Year 3 - Dragonfly Class

Welcome to Dragonfly Class

Class Teacher: Mrs Cole

Teaching Assistant: Mrs Sobhani

 

Welcome to Term 5

 

Although Term 5 is quite short we will be squeezing in many new and exciting topics and learning.

This term we will be looking at who lives in Antarctica, learning about plant reproduction and starting to look at money and time in maths

Enquiry Question – Geography: Who lives in Antarctica?

We will be exploring the following areas:

• Lines of longitude and latitude
• Defining climate zones.
• Understanding the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
• Describe tourism and research as the main reasons people visit Antarctica.
• Research Shackleton’s expedition and its outcome.

Reading – We will be reading a fascinating book about an Antarctic adventure.

Maise vs Antarctica – by Jack Jackman

This is a humorous, action-packed thrilling, dangerous survival story where 11-year-old Maisie accompanies her seemingly boring dad on a research trip, only to crash-land in Antarctica. Maisie believes her father is boring, despite his career writing adventure books like How to Wrestle a Crocodile. When her father's secret is revealed, and he isn’t as dull as first thought, Maisie must survive the freezing wilderness and discover the truth about her dad.

 

Writing

This term we will be using The Tin Forest to inspire our writing.

This book follows the journey of an old man who lives and works in a metal scrap yard. He dreams of wonderful green forests and wild animals. Slowly, as he builds his own Tin Forest, he watches come alive, just as he had dreamed.

We will be using the wonderful illustrations to help create setting descriptions, consolidating word class knowledge whilst adding in fronted adverbials to extend descriptive sentences. We will practising using prepositions and introducing subordinate clauses and conjunctions to further improve sentence structure. 

We will also be looking at this wonderful graphic novel Saving Sorya; Chang and the Sun Bear by Trang Nguyen and Jeet Zdung. Based on a true story and an adventure exploring how to rescue and release sun bears into the wild.

We will use this text to help write a diary or letter in first person and past tense. We will imagine the adventures Chang is having and use these to inspire our own jungle expedition.

Maths – Fractions and mass and capacity

This term, we will be developing maths skills by learning how to add and subtract fractions, as well as building confidence in telling the time and solving problems involving money. Through some practical activities and real-life contexts, we will deepen understanding and apply learning in meaningful ways.

It is important that the children practice their timetables, in particular their 2's, 5's and 10's and moving on to learn the 3 and 4 times tables.

 

Science – Plant reproduction

This term, we will be learning about plants and how they grow and survive. We will explore what plants need to stay healthy, learn about the different parts of flowering plants and their functions, and investigate how water is transported within plants. We will also study the life cycle of a flowering plant and discover the different ways seeds are dispersed.

Alongside this, we will develop scientific enquiry skills, learning how to ask relevant questions, plan and carry out simple investigations, and record findings in tables. We will present and interpret data using bar charts, as well as suggesting improvements to their enquiries and using their results to draw conclusions.

 

Forest School ​​ ​​

Dragonfly class will not be attending forest school this term. This will re-start in term 6.

PE

Our PE lessons will be on Wednesdays and will be Tag Rugby this term. These sessions will be outside. Please provide suitable PE kit depending on the weather.  Please send the children in to school wearing their PE kits. A pair of outdoor PE shoes should be brought to school to change for PE. School shoes are still needed for the classroom.

 

The Term 5 vocabulary sheets below will help you to know more about what your child will be learning this term. 

Teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo if you have any questions or queries regarding the home learning. 

Please click here to access extra phonics, reading and spelling resources.

Please click here to access links to other useful home learning resources published online.

If you are unsure of any log in details please contact the teacher through Class Dojo or email office@pilgrims-way.kent.sch.uk