Author: year3

Today, the children led the whole Ascension Day service at St Nicholas Church along with year 2, remembering the day 40 days after Easter when Jesus left his disciples and ascended to heaven.

The children read Bible readings, said prayers, gave an offertory and led the congregation singing songs. Rev’d Chris added a message to the service, but was lost for words with everything the children had already said about the ascension!

After the service, we recorded the song ‘I Love You’ to share with everyone who could not make it to the service.

Click here to watch and listen to the children singing our sign language song >>> Ascension Day 2023 – I Love You.mp4

(c) Doug Horley

In computing this term, the children have been looking at books and creating video trailers as a tool to encourage other children to read them.  We started the unit by looking at different trailers for books and films both with the sound on and off to see what effect the sound effects and music had on us.

The children chose a favourite book and worked in pairs to create storyboards so they could plan their trailer trailer.

Next came the photos!

And finally, the video trailers themselves.  The children had to think about the transitions from one image to the next using techniques such as cross fade, dip to black, wipe. They also had to add music and some text. The results are amazing!

We hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Easter break. The children are certainly refreshed and ready for their learning this term!

This term, our topic focus is history and we will be finding out about the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings in both our history and music lessons. In English, our story is the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island.  The theme of treasure maps will also be woven into our PE activities with map reading and orienteering. In RE, our big question this term is ‘When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?  As part of our worship, the children will lead an Ascension Day service at church, which all links back to our RE! In computing, the children will be making video trailers to encourage people to read their favourite book.

Term 5 Overview – Anglo-Saxons and Vikings (PDF Download)

At home for maths, we would like the children to focus on their key instant recall facts relating to time – I can tell the time.  We will also be setting various activities throughout the term on our ‘Learning with Parents’ portal. Can you earn a certificate this term by completing all the activities?

Key Instant Recall Facts – I can tell the time (PDF Download)

The Year 3 Team

We explored the significance of Salvation.  We started by looking at where Salvation features on the ‘Big Frieze’ and then used drama to explore the stages of the Easter Story.  This included Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, Jesus being crucified on the cross and the discovery that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb.

Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?

As a big finish for our RE topic this term, both Rowan and Chestnut classes came together for a fun-filled morning of RE activities in the hall as the children expressed their understanding of our big question ‘Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?’ We watched two videos which recapped the Bible texts we have been exploring during the term surrounding Jesus ultimate sacrifice for his people – death on a cross. The children could explore their thoughts and understanding in four different zones – colour, word, busy and reflection.  In the colour zone, the children drew pictures of the scenes they recalled from the Bible stories.  They annotated their drawings to show their understanding about why Jesus died for us.  In the word zone, the children retold the story using origami folding and cutting which from a single sheet of paper, created the words life, along with a cross. In the busy zone, they build crosses and tombs using Lego. Some of the boys spelt out the name Jesus whilst one of the girls built a clever frame supporting the word ‘Life’.  In the reflection zone, the children shared their personal thoughts about why Jesus died for us.

The children had great fun dressing up as different science concepts.  They also enjoyed participating in a variety of workshops to explore different scientific theories and carry out investigations.

Year 3 have enjoyed developing their handball skills with a professional coach this term.  The children have learned a variety of passes and have developed working as a team.

Year 3 visited the church to find out more about how Easter is celebrated in church.  Rev’d Chris talked the children through the different church services and their significance.  We learned how different colours are used and how the church is stripped bare on Good Friday before returning to full celebration on Easter Sunday.

We learned about Eucharist, including how bread and wine were shared at Jesus’ last supper.  We were allowed to taste the bread, which represented Jesus’ body, and talked about the wine, which represented Jesus’ blood.

Our week started with a book swap in LKS2.  We enjoyed finding new pre-loved books to enjoy.  Many of the children decorated a potato with a book theme.  There were some fantastic entries.  On Tuesday, we participated in a workshop with the author Alex Bellos. We enjoyed listening to what inspires him to write books.  We also participated in World Book Day by dressing up as book characters.

We have started our artist study on the Canadian artist, Norval Morrisseau.  The children explored some of his artwork and looked at some of its features. They made observations about what they thought it represented and formed opinions.  They also recreated aspects in their sketch books.