Welcome to Year 3 - Birch

Miss Edizer

Learning Update

As we approach Christmas, the children will be finishing their work on the book The Tin Forest in Literacy. So far, we have used a range of language features, including alliteration (such as tall tin trees and aluminium animals), as well as “noun of noun” phrases to describe the forest created by the old man in our story, such as rustle of leaves, sound of birdsong, and forest of tin. We also reviewed the main themes of the story and decided which were most important and how they linked to the overall message that the author intended to convey. The key message we identified was the importance of reusing and recycling materials to protect our planet, as well as being resilient and working hard to achieve your dreams. The children are now working towards writing an informative and persuasive piece, which they will type up neatly, describing a local area—Sherrardspark Woods—and explaining how we can protect this woodland.

In Maths, we are continuing our work on Multiplication and Division, now focusing on the 3 and 4 times tables. We have explored the difference between sharing and grouping, understanding how each method changes the way we solve a problem. We are also learning to show our working for every question, helping us to find the answer more accurately and avoid mistakes. For division questions, for example, children are encouraged to draw the number of circles they need to share a whole number into, adding one to each group at a time until they reach the total. This helps ensure that the groups are equal.

In Geography, the children have been learning about human and physical features. They completed a card-sorting activity in which they grouped features into human (something designed and made by humans) and physical (something that occurs naturally, such as rivers and mountains), discussing the reasons for their choices. They then added well-known landmarks from across the UK and talked about whether they had visited any of them, using their own experiences to support their categorisation.

In Handwriting, the children have been working hard to improve their letter formation, ensuring that their writing is joined and sitting correctly on the line. We have completed a range of tasks, practising double letters and learning how these join when writing in a continuous cursive style. Children are then given words containing these double letters to practise, followed by a full sentence to copy, including capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops. We have also completed worksheets where children are given a verb in different forms (e.g., blow, blows, blowing, blew) and must create an expanded sentence using that word. They are encouraged to use conjunctions such as because, however, as, or but to add additional clauses, as well as adjectives to make their writing more descriptive and engaging.

Over the next few weeks, the children have some exciting Christmas activities to look forward to. We have been practising our Christmas songs in preparation for the whole-school singalong. I can see that the children have been trying hard to keep in time with the music, sing the lyrics clearly, and project their voices. I have been very impressed with their singing skills so far.

Overall, I am incredibly proud of how well the children have settled into my class this autumn term. They have shown positive, proactive attitudes towards their learning, and I feel very lucky to have such a lovely class for my first term as a teacher. I hope everyone has a happy and restful Christmas break before we begin the spring term in the new year!

Autumn Term 2025

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