Welcome to Year 3 - Birch

Miss Edizer

Learning Update

In Literacy, we have been completing work based on the book Escape from Pompeii, where the children worked hard to write vivid and dramatic descriptions of a volcano erupting, using powerful adjectives and expanded noun phrases to bring their ideas to life. They compared how the characters felt at the beginning and end of the story, exploring how emotions changed as the events unfolded. The children also enjoyed preparing interview-style questions for the main characters, ensuring they used inverted commas for speech and included question marks accurately, for example: “How did you feel when the volcano began to erupt?”

This learning linked closely to our Geography topic, where we explored the true story of Pompeii and learned about the key parts of a volcano, including the magma chamber, main vent, crater, lava, and ash cloud, and how these features play a role during an eruption. The children are now creating their own volcano models using papier-mâché, which they will paint next week before taking them outside to stage their own erupting volcano experiments.

In PE, the class has been developing their basketball skills, focusing on controlled dribbling, accurate chest passes, and effective teamwork.

In Maths, we have been learning about length and measurement, practising how to use a ruler accurately and understanding unit conversions, such as knowing that 100cm equals 1m. Pupils have applied this knowledge to calculate the perimeter of shapes (the total distance around the outside), for example working out the perimeter of a rectangle using 5cm + 3cm + 5cm + 3cm = 16cm.

Looking ahead, in Literacy we are beginning our new text, Black Dog. The children have been carefully studying the front cover and an extract from the first page to develop their inference skills. They have discussed what they already know, what they think might happen next, and what evidence from the illustrations and text supports their ideas. This is helping them to justify their answers clearly and refer back to clues in the book.

In DT, we are starting an exciting unit on cams and mechanisms. The children will explore how different cam shapes create different movements before designing and making their own working models using a square tissue box. They will create a mechanism that makes a flag move up and down when a wooden rod is turned.

Spring Term 2025

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