratically voted for our autumn class librarians and will vote for our Prayer Group reps and school councillors next week.

This week’s homework is reading the class poem by our class poet, Grace Nichols, and can be found on this web page.  Please practise this with your child/ren on a regular basis ahead of us performing it as a class at the end of the half term. Written homework will go out next Thursday and is due back in by Tuesday.  House points are awarded for homework completed to a high standard before Tuesday.  Reading folders will also go out on Thursdays and due back on Tuesdays.  Please encourage children to re-read the books if they finish them quickly.

We have done two Maths assessments and will start work on place value next week.

In our RE lesson, we read the Bible verse for Year 3 and wrote short prayers for our display.

In Geography, we discussed which countries we felt connected to.

In our Computing lesson, we started to learn about the importance of online safety practices signing a contract and designing a poster using SMART as a reminder of how to stay safe online.

The children are enjoying our class reader ‘You’re A Bad Man Mr Gum’ by Andy Stanton.

The children enjoyed their first swimming lesson and we managed to dodge the showers which were forecast.  I have picked up a couple of swimming caps so let me know if you have one missing.  We will be 5-10 minutes late coming back on Fridays – I hope this does not disrupt your routines too much.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Jeffrey

Our timetable and curriculum map can also be found on this page.