Welcome to Year 3 (St. Mary Magdalene)

We are looking forward to working with your children and enabling them to succeed to the best of their abilities (with your help also!)  Please read the following carefully as it will give you all the information you need.

Topics

Our topics and areas of learning for this term are:

• R.E. - Homes, Promises, Judaism and Visitors
• Literacy - character story, narrative openings, character description, non-chronological reports, action sequences, metaphors and personification poetry, formal letters with emotive language, narrative short stories and instructions. We will be reading and exploring the novels: 'George's Marvellous Medicine,' 'Flat Stanley' and 'Sam Wu is not afraid of Ghosts'
• Numeracy - Place value; addition and subtraction; multiplication and division; doubling and halving; time; 3d shapes; addition and subtraction of money; length and capacity; rounding to the nearest 10 and 100; solving word problems.
• Topic - History: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, Geography: Our local area
• Science – Rocks; Forces and Magnets
• Computing – Coding, Online Safety and Spreadsheets 

Homework

Homework will be set every Friday. Completed homework is due back the following Wednesday. Children will be given a piece of literacy and a piece of numeracy to complete. Please encourage your child to work independently. If they need a significant amount of help, please let us know so we can provide further support for your child. They will only receive work they have covered in class. Please feel free to write any comments in their homework books.

If your child also has a homework pack, this must be completed every day.

Please encourage your child to use Times Tables Rockstar. Links for this are under the Children & Nursery section of the school website: www.stmarymagdalenemk.co.uk

Learning Logs

Learning logs will be sent home every half term. This is done in place of the normal, weekly homework and should be 2 pages long. The topics for learning logs this term will be: Games/Play and Christmas

Spellings

Children will work on their spellings in school. Words will be taken from the ‘Get Spelling’ scheme and from their work books. Word lists for Year 3 and 4 can be found in the spelling log book. Please ask your child about their spellings and encourage them to practise at home.

Times Tables

Please practise your child’s time’s tables with them every day. In year 2 pupils learned the 2, 5, 10 times tables. In year 3, they will work on the 3, 4, 6 8  times tables. Children should know how to use times tables facts to find corresponding division facts. Children also need to feel confident in their number bonds to 10, 20 and then to 100.

Home Reading Books

Your child should be reading every day.  This will develop both their reading and writing skills. Each child is expected to take reading books home and they must be kept in good condition. Pupils have a Reading Record. Parents and carers are expected to sign this and make a comment.

Please ensure that you support your child with their homework by:

• Hearing them read daily and signing their record
• Testing them on their spelling words before Thursday’s test
• Testing them on their times tables
• Using the local library or the internet to support your child with their learning

In Year 3, they are allowed to change their reading book independently once they have finished.  Please remind your child of this.

Book Bags

If your child needs a book bag, please ensure it is a small bag. They only need to bring their reading book, reading record and spelling log to school every day.

Library

Every Wednesday, your child will have an opportunity to choose a book from the school library. Please ensure this book is looked after and returned to the school library when finished. Lost books will be charged for, at £5 per book.

P.E.

P.E. takes place once a week, run by our sports coach on Wednesday afternoons. Children need to bring to school their full school P.E. kit, which includes navy blue shorts, white t-shirt and plimsolls/trainers.  A sweatshirt and jogging bottoms are also needed in cold weather. All kits need to be fully labelled with your child's name and year group.

Other

Please make sure your child attends school regularly and on time every day. Year 3 pupils are to come straight to class when they arrive to complete their morning work. At the end of the school day, please collect your child at 3.20 pm from outside your child's classroom. Please make every effort to collect your child on time.  Any child not collected by 3:30 pm will be taken to the after school club and you will be charged.  

After school curriculum clubs end each day at 4.00 pm, children must be collected promptly from the front of the school. Any child not collected by 4.10 pm will be put into our after school club at a cost.

If you have any concerns about your child that you would like to discuss, please feel free to set a date and time to discuss this with me.

With kind regards

Mr Houghton