Welcome to Year 3

3EN - Beatrix Potter class

Why Beatrix Potter?

We chose Beatrix as she was famous worldwide for her children’s stories and illustrations, helping to conserve the Lake District, being a natural scientist and winning farming awards for her Herdwick sheep flock.

3NA - Amelia Earhart class

Why Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Earhart is famous for being the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. We chose her as our role model because she was fearless and determined, and a trailblazer who continues to be an inspiration to this day.

Ms Ackerman

I have been at Hillcrest for quite a while. My favourite thing about teaching at Hillcrest is the enthusiasm that all the children bring to their learning and being part of such a wonderful community.

Miss North

I have been at Hillcrest for three years and am eager to be teaching Year 3 and helping the children transition from KS1 to the heady heights of KS2.

We’re very lucky to have the support of our two fantastic Teaching Assistants, Miss Pemberton and Miss Reilly. They’re both really looking forward to getting to know you all and helping you with all your learning.

Here's to a great year!

The Yr 3 Team

Term 1 letter

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back and a very warm welcome to Year 3. We hope you had a relaxing summer and are looking forward to Term 1 as much as we are.

Enquiry

Our Enquiry this term is ‘How do we find out about people from the past?’ We will be Historians, Geographers and Authors. Our focus will be on learning about the people, places, technology and culture from the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age. Most importantly, we will be considering how we know what we know about the past.

Authors

This year, all our Enquiry learning will feed directly into our learning as Authors. As Authors, we will be building upon what the children have learned in Year 2, starting with precision sentence structure, focussing on meeting the Hillcrest Standard for writing expectations, and developing effective and coherent pieces of writing. Our genres of writing this term will be a persuasive letter and a ‘Rags to Riches’ story. We will also be revising and consolidating our phonics knowledge every day.

Reading

We will be using shared texts, each day, during our Enquiry/Authors lessons to develop DERIC – Decoding, Explanation, Retrieval, Inference and (Authorial) Choice. The children will have the opportunity to change their independent reading books regularly, and we encourage parents to read at home four times a week with their child (feel free to do more!). Raffle tickets will be awarded each week (one ticket for reading four times a week, two tickets for more.) At the end of each term, one lucky member of each class will win a Waterstones book voucher! New reading records will be given to each child, along with a book based on their reading level, next week. Please comment and sign in the children’s reading records each time they read.

We’re currently developing how we practice our spellings – watch this space for more information later this term.

Mathematicians

As Mathematicians, our focus will be on mastering mathematical concepts and exploring mathematical thinking. Our starting point will always be the children’s current knowledge and understanding of the concepts being taught. In Term 1, this will include securing our knowledge of place value and exploring addition and subtraction. This will be done through the use of concrete objects and pictorial representations, before moving on to the abstract (ie: numbers).

Athletes

This term, we will be Athletes on Mondays and Fridays. Please ensure the children are prepared for indoor and outdoor PE on these days, making sure names are on all pieces of clothing.

On Fridays, the children will alternate between being Artists with Miss Sharples or Athletes with Mr Weaver (one of our new Future Stars coaches).

Dates for your diary

Curriculum evening – Monday 27th September (5:30pm – 6:30pm)

In-house circus workshops – Thursday 30th September

Parents Evenings – Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th October

Little Kitchen cookery workshop – Wednesday 13th October

Keep checking the website for more information and further updates. We’re delighted to be able to speak to you all face-to-face at drop-off and pick-up times this term about any quick reminders or useful information. We’re also available for a longer chat, if needed – just drop us an email and we’ll get back to you to arrange a phone call or a quick meeting.

Here’s to a great term!

Kind Regards

The Year 3 team (Ms Ackerman, Miss North, Miss Pemberton and Miss Reilly)