Welcome to Class 3 Autumn Term 2019
After a lovely Summer break, we have an exciting first term ahead of us, with visitors, trips and exciting topics. Take a look at what we will be learning about before Christmas.
English
Linking to our geography topic of ‘Rivers’, we will be exploring this beautiful book which is full of incredible illustrations. We will be developing a wider vocabulary as we describe the journey along the river.
We will learn about Eliza in this diary based book. Eliza was a young girl who had to work in the harsh conditions of a northern woollen mill. This ties to our history lessons where we will investigate the local woollen mills of Barnard Castle during the industrial revolution.
Maths
Our first maths topic is place value, where we will ensure that we develop a strong understanding of number before moving on to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Science
Our first science topic will involve us exploring how light is reflected from surfaces, understanding how to be sun safe and how shadows are formed.
After October half term we will investigate forces and magnets, where we will create a range of experiments to understand how forces and magnets act on different objects. We will learn about how magnets work as part of our ‘toy shop’ which we will make as part of our investigations.
History
During our history lessons we will enjoy learning about our local history. We will explore why mills were built in Barnard Castle, and what they produced. Once we have discovered this we will delve into the lives of the mill workers and the conditions they lived in.
Geography
We will taking advantage of our beautiful river location at Montalbo, and will learn about the journey of the River Tees, from source to mouth, from Cross Fell to the North Sea.
PE
Year 3 will have a specialist PE coach each week until October half term. The focus of these sessions will be tag rugby. These sessions will be mostly outside, so it is worth having a something warm to put over your Montalbo PE kit.
As part of our whole school dance-off, we will be learning how to Morris dance as each class learns dancing from around the world.
Computing
Linking to our history and geography topics, we will be creating our own film using i movie.
Religious Education
Our first RE topic of the year will focus on Sikhism and the festival of Diwali. We will learn the story behind Sikh Diwali and explore how this differs to Hindus.
We will end the term by exploring advent.
French
Our french lessons will begin by developing an understanding of the different phonic sounds which help us to to correctly pronounce and read french words. This will be followed by learning how to speak greetings.
Music
We will be learning how to play the ukulele in the first half of the term. This will be linked to understanding the beginnings of musical notation.
In the run up to Christmas, we will focus on group singing, learning harmonies when singing within a choir.
Art
During our time learning about the carpet industry in Barnard Castles, and the surrounding mills, we will explore the different watercolours produced by Turner and will produce our own Turner style artwork inspired by the historical Barnard Castle landscape.
Design Technology
We will be taking on the ambitious project of building a working water wheel in the school heritage garden.
We were visited by author Christopher Vine who has written the Peter’s Railway series. We learnt about being an author, lots of engineering projects and how Peter made a waterwheel in one of his stories.
Archived Class Work
You can also view our archived class work on our website.