Friday 29th November 2019
This week in English we have been planning, writing and publishing our letters to Mr Cunningham about Brian’s loneliness and mistreatment in his school. We have used a range of persuasive techniques and have suggested solutions to rectify the sad situation.
Our RE this week has focussed on saying ‘sorry’ and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have thought about the stages of reconciliation and how when you apologise, you really need to make a promise to change your behaviour for the better. Even though God will always forgive us, this doesn’t mean that we should continue to make poor choices.
In Maths this week we have continued multiplying and dividing, specifically looking at how to split an array into smaller chunks to make it easier to count/work out. For example, 3×8 is the same as 3×5 and 3×3. On Friday, the children finished with a fun game of ‘How Close to 100?’ which they can show you how to play with a simple blank hundred square like this this one and a di.
The children have been set a Multiplication Competition on SumDog in classes; Lions against Hippos. The children’s Times Table Rockstars login details were also given out again to be stuck into diaries or Home Learning books. Other homework for the week includes the main class spellings and the phonics group spellings. Vocabulary homework for all children is here and as mentioned at Parents’ Evening, can be used to practice writing at home if this is a target.
We hope you have a lovely weekend, Team 3.
Friday 22nd November 2019
Currently in Year 3, we are engrossed in a mini-topic on Anti-Bullying and Loneliness based on the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. The children have really engaged with Brian, a peaceful young boy who just wants to make friends. Sadly he is repeatedly, deliberately left out by his peers and over-looked by his teacher. It has given the children many wonderful opportunities to role play and talk to broaden their vocabulary and capture the emotion of the characters. We’ve been learning to use rhetorical questions and facts/statistics to get our point across and persuade the reader that the treatment of Brian is not acceptable.
Our RE this week has, as always, also been reflective. We heard the story of Zacchaeus, who changed for the better. In addition, we considered forgiveness and how important it is, regardless of how difficult you find it.
Also this week we began an exciting new Science topic, Light and Dark. The children thoroughly enjoyed an Exploratory Play opportunity with torches and different equipment.
In Maths this week we have continued multiplying and dividing. All of us are able to match a multiplication number sentence with its repeated addition and inverse (division) number sentence plus a pictorial representation. For example, 3 x 12 = 36 matches with 36 / 12 = 3 and 12 + 12 + 12. Most of us are now able to partition a two-digit number and multiply it by a one-digit number in stages, e.g. 15 x 4 = 10 x 4 + 5 x 4, though we still need to practice this. A few of us have even begun to multiply numbers in the 20s or 30s by a one-digit number. See SumDog for Times Table and Multiplication and Division challenges.
Other homework for the week includes the Vocabulary and Spelling (Phonics Group) or Spelling (Main)
We hope you have a restful weekend, Team 3.