Year 3 Spotlight

Productive Term for Year 3

Term three has been a very busy and productive term for the Year 3 at FPS! Starting the week with a class meeting, literacy and numeracy conferences, it has been great to see so much hard work. In maths conferences, we have practised different strategies for division. In literacy conferences we have shared our writing, and learnt about different reading strategies. And our class meetings have been full of smiles and laughter – from dress ups to story times, trivia to art!

 

Reading

In Reading this term, we have been learning about different types of figurative language. To start off, we looked at how an author can create mood through images and language, and how this affects us as the reader. We discussed how the colours, facial expressions, body language, size of the characters in the illustrations and the settings, all worked together to create the mood. We also looked at adjectives and literary devices, and how they can help add to the mood the images have created.

 

The students had the opportunity to explore and identify onomatopoeia, hyperbole and alliteration in different genres of texts. They noticed that hyperbole was an extreme exaggeration and was not meant to be taken literally. For example:

 

‘Your puppy is so tiny an ant would be bigger than it!’ ~ Stasys L, 3C

 

Year 3 students then used picture books and poetry to discover examples of similes, metaphors and personification. They were able to develop an understanding of why good writers use figurative language and the effect they have on the reader. They were then able to take what they had learnt in reading and apply it to their own writing.

Metaphor - Yianna
Metaphor - Sam
Metaphor - Lexi
Metaphor - Yianna
Metaphor - Sam
Metaphor - Lexi

 

Writing

We started the term exploring poetry. We discovered that not only are there many different types of poems to learn about, but also many different techniques and devices that can be used to enhance poetry. Year 3 students had a go at writing; ‘I am’ poems, haikus, cinquains and colour poems. We learnt how to use stanzas to structure our ‘I am’ poems, used syllables to structure our nature haikus, revised our noun, verbs and adjectives knowledge in cinquain poems, and colour poems gave us the chance to implement our new knowledge of similes and metaphors. After spending two weeks perfecting our colour poems, we designed a front cover and placed the poems together to create a book. The finished products looked great!

Cinquain - Anna
Cinquain - Archer
Haiku - Archie
Colour poems - Eddie
Haiku - Josh
Colour poem - Remy
Yellow colour poem - Zen
Cinquain - Anna
Cinquain - Archer
Haiku - Archie
Colour poems - Eddie
Haiku - Josh
Colour poem - Remy
Yellow colour poem - Zen

 

Comic - Kirin
Comic - Kirin

After celebrating National Science Week: Deep Blue, we thought it would be a great idea to stick with this theme for another week. Year 3 students used their new knowledge of personification to create a sustainable character. The characters were slowly brought ‘to life’ across the week through character descriptions, videos and comics. Buddy Bottle, Bamby the Bamboo Toothbrush, Robbie the Reusable Bag, Kylie the Keep Cup and Sammy Straw were just some of the characters that were developed across the week.

 

 

To end the term, we have been working very hard on our remote learning diaries. Each week we have focused on three pages with the intention to create a book at the end of term. We delved into our favourite lunches and wrote procedures, thought really hard about the people in our lives right now that we are thankful for, drew what we could see from our bedroom windows, explored the lyrics of our favourite songs, wrote letters to our 2032 selves and drew the contents of our pantries.

“My favourite thing about writing has been writing a letter to my future self! Because, when I find it when I’m older, it will remind me of this great class and great teacher.” ~ Vivien W, 3D
Eliza's diary
Jack's diary
Eliza's diary
Jack's diary

 

Maths

At the beginning of the term, Year 3 students explored many mental and written strategies to help them solve multiplications questions. They used arrays and skip counting to solve multiplication questions, and then began to discover new and interesting ways to solve equations using strategies such as ‘double, + 1 more group’ to solve x 3 equations and ‘double, double’ to solve x 4 equations. 

 

Once they mastered multiplication, students started to explore the connection between multiplication and division through fact families. Understanding this connection allowed the students to use the ‘think multiplication’ strategy to help them solve division equations. For example 21 ÷ 3 = ?, can be solved by thinking 3 x ? = 21.

 

Throughout the term, students used games and flashcards to help consolidate their understanding of multiplication and division in a fun and engaging way.

“My favourite thing about maths was doing division and multiplication because they are challenging!” – Ben WO, 3B

 

“I enjoyed drawing my dream garden because it was really fun to make and is a bit like our garden.” - Nell R, 3B
Angle art - Mary
Area of garden - Shanaia
Multiplication flower - Nell
Angle art - Lola
Multiplication flower - Eddie
Angle art - Mary
Area of garden - Shanaia
Multiplication flower - Nell
Angle art - Lola
Multiplication flower - Eddie

 

Inquiry

For Inquiry this term, we have been exploring the states of matter – solids, liquids and gases. At the start of the term, we explored the properties of these three states and learnt that solids have a fixed shape and volume, liquids have a fixed volume but not a fixed shape, and gases don’t have a fixed volume or shape. 

 

We have done lots of different experiments to find out about how these states behave, and how they can react to different materials. When conducting experiments, we have predicted, observed what has happened, and always reflected on our findings. 

“My favourite part of inquiry was making butter because I ate it after I made it and it tasted amazing.” ~ Sana R, 3A

 

“My favourite part of Inquiry was the lava lamp experiment because it looked really cool and looked like a volcano!” ~ Maisie L, 3A
Solids, liquids and gases - Iris
States of matter at breakfast - Sana
Experiment write up - Flynn
Lava lamp - Eliza
Lava lamp
Solids, liquids and gases - Iris
States of matter at breakfast - Sana
Experiment write up - Flynn
Lava lamp - Eliza
Lava lamp

 

~ Year 3 Teachers and Students