WELCOME TO YEAR 3 ST. CECILIA Miss.Beckles Wednesday 19th September 2018

Rules, Rewards and Sanctions Golden Rules 1. We follow instructions first time. 2. We keep our hands and feet to ourselves. 3. We show good manners and consideration to everyone, at all times. 4. We take responsibility for our own behaviour. Rewards Praise, Stickers, House points, Table points, Special prizes, Certificates, Merit awards, Speak to parents Sanctions- Verbal Warning, Name on Board, Sit at the ‘Time-out’ table, Minutes taken off lunch and break time, Speak/Write home to parents, Sent to Miss Creed or Mrs O’Neill, Incident Letter

Literacy During this term in Literacy, we will focus on a range of genres including: stories with familiar settings; character description; diary and newspaper entries, letter writing and poetry. Any extra work you can give to the children at home would be very beneficial. The children will be learning to use the first person ‘I’ and to develop the use of powerful description through adjectives, adverbs and similes, and will also develop using more interesting sentence structures. Please encourage your child to learn their weekly spellings thoroughly by ensuring regular practice.

Big Writing Once a week the children participate in a Big Writing session. This is a special time where they get to use their knowledge of VCOP (Vocabulary, Conjunctions, Openers, Punctuation) and incorporate it into their writing. They will develop beginnings to stories, (narrative) plot developments and endings. Also, they will set scenes. Children will have the opportunity to develop their journalistic style of writing by writing newspaper reports. Additionally, they will write formal and informal letters and diary entries, description of a scene using the senses, story opening, writing stories from a different perspective. They will also improve the use of adjectives, adverbs, similes, metaphors, interesting verbs and ambitious punctuation such as colons, semi-colons and brackets. V C O P

Numeracy In Numeracy, we will be using the National Numeracy Strategy and developing mental maths skills. Numeracy Targets Year 3 can be used at home with your child to help in this area. Counting, partitioning and calculating. Securing number facts and understanding shape. Handling data and measures. Securing numbers facts, calculating and identifying relationships. Calculating, measuring and understanding shape. Your child needs to learn multiplication and division facts on a daily basis so please encourage them to keep practising. This will greatly hel with all areas of mathematics.

Religious Education This term, we will be starting with the topic ‘Beginning with God’. There will be a new topic for Advent. We will also spend one week studying Judaism. The children will attend regular Masses and assemblies which you are most welcome to attend. Please discuss with your child what they are studying in their religion topic.

Science In Science, the topics we will be covering this year are: Plants, animals and humans, Rocks, Magnets and Springs and Light (Shadows). For each science topic the children will be carrying out to develop their scientific enquiry skills. These are: Planning an investigation Recording using tables Taking repeat readings Developing graphing skills

History In this topic children will, amongst other areas, learn: The History topic for this term is ‘Egyptians’, Children are welcome to bring in any information or artefacts that may help them with their studies. In this topic children will, amongst other areas, learn: - to identify the Egyptian era on a timeline. - find out about Ancient Egyptian life. - to use artefacts to answer questions about the past.

P.E. At present, Year 3 are timetabled for P.E on a TUESDAY, but we are aiming for a second slot of some kind. The children are allowed to wear blue tracksuit bottoms, white t shirt and plimsolls. P.E kits cannot be shared/ borrowed from friends or siblings due to health and hygiene purposes. Please remind your child to bring home their kit every few weeks to be washed and returned to school. PE kits must be labelled clearly with your child’s name

ICT This term, the children will be using Espresso coding to manipulate objects. They will be using the Internet to carry research work in Science, RE or History. Art Looking at Egyptian art. Use various media to create some Egyptian style paintings. Also art relevant to corridor displays and seasonal activities. Music During the Spring term the children will be learning to play the recorder. A tutor from the Enfield Arts Support Service will be coming in each week to tutor the pupils. There will be an opportunity to see the children perform and a letter will be sent out to inform you at a later date. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR CHILD BRINGS THEIR RECORDER IN EACH MONDAY FOR THEIR LESSON. WE DO NOT HAVE SPARE RECORDERS.

Design and Technology SEAL The children will develop their needlework skills in stitching Egyptian hieroglyphics onto material. They will also make biscuits at Christmas as part of food technology. SEAL Within the SEAL topics their knowledge, understanding and skills in four key social and emotional aspects of learning are developed. The four key areas are: empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation. This term’s topic is ‘New Beginnings’.

Please refer to letter sent out about reading procedure. Please ensure your child reads for at least twenty minutes EVERY EVENING. Their reading record MUST be signed by an adult who has heard them read. Please refer to the reading criteria on the inside cover of your child’s reading record when making comments. Along with the content domain at the back of reading records, we use this to assess children’s reading during group guided reading sessions. Encourage your child to write a comment about what they have read. Regularly (a couple of times every week), your child's reading record will be checked. Unfortunately, if they are not reading their choice of text, they will be given a text to read and asked to answer questions on it. The library sessions will begin soon and the children will be allowed to choose books to take out and bring home to read. Try to make time to model reading to your child and encourage your child to read a variety of text types. For example, reading instructions on how to play a game, following a recipe, information texts or reading a newspaper. The more the children read, the more confident and fluent they will become and wider their vocabulary will become also. Please refer to letter sent out about reading procedure.

Homework Homework is given out on a WEDNESDAY and should be completed and returned to school by the next week MONDAY. If you feel that there is a problem, please write me a note and I will reply in writing or by phoning. Daily reading and practice of multiplication and division tables are vital (3x, 4x, and 8x for year 3). Please encourage and support your child with any homework they may have. Thank you for your support.

Thinking hats During this term we will continue to use Edward De Bono`s thinking hats and habits of mind in all lessons. Please encourage your child to discuss how the hats are used to help them in their learning. Also, we will continue to incorporate thinking maps into our lessons in order to help children organising their ideas. Your child will be able to tell you how we use these maps.

Any Questions?