Hello,

Welcome back to St. Peter’s Catholic primary school! We hope you have all had a lovely Easter break and that your feel refreshed for the new Summer term…

This week, the children have been exploring, experimenting and investigating throughout their learning across the curriculum. In Maths, Year 3 have enjoyed learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Both classes have had many opportunities to explore shape through videos, songs and even card games including Top Trumps. The children were excited to work in teams to produce potato prints of 3D shapes – this helped them to study and compare the number of faces, edges and vertices of each 3D shape. Please see the photos below:

In Science, we have started our new topic called Light and Shadow. During the week, the children worked in groups to conduct an experiment and investigate which classroom materials were the best at blocking a path of light. We were very impressed by the scientific vocabulary used by the children as they were collecting their sets of results! Well done Year Three.

In English, the children have begun to explore their new Dragons topic by learning how to produce an informative blog post and newspaper article about a local dragon sighting! Having found a precious dragon’s egg within their classrooms and watched a series of news reports, Year 3 have confidently produced an informative and detailed account of the key events they witnessed.

We hope you all have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week the children have enjoyed a range of different activities across their curricular learning.

In English, Year Three have drafted and edited their public speeches as a Roman governor. The children were then given an opportunity to perform the persuasive speeches in front of their peers, taking care to vary their use of facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice so as to engage the audience.

In Maths, the children have enjoyed learning about equivalent fractions and how to represent them in a variety of ways e.g. number lines, drawings and shape pictures. As the week progressed, the children began to study the relationship between the numerator and the denominator. They were then able to apply what they had learned to a range of tricky division bar models.

On Thursday, we had our Year Three D&T day. The children had a brilliant time researching, designing, building and decorating their own Roman forts. We were impressed by the children’s creativity and determination. In particular, Year Three collaborated effectively to saw their wooden batons and build them into secure cubic frames to support their forts. Well done Year Three!

3H Lions Roman Forts

3H Lions Roman Forts

3A Hippos Roman Forts

On Friday, Year Three took part in 6C Day. The children attended an assembly in the morning about the wonderful work of the Hampshire Air ambulance services. In light of the assembly, all of the students visited different classrooms to explore a range of different problem-solving and collaborative activities. Please see the photos below of the Origami Stars challenge…

6C Day origami stars

6C Day origami stars

We hope you all have a lovely Easter. Please see the link below for our weekly RE newsletter.

SP2 WK6

See you next term!

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week, the children have been given lots of opportunities to apply the skills they have been taught to a wide variety of challenging contexts.

In English, the children have enjoyed learning how to make a public speech. They have planned their own speeches, as a Roman governor, and now look forward to publishing and performing them with their peers next week! We have been very impressed by the persuasive, engaging and emotive language that has been used across the children’s writing. Well done Year Three!

In Maths, we have looked at how to add, subtract and compare fractions with the same denominator. In particular, Year Three have used fraction walls, number lines and fraction bars in order to show their workings in a variety of ways. Towards the end of the week, the children were able find the difference between two fractions and even solve a series of complex mastery problems. Great work, Year Three!

We would like to thank all of Year 3 for the commitment and creativity that they have shown for Home Learning. It has been lovely to see the children produce models, maps and diagrams to illustrate what they have been learning about the Romans. 

Above: a Lego model of Hadrian’s Wall

Please see the link below for our weekly RE newsletter.

SP2 WK5

We wish you all an enjoyable and restful weekend,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week the children have enjoyed a wide variety of Roman challenges across the curriculum.

In English, the children watched Boudicca’s battle speech and then explored a variety of persuasive techniques including exclamation sentences and rhetorical questions. Towards the end of the week, they planned and drafted their own version of Boudicca’s speech. Well done Year Three for producing lots of engaging and persuasive writing!

In Maths, the children have continued to work on addition and subtraction. Specifically, the children were taught how to check the size of their answers and whether or not they had been reasonable (be it through rounding numbers to estimate, or using the inverse to check their answers). Year 3 showed commitment, determination and success when they were given some challenging Roman Maths problems to solve.

We are delighted to see that so many of the children have been excited by their Roman Topic. This is clear to see from some of the detailed and creative Home Learning that has been produced so far…

We look forward to seeing you next week. Please see the link below for our weekly RE newsletter.

SP2 WK4

Wishing you all a brilliant weekend.

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin.

Hello,

Friday has been a day of great excitement in Year 3 as we have been lucky enough to have the authors of our favourite Supertato come into our classrooms. We were also able to buy gifts at the fabulous St. Peter’s mother’s day sale (keep it a secret!)

Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, authors of Supertato (and many more favourites!), came to visit Year 3 and demonstrated the steps involved to create a book with the children. Firstly, they decided upon the feelings of each character across the story and then the children created animated pictures of their faces. Later in the session, the authors supported the children in designing their own unique and imaginative book characters – a special prize was awarded to a child from each class who had produced an inventive and entertaining character.

Above: the process of creating an illustrated book.

Above: demonstrating facial expressions to convey emotion.

Above: the St. Peter’s day Mother’s Day sale

We would like to thank all of the volunteers who had supported the delivery of today’s events. These activities served as a lovely reward for Year 3, who have worked hard this week across their taught sessions. In English, the children have enjoyed drafting, editing and publishing their Roman slave diaries. They look forward to seeing their work showcased in the school’s library next week. In Maths, the children have shown commitment and determination throughout their work on subtraction – they have enjoyed learning how to round their numbers to the nearest 10, to estimate their answers and ensure their following calculations are reasonable. Thank you to all of the children and Year 3 parents for the excellent Roman Home Learning that has been produced so far, we look forward to putting them on display soon (photos to follow!)

Please see the link below for a PDF of our weekly RE newsletter.

SP2 WK3

We wish you all a peaceful and relaxing weekend,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week has seen us undertake some important fundraising to help people as part of this year’s CAFOD appeal. The children have been generous in the amount they have donated and this will be used to help people in Zambia begin their own fish farms. These farms have a knock on effect of providing work for local people, and providing more money to help children to be educated. Below you can see the culmination of our fundraising efforts:

We also have our weekly prayer which you are able to share as a family and reflect on the messages it has for each of you. Prayer for Lent, week 2.

In our English this week, we have been exploring the importance of adding detail to our writing. We have explored a variety of ways that we can do this, including using fronted adverbials and increasing the number prepositions and adjectives we use. Maybe you could try to write a description of your bedroom; what details will you include?

In maths, we have been thinking about our multiplication and division, especially the different methods that we can use to solve problems. Could you try making some challenging word problems for people in your family? How are you going to make your problems tricky for them?

Next week, we are  looking forward to the authors of Supertato coming in. We will have a chance to do a workshop with the authors so make sure you have lots of questions to ask!

Thank you,

Mr. Austin and Mrs. Honeywell

Hello,

We have all had a keen start back to this half term. Already we have begun to explore our Romans topic and everyone is eagerly getting involved. Below you will find a link to our new Home Learning pyramid:

Romans Home Learning Pyramid

In our English we have started to read our Roman diary focusing on the life and experience of a Roman slave. This has allowed us to think about the feelings of characters in stories and to begin to explore building our own characters through adding detail. Maybe you could write your own diary at home thinking about the emotion words that you could include.

In maths we have been learning all about multiplication and problem solving. Maybe you could write some multiplication problems for people at home or teach them how to use the grid method!

Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent. The children were excellently behaved during the Ash Wednesday service and were able to talk thoughtfully about the meaning of the ashes and what the period of Lent meant to them. On our school blogs page you will now find an RE page which will keep you up to date with religious events around the school. Below you can find a link to a weekly prayer page that you can share at home as a family:

Weekly Prayer

On Thursday we were very excited because it was World Book Day. Pupils came in amazingly creative costumes…

…Mrs. D was really into World Book Day too!

Mrs. D took the time to read one of her favourite stories to the children, something which was greatly appreciated by everyone. Thank you Mrs. D!

Thank you,

Mr. Austin and Miss. Honeywell

Hello,

This week, the children have continued to enjoy learning about the Rainforest across different subject areas.

In English, Year 3 have been taught how to use a variety of nouns and pronouns to make their writing more engaging. Having studied the non-fiction text Animal Shark Diaries by Steve Parker, the children have embraced the challenge of incorporating nouns and pronouns when producing their own Sloth Diary information pages.

In Maths, both classes have continued to apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction to a range of contexts including data analysis, money problems and missing number challenges. To support their learning, the children have been encouraged to use Maths Toolkits, verbal reasoning, expanded column methods, number lines and bar models so as to help them interpret a series of difficult word problems. Well done for all of your commitment and success, Year Three!

We hope that you are all enjoying a well deserved half term break. We would like to thank all the children for their perseverance and hard work this term. We are very grateful to all parents for their continued support of Home Learning, which has enabled the children to explore their Rainforest topic in further depth. Here are a couple of photos to show some more examples of the incredible work that Year Three have produced…

Next term, we look forward to introducing Year Three to their new history topic, The Romans. Home learning pyramids shall be distributed after half term. Perhaps the children could begin to research an area of their new topic that fascinates them, over the holidays.

We wish you all a peaceful and enjoyable break,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week the children have been busy completing their Rainforest stories based on the Literacy Shed video, Ride of Passage. We have been delighted by the children’s imagination. The children have worked hard to draft, edit and publish their stories to produce very engaging pieces of extended writing. Next week, we look forward to exploring non-fiction texts, reading the Animal Diaries series and creating our own information texts.

In Maths, Year Three have been applying their knowledge of the expanded column method to solve some tricky addition and subtraction problems. They have enjoyed using bar models and concrete resources from their Maths tool kits to support their learning. This weekend, practise your number bonds to help support your mental calculations!

Once again, we are very impressed by the children’s Rainforest home learning. Year 3 have continued to surprise with their creativity. Well done everyone.

We wish you all a lovely weekend,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin

Hello,

This week the children have applied the learning values of creativity and critical thinking across their studies.

In English, Year 3 have been experimenting with different sentence structures (simple, compound and complex) and have also practised incorporating dialogue into narrative. They have also started to plan their own rainforest stories, which they look forward to writing, editing and publishing next week. We have been very impressed by the imaginative ideas of the children, well done Year Three!

In Maths, the children have been exploring measurements (cm, mm, g, kg, L) and applying their knowledge of expanded column methods and bar models in order to solve a series of complex, multi-step word problems. Both classes have shown real commitment to their learning, particularly when faced with some tricky open-ended maths problems!

Once again, the children have amazed our Year 3 team with the inventive, creative home learning that they have produced. It has been great to witness the children’s enthusiasm and interest for their new Rainforest topic.

We hope you all have a peaceful and enjoyable weekend,

Miss Honeywell and Mr Austin.