Welcome to Year 3 - Birch

Miss Edizer

Learning Update

In Literacy, we started a new book called Jim: A Cautionary Tale. Cautionary tales usually have an important message to tell the reader. In this story, Jim runs away from his nurse at the zoo and ends up getting eaten by a lion, so the story teaches us to follow rules that are in place to keep us safe. This story is written as a poem. We started by looking at the first 8 lines and reciting these in groups, identifying the rhyming words that match together into rhyming couplets. We also wrote our own poems, choosing a different animal for Jim to encounter. The children really enjoyed sharing these with each other in class. Next, children will be starting their last Literacy book of Year 3, which is The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In Maths, we finished our topic of Time. We used analogue and digital formats to identify start and end times and were able to work out different word problems. For example, if I leave my house at 8am and my journey to school takes 20 minutes, I know that I will arrive at 8:20am. We then began our unit on shape, focusing first on angles and direction. The children were able to practise making full turns, half turns and quarter turns, deciding which way to turn if we were going clockwise or anticlockwise. We then looked at right angles and noticed that a right angle is a quarter of a turn. Next, children will be looking at acute and obtuse angles, and comparing the sizes of angles, identifying them within different shapes.

In DT, the children finished their topic on greenhouses. The children created the outside of their greenhouses using transparent materials, like Sellotape, cling film and clear plastic bags, and were able to explain why transparent materials were most useful for a greenhouse, as well as evaluating the making process of this project and identifying what they enjoyed the most and which parts they found tricky. The children are really happy with their designs, and I think they all look great!

In Art, we started our topic called Beautiful Botanicals. We began by looking at the types of artwork that botanical artists produce and identified the natural materials that they use as their subject matter. We then had a go at sketching some natural materials, such as fruit, vegetables and flowers. After this, we used different materials, such as watercolour paints, oil pastels and charcoal, to practise using different mediums for our art pieces. Next, we will be comparing pieces of botanical art, commenting on the effect that the use of different materials has on the overall outcome of the art pieces, as well as making our own prints inspired by botanical art.

Summer Term 2025

Links to Summer Term learning are in the process of being uploaded.