Year 3 – ysgol-y-castell1

	
		
	
	
			
			
			
		
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WELCOME TO YEAR 3

CROESO I BLWYDDYN 3

Dear Parents,

A warm welcome to Year 3! Firstly I would like to introduce myself. I am Mrs Reilly, the year 3 class teacher this year. I am very much looking forward to getting to know your children this year and meeting as many of you as possible. You will find that some of the routines are the same as when your child was in year 2, but there are some changes.

Please continue to use the home-school books provided for any messages or questions you may have. It is really helpful if dinner money is placed in an envelope with the child’s name and class written on the front and placed in the dinner money basket in class.

Please ensure all clothing is clearly labelled.

For breaktime the children can either bring their own fruit or it can be bought for 30p. We encourage the children to drink water during the day and they may bring in their own water bottle…..you may choose to purchase one of the school water bottles which are available from the office.

Some routines of our week will be as follows:

Monday	Homework to be returned to school. Spelling check up – new spelling words will be given out
Tuesday	PE (indoor for the autumn term )- kit needed
Wednesday
Thursday	Maths and English/theme homework will be brought home.
Friday	Times tables check up.

PE/Games kit- Indoors- shorts/plain t-shirt. Outdoors-tracksuit/warm top and suitable footwear e.g. trainers

The ‘mile a day’ initiative will continue this year. The children will be walking a mile every day. Please ensure your child is wearing appropriate footwear for this.

Homework will always reinforce what is being learnt in the classroom.

Reading and the enjoyment that books give is such an important part of Year 3 and during the year your child will have daily opportunities to read, individually, with a partner and as part of a small group. Please ensure that any school reading books are kept with the home-school book and returned to school every day. All the children will benefit from continued reading support and sharing of books at home.

Our class author is Roald Dahl and the children will enjoy a selection of his books throughout the year.

If you have any concerns regarding anything please do not hesitate to come and see me either before school or after.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Mrs Reilly (Class Teacher)

Tribe

The Iron Age Celts of Wales were exceptional warriors and craftsmen. Let’s travel back in time to meet them! During this half term, we’ll visit either an Iron Age museum or a reconstructed settlement to find out what life was like for the Celts in the Iron Age. Back in the classroom, we’ll find out more about Celtic family life, childhood, leadership, the Druids and the ‘Otherworld’. Outside, we’ll gather mud, clay, twigs and straw to build mini roundhouses and stoke the flames of a fire pit as we prepare an Iron Age feast. We’ll act as Celts, choreographing a slow-motion fight sequence between Celtic warriors, dressing up in classic Iron Age fashions and modelling and decorating sacrificial gifts for the Druid gods out of clay. Then it’s back to the future where we’ll act as archaeologists, tracking down Iron Age artefacts and discovering the mysteries of ‘bog bodies’. At the end of the project, we’ll reflect on what we have learnt about the Celts and create an informative display which you’ll be invited to visit. We’ll also write imaginative accounts of the ruthless Roman invasion of Britain from a Celt’s perspective.

Potions

Poisonous potions, aromatic brews, vapour or a sticky goo… Welcome to the amazing world of potions! By reading an extract from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we’ll learn all about mysterious potions, and write a safety label for Alice’s bottle. We’ll sort everyday items into solids, liquids and gases. Using our investigation skills we’ll explore capacity and the properties of liquids. We’ll also design fabulous bottles for magical potions. Becoming super scientists, we’ll investigate chemical reactions and states of matter. We’ll research the use of anaesthetic and learn what life was like without it! The play, Romeo and Juliet will inspire us to write scripts, and we’ll think of an alternative ending for this tragic tale. We’ll write spells with magical, strange or gruesome effects – what ingredients will we use? It will be great fun to make chocolate hearts and bath bombs! We’ll also create canvas art on a large scale! At the end of the ILP, we’ll invite you to visit our class of potion masters. We’ll even make delicious potion treats for you to taste!

Scrumdiddlyumptious!

We’re going to enjoy a yummy journey of discovery, sampling fantastic fruits and tantalising treats!

This half term, we’ll visit a local supermarket to find out about the food sold there. We’ll bring back samples of fruits and vegetables so we can investigate them using our senses. Will we like everything we taste? We’ll try different types of bread, and maybe even bake our own. In art and design, we’ll look closely at fruits and vegetables and sketch what we can see. We’ll follow recipes and learn about foods from around the world. Our science work will focus on food groups and how food can be altered. Will we be able to create bouncy eggs, edible slime or exploding chocolate drops? Using fruits and vegetables, we’ll make musical instruments and sculptures. We’ll also learn about the fascinating discoveries made by the physicist James Lind. Finally, we’ll invite you to sample some of the delicious foods we’ve made. We hope you’ll like them! We’ll sing songs about food and play our vegetable musical instruments.

Flow

Get your wellies on and let’s wade right in! This half term, we’ll visit a local river to find out what lives there, where the river is going and how fast it’s travelling. At the river, we’ll collect water and soil samples and catch river creatures. We’ll examine the samples at school to investigate how clean the water is. Using our creativity, we’ll write journals as river travellers and journey on an imaginary boat to rivers around the world. We’ll make working models of water wheels, investigate the water cycle and use natural materials to make models that demonstrate river formation. Our descriptive river poetry will capture the movement of water, and we’ll mix watercolours to create beautiful paintings in art. Our map reading and research skills will help us to find out about world famous rivers. In PE, we’ll play team games to ‘cross the river’ in the hall without falling in! At the end of the project, we’ll create a newsflash to explain what we’ve learnt, build a bridge and sculpt messy mud rivers outdoors.

Predator

It’s time to take a walk on the wild side! This half term, we’ll invite some amazing animals into our classroom to discover how they move, what they feel like and what they eat. We’ll also program a toy to move across a grid – will it be caught by a predator? We’ll learn about the different parts of a plant and how some plants are predators! From our investigations about the human skeleton, we’ll find out how muscle make the bones move. We’ll investigate food chains and learn about how animals find their food. Using the internet, we’ll research the majestic peregrine falcon and discover where crocodiles live. After our research, we’ll create an exciting aquatic animation. At the end of the ILP, we’ll show you a range of animal fact presentations, make animal collages and learn about the interesting (and disgusting) world of parasites!

Myths and Legends

Do you believe in dragons? How about fairies and giants? It’s time to uncover the magic and mystery of Wales! During this half term, we’ll receive a visit from a professional storyteller who will tell us about the fascinating legend of Gelert and bring the story to life through performance. We’ll explore the key features of myths and legends and investigate the Arthurian tales of the Welsh flag’s red dragon and the Knights of the Round Table. We’ll even discuss important matters around our own round table and write imaginative endings to knightly tales. The legends of fearsome giants, crafty lake monsters and mischievous fairies will also be introduced to us. We’ll stomp like giants, use clay to model monsters and take fairy photographs, uploading them to magical newspaper articles. We’ll listen to Welsh triple harp tunes, learn to dance the ‘Lucky Seven’ and race around the school grounds to track down Black Bart’s treasure using a map and coordinates. At the end of the project, we’ll evaluate our myths and legends and collate them into one big class book.