Oak Class (Year 3) 2023 - 2024

Welcome back to Term 5!

We hope you had a restuful half term, can't wait to hear all about it from the children! This term, we will carry on learning all about the Extreme Earthm, followed by a local area study.

Our first book in English will be 'The Hodgeheg' by Dick King-Smith.

The Hodgeheg!

As this is our book for the term, our homework will focus on hedgehogs! There is a great website called hedgehogstreet.org where you can find out facts about hedgehogs and also record if you have a hedgehog or hedgehog house in your garden to help them keep track of their numbers in the UK.

https://bighedgehogmap.org/

In the files area, there is also some information about making different hedgehog houses as part of the optional homework this term. We would love to see your photos if you make one for your garden!

Spelling, Punctation and Grammar Games

Here is a link to some games that support spelling, punctuation and grammar. The children really enjoyed playing these this week!

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar

Reading Books

The children's ZPDs have been updated based on their last Accelerated Reader assessment. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to contact me on oak@guston.kent.sch.uk.

Reading is expected at least four times per week at home, and the book signed so that Mrs Davies and I can keep up with how regularly the children are reading. Reading at home really benefits their learning across all subjects and we are thankful that you support their learning at home too.

Once the children have completed a book, they do a quiz at school and will change their book, ready to bring a new one home. Please could children bring their books in every day, regardless of whether they have finished or not so that Mrs Davies and I can read with them if we get the chance throughout the day. Reading at least 2 books per week will really boost your child's progress and help them reach their reading target! Thank you for your support!

Maths Homework

This term, I will be asking the children to complete tasks on Freckle for their Maths homework. There will be one task a week that children can access through the 'From My Teacher' tab on their Freckle dashboard. This will be set on a Friday and due to be completed by the following Thursday.

The website to access Freckle: https://freckle.com/en-us/

Class Code: y3vc6v

Spelling

The children all have a spelling book which can go to and from school so that they can practise at home too. The book must come into school every day as we practise spelling regularly at school.

Every time we start a new spelling unit, the children will get a new list of spellings. This may not be weekly as it depends on the length of the unit in the spelling programme we use - No Nonsense Spelling. Rather than assessing using a spelling test, we use a variety of ways to encourage the children to use their learnt spelling words in their writing, such as proof reading and editing in their own written work.

There is also the Year 3 and 4 statutory spelling list in their books, which is a list of words children can be expected to spell by the end of year 4. If there are no set spellings, these are the words that the children can practise.

There are a variety of different methods we teach children to use to practise their spellings - ask them which ones we have been learning at school. Here are a few of them:

• Pyramid Writing
• Rainbow Words
• Spelling Flowers
• Blue Vowels
• Backwords
• Upper and Lower
• Join the Dots

We have been trialling a new weekly spelling test and word list from 'Spelling Shed' and will hopefully be continuing this through the term as it is having a positive impact on the children's spelling. Our new focus is ensuring children transfer these spellings into their writing.