Welcome to Year 3 - Birch

Miss Edizer

Learning Update

In Literacy, the children have been exploring a new book called The Tin Forest. They began by studying the front cover, using their inference and prediction skills to discuss what the story might be about. They refreshed their knowledge of reusing and recycling and wrote an informative piece explaining how we can sort our rubbish correctly, using alliteration such as “sift and sort,” “collect and cover,” and “pick and poke.” Linking to the topic of reusing and recycling, children found out that the setting of the story is a metal scrap-yard, where an old man lives alone in a small house, surrounded by rubbish. The class carried out a hot-seating activity, asking the main character questions about how he feels living in a metal scrap-yard, what he dreams of, and what creations he hopes to make. To finish, the children wrote postcards to the man, giving him suggestions to help him feel better. They used a range of synonyms for “sad” and applied their learning of alliteration to add detail on what the man should do.

In Maths, the children have been learning how arrays can help them solve multiplication and division problems. They used visual representations to identify the total in an equation and to divide numbers into equal groups. We highlighted that equal groups mean that each group has the same number in it, also noticing that even numbers can be split into equal groups. So far, we have been practising multiplying and grouping in 2s, 5s, and 10s, learning the key features of these number patterns: 10s end in 0, and 5s end in 5 or 0.

In History, the class consolidated their learning on the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age by creating comparison posters. They explored similarities and differences between the three periods, looked at how human lifestyles developed over time, and identified significant events such as the Celtic invasions during the Iron Age. They also learnt that the Iron Age ended with the Roman invasion, which brought prehistory to a close by introducing written records for future generations. The children shared their posters and gave each other positive feedback, which was a lovely way of consolidating learning and sharing information they remembered with others.

In PE, the children have been enjoying gymnastics, working in pairs to create their own floor routines. They have also been developing ball skills with Stevenage FC, practising a range of technical skills and taking part in team games linked to football and basketball. A highlight of the term was the Football Festival at Monks Walk School, where the class played alongside other schools in the area. They demonstrated excellent listening skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship, proudly shaking hands with players from other schools after each match. I am extremely proud of everyone for the effort, respect, and enthusiasm they showed while representing our school.

In the next few weeks, children will be building on their Literacy work by writing a descriptive piece of text, going into detail about the character's dream of living in a tropical forest and how he makes this come to life by creating a forest out of the tin he is surrounded by. They will be using expanded noun phrases, including figurative language such as "planted itself, grew roots, sprouted, grew leaves, grew branches," to begin to describe the forest. They will also focus on using adjectives such as shiny, reflective, strong, silver, and hard to describe the metal that the character uses to create the forest, helping the reader to imagine what is going on.

In Maths, we will be looking at the difference between sharing and grouping and how we can apply this to division questions. We will also continue to practise our times table knowledge, moving on to learning about the 3 times table.

In Geography, children will be learning about human and physical features, identifying key information about what these are, and linking this to examples of each that can be seen across the UK.

Autumn Term 2025

Click on the links below to see what the children in Year 3 will be learning in the Autumn Term.