Dear parents and friends
Welcome to our Christmas edition of Leo, 2014! Yes, we are here, already, at the end of term, shocked at how time just flies! This can only mean how wonderful it is to spend the day teaching your children and also learning from them. Each day we all work hard, however, the enjoyment obtained and the results of the children’s progress make it so worthwhile! Together with our warmest wishes for a very wonderful and safe Christmas, we would like to share some of our special moments in Year 3 over the last half-term.
November 2014
Friday, 7th November was such a fun and exciting day! The Year 3 children took part in 4
practical Maths activities which included a bit of everything!
1. We took Maths outside of the classroom where the children played a variety of games involving numbers. A combination of exercise and learning about numbers!
2. Back in the classrooms, the children had a visit from one of the Big Maths characters, the alien, Pim with 3 legs and 4 legs, who encouraged the children to use the facts they know to create facts with larger numbers because ‘It’s Nothing New’ .
3. They also enjoyed a practical session of problem solving during which the children learnt about the language related to the four number operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), wrote problems themselves and made posters for their classrooms portraying mathematical language.
4. Finally, they were engaged in an Art activity involving tangrams to make trees, candles or other objects out of triangles and quadrilateral shapes.
We created our own ‘It’s Nothing New’ aliens
Pim the alien comes from Planet Clic. He has 3 arms on one side and 4 arms
on the other. He explains that 3+4 is
always 7 so it’s nothing new that:
30+40=70, 300+400=700, 3000+4000=7000, 0.3+0.4=0.7, etc.
Anti-bullying week provided us with great scope for discussion about what makes a good friend, how we like to be treated and how we should be treating others. The children were unanimous that bullying must not be tolerated in any of its forms- physical, verbal, cyber etc. They were given the opportunity to work in groups and come up with questions in order to be able to interview a teacher who was bullied as a child. Their questions were amazing and the empathy they displayed towards the teacher’s experience was remarkable! They then went on to create posters against bullying.
December 2014
Year 3 were very fortunate to have a visit from author, Melissa Hekkers, who is a Junior School parent! Melissa wrote a beautiful book called Pupa, which, as the title suggests is about the transition of a caterpillar into a butterfly as well as an exciting journey she has taken on a trampoline to a circus and the adventures she experienced there!
Melissa really captivated the children’s interest through the recount of her story and in their turn the children responded with enthusiasm and participated whole-heartedly.
After the story and a series of sensible and commendable questions posed to the author by the children, Melissa guided them in making their own butterflies using paper and origami techniques.
This Year 3 topic always fascinates the children! There is something quite magical about these very cold places at the two poles of the earth. The temperatures are truly something unimaginable and the idea that no people live on Antarctica because it is basically a desert is just difficult to believe. On the other hand the fact that the North Pole is actually quite a buzzing, busy place with a modern way of life also disperses all myths that the people live in igloos,full-time, eat fish and meat that they hunt only and only wear clothing made of animal skins!
Christmas time seems to bring out a creative streak in everybody! What a wonderful opportunity to be immersed in colours, paint and glitter! Year 3 have really tried hard to make the last couple of weeks feel joyful and ‘Christmassy’! Wow, when these children get creative, they are unstoppable!
Tangram Christmas Art
Marbling- calendars
Spelling of High Frequency words for Year 3
For the Christmas holidays we shall be giving the children Spellings of the High Frequency words that we have been learning with them in class. The children will be tested on these during the first week of the Spring Term, after they return from the holidays. Please use the words to play games such as ‘Hangman’, to make anagrams, find other words hiding inside the words (e.g. address- add, dress, sea...) as a way of practice.
Numeracy
We shall also be providing the children with a few Numeracy sheets, revising the
concepts covered in the second part of the first term.
Don’t forget to practise multiplication and division tables with your children on a regular basis. 5 minutes a day in a fun game wherever you might be (in the car for example) are as beneficial as writing on paper at a desk and the children won’t even feel like they are doing work!
Wishing you and your families a truly blessed and peaceful Christmas! May the New Year be a healthy, happy and successful one for everyone!
