Summer Term 

2025

 Year 3

Welcome back to Year 3!

Here you will find all of the key information about what the children are getting up to this term. The door for Year 3 will be opened at 8:45am and will close at 8.55am for registration. Please ensure children arrive on time to ensure that they can settle into the school day successfully.

Reading

The novels we will be reading this term are  How to train your dragon by Cressida Cowell and The legend of Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood. How to train your dragon-The quiet and thoughtful Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of the Viking Chief, must prove his worth by catching and training a dragon, defying expectations and forging a unique path to heroism.   The second novel we will be reading is The legend of Podkin One-Ear –Podkin is the son of a warrior chieftain. He knows that one day it will be up to him to lead his warren and guard it in times of danger. But for now, he’s quite happy to laze around annoying his older sister Paz, and playing with his baby brother Pook. Then Podkin’s home is brutally attacked, and the young rabbits are forced to flee. The terrifying Gorm are on the rampage, and no one and nowhere is safe. With danger all around them, Podkin must protect his family, uncover his destiny, and attempt to defeat the most horrifying enemy rabbitkind has ever known.

Reading continues to be an important part of the day. Please ensure that your child reads at home daily and that this is recorded in their reading record. Your child’s reading book and reading record need to be sent into school daily to enable us to read at school, change books and monitor your child’s reading progress. A mixture of reading to an adult as well as reading independently is encouraged in order for children to develop their fluency and comprehension. Our library day is Thursday.

Writing

As writers, we will be focussing our writing on four rich texts.   The first is The Thames and Tide Club by Katya Balen.  Then it is How to Live Forever by Colin Thompson.  After that it will be Jim, A Cautionary Tale by Hilaire Belloc and finally The Zebra’s Great Escape by Katherine Rundell. These significant children’s literature has been chosen to engage, challenge and support children to be critical readers and confident and informed writers. All National Curriculum requirements of grammar, spelling, vocabulary, literary language and composition are embedded leading towards a variety of purposeful and exciting shorter, longer and extended writing outcomes where the audience and purpose is clear.

Our big focus in writing is neat presentation, handwriting and practising saying what we want to write before we write it so we can make our piece the best it can be.  During writing the children may take on the role of one of the characters, they will definitely share ideas with their partner and the class and there is lots of fun discussion to be had too.

Maths

In Maths, we will be starting the term with Mass and Capacity and then move onto Fractions.  Throughout the last term the children will also learn about Money, Time, Shape, Statistics.  We will be continuing to practise and consolidate the children’s methods of calculation for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The children will continue to come home with their TTRS login at the back of their reading record and so please can they practise their times tables at home.  The children can achieve certificates and badges if they can reach Rockstar, Rock Legend and Rock Hero status!

Broader Curriculum

We will be starting this first half of the term with our new science unit – Plants: Where the key question throughout will be How does each part of a plant fulfil its function?.  We will then look at Light and how it travels.  Then finally Rocks and how they can be classified.  

In geography the children will be conducting a field study: How can we make our school environment more bee friendly?

In computing the children will learn about Branching databases and Desktop publishing.

The children will continue their French education with the topics Numbers 20-50 & My Family.

Physical Education

Our focus in PE this term is athletics and netball. 

During our fitness unit, pupils are exposed to a range of activities that explore and develop different areas of their health and fitness. Pupils will learn that being fit means having strong, healthy bodies and more energy for everyday life activities. They will practice various activities using fundamental movement skills, such as running and jumping to improve their strength and fitness. This unit will also highlight how regular physical activity boosts their focus in school and overall happiness. 

Athletics for year 3 children involves children refining and applying fundamental movements like running, jumping, and throwing, focusing on skills like sprinting, standing long jump, and various throwing techniques. 

During the Netball unit children will develop their understanding of the defending and attacking principles of invasion games. They will use skills, strategies and tactics to outwit their opposition.  

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to email me at:

a.warner-lee@southill.dorset.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support,

Andrea 🙂