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Friday 3rd October 2025- Week 5
Friday 12th September 2025 - Week 1
Year 3
Welcome to Year 3 2025-2026
What Will My Child Be Learning About This Half Term?
Autumn 1
Friday 3rd October 2025- Week 4
We have had a lovely week in Year 3, we have started our longitudinal study by observing our raised bed and making notes about what it looks like now. Then we predicted what it might look like throughout the year. In Music we listened to different ballads and created different actions to match the lyrics.
Friday 26th September 2025 - Week 3
This week in Year 3, we had Test Valley Brass come in and perform some music to us. We had the opportunity to try out the instruments and ask lots of questions about different pitches and tones. We definitely have some budding musicians in Year 3!
Friday 19th September 2025- Week 2
Year 3 have had an amazing week! From looking at Denzil Forrester in their own Balksbury Art Gallery to working collaboratively in Hockey to practice their technique when pushing the Hockey ball away from them. Year 3 can’t wait to create their own piece of Artwork inspired by tonal shading and perspective and play their own friendly Hockey game within the year group.
Friday 12th September 2025 - Week 1
Welcome back Year 3! It has been lovely to see all the children excited to come back to school, see their friends and settle into their new class. This week we have been learning all about our skeleton in Science and even made our own skeletons! Within our P.E lesson we got back into the pool which was fantastic and we also started to learn all about hockey.
Friday 4th July 2025 - Week 5
This week in Year 3, we conducted our investigation in Science on forces! We looked at how different materials on a ramp affected the distances it travels, and considered the properties of the materials and how this affects the friction created.
This week in Year 3, we looked at our cutting and peeling skills in DT! We got the opportunity to cut up some bananas and peel some carrots, demonstrating our knife safety skills along the way. The children did this all excellently and sensibly and will be ready to make their own seasonal tarts in the upcoming weeks.
Friday 20th June 2025 - Week 3
This week in Year 3, we ventured outside to observe our Longitudinal Study plants. We measured the temperature, looked at the weather, watered the plants, and drew our observations in our books.
Friday 13th June 2025 - Week 2
In Year 3 this week, we went on our school trip to Butser Ancient Farm to explore what life was like in the Roman Empire. We took part in some spinning, jewellery making and even had a tour of a Roman Villa. This was a great start to our History learning!
Friday 6th June 2025 - Week 1
To kick off our new History unit, we looked at some ancient Roman artefacts and even tried on some of their clothes. We watched a video to see when the Romans invaded Britain and how this fits into our History timeline so far.
Friday 23rd May 2025 - Week 5
We finished our Nnenna Okore inspired sculptures this week! We used recycled materials to create 3D sculptures based on nature. The children created flowers, animals and even trees. Have a look below at just a few of our fantastic creations!
Friday 16th May 2025 - Week 4
Our Science topic this half term is all about plants. This week, we had the opportunity to take a tour around the Federation to see where we could spot flowers. We then used our magnifying glasses and our scientific enquiry skills to locate the reproductive organs of the flower.
Friday 9th May 2025 - Week 3
In English this week, we have been looking at a short video called ‘The Lighthouse’. To help us better understand the story, we created a class story map and then acted out the scenes to the our peers. It was great to sit in a circle and watch our friends perform in the middle.
Friday 2nd May 2025 - Week 2
We have really enjoyed the glorious weather this week! For Free Reading Friday, we took our books outside and read in the sun. It was lovely to be able to share our favourite books with our friends, classmates, and even our teachers.
Friday 25th April 2025 - Week 1
This half term, we will be looking at the artist: Nnenna Okore in Art & Design. She is a wonderful artist who has previously created sculptures based on nature. To hook the children in, we went outside and used natural resources to create our own sculptures. There were some fantastic pieces.
Friday 4th April 2025 - Week 6
In Maths this week, we continued with Geometry. The children went outside for an investigation lesson, where they were faced with a variety of challenges. In teams, they worked together to find the answer or play a game. It was great to see the children enjoying their learning.
Friday 28th March 2025 - Week 5
It has been lovely and warm this week so we have taken some of our Maths outside! We started on Monday by comparing durations of events. We were given tasks like getting ourselves into height order and then register order, timing ourselves to see what would be quicker. On Friday, we moved onto Geometry. We looked at how two right-angles can make a half turn, then we used this terminology to lead our partner from A to B.
Friday 21st March 2025 - Week 4
We were lucky enough this week to go on a nice, long walk to Bury Hill. We had a checklist to fill out on our way, searching for squirrels, road signs and even black and white ducks!
This walk was really important for our History unit on the Iron Age. It was so interesting to see where Iron Age people would have built a settlement and even more interesting to know that we can still visit these locations today.
Friday 14th March 2025 - Week 3
Recently in English, we have been working towards writing our own encyclopedia entry for a mythical beast which we have created. ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ by JK Rowling has been our inspiration and this week we wrote descriptive paragraphs about the phoenix. It was awesome to see how imaginative the children could be with their descriptive language.
Friday 7th March 2025 - Week 2
We have been looking at animation in Computing! We discussed ways in which we can make pictures move and had a go at making our own stop motion pictures on the iPads. Last week, we created flipbooks which when flipped quickly, showed a moving picture. This week we progressed and used an app called ‘iMotion’ to make it look like individual frames were moving.
Friday 28th February 2025 - Week 1
We’ve had a lovely first week back!
In Physical Education, we started our new unit on tennis. It was so much fun to try and balance the ball on a tennis racket and tried to beat the teacher by bouncing the ball on the racket without dropping it. This will all help when it comes to controlling the ball.
Friday 14th February 2025 - Week 6
We had a great last week! In Geography, we played a University Challenge style game show where we had to work together in teams to answer questions about North America. We got to pick a team name and create an avatar to represent us. It was lots of fun to recap all of our learning.
Have a lovely half term, we look forward to hearing all about what you got up to on your week off!
Friday 7th February 2025 - Week 5
For Science this week, we conducted an investigation to find out which soil was the most absorbent. Was it chalky, peat or sandy? We used scientific equipment such as funnels, measuring cylinders, and filter paper to find out which soil would let the most water pass through.
It has also been Anti-Bullying Week this week. Today, we drew ourselves on a template of a person and on the inside we wrote down 5 things which make us, us!
Friday 31st January 2025 - Week 4
We had some great fun in our outdoor PE lesson this week! We have continued looking at handball and tried to play a few games. We had a go at being an attacker, defender and a goalkeeper and went against each other to score points. We have been focusing on ‘space’ a lot, making sure to look for the best place on the pitch so that our teammates can throw us the ball without it being intercepted.
Friday 24th January 2025 - Week 3
This week, Year 3 continued learning about the Hindu festival, Holi. We had the chance to listen to some Indian music and created some group artwork using lots of bright colours.
As part of our Longitudinal Study, we planted seeds and bulbs which we will continue to monitor across the academic year.
Friday 17th January 2025 - Week 2
We enjoyed so many fun lessons this week! We had the chance to roleplay in Guided Reading and also used the computers to research celebrities in Computing. This was linked to our E-Safety and how search engines can be used to explore facts.
In Science, we continued looking at fossils and how they are formed. To help us remember the process of fossilisation, we created a comic strip which shows the process from start to finish.
Guided Reading has been all about prediction this week. We have been looking at ‘The Story of Dr Dolittle’ and predicting what might happen next through freezeframes and answering questions in our books.
Friday 10th January 2025 - Week 1
We have returned from the Christmas holidays full of enthusiasm for our learning. The snow has been an exciting bonus.
In Science this week, we used magnifying glasses and pocket microscopes to explore fossils. We also learned how fossils are formed and where they can be found.
In Geography, we took a quick trip to North America using the VR headsets. We were able to explore New York City and Mexico and their key landmarks. What an exciting week!
Friday 20th December 2024 - Week 7
In English, we have been exploring shape poetry. We spent time looking at the organisation of different shape poems and the language used. Once we had a good understanding of how they impact the reader, we were able to create a vocabulary bank for different Christmas images. We then used the language generated to create our own sentences. Our final step was to explore how the words could be arranged to form the poem. Our teachers were blown away by the final outcomes.
Friday 13th December 2024 - Week 6
This week, we have made excellent progress with our Design and Technology projects. Sewing is very challenging but we have persevered with smiles upon our faces. We are so proud of the final outcomes.
Friday 6th December 2024 - Week 5
In Maths, we have been exploring angles. We started the week by exploring them as a turn and worked with our partners to navigate space using quarter turns, half turns and full turns. After that, we moved on to different types of angles: right angles, acute and obtuse. We were able to draw and label these angles as well as identify them in 2D shapes.
Friday 29th November 2024 - Week 4
Christmas spirit has soared across Year 3 this week! Not only have we been preparing for the Christmas Jingle, but Christmas has taken over our English and Guided Reading. We started our English learning journey (The Grinch) with a trip to the tipi. All three classes came together to sing and dance along to Christmas music – even our teachers had a boogie (Mr Cook has some moves)!
In Maths, we have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. We have really enjoyed the practical activities and opportunities for discussions.
Friday 22nd November 2024 - Week 3
In Music this week, we listened to a piece of music and discussed how it may link to an image of Chinese lanterns. We had some wonderful ideas and could link the music and images to Chinese New Year.
We then explored pentatonic scales and created our own to try on our glockenspiels.
Friday 15th November 2024 - Week 2
This week has been an exciting one! We kicked it off with a visit from Open Box. Kenn and Iain took us back in time to the Stone Age where we had the opportunities to learn through role play. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge with them and learning new facts.
In Maths, we have been exploring measurement using practical resources. We also worked in pairs to apply our understanding to practical challenges.
Our week ended with Free Reading Friday in the tipi with the whole year group. It was lovely to spend time with our friends in the other two classes.
Friday 8th November 2024 - Week 9
In English, we were taken ‘into the caves’ to create cave paintings. In our dark classrooms, we had our ‘caves’ lit with ‘cave lights’ and we used natural colours to recreate pictures in the style of some cave paintings that we had already explored.
Friday 25th October 2024 - Week 8
This week, we performed and recorded our learning in Music. As a class, we wrote a ballad based on the short animation ‘Soar’. We chose between some well-known ballads to form the backing track and then wrote our own lyrics. Our teachers were blown away by our creativity!
Friday 18th October 2024 - Week 7
This week, we had a visit from Test Valley Brass. We were so excited to listen to the musicians play their instruments and we learned so much about the different types of brass instruments and how the sound they produce varies. We were even luck enough to try the them ourselves and some of us are now inspired to learn how to play an instrument.
Friday 11th October 2024 - Week 6
In Maths this week, we have been exploring different methods of multiplication. We used concrete manipulatives to create arrays.
In gymnastics, we explored different partner balances and have added these to the routines we started creating last week.
Friday 4th October 2024 - Week 5
Another wonderful week in Year 3! We ended our week with ‘Free Reading Friday’ which we love! Having the opportunity to lose ourselves in a book or share a book with a friend is the perfect way to finish the week. Some of us embraced the cold (but dry) weather and took our reading outside. We have a lovely range of reading materials and today some of us chose cookbooks, newspapers and atlases to share.
Friday 27th September 2024 - Week 4
This week, we have continued with our beautiful art work. We explored an image of London before sketching it and using pointillism to begin to add colour and life to the picture.
In Maths, we have moved on to addition and subtraction. Using concrete manipulatives, we have started to learn how to use the formal written column method.
Friday 20th September 2024 - Week 3
It has been glorious to have the sun shining this week and we have been able to get outside to enjoy it.
In PE, we have continued to explore dribbling using a hockey stick. We are now able to move the ball with increased control and speed and can pass and receive the ball with accuracy. We have thoroughly enjoyed playing mini-games with our partners.
Friday 13th September 2024 - Week 2
In Religious education, we have been exploring the concept of ‘creation’. We used our imaginations to transform a piece of playdough into something wonderful. We then explored nature’s creations and considered the beautiful things in the world around us: trees, flowers, sand and many more.
Friday 6th September 2024 - Week 1
We have been so impressed with how the children have settled into their new classes! They have been positive and full of enthusiasm for learning.
This week, we started our learning in Art which focuses on pointillism. The children explored the work of famous artists before using the technique to create their own self portraits.