The Year 3 Team

Online Advent Calendar

As Advent begins this Sunday with Advent Sunday celebrated in Churches, we would like to share this online Advent Calendar with you, produced by the Diocese of Guildford. It explores the Christmas story through Christian artwork, investigating a different artist and aspect of the story throughout the term time days of Advent. Please enjoy sharing this with your family as we prepare for Christmas in school and at home.

Term 2 Week 7 WB 8/12/25

Please continue to encourage your child’s reading at home and jot it down on their boom reader accounts whenever possible – your support truly makes a big difference to their confidence and progress. Thank you so much for everything you do; it’s really appreciated.

There is a real buzz in Staffordshire 3 as we get ready for our Nativity performances on Thursday and Friday! Thank you for sending in the costumes so promptly and with such care – the children look absolutely wonderful. They have been working hard in rehearsals, learning lines, practising songs, and gaining confidence on stage. We can’t wait for you to see how proud they are of their efforts.

In Maths, we will be wrapping up our unit on multiplication and division by the end of this week. The children have been concentrating on the 8 times table and spotting the links between the 2, 4 and 8 times tables. They’ve enjoyed exploring how multiplying by 4 is simply doubling and doubling again, and how multiplying by 8 is doubling three times. They have also practised using these patterns in reverse to solve division: dividing by 4 means halving and then halving again, and dividing by 8 means halving three times. This pattern-based approach has really helped deepen their understanding and build confidence with larger numbers.

In English, we have now finished reading our class book Ug, which the children have absolutely loved. This week, they wrote thoughtful letters to Ug, encouraging him to continue inventing new things—even when others around him don’t always understand his ideas. Although the children could choose whether to persuade him to continue or give up, they unanimously felt that giving up wasn’t the right path for Ug! Their letters were full of enthusiasm, reasons, and persuasive phrases, showing just how much their writing skills are developing.

In Geography, we have been learning about counties—what they are, why they exist, and how they help us understand the geography of the UK. We began by exploring Kent as an example, then located Staffordshire on the map and discussed where it sits within the country. The children enjoyed comparing different counties, thinking about their physical features (such as hills, rivers and landscapes) and their human features (towns, cities, and landmarks). This has helped them build a stronger sense of place and how regions differ from one another.

In Art/DT, the children have finished their brilliant moving cam mechanisms. They worked incredibly carefully to measure, cut and assemble all the pieces, and they were so proud of the final moving creations. This project helped them understand how cams work and showed them just how important precision and patience are when designing something with moving parts.

Finally, we are continuing to learn our times tables with some fun songs! Practising for just 15 minutes a week on the recommended website will make a huge difference in building strong multiplication and division skills, which are essential throughout Key Stage 2 and beyond. We have been learning our eight timetables - here is our new song for you to practise at home - 

Eight Times Table Song (Cover of All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor)

3 Times Tables - Have Fun Learning!

4 Times table song (A Whole New World from Disney's Aladdin)

4 Times Table Song (APT be Rosé and Bruno Mars)

Counting By Sixes Song

7 Times Table Song | Skip Counting by 7 Song with Multiplication

Seven Times Table Song (Cups by Anna Kendrick Cover) with Classroom Instruments

The 12 Times Table Song | Skip Counting by 12 for Kids

Please ensure that fully named PE kits are in school Monday to Friday. Please ensure also that your child has a named waterproof jacket or coat in school everyday. 

In year 3 fruit snacks are provided by parents, rather than school as in the lower years. Please send your child with a healthy snack that they can enjoy mid-morning. No nuts please.

A reminder also please that children do not need pencil cases, all their stationery is provided in school. Please also keep soft toys and other treasures at home. Thank you for your support with this.

Spellings

There will be no spellings set over Christmas, but please do keep reading with your child or sharing stories together at home.

Mrs Hughes' /Mr Grimes'/ Mrs Strudwick's groups

Mrs Smith's and Mrs Georgiades' groups -

Mrs Lambert's group (formerly Mrs Charlwood's group)

Thank you for your continued support!

S3 Usual weekly timetable (please note that there may be changes to this at times).

Home Learning

Times Tables Rockstars! 

To keep practising the multiplication taught in class, and challenging yourself to keep the ones you already know fresh, don’t forget to log into your Times Tables Rockstars account. 

https://play.ttrockstars.com/

Challenge yourself to beat your score and build your knowledge as you become a Rockstar!

Please ask your class teacher if you need replacement log in details.

Reading

Children should bring their Accelerated Reading Book to and from school each day. When they have finished reading, children are asked to complete a quiz before changing their book. 

https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/6704864

Parents please log your child's reading on the BOOM reader Parent Portal or by using the BOOM reader parent app on your tablet/mobile no more than once a week.

boomreader.co.uk/parents

Below is a list of the 100 most common words that your child is expected to know how to spell by the end of Year 4 (please see attachment).

The spelling strategies document below shows what strategies are used in class, and can be used at home to aid learning new words: 

Spelling strategies

• Spelling strategies to use at home (2).pdf
• spellingwordlist_y3-4.pdf