Sapphire Class
Year 3: 2024 - 2025
Sapphire Class
Teacher: Mrs Medhurst
Spring 1 Term
Please find attached information about what your children will be learning during this term.
Check this page weekly as I will post lots of lovely photographs of what your children have been learning.
Week 6
This week we began looking at multiplying a two-digit number by a one-digit number in maths. We used counters to represent the tens and ones in each number and put them into groups. We found that sometimes we needed to exchange our tens into ones if they couldn't be shared equally between the groups we were making.



Tuesday was Safer Internet Day and we got involved by accessing an online activity with the BBC. We had different tasks to do to help us learn how to spot scams and phishing emails as well as the recipe for a secure password!




After our online activities, we turned hacker and answered questions about internet safety on Blooket, all while stealing crypto currency by guessing each other's passwords! We loved this game!



Week 5
This Friday was NSPCC Number Day and Year 3 explored the numbers they could see around the room.
Lots of us came in wearing football shirts with a number on the back for our favourite player, or we decorated a t-shirt of our own with lots of numbers. We explored these numbers in groups, playing with them and seeing what we know about the number, what we can do to the number and how we can represent the number in different ways.
Week 3
We visited the library this Friday afternoon and enjoyed some quiet time reading alone or with our friends.




In Art we continued to learn about printing. We looked at monoprinting and we used printing ink, acetate and rollers to make our own monoprinting images. The children worked together well to support and help each other develop and apply their learning. They produced some excellent monoprints.












As we continue to learn about rocks in science, we completed a practical science lesson to learn about how different rocks are formed!
We discovered that igneous rocks are babies of the rock world as they are freshly formed rocks - liquid magma spews from volcanoes and as it cools, it hardens into rock. We used melted chocolate to act like lava which we poured into tin foil, enclosed and left to cool and harden.




We then talked all about erosion and how sediments and sands layer upon one another over time to create sedimentary rocks. Did you know that sometimes dead animals or plants get caught in these layers of sediment and that's how we get fossils?
To demonstrate this, we used different types of chocolate layered over each other. We even scraped some pieces of hardened chocolate to act like animals or plants being trapped in between the layers. After this had hardened, we snapped a piece in half and examined it to find the layers of milk, dark and white chocolate.



Week 2
We began our Egyptian Dance unit in PE this week, focusing on moving in unison with a partner and a small group. We used different Egyptian Gods as inspiration for poses that we incorporated into choreography for our own dance routines.




We acted like scientists this week by examining different rocks and their properties. We used magnifying glasses to get a really close look to explore the colours, textures and appearances of different types of rock.


Week 1
In one of our science lessons this week we finished off our forces using from Autumn. We continued investigating friction and we became scientists and investigated the impact of different surfaces on movement of cars. We used our prior knowledge to predict the outcome, we planned and carried out our investigation and we collected and interpreted our results.




Autumn 2 Term
Please find attached information about what your children will be learning during this term.
Check this page weekly as I will post lots of lovely photographs of what your children have been learning.
Week 7
Well that’s a wrap - the end of the Autumn term! What a week we have had - parties, pantomimes, performances, making cards and calenders for our family and enjoying the excitement of the lead up to Christmas together. We also took part in a reindeer dash for St Cuthberts hospice and raised more than £1000 pounds - just amazing for such a worthwhile cause, What a super Autumn term we have had from start to finish. Each andevery one of Year 3 should be very proud of themselves. Now time to spend with our families - Happy Christmas 🎅🏼
Reindeer dash



Party time






Pantomime - Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!
Week 6
This week we looked at the culture of Italy and we made our own pizzas - a food associated with Italy.






This week was also Christmas jumper day and Christmas lunch. Lisa, our school cook, made a lunch to be proud of! It was delicious and enjoyed by all 😋






This week we have also been continuing our work on levers and linkages and using levers and pivots to make movement. Wait till you see what we have made!



Week 5
This week we worked with Y6 and we did some descriptive writing using AI. We described our own settings which we imagined we would see if we went through the red door. We then input our writing into AI and AI created a pictorial representation of our writing. We were amazed at some of the pictures our writing created.
Week 3
This week we started looking at magnetic forces in science. We learnt that a magnetic force is a non contact force but that they can also cause a push or pull action. We also learnt about the names of different magnets and how magnets can be different strengths.






This week we had the pleasure of working with Elizabeth. She was an artist working with Gentoo and Culture Art. They are working on a big art project to decorate the fencing around the new housing development at Eskdale Rise. Our art work will be on display for the whole community to see. We loved being artists for the afternoon and we were really proud of the work we produced.
This week we have also started our DT project on linkages and levers. We explored books with moving parts then we learnt about fixed and free pivots and input and output linked to mechanisms. We made our first mechanism with pivots and linkages and levers.










Week 2
This week Year 3 have started looking in more detail at our science topic of forces. We looked at pushes and pulls and how if they are balanced then there is no movement of change of shape. We also looked at how we draw force arrows to show the direction of the force and the size of the force. We are great fun experimenting with balanced forces and working out the direction of the force carrying out balances with our partners.






We then looked more at forces and concentrated on the size of the force and predicted what we thought would happen to a toy car depending on the size of the force applied to it. We all predicted that the harder the force the further the car would move and the smaller the force then the shorter the distance the car would move. We also predicted that the car would move faster when a greater force was used on it. We then had great fun testing our predictions which we found to be true.






This week we also had a super reading session with Year 6. They came in to listen to us read and they were super impressed with how good we were. Year 6 want to come and listen to us read more often and we think we would like that.









This week was also anti-bullying week. The whole school were set a kindness challenge to do something kind for someone in their class at some point over the week but it had to be a surprise. Year 3 were just amazing and their acts of kindness were just beautiful from cards to sweets to compliments to helping with work to sharing their lunch and asking children to play. I could not be prouder of Year 3 this week ❤️



This week was also Children in Need. Year 3 choose to draw Pudsey as their task. We had some super Pudsey pictures and also some super Pudsey outfits. Thank you Year 3 for your continued support in all we do.






Week 1
What an amazing first week back Year 3 have had. We have been outside in our amazing outdoor space so much of this week learning and being active. We did our reading lesson outside going on a perilous journey like the main character in Arthur and the Golden Rope did to find treasure and then using our treasures to retell the story. We also did our maths outside practising + with HTO. We then explored contact forces outside finding pushes and pulls and exploring when they made things move and when they made things change shape.
Reading



Maths


Science






We loved our visit to Bible Comes Alive- hearing the stories of the bible being told by the characters. We also loved it when Mrs Hill joined in the story telling and we were allowed to throw things at her while she was in the stocks. We were complimented on our behaviour and our manners which made Mrs Hill and Mrs Medhurst very proud!





Autumn 1 Term
Please find attached information about what your children will be learning during this term.
Check this page weekly as I will post lots of lovely photographs of what your children have been learning.
Week 7
This week we have continued to look at creating Art using lines. We created our own Julian Opie portraits. Can you spot who is who.









This week we also continued learning about how spreadsheets can be used to present data. We used the graphs we learned to create using a spreadsheet to present our research on which number is rolled the most times on a 6 sided dice. We used dice with numbers 7 to 12. We learned to interpret what our graphs showed.






Week 6
This week Year 3 have been doing lots of science. We have learned all about why we have a skeleton. We loved pretending to be wibbly wobbly just like we would be if we didn’t have a skeleton. We also looked at the bones that make up our skeleton.




We also looked at the skeletons of different animals and learnt about vertebrates and invertebrates.


This week we also acknowledged Breast Cancer Awareness day on Friday 17th - this is something, as a school community, is very close to our 💕. There was lots of pink about school.




Week 5
This week in computing we have been learning how to identify specific cells in spreadsheets using the headings from columns and rows . We developed our ability to identify and name specific cells but filling instructions to make a picture by colouring specific cells.






This week we also recognised International Mental Health day by wearing yellow. We used 2 apples which both looked the same on the outside but which were very different on the inside to help us understand that people who struggle with their mental health might look OK on the outside but might feel very different on the inside. We made a ‘kind hand’ for a surprise person in the class writing in the hand nice kind things about that person. We then shared our hands to make everyone feel good.








This week we also learnt about Arthur Wharton - the first black footballer in English professional football. Ask Year 3 what they have learnt about this inspirational sports person.


Week 4
This week we used our learning in History and our learning for our text in English - The Furst Drawing- to help us compare our life to the life of a Stone Age boy. We loved working together to do this and our discussion showed how much we have learnt.




This week we have also worked hard on developing our maths. We are using concrete resources then pictures then abstract methods to help us develop our understanding of numbers to 100.



Week 3
This week the children were lucky enough to have a specialist Stone Age workshop from Durham University. We learned lots about prehistory and how we know about this period of our past from artefacts because writing was not invented during this time period. We were able to handle and explore lots of real artefacts from the Stone Age through to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age which has helped us all learn more about how people in this time lived. We also examined a skeleton which is believed to have belonged to a Stone Age person and we learned how to work out if it was a man or a lady and clues from their bones as to what they did.









In maths this week we have been learning about numbers to 1000. We have been partitioning these numbers in different ways and learning about how to add 1 and 10 and 100 to these numbers and what happens to the digits in each column. We have been using dienes and place value counters to help us secure our understanding before moving on to drawing and writing our learning.









In English we are using the text ‘The first drawing.’ We used the text this week to compare how we are the same as the Stone Age boy in the text and how we are different. We are going to use our work to write a comparison text next week.




Week 2
This week the children have been learning about food chains and the transfer of energy when food is eaten. We learnt that the arrow in a food chain means ‘is eaten by’ and that when ever an animal eats some food the energy contained within the food is transfer to the animal to give them energy.
In Art we have continued looking at how lines are used to create images. This week we looked at peacock feathers and the lines within their structure and we used lines to make our own artistic representation of the the features with some outstanding results.















Week 1
The children have settled really well this week and we have had a super first week. The children have worked really hard and their behaviour has been super. We have started lots of new topics this week and the children are excited to find out more about each topic.
We are reading The first drawing in English and we are using this book to help develop our writing. This week we have been looking at writing correctly punctuated sentences and collecting ideas for our diary writing next week. Today we went outside and made pictures of animals with the clouds just like the boy in the story did.
In reading we are reading a poem about Jackdaws. We enjoyed exploring this poem today using drama to help us remember some of the tricky words in the poem. Ask us what we know about jackdaws and ask us some of the new words we have learnt.




We have also been asked to take part in a safety project for the new Eskdene Rise housing project. Our work will be displayed on their construction site fencing and we will be able to go to visit and see it. We started our project this week.






We have also visited our library and read some of the beautiful books. We are so excited to receive our very own library cards in the next couple of weeks so we can start to borrow the beautiful books and take them home and share them with our families.







